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The founder of the modern Olympics is Pierre de Cobertin, a Frenchman. In 1894 he came up with the concept of reviving the ancient games in Greece held every 4 years. In 1896 the first Olympics were held in Athens, Greece. Coubertin is criticized for his colonialist views and for preventing women from participating. His name rarely comes up in the Paris Olympics. Englishmen Thomas Arnold of the Rugby School and William Brookes helped Coubertin develop his ideas on the value of athletics in forming character and the complementing role of sport with intellectual work. Early in his life Coubertin tried to bring the English use of sports in schools to France. He saw the value of athletics competitions in building a core group that could take part in France's defense following the war with Gemany in 1871. His participation in bringing he Olympics of 1936 to Germany is seen as giving credibility to the Nazi regime, which colors his record.

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The crowded sports stadiums for soccer games during early February in the Lombardy region accelerated the spread of coronavirus in Italy by the end of February. The sports stadiums soccer games spread the virus like wildfire in northern Italy. This is why along with nursing homes, sports stadiums pose the greatest threat from coronavirus. The tens of thousands of people from a single game can contaminate as many as 40,000 or 50,000 people as these 10,000 people go on subways, restaurants and other places. This spreads to millions very quickly creating a wildfire effect. Airports and sports stadiums or music venues, theatres have this wildfire spreading effect that is then compounded by the use of public transport and restaurants other close proximity places, spreading it far and wide. These are also not essential activities as work and office, employees working at companies or in manufacturing, which are essential to the economy.  This is why in terms of priority sports and leisure travel can be deferred till a vaccine is developed. Business travel is increasingly being substituted by using videoconferencing and other ways of staying in touch remotely. ...

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One more instance of capital misallocation as $75 billion is diverted by Microsoft into gaming with violent videogames taking priority over investments in education and healthcare. Advances in education have been neglected by all the so-called technology companies at a time when online education can use a boost as students are in the third academic year when school attendance is disrupted. Instead taking gaming to the cloud is seen as the next frontier by companies from Sony and Tencent to Microsoft. Microsoft sees this as a consumer facing business when it is mostly in enterprise software, yet education and related lifestyle branches in music, sports, and others are by far the largest businesses directly interacting with users. Apple has done this with music, Disney with sports through ESPN, and education advances at a time of growing demand and use in the pandemic have not been answered.

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The White House site shows the Memorandum of Understanding on the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor or IMEC that will build rail, internet, telecommunication, supply chain connections from hubs in India through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel to ports and commercial hubs in Europe. The signatories are the US, Germany, France, Italy, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the European Union. The Saudis have committed $15 billion to the plan and other countries will add funding. An Action Plan will be made in 60 days.

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How to use good judgement and common sense and not succumb to pressure when making decisions about use of masks, social distancing, and being in gatherings of relatives or friends, or at music or sports venues during this stage of coronavirus surge. By keeping yourself safe you are also keeping others safe is the message to keep always in mind.

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The Delta variant is bringing back the sense of how important a role masks play in controlling the pandemic even as more of the population gets vaccinated. Fan filled soccer stadiums and sports activities, entertainment activities, where social distancing is not practiced, is increasing risks of spreading the virus. Mask use is seen as an essential defense in preventing spread of the coronavirus worldwide and in every country.

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P.T. Usha chairs the upper house of the Indian parliament at the request of vice president Dhankar. She tells Sansad TV in an interview that she was nervous and thought to herself how could a sportsperson handle such an assignment. After chairing the session she now says she feels grateful for the experience given to her, one that will now enable her to take up issues of encouraging sports in the country. During the early days she says she use to run along the rail tracks on the sea shore in Kerala as there were no running tracks as there are today. She wants to see India compete effectively in sports at the Olympics as the head of the Indian Olympic Committee.

