from Bruce
Anecdotes
Competitiveness
• In 1996, the United States “Magnificent Seven” women’s gymnastics team won the gold medal at the Olympics Games held in Atlanta. The team had a big lead heading into their final event, the vault, but Dominique Moceanu sat down on both of her vaults and Kerry Strug injured herself on her first vault, which scored poorly. Although the U.S. had already clinched the gold medal, no one knew that for sure, so Ms. Strug had to decide whether to attempt another vault despite being injured. She went for it, completed a high-scoring vault, then collapsed in pain. Later, when the decision to attempt the vault was criticized, she said, “I’m 18 years old — it was my decision.” Her coach, Bela Karolyi, was impressed by her courage, saying, “I had not seen this previously in her.”
• Joe Kirkwood and Walter Hagen performed a lot of golf exhibitions together. Good friends, they roomed together, and they played games together. One game they played while rooming in a hotel by Central Park was to each hit a golf ball out of the hotel window into the park, go out to the balls, and play them back into the hotel, through the lobby, up the stairs, into their room, into the bathroom, and for a big finish, into the toilet. According to Mr. Kirkwood, “Walter and I were pretty evenly matched until we got into the bathroom. Walter could never get the ball into the can. It drove him crazy.”
• Before the 1997 United States National Figure Skating Championships, coach Richard Callaghan suggested to skater Tara Lipinski that she try to perform a difficult triple loop-triple loop jump. This combination had been performed in competition by only one man — it had never been performed in competition by a woman. Its difficulty lies in the fact that the skater must take off and land using the same foot in succession and the first triple loop must be performed perfectly in order to set up the second. Tara agreed to try the difficult combination, and on her first attempt, she landed it.
• As a young gymnast, Svetlana Boginskaya was intensely competitive, even engaging in mind games such as staring at competing gymnasts and never smiling in an attempt to psych out her opponents. As a little girl, she sometimes kicked and bit other gymnasts who she thought were more capable than her. In fact, she was such a terror that the mothers of the other gymnasts used to bring her candy in an attempt to bribe her to be nice to their children. Young Svetlana used to eat the candy but continue to be mean to their children. (Today, she is a well-mannered young woman.)
• In a memorable moment, after Brandi Chastain scored on a penalty kick with her off-foot (she is right-handed, but kicked the penalty goal with her left foot) to give the United States victory in the 1999 World Cup final, she stripped off her shirt, revealing her sports bra. However, because she had missed a penalty shot in an exhibition game a few months previously, she almost was not given the opportunity to make the shot. Fortunately, her World Cup coach, Tony DiCicco, asked her, “Do you think you can make it?” Ms. Chastain answered, “Yeah, I do.” The rest is history.
• The best gymnasts know not to quit, no matter what. Larissa Latynina competed during a storm at the 1968 European Championships. The storm knocked out all the electricity, causing the lights to go out, but Ms. Latynina continued her floor exercise even though the judges and audience could see her only when lightning flashed. (Back then, floor routines were not dangerous like they are today, so it was safe for her to continue performing.)
• After Janet Lynn fell twice in the compulsory skating at the 1973 World Championships, failing to win the gold and winning the silver instead, she went to the women’s dressing room and cried and cried. She was such a popular figure skater that the other skaters in the dressing room felt her sadness and they also cried — including Karen Magnussen, who won the gold medal.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. was first, and correct, with:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
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Two-Sided Single: “Bat Attack!!!” bound with “Batty Flap”
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Artist Location: Two-bat band from the North [Sweden] howling in The Bitchcave.
Info:
Baterella beats up the drums while Bitchlips Lovelylocks screams and trashes the guitar.
Stay Batastic, Battylicious Bats n Bitches!
Price: €1.99 for two-sided single
Genre: Rock. Sui Generis.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Sing it Loud
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
This coming Wednesday, the epage will have been around for 20 years.
'Sgt. Pepper'
Paul McCartney
According to Paul McCartney, one of the most iconic album titles in history was born from a whimsical misunderstanding.
