The New Yorker: The Tokyo Olympics' Unquiet Moment of Silence

By Louisa Thomas

    At the 2020 (yes, still called 2020) Tokyo Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony yesterday, the 1,000 spectators in attendance stood and were silent. It was a moment of silence for the lives lost during the pandemic. Then, a minute later, the music, shows, flags, and even a flying drone globe resumed, and Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic flame.

    Moments of silence, which occur far too often these days, represent an acknowledgment of the tragedy - but also an understanding that the game must go on. But as the music died down, you could hear protestors outside, demanding that the Games be stopped. Interestingly enough, the protests are for the same reason as the silence. In Japan, less than 30% of the population is vaccinated, and brining in 11,000 athletes, many of whom are unvaccinated, could be a health issue. The majority of the country's populace does not want the Games to be held now, and sponsors who have paid hundreds of millions bailed out. More than a hundred people associated with the Olympics have tested positive for COVID-19.

    

    The Games were originally supposed to be a "beacon of hope", symbolizing the world's return from the pandemic, which was also why the name 2020 was kept. Instead, it seems like a curse, a discombobulated affair with fewer athletes and almost completely empty stands. So what would it take for the Olympics to be canceled? They've often been called "too big to fail", even continuing two days after 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists.

    Perhaps the best reason to continue is the athletes, and the paths they pave. There have already been stories of recovery and devastating defeat on Day 1. After the moment of silence, the Games would go on.

TedEd: The ancient origins of the Olympics

A TedEd by Armand D'Angour

In 776 BCE, the Olympic games first took place in the ancient Greek city of Olympia as a tribute to the Greek god Zeus. They believed that competition fosters excellence, so they held a variety of competitions like running, poetry, singing, and more. The first games began with the 200 yard dash, but the games quickly evolved to include boxing, chariot racing, the pentathlon, and other events. Then in 391 AD, during the Roman Empire, the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned the Olympic games, ending the millenia long tradition. 1500 years later, in 1896, the first modern games began in Athens, Greece, bringing thousands of athletes from around the world together in the world's largest sporting event.

National Geographic: How the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of ancient civilizations

By Erin Blakemore

    In 1799, the Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt. But it wasn't an archaeological dig; instead, it was dug up by French soldiers creating defenses for an Ottoman attack. They tore down a nearby wall and found a stone fragment with three types of writing, including ancient Greek. Today, we know that it is an inscription affirming King Ptolemy V's royal cult.

    When the French invaded Egypt in 1798, they brought scientists and archaeologists with them to pick out objects of interest and take them back to France. But the British ultimately defeated the French for control of Egypt and took the artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone, to England, where it resides in the British Museum to this day.

    Scholars across Europe raced to decipher the stone, and notable contributions came from Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion. Young, a scientist, looked at it as a mathematical problem. comparing other hieroglyphic texts to match phonetic sounds and piece words together. Champollion, who became known as the founder of Egyptology, cracked the code in 1822 by figuring out that the third script was demotic and the hieroglyphs were coptic.

    Eventually, more multilingual inscriptions were found, confirming this idea. But the iconic stele still generates controversy. Egypt has continually asked that the relic be returned, but it has adamantly remained in Britain, garnering 6 million visitors every year.

TedEd: Could we build a wooden skyscraper?

By Stefan Al

Mjøstårnet is an 18 story tall building towering over the forests of Norway. But this isn't just any old building - it's the tallest wooden building on Earth. But even at the end of the 20th century, scientists believed a wooden building couldn't get over 6 levels. This is because regular lumber could handle forces parallel to its grain very well, but not forces perpendicular, meaning it couldn't withstand the weight of a tall building or the wind at high altitudes. However, the late 1800s brought about the creation of glue-laminated timber (glulam), and a century later, cross-laminated timber (CLT) was invented. In glulam, boards are stacked on top of each other and in CLT, layers are oriented opposite to each other. This meant glulam had significantly more tensile strength and CLT could withstand forces in both directions. These types of building materials can be made more easily than steel or concrete, and they are less likely to be permanently damaged in a fire. Additionally, they could help lower the 11% share that the construction industry has in global warming. Still, CLT and glulam are not as strong as steel and concrete, and require more wood than traditional construction. It's unlikely that they will be strong enough to support true 40-story skyscrapers, but even building up to 30-stories with a mix of steel and concrete could significantly lower our carbon footprint.