Today, I learned that:
According to hot news from Nice, the European Union has decided to accept Iceland as a new member state, replacing Great Britain, as a consequence of the result of today’s play-off game. Full coverage can be found in reference #1 below.
The geysir Stokkur, which erupts every 9 minutes, photographed on 2009-08-05.
… That’s what I learned in school !
Refs.:
Today, I learned that:
It seems that SHL (Swedish Hockey League) has yet another thing in common with big brother NHL (National Hockey League). Further to the similarity of the names, in today’s radio program about ice hockey from Radio Sweden, also called Istid (literally meaning ‘Ice time’), it was explained that there is also a rule in SHL regarding the nuance of the uniform used by the two opponents, which also smells very NHL. The rule requires that the home team use dark colored shirts and the away team use light colored ones. The classical team Leksand, which will return to SHL next season, pleaded to use their traditional white jerseys at home, but without success. I apologize for any contrary information in my post of 2016-02-11.
Two photos which prove the SHL rule of dark colored shirts at home and light colored ones away. The leftmost photo shows a happy Robert Rosén from Växjö Lakers after his team, playing at home, forced a seventh semi-final game against Skellefteå AIK on 2016-04-11, by scoring one second before the end of regulation! The rightmost photo shows players from Skellefteå AIK, in their home jerseys, celebrating the decisive goal during the sudden death over time, when playing at home today, 2016-04-13. The photos were taken by photographers from TT, Mikael Fritzon (left) and Robert Granström (right), respectively.
Finally, the photos below were taken exactly 11 years ago, showing typical means of transport in Shanghai then. I understand that now there are many more private cars in the streets, as well as many more options to travel by subway. In 2005, there were only 2 subway lines, but as a preparation for the 2010 World Exhibition, 15 more lines were built during those 5 years!
Photos I took on 2005-04-13 in Shanghai. Regarding the two bottom photos, taken in the subway, many other subway cars around the world have monitors inside them nowadays, but I think that signs like the ones on the bottom left should be used more frequently also elsewhere to avoid disgusting passenger behaviors.
… That’s what I learned in school !
Refs.:
Today, I learned that:
The world of football is in mourning, the carousel master Johann Cruyff died yesterday. I was fortunate to see him in action on top of his career. My colleague Christer and I decided to test the Interrail pass (see reference # 1 below) during the summer vacations of 1974. We set out from Malmö on June 15, via Copenhagen, Hamburg (where we got involved in a traffic accident) and Amsterdam, and on June 19, there we were in Dortmund in the Ruhr gebiet. It is definitely one of the best beer cities in the whole world, which we could confirm personally, and in the evening we headed for Westfalenstadion, to assist the second round of group 3 in the FIFA World Cup, Sweden vs. the Netherlands.
The Dutch team had defeated Uruguay by 2-0 in the first round, while Sweden and Bulgaria ended in a draw, 0-0. So the Dutch were of course big favorites to win the match, and the only thing they did not do in the game was to score, in spite of all good passes and tricks delivered by their captain Johann Cruyff and his mates. Luckily for Sweden, the Swedish goal keeper was Ronnie Hellström, who was a virtual wall between the goal posts, so the match ended with another 0-0 draw. The match report can be seen in reference # 2 below. Holland ended up as vice champions of the tournament, Sweden were number five and Ronnie Hellström was elected the best goal keeper of the World Cup, which led to that he was hired by the German Bundesliga team Kaiserslautern, which he defended for 10 consecutive years.
Swedish waffles with fresh raspberries and whipped cream. The recipe (in Swedish) can be found on http://www.arla.se/recept/vafflor/
If you live in Sweden, maybe you have had your share of waffles today, since March 25 is nick-named “waffle day”. So why is that? The reason is semantic and has its origin in the following legend: The Feast of the Annunciation, contemporarily the Solemnity of the Annunciation, commemorates the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Swedish, the official name of today is therefore “Jungfru Marie Bebådelsedag”, but since she is also named “Vår Fru” (literally Our Lady), the day is also named “Vårfrudagen”, which easily can be pronounced as “Våffeldagen” (i.e. Waffle Day). More information (in Swedish) can be found in reference # 3 below.
