The Olympic Games Finally Begin

We all know that the Olympics are a bunch of fluff, and then Athletics!  The Track and Field finally started today, and I get to binge watch all that is on.

So far, I have seen some disappointing 800M running from the Americans, although 2 of them might make it through to the 3 Semi-Finals.  The 800M is a strong Olympic Event this year.

Here's a blast from the past as a way of introducing the real games!

Mike Shine in the 1976 Semi-Finals

Olympic Photo Exhibit and John Lucas Memorial Lecture

Throwback Thursday: In Rio With Our Phavorite Physicists!

I have never been to Rio like Brian Boyer, Richard Feynman and Phil Passen. And the Track and Field starts tomorrow! But in the meantime, this is a post from several years ago to whet your whistle.

Happy Thanksgiving.  I'm particularly thankful for the possibility of a good 12:30 game this year, and of course, another wrist band submission from our very own traveling physicist, Brian Boyer.  Here he channels my hero, Richard Feynman at a Rio Beach. That's Richard juggling at the Copacabana Beach in the 50's.

Update from Brian Boyer: 

I met a guy from Brazil on that trip who I found out later studied under Feynmann during his Samba sabbatical. Also got sick back in US after I swam every day at Copacabana in what I now know was human poop mix.

And here's this year's version of the turducken, this time for dessert.  I present the Cherpumple, a cherry pie, an apple pie and a pumpkin pie all baked into individual cakes and then put together into one huge 21-pound decadent lump. Hell, skip the turkey, this might require a little room.

It's Way Back Wednesday!

The Throwback Thursday thing got me to thinking about possibly using old posts once in a while when I don't have anything interesting to post.  But then I ran across this video immediately after coming across this Olympic pic!  But since it is only Wednesday...

Running Is Going To The Dogs And These Chips Are (Almost) Mine!

My menagerie of 5 dogs, 5 cats, 2 fish and 2 mice are all looking at me now for breakfast, as the girls are all on vacation down the shore without me.

All of the cats are refurbished shelter or stray cats that we somehow adopted.  One of the dogs is also a second-hand pooch.  The fish are carnival fish which are thriving in their kitchen tank with all the amenities.  And the mice live in luxury with the finest food in the world, safe from the well-fed cats who would play with them rather than eat them if they had the chance (actually happened once!).

But this high school XC team had the great idea of combining a weekly training run with promoting the local shelter to support more animal adoptions.  Very fine idea!  Thanks to Judy Lynn Weaver for the link!

Meanwhile, Lays has come out with a new flavor chip that harkens back to my entry in the contest when it first started.  Chinese Szechuan Chicken chips are almost exactly like the Kung Pao chips I dreamed up.  The 3 flavors in the Szechuan chips are 1) chicken flavor  2) Szechuan peppercorns and 3) garlic Chinese Wok flavor. My 3 flavors were  1) chicken flavor  2) Szechuan peppercorns and 3) peanuts.  I think mine would be much better, but the current version isn't bad.  Usually this kind of chip is overbearing like the Greek Gyro version, but these are understated and leave the lips slightly numb just like they should!  Here is another review.

PSU Big Men Work Out In Rio

The PSU Big Men, Joe Kovacs and Darrell Hill got their first tune-up workout chance in Rio with a familiar back-drop.

And our Intern Coordinator KKOB sends us this link to a conversation with Darrell on his father getting to see him compete.

Dad Will Be There!

Something Big Is About To Happen

Cheaters?

With the news of another doping scandal in the days leading up to the Athletics competition at the Rio Olympics, I have the feeling that something big is about to happen.  The entire Russian team minus a handful of foreign-based athletes has already been tossed.  Now the heat has been turned up on the already suspect Kenyan team, including 800M Champion David Rudisha.

I have personally felt for many years that Track and Field is easily more involved in PED and cheating than cycling ever was.  And I'll bet I'm right.  The days of saying "He/She has never tested positive" has proven to be the fallacy I always thought it was.  It's very depressing, but that too is sorta kinda in my Nature... I only know one thing for sure.  I never cheated (obviously!), and never would have, no matter the fame or monetary gain.  I feel cheated by all the cheaters!  Even those who even just dabbled in it.

But to cheer things up a bit, Partner the Better did finish the 23rd in-a-row Sea Isle City Beach Run 10-Miler!  Does anyone out there have a streak longer than this???

