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What are the London 2012 Olympic mascots?

The mascots for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, Wenlock and Mandeville, have been revealed and if you’re like me, you’re wondering what exactly are they?

What we know for sure: they’re metallic, have one eye each and no visible feet.

They also have an official website, and are on twitter — although with hands shaped like mittens, it could be difficult to tweet.

Organiser’s for the London Games say the mascots will be hit a with kids — and why not? Doesn’t every child crave a toy moulded from steel left over from the last girder on the Olympic stadium?

The question is, what do you think of Wenlock and Mandeville? How do they represent London, the UK or the Olympics in general?

The 2012 Olympic mascot Wenlock (L) and Paralympic mascot Mandeville pose for photographers in the playground at St. Paul’s primary school in London May 19, 2010. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

from UK News:

Will there ever be the “right type of snow” in Britain?

The last time round when there was such widespread travel chaos in Britain due to snow was quite some time ago....it was in 1991 - the year the "wrong type of snow" was born - British Rail's ill-conceived attempt to explain why the railways had come to a virtual standstill after heavy snowfall.

The "wrong type" of just about anything has since been used to explain why the country's creaking transport system is grinding to a halt ....remember the one about the "wrong type of leaves" on the tracks?

OK, before you read on I should declare that I'm not British and hail from a country that usually copes with bad weather a lot better than Britain.

But I've been here long enough - 20 years to be precise - to think when I heard on the radio in the morning that no London busses were running at all - that didn't even happen during the Blitz, apparently - ..."oh well, it must be bad then ... better log on from home". And so did thousands of employees, many of them actively encouraged by their employers not to travel to work unless it was "critical".

At least I could rest assured, sorry - work from home assured - when the Metropolitan Police declared in a news release that it was maintaining policing despite the bad weather.

But I still couldn't help thinking:  why is this happening, and shouldn't I make a bit more of an effort to get into the office? Why is there hardly any public transport, forcing so many people to stay at home when there is heavy snowfall? Can't the streets of London be gritted, and why is no one shovelling the snow off the pavement outside their houses, an effort common in many countries that experience wintery conditions?