St. Patrick’s Day was here last Saturday and March Madness is heavy in the air. The two mixed made me think of all the cool sports they play over in Ireland. Of course, they have regular, every day sports like soccer, football, basketball, etc. But they also have some unique sports.
One that most of you have probably heard of is, Rugby. Rugby is a very close contact, aggressive sport. It’s played much like football, but is actually much more hard-core. The ball resembles a soccer ball mixed with a little bit of a football.
Most of the crazy sports they have are played in The Highland Games. Some of the sports that are played are, Caber Toss, stone putt, and sheaf toss. Some crazy names, right? These games are their way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage.
Let’s begin with the caber toss. A long pole or log is stood upright and lifted into place by the competitor who balances it vertically holding the smaller end in their hands. Then the competitor runs forward attempting to toss it with the upper, larger end striking the ground first. The smaller end that was originally held by the athlete then hits the ground in the 12 o'clock position measured relative to the direction of the run. If successful, the athlete is said to have turned the caber. Competitors are judged on how closely their throws approximate the ideal 12 o'clock toss on an imaginary clock. Sounds difficult.
Next, the stone putt. This event is similar to the track and field event, shot put. Instead of a steel shot, a large stone of variable weight is used. There are two versions of the stone toss events, The "Braemar Stone" uses a 20–26 lb stone for men and a 13–18 lb for women and does not allow any run up to the toebaord, it is a standing put. In the "Open Stone" using a 16–22 lb stone for men and a 8–12 lb for women, the thrower is allowed to use any throwing style so long as the stone is put with one hand with the stone resting cradled in the neck until the moment of release.
Lastly, let’s talk about the sheaf toss. Any idea what a sheaf is? I just learned today, it is a bundle of straw. In this event, the bundle of straw weighs 20 pounds for the men and 10 pounds for the women and is wrapped in a burlap bag. It is tossed vertically with a pitchfork over a raised bar, kind of like the ones used in pole vaulting.
I wonder why we don’t have weird, wacky sports like these around here. I would definitely love to cover and write about those! I’d even play a few myself, if I had the strength!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Welcome to The Questions of the World
Questions and mysteries are afoot in this edition of the Bluejacket Blog. Since I have to write at least one feature article this year I decided to go against the grain and focus on the creepy, confusing and down right dumbfounding events and occurrences of this world. I have been preparing this article for what feels like my entire life because my entire life I have been fascinated by these strange and odd occurrences. So, based on this, I have chosen some of the weirdest occurrences to bring to you.
Caution: all dog lovers may want to skip this one!!!
The OvertoneBridge
The OvertonBridge in Scotland is a very mysterious place and it is also P.E.T.A and every animal organizations worst nightmare. This place is where dogs go to kill themselves . This is common and was first noticed in 1960’s. Since then they have always done the following: they all go to the right side of the bridge, past the second or third parapet, and jump of the bridge. Now, I know there are skeptics among us, so I will tell you this, if the dog survives the jump they wait until they get better and then they make the jump again, thus becoming what the locals have deemed second-timers. They even had a psychic come and examine the bridge with her dog. The psychic felt nothing, but the dog was tugging to go to the right where the dogs go take the final plunge.
Let that be a lesson to everyone, bridges that look like they have a shocked face are never good.
The Dancing Plague
The Dancing plague occurred in July of 1518. Frau Troffea of StrasbourgFrance began to get down until he broke down, literally. His heart exploded! The cause..... excessive boogying. One might say this was not an isolated incident because over the course of the month, four hundredpeople began to dance to their untimely death, dying from exhaustion and heart attacks. You may say they just really wanted to dance till they couldn’t dance anymore; however, that is the complete opposite. They weren’t the first flash mob in existence some mysterious force took control of their body making it impossible to stop dancing. This isn’t the only time this has happened. In 1850 the exact same symptoms and events happened in Madagascar and in both cases they couldn’t figure out the cause of people dancing to the grave.
In this party you dont stop till you drop..... or your heart explodes.
3. The Crying Girl
This case is very odd in the fact that Twinkle Dwivedi cries tears of blood. This phenomenon first appeared when she was eleven years old in front of her friends. This, however, has advanced to her pores now bleeding. This has been highly examined due to the fact that they have no medical explanation to explain this strange phenomenon. Many explanations have been given about this condition ranging from religious to supernatural, yet none clearly tells us what the cause of this is strange condition.
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood ... for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul."
