Some civil-rights activists tried to keep the blimp with its all-seeing cameras and all-hearing microphones out of the sky, but in the end it flew almost every day. It became a sort of weather-vane. If the blimp was flying there was no wind. There were actually two of them and they were still flying after the games had ended. Despite spending 1.2 billion dollars on security the dire predictions of the media came true, proving that all the safeguards in the world won't stop a determined terrorist, when a defrocked Irish priest in a kilt attacked the leading runner in the marathon, perhaps costing him the race. Even the blimp failed to spot him.