Held soon after the Olympics, the Paralympics are an international sporting event where athletes with a physical disability compete. Damon Rose, Emma Tracey and Lucy Townsend collected 10 things you might not know about them:

• Instead of the Olympic Rings, the Paralympics have their own logo (pictured above.) The logo called “Agitos” represents spirit in motion.
• Interesting things about blind football include:
  • The ball is filled with ball bearings, making it audible
  • The field is smaller and is lined with boards, preventing the ball from going out.
  • Even those classified as blind may have limited vision. They must wear eye covers to ensure fairness.
  • The goal keepers are generally fully sighted, but can’t leave their area.
  • Another sighted player called a “guide” directs players from behind the goal.
  • Spectators must stay silent.
• In the running events blind athletes can choose to have a guide who has their own lane and who runs with them to warn them of bends and obstacles. The runner is disqualified if the guide crosses the finishing line before them.
• Blind swimmers generally have a tapper who taps them on the head when they’re close to the end of the pool. This lets the swimmer fearlessly go at full speed in the beginning, since they’ll know exactly when to slow down.

The full list has many more interesting things as well as pictures of some of the things described above.

Source: BBC

Daniel Lametti used the Olympics as an excuse to discuss how our facial expressions are in some ways contingent upon our origins:

• Broadly speaking human facial expressions do not vary across cultures. The corners of the mouth turned upwards are regarded by all as signs of happiness.
• However evidence suggest that even these basic emotions have ‘accents’ within cultures. Americans can figure out if somebody is Japanese-American or a Japanese-National by observing their facial expressions.
• Our facial expressions are also mediated by culture. In the presence of a professor while watching a horror movie Americans will exaggerate their negative expressions while Japanese will hide it with a smile.
• The most distinctive national smile seems to belong to England. They use an extra facial muscle that leads to a more polite looking smile.

To read more including the troubles we have detecting the nationality of neutral faces, an interactive game where you can play “Guess the Smile” and test your own skills, links to the studies and fuller descriptions of them, and the difference between Tom Cruise and Prince Charles, click here.

Source: Slate

It’s possible that we’re approaching the limits of human achievement writes Peter Keating. Highlights include:

• Around 1993 performers in the majority of track and field events seemed to hit their plateau, being unable to improve on those performances.
• At this rate we’ll have reached the human limit in most sports by 2027.
• This is odd because over time performance should increase – since the number of people does.
• This is in part due to a dearth of innovation. It’s not just the human body that gets tested during The Olympics. Clothing, diet, chemicals and training all affect performance.
• It is theoretically possible, for example, for Usain Bolt to beat his 100-meter record. According to an expert if he got off the block quicker, ran at a 1,000 meter altitude, and had a strong tailwind he could make the 100 meter run in 9.44 seconds (rather than the current 9.58).
• Innovation has been halted by society. We don’t accept things like full-body swimsuits that helped peak times improve in the early 2000s while they were legal. Or drugs.

To read more including how Michael Phelps demonstrates the problem, what the experts have to say, the innovation in high jumping, the role that the Soviet Union played, and how current records will ultimately be broken, click here.

Source: ESPN

Via: Marginal Revolution

Doug Saunders described Ikea’s latest business initiative: a push into urban community planning.

• The business best known for furniture is building a centrally planned neighbourhood in East London called Strand East.
• Strand East will have a sophisticated public transport system and most of the main streets will be free of cars to encourage people to walk. Garages hidden underneath the neighbourhood’s buildings will hold most of the automobiles.
• The neighbourhood will contain 1,200 homes and apartments, and 40% of them will be family sized. This will give it a higher proportion of children than most urban centers.
• There will be no Ikea store in the neighbourhood.
• Strand East will be fully owned by Ikea and residents will only be able to rent their apartments. Ikea is doing this because they see this as a long-term investment and a way to build upon their cash reserves. However they will maintain a tight grip on “undesirable activity.”
• Ikea is hoping to build a community and will deliver an events calendar to the residents to let them know of things such as farmer’s markets.

To read more about how being in the city would feel like being in an Ikea store, how this could help Britain’s dire housing shortages, the benefits and drawbacks of living in a neighbourhood where everybody is a renter, and how this deals with a problem common in East London, click here.

Source: Doug Sanders

Via: Chris Blattman