Don't spend it all in one place, Paul

(CAMERON SPENCER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

London Olympic organizers say former Beatle Paul McCartney and other star performers who took part in Friday's opening ceremony essentially donated their time — receiving a mere pound ($1.57 U.S.) — for their performances.

The nominal fee was offered to make the Olympics contracts binding — but pales in comparison to the millions big names like McCartney can command for a stadium gig.

Other performers such as Mike Oldfield, Dizzee Rascal and Emeli Sande are also thought to have received the nominal fee.

Director Danny Boyle's "Isles of Wonder" extravaganza featured British music that spanned generations, right up to live performances from two of the hottest homegrown acts of the moment: grime star Rascal and band Arctic Monkeys.

- The Associated Press

The first Olympic meme

The official U.S. broadcaster NBC has irritated no small number of fans with its tape delay for prime time of key Olympic events. What really burns  these Twitter Olympians is they can get instant results but have to wait and wait and wait for their home broadcaster to let them see it "live."

And so, not quite 24 hours ago, @NBCDelayed sprung to life on Twitter. It already has 17,000 followers and at one point was signing up 3,000 an hour.

Some of its "breaking" news: Mark Spitz wins gold in 100m freestyle ... Muhammed Ali wins gold in Rome ... Tommie Smith and John Carlos create controvery during medals ceremony, wear black gloves and raise fists. More to come.

It looks like there will be lots more to come.

Bigger, heavier, wider

Pictures of Canadian bronze medallists Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel may have left you thinking they have very, very small hands. What they have are very, very big medals: the biggest and heaviest ever at the Oympics Games.

Each host city gets to design its own medals and the 4,700 struck for the London Games are 15 milimetres wider and one milimetre thicker than the medals at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. They weigh between 375 to 400 grams each (depending on the mix of metals).

The gold medals are 92.5 per cent silver (and so are the silver medals). The bronze medals are 97 per cent copper. There is gold in the gold medals, at least six grams of it. That makes them worth $708. If they were solid gold, they'd cost about many millions at today's prices.

The last Games to have 100 per cent gold gold medals was Stockholm in 1912.

 

Forget London. Rio 2016 T-shirts on sale

This is Renata Santiago's third Olympics. And the main event for her isn't for another four years.

Santiago is part of the Rio 2016 team in London promoting the Brazilian city for the next Summer Games. She's been to the Athens and the Beijing Games as well, all to absorb knowledge for Rio's own two weeks in the global spotlight.

Rio will have had 2,499 days to prepare for their Games, from winning the bid in October, 2009, to opening day on Aug. 5, 2016: the Summer Games in the middle of their winter.

Casa Brasil, with daily exhibitions showcasing the country's culture, is a bit of Olympic future in the heart of the Olympic present in London. And, yes, there are mugs, T-shirts and onesies emblazoned with the special Rio2016 font created just for the next Games.

You can even buy letters with the unique font at the shop on the Thames.

Look good in a Speedo

Nothing is quite as daunting to a non-perfect human as the swimming and diviing events. A constant stream of one unbelievable body after another in a minimum of Spandex and polyester.

But if you've ever longed to be seen in a Speedo but never quite had the nerve, the swimsuit company has found a solution: Speedo swim caps with creepy stretchable photo images of top American swimmers. You can wrap your head in Michael Phelps. For $13.99 U.S. This is what it looks like.

Preliminary heats

Will London 2012 set an Olympic condom record? The sex-saturated British tabloid media is betting it will, of course. Durex, the condom brand made by Reckitt Benckiser Group, is said to be supplying 150,000 condoms for free to the roughly 10,000 superfit young athletes packed into the Olympic village. Yes, that works out to 15 per athlete. Souvenirs? Depends on whom you talk to.

That number would best the 100,000 condoms handed out during the Vancouver and the Beijing Games.

That's a lot of free publicity for Durex and Reckitt Benckiser. And because they didn't fork over $1.6 billion to be an official sponsor, they can't advertise their Olympian effort. That means this ad that's all over the Internet is a fake and will not pop up on a streetcorner in London anytime soon.

Mad hatters in London

Hat-making has now become an Olympic event and the first fashion victim is Lord Nelson himself, that iconic symbol of Empire that dominates Trafalgar Square.

The admiral who made sure Britain ruled the waves is wearing a new chapeau, courtesy of London's oldest hatter Locke & Co., which is old enough to have made the hero of Trafalgar's original bicorn hat. The Olympic model is covered in the Union Jack with what's apparently an Olympic torch sticking feather-like from the front.

His transformation is one of several as part of Hatwalk, an Olympic cultural event to showcase Britain's milliners. That includes, of course celebrated social hatter Phillip Treacey, known for his fanciful fascinators at last year's wedding of Wills and Kate.

Treacey's creation for Hatwalk is described by the Daily Telegraph an an irridescent satellite creation astride the brow of Sir Henry Havelock's statue.

It's happened to all of us

Authorities have changed the locks at Wembly Stadium, site of the Olympic soccer final, after police misplaced the keys.

They reported the missing keys on July 24 and Scotland Yard sent someone to investigate. They couldn't find them, either.

The locks are on internal doors, police say, and "the security of the venue has not been compromised in any way."

These are high-tech laser keys, not your simple old padlock and ring of jangling keys. Sort of like your car keys. Check the upstairs bureau.

 

CTV to Bob Rae:

The official Canadian broadcaster has tweeted its explanation to the Liberal leader about why they are showing the live volleyball game between Korea and Serbia instead of Canada's tennis stars. The first round tennis matches were on "non-televised courts," CTV says.that would be Court 16 for Raonic and Court 19 for Aleksandra Wozniak

Our own Steve Russell has pictures:

Queen for a night

Stunt man -- emphasis on man -- Gary Connery is talking about his skydive dressed as Queen Elizabeth II for the opening ceremonies at Olympic Stadium.

Connery tells Sky News  he "thoroughly enjoyed getting dressed up as Queenie."

It wasn't 007 Daniel Craig either on Friday night: it was fellow stuntman Mark Sutton done up as James Bond.

But yes, it was the real royal and the real actor who made their dramatic entrance.

Connery says he had to maneuver a tricky tight bridge landing, but that's what being a pro is all about. He'd done more than 880 skydives and 450 base jumps.