Quote of the Week:
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” —Plato
Fact of the Week:
Cliff Young, an Australian farmer, won the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1983 (a 544 mile race) at age 61. Even more remarkably, he did the entire thing without sleeping.
Young had run extremely long distances before and had even run a marathon in 3:02:53 (at age 58) but no one expected Young to win this race. He showed up in overalls and work boots, and removed his dentures before the start because they rattled when he ran. He was nearly not allowed to race because he had no sponsors and people thought it was merely a publicity stunt.
Cliff Young. Via Wikipedia.
Off the gun, the younger runners left Young in the dust. As runners had always done before for long races, they ran roughly eighteen hours during the day and slept six at night. But while they slept, Young ran on. In his past he had gone two to three nights in a row without sleep while herding the family’s flock of sheep. Choosing not to sleep this time around, Young kept on running, picturing he was chasing sheep trying to outrun a storm.
Finally, after five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes, Cliff Young completed the race, beating the nearest competitor by over ten hours. Young had also not realized there was a $10,000 prize (worth about $30,000 today) for winning the race. He decided to give the money away to the six other runners who had been able to complete the entire race, saying they deserved it as much as he did.
The Sydney Morning Herald and Elite Feet contributed to this article.
News Update:
This week we’ve recapped two news stories for you. A transgender student was rejected from all of the nearly 20 sororities at Alabama University. And students at Clovis Community College are suing their school for allegedly restricting their freedom of speech.
Transgender Student Rejected From Sororities at Alabama
Grant Sikes, a transgender woman at Alabama University, was rejected from all of the nearly 20 sororities at her school. Sikes generated millions of views on her TikTok videos as she documented her journey through rush week.
Grant Sikes. Via The Daily Dot. Credit: @grantelisikes/TikTok
"Unfortunately, this chapter is closed,” Sikes wrote in an Instagram post. “This recruitment journey is over for me. Being dropped from my last house this morning during primary recruitment at the University of Alabama doesn’t come as a surprise considering out of the almost 20 chapters – I was dropped by every single one except 2 before day 1."
"I'm hopeful of a future where everyone is welcomed for just being themselves – everywhere," Sikes continued. "If you are going through a hard time today, remember that life is too short to ponder on the things lost. Choose happiness & always look for the positive things throughout life. Move on. See the good. See the bad. Hope for the best. Brave the worst."
Alabama’s rush week often makes headlines with all of its hype and has been under scrutiny after several TikTok videos documenting it gained hundreds of thousands of views. It is a secretive process, with cell phones often banished from houses. It has intrigued HBO so much that they will be making a documentary on it.
Students at Clovis College Sue Over First Amendment Rights:
Students belonging to on-campus group Young Americans for Freedom are suing Clovis Community College in California. The students say the school required them to take down their flyers which expressed conservative ideas. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization that promotes academic freedom, free speech, and due process rights, will represent the students in the lawsuit.
The incident in question took place in November of 2021 when three students hung fliers promoting Freedom Week on a bulletin board, including one that listed the death tolls of Communist regimes and warned against the dangers of “leftist ideas,” according to the lawsuit as reported by Inside Higher Ed. Another flier said, "Leftist Ideas: ‘Progress’ that always leads to death."
Lori Bennett, President of Clovis Community College, ordered the fliers be taken down after administrators received complaints, citing a rule that campus fliers are intended for club announcements. The suit alleges that was not a rule previously in place.
Supposedly administrators did not allow antiabortion posters in academic buildings the following month as they cited the same rule. The posters were allowed on a “free speech kiosk” on campus, but the lawsuit claims the kiosk is in an area of campus where students do not often travel.
Daily Dot, Fox News, and Inside Higher Ed contributed to this article.
Sports Update:
Ben Shelton. Via the Florida Gators
There’s a new American tennis star on the rise. Ben Shelton, the 2022 NCAA Singles Champion, is off to a hot start in his professional career. Shelton is nineteen years old, a somewhat ripe age to begin playing professional tennis. Most players never play collegiate and often turn pro by the age of fifteen. But despite his late start, Shelton is finding early success.
Since his NCAA singles title, he has reached two ATP Challenger Tour finals and two semi-finals. He also won in his tour-level debut last month before losing a third-set tiebreak to John Isner, who was full of praise for his young countryman.
As reported by ATP Tour, “On Tuesday at the Western & Southern Open, Shelton rose to the occasion in his ATP Masters 1000 debut, thrilling the home crowd on Porsche Court. On the right side of a three-setter against Italy's Lorenzo Sonego, the wild card scored a 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5 win in two hours, 52 minutes. The victory moved him inside the Top 200 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.”
Today, Shelton defeated number five seed Casper Ruud 6-3,6-3. Shelton will play 9th-seeded and 2022 Wimbledon finalist Cam Norrie in the Round of 16 tomorrow.
ATP Tour contributed to this article.
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They have not flesh, nor feathers, nor scales, nor bone. Yet they have fingers and thumbs of their own. What are they?
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