By Elisa Tola

basketball or… καλαθοσφαίριση

The term basketball is an English loan to most languages as well as to Greek and, although it has been translated as καλαθοσφαίριση, Greek fans prefer to use the English word.

Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.0 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end of the court.

Although  relatively recently invented, it  is one of the world’s most popular and widely viewed sports.

Have you ever wondered how basketball got its name?

Basketball was invented by J.Naismith, a gym teacher (who was also a church minister!), in a ‘desperate’ attempt to keep his adolescent students from getting bored during the snowy winter of 1891 in Massachusetts.

At first he used peach baskets(!) but they wouldn’t hold for long  so he replaced them with metal wire trash cans! Very soon the hoop and net as we know it today was designed. However,  basketball  had to ‘become’ 20 years old before they added a hole in the bottom of the net, so that the ball could pass through the loop and net after every basket!  A big relief for the referee who-until then- had to push the ball out of the net using a long pole!

Now it’s your turn. Let us know what you think  of the name basketball by doing the following quiz:

http://goo.gl/forms/4WbC7epL89

Sources:

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball#History

http://superbeefy.com/who-invented-basketball/   

http://superbeefy.com/how-did-basketball-get-its-name-and-where-did-basketball-come-from/ 

By Ariadne Paulou

The travel of ‘sympathy’ from Ancient Greek to modern English.

The English word sympathy comes from the Greek words syn «together» and pathos «feeling» which in ancient Greek meant «suffering». So, when the English use the word sympathy, they describe the perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another human being. Being sympathetic and sympathizing with others means that you are able to understand and share in their problems as well as communicate this to others.

On the other hand, συμπάθεια and συμπαθητικός in modern Greek has taken on a completely different meaning, meaning ‘fondness’ and ‘likeable’ accordingly.

The interesting thing if you compare the two modern meanings is that the English has preserved the ancient concept whereas the Greek has changed.

Taking it a bit further, we could also compare the meanings of εμπάθεια and empathy.

The Greek εμπάθεια is a negative term, describing a person full of prejudice, enmity and hostility for others.

On the contrary, in English, empathy is a positive term, used for someone who not only understands but even puts his/her self in other people’s place .

Watch the following video to see what modern English makes of two old Greek ideas.

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Sources:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pathos&allowed_in_frame=0

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sympathy

By Eva Chatziadi

…my tasty lord!

The English aristocrat who became a delicious finger food.

Did you know that whenever you ask for a «ham and cheese sandwich» you’re actually referring to a real person’s family name? Although meat chunks placed within bread slices have been eaten ever since ancient times, Lord Montague, Earl of Sandwich, was the 17th century  man who «lent» his name to the yummy  snack we all know so well.

According to rumours,  he kept ordering his servant for»meat and bread man!» as he didn’t want to leave his card game. However, his formal biographer would later passionately deny this shameful gossip, arguing that, the only reason Earl Sandwich repeatedly  avoided the dining table, was because he didn’t want to interrupt his very important work…Whichever explanation you choose, you have to admit that  sandwiches-of all kinds- are the greatest English contribution to gastronomy!

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich#Etymology

By Nick Fragos

In the real world, the loser of the food monopoly game starves…

Nowadays, our world suffers from many problems. One of the most important is hunger and the unequal distribution of food in many countries.

In many countries in the world, 1 in 8 people don’t get enough food to stay healthy. That frightening number has reached 900 million worldwide. 52 million children under the age of  5 suffer from undernourishment. 2 million out of these will eventually die.

In these countries, people suffer from hunger as there is no land to cultivate because there is unequal distribution of land between the rich and the poor. In South America, parts of Asia and Africa there is land grabbing i.e. the local rich land owners as well as multinational companies take advantage of loopholes in the law of the country and usurp the small farmers’ land. Because of that, there is a lot of protest and social unrest, demonstrations and riots going on in these places.

In recent years the price of food has increased a lot. That makes it more difficult for the poorer social groups to buy food. To be able to provide for their families, people are forced to work longer hours. In many countries  it’s mainly the women who carry the extra work load, working in the fields and caring for the family.

In the world there is the problem of uneven distribution of food. To overcome this problem, we have to make sure that the price of food will be controlled. The recent rise in prices is another sign of the uneven distribution of global resources. It is likely that people in poorer countries will go hungry during a food crisis. This is due to the fact that these people’s income doesn’t increase to meet the food prices. To solve this problem, we have to be informed as global citizens about the ways food is produced and distributed worldwide. Most importantly we have to make sure that those who control food production and trade will provide equally for all countries. In other words, everyone must be able to have access to food markets.

Hunger and unequal distribution of food should and can be overcome .We, as people, must share the food the planet gives us. If we do this, the road to a world where everyone has enough to eat is not far.

Sources:

https://www.oxfam.org/en

The Beatles. (Let It Be) (Cover By Andrew Ryan)

By Lefteris-Euclides Stefanou

A Galaxy is a complex constructed from millions of stars, gases and dust which hold together thanks to the power of gravity. In the 1920s Edwin Hubble, an astronomer, stated that our galaxy is just one of  countless galaxies in the universe- some of which are by far larger than ours.

