Where there's a first, there MUST be a second!

Welcome to SilverMedals.net — The internet's premier blog and reference site celebrating the second greatest achievements, second-best records, and the almost extremes of the world we live in!

Items marked as Second Thoughts are short blog entries. Those marked as Feature Articles are informative, long-form, heavily researched pieces. Please also have a look at the SilverMedals.net Referencepedia for some quick facts of seconds.

Elite Polish K2 Climbers

Elite Polish K2 Climbers

01/28/2018

Updated 10/08/2018

Last May, SM did a blog post on a team of mountain climbers from Poland who were going to attempt a winter ascent on K2, little did anyone know that those same climbers would end up being heroes. A multi-national climbing party was attempting to summit Nanga Parbat, the second-highest peak in Pakistan at 26,660ft (8,125m), and the ninth-highest mountain…read more

Moonless February (2018)

Moonless February (2018)

01/25/2018

Updated 10/08/2018

A celestial event will occur in February 2018. The event may not be as exciting as say, an eclipse, or a comet, or a good meteor shower. In fact, it’s not even an event per se, but more an oddity of the calendar. For ease of language we’ll just call it an “event”. So the event about which I am…read more

George Lazenby — Second Actor to Play James Bond

George Lazenby — Second Actor to Play James Bond

01/20/2018

Updated 09/19/2022

After the fifth installment of the James Bond movie series You Only Live Twice hit the theaters, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, the producers of the lucrative franchise, had a problem. Their Bond didn’t want to be Bond anymore. Indeed after spying, killing, and sexing his way through five James Bond movies, Scottish actor Sean Connery was ready to…read more

Dick Sargent — The Second “Darrin” on Bewitched

Dick Sargent — The Second “Darrin” on Bewitched

01/20/2018

Updated 08/05/2020

Dick Sargent is one of those actors who had roles in almost every major network TV show over the course of his career, which lasted just under 40 years from the 1950s to the 1990s. His resume included appearances or starring roles on Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Hazel, Wagon Train, The…read more

Saint-Gaudens’ Diana and Her Half-Sized Replicas

Saint-Gaudens’ Diana and Her Half-Sized Replicas

01/09/2018

Updated 09/20/2022

I’ve probably been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art about 60 or 70 times over the years, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every gallery there, but I haven’t always given pieces the proper attention they deserve. Then again, how could I? There are millions of pieces  from all over the world and from all different time periods, nine times…read more

The Python Programming Language

The Python Programming Language

12/05/2017

Updated 10/13/2018

There are many dozens of programming languages that exist in the tech universe today. In no particular order, Assembly, BASIC, C, C++, C#, Fortran, Java, Perl, Python, Javascript, PHP, SQL, Delphi, Visual Basic, Lua, Lisp, Go, Objective-C, Swift, ColdFusion, R, Actionscript, COBOL, Erlang, ABC, Haskell, ASP, A, B, D, E, F, F#, F*, G, Pascal, Tcl, YAML, SALSA are some of…read more

The $179.3 Million Picasso

The 9.3 Million Picasso

11/19/2017

Updated 10/08/2018

History was made on November 13, 2017, when a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, sold for $450.3 million at auction to an unknown buyer, making it the most expensive painting ever sold at auction1. Dating from around 1500, the oil on walnut panel painting depicts Jesus Christ against a dark background holding a very unrealistic glass orb. Despite…read more

Ms. Pac-Man — Sequel to Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man — Sequel to Pac-Man

11/14/2017

Updated 09/06/2022

When Pac-Man came out in 1980, it was big. I mean really big. Like “stand in a 10-person line to play for just a few minutes” big. For the price of 25¢, you could guide Pac-Man — a little, binge-eating, yellow, three-quarter circle — through a maze loaded with tasty little white pellets while being chased by four colorful little ghosts…read more

George Lawrence Price — Second-to-Last Soldier Killed in WWI

George Lawrence Price — Second-to-Last Soldier Killed in WWI

11/11/2017

Updated 11/11/2018

The armistice1 that ended the fighting in World War I was signed by representatives from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, at 5AM on 11/11/1918, in a railroad carriage in Compiègne, France, but the agreement didn’t go into effect for another six hours. WWI would end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, which was fine for those who…read more