Keeping A Finger On The Pulse Of The Olympics, One Tweet At A Time

NBC Sports together with Stamen Design have created a real-time visualization of the Olympic discussion on Twitter, similar to a feature I've viewed before on CNet news, I believe. The tool tracks the chatter and by monitoring keywords popping up on the social networking service. The more discussion on a particular topic, the larger the image displayed in the tool. Twitter Tracker continually scans and updates, clicking on an image will drill down on the topic and display the most recent tweets. I imagine there may be a lot of minimized browser windows pointed at Twitter Tracker... and much to my surprise and delight the dominant topic this morning as I write this is Curling! Either there are a lot of us curlers on Twitter or this Olympics is doing a lot for the profile of the sport.

EH, OH, Canada Go!

Source: NY Times Bits Blog

Confusion Over Blogging/Tweets By Olympic Athletes In Vancouver

It appears as though the athletes are unsure of the Olympic Committee's stance on blogging and tweeting from the games.however, Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee says “Athletes are free to blog during the Games,”  “And Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time.”

There will be  some restrictions on what athletes can do online during the games. The IOC Blogging Guidelines for the 2010 Games, says that accredited people, including athletes, must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences. “You can’t act as a journalist if you aren’t,” says Condron. “You need to do things in a first person way.”

“These are going to be the Twitter Olympics,” says Condron. “There’s no telling where the updates will come from. It could be the bench during a hockey game, or even on the medal stand."

I wonder how much this will affect Twitter's numbers as the world tunes into the Olympics?

Source: Wired

Olympic Tourch Design Withstands Canadian Winter

I was fortunate to have viewed the Olympic torch run as it passed through our community and then even more fortunate to be able to handle one of the actual torches as a coworker's wife took part in the relay. Torchbearers were given the opportunity to purchase the torch that they carried on their leg of the journey, which I think is an incredible honor and a memento that will be cherished for a lifetime. If you've not had the honor of seeing and touching one of these treasures, it is truly a thing of beauty (imho) and a work of fine engineering. The manufacturer chosen to design and build the device that would carry the Olympic Flame on it's journey across the country was Montreal based Bombardier Inc.maker of aircraft, trains, and famous for their snowmobiles, fitting I guess.

A press release from the company yesterday says, among other things, "In collaboration with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), Bombardier engineers and industrial designers spent more than two years designing and testing the 2010 Olympic Torch. A fuel blend of propane and isobutane allows the torch to burn in colder temperatures than any other torch in Olympic history. A vent in the side of the torch allows the Olympic Flame to unfurl like a flag."  

If you feel the need to see the guts of the torch check out this link:  www.bombardier.com/files/en/supporting_docs/BI-Bombardier-torch.pdf/en/supporting_docs/BI-Bombardier-torch.pdf

Blazing The Trails - Olympic Sites Brought To You Via Street View

I was excited enough today to find that Charlottetown, my home city, had been released on Street View. I knew it was coming as I had viewed their vehicle on several occasions this summer. Then a friend and blog reader sent me a link about Google using snowmobiles and Street View cameras to capture the ski hills and other mountain vistas being used for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics! What a perfect story in keeping with the sports theme that has taken over the blog this week. It was one of those "of course" moments that I had when I saw the video below, why not strap the camera gear to a snowmobile or quad bike and take off down country trails or off into the back country? I'm sure many of you, as do I, would love to stroll down a country trail or scout out a ski hill prior to that March Break trip! Way to go Google! Thanks for the post idea Chris!

 

Secret Science Equals Gold Medals?

With the 2010 Winter Olympics about to get underway in Vancouver, the Canadian government is hoping that money poured into it's "Own The Podium" program equates to  Olympic medals. One of the pieces of science that particularly interests me is research being conducted on the curling ice where researchers are using infrared and other technical methods of studying the effect of sweeping on a curling stone. The theory was always that the sweeping action actually melted the ice slightly giving the desired affect on the curling stone as it travels down the sheet of ice. Professor Tom Jenkin, University of Western Ontario, has dispelled this theory and has come up with dozens of other discoveries to assist the Canadian teams in their quest for gold.

Source: CBC