ON EARTH?
The hottest air temperature ever recorded was in Death Valley, California, in June 1913, of 134°F (56°C). (There was actually a temperature of 136°F recorded in Libya in 1922, but that’s considered dubious due to problems with the instrumentation.) Either way, temperatures of over 110°F (43°C) are common in Death Valley each year from May to October, which makes it all the more extraordinary that long-distance races are run across it. The Badwater Ultramarathon is run across Death Valley in summer each year – 135 miles (217 km) from the lowest point in California to the foothills of Mount Whitney. The runners tend to use the white lines in the middle of the road. If they run on black tarmac, their shoes melt. Human beings can be extraordinary.
The coldest place on the earth is Antarctica. This measurement is complicated by wind chill, which can make a low temperature much, much lower. However, in still air, the coldest temperatures recorded in Antarctica are −135°F (−93°C). The Antarctic Ice Marathon has been run every December since 2006. It takes place at 80 degrees south latitude, at the foot of the Ellsworth Mountains. Although it is run during the Antarctic ‘summer’, temperatures of −20°C (−4°F) are common, with winds of 10–25 knots.
(Note: Centigrade/Celsius (C) is used almost universally in Britain, influenced by its wide adoption in European countries. Fahrenheit (F) used to be the British standard and is still more common in America. The best idea, it seems to us, is to use Fahrenheit for hot days (It’s 80 degrees!) and Centigrade for cold days (It’s −5!) There’s no particular reason to choose Fahrenheit (German/Polish/Dutch) over Celsius (Swedish), but using both underlines that they are utterly artificial and man-made.)
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Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) was a German scientist and the first to notice that the continents of earth look as if they might fit together. Africa and South America share a suspiciously similar-looking coastline, for example.
Wegener’s theory was that continents drift on enormous plates – and if time could be wound back, they would creep towards one another. The original land mass would have been a single super-plate that slowly broke up to form modern continents. Later measurements of drifting plates and similarities in fossil records have borne out the theory. The name ‘Pangaea’ was coined to describe that single land mass of ‘all the earth’.
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The short answer is yes. This is measurable by the length of the day, which is getting longer. That much is certain – 2017 was the fourth year in a row that we measured a decrease in the earth’s spin. The reasons for this are still a matter of conjecture, of course. One theory is that the moon exerts a braking effect on the earth. That is a good possibility. We know tides are created by the moon’s gravitational pull. It makes sense that this might exert a slowing effect.
However, the effect is incredibly small. It would take millions of years to get to the point of a 28-hour day, for example.
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There are two possibilities. The Nile is usually given as the longest river system on earth, providing water to eleven countries and stretching 4,200 miles (6,700 km) across Africa. However, until every tributary and source has been mapped and measured, we can never know for certain.
The river rises in the great lakes of central Africa and flows north until it reaches Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Amazon in South America is the other candidate. Usually described as the second-longest river in the world, it too has its champions and it is true that more water passes through the Amazon than the Nile each day. It begins in Brazil – or Peru, depending whom you ask. Rivers can run underground, which is one of the reasons it’s not always easy to measure their length and pin down the exact source. Still, these are by far the two longest – the Amazon is just over 4,000 miles (6,400 km).
Every boy learns a basic tie knot in school – the ‘four-in-hand’ or ‘schoolboy’ knot. You can probably do it in your sleep. However, that’s no reason to go through your whole life tying the same knot. The Windsor knot is just as easy to do – and it’s a neat, symmetrical knot. In From Russia, With Love, Ian Fleming writes that a Windsor knot is too flashy – a knot that rouses James Bond’s suspicions. If that was ever true, it isn’t now. The Windsor is used by the Royal Air Force and the armed forces of Canada and the United States. It suits a wide collar. Tie it a dozen times. Chances are, you’ll never go back to your primary-school knot again.
There is a ‘wide end’ and a ‘narrow end’ to a tie. That’s pretty much it for terminology.
1. Begin with the wide end ten or twelve inches longer than the narrow end. You’ll find a first position that works for you – and you’ll learn which shirt button (fourth or fifth) you prefer to align with the narrow end. Cross the long wide end over the narrow end.
2. Bring the wide end up underneath on the left side of the narrow end, pulling it through.
3. Take the wide end around the back of the narrow end and then over the right-hand side of the knot, pulling it through.
4. Completing the knot is very similar to the schoolboy knot. Take the wide end across, then up behind the knot. Poke it under the top layer and pull taut. Adjust as you would for the knot you know.
The result is pretty magnificent – a triangular, symmetrical knot – and simpler than most people realise. Left, right, across and under. Worth learning.
Left and right. Mary Evans Picture Library
‘Boxing is the first necessity for a gentleman, unless he wishes to be imposed upon whenever he comes into the company of rough men, stronger than himself. It is necessary, if he wishes to be able to protect a lady from insult, a position in which a man often finds himself.’
Colonel T.H. Monstery, Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies
‘Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face.’
Mike Tyson, former world heavyweight boxing champion
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