Olympic Games Leaderboard

    Over the past few days, we've seen some fantastic Olympic Games results-world records, gold medals... but just how well is each country faring this year? Well, let me tell you; the top 10 (at the moment) is:
1. China-13 gold medals, 6 silver and 4 bronze
2. The USA-9 gold medals, 8 silver and 6 bronze
3. France-4 gold medals, 3 silver and 4 bronze
4. South Korea-3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals
5. North Korea-3 gold medals and a bronze one
6. Kazakhstan-3 gold medals
7. Italy-2 gold medals, 4 silver and 2 bronze
8. Germany-2 gold medals, 3 silver and a bronze one
9. Russia-2 gold medals, 2 silver and 4 bronze
10. South Africa-2 gold medals

Great Britain is currently in 21st place, with 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.
May the best country win!

London 2012

    In all the excitement regarding the Olympic Games, I found it appropriate to say one or two extra things about London 2012...
    London won the bid for the host city of the Olympic Games, beating Moscow, New York, Madrid and Paris. London is the only city in the world to have hosted the Olympics 3 times (first in 1908, then in 1948, and, finally, now). Bids for the 2012 Olympics began in 2003 and, 2 years later, Paris and London were seen as the cities with the best chances. London won-but narrowly, with only 4 votes more than Paris. A number of improvements had to be carried out in London, to ensure that no incidents would take place while the Olympics started (including a new high-speed railway system called "Javelin"). The UK currently has over 300 contestants in the Olympics, being one of the few countries to have such an amount of people participating. In 2008, the Mayor of Beijing handed the Olympic flag to the Mayor of London, who will, in turn, hand it over to the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host of the 2016 Olympics. Once again, good luck to everybody!

The History Of The Olympic Games

 
 The Olympic Games started in Ancient Greece. Their origin remains unclear (some people even
say Zeus and Hercules started them!) The forerunners of the present-day Olympic games were the "Olympiade de la Republique" in France and the Wenlock Olympian games in England. In the 19th century, the (Grecian) Panathenaic stadium underwent modernisation, being the home of the first Olympic games as we know them today.
    After a several century gap, the Olympic Games were hosted again in 1896, in Athens, Greece. It brought together 241 athletes from 14 countries, who competed in 43 events.

    The first Winter Olympic games were held in 1894, in Chamonix, France. Ice skating and ice hockey were amongst the events.

    Since then, 2 other types of Olympics have been created: the Paralympics (olympics for athletes with disabilities-premiered 1960), and the Youth Olympics (for teenage athletes-premiered 2010). The UK, apart from hosting the Olympics this year, has also done so in 1908 and 1948. Just something to think about the next time you watch the Olympics!

London 2012

    Yesterday, the Olympic Games began. After a lot of preparation, the Olympics are finally here. This is also going to be the theme of this week's posts. So keep coming back, visit, share and comment, and may the best people win!

Lady Di

    It's now been 15 years since her death. The woman who was so popular during her lifetime, changed people's perception about the royal family and died such a sad, violent and unexpected death...

    Lady Diana Spencer (later Princess of Wales) was born on the 1st July 1961, in Norfolk. Her childhood was quite a difficult one, because her parents divorced when she was 7 years old. Diana was a very good swimmer and dancer, but wasn't very good in school (failing her O-levels twice). When she was a teenager, she moved to London, and worked in a kindergarten and as a nanny. Diana first met Charles in 1977, at a polo game. In early 1981, she and Charles were engaged, and on the 29th July 1981, around 750 million people watched the royal wedding. Shortly after this, Diana became pregnant, and in June 1982, William Arthur Phillip Louis was born. 2 years after him came his younger brother Harry (officially called Henry Charles Albert David). Diana had a difficult marriage with Charles, and in 1996 they divorced. Diana supported a lot of charities throughout her life, and worked alongside Mother Theresa, to help the dying and suffering. Diana died on the 31st August 1997. Many people mourned her, and her death was an extremely untimely one. Diana was one of the greatest women in history, and will never be forgotten.

The European Union

   This post will be about the EU. Ever wanted to find out more about it? If so, please read on...

     The present-day European Union was first called "The European Coal and Steel Community". France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands were the founding members. The present-day members of the EU joined at different times. Here is an illustration showing when each member entered the European Union:

    The EU's coin, the euro, first started being used in 2002 (replacing the French franc, the German mark, the Finnish krona etc.), but there have also been countries that have started using Euro after this date (Slovakia and Slovenia, for example).

    People's attitudes towards the European Union have been mixed; some countries (mostly the ones in Eastern Europe) are really proud of being a part of the EU, because they no longer require exit visas to visit other European countries, and some have also been able to adopt the euro; in the West, however, people aren't that optimistic; they're worried about Greece's situation, and some countries even want to give up on the euro (like Finland; the UK and Denmark have opt-outs on the euro, because these countries Governments are perfectly happy to continue using their old coins...) Adopting the Euro isn't that easy, however, there are 5 criteria that have to be fulfilled before adopting.

    What do you think about the European Union? Do you think joining was a good idea? Are you happy with the pound,or would you rather use the Euro? Do you think the European Union is making Europe a better place or not?

Harry Potter

    I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favourite posts... Sit back, relax and read this post on how the world of Harry Potter came to be...

    Joanne Rowling first got the idea for the Harry Potter series in the early 1990's, during a train ride. In 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released. It was the beginning of a worldwide phenomenon. In 1998, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released, and Warner Bros. bought the films rights. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were released in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

    In the early 2000's, it was rumoured that J.K. Rowling was suffering from writer's block, because she released her fifth book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) 3 years after her fourth.

    In 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince became available to the public, and in July 2007, the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was made available.

    But things didn't stop there! Fans still had the final 3 films to look forward to; the last Harry Potter film premiered in 2011. After that, it seemed the world of Harry Potter had come to an end. But not quite! In April this year a new site called Pottermore opened to the general public. I won't give any details here, but I strongly advise you to sign up!

    The Harry Potter series has come a long way since it was created; as a result, games, toys, clothes and even a theme park in Florida are now available to buy (and to visit!)

    Personally, I absolutely love Harry Potter, and I think it was one of the best book series ever. What do you think? Do you think so as well, or do you criticise the series?

    In any case, the boy wizard's adventures are popular nearly everywhere, and the book series is the most succesful series in the world.

PS: For more information, visit http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page.