Our galaxy is called  the Milky Way. It is of a spiral shape with two big arms. Our sοlar system is situated in the Orion constellation, in a smaller arm. The center of the galaxy is located 27 million light years away from our sun and it  probably consists of a huge black hole.

Since we are already  inside the  galaxy we cannot perceive it  as a spiral but as a foggy beam of white light in the night sky.

The word ‘galaxy’ was first used by the philosophers  Anaxagoras, Parmenides and Dimokritos.

There is an ancient Greek myth created  to explain our galaxy’s bright milky  appearance on the horizon..

According to the myth, while Hera was asleep, Jupiter brought the baby Herakles on mount Olympus to breastfeed on her milk and so become immortal. When Hera woke up and saw the unknown baby, she pushed him away and her divine milk that poured, scattered in the sky and that is how the galaxy was created.

The word galaxy originates from the Greek words γάλα=milk and κύκλος= cycle!

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SOURCES:

1. http://earthsky.org/space/does-our-sun-reside-in-a-spiral-arm-of-the-milky-way-galaxy

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

3. Γ.Μπαμπινιώτη,Ετυμολογικό Λεξικό της Ν.Ε.Γλώσσας,Β’ έκδοση,σελ.44

By Despoina Avgoustie

Perhaps one of the most exciting words in both Greek and English is the word “pirate“.

Books and hollywood movies like “Treasure Island” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”, famous captains such as captain Sparrow, Blackbeard or Peter Pan’s eternal enemy, one-armed bandit Hook, have taken young and old on fantastic voyages  to distant waters, defying danger amidst lit cannonballs and flying hooks, discovering maps of buried treasures, becoming stranded on desert islands where pretty mermaids lie on sandy shores at sunrise.

Actually, the only truth about  piracy is the violence and the fear it has scattered since antiquity and unfortunately continues to do so  in some seas.

From very early on, historians have known about the “people of the sea’ and their attacks on Mediterranean coasts. Piracy was a huge hazard for ships until the 1830’s. Crews were of different nationalities and obeyed only their own desire for spoils and their captain. Sometimes they served  kings or sultans as missionaries and did their masters’ dirty work. The most devastating of this, was the looting of coastal communities and the selling of local population into slavery.When the pirates seized royalties or aristocrats they would ask for ransom.

The word “pirate“ comes from the ancient Greek verb “πειράωμαι-πειρῶμαι’=attempt against an opponent. In mythology Jason“s journey on the Argo and  king Theseus’ adventures with Peirithous are pirates’ accounts. In  the Odyssey, Homer has Odysseus, a hero, brag about the spoils he has gained from his sea voyages.It is logical to suppose that piracy was a brave and heroic action rather than a crime in those times.

In 16th century England, queen Elizabeth delegated the famous Sir Francis Drake to defeat the Spanish armada. The methods which he used made him a hero in England and an outlaw pirate in Spain.

Nowadays, it’s difficult to understand what the reasons were which made people turn to piracy. But it’s very probable that a lot of them would have shared Drake’s view: “It isn’t that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better!’.

SOURCES

1. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=pirate

2. http://www.kidzsearch.com/kzwikisearch.php?q=pirate&aff=1409465098&subid=wiki-for-

3. http://www.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Piracy

By Nick Fragos

Geography is the science that constitutes a “bridge“ between natural and human environment. It is basically the description of the surface of the earth as it is today. And, why is that? Well, because Geography examines  lands and environments, ecosystems and earth phenomena as well as the relationship of people with the land – how they interact and adapt to their natural surroundings.

Did you know that geography is an ancient science? The Greek mathematician Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC was the one who came up with both the name and the terminology used up to this day. The word “geography“, ‘γεωγραφία’ is a compound from ‘gea’ (γαία=earth) and ‘grafein’ (γράφειν=to write down). So…the idea behind geography was to create a written record of what our planet looks like. Eratosthenes was a famous map maker too.

Either because geography has been around for so long and geographers had a lot of time in their hands or maybe because they’re just very clever and inquisitive- geography has come up with loads of useful (and sometimes strange…) data. For example, did you know that…

• Geomatics is the branch of geography that invented the Global Positioning System (GPS)? It is the discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and providing  geographical information to us all.

• Eratosthenes calculated with amazing accuracy the circumference of the earth thus inferring  its spherical shape. It seems though  that scientists later on somehow forgot that bit of information  and so, Galileo, 19 centuries after Eratosthenes, was nearly burned at the stake for reaching the… shocking(!) conclusion that the Earth is revolving in space!

• The largest waterfall in the world is 979 meters high.

• South Africa has 11 official languages ​​spoken by 54,956,900 South Africans.

• Iceland has 200 active volcanoes within its territory.

• Istanbul is the only city in the world built on two continents.

