Month: February 2014

Swackett Fun Fact:   The world’s greatest land mountain range is the Himalaya-Karakoram that borders between Pakistan, India, and China and it contains 96 of the world’s 109 peaks of over 7,317m (24,000 ft).

Swackett Weather Fun Fact:  Strong winter snowstorms and blizzards commonly produce lightning strikes, a phenomenon referred to as thundersnow.

Swackett Fun Fact: When magnetic energy inside the sun is released, it can create a gigantic explosion called a Solar Flare which can cause blackouts and communications disruptions on Earth.

Swackett Fun Fact:  Ice jams have been reported most frequently in Montana and New York, each with more than 1400 ice events, while Pennsylvania and Minnesota have reported more than 1000  and 24 states have reported more than 100 ice events.

Swackett Fun Fact:   Up until 1994 the Olympic were held every four years.  Since then, the Winter and Summer games have alternated every two years.

Swackett Fun Fact:   Through the 12 centuries of the Olympic Games, all free male Greek citizens were entitled to participate in the ancient Olympic Games, regardless of their social status.

Swackett Fun Fact:   After  the return of the Olympic flag  at the special ceremony in Sydney, Olympic flags are now designed and created specifically for each games, which are flown over the host stadium and then retired.

Swackett Fun Fact:   At a special ceremony at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Prieste, then 103, returned the Olympic flag which is now kept at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Swackett Fun Fact:   The absence of the original olympic flag presented to the IOC by the city of Antwerp, Belgium, remained a mystery for over seventy years.   In 1977 at an Olympic Committee banquet, American, Haig “Hal” Prieste, a bronze medalist at the 1920 Olympics in platform diving, revealed as a prank and at the suggestion of Duke Kahanamoku, he climbed the flagpole and stole the Olympic flag in 1920.