What do Stevie Wonder, Michelle Obama, Adele, Nicki Minaj, Selena Gomez, and Kanye West all have in common?
If you’re a fan of James Corden’s, Late Late Show, this teaser is a no-brainer.
That’s right; all the aforementioned celebrities have taken a spin with James Corden to be a part of his highly popular “Carpool Karaoke” skits.
His latest skit with the First Lady hit the airwaves earlier this week. Always the politician (well, she is the wife of the very politically minded President of the United States), Michelle took the opportunity to promote her Let Girls Learn initiative. Personally, I like that First Ladies aren’t just about being eye candy (or karaoke divas). But I digress!
On the slim chance you somehow missed this gem of a video you can watch the full clip below and see First Lady and Corden singing hits from Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, and Missy Elliot. Let’s just say the First Lady knows how to jam! Hang on for the surprise around the 10-minute mark.
​How’s the weather out your way?
Crazy pretty much sums up most of the United States. No, I’m not talking politics. I’m sticking to the weather. I think we’ve all had enough politics for this week.
How about some storm chasing?
Twenty-thousand miles and 18 days later Mike Olbinski put together an amazingly beautiful video called Vorticity. Talk about blowin’ your mind! No worries about getting wet, either.
​If you’ve been following my blog lately, you undoubtedly know Alaska has been a BIG part of my travels.
Which reminds me; I had no idea just how BIIIIIIIG the state of Alaska!
Did you know Alaska is thirteen times as big as England; almost five times as big as Germany; almost 17 times bigger than Iceland; essentially the same size as Iran? Who knew?
Compared to Rhode Island, Alaska is 547 times as big.
On the other hand, Australia, Canada, China and India are bigger than Alaska (4 times bigger, six times bigger, 5 times bigger and almost 2 times bigger respectively).
Okay, ladies; we all know size doesn’t matter.
I could go on and on ad nauseam (my specialty) or I could simply share this link where all the magic/comparing happens with the click of a mouse.
And speaking of size, check out this link, the true size of . . .
Size, as we all know, is relative.
Ever notice on a world map just how big Greenland looks relative to say, the U.S. It looks huge!
Type in Greenland on the true size website and Greenland will pop up outlined very colorfully. Drag that big puppy on down to the land mass representing the United States and check out what happens.
Don’t ask me why it happens! I’m just the messenger.
You can read all about Mercator Projection (a navigational approach to representing our 3D world on a two-dimensional map) via this link.
​Here’s my take on this clever technique originally developed in 1569 by, you guessed it, Flemish geographer and cartographer Geradus Mercator.
Assume the earth has been wrapped in a perfectly sized square sheet of wrapping paper (the paper is just big enough to go around the globe at the equator). The square sheet of wrapping paper is covered in a grid labeled with east-west lines called latitudes and north-south lines called longitudes.
Obviously the paper is going to get crinkled as it’s pressed onto the globe, top to bottom. Oh, and did I mention the paper is veeeeery special wrapping paper that absorbs the imprint of each land mass on the globe.
When that wrapping paper is removed from the globe and laid out flat again, the land masses further and further north and south of the equator (i.e. Greenland and Antarctica) are going to be distorted; they're going to be bigger (and minus a continuous border) because of that distortion.
Voila! Mercator Projection without all the mathematics; and a reliable way for early sailors to navigate the globe thanks to the grid system.
Try some navigating yourself via the true size of . . . website or via the MapFight website.
Don’t go alone. Grab the kids and/or the grandkids and make it a trip all will remember in our quest to reduce geographic illiteracy.
You get an A+ for making it through today’s math/geography lesson disguised as a blog post.
A bit off the normal blog post but thoroughly interesting. And yes, size IS relative.
That about sizes things up.