Leviticus 17:11
4.The Island of Madness
This place is the final visit on my odd little article and I think I have saved the most horrifying place for last. PovegliaIsland has truly had one of the freakiest and horrifying existences on this earth. This island’s history started in Ancient Rome where it was used to place plague victims on the island. Skip some more years and when the Black Death came around Europe they did the same thing putting an estimated 160,000 people on this island and this isn’t even the end. In 1922 the island was again used as a place of horrors. This became the location of a Psychiatric Asylum in which despite the inmate’s claims of being haunted by the thousands of souls of the undead they were dismissed due to the faculty of the hospital thinking it was just their insane delusions. Enter the harbinger of death a doctor who wanted to make a name for himself and cure insanity by lobotomy. This was done by crude tools such as drills, chisels and hammers. They also had a bell tower in which they lead patients into the bell tower to go through inhumane treatments and torture; however, one day the ghosts had enough and lead the doctor to the bell tower, in which he jumped off of to land and still liv. From the testimony of a nurse who saw the whole thing, there then was a fog that rose up and literally strangled the doctor to death. This island is still haunted and has been sold to a family once who left after the first night unwilling to give a reason; however, their daughter had a new huge gash on her face that required 14 stitches.
This is truly evil incarnate!! If you are ever here may god help your soul.
That’s it for this issue. I hope that I have successfully sedated your need for the odd and mysterious. Until next time...
These photos are brought to you by odditycentral, Cogtv, lateholocene and bizzare medical
As most American’s know, its MARCH MADNESS!!! Today is National Bracket Day and everyone is scurrying to fill out those brackets, most of them having Kentucky winning it all. After their fall to Vanderbilt on Sunday for SEC title, many fans believe that it will make the team better and go into the Conference ready to win and without a big head. They know they can be defeated, but have their fans on the edge and praying that they won’t be. Here is my bracket for the NCAA 2012 Tournament.
Squirrels run around most often like chickens with their heads cut off (much like freshman do). They scurry around and get into drama (much like the rest of high schoolers). They seem to get into the way (much like people who have no clue). Squirrels often get completely run over. They’re the, “oops I hit something” animal that some people care about and most don’t. Normally you’re worrying whether or not your car was damaged. However, if squirrels are so much like we are then, is it just as bad when you barrel over someone else’s thoughts?
I remember a time when Ms. Hawkins came into the band room during a band practice and was crying and Jacob Fryman asked her what happened and she said, “I hit a squirrel.” Everyone in the room laughed because we thought that it was so funny that someone was so broken up about hitting a squirrel, but if you think about it we say that ideas are the most important thing to us.
BUT we pay less attention to someone’s ideas than squirrels.
Friday, March 2, 2012
It's that rare time once again. Can you guess what it is? Leap Year!! Due to this fact, we have once again gone through great perilous danger, fought off a few mighty dragons and even had a duel on the back of a taxi cab just to bring you pictures of your fellow students celebrating this odd time by, you guessed it, LEAPING!
Trying his best to acheive flight W. Jones
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Showing that he is indeed a bat is S. Jennings and just showing that he is too cool for this is S. Watkins.
This is either a terrifc display of a jump shot, or some weird Leap Year ritual is A. McNabb
That is it for this wonderous and yet mysterious week of the Leap Year, so look forward to our next installment of you dont know jack! Just kidding, we will see you back again for another week in photos.
District Tournament 2012! Not one, not double, but TRIPLE OVERTIME!
You walk into the gym with Jacket Pride heavy in the air. The crowd hasn’t been this enthusiastic all year. The spirit in the students has finally come out and is shining bright. Many of the students had painted faces and were “blued out”.
The girls take the court first, starting at . Their opponents, The Deming Black Devils. The girls had the crowd behind them, no matter the turn out. They let their guard down, and let the Black Devils speed past them, letting the score end at 44-60.
Their leading scorer was Megan Bretz with a total of 15 points. Next we had Grace Kiskaden with 11 points. Reesa Martin with 9, Robyn Cohorn with 6, and Lakyn Jolly with 2 and Elizabeth Johnson 1. Also, our top two rebounders were Reesa Martin and Robyn Cohorn.
As the crowd could see Tuesday night, Robyn Cohorn, the only senior, was very upset about the loss but walked off the court hugging each one of her players with tears in her eyes. She has played basketball nearly her whole life, and she was a key component to the team, NCHS will miss you Robyn!