… That’s what I learned in school !
Refs.:
1: Interrail
2: 1974 FIFA World Cup Germany™ – Netherlands-Sweden
Today, I learned that:
Already yesterday, I could watch in real time a streaming video of the total solar eclipse, which was happening at the same time next day in the Pacific Ocean. It was a webcast arranged by NASA (North American Space Administration) transmitting live from one of the Micronesian islands, where the eclipse was total during 4 minutes, from 22:38 to 22:42 yesterday my time. Below, I show two screen shots that I took during the totality.
Two photos from NASAs webcast from Micronesia, showing the totality of the solar eclipse. The left photo, from the first seconds of totality, shows the Sun’s corona and the second one is the exact moment when the Sun starts to get out of the Moon’s obstruction, creating a so-called Diamond Ring.
And while we are at it, here comes another update to my post from 2016-02-15, when AIK celebrated its 125th anniversary:
After an exciting sudden death, AIK beat Tingsryd with 4-3 and won the Swedish Icehockey’s 2nd division, aka Allsvenskan. Now AIK will dispute a series of best of 7 against Karlskrona, where the winner is qualified for SHL next year.
And of course, we must not forget that the Swedish female national football team today qualified for the Olympic Games after a draw (1-1) with the Netherlands.
To continue in the name of sports, here are two other interesting facts:
According to a podcast from Scientific American (reference #2 below), a researcher who wanted to measure perception went to a softball game and after the game, she showed the players a poster with different sized softballs, asking them to point out the correct one. People who hit better selected a larger circle, meaning the batters who were hitting better saw the ball as bigger. Which means not everyone sees the ball the same way. And it also means that what we see is affected by our ability to act. Performance impacts vision.
In other studies she found that golfers who putted better saw the hole as bigger than did poor putters. Faster swimmers saw targets underwater as being closer than did slower swimmers. And she had athletes who were not placekickers try to make field goals in American football. The ones who did better saw the space between the uprights as wider.
Bottom line:
“You don’t see the world the same the others. You see the world in a way that’s unique to you, and it’s unique to your abilities.”
Finally, do you know what a golden set is? In volleyball, if after the last play-off match, two teams are still tied, a sixth set (“golden set”) decides which team wins the play-off series. This means, that one team wins by a 3-3 set draw! See reference #3 below, if you do not believe me!
… That’s what I learned in school !
Refs.:
1: The total solar eclipse 2016-03-09 over Micronesia
2: Ball Really Looks Bigger to Better Hitters
Today, I learned that:
The 2016 edition of Vasaloppet, that took place earlier today, was the toughest of all the 92 races held so far. Details will follow later on, but let us first discuss what Vasaloppet is and why it is such an important sports event.
It all started in 1397, when a meeting in the Swedish city of Kalmar, on the East Coast, resulted in a personal union between the kings of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, in which a new king, Erik of Pomerania, was elected to be responsible for both the domestic and foreign policies of the three sovereign states. But the nobility in both Sweden and Denmark did not accept to be put aside and so there were constant conflicts from the 1430s until the end date of the union, which happened in 1523.
The beginning of the end came in 1520, when the Danish king Kristian II (aka Kristian the Good One in Denmark / Kristian the Tyrant in Sweden) invited the Swedish aristocracy to a reconciliation party in Stockholm, but once there, had them all killed in what was later known as the Stockholm Bloodbath. But the nobleman Gustav Ericsson Vasa was able to escape and headed towards Norway. However, a speech he made in Mora, close to the Norwegian border finally convinced the people there to join him in a rebellion against Kristian, although it took so long for them to decide in favor of him that Gustav had already left for Norway on skis. When he arrived in Sälen, a town about 70 km away from Mora, going in a straight line, two good skiers from Mora were able to stop him, explaining that the others in Mora had decided to join Gustav in his battle against Kristian. After battles in the following years, this rebellion finally led to that the Swedes defeated the Danish. So on June 6, 1523, Gustav Vasa was elected the new king of Sweden. Still today, that date is very important, being celebrated as the Swedish National Day.