In the new Hulu docuseries "McCartney 3,2,1," which premiered on Friday, the rocker happily dissects the music and legacy of the Beatles. In episode one, "These Things Bring You Together," he tells the backstory of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," perhaps the band's most celebrated album.
"I was on a plane with our roadie, and we were eating, and he said, 'Can you pass the salt and pepper?' I thought he said 'Sergeant Pepper,'" McCartney said. "We had a laugh about that. And the more I thought about it, Sergeant Pepper - that's kind of a cool character."
McCartney says the concept of "Sgt. Pepper," the band's eighth studio album, released in 1967, was freedom from expectation.
"I said it'd be great to make an album like we're alter egos of ourselves," he told the producer Rick Rubin, who costars in the docuseries. "So we don't have to think, 'This is the Beatles making an album.' There's no pressure of, 'What do the Beatles need to do now?' This is just some other band."
Paul McCartney
Lawsuit Settled
‘Walking Dead’
Less than a month before The Walking Dead kicks off its 11th and final season, the long and bitter legal war between former showrunner Frank Darabont, CAA and AMC is over.
In the dictionary definition of a strategic whimper not a bang, the cabler just filed paperwork with the SEC declaring that they have paid out $200 million to the Shawshank Redemption director and the uberagency to end the dispute.
“The Settlement Agreement provides for a cash payment of $200 million (the “Settlement Payment”) to the plaintiffs and future revenue sharing related to certain future streaming exhibition of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead,” says the understated filing.
“With regard to the Settlement Payment, the Company has taken a charge of approximately $143 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2021 in consideration for the extinguishment of Plaintiffs’ rights to any compensation in connection with The Walking Dead and any related programs and the dismissal of the actions with prejudice, which amount is net of approximately $57 million of ordinary course accrued participations,” the 3-page document continues.
“The Settlement Agreement also includes customary provisions included in such agreements, including providing for mutual releases, covenants not to sue, waivers, confidentiality, non-disparagement and indemnification for third party claims.”
‘Walking Dead’
Added 300 New Words
Dictionary.com
Here's an excuse to say, "yeet" — or "oof" — both of those words are now officially in the dictionary.
Dictionary.com just added more than 300 new words and updated definitions, which capture a wide range of emotions expressed throughout the past year and include some slang terms we picked up along the way.
Building off the online dictionary's spring additions, the new round of terms and definitions relate to the COVID-19 pandemic, race, technology and pop culture.
While Dictionary.com already had several COVID-related terms, there were still a few that needed to be added to the list.
The online dictionary also continued its addition of terms related to the United States' recent racial reckoning.
Dictionary.com
Incoming
New Emoji
Ahead of World Emoji Day, the Unicode Consortium has released its draft list of around thirty new emojis heading for roll-out later this year. On the agenda are new facial expressions, outstretched hands, handshakes, nests, an ID card and even a troll.
In terms of emotions, the next slew of emojis promises a face with open eyes and hand over its mouth, another peeking through hands over its eyes, as well as a dotted outline smiley and one holding back tears. Various hands, in several skin colors, are also proposed, with some outstretched, others in a handshake, and some making heart shapes. Other new arrivals include crowned characters and pregnant men.
Other amusing new additions this year include a troll, coral, nests (empty or with eggs), beans, a slide, a crutch, an X-ray, a low battery, an ID card and a disco ball.
The list is expected to be finalized by the Unicode Consortium in September, before starting to roll out later this year.
New Emoji
Suspends Oil Exploration
Greenland
The left-leaning government of Greenland has decided to suspend all oil exploration off the world’s largest island, calling it is “a natural step” because the Arctic government “takes the climate crisis seriously.”
No oil has been found yet around Greenland, but officials there had seen potentially vast reserves as a way to help Greenlanders realize their long-held dream of independence from Denmark by cutting the annual subsidy of 3.4 billion kroner ($540 million) the Danish territory receives.
Global warming means that retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the fortunes of the semiautonomous territory of 57,000 people.
