Reviving Athens 2004 Olympic Games Ceremonies

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  Culture Minister Antonis Samaras will inaugurate tomorrow (July 8) an exhibition, titled “A Greek Festival-Athens 2004,” featuring the costumes and sets used in the opening and closing ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games at the National Gallery in Goudi. The exhibition, which first appeared in Beijing as part of the Cultural Olympiad, include the painted papier-mâché costumes, the signature paper boat, the rotating cube and some 47 traditional costumes from all areas of Greece.A special honorary celebration has been scheduled for the 8,000 volunteers who took part in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. The exhibition is organised by the General Secretariat for the Olympic Utilization and it will last until December 20, 2009. You Tube: Best of Athens 2004 Opening Ceremony & Olympic Closing Ceremony Athens 2004; Volunteers’ Website: www.volathens2004.gr (in Greek)

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Olympic Link to a 2,100 Years Old Calkulator

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   More than a hundred years ago an extraordinary mechanism was found by sponge divers at the bottom of the sea near the island of Antikythera. It astonished the whole international community of experts on the ancient world. Was it an astrolabe? Was it an orrery or an astronomical clock? Or something else? For decades, scientific investigation failed to yield much light and relied more on imagination than the facts. However research over the last half century has begun to reveal its secrets. The Antikythira mechanim dates from approximately the 1st century B.C. and is the most sophisticated mechanism known in the ancient world. Nothing as complex had been manufactured for the next thousand years. A new paper from the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (www.antikythera-mechanism.gr) is published in the prestige science journal Nature on July 31st 2008. It reveals surprising results on the back dials of the Antikythera Mechanism – including a dial dedicated to the four-year Olympiad Cycle of athletic games in ancient Greece. Antikythera Mechanism: Frequently Asked Questions; World Media Reports – Google: Scientists unlock new secrets of Antikythera mechanism Secretariat General of Information: World Media on Greece – Highlights

The Greek Media Experience Transfered to Beijing

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    On the occasion of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the Secretariat General of Information introduced its “mediainfo2004 – Media Services for the Olympic Games” website (www.mediainfo2004.gr). This website subscribed to the idea of a “one-stop-shop” service for media professionals, who wished to cover contemporary Greece before and during the Olympic Games 2004. The website was affiliated with the Zappeion Olympic Press Center, situated in central Athens in the grounds of the Zappeion Mansion. Secretary General of Information Panos Livadas, the Zappeion Olympic Press Center director, was in Beijing recently at the invitation of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG). BOCOG publicly paid tribute to his advice and contribution in setting up and operating the Beijing International Media Center (www.2008bimc.cn).

An Hippodrome Discovered in Olympia after 1600 Years

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   The site of an ancient hippodrome course in Olympia, where the emperor Nero competed for Olympian laurels, has been discovered. The hippodrome was discovered in Olympia by a research team that included Professor Norbert Müller, Dr Christian Wacker and Dr Reinhard Senff. “This discovery is an archaeological sensation,” commented Norbert Müller of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The research project extended over several weeks before its completion in mid-May 2008. Prior to this, the hippodrome had only been known from written sources. Archaeologists had failed to locate its actual site, which is surprising, as German archaeologists have been continuously excavating the site of where the ancient Olympiad was held since 1875.      Science Daily: Horse Racecourse In Ancient Olympia Discovered After 1600 Years (21.07.2008); Ministry of Culture: Olympia-The Hippodrome

Greek Ideas in Action…in China

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)              General Secretary for Information Panos Livadas was in Beijing last week at the invitation of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), Executive Vice-President Jiang Xiaoyu. Livadas was the media director of the Press Centre for non-accredited to the Games journalists during the ATHENS 2004 Olympics (www.mediainfo2004.gr). BOCOG adopted his idea and publicly paid tribute to his advice and contribution in setting up and operating the Beijing International Media Center for non-accredited journalists opened on July 8. More than 5,000 reporters, including 2,700 from abroad, have been registered so far. “I am very happy to see that BOCOG has set up a media center for non-accredited journalists” Livadas said, adding that “such reporters like to focus on the social and cultural aspects of the host nation.” He further pointed out that the legacy of holding the Athens Olympics was positive, and Greece used the event to re-brand itself. “I am sure the Beijing Olympics will be truly wonderful,” he underscored.  China Daily: Greek official hails media facilities