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Amazon Prime has a trailer on King Charles's vision of a revolution for climate change action. The idea is to get a broader audience through streaming. The film title is -Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision.   Kate Winslett tells the story of King Charles and his vision.  It includes new footage of Charles with David Beckham, Meryl Streep. The film has been narrated by Kate Winslet, which was for Winslet “both a pleasure and a privilege” as she is part of the King's Foundation. The King’s Foundation said: “This documentary aims to showcase the importance of harmony to a new audience, and highlight the urgent action needed to help protect our planet, as His Majesty reflects on his life’s work across nature, sustainability and the environment.” The film is based on the King’s 2010 book, Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World. “This is a call to revolution. Revolution is a strong word, and I use it deliberately. The many environmental and social problems that now loom large on our horizon cannot be solved by carrying on with the very approach that has caused them. This will involve taking all sorts of dramatic steps to change the way we consider the world and act in it.” “The book is not just trying to raise the points about getting an electric car and some organic carrots. “This is about thinking fundamentally about the relationship we have with the life-support systems that sustain us and everything else and, indeed, the relationships between all of us, and how we organise our society, including our economy, and making points about circularity in our economic system, and how we might be inspired by nature in terms of how we think about resource use and how we look at ideas like economic growth.” ...

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ESPN television network sports reporter Allison Williams leaves ESPN after refusing to follow ESPN's vaccine mandate because of fertility concerns. She starts a sports series at the conservative Daily Wire which advertises her series as "sports without the woke." Woke started out as a term for black people who felt marginalized, but has changed meanings several times and is a classic example of how meanings change with internet use. Woke now also means people who feel they are being discriminated against for their views. Mrs Williams, 37 years old, says she wants a second child and is concerned that this could affect her fertility or her pregnancy, according to an earlier interview with WSJ.  How the vaccine mandate and companies implementing the vaccine mandate handle it to accomodate concerns of this kind will be a test of its effectiveness and perceptions about its sensitivity to human concerns beyond politics. For people with health concerns new solutions are needed. Abraham Lincoln faced a similar situation after the civil war that Biden faces today and there is much to be learned from his words- "with malice towards none, with charity for all," to bring together all Americans.    ...

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How union membership is actively taking part in shaping union contracts at Longshoreman's union for US ports, UAW for autoworkers, at Boeing Southwest and other companies for a fair wage and benefits after decades of neglect of workers. The assistance of Biden/ Harris to workers and their families for "We the People," in 2024.

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Yoon Suk Yeol from visit to Biden at White House as South Korea's president to jail sentence for life for ordering arrests and deploying military troops on Dec 3 2024. It shows the unstable situation for democracy and politics in South Korea, with the country polarized. It is much more polarized than the US  or Europe. South Korea may have advanced rapidly with its economy using Japan as a model, yet the political situation in South Korea and the Korean peninsula remains highly unstable. By comparison India has a long history of elected assemblies in the states and regions dating back to the 1936-37 provincial assembly elections under the British- nearing a century of democratic self government by 2036, ten years from now. Even the shorter period of elected government in South Korea was interrupted by dictatorships and the military rule. The Indian Constitution modeled on the unwritten constitution of Britain and the written one in the US, has the allegiance of a population of 1.4 billion people, unprecedented in the history of mankind. There are as many languages in India as in Europe and the media is lively in every language, so that it is an encounter that is the one of the wonders of the world to know and grow up inside India in the second half of the twentieth and the first part of the 21st century. It is also the first modernization effort in the context of Britoish and American democratic forms of government for over 1.4 billion people, almost 2 billion people counting other regions such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, that use India as their role model. The economic dynamism of the region required integration of sorts with the European Union and the US for scientific and industrial cooperation at every level which is now happening. ...

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Astonishing distortion of a concept that is basically about better designing cities to reflect lessons learned from the pandemic and the importance of quality of life, worklife balance, healthy lifestyles. It involves bicycling to work popular in countries such as Netherlands and other parts of Europe. Utrecht in the Netherlands is a model city for this concept of working closer to where one lives and being able access sports, exercize activities, and community social meeting places within short distances. Because this is in line with climate change action where it is important to reduce huge carbon footprint of transportation and use of fossil fuels to get to and from work, and also promotes healthy lifestyles, community living, it is an idea that makes sense.

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The loss of his table tennis racket when a photographer accidentally stepped on it meant that China's table tennis champion had to use his backup racket. Wang threw his racket into the photographers area after winning not realizing what he was doing. Because table tennis is all about margins, such a precise sport, the loss of even 1% can affect performance. Wong lost to a Swedish player in the game that followed.