• The deepest hole dug by man is 8,860 meters deep, just 4.5 cm wide and is located in Texas.

• Although Mount Everest is the highest peak on the planet, due to the earth’s bulgy shape, Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is the closest peak to the moon!

• The second longest place name  in the world is «Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukaka

           pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe NUA kitanatahu» (85 letters),   which is a hill in New Zealand. In Maori, this means ‘’the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known by the name of Land Eater, played his flute to his beloved»

Can students earn 25000$ from learning geography?  Watch the following video to find out!

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SOURCES

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography

By George Kastanis

“It takes all sorts to make a world“ or else “κόσμος και κοσμάκης“.Two proverbs, one in English and one in Greek, both of them expressing the same idea i.e.that the world consists of many different people-and this is something that should be celebrated not feared. Diversity is something we all see everywhere in our lives. At the age of globalisation, communities include members of different national backgrounds, religions and races. Along with these, we should also take into account the established differences based on sex (men-women), physical disability, social class, income and education.

Although people are aware of these differences that exist among them, there is still a long way to go until our global community  understands that diversity doesn’t have to result in inequality and injustice. It is true that some societies have done more than others to overcome social barriers and prejudice against various  groups. Countries like Canada and Australia, for example, have been passing  laws to support and protect equal rights among their citizens. These are ‘new’ countries that have built their national identity on immigrants from many different places ,people who in the recent past decided to flee war, percecution or poverty and start a new life in a new place.

2015 is the year when the Council of Europe, WWF and Action Aid invited the world’s citizens to become involved, responsible and informed in the fight against inequality of every kind among people. It is time to make equality and mutual respect the realities of our lives!

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Sources:

1. http://globaledugr.blogspot.gr/

2.  http://plancanada.ca/downloads/planyouth/gender-equality-toolkit.pdf

3. https://www.actionaid.org.uk/blog

By Panagiotis Kalozoumis

The word “climate“ comes from the Greek word ‘κλίμα’. Ancient Greeks used this term to describe the stable and predictable weather conditions at a place over a long  period of time. The distinctive feature of climate is its stability. This has allowed people to plan ahead and develop their activities in the different places they live in. However, there are scientists who think that we might be forced to reconsider all of this very soon.

The Earth’s climate has been changing rapidly and unpredictably over the last decades because of the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 has always been a constituent of the atmosphere. In normal levels, it helps in the creation and the maintenance of the necessary conditions for the existence of life on the Earth’s surface. So, who or what has changed it from a blessing to a curse?

The answer is the constant and increasing necessity of modern lifestyle for electricity. To produce energy, factories burn hydrocarbon. Its combustion releases huge amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere which is being transformed into a giant greenhouse. Global temperature is increasing, the ice in the poles is melting, the sea level is rising and some islands in the Pacific Ocean are already sinking. Many animal species lose their habitat and, because they cannot adapt to the new conditions, they become extinct. Around the planet, the weather phenomena become more intense: rain leads to floods, droughts last longer, heat waves burn entire forests and the seasons change, since the climate changes as well.

Poorer societies cannot deal with these phenomena and their everyday life worsens, instead of  improving. Children become malnourished and cut off from basic goods ,they abandon school and work hard to obtain food in a natural environment that constantly becomes more unpredictable and hostile because of climate change.

Last December, another United Nations Climate Change Conference was organised in Paris. Governments are called upon to act quickly in order to stop the causes that trigger off the changes of global climate and at the same time to help the communities that have already suffered from these changes. Scientists must find ways to produce energy that doesn’t increase the “greenhouse gases“ and politicians simply must apply them. Until then, all of us must learn to use only the energy we need,   cut down on unnecessary waste of natural resources and… basically we must look- in Balu’s words- for the " target="_blank">bare necessities of life.

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Sources:

1. http://www.actionaid.org.uk/blog/schools/2015/11/03/how-climate-change-is-flooding-childrens-future

2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

3.http://climate.nasa.gov/

By Alikie Marouga

«Beware of the Greeks bearing gifts»  is the English translation of the Greek phrase «φοβοῦ τούς Δαναούς και δῶρα φέροντας». It is basically a reminder  to be cautious when an old enemy offers presents or makes favours.

The meaning of this phrase is found in Sophocles”  tragedy «Aias.» When the hero realizes the harm he has caused by slaying his fellow warriors in the Greek camp, he curses his sword which an old foe of his-the Trojan prince Hektor- had given him as a present.

Four centuries later, the Roman poet Virgilios in his epic «Ainiada» has the Trojan seer Laokoon warning his compatriots not to accept within Troy’s walls the wooden horse the Greeks had left as a gift  by saying to them prophetically «timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.»

Although the enemies’ identity changes in the ancient epics depending on the poet’s point of view or nationality, we can leave the enmity of Greeks and Trojans behind but still hold on to this piece of sensible advice: don’t trust easily the people who have hurt you in the past.

…and now.

sources: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/beware-of-greeks-bearing-gifts.html