It's Only Her 23rd In A Row

Today marks the 46th Annual Sea Isle City Beach Patrol Island Run.  I have been to the last 23 of them, having stopped running them several years ago.  But Penn State Track and Field Alumni (Golfers) have played a big part in the festivities here, with both Tyler McCandless and Kyle Dawson winning it more than once!

It is a dreadful run mostly on the beach, subject to the vagaries of a changing tide, soft sand, vacationers, the holes they dig, jetties of varying heights, heat, humidity and a wind in your face in both directions.  Seriously might as well be a marathon.  Still, thousands find their way  to the narrow promenade at the start of the event every year, filling the coffers of the beach patrol for one heck of a closing season party, I presume!

Partner the Better will be lining up for her 23rd in a row.  The streak includes the time she was just 2 months past a brush with the Reaper and with a hemoglobin level of 7.  And I'm not making that up! Today's version may be the worst ever as the sand reclamation project has the sand as the softest ever, and the temperatures will be in the 90s with a heat index of over 100.

I'll try to find some other members of our group and may just run my daily 3 during the race.  Say hi if you see me there!

Here's an article written by a friend which includes mentions of other friends, all of whom are legends in Sea Isle.

Distance Running Legends...

Bill Kehner and The Great Bile, 1980.

Olympic Opening Ceremony Predictions and A 100% Successful Way To Solve Any Problem

My Top Ten Olympic Opening Ceremony Predictions:

1. Fireworks.
2. Pele.
3. Audience participation with lights and colored cards.
4. Pele.
5. Celebration of Diversity.
6. Pele.
7. A goofy way to light the ostentatious flame.
8. Washed up has-been put on stage.
9. American team marching in, causing NBC talking heads to swoon and preen.
10. Pele.

And an early entry for the Alumni Singlet or Alumni T-Shirt I am giving away is a plea for more Physics!  So I bring you a surefire way to solve any and all problems from our blog's phavorite Physicist of them all!

Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm 

Another entry in the contest asks for more beautiful women in bikinis, so I bring you this link. 

Is this what you meant? 

An Alumni Singlet Or T-Shirt Is Up For Grabs

I will personally purchase and supply an Alumni Singlet or Alumni T-Shirt to the person who gives the best critique or advice for improving our humble blog during the next upcoming sale (Fall 2016?).  Certain conditions apply.  This offer cannot be combined with any other.  Any reuse or re-transmission of this post is strictly encouraged by Major League Baseball.

Go to our Facebook site, look up my email or text me to be entered.

Join Jeff Sanden, Mark Hawkins and Don Ziter with the finest in apparel!

Still More Love For Our Big Teddy Bear

Even the Left Coast newspaper-of-record LA Times is getting in on the praise for the late-blooming PSU Big Man!

Joe Kovacs has announced that he will forego the Olympic Opening Ceremonies to stay on track with his training and preparations as one of the favorites in the Shot Put.  I'm sure that was a very hard decision, but I'll bet he is right again with it.

Note the near duplication of his pose in this pic and the one on the right sidebar celebrating his World Championship victory last year!  

Mom Was His First Coach

No word on Darrell Hill's choice in the matter.  Good luck to both of them.  Their competition is on Thursday 8/18 at 8:55am

This Olympic Scam Won't Work On Our Big Men

Rio may end being a very unique Olympic experience for all of us.  Between not being prepared, national bankruptcy, a sewer for competition, and crime at an all time high, some bad things are bound to happen.

But this scam that snagged an early arriving Chinese hurdler probably won't work on Darrell Hill or Joe Kovacs.  Only an idiot would try.

Revolting Scam

And here's Cas Loxsom speaking about his Olympic Trials disappointment and the ridiculous waterfall start of the 800M Final, something none of the runners had experienced since high school.  He makes no excuses, but does point out the obvious incongruity and unfairness of the decision.  It turns out that 6 coaches were protesting right up until the gun and the runners only learned of the unprecedented start when they were on the track warming up!  Our USATF "betters" can't get anything right.

Olympic History?

I doubt that it will happen, but apparently Russia may be tossed out of the Rio Olympics right before the Opening Ceremonies.  And they deserve to be.  But honestly, every single level of the decision making from the IOC to the WADA down to the individual sporting organizations of just about every nation are crooked and corrupt.  Including the USA.

Tossing Russia?

Visit the Facebook site and let us know your opinion.