THUNDER AND LIGHTING

Today I learned (thanks Chuck and Josh!) that it isn't that your rubber tires keeping your car grounded that keeps you safe from lighting strikes during a lighting storm.  

I learned that it is due to the engineering of your car, and your car being a Faraday cage.  I already knew what a Faraday cage was because I looked it up after seeing The Sorcerer's Apprentice (yes I saw it, it's a Nicolas Cage movie, and a good one too.)

Speaking of Sorcerer's Apprentice, I hate Fantasia.  

For the animals

Today I learned about Sodium Thiosulfate.

We have a HUGE (that doesn't even begin to describe it) hole in our street.  I would estimate it is 20' x 20' x 20'.

There's a water main break under our street and they've been working on it for a week plus.  There's a guy out on 24 hour duty (okay, multiple guys on shifts) to keep people from falling in, and he'll usually answer the public's questions about what's going on.

The water main break means water needs to be pumped out, and they're pumping it on to our street, which goes down the sewer lines and out to the ocean.

The weirdest thing is that they've been dripping a liquid in to it from 5 gallon jugs, just a few drops a minute.  The jug is just set up on the curb with a drip valve on it.  It's labeled Sodium Thiosulfate, and my boyfriend was curious as to what it was for.  So we learned a thing or two.  Basically, it dechlorinates water so that it makes it safe for animals to drink. From wikipedia;

To dechlorinate tap water for aquariums or treat effluent from waste water treatments prior to release into rivers. The reduction reaction is analogous to the iodine reduction reaction. Treatment of tap water requires between 0.1 grams and 0.3 grams of pentahydrated (crystalline) sodium thiosulfate per 10 liters of water.


Somehow I don't think the jug with the valve on it on the curb is that precisely metered.

The blog is back, Dewlap!

Dewlap - noun - loose skin hanging under the neck; especially of a bovine animal.

Today I learned what a dewlap is.  I always thought it was called a wattle.  Wattle is typically reserved for birds.  I'll spare you pictures.

I was reading a book and one of the characters says that another character is unattractive and is never going to catch a husband "especially with that dewlap." so of course I had to look up what a dewlap is.

As for the absence of the blog, there was a bit of a hiccup with wifi while house sitting.  The cleaners threw away the envelope with the wifi password before I had a chance to connect my computer.  I'm sure I could have LEARNED how to figure out what the password was from my boyfriend's computer (which was already connected to it) but I was lazy and decided to take some time off.  If I couldn't do it on the internet from my phone, I didn't.

I got a lot of reading done.  I read a book about sister wives.  I read short ebook about the construction of the statue of liberty.  I read a short ebook about one of the guys on the FBIs most wanted list.  All of which could have provided topics for the blog, but since I didn't learn any of those things today, they don't count!