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What is known for certain is that Leif and the boy eventually found each other and the young man was recognized as his son.

Nevertheless, Leif left the island and got to Norway by the fall. King Olaf welcomed him to his court and asked if Leif had plans for a voyage to Greenland. The king had recently been converted to Christianity and wanted Leif to proclaim Christianity to the Norse settlers living in Greenland, including his parents. He returned to Greenland, and as the king wished, spread the message of Christianity. Leif’s mother, Thjodhild, quickly adopted the new religion, but his father, Eric, was reluctant to give up his pagan beliefs. Only when Thjodhild refused to live with

him as man and wife, did Eric the Red finally convert to Christianity.

Leif Eiriksson’s exploration and discovery of America was inspired by the accidental voyage of Bjarni Herjulfson.

As a skilled sailor and trader, Herjulfson had devoted himself to going on trading voyages from Iceland every other year

In 1002 BCE, Leif Eiriksson decided to explore the unknown lands discovered by Herjulfson while on the quest for his father.

Leif bought a ship from Bjarni and gathered a crew of thirty-five men.

Eric, his father, was approached about being the expedition leader. A fall from a horse prior to embarking convinced Eric that he would be unlucky on the voyage and that he was too old to set off on another adventure. Leif himself took command and the ship and crew departed.

The first country Leif encountered was the last one Herjulfson had seen. It was barren, with glacier-topped mountains and vast stretches of rock-covered ground

Initiating the practice of naming the lands he found after their geological and physical traits, he called this area Helluland, or “land of flat rocks.” (Labrador)

The second country Leif sailed to was level and wooded, with deep white beaches and a sloping shoreline. He called this place Markland (Newfoundland) or “forest land.” Leaving there, he sailed northeast. He found an island north of the mainland. He and his crew sailed the channel between the island and mainland and steered west. When they found land they went ashore, discovering a small river that flowed to the sea. They returned, took the ship up the river to a lake where they decided to build houses, and stayed through the winter.

The area had salmon in the river and lake; the winter was mild and almost frost-free, and the grass did not wither during the cold season.

The hours of daylight and nighttime were more equally divided than in either Iceland or Greenland

Leif divided his crew in half, determined to explore the area. Half would stay in camp while the other half went as a group to investigate the surroundings. The exploration crew was to go no further than the distance they could travel in order to return to camp by nightfall.

to explore the area. Half would stay in camp while the other half went as a group to investigate the surroundings. The exploration crew was to go no further than the distance they could travel in order to return to camp by nightfall.

The subdivision of hours and minutes into 60 comes from the ancient Babylonians who had a predilection for using numbers to the base 60. For example, III II (using slightly different strokes) meant three times 60 plus two or 182.

"We have retained from the Babylonians not only hours and minutes divided into 60, but also their division of a circle into 360 parts or degrees," says Lomb.

While each country has (in broad terms) historically had distinct measurements for distance, weights etc the method of splitting the day into 24 hours, one hour into 60 mins and one minute into 60 seconds seems to be the only one in use, and indeed to me the only one I know of. This non-metric measurement of time is far from ideal, but what other comparably accurate methods have been used historically?

Why are there 24 hours in a day? No one really knows. However, the tradition goes back a long way. Take, for example, this quote from Encyclopedia Britannica:

Why are there 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute? Again, it is unclear. It is known, however, that Egyptians once used a calendar that had 12 30-day months, giving them 360 days. This is believed to be the reason why we now divide circles into 360 degrees. Dividing 360 by 6 gives you 60, and 60 is also a base number in the Babylonian math system.

What do a.m. and p.m. mean? These abbreviations stand for ante meridiem, before midday, and post meridiem, after midday, and they are a Roman invention. According to Daniel Boorstin in his book The Discoverers, this simple division of the day into two parts was the Romans' first increment of time within a day:

Children who have night terrors also may have a tendency to sleepwalk and/or urinate in bed.

The causes of night terrors are not well understood. Children usually stop having them by puberty.

People constantly regenerate new taste buds every 3-10 days to replace the ones worn out by scalding soup, frozen yogurt, and the like. Unfortunately, aspeople grow older, their taste buds lose their fine tuning because they are replaced at a slower rate.

(The number of taste buds varies in different animal species. For example, cows have 25,000 taste buds, rabbits 17,000, and adult people approximately 10,000.)

Each rain droplet reflects all colors at a given point and time, but only one color comes back to your eye, requiring million of rain droplets to create a rainbow.  As the rain droplets fall through the sky, the colors of the spectrum being reflected and refracted are constantly changing.

The perfect time and place to look for a rainbow you need bright sunlight to your back and rain clouds off in the distance in the direction of your shadow. If it is later than 4:30 in the afternoon or earlier than 8:30 in the morning at these condition there is a very good chance you will be able to see a rainbow in the sky.  Other places you may see rainbows formed are fountains, in the ocean as the waves crash against the rock which create a mist in the air, waterfalls, sprinklers and mist from a garden hose. Always remember to have the sun at your back to see a rainbow, happy rainbow hunting!!!!!!

Rainbows form a complete circle, however only half is visible.  The horizon only  Picture from the web site of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University                                                             allows us to see half of the rainbow circle, so we see just an arc.  What causes the rainbow to have a circular formation is the way that rain droplets fall.  The rain droplets do not fall is flat sheet, however they tend to fall at various distances and speeds.  On some occasions you can see a full circle around a garden hose.

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