Tidbits (2 cents)

These come from last month's Smithsonian Magazine. I used to ignore it when it came, but have realized that that is a mistake. Had I not read last month's issue, for example, you would not know the following:

1. Bruce McCandless, the first astronaut to take an untethered space walk (not connected by rope to the spacecraft) is now a research scientist working on the Hubble Space Telescope. His mission's pilot, Robert Gibson, is a pilot on Southwest Airlines. In other words, they have become normal people.

2. The land speed record was set in 1997 at Black Rock Desert in Nevada at 763 miles per hour. But people still like the Bonneville Salt Flats better.

3. Sacagawea, the famous Louis and Clark guide, died at age 25 of an infection. She had married a Frenchman, and had two children, a boy who became a trapper in the west, and a girl about whom nothing is known, except that her name was Lisette.

4. Bruce Molnia, a geologist with the US Geological Survey in Reston has looked at more than 200 old photos of glaciers in Alaska and has retaken the pictures from the same place, at the same time of the year, etc., to show the amount that the glaciers have melted. The amount is a lot.

5. They are tagging blue crabs in the Chesapeake to look at migration patterns as part of tracking the reduction in crab populations, and offering rewards to crabbers who turn in marked crabs. One was found 600 miles from where it was tagged.

6. When Teddy Roosevelt went on his African safari in 1909, his expedition killed 11,397 birds and animals, including 18 rhinosceroses, one of which is still on exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.

7. You can now look at 18th and 19th century Lakota history drawings at http://wintercounts.si.edu.

8. The first person to swim the English channel made it is 21 3/4 hours in 1875. The current record is 7 hours, 17 minutes.

9. In 1937, two fisherman caught an 84 pound bull shark in the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois,just upriver from St. Louis. Sharks have the ability to live in salt or fresh water.

10. Stonehenge was built about 4000 years ago. In 2002, archeologists discovered a tomb near Stonehenge dating from that time. It was the oldest tomb from the area by 2000 years. From examining dental remains of the skeleton (who was buried with some indicia of wealth and importance), they determined that this individual grew up in Central Europe, and not Britain. More questions.

11. Da Lat, from the late 19th century a resort in Viet Nam, is staging a comeback. It is still difficult to get to, and therefore uncrowded. In addition to the elegant Palace Hotel, it has become somewhat of an artists colony. Access is by air from Ho Chi Minh city only, and by road. The railway has not been repaired.

12. The first Guiness Book of Records came out in 1955; it was put together in 16 weeks by Norris and Ross McWhirter, two young sportswriters. The record for balancing a car on your head is held by John Evans who, in 1999, balanced a Mini Cooper on his head for 33 seconds. (Then what happened????)

13. Between 2004 and 2009, Americans will dispose of about 250 million personal computeres, or about 136,000 every day. Each contains toxic metals that can leach into the soil. Americans also dispose of 100,000,000 cell phones annually.

14. There is a real question (as there always has been) about whether the A-bomb was needed to end World War II in the Pacific, or if the Japanese were ready to surrender in any event. The firebombing of Tokyo, before the atomic bomb was dropped, killed more people than did the bomb in Hiroshima.

15. People really do think that an ivory billed woodpecker was spotted last year in the forests of southeastern Arkansas. It would be the first time since the 1970s.

There will be a test on a subsequent posting.