You can download the full paper that we gave at the ITSA conference in Shanghai by clicking here.   You can also view our presentation below: Posted in olympics, regeneration, Tourism   Tagged: 2012, conference, cultural olympiad, memetics, olympics, paper, shanghai, Tourism   ...

2012Coming July 2009With the Mayan calendar ending in 2012, a large group of people must deal with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons and...

Tessa Jowell: Britain would not have bid for 2012 Olympics if we knew about recession - Telegraph Tessa Jowell, the minister for the Olympics, made the admission to leisure industry bosses at a dinner in London. The Budget for the 2012 Games has almost tripled but organisers are now under mounting pressure to cut costs... Well stop building then - tell the IOC that Sorry they will have to make do with whatever we already have or they can take them elsewhere. We have got plenty of Stadia and swimming pools already. If you go past house building sites you will see the gates are locked and the workers have been sent home, lets do the same for the...

As the Republican Party licks its wounds following the crushing defeat in the presidential and congressional elections last week, they are facing a new chapter in their relationship with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The former vice-presidential nominee, who has been blamed for alienating independents and moderate Republicans with her brain dead, folksy style, is under pressure from The Almighty to rule herself out of the running in 2012. Palin was set on the GOP nomination in four years time but is now considering her options following the divine intervention.In an interview with Fox News, she described the meeting with her Creator: "I'm like at home in Wasilla cooking up moose chilli and there’s this kinda huge booming voice and sudden apparition of a man with a big white beard on...

From Hansard: "Simon Hughes: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what plans she has to use past British Olympic medal winners as ambassadors in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic games. Tessa Jowell: I intend to work with sports organisations to use current and retired Olympians and Paralympians, not just medal winners, as ambassadors in the run up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games". These men and women are an inspiration to the nation and are ideal role models for the young people of today". (ssshh, no one mention the ones who forget to take drug tests)Erm, don't they have any say in the matter, or should we assume that these individuals have no more autonomy than store mannequins and will be delighted to (triple) jump when the odious Ms Jowell snaps her...

That’s right, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau 70% of the UK population will be regularly accessing the internet by 2012. “So what” you say? Well if your not online your missing a great opportunity. With petrol prices and public transport costs on the rise your customers are turning to the internet to pre-shop. They are...

This is pure speculation, but if I had to guess, I'd predict Sarah Palin will not run for President in 2012. For personal reasons. Let's face it--a person with 5...

Article By Louis Sahagun, November 3, 2008 from L A Times “Reporting from San Francisco - Hundreds of people gathered near the Golden Gate Bridge over the weekend to ponder the enigmatic date of Dec. 21, 2012, the last day of the ancient Maya calendar and the focus of many end-of-the-world predictions. In these times of economic distress, participants shelled out $300 each to attend the sold-out 2012 Conference, where astrologers, UFO fans, shamans and New Age entrepreneurs of every stripe presented their dreams and dreads in two days of lectures, group meditations, documentaries and, of course, self-promotion. “People come to an event like this because they are hungry for information,” he said. “You don’t need to be a New Ager to know there’s a lot of...

Sarah Palin - Republican Vice Presidential candidate, anti-abortionist, gay-hating, pro-guns, creationist, and fully paid-up religious nutcase - is apparently going to be the Republican’s Presidential candidate for the next US Presidential election in 2012, since they have already decided that they have lost this one. While I’m glad that even they think that Obama is going to win on November 4th, I find the very concept of Palin as President horrifying. The Republicans used to be an enlightened party, now they’re far more a subsidiary of the “Christian Right” - which is neither - than an intelligent political party. If Palin is the Republican candidate for 2012, this will be another time when I simply cannot support them. No matter what the Democrats might do...

I will be giving a paper at the 2nd ITSA bi-annual conference on “Globalisation, mega-events and tourism”, 6-9th November in Shanghai.  The paper is the latest output from the research I have been carrying out with a colleague, Nikki MacLeod, into the Cultural Olympiad of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  In this paper, we set out our memetic framework for the conceptualisation of the Cultural Olympiad and the paper’s abstract is below:     “This paper proposes the development of a memetic framework for analysing and evaluating the Cultural Olympiad of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  A review of grey literature has revealed five recurring themes or memes (units of cultural transmission) associated with the Cultural Olympiad and the authors...

The credit crunch has decreased the sponsorship options available for London...

Petition to: ensure that the Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games, The Rt Hon. The Lord Coe KBE, the Chairman of the British Olympics Association, The Rt Hon. The Lord Moynihan, and the Minister for the Olympics and Paralympics, The Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell MP, will be jointly and severally responsible for any expenditure in excess of the budget for the London 2012 Olympics confirmed by The Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell MP on 10 December 2007. | Number10.gov.uk Sign away, we can live in...

Tomasz Kuszczak put pen to paper on a 2 year contact extension with the Polish goalkeeper now signed up at Manchester United until June 2012. Kuszczak made his debut for United in a 1 – 0 defeat to Arsenal in September 2006 and has since notched up 29 appearances for...

Olympic flag gets go ahead (From Wiltshire Times) DESPITE being labelled as ‘grotesque’, the Olympic flag has been granted planning permission to be flown outside Wiltshire's County Hall in the run-up to the 2012 London games. Town councillors in Trowbridge objected to the application to fly the flag, they also had complaints over the suitability of the location and the design of the official Olympic logo. The county council said the flag would only be flown from time to time in lieu of the national and county flag, between now and the end of the London Games on September 30, 2012. Deep joy, as well as frittering away £8 million of our taxes by placing it in the Fishy Bank of Snorgersborgerslund they now want to pollute Trowbridge with porno filth. Thank goodness I never go...

