98 years of non-stop cat videos!

Wow!

Do you have any idea what goes on every day on the Internet?

Every DAY.

I didn't.

 MBAOnline.com does.  Click  here to view the full mind-blowing visual representation of of the things that happen - the sheer numbers will astonish you.

I mean - it would take 2 YEARS to process the emails sent in ONE DAY on the internet - talk about being connected.

I think my favorite comparison is the number of cat videos :-)  But the 80 Eiffel Towers worth of photos is a close second.

There is so much out there - everyone is sharing - the world has become incredibly small.

Laredo, folks :-)

Bees May Have Personalities!

I read an interesting article this morning ( Bee Personalities ) that really got me thinking.

It seems that bees exhibit personalities - some are thrill-seekers, some go-getters, others sulky, some indifferent.

The colony as a whole is hardworking, but the bees individually display traits that lead scientists to believe they have personalities.

Wow.  If insects have personalities, then could insects be persons? Wikipedia says "Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual. "  Well, we know bees are individuals - there are worker bees, queen bees, drones.  But do bees have emotions?

The scientists think so. Or at least they think that genetically humans and insects use the same molecular pathways.

We are more connected than we think.  Lots to ponder.

Weighty Matters

How much does a cloud weigh?

I love clouds. Especially storm clouds - they have so much character. They're also HUGE.

I've always wondered how much a cloud weighs. After all, they float in the air - so they can't weigh that much, can they? But then planes fly in the air and they weigh tons - literally. 

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) told me just what I wanted to know:

  "A typical cumulus cloud (the most common cloud) is about 1 cubic kilometer in volume and 2 km above ground. Air density is estimated to be at about 1.007 kg/m3. The clouds (water droplets) are less dense and come close to 1.003 kg/m3 (which is also why they float). There are estimated to be 1,000,000 cubic meters of droplets in an average cumulus cloud. 

A cumulus cloud weighs over a billion kilograms. Which is over a billion kilograms of droplets or close to 2.2 billion pounds.

Assuming a blue whale is close to 160 (160,000 kg) tones in weight, a cumulus cloud weighs as much as 6,268.75 blue whales!"

Thank you NOAA.  Six thousand whales - next time I look up into the sky and see clouds, they may not seem so light and fluffy!

Spring is Coming!

The rabbits held a conference last night.


I know this because I saw their tracks in the snow this morning, as I was walking Dasch (my dog).


It was a conference because there were hundreds of tracks crisscrossing each other, coming from different directions, and all meeting in the center of the play area of the subdivision where I live. 


It was wonderful to see.  I knew we had rabbits - I see them occasionally in the summer, cute sandy brown bunnies - but I had no idea there were so many!  And that they lived all around us - tracks led from many of the townhouses, and across streets leading to the play areas!


What's really cool is that they all met in the center - I wonder what they talked about?