Following the girls, came the Blue Jackets delivering a nail biting, intense game. The boys were in the lead of and on the whole game. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Jackets were leading 33-29 and had the student section screaming to the tops of their lungs.
Unfortunately, going into the 4th quarter, the boys let off a bit, not defending quite as well. With 14.4 seconds left in the game, the jackets are up 42-40 and, of course, Deming shoots a 2 point field goal and ties the game, leaving the Jackets no time to get one last shot in, going into overtime, 42-42. Little do we know, it was going to be one long game. Both sides of the court are fired up and yelling, making it almost impossible to even hear yourself think.
These two teams are playing like champs and both are holding their all. Nicholas gets up to 44-42. Then with the defense a little too weak, the Black Devils swoop in and sink another shot, tying us up again, but still giving us time to get a couple more shots in. Which we did, both teams. The buzzer goes off to end overtime, and the score is set at 46-46. Time for double overtime.
We are hoping this time that the Jackets take down the Devils and send them packing. 8 seconds is put on the clock and the boys take the floor once again, ready to end the game. Deming scores a few points and gets the score up to 48-51. Many Jacket fans are seen getting ready to leave, thinking the game is over and we have lost, but just as the time runs down, one of the Jackets goes up for a lay up and draws the foul AND makes the shot. We end up tied 51-51 and go into TRIPLE OVERTIME.
Though both teams fought for the win, the Jackets came out two points shy, 60-62. The Deming Black Devils won an outstanding game.
The boys, like the girls, only have one senior, Jordan Bussell. He was hurt by his loss, but knew the team had left their mark in their outstanding last district game. Your school is proud, you will be missed Jordan!
Congratulations to every team in the 38th District Tournament, win or lose, you all played well!
The girls take the court first, starting at . Their opponents, The Deming Black Devils. The girls had the crowd behind them, no matter the turn out. They let their guard down, and let the Black Devils speed past them, letting the score end at 44-60.
Their leading scorer was Megan Bretz with a total of 15 points. Next we had Grace Kiskaden with 11 points. Reesa Martin with 9, Robyn Cohorn with 6, and Lakyn Jolly with 2 and Elizabeth Johnson 1. Also, our top two rebounders were Reesa Martin and Robyn Cohorn.
As the crowd could see Tuesday night, Robyn Cohorn, the only senior, was very upset about the loss but walked off the court hugging each one of her players with tears in her eyes. She has played basketball nearly her whole life, and she was a key component to the team, NCHS will miss you Robyn!
Following the girls, came the Blue Jackets delivering a nail biting, intense game. The boys were in the lead of and on the whole game. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Jackets were leading 33-29 and had the student section screaming to the tops of their lungs.
Unfortunately, going into the 4th quarter, the boys let off a bit, not defending quite as well. With 14.4 seconds left in the game, the jackets are up 42-40 and, of course, Deming shoots a 2 point field goal and ties the game, leaving the Jackets no time to get one last shot in, going into overtime, 42-42. Little do we know, it was going to be one long game. Both sides of the court are fired up and yelling, making it almost impossible to even hear yourself think.
These two teams are playing like champs and both are holding their all. Nicholas gets up to 44-42. Then with the defense a little too weak, the Black Devils swoop in and sink another shot, tying us up again, but still giving us time to get a couple more shots in. Which we did, both teams. The buzzer goes off to end overtime, and the score is set at 46-46. Time for double overtime.
We are hoping this time that the Jackets take down the Devils and send them packing. 8 seconds is put on the clock and the boys take the floor once again, ready to end the game. Deming scores a few points and gets the score up to 48-51. Many Jacket fans are seen getting ready to leave, thinking the game is over and we have lost, but just as the time runs down, one of the Jackets goes up for a lay up and draws the foul AND makes the shot. We end up tied 51-51 and go into TRIPLE OVERTIME.
Though both teams fought for the win, the Jackets came out two points shy, 60-62. The Deming Black Devils won an outstanding game.
The boys, like the girls, only have one senior, Jordan Bussell. He was hurt by his loss, but knew the team had left their mark in their outstanding last district game. Your school is proud, you will be missed Jordan!
Congratulations to every team in the 38th District Tournament, win or lose, you all played well!
You walk into the gym with Jacket Pride heavy in the air. The crowd hasn’t been this enthusiastic all year. The spirit in the students has finally come out and is shining bright. Many of the students had painted faces and were “blued out”.
