Many tickets for London 2012 remain unsold - BBC News
The BBC has learned that nearly a third of the Olympics tickets which went on sale earlier this month remain unsold.
The London 2012 organisers had expected that the 928,000 tickets would all be snapped up quickly by eager buyers, but that has not proved to be the case.
There are still more than 20 sessions with availability for sports like boxing, basketball, beach volleyball and weightlifting.
In total there are nearly 300,000 tickets remaining on sale.
That is in addition to the more than one million football tickets which are left.
For the first time since London 2012 tickets went on sale last year there is now a genuine prospect of the Games not selling out.
Demand was so high last year, with 22 million tickets applied for in the initial ballot, that it seemed an inevitability that every ticket would be sold.
Ticketing, though, has turned out to be the greatest challenge for London 2012 organisers.
There have been a number of problems with the website, which is run by Ticketmaster, with some people last summer even having to be informed that they had not been successful in buying the tickets which they had originally been told that they had got.
Many others were frustrated by the ballot process, which left more than a million applicants empty handed after the first round of sales.
A London 2012 spokesman refused to be downhearted about the slow sales since tickets were made available again on May 11th.
"We have delivered on our promise to give those people who missed out last year another opportunity to buy tickets and thousands did.
Analysis
I'm sure that many of you will have your own views about why the demand for London 2012 tickets has dropped off so sharply. One of the main reasons is surely frustration with the process
"With nine weeks to go before the Games start, we are in a fantastic position - ahead of where we expected to be when tickets first went on sale in 2011.
"There are still tickets available, but many sports have limited availability."
The chances, though, of empty seats at London 2012 have definitely increased.
There are still another 150,000 non-football tickets which will not go on sale until next month.
So even if the London organisers manage to shift the current batch of 300,000 tickets, their job is far from done.
The BBC has learned that nearly a third of the Olympics tickets which went on sale earlier this month remain unsold.
London picked as test bed for Skynet-like Intel tech - The Register
London will be a guinea pig for future smart city technology after Intel pledged to spend a slice of £25m ($40m) on a new lab in the capital. The chipmaker will also plough millions into research centres dotted around Blighty.
Intel will set up the unwieldily monikered Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities in the capital in partnership with Imperial College and University College London, it announced yesterday at an event at 10 Downing Street.
The company will spend the £25m over the next five years on all five of its Collaborative Research Institutes, but wouldn't give the breakdown of exactly how much London would be getting. ICL and UCL will also chip in some dosh, but again no figures were bandied about.
At the same event, Chipzilla said it will open a string of research centres around the UK, investing around £45m in an Intel Labs Europe UK R&D network: this will employ 350 researchers in labs including the one in London and others in Brighton, Swindon and Aylesbury to start with, and five more to be decided on by the end of the year.
"It is investments like this that will help us put the UK on the path we need to take to create new jobs, new growth and new prosperity in every corner of our country," Chancellor George Osborne said at the launch.
"We are determined to make the UK the best place to do business in the world and a great place for technology companies to invest and build new business. It is encouraging to see major tech partners like Intel investing in this country as a result of the policies that the Government has put in place," he self-congratulated.
Intel will use the London lab to suss out smart city technology and it will also team up with Shoreditch's Tech City entrepreneurs to use their "social media expertise" to "identify and analyse emerging trends with cities".
"Using London as a testbed, researchers will explore technologies to make cities more aware by harnessing real-time user and city infrastructure data," the company said in a statement, describing similar Skynet-like smart city research elsewhere.
"For example, a sensor network could be used to monitor traffic flows and predict the effects of extreme weather conditions on water supplies, resulting in the delivery of near real-time information to citizens through citywide displays and mobile applications."
Rattner: City under pre-planned stress
Intel CTO Justin Rattner also said that the London Olympic games would give the firm a great opportunity to look at a city under pressure and figure out where the weak points are.
"London is, as everyone knows, the host city to the 2012 summer Olympic Games, and we plan to use the event to understand the experiences of a city under pre-planned stress. What systems worked or didn’t work and why? How were the daily lives of the citizens, workers, and businesses of London affected?" he wondered out loud.
As well as giving Intel the opportunity to see it mess up, London is also a good choice for the research institute as the fifth largest city in the world.
"It has the largest GDP in Europe, and with over 300 languages and 200 ethnic communities, its diversity is a microcosm of the planet itself, offering an exciting test bed to create and define sustainable cities," Rattner enthused. ®
Business Car Manager News: Astra Confirmed for UK and Jobs Safeguarded for a Decade - YAHOO!
Vauxhall has confirmed production of its next-generation Astra will be built at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. (Source: Business Car Manager)
(PRWEB UK) 25 May 2012
It will be the lead plant of only two in Europe building the new model.The decision follows the conclusion of a ground-breaking new labour agreement which was approved by the Vauxhall workforce yesterday, comes into force in 2013 and runs through the life of the next-generation Astra, into the early 2020s.
As part of the agreement, the plant will implement a number of creative operating solutions to improve flexibility and reduce fixed costs and hence significantly improve its competitiveness. As a consequence, the Ellesmere Port plant will become one of the most competitive plants in the Vauxhall/Opel manufacturing network.
