Comments on: Q: “Once in a blue moon” is a rare event. But what does “blue moon” really mean?

By: discount air suspension kits uk

discount air suspension kits uk — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:59:02 +0000

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By: Chas.K.Castle

Chas.K.Castle — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:37:43 +0000

I suppose that some of this will change a bit after the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami last week. I understand that it shortened our day, again. Hmmmm. – Charly

By: Debby

Debby — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:50:49 +0000

for(int i=1890; i<1910; i++)
{
NSDateFormatter *df = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease];
[df setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"];
NSString *s = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%02d-02-01 01:00:00", i];;
NSDate *aDate = [df dateFromString:s];
NSLog(@"s=(%@) dateFromString=(%@)", s, aDate);

// Why do some dates around the beginning of the 19th century show a GMT hour-offset of HUNDREDS of hours????
// 1902-02-01 01:00:00 -053211
}

By: elvis kovacic

elvis kovacic — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:24:10 +0000

Cool topic. I never real thought about the moon benig blue but now that I think of it, its blue alot.

By: Twan

Twan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:50:06 +0000

To bad, you didn’t include the maya calendars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar) because these are the only ones in sync with the moon / nature

By: Alex Hilton

Alex Hilton — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:23:06 +0000

Matt,

You’re talking about an average slowing over billions of years being counteracted by a temporary speeding up.

Bit like having a couple of cold years in an otherwise above temperature decade not making a difference to a general warming trend

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:42:57 +0000

Best thing I read today. Thanks.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:13:28 +0000

What an excellent, fascinating post — thank you.

By: Daphne

Daphne — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:13:37 +0000

Maybe we should stop focussing on moons and calendars and think about cooking: French “bleu” means rare and is translated “blue” in American cookery. If we can understand why raw steak is called rare in English and bleu (blue) in French we may understand why something which happens less often than at least once a year; whether the 13th lunar month, the third full moon in a season of four, or two full moons in the same month – is called rare/bleu/blue.

By: matt

matt — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:02:17 +0000

How can the Earth’s rotation be speeding up AND slowing down simultaneously?

“Surprisingly, while just about every year between 1972 and 1999 required a leap second to keep the clock synchronized with the Earth’s rotation, there have only been two leap seconds added in the last ten years. The Earth has sped up just a bit, and no one knows why.”

“…the Earth’s rotation is also slowing down and will eventually match the orbit of the moon.”