Winter Olympics Part II: Sochi, Russia

Part II in my three(ish) part series on the Winter Olympics, today is all about the host city for the 2014 Olympic Games: Sochi, Russia.

Sochi, Russia lies on the west coast of the Black Sea, just a few miles west of the Caucus Mountains, one of the traditional divides between Europe and Asia (the others being the Ural Mountains and Dardanelles straights, if you were curious).

Location of Sochi, Russia on the Black Sea. (Wikipedia)

Due to its position on the Black Sea, Sochi enjoys a subtropical climate (roughly the same as the Southeastern United States), and is one of the few places in Russia you can see Palm trees.

Sochi from the Black Sea (Wikipedia Commons)

Beginning in the 14th century, the area, known then as Ubykhia, was controlled by the native people of the nearby Caucus Mountains, the Circassians, and was generally known as Circassia. During this time, the area was supposedly a part of the Ottoma Empire and the Circassians were predominantly a part of Sunni Islam.

In the mid 19th century, Russia, under the Tsars Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II, began a push to expand its territory into Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire was expelled from the Eastern Caucuses  in 1955, but the Circassians continued fighting in the Western Caucuses until 1964, when Russia took complete control of the region.

Dombay, Caucasus, Russia (by acidka on Flickr)

After the Russian victory, the Muslim Circassians fled to Sochi and were expelled from Russia, generally into other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Numerous Circassians died during the flight and the expulsion and many Circassians today consider this an instance of genocide.

The city of Ubykhia was renamed Sochi in 1896 after a local river. In the first decade of the 20th century, Sochi began to grow into a resort town that would host numerous government officials and wealthy Russians through the harsh Russian winter. The town was favored by Stalin and a key tourist attraction is his Summer Residence, complete with a wax figure of Stalin himself. 

Sochi continued to be developed through the first part of the 20th century, but  didn't regain its status as the Summer Capital of Russia until after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of the Crimea to Ukraine.

Today, Sochi is home to more than 300,000 people and around 2 million people visit every year. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Russia,  home to more than 100 ethnic groups.

For more on the People of Sochi today, take a look at this National Geographic article: Sochi, Russia
And the USA Today feature: Where in the World is Sochi?

Share Spotlight: Educator How To: Create Your Own Medieval Heraldry

This week's Share Spotlight comes from BeyondBones, the Houston Museum of Natural Science blog.
Educator How To: Create Your Own Medieval ID with Basic Heraldry

Who hasn't wanted to be a knight at some point or another? With this blog post, you'll have all the tools you need to create your own shield. While the activity is often for children, there is nothing saying adults can't have fun, too! Heraldry has a very long history in Europe, so this activity is both fun, and educational.

Have you ever made your own heraldic shield? Plan on making one now?

Winter Olympics Part I: History

The first in a three (or more) part series on the upcoming Winter Olympics.

The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics will open on Friday, February 7th and I, for one, am very excited. The Olympics are one of the greatest stages in the world to see international history, culture, and politics.

Olympic Rings (From Wikipedia.com)

Compared to the Summer Games, the Winter Olympics have a much shorter history. While they don't stretch back to Ancient Greece, the idea for the Winter Olympics is more than a hundred years old.

Figure Skating became part of the Summer Olympics (if you can believe it) in 1908. The International Olympic Committee considered creating a separate Winter Games in 1912, but Sweden, who was hosting the games, already had a popular Nordic Competition and declined. A separate Winter Games was again proposed in 1916 in Berlin, but both were cancelled due to World War I.

Ice Hockey was added to the Summer Games in 1920 and, in 1924, an agreement was reached to host an International Winter Sports Week in Chamonix, in the French Alps.

Poster of the Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympic Games (From Wikipedia)

In 1928, the 2nd Official Winter Olympics were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, making the Chamonix Games the 1st Official Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics were then held every four years, except for 1940 and 1944 (due to World War II).

