Flying Fish (Page 10)

Twisted blisters have taken seriously the challenge for posts. They have been very busy today. A couple of them have crashed their servers due to the flood of emails coming through. LOL

[urp] I've found that Pepto Bismol and Tucks Pads help when I'm shooting flaming balls.

yahoo, Hector gave us a post.

and this team won't break my record. We will continue to win win win. mwaah!

the posting is a fun side challenge, but in the serious challenge, we are going to outswim those runners.

Just don't carry a lighter with you when you swim. LOL

yeah, but they are right. they have caught up to us pretty fast.

One and the same - opposite ends.

History of Swimming - section one.
Swimming has been known since prehistoric times. Drawings from the Stone Age were found in "the cave of swimmers" near Wadi Sora (or Sura) in the southwestern part of Egypt. Written references date from 2000 BC, including Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible (Ezekiel 47:5, Acts 27:42, Isaiah 25:11), Beowulf, and other sagas. In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, The Swimmer; or, A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming (Der Schwimmer oder ein Zwiegespräch über die Schwimmkunst). Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. In 1873 John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native Americans. Due to a British disregard for splashing, Trudgen employed a scissor kick instead of the front crawl's flutter kick. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902 Richard Cavill introduced the front crawl to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association, Federation Internationale de Natation de Amateur (FINA), was formed. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.

History of Swimming - section two
Ancient Times
Writings from the Stone Age then, were found in "the cave of swimmers" near Wadi Sora (or Sura) in the southwestern part of Egypt near Libya. These pictures seem to show breaststroke or dog paddle, although it may also be possible that the movements have a ritual meaning unrelated to swimming. This cave is also featured in the movie The English Patient. An Egyptian clay seal dated between 4000 BC and 9000 BC shows four swimmers who are believed to be swimming a variant of the front crawl. More references to swimming are found in Babylonian bas-reliefs and Assyrian wall drawings, depicting a variant of the breaststroke. The most famous drawings were found in the Kebir desert and are estimated to be from around 4000 BC The Nagoda bas-relief also shows swimmers dating back from 3000 BC The Indian palace Mohenjo Daro from 2800 BC contains a swimming pool sized 30 m by 60 m. The Minoan palace Minos of Knossos in Crete also featured baths. An Egyptian tomb from 2000 BC shows a variant of the front crawl. Depictions of swimmers were also found from the Hittites, Minoans, and other Middle Eastern civilizations, in the Tepantitla compound at Teotihuacan, and in mosaics in Pompeii.

Written references date back to 2000 BC including Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible (Ezekiel 47:5, Acts 27:42, Isaiah 25:11), Beowulf, and other sagas, although the style is never described. There are also many mentions of swimmers in the Vatican, Borgian and Bourbon codices.

The Greeks did not include swimming in the ancient Olympic Games, but practiced the sport, often building swimming pools as part of their baths. One common insult in Greece was to say about somebody that he/she neither knew how to run nor swim. Swimming is an integral part of the tale of Hero and Leander and of the 7th-century poet Arion. The Etruscans at Tarquinia (Italy) show pictures of swimmers in 600 BC, and tombs in Greece depict swimmers 500 BC. The Greek Scyllis was taken prisoner on a ship of the Persian king Xerxes I in 480 BC. After learning about an impending attack on the Greek Navy, he stole a knife and jumped overboard. During the night and using a snorkel made from reed; he swam back to the ships and cut them loose. It was also said that the ability to swim saved the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis, while the Persians all drowned when their ships were destroyed. In Ancient Rome, swimming was considered a healthy practice, and swimming races were held in the Tiber River. Julius Caesar himself was known to be a good swimmer.

A series of reliefs from 850 BC in the Nimrud Gallery of the British Museum show swimmers, mostly in military context, often using swimming aids.

In Japan swimming was one of the noble skills of the Samurai, and historic records describe swimming competitions in 36 BC organized by emperor Suigui (spelling unclear), which are the first known swimming races.

The Germanic folklore describes swimming, which was used successfully in wars against the Romans. Swimming competitions are also known from that time.

history of Swimming - section three
Middle Ages to 1800
Swimming was initially one of the seven agilities of knights during the Middle Ages, including swimming with armour[citation needed]. However, as swimming was done in a state of undress, it became less popular as society became more conservative in the early Modern period. For example, in the 16th century, a German court document in the Vechta prohibited the naked public swimming of children. Leonardo da Vinci made early sketches of lifebelts. In 1538 Nicolas Wynman, German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book Colymbetes. His goal wasn't exercise, but instead it was to reduce the dangers of drowning. Nevertheless, the book contained a very good and methodical approach to learning breaststroke, and includes swimming aids such as air filled cow bladders, reed bundles, or cork belts. In 1587, Everard Digby[born about 1550 in England] also wrote a swimming book, claiming that humans can swim better than fish. Digby was a Senior Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge University, interested in the scientific method. His short treatise, De arte natandi, was written in Latin and contained over 40 woodcut illustrations depicting various methods of swimming, including the breaststroke, backstroke and the crawl. Digby regarded the breaststroke as the most useful form of swimming. [1]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_swimming"

That was just in case you all wanted to get educated on the History of Swimming.

Work might get in the way.

Ummm ... work got in the way?

http://techessence.info/node/80
Here you go.

Edited by kns57 2008-01-03 3:15 PM

Are we swimming against any snowmen this month? LOL