Fun Friday Fact - hope you respond weekly to give us all a smile

[Ivy]

[Davie]

7 hours ago, Heather Shay said:

Sometime from 200 to 300 B.C., in ancient Greece, some gods were worshiped by galli priests who wore feminine attire, identified as women and have therefore been identified by scholars as early transgender figures.

In ancient Greece the god Hermaphroditus was unusually beautiful and androgynous. He was considered the original intersex person and all others came from him, as well as being the god of effeminacy, androgyny, and marriage. Sounds trans to me. 

[Ivy]

Like I posted… 

Trans people have always existed.

 

The idea that we are something new is just wrong.  It's just that more of us have been willing to come out into the light.  I really hope we can stay here.

[Heather Shay]

thank you @Davie and @Ivy

[Heather Shay]

1. The first Olympic Games took place in the 8th century B.C. in Olympia, Greece. They were held every four years for for 12 centuries. Then, in the 4th century A.D., all pagan festivals were banned by Emperor Theodosius I and the Olympics were no more.

2. However, the athletic tradition was resurrected about 1500 years later: The first modern Olympics were held in 1896 in Greece.

3. In ancient Greece, athletes didn’t worry about sponsorship, protection, or fashion – they competed naked.

4. Back then, the games lasted five or six months.

5. Women have been allowed to compete in the Olympics since 1900.

6. From 1924-1992, the Winter and the Summer Olympics took place in the same year. Now, they’re on separate cycles and alternate every two years.

7. Only four athletes have won medals in both the Winter and the Summer Olympics. Only one of them, Christa Ludinger-Rothenburger, won medals in the same year.

8. During the 2012 London Games, the Olympic Village required 165,000 towels for a bit more than two weeks of activity.

9. The official languages of the games are English and French, complemented by the official language of the host country.

10. Tarzan competed in the Olympics: Johnny Weissmuller, an athlete-turned-actor who played Tarzan in 12 movies, won five gold medals in swimming in the 1920s.

11. From 1912-1948, artists participated in the Olympics: Painters, sculptors, architects, writers, and musicians competed for medals in their respective fields.

12. During the 1936 Berlin Games, two Japanese pole-vaulters tied for second place. Instead of competing again, they cut the silver and bronze medals in half and fused the two different halves together so that each of them had a half-silver and half-bronze medal.

13. The Olympic torch is lit the old-fashioned way in an ancient ceremony at the temple of Hera, in Greece: Actresses, wearing costumes of Greek priestesses, use a parabolic mirror and sun rays to kindle the torch.

14. From there, the torch starts its relay to the host city: It is usually carried by runners, but it has traveled on a boat, on an airplane (and the Concorde), on horseback, on the back of a camel, via radio signal, underwater, and in a canoe.

15. The unlit Olympic torch has also been taken to space several times.

16. The relay torch and the Olympic flame are supposed to burn during the whole event. In case the flame goes out, it can only be reignited with a backup flame, which has been lit in Greece as well, and with never a regular lighter!

17. The 2012 London Games were the first Olympics in which all participating countries sent female athletes.

18. The following sports are (sadly) not part of the Olympics anymore: solo synchronized swimming, tug of war, rope climbing, hot air ballooning, dueling pistol, tandem bicycle, swimming obstacle race, and plunge for distance. Luckily, live pigeon shooting was a one-shot and only part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris.

19. The five rings of the Olympic symbol – designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder of the modern Olympic Games – represent the five inhabited continents of the world.

20. The six colors – blue, yellow, black, green, red, and the white background – were chosen because every nation’s flag contains at least one of them.

[Ivy]

Just now, Heather Shay said:

dueling pistol

Yikes.  I guess it was easy to tell the winner.

[Heather Shay]

@Ivy LOL.

[Heather Shay]

Here are some facts about Animal Olympics:

• Diverse species: A variety of animals compete in different sports. For example, monkeys perform gymnastics, bears and hippos swim, and kangaroos and pigs fight.
• Unexpected winners: In one 800 m race, a duck beat a bulldog, a hippo, and a camel.
• At the Olympic Games of animals, the most diverse species of animals compete in the sporting disciplines. Monkeys do gymnastics on the horizontal bar, bears and hippos swim and kangaroos and pigs fight against each other. In the 800 m run, a duck wins against a bulldog, a hippopotamus and a camel. A polar bear enters the pole vault and the pigs try to gain an advantage in the hurdles with balloons, but crash.

[Heather Shay]

This Olympics will be “breaking in” a new sport – Breakdancing!

https://7700b77c.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/breakdancing.jpg Olympic Breakdancing in Place de la Concorde olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/breaking

 

Breaking (or Breakdancing) originated in the United States in the 1970s. After its resounding success as an exhibition sport at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, the Olympic Committee has officially inaugurated it as a medal event for the Paris Games. The competition will be held in the Place de la Concorde, just outside of the Tuileries Gardens. Comprising two events – one for men and one for women – 16 “B-Boys” and 16 “B-Girls” will go head- to-head (perhaps on their heads) in solo battles for the gold. 