In order to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the successful capture of Gustav Vasa by the two Mora skiers, there was instituted a cross-country race, and on March 19, 1922, the first Vasaloppet race was held, but in reverse direction, starting in Sälen and finishing in Mora. 136 skiers participated and the first winner was the 22-year old Ernst Alm, still today the youngest winner of all races held since.
A map showing start and finish, as well as all the intermediate check points of Vasaloppet.
Vasaloppet is the oldest and longest cross-country ski race in the world as well as the one with the highest number of participants, with a current maximum capacity of 15 800 athletes. Originally, the race was 85 km long, but it was prolonged to 90 km some decades ago. In Sweden, it is an almost sacred event, held on the first Sunday of March every year. The athlete with most wins (9 in total) over the years was named Nils Karlsson, with domicile in Mora, thus nick-named Mora-Nisse. The first non-Swede who won the race was the Finn Pekka Kuvaja in 1954. Nowadays, there is a steady fight by the best Swedish and Norwegian skiers, which the latter ones have won during the four most recent races.
Female athletes have been permitted to participate in the race since 1997, and also there is a big fight between Swedish and foreign skiers.
Now over to today’s race. The men’s race resulted in that 26 skiers entered the finish area with a chance to win, with four Norwegian skiers in the top places and the best Swedish skier in 6th place. The women’s race went to Austria and Katerina Smutná, with the leading World Cup skier, Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren, in second place.
The finish of the toughest of all 92 races held so far, showing the winner John Kristian Dahl in the centre. Picture copyright vasaloppet.se
Update 2016-03-09:
Click on references #3 and #4 below to access the official web site of Vasaloppet and watch a video of the competition in 2016, respectively.
Problem # 4, Drilling square holes
This problem is very different from the earlier three riddles. The question is: How would you construct a tool to drill square holes? The solution seems impossible, but I have it, and will post it next Saturday, 2016-03-12.
… That’s what I learned in school !
Refs.:
1: Kalmar Union
2: About Vasaloppet in English
Idag lärde jag mig, att:
Klubbmärket ovan har blivit utsett till världens vackraste klubbmärke. Det hände 1937 när den engelska firma som levererade tröjmärken till dåtidens största fotbollsklubbar ordnade en omröstning bland allmänheten i London om vilket av alla märken som de tillverkat var det vackraste. Majoriteten röstade då på Allmänna Idrottsklubbens (AIK) märke, detaljer finns i referens 1 nedan.
Och idag är det precis 125 år sedan AIK bildades, på Norrmalm i Stockholm. Antalet medlemmar, över 20.000, gör den till Nordens största idrottsklubb. Elva idrotter praktiseras av klubbens aktiva: Bandy, basketboll, boule, bowling, boxning, fotboll, friidrott, golf, handboll, innebandy och ishockey. Genom åren har det naturligtvis blivit tonvis av medaljer och mästerskap i dessa grenar, och även sådana som för närvarande inte är aktiva, såsom badminton, bordtennis, curling och tennis, samt naturligtvis sparkstöttning, som var en mycket populär sport på 1890-talet.
Födelsedagsfirandet kunde inte ha börjat bättre, herrlaget i fotboll slog 2015 års svenska mästare, IFK Norrköping, med 4-1 igår, och redan om två dagar kan det vara teoriskt klart att herrlaget i ishockey har chansen att kvala in till SHL efter två års förvisning till Allsvenskan. Så det är inte utan att en AIK-are såsom jag kan se framtiden an med optimism. Se också uppdatering gjord 2016-03-09 !
Till sist, men alls inte minst, grattis också till Annika på den gemensamma födelsedagen!
… Slut för idag, tack för idag!
(This post in Swedish celebrates the 125 years of foundation of the biggest sports club in the Nordic countries.)
Refs.:
1: Världens vackraste klubbmärke
2: AIK
Today, I learned that:
Winter in the Northern hemisphere is supposed to be filled with snow, so that people can enjoy the great outdoors making snowmen, having a snowball fight and of course bring out their skis for some exciting tournaments.
But the way we treat Mother Earth, sometimes she responds that we have to make our own snow. And that has happened again this year. Last Thursday, February 11, for the first in three years, there would be one more cross-country ski, in the sprint modality, arranged in the vicinity of the Royal Castle in Stockholm, Sweden. Well, the competition only occurred due to the hugh efforts of bringing in snow from far away and laying it on the ground for the athletes to compete.
