I know what you're thinkin'… Biblical rains are forecast and you figure you're gonna be workin' on the boat all day Saturday and you haven't got a clue how far 40 cubits really is, right? Historically, the cubit was taken as the length of the arm from the elbow to the middle finger.  It was also considered to be six palms - one palm being the width of the hand or four digits. A more modern way to think of the cubit is in terms of parsecs. A parsec is defined as the distance from the earth to a star that has a radius of parallax motion of 1 arc-second - that is, it appears to deviate from its mean position by 1/60th of 1/60th of a degree. Parsecs are generally accepted to measure approximately 19,176,075,967,324.937 miles. By appending the prefix atto- (as in "atto boy!"), meaning one quintillionth, we create the more convenient unit, the attoparsec, 14.8 of which is about equal to one cubit. So, simply stated, make that boat just shy of a tenth of a furlong and you'll be all set.

Now we have to consider the time.  Starting in 2007, the U.S. began beginning Daylight Savings Time at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday in March - an idea postulated early on by Benjamin Franklin in order to minimize use of oil lamp wicks. The net of this today is that instead of starting our typical 5:30 AM run only 13 minutes before the onset of civil twilight - when the sun is a mere 6 degrees below the horizon, the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under good weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; the horizon is clearly defined and the brightest stars are visible under good atmospheric conditions in the absence of moonlight or other illumination - we will instead, this coming Tuesday, be setting out a full one hour and thirty-three minutes ahead of sunrise! And we'll bear the brunt of that impact this Sunday morning as we sacrifice an hour of sleep for the sake of trimming the entire country's electricity usage by a small but significant amount, about one percent each day, because less electricity is used for lighting and appliances, according to studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation - who really have no business estimating energy use for lighting and appliances in the first place.

So, once the waters recede and the clocks have normalized… I'll be leaving my place at 7:30 AM EDT (which will likely feel a lot like 6:30 AM EST), this Sunday morning for a relaxed run of about 35,200 cubits over the Sagamore hill: http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/north-reading/31642340. Strap on some Gatorade and c'mon along!!!

   ->>> John <<<-