Here are some images of where the Baton has been around Australia for the last 50 days.
Various people from Sports stars and legends, TV and Movie personalities, to Notable townfolk, Australians came together to participate in this extra-ordinary event.

Images: prpix.com.au
Those in the images are: [beginning from top left]
Champion jockey, Darren Beadman, aboard Stoway at Royal Randwick.
Peter Roberts at the breathe-taking Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road.
Sir Jack Brabham takes the Queen’s Baton around the Albert Park Grand Prix track in a 1956 Formula 1 car.
Troy Corser at the Phillip Island Grand Prix track.
Prime Minister John Howard with Australia’s …read more

The Queen’s Baton Relay is one of the great traditions of the Commonwealth Games. The relay symbolises the gathering of people from across the Commonwealth during the festival of sport and culture. It concludes at the Opening Ceremony, where it is rumored that Sprinter Lauren Hewitt has been given the honour to be one of the four final runners delivering the Queen’s Baton.
It has been an amazing 180,000 km journey across the 71 Commonwealth nations, with even some nations, like Saint Helena and Niue, hosting the Relay for the first time.
Now, the Baton’s in Melbourne on it’s 50th Day, with …read more

Like what I predicted on the day of the Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony, recorded videos of various Olympic events are now available at Google Video.

Olympic Videos at Google Video (Source: Google)

You can watch events ranging from Alpine Skiing to Figure Skating to Snowboarding to Speed Skating.

The 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony is over.
The following are highlights from the opening ceremony, click on the pictures to enlarge (pictures courtesy of NBC):

A view of Stadio Olimpico from the sky

The first act of the Opening Ceremony

Sparks of Passion – The theme of the 2006 Winter Olympics

From the United States, I will attempt to braindump my thoughts as the ceremonies progress (long after they actually finished). Refresh often.

8:03PM EST – If NBC does anything well, they can sure make some drama swirl around an introduction.
8:11PM EST – Highlights from Team USA are Bode Miller (Alpine), Shaun White (Snowboarding) and Michelle Kwan (Hot as ever!)
8:13PM EST – Commercial break.
8:23PM EST – Alpine trials and practice. Good stuff, but not the ceremonies.
8:53PM EST – NBC announces that this is the first Olympics broadcast in history simulcast in HDTV
8:57PM EST – Ugh. Flipped to NBC-HD. Do I really …read more

According to CNN, there is no ice at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. This is because the city of Torino is too warm.
To remedy that, the performers at the Opening Ceremony had to wear inline skates to simulate skating on ice.
Sparks of Passion (Source: International Olympics Committee)
It is unfortunate that the Network Channels (e.g. ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) are not broadcasting the opening ceremony live (it will be shown on NBC at 7pm EST). The opening ceremony is watched by 35 thousand spectators at the Stadio Olimpico and about 2 billion TV viewers worldwide.
For more interesting information and statistics …read more

The Opening Ceremony for 2006 Winter Olympics (Torino, Italy) is officially underway.
Hi! My name is YC. I am the Chief Resident Technocrat from the Technocrat Soapbox. I would like to thank Mr. Jeremy Wright for the opportunity to blog on the 2006 Winter Olympics.
An avid Snowboarder myself living in California, I will definitely be keeping my eyes glued to the TV for Snowboarding and Skiing events. I am also very interested in Bobsleding and Figure Skating.

Incidentally, I found some very interesting pre-Olympics videos at Google Video. I have no doubt that, in the days to …read more