Facts About The Olympics

With the beautiful pictures of the Sochi games blasting at us at all hours lately, I thought it might be interesting to write about the origin of the Olympics. The Olympics got its name from city named Olympia, Greece, where the original games were held. The 1936 Olympics were the first to be televised.

Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin convened a congress in Paris in 1894 with the goal of reviving the ancient Olympic Games. The congress agreed on proposals for a modern Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee was formalized and given the task of planning the 1896 Athens Games.

The first new Olympic Games featuring athletes from all five inhabited parts of the world was in Stockholm in 1912. This prompted the design of five interlocked rings. He drew and colored the rings and added them to a letter Coubertin sent to a colleague. He used his ring design as the emblem of the Committee's 20th anniversary celebration in 1914. A year later, it became the official Olympic symbol.

The rings were to be used on flags and signage at the 1916 Games, but those games were cancelled, because of the ongoing World War, so the rings made the official debut at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium.  At the end of each Olympic Games, the mayor of the host-city presents the flag to the mayor of the next host-city. It then rests at the town hall of the next host-city for four years until the Opening Ceremony of its Olympic Games.

Coubertin explained his design: "A white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre (sic): blue, yellow, black, green and red...is symbolic; it represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time." He never said nor wrote that any specific ring represents a specific continent. It is a myth that the rings were inspired by a similar, ancient design found on a stone at Delphi, Greece. The stone was made as a prop.

The Olympic motto was also proposed by Pierre, "Citius, Altius, Fortius", which is Latin for "Swifter, Higher, Stronger."

Special Olympics - In 1971, The US Olympic Committee gave the Special Olympics official approval to use the name “Olympics”. In 1988, the Special Olympics was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 4.2 million athletes in 170 countries. Special Olympics competitions are held every day, all around the world, including local, national and regional competitions, adding up to more than 70,000 events per year.

The motto for the Special Olympics is "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

I have the honor and privilege to assist in presenting medals to Special Olympians today at our Special Olympics of Texas Developmental Skills Competition.

Bang for Your Buck

'Bang for your buck' means 'value for the money spent' or 'excitement for the money spent' and is based on the slang meaning of bang (excitement ) and buck (money).

Finland had one of the highest-ranked education system for many years, but came in #2 in 2013, behind to Japan. The UK #3 in 2013; Canada #7; Estonia #17 and the United States #18, out of 200 countries considered.

Japan spends an average of $10,596 per student and Finland $10,157. The US spends $15,172 per student, the highest of any country and 2.5 times more per student than #17 ranked Estonia. The US does not appear to be getting a bang for its bucks.

What Causes Tornadoes

The first four months of the year brings risk for tornadoes in the southern US. From April through June, the biggest tornado threat shifts to the Plains, Upper Midwest, and Great Lakes. The main tornado risk then stays along the northern tier of the country through much of summer, while tropical storms and hurricanes increase back in the South as they move inland. These are followed in November and December with more chances of tornadoes moving back to the South.

About ninety percent of US twisters occur in a 300-mile wide corridor extending from West Texas to Canada. Warm, moist surface winds blow up from the Gulf of Mexico, while cool high-altitude winds blow over the tops of the Rockies. The cool air wants to sink while warm air wants to rise. However, the mountain air causes a temperature inversion, which prevents the warm surface air from rising. It is like clamping the lid on a pressure cooker. The surface weather systems build up a big head of steam until they break through the inversion and shoot up to towering heights and the violent updrafts and downdrafts lead to form tornadoes. Tornadoes occur most frequently in the central plains of the US. Australia has the second most tornadoes each year.

Google Site Search

Did you know that Google has a feature that allows you to search a specific site for information. Here is how it works: To search a single website -
1. Type "site:" into the Google search bar (without the quote marks).
2. Type the name of the website you want to search without the "http://" and the "www."
3. Type the search term you are looking for.
For example, use Google to search my blog for peanuts, you would type this - site:shubsthoughts.blogspot.com peanuts

Free Smile Friday

Baby laughing at dog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTOeuH-iEJ8

Happy Friday

Those who wake up in the morning and think, 'this is going to be the best day of my life' usually make it so.

I always wake up thinking that. It makes for a special Happy Friday!

Be Positive Stay Healthy

A recent study analyzed data on 3,199 people, 60 and older, including their attitudes about how much they enjoyed life, problems they had with basic daily functions such as dressing and bathing, and how mobile they were.

