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NO more complaining that there’s not enough time to get it all done: On the last day of this year, you’ll have a whole extra second to finalise your New Year’s resolutions. According to timekeepers at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, the time determined by atomic clocks and the observed rotation of Earth have again become mismatched. As long as all the world’s computer systems engineers have their ones and zeros in a row, there’ll be an additional breath of time at 6:59:59 p.m. ET on Dec 31, the US Naval Observatory announced on July 6.
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ENGLISH illustrator Edward Whymper developed an interest in mountaineering after being sent to sketch the mountain scenery of Switzerland in 1860. In 1865, after several failed attempts, he and his expedition party became the first to climb the Matterhorn – one of the last Alpine mountains to be ascended. Tragically, during the descent, four of his companions were killed in a fall. Whymper describes his experiences in Scrambles Amongst the Alps.
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WHEN you feel a pain in your side or scratch in your throat, your first reaction may be to go online and use a symptom checker to diagnose yourself. But how good is the information and advice these online programmes dole out? In the first large-scale study of the accuracy of online symptom checkers, researchers from Harvard Medical School found that these programmes correctly identified the illness on the first attempt only about one-third of the time.
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ONE of the deadliest jobs in the US, Alaskan crab fishing requires fishermen to avoid drowning, hypothermia, and injuries from heavy machinery while hauling their cargo from the freezing waters off the coast of Alaska. The approved fishing season for a single king crab species can be as short as four days, requiring crew to toil tirelessly in dangerous conditions; but since deckhands are paid a percentage of the ship’s profit, motivation is high.
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THE Bastille was a 14th-century fortress that became a notorious state prison in Paris. An angry mob assaulted the Bastille – which had come to symbolize the French monarchy’s oppression of the people – on July 14, 1789, freeing the political prisoners held there and launching the French Revolution. July 14 has been celebrated since that time in France as Fête Nationale, as well as in French territories. In French Polynesia, it is called Tiurai or Heiva.
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QUOTE of the day: Don’t let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches, just saved from shipwreck: can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see a fellow-passenger swallowed by the waves? – George Eliot (1819-1880)
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