BREAKING IN THE PARIS OLYMPICS

I was all set today to write a solid science posting, toying with the coming of giant Joro spiders, but was thumbing through my unread magazines piling up from my global journey, and one article caught my fancy. First, did you know that the Paris Summer Olympics will begin on July 27?

In 776 BC, the first Greek Olympics, and for the next dozen to follow, there was only one event. The stadion was a foot race of 600 feet.
A century ago, in the Paris Summer Olympics of 1924, they had tug of war, croquet and something called jeu de paume, although this latter sport was just for exhibition. The last time this "tennis" type game was official was in the 1908 London Olympics.

The modern Olympics returned in 1896 with 43 events in nine sports.
This year, there will be 32 different sports for 329 medal events. In 2020 Tokyo, 33 sports and 339 events.

However, no more baseball (Major League teams complained), softball is gone, and so is karate. But not to fret, as the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics will bring back baseball (even though the Major League is still moaning) and softball, plus cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.
The new sports in Paris will be skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing....and, get ready for this....breakdancing. Interestingly enough, the LA Olympics will drop breaking, but keep the other three new ones.
So here are the 32:

Aquatics (Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming)
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Basketball (3x3, Basketball)
Boxing
Breaking
Canoe (Canoe Sprint, Canoe Slalom)
Cycling (BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Road Cycling, Track Cycling)
Equestrian (Equestrian Eventing, Equestrian Dressage, Equestrian Jumping)
Fencing
Football (which is soccer for the rest of the world)
Golf
Gymnastics (Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline Gymnastics)
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Rugby (Rugby Sevens)
Sailing
Shooting
Skateboarding
Sport Climbing
Surfing
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball (Beach Volleyball, Volleyball)
Weightlifting
Wrestling (Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling)

NBC and Peacock will present live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, beginning at noon ET. Telemundo will provide Spanish-language coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Primetime coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.

Breakdancing is called breaking in Paris, the more popular term today. Here is that Time magazine article. I'll summarize:

The presentation features Grace Sunny Choi.

Born in Cookeville, Tennessee to PhDs from Daegu, South Korea.
Family moved to Kentucky.
All four children took piano lessons.
Sunny, now 35, became a serious gymnast until she hurt her knee as a teenager. Began to experience periods of intense depression, including suicidal thoughts.
At the University of Pennsylvania as a freshman got into breaking, created by Black and Latino youths in New York City half a century ago.
Worked and danced, while depression kept returning.
Chose dancing over marriage, kids, etc. A crazy dream.
Won the first gold medal ever for breaking at the 2023 Pan American Games. This is why she automatically qualified for Paris. Here is a CNN video about her, but the first half is just regular news.
Now has sponsorship deals with Nike and Samsung.
Sees a therapist, paid for by the U.S. Olympic Committee, to minimize her mental health problems.

Has helped confront her fear of failure.
Naomi Osaka in tennis, Simone Biles gymnastics and Michael Phelps swimming also suffered from mental problems.
There are 15 mental health providers employed by the Committee.

When not dancin', she was director of global creative operations at Estée Lauder, until she quit last year to focus on her sport.
Called a B-girl for guess what?
Is 5'1", eats a lot of salmon and is a medal contender in Paris.

Breaking will occur in the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris. Seats are sold out.
Breaking is not like gymnastics where points accrue. Format is head-to-head competition.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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