About 21 percent were deemed to have a high level of enjoyment about life, 56 percent a medium level and 23 percent a low level of enjoyment. In an eight-year span, problems with day-to-day tasks generally increased and mobility declined. About 4 percent of those most upbeat about life developed two or more new functional impairments, compared with 17 percent of those who enjoyed life the least. People assessed as enjoying life at a medium or low level were about 80 percent more likely than their happier counterparts to have developed mobility and functional problems.

There is growing evidence that optimistic people not only tend to live longer, but may enjoy physical benefits as well. As the song says, "Don't worry. Be Happy!" (Bobby McFerrin with Robin Williams and Bill Irwin)

Ten Amazing Body Facts

An average red blood cell lives for 120 days.

There are about 2.5 trillion red blood cells in your body at any moment.

A red blood cell can circumnavigate your body in under 20 seconds.

Nerve Impulses travel at over 400 km/hr (25 mi/hr).

A sneeze generates a wind of 166 km/hr (100 mi/hr), and a cough moves out at 100 km/hr (60 mi/hr).

Our heart beats about 100,00 times every day.

Our blood travels about 60,000 miles each day.

When we touch something, we send a message to our brain at 124 mph

The life span of a taste bud is ten days.

There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth.

Origin of the Bra

Wearing a specialized garment to support a woman’s breasts dates as far back as the 14th century BC in Greece where women wore a band of wool or linen that was wrapped across the breasts and tied or pinned in the back.

It is not clear who was the first to invent the modern bra, as numerous patents in various nations were filed in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. However, Caresse Crosby, born Mary Phelps Jacob, invented her design in 1910 and was among the first to patent her 'backless brassiere'. She got the idea for her bra when she was just 19 years old and going to a ball. Her dress for the evening was a sheer gown. She, with the help of her maid, took two handkerchiefs and some ribbon and sewed them together to make something like a modern day bra, so she could have support, but not need to wear a corset.

Frederick Mellinger, founder of Frederick’s of Hollywood, introduced a padded bra, a push-up bra, a front hook bra, and more colorful bras. The most expensive bra in history, valued at $15 million, was modeled in 2000 by Gisele Bundchen and made from red satin and hand-cut Thai rubies and diamonds.

Corsets dominated the undergarments of wealthier women in the Western world for centuries, until WWI required quite a bit of metal. In 1917, the US War Industries Board asked American women to help their 'men win the war' by not wearing or buying corsets. During the war it is estimated that they freed up around 28,000 tons of steel that could be used for other types of heavy lifting.

Who Were Procter and Gamble

William Procter was a candle maker from England, and James Gamble was a soap maker from Ireland. They settled in Cincinnati and met when they married sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. They began business as Procter and Gamble, October 31, 1837. Their first product was a floating soap called Ivory.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the company sponsored a number of radio programs. As a result, these shows often became known as 'soap operas'.

Disposable Diaper Double Duty

Procter and Gamble may have developed disposable diapers, but now they have found a new life. Diapers keep baby bottoms dry because they absorb liquids. They can also be used in planters. Cut strips of unused diapers and place on the bottom of the pot before adding soil. They absorb water and keep plants hydrated longer as they slowly release the water to the soil on top.

Porcelain, Fine China, and Bone China

Exported Chinese porcelains were held in such great esteem in Europe that in the English language china became a synonym for porcelain.

Bone china is made from cow bone ash and other ingredients. The addition of animal bone ash gives bone china a warm color, while fine china is a brighter white. Bone china has a translucent quality compared to fine china. Fine china is made the same way, replacing bone with kaolin clay. 

Spone china - American artist Charles Krafft replaced cow bone ash with human bone ash, retrieved from a crematorium.

Porcelain is fired at a higher temperature and is much harder. Porcelain gets its name from old Italian porcellana (cowrie shell) because of its resemblance to the translucent surface of the shell. The raw materials are finely ground, cleaned, formed in a mold, and then fired.

If the temperature is high the finished product is more durable and known as porcelain. If it’s fired at a lower temperature it becomes fine china. Fine china is much softer than porcelain, making it suitable for plates and cups. Porcelain is strong enough and durable enough for a wide range of products, such as electrical insulators and toilets. Bottom line, all china is porcelain, but not all porcelain is china.