Map: Paris Olympics Purple

I was hoping that this 1874 geological map of the Paris area was the inspiration behind the startling purple color theme for the recently concluded Paris Olympics. The map was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the Geological Society of London.

The sedimentary strata are folded into an arc that looks like the purple athletics track! 

Alas, no. The purple color was selected because the organizers wanted a unique identity for the games. And apparently it made for better television viewing.

There is a geology connection to the athletics track though. A big component of the flooring is calcium carbonate usually obtained by grinding down quarried limestone. For these games, in keeping with the theme of sustainability promoted by the organizers, the purple track was made up of discarded mussel shells obtained from an Italian fishing cooperative. 

Oh well. I like my geology connection story better.

Diego Maradona RIP

I will prefer to remember his godly feet. That liquid motion on the football pitch. His short stocky body in perfect balance, skipping, darting, weaving his way through a maze. A slight feint of his right shoulder, a sudden burst, leaving bewildered defenders in his wake.

He had the footballing world at his feet, we gasped in disbelief, as he made the impossible look utterly simple.

He lived a troubled, imperfect life. But in these troubled times we must find it in us to forgive and keep remembering what makes us happy. And that his magical twinkling feet did, bring us joy unconfined.

On that hot, steamy afternoon in the Azteca Stadium, Mexico City, in 1986, Victor Hugo Morales described one of those unforgettable moments of poetry in motion.

Take a look.

Email subscribers can watch it here- Diego Maradona Goal Against England.

Adios Diego.

Crazy About Rugby

I've been taking some time off and helping spread sports and particularly rugby in the rural areas around Pune. This is a project started by two of the rugby organizations in Pune - RFS Pune and KFANDRA .

Here are some pictures from Nanegaon which is about 40 km westwards of Pune. A friend farms here and its through him that we have started this initiative:

That's me looking very fit, surrounded by rugby crazy kids.

All Hands in groups of three:

The Pop-Up pass routine:

 

 Keen eyes and hands- what a picturesque setting to a sports scene not very common in rural India:

 All this action takes place against the backdrop of the vast layered Deccan Basalts. The village is quite attractive and has some of the classic elements and atmosphere of rural India like this temple square:

The countryside around is lush and there are some pretty picnic spots for the tired and weary - a basalt stream bed:

The idea is to encourage children to learn discipline, team work and good work ethics through sports. So far the children love taking part in this activity and we plan to keep this program running for the foreseeable future.

Budding Geologists On The Rugby Pitch

Every weekend one of the coaches gives a word quiz to our soccer and rugby kids, ages 8 to 10. Last Saturday it was my turn and I asked about Gondwanaland. .. tell me all about it.

Come Monday and I got three correct answers... the kids had read up and got the right ideas about continents being in different places and attached to other continents in the past.. they also told me that the present arrangement of continents will change in the future.. impressive for 10 year old's

Here are the winners (they do it for the chocolate bars):

Meanwhile we had our first pre-monsoon thunderstorms last week. It was just a massive cloud burst turning the ground into a swimming pool.

All set for rugby season over here.

Pune Girls Rugby Kicks Ass!!

I've posted below some video clips from last Saturday's Women's 7 a side rugby tournament that took place in Pune. This was India's first ever Women's contact rugby tournament. In a country where people are obsessed over a particular stick and ball game, rugby is relatively unnoticed. It does have a cult following and interest is growing among young athletes. India does have a mens rugby team but the women's game has been neglected so far. This tourny was a fantastic opportunity to give the women's game some exposure.

Pune fielded 2 teams. There were teams from Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Hong Kong. Hats off to them for traveling over 25 hours by train (Hong Kong flew in!)to come and play in Pune. At the end of a grueling tournament the Hong Kong Hotties won with the Pune She Elephants coming second.

The tournament was organized by Khare Football and Rugby Academy (KFANDRA) and the Pune District Football and Rugby Association (PDFRA) under the aegis of the Western India Rugby Football Union. Notice to organize this tournament in Pune was short and over a mad two weeks, KFANDRA and PDFRA worked overtime and planned and executed everything meticulously.

Enough talk. Here's some action:

Pune She Elephants v Hong Kong Hotties

Kerala Vs Hong Kong Hotties

Pune Lionesses Vs Jammu and Kashmir

Rugby Carnival Varun's Drum Beat

All in all it was a terrific atmosphere. Parents showed up in large numbers to support us, there was a lot of media coverage and the girls showed great determination and strength. That made for some very competitive and bruising rugby.

Finally thanks to the Rugby brothers of Pune, Swapneel Khare and Surhud Khare, founders of KFANDRA. They made sure that women's rugby in India is finally getting the opportunity and exposure it needs to grow.

India's Medal Tally, Maybe Not That Bad?

Evolving Thoughts has a revealing graph of medals won by countries normalized by population. Gold medals per million and overall medals per million. Only countries who won at least one gold are considered.

Guess which country comes last

Source: Evolving Thoughts

But I find this comment more encouraging. What if we plot a graph of medals to expenditure. A sort of measure of return on investment. I suspect India will come off much more honorably. If we consider only government expenditure we might even come out on top, since many of our athletes spent their own money for training. And by government expenditure I mean the money actually spent on athletes, not the total budget, since much of it is likely squandered on bogus conferences, "study tours" and other expenses for the parasitic sports officialdom. Anyone with the numbers?

Edmund Hillary The Humble Hero

This blog is primarily about science and I plan to keep it that way. But this piece about Edmund Hilary I thought was worth sharing. I listen to National Public Radio a lot and Wednesday is the time for sports journalist Frank Deford to dispense some words of wisdom. He spoke about Edmund Hillary some time back. Deford usually talks about today's super stars, sports culture, steroids in sports and a whole lot of current topics and occasionally on historical figures. In this audio essay he reminisces about the man who stood on top of the world.

In fact, he admitted that he'd felt a little guilty days before when he wasn't sure whether he really wanted his friends, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, to make it to the top first. They had to turn back barely 300 feet short.


"I wasn't very proud of my feelings," Hillary admitted to me, ruefully patting the old cat in his lap.


Two days later, Hillary and his teammate made it, and all things considered, I'd have to say that I think God picked the right guy to first stand so close to heaven on earth.

The entire text is also available but it is much more fun to LISTEN.