The social-media Olympics

by HUM News staff

VANCOUVER (HN, March 1) -- After 16 days of competition, the Vancouver Olympic Games have also become known as the 'Social Games.'  Twenty-first Century technology -- specifically mobile technology -- allowed sports enthusiasts, journalists, bloggers, athletes and sponsors to connect collectively with the world. 

As reporter Steven Evans finds out, even the International Olympic Committee is "a Fan!" 

(VIDEO STORY)

CBC REPORT: Hummingbirdz-RC Palmer students work with HUMNEWS

Students from Richmond, British Columbia have filed online reports which focus on Olympic athletes from developing-world countries, such as Ghana and Tajikistan, for HUM News.

(VIDEO)

Imagining Beringia

PHOTO: Courtesy the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center.by HUM News staff 

WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory, Canada (HN, Feb. 26) - Imagining 'Beringia' is a prehistoric journey.  On HUM News' recent trip to the Yukon capital city of Whitehorse, our crew visited the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center to learn about the ancient land bridge which is said to have connected the northern and central Yukon, and Alaska territories with Siberia.  Beringia vanished with the end of the last Ice Age, almost 10,000 years ago, but parts of this lost land can still be seen in the topography of the region.  

The term Beringia comes from the name of Arctic explorer, Vitus Jonassen Bering, a Danish-born sea captain who served in the Russian Navy during the 18^th Century.   From 1725-1730, and 1733-1741, Bering headed both the First and Second 'Kamchatka Expeditions', which ventured the waters of the North Pacific between Asia and North America including the strait that lies between Chukotka Peninsula and Seward Peninsula; Siberia and Alaska, respectively, and which now bears Bering’s name.   

Over the past 2 million years, the climate of the northern hemisphere has been dominated by huge ice sheets.  During each Ice Age, vast glaciers formed in the Northern Hemisphere, locking up much of the world's water as ice.   

The shallow sea now separating Asia from North America dropped about 300 ft and created a 1,000-mile wide grassland plateau, linking Asia and North America together in the "Bering Land Bridge" or `Beringia’, which scientists believe allowed human beings to first enter North America from Eurasia. 

Three migrations are thought to have occurred between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, which archaeologists surmise included Paleo-Indians, ancestors of all South American and most North American Indians; as well as ancestors of the Eskimo and Aleuts, included in the Siberian-American Paleoarctic history of peoples. 

The US National Park Service administers the Shared Beringian Heritage Program and is actively working for the establishment of a Beringian Heritage International Park along with Russian-government counterparts. Since 1996, these two nations have held an annual Beringia Days Conference each fall.  

SOURCES

NOAA:  http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/parcs/atlas/beringia/images/movies/lbridge.mov

Park Beringia: http://www.beringiapark.ru/indexen.php?right=newsen

Yukon Interpretive Center:  http://www.beringia.com/

HUM Countries and Athlete Rankings at the 2010 Winter Games Update

ALPINE SKIING

Men’s Downhill (Ranking out of 64 competitors)

8 Liechtenstein – Marco Buechel

47 Andorra – Kevin Esteve

48 Andorra – Roger Vidosa

59 Tajikistan – Andrey Drygin

Ladies Downhill (Ranking out of 45 competitors)

28 Andorra – Mireia Gutierrez

Ladies Super Combined Slalom (Ranking out of 31 competitors)

24 Andorra – Mireia Gutierrez

Men’s Super-G (Ranking out of 63 competitors)

33 Andorra – Roger Vidosa

39 Andorra – Kevin Esteve

44 Tajikistan – Andrey Drygin

45 Iceland – Stefan Jon Sigurgeirsson

Men’s Super Combined Slalom (Ranking out of 46 competitors)

25 Andorra – Roger Vidosa

Men’s Giant Slalom (Ranking out of 89 competitors)

43 Iceland – Bjoergvin Bjoergvinsson

44 Republic of Moldova – Christophe Roux

57 Tajikistan – Andrey Drygin

76 Kyrgyzstan – Dmitry Trelevski

80 Republic of San Marino – Marino Cardelli

BIATHLON

Ladies 7.5 km Sprint (Ranking out of 89 competitors)

53 Republic of Moldova – Natalia Levchenkova

Men’s 10 km Sprint (Ranking out of 88 competitors)

70 Republic of Moldova – Victor Pinzaru

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

Men’s 15k Free (Ranking out of 96 competitors)

73 Andorra – Francesc Soulie

84 Algeria – Meidhi-Selim Khelifi

86 Republic of Moldova – Sergiu Balan

87 Mongolia – Khash-Erdene Khurelbataar

Ladies 10k Free (Ranking out of 78 competitors)

71 Republic of Moldova – Alexandra Camenscic

74 Mongolia – Erdene-Ochir Ochirsuren

76 Armenia – Kristine Khachatryan

Men’s Individual Sprint Classic (Ranking out of 62 competitors)

56 Andorra – Francesc Soulie

Ladies Individual Sprint Classic (Ranking out of 54 competitors)

54 Kyrgyzstan - Olga Reshetkova

LUGE

Men’s Singles (Ranking out of 39 competitors)

33 Republic of Moldova – Bogdan Macovei

SNOWBOARD

Men’s Snowboard Cross (Ranking out of 34 competitors)

34 Andorra – Lluis Tarroch Marin

SPEED SKATING

Ladies 500m (Ranking out of 35 competitors)

9 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – Hyon-Suk KO

Ladies 1000m (Ranking out of 36 competitors)

13 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – Hyon-Suk KO

Update on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 12:30AM by HUMNEWS

UPDATE: Ladies Slalom Results, Whistler Creekside Venue - Liechtenstein's Marina Nigg finishes 36th with a time of 53.78 seconds; and Andorra's Mireia Gutierrez finishes at 46th with a time of 54.81 seconds, today.   

Update on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 8:50PM by HUMNEWS

UPDATE: Cross-Country Skiing, Men's 50km, Andorra's Francesc  Soulie comes in 47th with a time of 2:25:00.9.

FROM ONE OLYMPIC CITY TO ANOTHER-VANCOUVER TO ATLANTA (VIDEO)

Montine Blank and former Atlanta Olympics ticket seller Rob Budd, discuss how the Atlanta Olympics ticket sales compare to ticket sales for the Vancouver Winter Games.  Fed entirely over WIMax and Livecast technology.

HUMNews Joy DiBenedetto Talks with CKNW Radio About Olympic Coverage

VANCOUVER (HN, February 23, 2010) - On February 12th, as the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Opening Ceremony was taking place, HUM's Joy DiBenedetto spoke live with Canada's CKNW radio's `Ready for the World' program and discussed the importance of covering the smallest and poorest countries participating at the Games with hosts Jill Bennett and Sean Leslie. Listen here: http://www.cknw.com/other/audiovault.html

HUM Livecasting at Mobile World Congress, 2010 Barcelona with support from Intel

 

Delegates at Mobile World watching the HUM Livecast from Vancouver
        The daily Livecasts were distributed overnight local time so that delegates in Barcelona could catch HUM content during their day.