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With the London Olympics wrapping up we’ve all heard the Olympic Fanfare, Bugler’s Dream a thousand times by now. But, did you know that the music used is not an official Olympic theme and that it only started being used by ABC during their coverage of the 1968 Winter Olympics? What this means is that if you didn’t grow up watching the Olympics on American TV, you might not be familiar with the theme.

And this theme is not always used in every Olympics here in the United States. When CBS won the rights to the Winter Olympics for 1992, 1994, 1998 they didn’t use Bugler’s Dream, opting for a composition by Tamara Kline.

For the Seoul Olympics in 1998, NBC also did not use Bugler’s Dream, using a piece composed by John Williams “The Olympic Spirit”.

NBC currently uses Bugler’s Dream opening and then seamlessly transitions to part of John Williams’ Olympic Fanfare and Theme.

As a comparison, in Canada, CTV’s Olympic Theme for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games

Saw this on George Takei’s Facebook Page.

Escalator art and Star Wars!

Hilarious. Thanks to Chris for sending me this. There are two more videos so far in this series.

OregonLive: London Olympics: Women’s Vault. McKayla Maroney falls, wins silver medal (photo essay)

Of course this has become a new meme on the internet- McKayla is not impressed.
(Thanks to Visualingual for sending me this).

Someone must have spiked this dwarf goat’s feed.

Archpaper.com: FESTIVAL FLOATS HUNDREDS OF UMBRELLAS OVER THE STREETS OF A PORTUGUESE TOWN

This is beautiful! A town in Portugal suspends umbrellas over a narrow street. More pictures.

UPDATE: IOC has blocked this video. Boo. Maybe the IOC doesn’t want every performer embedding videos into their costume, but this video seemed pretty harmless and gave an interesting “in the scene” look at the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

A performer’s view of the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony.

NewYorker.com: SPOILED ROTTEN Why do kids rule the roost?

When anthropologists study cultures like the Matsigenkas’, they tend to see patterns. The Matsigenka prize hard work and self-sufficiency. Their daily rituals, their child-rearing practices, and even their folktales reinforce these values, which have an obvious utility for subsistence farmers. Matsigenka stories often feature characters undone by laziness; kids who still don’t get the message are rubbed with an itch-inducing plant.

Nothing like an itch-inducing plant to get your kids attention. It’s an interesting article and should make every parent think about the way they’re raising their kids.

Saw this on the University of Pennsylvania Facebook page. I would have probably stayed in Electrical Engineering if we could have done this back then.

Another amazing video by Matt Harding- Where the Hell is Matt 2012?