Okay, maybe not. Although, Bonnie Tyler’s song did come to mind when I heard about the total lunar eclipse that is happening tonight. No, it’s not nearly as cool as a total solar eclipse. I have only been in a prime spot for one of those in my life and that was many moons ago (ugh! bad pun, I know, but you should know better by now! ) when I was in elementary school. Lunar eclipses happen more often, but are still neat if you get a good seat. According to MSNBC.com, more than half of the planet usually get to see at least some portion of all lunar eclipses:

As is the case with all lunar eclipses, the region of visibility encompasses more than half of our planet. Nearly a billion people in the Western Hemisphere, more than 1.5 billion in Europe and Africa, and perhaps another half-billion in western Asia will be able to watch — weather permitting — as the brilliant midwinter full moon becomes a shadow of its former self and morphs into a glowing coppery ball.

But, this time it seems like those of you in my corner of the world will get an even better view at a time when you’re likely to actually be awake to see it!

Almost everyone in the Americas and Western Europe will have a beautiful view of this eclipse if bad weather doesn’t spoil the show. The moon will be high in a dark evening sky as viewed from most of the United States and Canada, at a time when most people are still awake and about.

If you want to let your Inner Urkel out like me, take a peek at NASA’s Lunar Eclipse Page. It’s actually kinda neat! Or is it just me???

‘Mathlete’ smashes human calculation record: museum

Tue Dec 11, 12:21 PM ET

The world’s fastest human calculator on Tuesday broke his own record for working out a 200-digit number using nothing but brain power to produce the answer in just over 70 seconds.

Alexis Lemaire, a 27-year-old Frenchman, correctly calculated the 13th root of a random 200-digit number from a possible 393 trillion answers.

The so-called ‘mathlete’ produced the answer of 2,407,899,893,032,210 in 70.2 seconds, beating his previous record of 72.4 seconds, at London’s Science Museum.

A computer was used to produce a random 200-digit number before he sat down to calculate the answer in his head.

The museum’s curator of mathematics, Jane Wess, said: “He sat down and it was all very quiet — and all of a sudden he amazingly just cracked it.

“I believe that it is the highest sum calculated mentally.

“He seems to have a large memory and he’s made this his life’s ambition. It’s quite remarkable to see it happen. A very small number of people have this extraordinary ability; nowadays there is only a handful.”

Lemaire, who attends the University of Reims in northern France, began demonstrating his prowess by finding the 13th root of a random 100-digit number but gave up trying to improve his performance when he calculated an answer in under four seconds in 2004.

Like an athlete, he trains his brain daily for the far harder task of finding the 13th root of 200-digit numbers.

Time to spread more holiday cheer! Here is Straight No Chaser, Men’s A Cappella group from Indiana University. They perform a very unique (to me at least) version of everyone’s favorite, The 12 Days of Christmas. Maybe it’s my “Inner Urkey” rearing its ugly head again, but I find this so entertaining!

Thanks to my buddies over on the AO for pointing this one out!

Can any of you tell me what the Homestead Act is? Okay, anyone who didn’t Google it? I know I’m not the lone dummy in the group! Well, there are a couple of kids in Bonanza City that could explain it to you better than most history teachers!

Tonight, it became evident that the Kid Nation is synonomous with Nerd Central. Now, I’m not criticizing those kids. Good for them for being so smart. But, c’mon! How many times do you think this whole group, collectively, has received wedgies, had their lunch money taken, or been charged to go pee at school? I was by no means the coolest kid in school, but I would like to believe that I wasn’t as bad as some of them.

Being made to feel really dumb by some 9-year-olds was not the only thing that happened this week though. They also made most adults look lazy and weak! The Showdown consisted each of the districts having to move their “homestead” west. They had to break down a house (4 walls and a roof) and move it and reconstruct it. Those kids rocked! They got the houses moved in less than an hour and earned their reward.

Of course, there was the age-old dilemma — practical or fun. Hmmm….and what did our younguns choose?

Well, the town sherrif, our friend Sophia, had the final say. I’m pretty sure the girl was going to choose “practical” but as soon as she got in front of everyone and realized that she’d likely be the first one killed off the show, she decided “fun”. What was the fun, you ask? A hot air balloon ride over the town. Now my inner Urkel makes its appearance. I would have said “Screw you all…we’re going for practical.” Or maybe that’s just the witch in me coming out and saying “I don’t like any of you so I just want to make you mad!”

 Oh my god! One of the smart kids is talking (he’s 9) and he’s cracking me up! I have to take a break and finish later cause I’m laughing too hard!

I’m still a “baby” when it comes to this whole blogging thing and making my presence known out there. Everytime I visit a friend’s blog and jump around and check out others, I start finding more and more things that I have no clue. I am determined to make myself more knowledgable. My current target is Technorati. I have a Technorati Profile but am clueless as what it is for. Some days I just feel so dumb!

Seriously, I am not sure if I would ever wear any of these things out in public, but then again, I have a hand painted coffee mug with Actuarial symbols all over it. I am a true geek at heart. C’mon! I work with math! I think math! By definition, no matter how cool I may appear to be, I really am just a dork!

Aside from math, my other passion is coffee! That means that this shirt which has the molecular formula for caffeine on it! Mmmmmmm!!!

So, when you’re racking your brain to find something to buy me, stop by Think Geek! I want to let my dorkiness shine through this year!