The Tokyo Olympics, which were supposed to have begun a week from today, have been postponed to July 23-August 8, 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first time a Summer Olympics has been postponed and not cancelled. The games will retain the name “Tokyo 2020” for marketing and branding purposes.
The Akihabara District of Tokyo is a common and popular place to shop for electronics and cameras in the city
The electronics and media conglomerate, Sony, started in 1946 as an electronics shop in a Tokyo department store, under the name Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (“Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation”).
The company changed its name to Sony in 1958; the name is a portmanteau of the Latin word “sonus” (meaning “sound”), and the English word “sonny” (at the time, “sonny boy” was a commonly-used loanword in Japan, to refer to smart and presentable young men).
A camcorder released by Sony in 1998 caused some controversy because it was equipped with a night vision mode using infrared light and could see through dark clothes. Sony realized its mistake too late and had to recall the product despite selling almost 700,000 units.
Infrared light is detectable and useful to pit vipers and several other snakes, as well as a few species if bats, butterflies, beetles, and near-infrared to some fish such as carp.
The Asian carp is considered an invasive species in the US. Some carp species are easily frightened by boat motors, and they can jump up to 10 feet. Catching jumping carp in nets has become part of the Redneck Fishing Tournament in the small town of Bath IL on the Illinois River and about 125 miles N of St. Louis.
Map >> Google Maps
The Goldfish, the world’s most common aquarium fish, is an Asian carp bred from orange mutations for nearly 2,000 years. The largest known goldfish grew to a length of 19 inches.
‘Koi’ is an informal name for the various colored varieties of Amur carp. The Japanese began selectively breeding this species for the colors in the 1800s, and the interest has since grown worldwide. The lifespan of a koi fish can last from 25 to 35 years.
The Hiroshima Toyo Carp are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. The team is owned by the Matsuda family, which founded the Mazda automobile company, as well as by Mazda itself. Mazda was formerly known as Toyo Kogyo Co., and the Carp have retained Mazda’s historical name in their team name.
American actor Jeff Bridges, in The Big Lebowski and two other movies, wore a shirt showing legendary Japanese baseball player Kaoru Betto.
The world’s longest bridge is the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The bridge, which opened in June 2011, spans 102.4 miles. It crosses low rice paddies, part of the Yangtze River Delta, with just a few miles of the bridge actually crossing the open water of Yangcheng Lake. The bridge averages about 100 feet of height above ground level.
The Menai Bridge, built by Thomas Telford and opened in 1826 was the first modern suspension bridge in the world and was one of the great industrial wonders of the age. It connected the island of Anglesey to the mainland of Wales. It is referred to in the White Knight’s song to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass:
“I heard him then, for I had just
completed my design,
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine.”
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. The pseudonym was chosen based on a loose translation of his first two names from English to Latin to English and then reversed. When he submitted his first poem for publication, he offered four possible choices for a pen name, and ‘Lewis Carroll’ was picked by the editor.
The Charles Bridge (“Karlův most” in Czech) crosses the Vitava (Moldau) River in the city of Prague. Construction of the bridge began in 1357, at the direction of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, but was not completed until 1402.
Although the Holy Roman Empire is generally said to have been founded in the ninth century, no one called it “Holy Roman Empire” until the mid-thirteenth century, about halfway through its existence.
Constantine the Great, who ruled the Roman Empire from 306 through 337, was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He did so later in life, as he was baptized on his deathbed.
Marcus Aurelius, leader of the Roman Empire, was played by Richard Harris in the 2000 swords-and-sandals epic Gladiator. It is not commonly believed by historians of the period, notwithstanding the movie, that he was murdered by his son Commodus, who succeeded him as emperor.
Never mind.
The Jeep SJ Gladiator was a pickup truck produced in 1962 until 1988. It shared components with the Jeep SJ Wagoneer. Image, Jeep SJ Gladiator >> https://is.gd/FHpY6K
The Jeep JT Gladiator was a pickup truck produced in 2019 and it is currently in production. It is based on the Jeep JL Wranger which has been in production since 2017. Image, Jeep JT Gladiator >> https://is.gd/SGAOgz
Comment: the Jeep SJ Wagoneer was the car I used in high school driver’s ed class, in 1978 back in Connecticut.
Eugene the Jeep is a character in the Popeye comic strip. A mysterious animal with magical or supernatural abilities, the Jeep first appeared in the March 16, 1936, appearance of Thimble Theatre strip (now simply Popeye). He was also present in animated versions of Popeye’s adventures, including three appearances in the Fleischer Studios shorts of the late 1930s/early 1940s, with more extensive appearances in later Popeye cartoons produced for TV.