Breaking will join the growing lineup of new sports introduced in Tokyo in 2020 that includes skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.

[Heather Shay]

• McDonald's once made bubblegum-flavored broccoli.
• Finland has more saunas than cars.
• The longest time someone has spent holding their breath underwater is 24 minutes and 37 seconds.
• Frida Kahlo painted 55 self-portraits.
• Avocados are actually fruits, not vegetables.

[Heather Shay]

1. Plants can grow faster if music is playing.                                                                                                                                                                      2. The oldest known musical instrument is 50,000 years old

[Davie]

Just now, Heather Shay said:

  2. The oldest known musical instrument is 50,000 years old

What about beating on a log with a stick? That has to be like a million years, right? If Stevie Wonder beat on a log with a stick, I could dance to it.

[Mirrabooka]

Melbourne, Australia, has the largest tram network in the world. 160 miles over 24 routes with 500 or so trams.

[Heather Shay]

The Paralympic Games celebrated its 60th anniversary last spring. The first official edition was held in 1960 and was known as “The Stoke Mandeville Games” after the hospital of the same name.

 

 The story of the Paralympic Games began in 1948 at a military hospital to the north of London. Neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttmann was trying to find a way to speed up the recovery of his paraplegic patients, all of whom were World War Two veterans. He came up with the idea of organising a series of sports competitions to be held at the same time as the Olympic Games in London.

 

 The prefix “para” in the word Paralympic means “alongside” in Greek. The idea is therefore that the Paralympic Games exist alongside the Olympic Games.

[Mirrabooka]

I didn't know this until a few days ago - the guy who invented Pringles, Fredric J Bauer, died in 2008 and was cremated. Some of his ashes were placed in, you guessed it, a Pringles can! This was interred alongside an urn containing most of the rest of his ashes!

[Ivy]

Just now, Mirrabooka said:

Some of his ashes were placed in, you guessed it, a Pringles can!

You had me worried for a moment.

[April Marie]

You get a little of Fred in every bite, just as the Olympic medals each had a piece of the Eifel Tower in them. 

[Davie]

Just now, April Marie said:

You get a little of Fred in every bite, just as the Olympic medals each had a piece of the Eifel Tower in them. 

Yikes! And that's why I go low carbs!

[Heather Shay]

All the electricity powering the internet weighs the same as an apricot.

 

A hippo’s jaw opens wide enough to fit a sports car inside.

[Heather Shay]

Fact: The circulatory system is more than 60,000 miles long

If a child’s entire circulatory system—we’re talking veins, arteries, and capillaries—were laid out flat, it would stretch for more than 60,000 miles, according to the Franklin Institute. By the time we reach adulthood, our bodies have become home to approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels.

[Jani]

What was that song "Life is a highway...?"  Tom Cochrane?

[Heather Shay]

https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-520933432.jpg?fit=700%2C467

Michael Kai/Getty Images

Did you know there’s a 50,000-word novel without the letter “E”? 

Gadsby is a lipogram, or a novel written without using a letter or letters. In the case of Gadsby, written by Ernest Vincent Wright in 1939, that letter is “E.” Check out a fun fact about each letter of the alphabet.

[Heather Shay]

• Slugs have two sets of tentacles, not four noses

  Slugs have two sets of tentacles, one on top and one on the bottom. The top set can sense brightness and other stimuli, while the bottom set can smell chemicals. 

   

   
• Snails have teeth arranged in rows on their tongue

  Garden snails have about 14,000 teeth, while other species can have over 20,000. The teeth of the limpet, an aquatic snail, are the strongest known biological material on Earth. 

   

   
•  

[Mirrabooka]

Australia has a feral camel population of over 300,000! 

[Heather Shay]

The oldest known musical instrument is 50,000 years old

While it may come as a surprise, homosapiens weren’t the first species to play music. The proof is in the Neanderthal Flute made of cave bear bones, discovered in Slovenia in 1995. 

Experts believe it to be at least 50,000 years old, making it the oldest instrument ever found — so far, at least. So, while legendary violinists like David Oistrakh and famous composers like Mozart may have popularized music, it’s always been in our genes.

The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest musical composition

The ”Song of Seikilos” dates back to the 1st or 2nd century CE, making it the oldest musical composition ever discovered. Engraved on a tombstone in Turkey, it carries themes of life and death, encouraging listeners to live life fully as our time here is limited. 

Bonus fact: The tombstone with the song was missing for a time — until it was found serving as a pedestal for a flower pot. It’s now safely displayed in a museum in Denmark.