The World Athletics Championships, held in Eugene, OR, USA, just ended last Sunday after 10 interesting days full of exciting competitions. And as a Swede, once more I had to admit that “Patience is a virtue”. After two bronze medals in the race walk 20 km and 35 km by Perseus Karlström, we had to wait to the final competition, the male pole vault, to see a Swede (albeit dual American and Swedish citizen), Armand Duplantis, finish on top of the podium. And what a fantastic result, 6,21 m, new world record! As you can see from the screenshots below, if the bar had been placed on 6,29 m, in principle he would have made it at that height, as well!
Here it is, the new world record in male pole vault. Armand Duplantis closed the World Athletic Championships in Eugene in the best possible way. If he had continued, would he have made it even higher, such as 6,29 m ??? I think he will show that to us later on.
And there was another thing, that few people noticed, that also made me very content. You may remember that in my post of 212’2021 (2021-07-31) , I complained about the distorted names for all competitors who did not conform to the basic ASCII code, but had their names made almost illegible. Well, the organizers of the World Athletics Championships must have read that post, because they made a fantastic job in writing all names the way nature created them. As you can see below, the aformementioned medallist, race walker Perseus Karlström, finally obtained what he deserves.
This is only one example of all the correct spellings of the athletes participating in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene.
But there was one, tiny detail that failed in that context. The German heptathlon athlete Sophie Weißenberg got a dual personality!
In German, there is an old letter ß, which nowadays often is spelled ss. As you can see in this sequence of screenshots, the pentathlon athlete Sophie Weißenberg seems to be treated by the organizers as a transition between the old and the new style way of writing. Even though the old style is really the most correct way, the new style is normally accepted now. However, may we ask that next time Sophie appears in the World Athletics Championships, only one way would be used in all writing of her name? If you want to know more about these fantastic sports and their athletes, see reference # 1 below.
And, finally, here are some pictures from my tour in Minas Gerais. All of them below are from the town of Tiradentes.
Photos taken in the town of Tiradentes, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on 143-144’2022 (2022-05-23–24). This is one of the historical places in this state that is being conserved to look like in the 18th century, when Brazil was a Portuguese colony. The name Tiradentes literally means a person who withdraws teeth, which in many cases were what the dentists then had to do. And Tiradentes is mainly connected with such person, whose real name was Joaquim José da Silva Xavier and who was leading a rebellion against the Portuguese reign over Brazil. He was condemned and hanged on April 21, 1792. April 21 is now a national holiday in Brazil, Tiradentes Day. The object in the middle of the lower row is a speciality of the town of Tiradentes. It is a hearth in which alcohol is burnt to produce a warm and cosy atmosphere, the same principle as the one used in the rechaud of a fondue equipment. More about Tiradentes can be found in reference #2 below.
And one more thing, I took today’s header photo, an ordinary street view with an extraordinary sunset, yesterday 211’2022 (2022-07-30) in Paranavaí, PR, Brazil:
An amazing sunset in Paranavaí, PR, Brazil, a photo I took on 211’2022 (2022-07-30).
What a fantastic world we live in! Last week I travelled to the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (which means General mines) on invitation from my student of Swedish, Adriana Bizzotto, together with her colleague Graziela Gabrielli. Thank you both for a very interesting week!
The trip started in the state capital, Belo Horizonte, where we had some marvellous meals. Then on Monday, we travelled south to visit Tiradentes, a town named after the Brazilian revolutionary who is known to be the person who started the upheaval against the Portugese colonizers at the end of the 18th century. The town is always crowded with visitors who want to see more of this well preserved town. On Wednesday, we continued north to Ouro Preto, a well known town in the Unesco World Heritage Program. And there were even more tourists there.
During the coming months, I will publish some interesting photos from the trip. To start with, the following photo was taken by Adriana on 147’2022 (2022-05-27) in the center of Ouro Preto and it shows the church of Saint Francis in the middle and other interesting buildings to the right.
Photo taken in Ouro Preto on 147’2022 (2022-05-27) by Adriana Bizzotto showing the Church of Saint Francis in the middle and other historical buildings to the right.
Stay connected to see the other photos, coming soon!
In Brazil, today is a national holiday, remembering a movement at the end of the 18th century, which eventually resulted in independence from Portugal. The leader of the rebellion was a dentist, named Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, so today is known as “Feriado de Tiradentes”. More about it in reference #1 below. Given the current state of chaos in Brazil, let us hope that another dentist will show up soon, clean the house and fill the holes!
Tomorrow is Earth Day and many activities will occur all over the globe. One such action is by the unified scientific community which will protest about the way facts and science are treated currently. March for Science is planned in 54 different countries, with USA naturally leading the movement. In Sweden, the major university cities will also hold their marches, e.g. if you are in Göteborg (Gothenburg), why not join Stefan Bengtsson, Pam Fredman and many others in your protest. More information can be found in references # 2 and 3 below.
Cities where March for Science will take place on 2017-04-22, most probably one near you!
One important ingredient in the protests is to, once more, show how our earth is suffering from the global warming that really is taking place. Among other things, it is threatening to put entire nations under water. One such nation is called Vanuatu. It is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, see reference #4 below. I just received some interesting photos from there, sent to me by my friends Helen and Tomas, who are currently visiting Vanuatu. Just think of not being able to experience a ceremony like that in the following photo of the indigenous population. In a future post, I will show more photos.
A photo from Vanuatu, taken on 2017-04-18 by Helen Rollinson
What did you learn in School today? 