The Swedish ski star Stina Nilsson in action during a qualification heat for the Royal Castle Sprint in Stockholm. Photos by Bildbyrån
And once more, it was the Norwegians that got most of the medals, both in the men’s and the women’s race, two out of three in each discipline. The Russian athlete Nikita Kriukov was the fastest among the male sprinters and Maiken Falla from Norway won the female race. The Swedish star Stina Nilsson, who headed the World Cup sprint table before the race, ended up with the bronze medal after yet another dispute about what is fair or not when trying to defeat a contender.
Fenway Park set up for the FIS snowboard and ski big air events on February 11, 2016. Photo copyright by the Canadian Olympic Committee
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in Boston, MA, USA, there was another set of World Cup events on Thursday and Friday, Snowboarding and Big Air, respectively. Also here the setting was quite uncommon, inside of Boston Red Sox Stadium Fenley Park, where a 43 m tall scaffold ramp had been set up with all the snow to go with it. References 3 and 4 below give complete coverage of the events.
… That’s what I learned in school!
Refs.:
1: http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=CC&raceid=25813
2: http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=CC&raceid=25811
4: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=3277&grupp=20430&artikel=6367836
Today, I learned once more that:
LeBron James and Miami Heat playing Phoenix Suns in Arizona on February 11, 2014. Photo by Lena Rapp
How wonderful it is to see an elite athlete in action. The photo above is a very good example of that. It depicts one of the very best basketball players in the world, LeBron James. Though currently playing in Cleveland Cavaliers, this photo was taken exactly two years ago, 2014-02-11, when his Miami Heat played Phoenix Suns in Arizona. LeBron made 37 points, thus being once more the main reason why his team won the game, 103-97. Miami ended up second in the NBA championship that year. My sincere thanks to Lena who shared her eyewitness photo with us. In the following I am going to discuss another aspect of that photo.
Although I am not particularly fond of the American way of living, I must admit that when it comes to sports, there is hardly a place where sports are taken so seriously, probably due to the huge amounts of money involved. As an example, last Sunday, there was the Super Bowl final, where Denver Broncos, against all ods, once more could raise the trophy. And once more, the number of people who watched the game on TV was record high. In fact, the last three years of Super Bowl have all reached more than 110 million American viewers on TV. It is the moment when TV commercials cost more to show than during any other program during the year.
Now back to the basketball photo above. As you can see, Miami Heat is using a black uniform, since they are playing away from home. When they play at home in Miami, their uniform is totally white. And from what I can understand, it is the same thing for other NBA teams, one uniform when playing at home and another one when playing away. In fact, I believe that such a rule applies to most, if not all, of the professional team sports in USA. In Europe, it is different, a team tries to use its main uniform as much as possible, be it at home or away, and normally only using an alternatively coloured uniform in order to avoid being confused with the opponents.
Yet another difference is that in USA, it is always the time left of the game (or half, period, etc.) that is mentioned, not how long time has gone since the start. Compare North American icehockey with European icehockey in that sense.
Another interesting point is how the Americans name the order of the two teams in a game, always starting with the visiting team, and finishing with the home team. So for instance the NBA game above, in USA it is written Miami Heat vs. Phoenix Suns. In Europe, it is always the home team that is mentioned first.
So which is the favourite sport of an American in general? Of course, it varies according to region, age, etc., but how anyone can be a fan of such a dull sport as baseball is difficult to understand. I asked that question to an American friend once, and his sincere answer was: Of course it is dull and slow and so on, but it is perfect for me and my friends to go watch a game, bring a six-pack of beers, chit-chat about the important things in life and still not miss anything that happens in a game!
I still remember the first time I went to USA, in 1977. My host family said that the most popular sports among college girls was football, not American “football”, but what Europeans call football. And we have seen the results, the US female national teams have won many World Championships and Olympic Games in football (or “soccer” as they call it). To that I would like to add one more opinion about football. In 1995, Dan McCarthy, President of the electronics company Conceptronic, said that he used to train junior football teams on his spare time, and according to him it was the best of all the five major sports (American football, baseball, basketball, icehockey and football), because it was the only one that really permitted that the players took their own initiative, not being so tied up by the coach’s tactics in the other sports.
