Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts

February 17 - Happy Birthday, Michael Jordan

      Posted on February 17, 2022


This is an update of my post published on February 17, 2011:




The greatest basketball player of all time (according to many) was born on this day in 1963.

Playing for the University of North Carolina and for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, he was nicknamed Air Jordan and His Airness because he could leap so high (he could even perform slam dunks from the free-throw line!). He helped the Bulls “three-peat”—winning three NBA Championships in a row.


Jordan earned five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP awards. He holds several basketball records, was voted the greatest North American athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Jordan has also been a successful product spokesperson, including for Nike Air Jordan sneakers, has appeared in a movie or two, and is the majority owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats.

Did you know...?
  • As a sophomore in high school, Jordan tried out for the varsity basketball game but was considered too short. He was 5'11”. A friend of his, who was taller, did make varsity as a sophomore.
  • Jordan eventually wasn't “too short”—he ended up growing to a height of 6'6”!
  • Jordan retired from basketball mid-career and played minor-league and, briefly, professional baseball. A couple years later, Jordan made a short, sweet announcement with the press release, “I'm back.”


Learn basketball with some fun-and-vigorous drills.

Balancing the story...

It's hard to talk about how great Michael Jordan was at basketball without acknowledging that he was, by many accounts, a mean and bullying guy! That's such a bummer that his greatness didn't extend off the court. 

There are some basketball greats who are genuinely great guys in other ways, too. For example, Steph Curry uses his fame to do charitable things like providing nets to families in Africa, to combat malaria, and raising money for military personnel and their families. He is mentioned by many folks in the NBA - and by many fans - as one of the nicest guys in basketball.


Steph is currently only ranked 12th best of all time for his basketball prowess - but I'd rather be seen as a good guy who is a basketball great than as a mean person who is THE greatEST.

Plan ahead:


Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And here are my Pinterest boards for:


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

January 15 - Arbor Day in Egypt, Jordan, and Malta

Posted on January 15, 2020

Tree planting!

What could be more important, these days, as we battle climate change?


You probably know that a huge problem causing our global temperatures to steadily climb is greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels (oil, gasoline, coal, etc.) and by such things as livestock manure and cattle belching!

But a lot of people don't realize that another cause of global warming is deforestation. When people cut down trees to burn (whoops, more greenhouse gases!) or to make everything from furniture to paper to houses to games - and especially when people cut down trees to build cities and roads and to graze livestock (whoops, more greenhouse gases!), they are removing the living things that actually remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere!

That's right, trees and other plants are great gobblers of carbon dioxide, one of the biggies of the greenhouse gases. And just as cutting down trees helps make global warming worse, planting trees helps make it a bit better!

Planting trees can also help create shade, provide local cooler climates through the shade and also through transpiration (trees famously "breathe out" oxygen - but they also breathe out water vapor), absorb air pollution, protect from wind, prevent erosion of soil, and provide homes for creatures. We definitely want to plant lots and lots of trees in our cities, along our streets and highways, and other places as well!


Holding a one-day Arbor Day celebration is only a start. In Jordan, attention to the importance of planting trees is provided by the King and Queen attending Arbor Day celebrations and personally planting a few trees - but the more important part of the day is (1) hundreds or thousands of others also planting trees, and (2) considering the Ministry of Agriculture plan to protect existing forests and continuing to enlarge forested areas in the nation.

Jordan's queen helps students of the University of
Jordan to plant a tree.

In Malta, people are encouraged to Tree Your Town. Participating schools get students to learn about the importance of replanting and then actually plant trees in their own towns. Parks, especially, are studied to see where more trees would benefit the environment and people's enjoyment of the environment.

In Egypt, there are no government celebrations, but organizations are encouraged to get volunteers planting in their own communities. One organization that participates is the Sabaheia Horticulture Research Station.

Some nations are doing a better job than others in really getting people to get out there and plant trees. India held a record for the most trees planted in one day - because 800,000 volunteers around the nation planted more than 50 million trees one day in 2016!!! (That's more than 60 trees per volunteer! WOW!) The next year, they topped their own record with 66 million trees planted in just 12 hours.


But last year Ethiopia shut down governmental offices and many businesses in order to plant 350 million trees in just 12 hours!!!! 

That's...that's...incredible!

Ethiopia's goal is to plant 4 BILLION indigenous trees in 1,000 different sites around the nation. Great goal, huh?

Arbor Day needs to be more than one day and more than a token tree-planting. Filipino students now have to plant at least 10 trees in order to graduate. That kind of innovative policy is necessary everywhere in order to offset some of the harm from agriculture and technology.







Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

May 25 – Independence Day in Jordan

Posted on May 25, 2018



Independence from whom?

Today Jordan celebrates its 1946 independence from Britain. You might be thinking, "Oh, those British, with their huge empire!" 

But in this case, the Brits hadn't taken over the Jordanian territory in the 1800s or earlier - in other words, Jordan hadn't been a colony of Britain.


Instead, Jordan had been conquered by the Ottoman Empire - way back in the 1500s! For centuries, the Ottoman government chose to barely lift a finger to rule what is now Jordan, although yearly taxes were required, so the people living there basically ruled themselves...but in the 1800s, several groups tried to take over this territory. As a result, Ottoman forces took firmer and more repressive control over the land and people. 



The people of Jordan didn't like that. They revolted against the Ottoman rulers several times. And when World War I broke out - and the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany, the losing side...

Well, the Arab Revolt was successful at stripping the Middle East away from the Ottoman rulers. And the people of Turkey also revolted, ending the Ottoman monarchy and creating the Republic of Turkey. And the world tried to make sure that there never would be another World War by creating a worldwide organization attempting cooperation and peace negotiations between countries. And that organization, the League of Nations, in its infinite wisdom (I'm kidding), decided to split up the lands of the Middle East between France and Britain, the main winners of WWI.

The Middle Eastern lands that had belonged to the Ottoman Empire were divvied up in this way: the British Mandate was Palestine, including Jordan, and Mesopotamia, which became Iraq; the French Mandate was Syria, including Lebanon.



The thing is, the Mandate System was supposed to be really, really different than the colonial systems that nations used to use. The British were supposed to just give advice to the peoples and territories in their mandate; they were not supposed to annex, or take ownership of the territories; they were supposed to help the territory develop for the benefit of its people, not for the benefit of the Brits; the mandate was supposed to be a "sacred trust of civilization."

To find out more about all these complexities, check out this series of maps that explore and explain a lot about the history of the Middle East.

And now...Jordan:

There are some wonderful things to explore about Jordan. Check out the Dead Sea, a place so salty that towers of salt gleam in the sun, and people cannot sink:


Check out the glories of Jordan's ancient ruins:


Check out lots more of both here or here.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)