Leap Second??

Marvel at the ingenuity of modern man. This year will be one second longer than last year. What are you gonna do with your extra second on December 31st? I think I'm gonna go for a longer new Year's kiss. Awh, Yaah!

The Longest Day

Now that we are in winter here in Cleveland, I begin wondering when I'll see the sun again and this gets me thinking about how even though these days have been some of the most hellishly long days of my life (for personal reasons) according to the sun, they are also the shortest days of the year. So, when's the longest and shortest days again for dear, old Cleveland? They change annually, but we'll go with most recent. Here they are:

Longest ~ June 21, 2006
Shortest ~ December 22, 2006

Technically these are called Summer and Winter Solstice (and I can't help noting the latter falls on my Mother's Birthday!).

I think countries up at the poles have the longest recorded spans of sunlight and darkness, but I have no idea what they are and frankly I don't care. But someone (I'm not going to guess who, but) someone will find these crucial pieces of information for me so I don't have to lift a mouse finger. I know it!

Repellant Plant of the Day

I think the Latin name is Giganticus Stinkamum.

(thanks, Bench.)

Iceberg In My Whiskey Makes Me Happy

In every glass of whiskey there's some Titanic Water. It's a fact!

My Vacation Home

Have I mentioned my preoccupation with clouds before? It stems from living in a town where the only frame of reference I have for nature is frequently the clouds. And we have a lot of them. These particular clouds have nothing to do with Cleveland. I suspect these stunners hung over Japan once upon a time.

Katrina Hitting Alabama?

...or just some tornadoes in Nebraska and Kansas...

Leaf It Alone

Giraffes move from tree to tree instead of eating off only one or two because the trees “communicate” with each other. When a giraffe (or elephant or other large species) eats the leaves, it causes stress on the tree. The tree then secretes a noxious chemical that makes the leaves taste bad. Once a tree starts secreting this chemical, it signals surrounding trees to produce the same chemical. (Kind of like how one rotting apple will cause the others to spoil.) Giraffes always start with the tallest tree that is upwind, then take a few bites before moving to the next tree, and thereby largely avoiding the chemical deterrent.

(Info lifted from seadaze.com)

Photo of the Day, Everyday

Via National Geographic Magazine so you know they're good!

All About Eritrea

Since the country name 'Eritrea' showed up in my web visitor stats this week, I have become curious as to exactly what Eritrea is all about. Who are Eritreans? What's on their minds? What goes on in a typical Eritrean home? What does Eritrean fast-food taste like, etc.

Well, in order to answer these questions, I first had to figure out where the hell Eritrea was. Eritrea is apparently located in Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan. (That's pronounced Gib-booty, like "Getcha booty on the dance floor, babay!") It is slightly larger than Pennsylvania in land area. 4.95% of this land is arable (which means it's livable) and the other 95 and change% is not. Listed as it's natural resources, among others, are gold, potash, fish, and zinc. Natural hazards you may expect as an Eritrean are frequent droughts and swarms of locusts. Geographically speaking, however, if you can get over the desertification and deforestation and whatnot, Eritrea is in the money. When they gained their independence from Ethiopia in 1993 they took the entire Ethiopian coastline with them. And since it lies along the world's busiest shipping lanes, I think they got a pretty good deal. Two and half years of Ethiopian battle-feuds not withstanding.

The median age of Eritreans is 18 years old. Eritreans over 65 represent only 3% of the population. In fact life expectancy for Eritreans has maxed out at 52. Compare that to the US expectancy of a nice generous 77.7. On average, women in Eritrea can expect to give birth to 5 and a half kids. Almost 59% of the population are literate.

Major exports include: livestock, sorghum, textiles, and food. More than half of the nations exports will go to Malaysia (who I'm thinking then repackage it and sell it to us (the US) since we are their highest export partner).

The telephone system has been rated, to no one's surprise, "very inadequate." The entire country has one TV station and less than 10,000 internet users (one of whom visited my film review page! Thanks, dude.). It's internet abbreviation code is .er which unlike Tuvalo (.tv) no one has wanted to buy off of them for ridiculous sums of money.

Half the population is below poverty level.

And one last fact to help your heart sink all the way into your stomach: Of the 4 and half million people living in Eritrea, 59,000 are refugees and displaced persons thanks to the ongoing war with Ethiopia and internal fighting factions.

Wow.

Did You Know...

...that lightning strikes the earth an average of 100 times per second?
...that Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice?
...that the highest number of collect calls are made in the US on Father's Day?
... that the smallest owl in the world is a mere 8 centimeters tall?
...that Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed on his wedding night?

Know Your Snowflakes

Cause there's more than one kind out there, you know.

I especially like the bullets.

Hurricane Frances in Ohio

Why oh why do they name hurricanes after people? Here is the current list of names in hurricane rotation. Looks like our next tropical storm will be called "Gaston." Good to know.

This morning I brought an umbrella to work. Wish I'd brought a jacket. This is not a summer rain. It is cold, windy, first-day-of-school-when-you-were-a-kid rain. You know the ones where you are more tired than you have ever been, it's dark outside and the faint smell of freshly sharpened pencils reminds you that you have all new school supplies and your new clothes are kinda itchy. Do you remember that? Come on, you know you remember that!

Anyways, I got plastered with rain the instant I set foot outside. At the bus stop I waited twenty minutes for a bus. Marty was there, the good-looking jock kid who won't talk to me unless I say something first. Sometimes I just let him feel uncomfortable in the silence. I wonder why he never starts a conversation. I bet somebody told him once he was only good for looking at so he decided to keep his mouth shut. He's not clever. But he is cute. So maybe they were right. At any rate. Marty and I chatted (I brought him up to speed on the whole jam incident) until the bus came.

And here I am, at work, with my heater on and my fingers cold trying to act like I'm working when I'm actually blogging. Blogging about weather. And new pencils. And Marty.

Not much to talk about. Maybe you all have things you want to say. On your blogs maybe or even here on mine. Go ahead and say it. I'm listening.