A Look Ahead at London 2012

by Josh Lew on

The closing ceremonies of Beijing ’08 were not quite as spectacular as the opening ceremonies. Not quite, but almost. There were still plenty of people wearing LED lights, drummers and acrobats climbing tall structures.

London got a chance to do their “we’re hosting the next Olympics” skit. It sucked in comparison to the other performances of the evening. There was some guy who looked like an gray-haired Jimmy Page. (It was obvious that the Stones said no to the gig). And Beckham kicked a ball off the top of a bus that had magically converted into some sort of green lump.

While they shake off their Olympic withdrawals, some people are passing the time by guessing what the opening ceremonies are going to look like in ’12. Here are some of the ideas:

1. They will hire the cast and crew of the Beijing opening ceremonies and perform the exact same show.

2. They will tap a different film director, like Ridley Scott or Madonna’s husband, and offer an unlimited budget to create a series of whimsical dance numbers featuring soccer hooligans and those guards with the furry hats.

3. Beckham will be, under order of the queen, part of the ceremony. Fine, as long as he doesn’t have to say anything in that high-pitched cockney voice or take his shirt off.

Whatever they come up with, it’s going to be great. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait until 2011 to get their hands on some of the 7.7 million tickets up for sale.

Photo of the Day (8/14/08)

by Kent Wien on

Today’s photo of the day comes from Flickr user fiznatty who shot this in Yorkshire, in the U.K. I love how the sun lights up the landscape while the sky above begins to turn dark. Throw in a single tree and a house and you have a piece of art.

Way to go fiznatty for capturing a moment that most people would have rushed past.

Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our daily consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

British driver wrecks a $650,000 Mercedes

by Iva Skoch on

I always wondered if those valet parking guys ever crash people’s cars. They must, right? Kind of like this poor guy…

According to the Daily Mail, A British delivery driver for a car rental company wrecked a rare Mercedes-Benz worth more than $650,000 on Friday. He was driving the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren to a London drop-off when an 18-wheel truck ripped off the front end of the car. He says he was “creeping along in this very narrow lane and the power steering was very hard at such low speed and he couldn’t turn.”

The driver said he was only two minutes from his destination when the accident took place and estimates repairs could cost about $100,000. The Mercedes is the most notable car the rental company offers and was being repaired by engineers at the McLaren workshop in Weybridge, England.

The driver says he feels awful. I bet.

[via UPI]

Serial bottom-pincher on the run in England

by Iva Skoch on

Wanted in North Manchester, England: Serial bottom-pincher. A surveillance camera caught the man in action, loitering in the Tib Street area between 7 and 8 a.m. Police have asked that if anyone should recognize the suspect to please get in touch. No word on whether or not he is after a specific type of bottom.

A Turkish or Greek-looking man has grabbed the behinds of at least 19 girls and women between the ages of 13 and 43 over the past 12 months in the town’s center. The suspect, in his late 20s or early 30s, usually approaches his victims from behind and tries to sexually assault them by grabbing their bottoms. While the incidents have not increased in severity, the man has put his victims in extremely uncomfortable situations, police said.

Here is a message for you, serial bottom pincher: Move your operation to New York City. There are plenty of women there who would kill to get their butts pinched occasionally. (Don’t tell anyone I told you to do it.)

[via APP]

Christmas greetings from Buckingham Palace

by Abha Malpani on

If you’ve ever been curious about what goes on behind close doors at Buckingham Palace, now is your opportunity to get more than a peek: the Queen has launched her own You Tube channel!

Celebrating 50 years of the Queen’s first televised Christmas address, this year, you will be able to watch her Christmas speech on the video-sharing network. At the moment, the site opens to her Christmas talk from 1957.

Called the Royal Channel, it currently has 18 videos that go as far back as 1917 and include: the Queen Mother’s wedding (1923), Palace garden parties, her accession and coronation, her relationship with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and part one of a day in the life of Prince Charles. It’s their way of being more accessible to the youth and people around the world.

Not home videos and nothing close to reality television, it’s merely an official peek (but a peek nonetheless) into many aspects of the royal family’s life.