Assembly of the new compact car is scheduled to start in 2015. Operating on three-shifts, the plant is expected to run profitably at full capacity utilisation. The plan agrees a minimum of 160,000 vehicles to be produced each year.
Vauxhall/Opel intends to invest £125 million into the facility in Ellesmere Port in order to upgrade it to the latest manufacturing standards and prepare for production of the new model. The company expects to create circa 700 new direct jobs in order to facilitate the three-shift operation.
Vauxhall will also raise the local supply content for the Astra to be built in Ellesmere Port to at least 25% which will create further employment locally and in the UK overall and further increase the plant’s competitiveness.
Vauxhall Chairman and Managing Director, Duncan Aldred, said, “This is great news for the Ellesmere Port plant, our employees, the local community, our suppliers, the Vauxhall brand and the UK. We have been able to develop a responsible labour agreement that secures the plant’s future.
“This is assisted by the government‘s industrial strategy; increasing its focus on the manufacturing sector and creating ideal ground for companies to build up long term investments.
“With Ellesmere Port’s proven build quality and a new agreement that ensures excellent cost competitiveness, this facility will provide additional employment and, as the lead plant for the next-generation Astra, will be one of the cornerstones of our European manufacturing footprint.” Vauxhall is quintessentially British and has been manufacturing motor vehicles in the UK seamlessly since 1903 and assembles vans at its Luton factory.
How does the Astra match up now against its rivals? Find out with car tax calculator and get the views of the testers in business car comparisons
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Vauxhall Mallards and Great Witchingham seek progress in ECB National Club Championship - EDP 24
Friday, May 25, 2012
4:36 PM
The two remaining Norfolk sides in the National Club Championship are set for a showdown this weekend.
Vauxhall Mallards will face Great Witchingham on Sunday in the group semi-final of the Kingfisher Beer Cup after both teams recorded comfortable wins in their second round ties last weekend.
Mallards registered an eight-wicket win at reigning East Anglian Premier League champions Cambridge Granta.
Skipper Paul Bradshaw removed both Granta openers with only 20 runs on the board, before Stuart Lipshaw’s five-wicket burst saw the hosts fold to 130 all out in the 40th over. The off-spinner claimed five for 23.
Carl Amos and David Turner put on 70 for the first Mallards wicket and Amos went on to steer the visitors to victory in the 40th over with an unbeaten 72 from 104 balls.
Witchingham thrashed Boston by 205 runs as Sam Arthurton, pictured, hammered a century.
Arthurton made 133, while James Hale (48no) and Carl Rogers (41) also contributed in a total of 279 for four from their 45 overs.
Boston were then skittled out for just 74, with Jonathan Spelman claiming four for 32 and two wickets apiece for James Spelman and Tom Collishaw.
Sunday’s match at Great Witchingham starts at 1pm.
London 2012: Jessica Ennis Labelled 'Fat' By UK Athletics Official, Says Coach - huffingtonpost.co.uk
Jessica Ennis was labelled "fat" by a senior official at UK Athletics, according to her coach Toni Minichiello.
A "high-ranking person" at the governing body said the 26-year-old poster goal of the London 2012 Olympics is "fat and she's got too much weight", according to Minichiello.
The 45-year-old has coached the heptathlete since she was 11, and poured scorn on the criticism, clarifying Ennis' weight hadn't fluctuated.
"The things you can't deal with are what we've dubbed 'silver bullets'," the 45-year-old told The Guardian. "And other people. You can't deal with the expectations and pressures that are on other people, like the BOA's [British Olympic Association] team management."
Born in Sheffield, like Ellis, Minichiello suggested the distractions in the build-up to the Games stemmed from "people in fairly high positions, who should know better".
Commercial activities have been ramped up with just over two months to go until the Olympics begin, and Minichiello bemoaned the "advice" he has personally received, claiming it is easy to get "distracted by" the "background noise".
The former civil servant however conceded Ennis' image has elevated as London 2012 looms, but stressed she remained humble.
"The difference is that she's now a 'personality'. If she walks into the dining room, people will go 'Ooh, that's Jessica Ennis from athletics.'
"Equally, she'd turn round and go 'Wow, that's David Beckham on the Great Britain football team.' So there's lots of distractions."
UK Athletics have declined to comment.
London 2012 Olympics: Saudi Arabia Refuse to Lift Ban on Female Athletes - ibtimes.co.uk
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Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei are the only countries that have never fielded women on their Olympic teams. While Qatar and Brunei have announced plans to take female athletes to London, the Saudis have yet to do so.
According to Rogge, discussions with the Saudis are continuing.
He ruled out the possibility of Saudi woman competing in London under the Olympic flag, rather than as members of the Saudi team.
The IOC has come under pressure from human rights groups for not imposing sanctions against Saudi Arabia for not sending female athletes.
Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Witson said: "Saudi Arabia is the last holdout denying women and girls the ability to take part in sports.
"The clock is running out for Saudi women to join the games and for the international community to insist that the Saudi government allow women to participate."
Although Saudi Arabia may not have women who meet Olympic qualifying standards, the IOC is prepared to offer them special conditions or look for other solutions.
As recently as the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, 26 national teams did not include women.
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