Friday, July 20, 2012
Note that answers to Trivia questions (below in section B) can be found here.
A. Travel News: Travelers beware! Troubles mount for the London Summer Olympics as rampant traffic plagues London’s Heathrow Airport. When Team U.S.A. arrived, they were quickly swept away by the bustle and got stuck in traffic. In fact, on July 16, Heathrow broke its former record for the most incoming travelers with 236,955 athletes, officials, media personnel, and fans arriving for the games!To prevent any further dilemmas for the team, America’s own TSA agents had to fly there and aid in the arrival process.
Why are such problems occurring for the world’s most famous sporting events? The British government hired a private company to handle the arrivals at airports and security in the streets. Yet, thousands of these workers never showed up and U.K. soldiers and local police have had to step in. New predicaments arise as border guards plan to strike on July 26, the day before the Olympics begin on July 27 (and end on August 12, 2012). Parliament is hoping that the members of the Public and Commercial Services Union will not follow through on their strike. Only 20% of the members wanted to strike. For information on the Olympics and the schedule, click here for a link to the London games’ official website, London 2012. For any visitors journeying across the Pond soon, it will be problematic.
B. Trivia: Speaking of problems, here are some trivia problems. Come back on Wednesday, 7/25 to get the solutions. Until then, comment (below post) if you know the answers. You can stay anonymous. Click here for solutions to trivia questions.
Dymaxion World Projection; cool, right? Try making a 3D globe out of this!
1. Easy: Out of each pair, which cities have been host to the Olympic games?
- a. Athens or Thessalonika, Greece
- b. Annemasse or Paris, France
- c. Vancouver or Saskatoon, Canada
- d. Toledo or Barcelona, Spain
- e. Salt Lake City or New York City, U.S.A
2. Difficult: Out of each pair, which cities have been host to the Olympic games?
Goode’s World Projection.
- a. Geneva or St. Moritz, Switzerland
- b. Lake Tahoe or Lake Placid, U.S.A
- c. Innsbruck or Vienna, Austria
- d. Sapporo or Kyoto, Japan
- e. Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Neuburg an der Donau, Germany
3. The 2012 summer games will be London’s __ time hosting the Olympics. How many other cities have also matched this number and how many are close to doing so?
4. What are the only 5 Olympic games ever to be cancelled? (Hint: they were cancelled because of World Wars.)
5. Where will the next Olympic games be held (winter and summer)?
6. When were the Olympic rings first designed? When were they approved? Debuted?
Note that answers to Trivia questions can be found here. If you know the answers, prove it! Leave a comment below! genZbuzz out.
Huh? 2d. Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Neuburg an der Donau, Germany: Are these even real names? You made me google them to make sure they’re real towns.
I appreciate your comment, Pat W. Yes, one does not have make these names up because Germany is full of verbose names! And I’m sure that after your research, you found that Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the Olympic games host.
After writing this post, according to accounts from Londoners themselves, it seems like London’s traffic problems are ameliorating! Let the games begin in 4 days!