Umbrellas at the ready for starry Paralympics ceremony

The London 2012 Paralympics began Wednesday with an opening ceremony that looked to the skies, paying tribute to host Britain's achievements in understanding the universe -- and its rainy weather.

The packed 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium was filled with colourful, giant umbrellas, while Stephen Hawking, the world's most famous living scientist, urged people to take nothing for granted and to look to the stars for inspiration.

The show began with a spectacular flypast over the stadium as a plane, lit electric blue and trailing golden sparks from its wings, circled overhead, piloted by a war-wounded Afghanistan veteran.

That triggered a countdown to the start of the ceremony which was greeted with huge cheers in the east London venue.

Theoretical physicist Hawking, paralysed and in a wheelchair much of his life due to a rare form of motor neurone disease, kicked off the show by speaking of the quest for understanding the universe.

Ever since the dawn of civilisation, mankind had tried to understand the universe, "why it is as it is and why it exists at all", he said.

A glowing, celestial sphere descended into the middle of a giant central umbrella, igniting the "Big Bang" signifying the creation of the universe. Some 600 performers with umbrellas that lit up radiated out from the centre.

A sharp blast of fireworks from the stadium roof exploded, and the scene then transformed into contemporary London, with the shooting stars turning into raindrops.

To the sound of rain pouring down, thunder and flashes of lightning, and then Rihanna's hit "Umbrella", balloons slowly fell like giant raindrops into the stadium, and disintegrated into puffs of smoke.

Mercifully, the real rain held off, despite the Olympic Park in east London getting a thorough soaking earlier in the day.

Queen Elizabeth II was to officially declare the Games open, following the parade of athletes from 165 competing nations and before the show culminates with the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron.

The British sovereign, 86, was without her 91-year-old husband Prince Philip, who is recuperating in Scotland after a recurrence of a bladder infection.

The monarch was joined by her grandson Prince William and his wife Catherine, her daughter Princess Anne, youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, plus other royals and political figures such as British Prime Minister David Cameron.

William's younger brother Prince Harry, who represented his grandmother at the Olympics closing ceremony, was not among the royal party, following his infamous naked antics at a party in his Las Vegas hotel suite.

The ceremony's artistic directors Bradley Hemmings and Jenny Sealey said their show paid tribute to German-born neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, considered the father of the Paralympics.

The Jewish refugee pioneered the use of sport at a British hospital as therapy for soldiers injured in World War II.

"Guttmann's science and humanity ignited the global Paralympic movement, and in this same spirit we wanted to create a ceremony celebrating the transformational possibilities of ideas, science and human endeavour," they said.

"We hope that you will join with us in celebrating the empowering possibilities of ideas, science and creativity, through which we can realise our full potential: who we are and who we aspire to be."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/umbrellas-ready-starry-paralympics-ceremony-204023221--oly.html

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