London 2012 and Climate Change. Examining the potential impact of the current economic crisis in the environmental legacy of the Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) declares environmental protection to be the third dimension of the Olympic movement. That, in effect, means that nations wishing to host the Games have to present themselves as reliable practitioners of environmental sustainability (ES) in their applications. The greening of sports mega-events, and the hosting of Olympic Games in particular, is now reasonably well established. Yet evidence from the first decade of environmentally-conscious Olympics points to diverging patterns of achievement in the operationalisation of the IOC’s ‘third pillar’. As is now common knowledge, for example, Sydney 2000 was the first ‘Green Olympics’ in the history of the Games; yet four years later, Athens provided a stark contrast, and was the subject of highly critical assessment reports by environmental organisations. Yet Athens has not stopped the Bid Committee for the Beijing 2008 Games claiming that it would ‘leave the greatest Olympic Games environmental legacy ever’ (UNEP 2007: 26), while the London 2012 promotes the concept of the ‘One Planet Olympics’.

In this context and in light of the current global economic crisis, can we claim that London 2012 has the capacity to fulfil its environmental ambitions? This question is adopted in continuity with similar framed questions that have been posed in relation to the most recent Olympics and it is tackled by adopting an investigative model that is placed within discourses of ‘reflexive modernisation’.

"Variations on Psycho Killer" - Musical Score. Commissioned by Pauline Kim Harris. A virtuosic set of variations on the famous Talking Heads song for solo violin. General information State: Unpublished Organisations: School of Creative Arts, Sonic Arts, UOA35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts Authors: Lyon, E. Keywords: (Talking Heads, Violin Music) Publication date: 2012

Musical Score. Commissioned by Pauline Kim Harris. A virtuosic set of variations on the famous Talking Heads song for solo violin.

"Noise Triptych" Performed by Ensemble String Noise at PIANOS, NYC. Authors: Lyon, E. Publication date: 20 Nov 2012

Performed by Ensemble String Noise at PIANOS, NYC.

"The End." A winner of the 2012 "15 Minutes of Fame" competition. Authors: Lyon, E. Publication date: 2012

A winner of the 2012 "15 Minutes of Fame" competition.

Audley's Remix 2012

Commissioned by Esther Lamneck and Premiered by the NYU New Music Ensemble

Welcoming the World: Governing Hospitality in London's 2012 Olympic Bid

London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games presented a diverse, cosmopolitan city opening its arms and “welcoming the world.” This article explores the apparently benign gesture of hospitality contained in London’s official candidature files submitted in 2004 and asks how such a promise of inclusiveness is managed. We argue that London’s depiction of itself as hospitable to every kind of visitor relies on subtle techniques of governmentality in which the subject positions of “host” and “guest” are imagined and produced in ways that make them more governable. By this, we are not referring to acts of authority, coercion, or discipline that exclude subjects or render them docile bodies within a rigid panoptical city. Rather, we are referring to the delicate ways in which the official bid document imagines and produces the ideal subject positions of host and guest and in so doing enables, encourages, and incentivizes certain behaviors. This analysis of urban welcoming takes us beyond reductive oppositions of hospitality and hostility, inclusion and exclusion, self and other. It focuses instead on how London’s inclusive welcome produces a variety of host and guest positions (for example, the “Olympic Family,” volunteers, guest workers), segregates them within the city, and then “conducts their conduct” in the areas of planning, security, transport, accommodation, education, and training. By analyzing the techniques of governmentality at work in London’s 2004 bid document, this article foregrounds the enabling form of power driving the city’s inclusive welcome and exposes its inherent micropolitics.

The UMIST Database for Astrochemistry 2012

We present the fifth release of the UMIST Database for Astrochemistry (UDfA). The new reaction network contains 6173 gas-phase
reactions, involving 467 species, 47 of which are new to this release. We have updated rate coefficients across all reaction types.
We have included 1171 new anion reactions and updated and reviewed all photorates. In addition to the usual reaction network, we
also now include, for download, state-specific deuterated rate coefficients, deuterium exchange reactions and a list of surface binding
energies for many neutral species. Where possible, we have referenced the original source of all new and existing data. We have tested
the main reaction network using a dark cloud model and a carbon-rich circumstellar envelope model. We present and briefly discuss
the results of these models.