… That’s what I learned in school!
Refs.:
Idag har jag lärt mig, att:
Medan de katolska länderna firade slutet på karnevalen med en helgdag och svenskar officiellt kan köpa och äta semlor, så funderade jag idag på hurudant det verkligen är ställt med Sverige i idrottsvärlden.
Båda våra tennislandslag ligger rekordlångt ned i divisionerna, herrarna klarade att hänga kvar i sin låga division av Davis Cup nyligen efter att åter ha besegrat Danmark, men damerna förlorade kvalmatchen mot Turkiet och åker ner ännu en division i Federations Cup. De en gång så framgångsrika handbollsherrarna får åter kvala för att ta chansen att komma till Rio-OS för att försvara sin silvermedalj. Bandyherrarna underskattade Finland och blev bara trea i VM i söndags, etc.
Om man tittar på prispallen.se, som Svenska Spel lanserade i samband med årets idrottsgala den 25 januari, se referens 1 nedan, så verkar allt vara mycket bra. Totalt 381 prispallsplatser under 2015, men hur många var det tidigare år? Var det kanske fler, och därför vill man inte visa dem?
Och om vi begränsar oss till individuella vintersporter så är det inte bättre där, som de som har lidit genom denna vinters sportsändningar fått erfara vid upprepade tillfällen. Se här vad Sveriges Television skrev om de svenska vinterinsatserna i fredags 2016-02-05:
Om den globala uppvärmningen fortsätter som det kan befaras, kanske vi har sett “peak performance” för länge sedan, dvs. det bästa resultatet någonsin var i forntiden och går bara på fortsatt kräftgång ?
(This post in Swedish discusses the poor performances recently by Swedish athletes)
… Slut för idag, tack för idag!
Refs.:
2: https://medieborgaren.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/vinterpallar.pdf
Today I learned, that:
There are many ways to enjoy life, and today in Brazil is of course a special Sunday, in the middle of Carnival, when many people forget about their daily chores and go wild to feast during what many of them consider being the most important event of the year.
Besides New Orleans, carnival does not attract so much attention in the USA, and furthermore today is Super Bowl 50, featuring Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers. For many people in the USA, this event is as important as any carnival celebration could ever be, with betting, gathering family and friends, and having a party! Let me give you some remarks and opinions about my experience of NFL:
The photo above was taken at Georgia Dome on September 11 (!), 1994, when Atlanta Falcons played their first home game of the season against Los Angeles Rams and won the game with 31 – 11. I was accompanied by two fellow Brazilians, Claudeir and Keiser, and of course we had a good time.
I have not been in the US during a Super Bowl game, so I cannot give personal reflections about that party, but I left Atlanta two days before Super Bowl XXXIII in January, 1999, when the same Atlanta Falcons ended up losing to Denver Broncos (already a team in the finals back then), much to the disappointment of my colleagues at Philips in Norcross. So far, it has been the Falcons’ only participation in a Super Bowl game, let us hope they will come back and win some time in the future.
All Super Bowl games are using Roman numbers, last year was XLIX and in 2017 it will be LI, but today it is 50 in Arabic numbers, how come?
Despite being considered underdogs, I believe that Denver Broncos will raise their third Super Bowl trophy tonight, leaving Carolina Panthers still without any championship title, but in sports anything can happen, so let us see…
Update 2016-02-08: Life is wonderful, Denver Broncos won against all odds, as I had anticipated above, inverting the old saying ‘the best defense is a good offense’ to ‘the best offense is a good defense’ !
Finally, calling a sport Football, when the only time that the ball is kicked on purpose by a foot are the occasional scrimmage and free kicks, seems to me quite overly exaggerated. The most import actions are of course the ones when the ball is carried by an offensive player inside the opponents’ end zone, thus scoring a touchdown. But that naming occured already 140 years, in 1876, see reference 1 below, so we are stuck with it!
… That’s what I learned in school!
Refs.:
What did you learn in School today? 