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Ramblings

by Michael Ho

Wed, Aug 1st 2012 5:00pm




Filed Under:
badminton, guor marial, hiroshi hoketsu, olympics, oscar swahn, shuttlecocks, trivia


DailyDirt: Olympic Trivia

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Just in case you haven't gotten enough information on the Olympics, there are a ton of stories digging up random trivia about the games. (Or maybe you think everyone should be more interested in a robot on Mars.) But if you're looking for some bits of Olympic trivia, here are just a few examples. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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  1.  
    identicon
    gnudist, Aug 1st, 2012 @ 5:01pm

    All that effort and Hiroshi still can't keep those damn kids off his lawn.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    icon
    mudlock (profile), Aug 1st, 2012 @ 5:11pm

    Sinister Shuttlecocks

    I'd imagine that you'd only want the feathers from one side so that they all curve the same way, making the shuttlecock spin smoothly.

    Left is probably just a convention, like which side of the road to drive on.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
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    Wally (profile), Aug 1st, 2012 @ 5:49pm

    "The shuttlecocks in Badminton can reach speeds of over 300 miles per hour. Strangely, the best shuttlecocks are made from goose feathers -- plucked only from the left wing of the bird, for no particular good reason."

    Well, I think that the reason I can logically think of using the feathers of the left wing only is so that the shuttlecock spins in one direction so it can be aimed straight like a riffle bullet or spun like an American Football ball.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
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    Jay (profile), Aug 1st, 2012 @ 5:51pm

    Re: Sinister Shuttlecocks

    It might be interesting to see if there are any studies where using shuttlecocks with feathers from the right wing throw off someone used to using ones from the left wing. Like, they spin differently enough to throw your aim off slightly.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 1st, 2012 @ 6:03pm

    Re: Sinister Shuttlecocks

    How can you use the feathers that aren't left?

    If there aren't any feathers left, you don't get any...

    Am I right?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 1st, 2012 @ 7:09pm

    Olympics?

    I just spent over 30 minutes reading about the Mars super-rover (Curiosity), more about the Higgs Boson, and more. What do I need the Olympics for?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 1st, 2012 @ 7:10pm

    Re: Olympics?

    You missed the cardboard bicycle :)

    http://player.vimeo.com/video/37584656

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    icon
    Wally (profile), Aug 1st, 2012 @ 8:08pm

    Re: Re: Sinister Shuttlecocks

    Perhaps it depends on which henisphere you're on. I know that the water in your toilet drains opposite in the northern than it does from the southern due to the Earth's rotation.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    identicon
    Pixelation, Aug 1st, 2012 @ 10:15pm

    "the best shuttlecocks are made from goose feathers -- plucked only from the left wing of the bird"

    It's obvious that right wingers don't make good shuttlecocks...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    icon
    ethorad (profile), Aug 2nd, 2012 @ 5:32am

    Clarifications:

    Badminton shuttlecocks can reach up to 300mph

    Granted they can, but not if you play for China, South Korea or Indonesia who play a much more leisurely game ... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics#Women.27s_doubles_disqualificati ons)

    Guor Marial's unique position as an independent

    He's not that unique - there are four at the 2012 olympics, three from the Dutch Antilles which has been dissolved and thus has no Olympic Committee, and one (Guor) from South Sudan who has yet to form an Olympic Committee. This has happened in the past with East Timor in 2000 and Yugoslavia in 1992 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Olympic_Athletes_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics)

     

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  11.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 2nd, 2012 @ 2:30pm

    You said shuttlecocks. Huh-huh-huh!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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