Until 1992, the Winter Olympics were held the same year as the Summer Olympics. Since 1994, the Winter Olympics have been held every four years, two years after the Summer Olympics.

The Sochi Olympics are the 22nd Olympic Winter Games.

For more information on the Sochi Olympics, check out the Official Sochi 2014 Olympics website.
For a schedule of the Olympic events in the US, check out NBC Olympics.

Check back next week for Part II: Sochi, Russia

Share Spotlight: Let It Rain

This week's Share Spotlight comes from Verily Magazine's Daily Dose:
Let It Rain

This week's share isn't exactly an article. Okay, fine, it isn't an article at all. Verily Magazine has a Daily Dose, a quote beautifully illustrated by a picture, that they put up on Facebook and Pinterest every day for inspiration. This past week, this one just really grabbed a hold of me.

Since getting back from break, life has been a little hectic and this was a very necessary reminder that sometimes the only thing you can do is nothing, but for me, it is also a reminder to let things go and enjoy the rain while it lasts.

What do you do when everything seems to happen at once? Any great quotes that help you get through the tough times?

End of Break

Sorry everyone! School has just started back up for me and between travel and our week long second orientation, it's been a little difficult to get everything together to post.

I am going to try to get my self together over the weekend and start back up next Tuesday!

If you have any requests for posts, blogs you think I should be following, or types of content you want to see here, let me know!

Share Spotlight: Quipu

This week's Share spotlight comes from The Brain Scoop:
Quipu

Quipus are an ancient accounting system. Very different from the system we are used to today, they were nonetheless extremely effective for a society without a writing system.

Quipus are a great representation of the ways different cultures, and people, interpret information.

What other record keeping systems have you heard of? How else do people process and store important information?

The Doorkeeper of the Year

 January begins our year, but do you know where it came from?

January was added around 700 BCE (along with February) to bring the Roman calendar to 355 days, closer to a full a solar year of 365 days. Originally, the month was near the end of the year, but Julius Caesar reordered the calendar in 45 BCE, adding 10 days for a true solar year and January was placed at the beginning of the year.

 January (Ianuarius in Latin) is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings.

 Head of Janus, Vatican museum, Rome from Wikipedia Commons 

Janus had two faces, which looked both backward and forward. With such an ambiguous description, Janus oversaw birth and death, war and peace, as well as the past and the future. He was invoked at the beginning of any number of things, including marriage, harvest, and journeys.

Temple of Janus on Coin from the time of Nero, from Wikipedia Commons

A temple to Janus in Rome would keep its doors open during war time, so that the god could intervene if necessary, and would close them during peace time. However, the doors were rarely closed and the ceremony to close them was an important event.

Janus is generally associated with doorkeepers and we derive our word "janitor" from his name.

"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception." --Aldous Huxley

December Book Roundup

Since yesterday was a Share Spotlight day, I decided to postpone my Book Roundup until today. Here's the list for December.

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

            This piece of historical fiction reads like a great thriller novel. Set in 1868, Pearl brings the first class of MIT to life as they race to stop a mad genius whose technological attacks on Boston bring the fledgling college under intense scrutiny. I saw the first plot twist coming. I did not see the second, and had completely given up by the third. The characters are interesting and the science is fantastic. A thick book, but well worth the read.

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

            This is a nonfiction work by the CalTech astronomer whose 2004 discovery would eventually lead to the creation of a new classification of astronomical body and Pluto’s demotion to a dwarf planet. It’s written in a largely autobiographical style, but the story is fascinating and really gives a peek into how scientists work.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

            I had a hard time putting this one down. My roommate startled me several times because I had forgotten she was in the room. It’s absolutely fabulous, with incredibly believable characters (which is impressive, given the subject matter). The end is pretty well telegraphed, but, what with the way the book is written, it would be hard for it to be otherwise. One of the few books I’ve read that was definitely worth the hype.