Useful Olympic links for July 25th through July 27th

Here are the Olympic-related links we’ve been looking at over the last week from July 25th through July 27th:

  • The Olympic Torch and how to game an eBay auction | The Albert Memorial is still there – Looking at the actual bidders in the actual auctions for each individual torch, the auctions are set to either private (so the usernames of the bidders are hidden), or from bidders apparently new to eBay with low feedback scores or histories of buying other items. There is also no indication of a behaviour of bidders bidding for one torch, being outbid, and then moving on to a torch with lower current bids – all the bidders seem to be clustered around just the one torch their bidding is attached to. What this indicates to me is that actually most of the bidding on London 2012 Olympic torches is not genuine – that most of it is being carried out by sock puppets, false eBay identities created in order to artificially up the bidding of items in order to create the impression of higher demand and a high value.

  • Torch Relay CCTV on Brookmill Road – a Freedom of Information request to Lewisham Borough Council – WhatDoTheyKnow – Can you please provide me with the following information:
    1. Correspondence relating to the installation of the cameras at
    this location, both within the council and between the council and
    other parties (including but not limited to LOCOG, the Metropolitan
    Police, the Stephen Lawrence Centre, and Transport for London)
    relating to the installation and placement of these cameras.
    2. The total cost associated with the temporary installation (and
    future removal) of these cameras, and which organisation paid for
    this work (including whether they were reimbursed – in whole or in
    part – by another organisation).
  • Broken Barnet: The Games: another Torch relay in Broken Barnet – Mrs Angry thought back to the keen attentions of counter terrorist officers to local shopkeepers' spokeswoman Helen Michael, and the phone call to the organiser of the alternative torch relay. It seemed even more likely today, that all the fuss about potential demonstrations along the course of the route was the real motive for such interest. And as it was clear that neither individual represented a security risk, it seems evident that what was being investigated was the threat of political embarrassment, and a disruption of a major PR excercise for the corporate sponsors.
  • Police rapped for wasting time on Olympic protest calls | This is Cornwall – "I can confirm that 18 people were visited or spoken to in relation to the policing
    of the Olympic torch relay through Devon and Cornwall, in order to ensure that
    the force could support its obligations in relation to the facilitation of peaceful
    protest as well as the safety and security of the Olympic torch and bearers."
    After a positive response from Devon and Cornwall, the campaign group
    followed up by asking other forces if they had done likewise.
  • The VICE Guide to the Olympics – Trailer | Rule Britannia | VICE – We made a film about London's preparation for the Games. As well as hearing about the fleets of alien ships that will appear in the skies over East London over the next fortnight, we met local residents who have been evicted to make room for the Olympics, criminals who will be stealing from the crowds of tourists this summer and eccentrics like Tom Clare, who set off from Olympia to Morris Dance all the way to London.
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