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| Mike Groll/AP For the first time in modern Olympic marathon history, Uganda claimed gold in the Men's Marathon Sunday. With a little over three miles to the finish line, Stephen Kiprotich surged ahead of two better known Kenyans, Abel Kirui and Wilson Kiprotich Kipsang and remained in the lead for the remainder of the course. He finished with a time of two hours, one second and waved the Ugandan flag in jubilation for his accomplishment. During an interview, he told the reporter, "I made history with my people.They didn't expect me to win. I was keeping behind them, keeping the fire burning. When they go, they thought they'd left me, but I was there. I kept in touch. Later, I said, 'I believe in myself.' Then, I made my move." And what a move that was! Kirui and Kipsang drew nearer in the final few minutes, but they couldn't catch Kiprotich. Rather than following the traditional path for laying the marathon course, the 2012 Olympic competitors followed a route that took them to many of London's most famous sights: Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, London Bridge and the Tower of London. The finish line was drawn in an area near Buckingham Palace, a fitting ending to a magnificent show of endurance. Ham on Wry loves reporting on underdogs who create surprise endings. Congratulations to Stephen Kiprotich and his home country of Uganda. |
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Saturday, 11 August 2012
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| AAP Photo |
Usain Bolt won his third gold medal Saturday when he led the Jamaican men's 4x100m relay team to win in a world record time of 36.85seconds. Yohan Blake, Nesta Carter and Michael Frater celebrated their victory along with Bolt and established themselves as Jamaica's ambassadors of speed.
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| Jamaican 4x100 Relay Team/Getty Images |
What's next for Bolt? He alluded to the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, but he recognizes that younger runners might overtake him by then. Ham on Wry honors his dominance on the track at the London Olympics and his perseverance in reaching this level of performance.
Thursday, 9 August 2012
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| Photo from New York Daily News |
Ann remained quiet as she sat with Matt at the end of her segment and didn't engage in banter. Clearly, both felt awkward.
Monday, 6 August 2012
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| NASA/Bill Ingalls A jubilant Christopher J. Scolese, Director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, arms outstretched, congratulates Adam Steltzner, a mechanical engineer who led the Mars Science Lab Entry, Descent, and Landing project. They are glimpsing the first images of Mars sent from Curiosity rover after its remarkable landing last night. In the background behind Steltzner, two men are embracing as they revel in the triumphant conclusion to just under eight years of waiting for this moment. NASA scientists revealed Monday that Curiosity had landed on a slope of just 3.6 degrees, with its nose pointed slightly down, but initial checks indicated that Curiosity's suite of geochemistry instruments survived the landing sequence. Great news for NASA and something akin to a miracle for the rest of mankind.  The shot above taken from NASA TV shows the Curiosity rover attached to its parachute on its descent.  The NASA picture above has been enlarged from its original version to clearly show the Curiosity rover's shadow near its landing site. Ham on Wry is struck with a sense of awe at this amazing feat. |
Sunday, 5 August 2012
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| Curiosity Approaches Mars/NASA graphic |
The aptly-named Curiosity rover will land on Mars at 10:31 Pacific Daylight Time Sunday night, if all goes as planned. Its 13,200 mph plummet into the Red planet's atmosphere will require a seven-minute descent with the assistance of a sky crane to ensure a successful touchdown. Engineers call that descent "Seven Minutes of Terror"because they had create the plan for its landing. Adam Seltzer,
explained, "The big trick is you are going 13,000 miles an hour. You slam into the Martian atmosphere and you want to gracefully get the spacecraft down sitting quietly on the surface on her wheels, and all of that takes different changes in the configuration of the vehicle, 79 events that must occur."
The Curiosity Rover shown in a NASA graphic at right, enters the planet’s atmosphere on its journey to the its final destination. At this angle, it resembles the flying saucers depicted in science fiction decades ago.
The NASA graphic above portrays the ideal outcome of the last hundred feet of Curiosity's journey to the bottom of the Gale Crater, a depository of evolutionary data about the planet. At that point, the sky crane will drop its cables, leaving the space lab to gather data for the next two years. Scientists hope it will discover signs of microbial life that might indicate higher forms of life might also have existed there.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
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| AP |
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| Josh Haner, New York Times |
Gabby, the first woman of color to win all-around gold, flashed her signature smile as she performed a floor exercise that brought the spectators to their feet roaring approval. Aliya Mustafina and Aly Raisman finished with identical scores of 59.566, but the Russian got the bronze on a tiebreak. New rules created in June required judges to drop the lowest scores for both gymnasts and total the remaining three, which gave Mustafina a total of 45.933 and Raisman 45.366.
Douglas, whose family lives in Virginia Beach, moved to West Des Moines, Iowa two years ago to train with Liang Chow, who coached Shawn Johnson in 2008. Her mother nixed the idea of a 14-year-old moving away from home, but Douglas eventually prevailed with the help of her sisters. Her mom, Natalie Hawkins, can count herself lucky that she lost that battle. Her daughter has won global fame, and the United States can take pride in her accomplishments as well as those of the entire women's gymnastics team.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
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| Charles Dharapak/AP |
The Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, found that if Romney keeps his tax plan revenue neutral, as he has promised to do, his plan will provide "large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers."
Romney has achieved master status at making general statements without providing the specifics of how he will achieve his aims. He promises to cut tax rates by 20 percent for all taxpayers, repeal the estate tax, and eliminate taxes in investment income for those earning up to$200,000. He says the reduction these tax cuts will have on tax revenue will be partially offset by eliminating deductions and loopholes. However, he has not revealed which deductions and loopholes would disappear.
The Romney campaign quickly dismissed the information because they claimed the study had a liberal bias. Readers might find it interesting to note that the Brookings Institute was formed 90 years ago and identifies itself as non-partisan, stating that its scholars represent diverse viewpoints. In the case of this particular study, three Brookings economists, including William G. Gale, an economic adviser to President George H. W. Bush, conducted the study.They determined Romney’s tax plan, which would extend all Bush-era tax cuts, cut all income tax rates by 20% and reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, would decrease federal revenues by $456 billion in 2015.
Ham on Wry wonders how long it will take for the average citizen to realize that when Romney speaks about America and Americans, he means America for the rich and Americans who comprise only a small percentage of the citizens in this country. He uses doublespeak to answer questions and circumvents hard issues with condescending comments designed to placate the masses. This blogger fervently believes that a Mitt Romney presidency would sharpen the divide between the classes, and the most impoverished citizens would be left in a heap. For those readers who have reached middle age, think back to the America of your youth and compare it to what your children and grandchildren are facing. We will gain nothing by electing Mitt Romney as President; instead, we will take a giant step backward. It seems the Brits provided an apt nickname, "Mitt the Twit."
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