Given all the quirky detours…
During warm weather, you can find out the temperature by counting cricket chirps for 15 seconds and adding 40. It’s got a name: Dolbears Law
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It’s currently 9:58 pm in part of Oregon and 10:58 pm in part of Florida.
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Were Mr. Dolbear and Sir Isaac Newton roommates?
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Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage was the first to circumnavigate the Earth.
Because tracking time & marking high noon was so crucial to knowing where they were longitudinally, they had 3 official chronographers, crew charged with keeping track of the date. (Why three? Tie breaker in case somebody was off.)
Nearing home and stopping at the Cape Verde islands, they discovered all three were off by one day. They thought it was a Wednesday, the locals assured them it was a Thursday.
They inadvertently discovered the need for an International Date Line, and because they traveled east-to-west, they lost a day. If they had gone west-to-east, they would have picked up a day.
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You and I are cousins
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This is a fascinating book about Magellan’s voyage.
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Here’s a weird fact. In 1974, Cass Elliot died of a heart attack at the age of 32 in a London flat owned by American singer Harry Nilsson that she was borrowing. Four years later, Keith Moon, drummer for the Who, died in the same apartment, which he was renting, also at age 32. His was a drug overdose.
The lesson, I suppose, is that if you are a 32-year old rock star, do not, under any circumstances, enter Flat 12, at 9 Curzon Place in the Mayfair district of Central London.
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Years ago when I was driving cross country and just about dirctly under the gateway arch, I heard a St Louis dj say “do you realize that if Karen Carpenter had eaten Mama Cass’s ham sandwich they would both be alive today?”
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He was not fruitful, but he did know how to multiply.
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(rimshot)
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Here’s a Utah football-related quirky fact: In 1988 Utah lost to Air Force 56-49 in a shootout (typically in Fassel era). In the loss, Utah’s Scott Mitchell set a single-game NCAA record for passing yards. Meanwhile, in that same game, Air Force set an NCAA record for rushing yards in a game. Both records have since been broken.
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Another Utah vs Air Force quirk. In 1986 Air Force was favored to beat the Utes by 7, and the pundits were saying taking Air Force and giving the points was the “lock of the week”. At halftime the Utes were up 35-14. I remember thinking “I got your lock of the week right here”. The Utes eventually lost 45-35. Four straight turnovers in the 4th quarter.
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That sounds right out of the National Lampoon. Love it.
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At the time that game was also in the NCAA record books for most points by a losing team. Tied with another Utah game where we beat New Mexico 58-49.
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Yep, that UNM game was in a blizzard in 1985. Crazy game. Erroll Tucker had a fantastic punt return for a TD.
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I was at that game as a 9-year-old kid. Such a gut wrenching loss in what was a miserable season.
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Some Gen Zers — ages 14 to 29 — are ditching social media in pursuit of better mental health, Axios’ Rebecca Falconer reports.
- It’s part of a wider digital detox movement away from screens and toward analog options.
- Research suggests that social media use is waning — and that more people are embracing app-blocking products and “dumbphones” that lack social media apps.
Chris Wells, a self-described former “Twitter and Instagram junkie,” tells Axios that he’s “99% off” social media after doing a “Month Offline” challenge.
- The 26-year-old says: “I didn’t know who I was without my social media accounts, and when I quit, it was pretty miraculous.”
- "The one thing that really came back to me was a sense of privacy. I hadn’t really felt that since I was a kid."
17-year-old Aditi Ediga deleted her phone’s social media apps last fall.
- Ediga says: “One reason why teenagers don’t want to delete apps and stop using them is that they’re scared they’re going to miss out on stuff, and then I realized I wasn’t really missing out on anything.”
NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of a bestselling book on the effects of childhood tech use, tells Axios: “What you’re seeing now, especially among Gen Z, is a self-correction back toward real-world connection.”
- "They’ve felt the costs of isolation and are rediscovering what actually leads to flourishing."
Yes, but: Plenty of young Americans are still spending countless hours on social media, with platforms facing calls to ban or restrict teen access.
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Karen Carpenter was the best drummer of all time and never makes any of the lists.
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Seen best drummer lists that include Karen near the top, but other longs lists skip her completely. Such a wonderful performer who was beautiful but tragically was misled to believe otherwise.
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