Crazy to be Me's Weblog

Why are leap years needed?

Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the earth’s revolutions around the sun.

Details

Note: The illustration is not to scale.

The vernal equinox is the time when the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator, moving from the southern to the northern hemisphere.

The mean time between two successive vernal equinoxes is called a tropical year–also known as a solar year–and is about 365.2422 days long.

Using a calendar with 365 days every year would result in a loss of 0.2422 days, or almost six hours per year. After 100 years, this calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the season (tropical year), which is not desirable or accurate. It is desirable to align the calendar with the seasons and to make any difference as insignificant as possible.

By adding a leap year approximately every fourth year, the difference between the calendar and the seasons can be reduced significantly, and the calendar will align with the seasons much more accurately.

(The term “day” is used to mean “solar day”–which is the mean time between two transits of the sun across the meridian of the observer.)

Content taken from http://www.timeanddate.com/date/leapyear.html

Tons of information about time and dates and stuff.

or you hunt around the interwebs long enonugh and something’s going to make you smile…

http://www.happybanking.com.au/

 pure silliness people!  nothing to do but shake your head and smile.

I have a new one I’d like to use but a friend asked me to stop saying it.  I think it’s quite appropriate under the circumstances.  It (less than delicately) explains that people should say what they mean for themselves and stop sending other people to express their concerns.  We all know what happens to the messenger! 

To quote Bill Cosby’s granddaughter, and the title of his new book – Come on people!

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Yay!  This is Tate.  She lives in North Carolina with Sarah and Mowgli.  She looks like she’s about half Mowgli’s size but I think it’s mostly the hair (or lack thereof)… 

This post coulda been about how we asked the waiter to split the $26,41 check at lunch today and one came back as $12.55 and the other was $12.86 but I’m just not sure what the point of that would be – except to continue to shake my head…  been doing that all afternoon and still haven’t come up with an explanation…  So, I won’t blog about that.  Good thing… 

…doesn’t live at my house…  She lives in North Carolina with Sarah and “Tate.”  Her name is Mowgli…  She’s very pretty and very nice and sort of scared of singing/dancing snowmen!  Go figure.  Tomorrow you’ll meet Tate, then I’ll have to post the video of them and singing/dancing snowman…  ttfn…

I took this photo of this wooden church in Kostroma, Russia on a tour in 1994.  There were a few wooden structures that has  been moved to this site to preserve them…  The church was originally near the river so the stilts helped keep the church safe when the river flooded.

Yes, they still exist, in a movie theater even!  Well, okay, it was 11:30 AM on Saturday morning – but still!  The movie cost $5!!  We saw “Be Kind Rewind” – it was cute…  Well worth the $5 price.

The small popcorn and small soda were $8.25!  Yes, I had popcorn and soda at 11:30AM – I was at the it was the movies!  I can’t watch a movie in a theater without popcorn with butter flavoured soybean oil.

Well, it’s not the tundra but things are certainly frozen around here.  Schools in the area are closed – which means we won’t hear about the poor decisions for not closing schools that are often on the news on such evenings.  I wish people would understand that those making the decisions are doing the best they can with the information they have at the time and until Mother Nature provides her own detailed plan to these authorities, they can only do so much! 

We (as a society) seem to forget that we have a responsibility to take responsibility for our own actions.  How ridiculous is it that the “to go” coffee cups at 7-11, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, etc. have a warning that the beverage you are about to drink is hot!  Well, I ordered HOT coffee so it darned well better be!  But our society mandates that since people can’t be trusted to think and be responsible for their actions…  Unfortunately, parts of our society have displayed this by – oh, I don’t know – driving their car with a cup of HOT coffee between their legs with the lid off – and getting third degree burns in places that should never be that kind of hot!  We’re just making some of the lawyers a whole lot richer people!

Anyhow, personal responsibility and choice has kept me in my house today where it is warm and dry – but I still have to work…  I have also taken the responsibility of putting some ice melt stuff on my stairs…  But if it doesn’t work, I’m sure my lawyers will sue the company that made it – for negligence… 

Be safe out there peoples!

I really wish I could find coffee beans that are roasted locally – that I like. 

Currently, I order my coffee from a small roaster in (where else?!?) Seattle… Caffe Vita.  I like the Queen City Blend.  It is described as a blend of medium and dark roasted coffees with ”hints of cocoa, toasted hazelnut, and vanilla. It has medium body, moderate acidity, and a smooth, buttery finish.”  I can’t really discern the “hints of cocoa, toasted hazelnut and vanilla” – all I can say is that I like it. 

This past time I ordered two lbs. and put one in the fridge as it arrived.  I’d rather not have to do that, but it should hopefully keep it a little fresher a little longer – and as long as I don’t keep taking it out and putting it back in – all should be okay.

I suppose one way would be to start roasting my own coffee and then package and sell it, but we all know that’s just not going to happen (not right now anyhow).  So for now, I will order and have it shipped and always know I have yummy coffee for the morning.