olympics

Cameras

100 Remotely-Controlled Cameras All Gunning to Capture the Same Moment

Posted by Adam Frucci at 12:15 AM on September 5, 2008

At the Beijing Olympics, there were thousands of photographers all looking to get iconic shots of the games. For some events, that meant arriving many, many hours early and setting up elaborate remote camera setups. For the men's 100m dash, there were close to 100 remote cameras set up, all focused on the same thing: the finish line. Photographer Vincent Laforet was there, and he made this amazing video showing the sheer insanity of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment all working to capture one single moment, along with examples of some of the better results. [Vincent Laforet]


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Toys

Lego Scenes Celebrate 2008 Olympic Summer Games with Star Wars Stormtroopers

Posted by Jack Loftus at 7:00 AM on August 25, 2008

It's no small secret that Lego holds a spot near and dear to many an editor here at Gizmodo, and if you somehow managed to combine those little blocks with Star Wars and the 2008 Summer Olympics (concluding today), well, you'd have our attention faster than it takes to pull the legs off a minifig. Flickr member 713 Avenue did just that, and like those remarkable Lego scenes from history and Lego Beijing Olympic buildings we brought you a while back, these are pretty magical too.


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Toys

RC Cars Are the Javelin Errand Boys of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

Posted by Jack Loftus at 6:00 AM on August 25, 2008

Track and Field athletes will probably roll their eyes at me for this one, but still I have to say I was amazed to see this little four-wheeled RC car scurrying across the field last night during the men's 5,000 metre race carrying javelins, and dammit, I wanted to write about it. After a little digging, I discovered a photographer who had documented the little cars (there are two at the Beijing games), and how they're a first for the Olympic summer games.


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Regulars

10 Gadgets That Help You Play Like an Olympian

Posted by Sean Fallon at 6:00 AM on August 23, 2008

It has been quite an Olympics hasn't it? From the spectacular opening ceremonies, to the amazing performances by Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt (not to mention all of the controversy stirred up by the Chinese government). In years past I can't say that I was all that excited about the Olympics--but I will be kind of sad to see this one go. The good news is that just because the games are over doesn't mean you can't carry the torch...literally. So, check out the following ten gadgets to learn how to play like an Olympian.


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Random Stuff

What's It Like To Stand On the Water Cube's High-Dive Platform?

Posted by John Mahoney at 12:00 AM on August 23, 2008

Full-screen this beautiful high-res panorama cooked up by the New York Times's top-notch interactive graphics folks and find out. [NY Times via Kottke]


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Random Stuff

Guy Builds Olympic Village Replica with 140,000 Playing Cards

Posted by Kit Eaton at 12:00 AM on August 19, 2008

This Olympics Village model made by an expert card-stacker makes the Lego Olympics look just naff in comparison. I mean, that model's just a lot of plastic parts snapped together: This guy had to avoid shaky hands, sneezing and stepping incautiously for a whole 20 days while he put the card model together, detailing even the woven-girder shapes of the Bird's Nest. Yup— that's 20 days, 140,000 cards and 100% craziness. [Random Good Stuff]


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Computers

Lenovo's Ideapad U8 MID Under Starter's Orders at Olympics

Posted by Kit Eaton at 7:59 PM on August 18, 2008

Way back in April was when we first showed you details on Lenovo's Ideapad U8 mobile internet device, and Lenovo's just launched it at the Beijing Olympics. The palmtop phone/PC has an Intel Atom Z500 ticking away inside at 800MHz, GPS, dual cameras, and with 1GB of RAM and a sizable 6GB SSD. Connectivity-wise, it's fully loaded with 802.11 b/g wi-fi, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G support and apparently "WiMAX support." There's also a dongle for picking up China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting signals so you can watch the Olympics for free. But therein lies the rub: The 300 gram, vaguely PSP-like U8 is a China-only gizmo, so you won't care that it'll have a price "equivalent" to other smartphones. [Pocketables]


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Science

Scientists Demo New Nanoprinting Tech with Microscopic Golden Olympic Logos

Posted by Kit Eaton at 7:44 PM on August 15, 2008

Scientists at Northwestern University have demonstrated a new nano-printing technology by printing the Beijing Olympics emblem 15,000 times, each logo so small the whole print run fits inside one square centimeter. 2,500 of the images, made 20,000 90-nanometer dots, would fit on a grain of rice. The polymer pen lithography uses an array of millions of tiny flexible polymer "pens" that can be used to make marks on various different nano-scales, and in this case deposit "ink" made of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid onto a gold substrate (what else would do, in Olympic season?) The team thinks that the technique, which can print out tiny dot-matrix imagery, will find uses in computational tools, medical diagnostics and the pharmaceutical industry. The study is published today in Science Express. [Physorg]


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Random Stuff

Water Cube Olympic Pool Not Responsible for Michael Phelps's Aquaman Superpowers

Posted by Matt Buchanan at 9:40 AM on August 15, 2008

One of the more popular theories behind Michael Phelps zooming past records with every stroke--besides his US$500 LZR super suit and daily regimen of 12,000 calories composed mostly of mermaid babies--is that the Olympic pool itself is turning swimmers into Aquamen, but you know, not totally lame. But the pool's designer, John Bilmon says, it's really just because the Water Cube is really pretty and inspiring. They actually left out the two changes that would've granted swimmers superhuman speed.


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Games

Olympic Gold Medalist Would Like to Thank the Wii

Posted by Mark Wilson at 11:15 PM on August 12, 2008

That Nintendo Wii, what will it think up next? It's made us smarter and fitter and stronger and just so much better. Oh, and have you heard? Now it's creating OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALISTS. Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima just took the gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, and instead of thanking God or his trainers in typical fashion, he gave another performance enhancer a shout-out:


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