Not content with controlling a large portion of Staffordshire’s tourist dollars, Alton Towers are now looking to control the weather too. Apparently they’re looking at a technique originally developed in Communist Russia that aims to prevent it raining.
Rain-seeding involves firing silver iodide into clouds in a bid to make them empty over an unimportant area (Stafford? ;-)).
In addition to Russia, China is a big fan of the process and are due to use it to ensure a dry and pollution free Olympic Games in Beijing next summer.
However, I doubt residents of Stoke-on-Trent will be so excited when their town gets turned into Soak-on-Trent.
A bit of a tongue-in-cheek London-centric view of the latest Olympic kerfuffle…
The Olympic lottery game is launched tomorrow, with the hope that money raised from the sale of the scratchcards will go towards funding the Games. That money will join up with the massive contribution Londoners are making through their council tax payments over the next few years. But is it fair?
The original argument for the council tax levy was that Londoners will benefit most from the Olympics coming to the capital in 2012, so they should pay for it.
Now though every time I see any coverage, we’re told we shouldn’t think of this as the London Games but as an Olympics for the whole country. So shouldn’t the whole country pay?
The only other solution I can think of is that we should build an Olympic wall around the city and not let anybody else in.
![[:haha:]](images/smile/smile19.gif)
This evening we took a trip into Athens proper on the new metro system to do a bit of sightseeing. We took in the Parliament building, stood next to the guards (not even a flinch) and then walked through the National Gardens to the Z�ppio, which houses various parliamentary offices. It was originally built as an exhibition hall, but is no longer open to the public. In recent years it has also been used as headquarters for the Greek presidency of the EU and the 2004 Olympic bid team.
Talking of the Olympics, our next stop was the Panathenaic Stadium. This is a 19th century reconstruction on the site of a stadium built by the Romans in the 4th century BC to host athletic contests. It hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.
From there we retraced our steps through the Gardens and down one of the main Athenian shopping streets, Ermou. Via a side road we got to the big cathedral. Greeks seem to be very religious folk because, not content with the huge cathedral, they built another church right next to it.
By the time we got to the Acropolis it had closed for the night, but it would have been too hot to go up to see it during the day and it gives me a good reason to return to Athens in the near future. However, Athens is a wealth of historical sites, so we were still able to take in the Roman Tower of the Winds and the Ancient Agora (market place).
Athens has so much to see, and it would have been impossible to see it all in a week, let alone an evening. What we did see though gave a good flavour of the city, and I want to come back and explore it more fully soon.
Well, we’ve done it. I know I was sceptical about the Games coming to London, but nonetheless, many congratulations to the bid team. Now the decision has been made, let all of us sceptics and supporters alike get behind the new reality that is to be London 2012. Let’s show the world what we can do (and I’m thinking more of the London Eye than the Millennium Done).
Another British victory over the French :p
This week, the IOC are in town checking up on London’s plans to host the Olympic Games in 2012.
It was lucky they chose this week to come - if they’d turned up last week they’d have seen a load of street cleaners and railing painters hurrying about giving the city an early spring clean. Coincidently, if anybody can work out why there was a cleaning frenzy last week, let me know… 
As it was, the committee flew into Heathrow on Monday night and were driven into the heart of the city along roads lined with lampposts adorned with “Back the Bid” posters, proving just how committed we all are to hosting the Games.
Yesterday, they got to experience our futuristic transportation system as they took the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich to see our successful millennium legacy, the Dome. Again, they were jolly lucky to be able to visit, given the vast number of special events and exhibitions that take place in it each year.
Yes, in case you’re wondering, I’m sure they all marvelled at the Tube: always on time, always clean, never crowded. Certainly you’ll never encounter a slightly worse-for-wear dribbling drunk when you travel on the next Jubilee Line service (has been cancelled due to a shortage of train crew).
With a public so committed to our Olympic vision, a fully integrated transportation infrastructure, bleeding edge technology (take our Air Traffic Control system for example) and a Mayor who can do no wrong, who can be in any doubt that, er, Paris is the candidate to watch.
Oh well, at least the IOC committee will get a nice slap-up dinner before they head home. That is, of course, as long as they don’t mention getting hitched down the local registry office.