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On CBS "Face the Nation" last weekend both Mark Warner and Senator Rubio expressed concern about unknown algorithms targeting 150 million young users in America. The problem extends beyond that into the effects of TikTok and other social media that is harmful to children taking so much of their time that basic civics, reading, sports and exercise, outdoor activities, suffers enormously. No other generation has faced this and the US Congress and the White House have fallen far behind the curve of setting the rules and regulating use of the new information technologies. 

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Even today mask use can vary widely in the U.S. as seen in this map from the NYT. After repeated surge across the U.S. from the northeast to the south and west mask use has increased in the U.S. Texas has made it mandatory and president Trump wore a mask at Walter Reed Army hospital. Ypu.gov and other surveys show mask use as high as 80%, not universal as health agencies want to see, higher than Canada, Finland or Denmark.

Other factors such as gatherings at beaches, restaurant and bars, and earlier sport stadiums gatherings are additional factors for a surge. Young people's cooperation has lagged behind accounting for about 50% of cases in some southern states recently being among young people.

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Studies that show coronavirus cases are just as prevalent in the younger age groups 15-34 years as with older Germans. One such study uses data from the Robert Koch Institute and published in Eurosurveillance, a journal on infectious diseases. In this study scientists conclude that relative risk (RR) for coronavirus for residents of Germany 15-34 years, and particularly 20-24 years, was noticeably higher than in all other age groups. This study also determined that similar patterns emerged in South Korea where 20-29 years old age group had the highest number of detected cases.

This DW.com report attributes this higher coronavirus cases in younger age groups to work in high contact jobs in service industries, and to greater use of public transport. Laxity early on in following social distancing guidelines is also mentioned as a cause. Other causes could be greater attendance in sports stadiums and music venues.

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A ban on TikTok in 270 days is plausible, with credit going to Republican senators in Congress, as they insisted on it being incuded in the Ukraine aid bill package. Not only because of security and democratic process concerns- then one asks why what other real even larger concerns?  A ban on TikTok by restricting its use that does not affect education is already in place in China, yet such a ban is easier implemented in state power centralized government for the benefit of China's young generation and not in the US system of government. Excessive time spent on social media apps in the US including TikTok as the largest are a serious problem in America today -for young people's educational activity such as reading, studies, and for mental health. Taking a large part of the young generation in a direction that is not beneficial for the US, for democratic process to function with young people taking time to be better informed and for the health of the younger generation.  People assume that TikTok audiences will shift to other social media apps such as Facebook, but a large part of the TikTok population may engage in other activities that promote health as the consciousness for food and its preparation increases, for the value of exercise, engagement in sports and viewing sports or music, engagement in Nature and hobbies, and in time spent on travel, all happening as the Nation shifts its attention and consciousness after these troubled decades from financial crisis of 2009 to the pandemic, a period of dismal failure to deliver public services with funding diverted and misallocation in capital markets collapsing or near collapsing infrastructure around us sapping the Nation's spirit and its energies.  A new spirit is emerging in the Nation and a shift in the attention of the younger generation as it feels the fatigue that is now felt for music idols such as Taylor Swift is entirely plausible so that TikTok would have risen and faded away both in the US, India, and even in China as it shifts its attention in a different world. ...

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The S-400 antiaircraft missile defense system used by Russia is changing the way U.S. operates as an undisputed air power. It has not been tested in operations yet it has affected use of U.S. air power in difficult spots around the world. Russia says it is its way of contesting a U.S. led world order. Purchases of the system by China and India allow Russia to spread the cost of the system with a smaller budget for defense. 

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Greg Ip of WSJ points out that DJT's tariffs are not fully understood. DJT did not use tariffs in the way he is doing now in his first term. Today Congress understands that it is a negotiating tactic when the US is at a disadvantage with other nations using non tariff and hidden barriers. Mostly all countries except China will accept the tariffs and it generates $240 billion a year to finance US resurgence. In the past US spent years of negotiating to get agreements with recalcitrant countries like Japan or China or the EU. The US just doesn't have that kind of time when it has lost its manufacturing, its shipbuilding, its shipping and ports. The average tariff under Biden was 3%. It now is about 13.4%. DJT strategy is to simply hit all imports with a 10-15% tariff across the board as price for access to the US market and for its defense and military protection- this means EU, Japan, South Korea,Taiwan, India cannot retaliate.  ...