“The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain,” the Greenland government said in a statement. The government said it “wants to take co-responsibility for combating the global climate crisis.”
When the current government, led by the Inuit Ataqatigiit party since an April’s parliamentary election, it immediately began to deliver on election promises and stopped plans for uranium mining in southern Greenland.
Greenland
Winter Storm
Natural Gas
The February winter storm that nearly brought the Texas electricity grid to its knees likely stressed the state’s natural gas infrastructure “more than any time in history,” according to the authors of a new UT Austin report analyzing the power outages and their financial implications.
The report includes previously undisclosed data about how the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid’s manager, responded to the unfolding crisis, which led to widespread outages and hundreds of deaths statewide. The report was released just before ERCOT announced its own “roadmap” of 60 proposals to improve the grid.
One striking revelation from the report involves ERCOT’s Emergency Response Service (ERS) program, which pays enrolled customers to reduce the amount of electricity they are purchasing from the grid or start using backup generators during emergencies. The goal is to decrease ERCOT’s need to start rolling blackouts, according to the agency’s website.
UT Austin researchers discovered that 67 electric meters run by natural gas companies were enrolled in the program. In turn, those meters, which were part of the fuel supply chain providing energy to millions of Texans, lost power when the program was activated on Feb. 15.
At least five of those meters were later identified as “critical natural gas infrastructure,” including natural gas compressors, processing facilities or other parts of the supply chain, according to Joshua Rhodes, a research associate and co-author.
Natural Gas
Ancient Rome City Limits
Pomerial Stone
Archaeologists have discovered a rare stone delineating the city limits of ancient Rome that dates from the age of Emperor Claudius in 49 A.D. and was found during excavations for a new sewage system.
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi was on hand for the unveiling Friday of the pomerial stone, a huge slab of travertine that was used as a sacred, military and political perimeter marking the edge of the city proper with Rome’s outer territory.
It was found June 17 during excavations for a rerouted sewer under the recently restored mausoleum of Emperor Augustus, right off the central Via del Corso in Rome’s historic center.
In ancient Rome, the area of the pomerium was a consecrated piece of land along the city walls, where it was forbidden to farm, live or build and through which it was forbidden to enter with weapons.
Raggi noted that only 10 other stones of this kind had been discovered in Rome, the last one 100 years ago.
Pomerial Stone
Just 7%
DNA
What makes humans unique? Scientists have taken another step toward solving an enduring mystery with a new tool that may allow for more precise comparisons between the DNA of modern humans and that of our extinct ancestors.
Just 7% of our genome is uniquely shared with other humans, and not shared by other early ancestors, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.
“That’s a pretty small percentage,” said Nathan Schaefer, a University of California computational biologist and co-author of the new paper. “This kind of finding is why scientists are turning away from thinking that we humans are so vastly different from Neanderthals.”
Scientists already know that modern people share some DNA with Neanderthals, but different people share different parts of the genome. One goal of the new research was to identify the genes that are exclusive to modern humans.
It’s a difficult statistical problem, and the researchers “developed a valuable tool that takes account of missing data in the ancient genomes,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in the research.
DNA
Cognitive Ability
Jumping Spiders
Tiny little jumping spiders, with their magnificent eyes, seem to be able to do something we'd only ever seen before in vertebrates: distinguishing between animate and inanimate objects.
In a new test, wild jumping spiders (Menemerus semilimbatus) behaved differently when presented with simulated objects of both kinds, in ways that indicated an ability to discern between them.
The research doesn't just suggest that this ability can be found more widely in the animal kingdom than we knew, it demonstrates that the team's experimental setup can be used to test other invertebrates in the same way.
"These results clearly demonstrate the ability of jumping spiders to discriminate between biological motion cues," the researchers wrote in their paper.
Jumping spiders seemed to be an excellent candidate for testing, because of their spectacularly good vision. Like all spiders, they have eight eyes; but the eyes of jumping spiders include two large, sparkling pools of limpid black on the fronts of their little faces, which possibly give them tetrachromatic color vision.
Jumping Spiders
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