2 - ... connected to Huckleberry Finn !

Q - What connects the classic book Huckleberry Finn to the number 2? Read on ...

The Number 2 is almost as prominent in the world as number 1.
Take the human body which has 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, and 2 ears for starters. And there are just 2 sexes, male and female (the mind boggles but wouldn't it be interesting if there was 3 or 4).

Some families have 'twins' which happens about 1 in every 100 pregnancies.

And we are told we have 2 sides to our brain - left and right

How many of each animal species did Moses brink on the ark?
Did you say 2 before thinking about the question? It's an old trick question as it wasn't Moses but Noah who rounded up 2 of each animal for his the ark.

In sport a score of 2 is not that common but it does arise in rugby with 2 points for the conversion of a try. And of course you can get a 2 in golf as a score on a hole or maybe as a result i.e 2 under for the round.

Can you name any hit songs that had 2 in the title? Here's a few...

• Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• It Takes Two - Marvin Gaye
• Two Becomes One - The Spice Girls
• Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
• Two Hearts Beat as One - U2   (two's all round for this one )
• Just The Two of Us - Will Smith
• 2 4 6 8 Motorway - Tom Robinson
• and this one ...

Words can often be paired in twos - as opposites .... like North and South, East and West, Yes and No, Far and Near, Black and White, Up and Down , In and Out, Day and Night, Back and Forward, Hot and Cold,  .... it's endless ...

And on the subject of words many of the most used words in the english language have just two letters (although funnily two itself has three letters).... to...is....an....at....on....in...or...up...me...oh...my...


So back to our opening question about Huckleberry Finn. The answer is in the authors name, Mark Twain. The bold Mark was actually born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he worked as a pilot on the boats on the mighty Mississippi. In boat language at the time a 'fathom' was a measure of water depth (= 6 feet). 2 Fathoms(12 feet) was called a twain ( which was an old english word for 2) and the shout 'mark twain' was often called by the crew (and often by Samuel) as they navigated the river. When Samuel started writing he adopted 'Mark Twain' as his pen name 

10 - Lionel Messi - Probably The Best .....

Q - what age was Lionel Messi when he signed for Barcelona? 13, 15, 17 or 19. Read on ...

He Wears No 10 for Barcelona and on Saturday next will be one of the "Barca" superstars playing in the 2011 Champions League Final against another team of superstars, "The Red Devils", Manchester United. But the little Argentinian, Messi, is likely to be the most celebrated and idolised player on the pitch.

Some Facts on Lionel Messi

23 - His age (born 24 June 1987)

11 - His age when he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency

13 - his age when he was signed by Barcelona and moved with his entire family from Argentina to Spain and Barcelona agreed to pay the medical costs of treating his growth deficiency

5'-7" - His height today (1.69m)

16 - age he debuted with Barcelona (friendly)

17 - age for debut in the Spanish league, La Liga

52 - the number of goals Messi has scored in the 2010/11 season from 50 matches in all competitions.

47 - the number of goal she scored in previous season - 2009/10 (53 matches)

38 - and goals in the season befor that 2008/09 (51 matches) - so each year the tally is going up

9+1 - in his first season (2004/05) he played 9 games and scored 1 goal

1883 - the year his grandfathre emigrated from Italy to Arentina

10 - Messi started wearing the no. 10 club jersey in 2008 when the previous 'owner', Ronaldinho, left

250 - Messi has a 250 million euro buy-out clause in his most recent contract.

No. 1 - He is ranked the number 1 player in the world by FIFA. In 2007 he was rated 2nd behind Kaka, in 2008 2nd behind Christiano Ronaldo and the in 2009 he was the winner and again in 2010. He was the first Argentinian to win the award.

24 - What A Difference A Day Makes

The International Date Line - If you want a group conversation that will lead to confusion just bring up the topic of the International Date Line (IDL) and see who understands it or who can explain it.

Q - Take a look at the image above - If it's 6.00 pm Sunday in Samoa what time is it in New Zealand?

In fact a better starter question is what day is it in New Zealand - is it Saturday, Sunday or Monday? Read on ....

If you cross over the IDL from east to west (Samoa to Fiji say) do you gain a day or lose a day?  

Here we go. Lets' look at time zones around the world
New Zealand - Say 5 pm Monday afternoon in New Zealand.
London - New Zealand is 11 hours ahead of London GMT so it's 6 am on Monday morning in London (or Dublin).

New York - At that moment in New York (another 5 hours) it's just 1 am Monday morning

Los Angeles - It's another 3 hours earlier in Los Angeles means it is 10 pm on Sunday night there.

Samoa - it's another 4 hours earlier again in Samoa so that leaves the time there at 6 pm on Sunday night

So what this is telling us is that Samoa and other territories to the right of the IDL are treated as being in the American Time Zone and as we travel around the world from East to West (from New Zealand to Europe to the USA) the time gets earlier and earlier - across different time zones making up 23 hours in total. So, we see that at 5pm Monday in New Zealand it is 6pm Sunday in Samoa. 

Therefore, in time zone terms crossing the IDL from East to West usually means jumping a day forward - in theory if the journey takes an hour  you can leave Samoa at 6pm Sunday and it will be 6pm Monday when you get to your destination 1 hour later.

On the other hand if you leave New Zealand at 6pm on Monday and fly east in the direction of Samoa then 1 hour later it will be just 6pm on Sunday - you've gone back a day in time !!

Could you fly fast around the world and go backwards or forwards more than 1 day? Nope, as every time you do the circuit and cross the IDL the day you have gained (or lost depending on which direction you are travelling) resets.

And now that you know all this guess what? Samoa has just made a decision to move the IDL to the other side and from 29 Dec 2011 it will now be in New Zealand / Australia time and not US time. It is doing this for good economic reasons as NZ and Aussie are it's main trading partners. With the time as it currently is it means that when it's Friday in Samoa it's Saturday in NZ and when its Sunday in Samoa it's Monday in NZ - not ideal for regular weekday business trading.
Today 6pm Sunday in Samoa = 3 pm Monday in Sydney. After the change 3 pm Monday in Sydney = 6pm Monday in Samoa. At least the days of the week are lined up an that makes more sense if you live in Samoa !! But the change over itself will mean that Samoans will lose 1 full day in their calendar. Now, where did it go ???