Know Your News, Week 9: TCC Current Events Update
The 2012 Olympics
Although it feels like we have been waiting all summer, the 2012 London Olympics have finally started! While it is too soon to have any idea of who is going to win what medals and which country is going to excel in which area, here are a few fun facts about the Summer Games.
- The total number of athletes participating this year is 10,500 and they are competing for 302 gold medals. A total of 2,300 medals will be awarded throughout this year’s Olympics.
- While a mere century ago there were only about 40 women competing, this year the total is estimated at 4, 862—almost half of all participants.
- The London’s Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 seats and 9 million tickets have been sold for various events during the course of the Games.
- It cost London around 775 million dollars to build the stadium, and it cost Great Britain and estimated 9 billion dollars to stage the entire event.
- This year 302 events will be featured in 26 different sports.
- If Michael Phelps can win 3 medals this year, he will break the record for the most Olympic medals won by a single person. He is participating in 7 events, so he has 7 medal opportunities. The current record is held by a female Gymnast Larysa Latynina of Russia, who won 18 medals over the course of the ‘56, ‘60, and ‘64 Games.
- There are only three events in which the Untied States has never won a medal: Table Tennis, Badminton, and Handball.
Now that you are loaded with some great Olympics trivia questions, go forth and enjoy the Games!
Read more here:
CNN- London Olympics by the Numbers
The Chick-Fil-A Controversy
The fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A has found itself in the center of national attention after the companies CEO, Dan Cathy, a Christian Republican, announced his company’s support for the “biblical definition of a family unit”. He unabashedly admits his opposition to gay marriage and the results have been quite interesting. Politicans and other major figures that support Dan Cathy are calling for a National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day next week, to lend their support for Cathy and the stance he is taking for his beliefs.
However, Cathy’s remarks might not be so good for business. Many are outraged by his remarks and are now staunchly boycotting the chain. The Mayor of Boston recently sent the company a rather strongly worded letter that denied its request to open restaurants in Boston, citing the city’s pride in its acceptance to homosexuals and their marriage rights.
One of the latest movements is one organized by PhD student Brian Real of University of Maryland and is a direct action against National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. His plan is to encourage individuals and organizations to donate the cost of a Chick-Fil-A meal to an organization that supports gay marriage on August 1st (the same day as “Appreciation Day”). Real says that his idea is to try to do some good to counteract the bad that is occurring on that same day.
While expected participation in Real’s event is not as high as is expected for National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, many other individuals and organizations are protesting in their own way. The mayor of San Francisco, just like the mayor of Boston, is also refusing to allow chains to be opened in the city, and the Jim Henson Company, which provides the toys of Chick-Fil-A, recently made a statement claiming that it will be ending its relationship with the company.
Many larger colleges and universities in the United States feature Chick-Fil-A on their campuses, and these recent events have resulted in many requests that the chains be removed. An additional protest currently being planned is National Same Sex Kiss Day A Chick-Fil-A on August 3rd.
On another, quite shocking and interesting note, the spokesman for Chick-Fil-A, Don Perry, who oversaw around 1,600 chains across the nation, died suddenly of a heart-attack on Friday, in the midst of dealing with this new issue. Whether or not there is a relationship between the two events is currently a hot topic.
Read more here:
The Huffington Post: Chick-Fil-A President’s Anti-Gay Comments Continue to Inspire Movements Across the Country
Category: Future, Self Improvement