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US fuel exports are increasing with higher fuel prices overseas. The exports of oil, diesel and jet fuel from US Gulf Coast ports increased by 32% in the first quarter of 2022 over previous year says this report in WSJ. The exports of natural gas by pipeline or tankers to Mexico and Canada increased to 22% of total US production in the same period. Companies and exporters are gettting higher prices overseas than they could get in the US. This is also pushing gas prices higher in the US to over $5 a gallon.

Demand for US exports has gone up exponentially say experts and a lot more US exports could take place to Europe and other countries. And domestic prices have had to rise to keep supplies in the US. With the increase in natural gas prices come increase in cost of electricity and households are expected to limit their use of energy as this happens.

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Olympic gold prospect for England who had her left side paralyzed from a horse riding accident before her GCSE's. Georgina Brayshaw says she could only use her right arm and smile with half her face. From that event and after her mom had a stroke Georgina persisted and looked for ways to carry on with her life giving it her all. She went on to continue her studies and not lose a year for her GCSE's. Georgina who is part of the 4 woman England team that won the World Championships for Rowing in Lucerne  is now set for the Olympics in Paris. She says she took up the sport of rowing in university as most people said she could not do it. She says what happened to her wasn't good and it wasn't bad, it was just life. And that she was always taught that you just get back on and try again.

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Holding tension in any position that does not have dynamic movement is isometric exercise. The British Journal of Sports Medicine has a study with research that shows this isometric exercise done with squatting on the wall (or with a ball against the wall) for support for 2 minutes repeated 4 times with rest periods of two minutes each time for total 4 wall sits, taking 14 minutes, can reduce systolic blood pressure top number by 10 mmHg and diastolic pressure by 5 mmHg. Jamie O'Driscoll the lead author of the study says this is useful for people doing aerobic exercise, and yet could benefit from the use of isometric wall squats. A clinical exercise physiologist at University of Michigan says isometric exercise works because contracting a muscle and holding that position reduces blood flow to that muscle, when you release blood flow increases to muscle tissue. It creates signals that tell blood vessels to relax more and create less resistance to blood flow. To do this wall sit find a wall to lean against and take a couple of steps forward, feet hip width apart and slide your back down the wall and your knees getting to a 90 degree angle gradually. This uses quadriceps, glutes, calves, all leg muscles and abdominal muscles. ...

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Anxiety problems look different in men than women. Worry and avoidance of certain situations leads to anxiety, which can appear masked as anger and irritabilityfor men. Result could be headaches, musches and aches, and difficulty sleeping. Problematic thinking can result in the anxiety that manifests itself in ways that cover up the underlying situation including depression. This report looks at ways to tackle this for spouses and the use of cognitive behavioural therapy which sorts out problematic thinking, and the use of meditation and yoga to restore healthy mind. Reducing social isolation and increasing social interactions is away to tackle this. In our society with less and less personal interaction, which has worsened with use of tech devices and smart phones, and the tendency for isolation to increase with age as younger generations engage less and less with older ones, the problem is only getting worse. In many situations the anxiety may not be grounded,  and in other situations a problematic thinking process is the fault, and in other situations the thinking can be turned into constructive behaviours to address the problematic fears directly and find there is nothing to be afraid of. ...

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The task of getting 20 million tons of foodgrains in Ukrainian silos out of Ukraine is being taken up by the European Union. Ms. Leyen of the EU has emphasized the importance of this mission for poor countries. About 50 countries depend on Ukraine and Russia for over 30% of imports of foodgrains says the WSJ. One way supported in this WSJ Editorial Board opinion is to use naval ships to escort ships carrying grain out of Black Sea ports. This requires Turkey's support and has to be done as a humanitarian move with ships from many countries. Rail would be an option yet Ukraine and the rest of Europe use different railway infrastructure. Steps need to be taken to do this quickly to overcome the rail issues and also use motor transport. The port of Odessa has been mined by Ukraine to prevent a Russian naval assault showing that there are obstacles along the way to be met by land or by sea. Starting now would be the best way to approach this. Both the Eu and the US should work together on this. The baby food crisis in the US was tackled by special flights from Germany. This shows that many options can be combined and problems tackled to get food grains out. What seems insurmountable can be tackled with action taken early, learning along the way. The Berlin Airlift did this in 1947 with another Soviet blockade. This would also lift spirits throughout the world. ...