The cost of building the athletes' village for the 2012 Olympics could be borne by the public as a result of banking...

Boris Johnson says the London 2012 Olympics will deliver a better spectator experience than Beijing for half the...

TO the Field Center for Children’s Policy. That’s the logo. This is what it does: Guided by the Schools of Social Policy & Practice, Law, and Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research brings together the resources of the University of Pennsylvania to enhance and assure the well-being of abused and neglected children and those at risk of maltreatment. Well… London 2012 Olympic Logo Sucks: Says Wistful Piper Lisa Simpson That Office Of Government Commerce Logo Uncensored London Olympic Logo Is A Zionist Conspiracy London 2012 Olympic Logo Is One Step......

Some links for you: 4iP Update - Martin Baker, Head of Commercial Affairs at Channel 4, discussed some key issues about intellectual property in the online space and what it means for 4IP projects. Take a look at the comments as well which indicate that the application process should open up soon. London 2012 calling - business opportunities on offer worth £6bn - Go get some contracts for the 2012 Olympics - bound to be some juicy ones in there. There’s a roadshow at Birmingham Uni on the 15th October. Thinking (harder) about 4IP « backpass.org - Bristol-based web developer wondering if they’ll be getting an invite to the 4ip party. ShareThis...

The credit crunch affecting the world financial markets has begun to be felt by the planners of the 2012 Olympic Games in...

Hundreds of workers from eastern Europe fall victim to a scam promising non-existent jobs on the 2012...

There’s an analysis report issued by eMarketer looking at the space of time between 2008 and 2012 that takes an educated guess as to what business-to-business marketing spending will look like in four years’ time in the US on social networks specifically. Its research estimates a total of $40 billion in the US this year. In 2012, meanwhile, it predicts more than 500% increase to $210...

HATS off to Amy Winehouse who has prepared for the London 2012 Drugs Olympics with what the Sun is calling a “POT MARATHON”. And that’s not all. Amy may well take the Modern Pentathlon gold spoon in 2012 as she also binges on crystal meth. A “close pal” tells us that last year Winehouse took cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, ketamine and crystal meth. But she overdid the training and is said to have suffered an overdose. Winehouse is no quitter and recovered to embark on her hash marathon – 36 hours! If Amy can develop a taste for EOP and other steroids, gold will surely be...

The Olympic and Paralympic Games were secured for London on the basis that the whole of the UK would be involved in a celebration of culture during the four years between the Beijing Handover in August 2008 and the London Games in 2012. This four-year celebration is the Cultural Olympiad. Culture and sports have, in the past, been extremely closely associated with the Olympics and in fact during the last UK Games in 1948 medals were being awarded for the arts as well as for sports. A busy programme of events is being developed throughout Wales over the next four years. These projects and activities will culminate in 2012 and which will, it is hoped, grow to involve as many of the young people of Wales as possible. click here for more...

Now that the Olympic flag has officially been handed over to London’s Mayor Boris Johnson in Beijing, Spitting Bullets is proud to announce its status as ‘Unofficial Organiser’ of London’s 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. London’s bid to create a unique festival atmosphere in 2012 will surely be boosted by the involvement of Spitting Bullets, with [...]...

The costly 2012 Olympic Games has lost four of its top sponsorsToday's Independent reports that American photographic company Kodak, Canadian financial services company Manulife, Chinese computer group Lenovo and American pharmaceutical Johnson and Johnson have either announced or are expected to announce the end of their support.Let us hope no more money is cut from children's sport to fund the Olympic Games. I hope that the British athletes who competed in the 2008 Olympics and those who will be competing in 2012 will do their bit to visit schools promoting sport.It puzzles me why the new 80,000 seat stadium is temporary. Could this not have been used by local children after the games?The 2012 Olympics seem to be costing more and more. While many people will derive pleasure from...

A PORTRAIT of child murderer Myra Hindley has been broadcast on a video shown at a London 2012 event in Beijing. The Liberal Democrat’s Olympics spokesperson said it was a “regrettable choice”. (Picture: Beau Bo D’Or Website) Says Tom Brake MP: “Of all the many masterpieces that could could have been used this was the most regrettable and the least inspired choice.” Less inspired than David Beckahm kicking a...

Portsmouth boss ‘Arry Redknapp confirmed his interest in leading a Great Britain soccer team in the 2012 Summer Olympics, which will be held in London. Redknapp is from London and spent a combined 15 years playing for and managing West Ham, a club based in the eastern section of England’s capital. The other teams he’s led — Bournemouth, Portsmouth, and Southampton — are all on the South Coast, also not far from London. This familiarity with the area clearly plays into his willingness to take the job if he gets the chance: “I’m absolutely flattered that my name is being mentioned about managing the Great Britain team,’ he told the Sunday Mirror yesterday. ‘Would I take it if they offered it to me? Absolutely, I would be a fool not to. ‘I’ve had some great...

The Olympic flag has now passed from Beijing which hosted this year's Games to London which will be the host in 2012 and today there have been a number of events to mark the occasion. One was 4.45 pm fly past over Buckingham Palace by the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows display team - always an exhilarating sight - and I just managed to catch a view of them as they wheeled north. The last Olympic Games in London were held in the year of my birth. When they return to London in 2012, I was be 64. I feel a Beatles song coming on...

The Olympic flag has now passed from Beijing which hosted this year's Games to London which will be the host in 2012 and today there have been a number of events to mark the occasion. One was a fly past over Buckingham Palace by the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows display team - always an exhilerating sight - and I just managed to catch a view of them as they wheeled north. The last Olympic Games in London were held in the year of my birth. When they return to London in 2012, I was be 64. I feel a Beatles song coming on...

The sports minister repeats its calls for Scotland to have its own, separate team at the London Olympics in...