Olympics Host Cities Distance Quiz (6 of 6) London to Rio de Janeiro

We conclude our six-entry series on the distances between Olympic cities as we look at how London, England, United Kingdom, the city that will host the Olympics next week, is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city that is scheduled to hold the summer games in 2016. Rio de Janeiro will be the first South American city to host the games, and the first Latin American city since Mexico City hosted the Olympics in 1968.

One of the most interesting questions that many Olympic spectators have is which country will be most competitive with the American men's basketball team. Joining Team America in Pool A are Argentina, France, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia; the first game for the American squad will be against France on July 29th.

For those of us who are Turkish-Americans, we will be in a bit of a delicate situation as far national loyalties as the United States faces Turkey in both women's basketball (on August 1st) and women's volleyball (on August 5th). But, shockingly, Turkey's men's national basketball team with NBA players Hedo Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur apparently did not qualify for London.

For American travelers, it should be pointed out that I read in a magazine article recently that an American tourist who had traveled all the way to Brazil had to return home because he did not get a visa beforehand! 

So, how far are these two cities?

A) 5,567 miles

B) 5, 667 miles

C) 5, 767 miles

D) 5, 867 miles

SIDEBAR: Of course, our sincerest condolences go out to to family members and surviving victims of the shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, which killed at least 14 people, during the midnight premiere of "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises." We are planning a possible blog entry to explore how the tragic event was discussed in various social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter.


UPDATE: The answer is C....yeah, it's a very long flight!

Today, We Celebrate Five Years of Blogging!

It was on Sept. 18, 2005, when we started with the original version of "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," a blog which is still active (hmm....free time is beginning to become much like Kuwaiti oil, a thing which once seemed plentiful, but now much less so!).

Today, I run both the new version of that blog and this crazy thing called "The Daily Vampire," which is actually an in-joke about my twisted sleep cycle, but perhaps because of the "Twiligt" film and book series as well as "True Blood," this blog gets about 12 times as many hits per day as "Politics...," yet we seldom post anything about vampires here!

I want to take a moment to recognize my alma mater Glenvar High School's remarkable 3-0 start to their high school football season. Last night, the Highlanders won a home game over the Grayson County Blue Devils by a 27-7 score.

My other favorite high school in Virginia, Floyd County High School, which ironically hosts Glenvar on Nov. 9, won a road game against George Wythe High School by a 17-7 score.

And, of course, I'm equally proud of both the American and Turkish men's basketball teams. The U.S. Team, which featured NBA phenom Kevin Durant and was coached by Coach K from Duke University, won the final game over a very impressive Turkish team which was lead by standout Hedo Turkoglu, who will now play for the Phoenix Suns, in Istanbul last week.

My late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey, and if he were alive today (he would actually be 89 years old!), I'm sure he'd still be telling me to do my math homework even though it's been 22 since I graduated from high school!

PS- I also want to extend my kudos to the NC St. football team. Though I sort of made fun of them earlier in the week, they did win their home game over the Cincy Bearcats on Thursday night by a 30-19 score.

My Ten Favorite NBA Teams

For the first time since listening to NPR's sports show "Only a Game" some ten years ago, I am regularly watching NBA basketball and sports in general.

My favorite team is the Orlando Magic because they have a player named J.J. Reddick, a former Duke star from my hometown of Roanoke, Va., and a Turkish player named Hedo Turkoglu, who was named the NBA's sixth man of the year a few seasons ago.

There was a piece in the liberal journal "The Nation" which appeared while the Magic were playing the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals last year which did cause me reason for concern. The article mentioned that the Magic were run by an arch conservative named Rich DeVos, the founder of Amway (coincidentally I found out we share a common birthday, though since he was born on March 4, 1926, DeVos is quite older than me), but nonetheless the Magic remain my favorite team. The Orlando Magic also feature stars Dwight Howard (pictured) and Vince Carter.

In NBA action today (Sunday), Orlando beat the New York Knicks 114-102. The Minnesota Timberwolves upset the Denver Nuggets 106-100. The Sacramento Kings defeated the New Orleans Hornets 112-96. And, the Boston Celtics won out over the Miami Heat 92-85.

Here is a complete list of my ten favorite NBA teams


1. Orlando Magic
2. Denver Nuggets
3. Washington Wizards
4. Utah Jazz
5. Charlotte Bobcats
6. Chicago Bulls (mascot is pictured)
7. Dallas Mavericks
8. New York Knicks
9. Boston Celtics
10. Sacramento Kings

PS_ I found out that Hedo Turkoglu is apparently now with The Toronto Raptors; I did not hear about the trade!