A little bit of Olympic trivia

[girlyswot]

I can't think why I don't have a sporty icon. LOL!

So, this is the 29th Olympiad. But how many Olympic Games have been held? Not 29.

In 1916, 1940 and 1940, the games were, for obvious reasons, cancelled. In 1906 an extra set of games was held, though these are no longer officially recognised. For some reason, the IOC defines an Olympiad as a 4 year period, regardless of whether an Olympic Games is actually held.

The Beijing Olympics is in fact the 26th official Olympics and the 27th actual Olympics (I'm guessing the ones who won medals in Athens in 1906 felt pretty miffed when they were downgraded).

Comments

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the stars. I've never been interested in stars and couldn't name many costellations but I now look for Orion because it's the only one that's familiar to me. It can get a bit chilly at night (currently it's about 6 degrees C at night) but it warms up beautifully in the day so you don't need to wrap up warm to go outside. Most houses are built to lose heat so they get cold easily in winter even when it seems warm outside. So we have a fire to keep warm inside and then can go outside in short sleeves.

[megan29.livejournal.com]

You can see Orion in the southern hemisphere? I didn't know that. I looked for it, but couldn't find it. Everything looked so different. I knew not to look for the Ursas, but there are a few other constellations I can generally identify (Cassiopeia, Orion). However, the sky looked very... alien in Sydney. I had this thought that I might as well be on another planet - the sky would look just as alien. It was the first time I felt really far away from home. And then the next day I saw my very first live kangaroos and koalas, and I KNEW I was on another planet. :-)

[alkari.livejournal.com]

LOL at this. Many years ago when I was driving around Cornwall and Devon with a friend, we had a somewhat hysterical time when none of the maps or road signs seemed to match up. And of course, were cheerfully lost somewhere south of Torrington. I assured poor RK (who has absolutely NO directional sense) that as it was January in the UK, we would eventually end up at the English Channel if we kept the afternoon sun ahead and to our right (around 2pm if we were looking at imaginary 12 o'clock) and if it got dark, I could always navigate due south by using the Pole Star, which I could definitely find!! She didn't sound at all reassured, but as we successfully ended up at Widdecombe in the Moor (which was on a map), we didn't have to rely on astronomy or my dead reckoning.