(photo: Subhankar Banerjee)

Hey there GBD!  Last week’s true fact was…#3!

1. Each flash of lightning contains about one million volts of electricity. Enough to charge a 100-watt light bulb for three months.  <–  FALSE. Each flash actually contains about one billion volts of electricity, which could charge a 100-watt bulb for three months.  (source)
2. Spider lightning can crawl across the sky for up to 150 miles.  <–  FALSE.  It’s actually only up to 90 miles.  (source)
3. Ball lightning hovers over the ground for a while or bounces around until it fizzles out, sometimes with a bang.  <–  TRUE.  Such a thing exists!  Although rarely observed and documented.  Ball lightning is typically red, orange, or yellow, and can vary in size.  (source)  Scientists were able to create ball lightning, which they documented below. 
4. Kathy was struck by lightning.  Twice.  She figures she should be winning the lottery any day now.  <–  FALSE.  Although, based on my frequent bouts of senility, you’d think I was.  And winning the lottery, by the way, is my Plan A.  Plan B is this whole getting-a-career thing.

Video stills of golf-ball-size ball lightning that bounce across the floor of a Brazilian laboratory.  (video stills: Antonio Pavão)

I figured since I’d be in Alaska by the time you guys read this, that I’d throw in some facts about Alaska. 

1. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for about 5 cents per acre.
2. There are more than 70 potentially active volcanoes in Alaska.
3. Starting in May, the sun doesn’t set for 2 months in Barrow, Alaska.
4. Kathy’s primary concern while in Alaska is that Governor Palin will mistake her for a moose.

If I have any good pics and stuff to share about my time in Alaska, I’ll tell y’all all about when I get back.

Have a great weekends guys!