The 366th Day

It's a Leap! February 29th comes around once every four years when one extra day is added to the calendar so that the vernal equinox falls on or about March 21st every year. So why one extra day? Well, it's because of the way the earth turns. It somehow ends up with 6 additional hours at the end of the year. 6 x 4 = 24. So, we get extra 24 hours every four years. Don't say you weren't given extra time!

But, do you know that "years which are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are also evenly divisible by 400"? Huh? Check out Wikipedia for a full explanation.

A Gorgeous Leap. The sun was out and the weather was mild. The sun was much welcome after all the rainy days in January. A great day to dry out. This seagull agreed. He (or maybe a she) sat on the post and didn't move a feather the whole time I was there.



Two Leaps Ago: Met up with the DFS gang for dinner tonight. Some of them I have not seen since I left in February 2000. Coincidently, that was a leap year too. Time flies... Can't believe that I've been gone 8 years, two years short of my tenure there.

WE ARE GETTING OLD but luckily not in leap years.

The Vanished Moon

THERE'S A TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE TODAY, but Mother Nature had to ruin the viewing for those of us living in the fog zone. Eclipse or not, we saw no moon.

Definitions found on Wikipedia: an eclipse (Greek verb: , "to vanish", though it derives from the prefix 'ex-', "away from", and Greek 'leipein', "to leave") is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another...

Being at the right place at the right time. Although a total lunar or solar eclipse is not a rare event, it depends on where you are on Earth when it happens in order to see it. For those of us who live on this part of the planet, the next total lunar eclipse won't be for another two years.

A science class refresher (for me mostly):

• Solar Eclipse: when the earth, moon and the sun are in alignment with the moon blocking the sun as seen from the earth.
• Lunar Eclipse: when the moon, earth and the sun line up with the earth blocking the sun and casting its shadow on the moon.
• New Moon: when the moon is between the earth and the sun. Sunlight does not strike the side of the moon facing earth. So we hardly see the moon.
• Full Moon: when the moon and the sun are directly opposite of each other with earth in the middle. Sunlight strikes the side of the moon facing earth so we see an illuminated moon.

So, solar eclipse happens during the new moon phase and lunar eclipse during full moon. Make sense?

Can't visualize what's it look like? Here's a link: The Moon Phases

我對佛說...

Jean forwarded the below email to me. It's one of the best chain mail I've ever received. So must share. I made a minor change though. I want EVERYONE I love - families and friends, not just friends - to be well, happy and safe.

我對佛說：讓我愛的每個人永遠健康快樂!

佛說：只能四天.
我說: 好,春天、夏天、秋天、冬天。

佛說：三天.
我說：好，昨天、今天、明天。

佛說：不行，兩天。
我說：好，白天、黑天。

佛說：不行，就一天。
我說：好。

佛問：哪一天?
我說：在每個人活著的每一天！

佛笑了……說：以後你所有愛的每個人將天天健康快樂.

Leader of the Pack

Move over Golden Pig. We won't see the pig for another twelve years. Further, no golden pig for another 60 years.

So what animal am I? If I tell you, then you know my age. In Chinese/Asian cultures, it's ok to ask what animal a person was born in. Depends on whether the animal is before or after you, you can more or less figure out the age. Clever, isn't it? But, you do need to know the 12 animals and the order they finished in the astrological race.

The rat ushers in Year 4706 tomorrow. It leads the other 11 animals to start this new 12-year cycle. New parade of animals. New beginning. New hope.

To learn more about the rat and his friends, check out: The Year of the Rat .

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone. May this brown rat bring you joy and prosperity!

Hello Out There!

Read on today's paper that NASA is beaming Beatles' song, "Across the Universe" to the North Star. What amazes me is that even traveling at the speed of light, it will still take 431 years for any aliens living on the North Star to receive and hear the song. The North Star, Polaris, is 2.5 quadrillion miles away.

That's 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (24 zeros) miles!!!

Just think, by the time the aliens receive the transmission of this song, we will all be history. What will our world be like 431 years from now? Will we know that some aliens out there finally hear us? Will they like the song?

Likewise, what if we receive a song from another distant planet now? How long did it take for it to get to us? What was their world like back then and now? What is Past, Now and Future??? In the space continuum of the universe, it doesn't seem that important.

My brain hurts...