I use a Mac. One of the keys on a Mac keyboard is the Command key, which sports an apple (like the logo) and a "feature" symbol (illustrated here). This symbol is used on road signs in Scandinavia to show historical sites or sites of special interest (like museums). This page gives a good description of how this symbol came to be used on the Mac and on the road signs, but what I can't find is what the symbol originally meant in Viking times (if anything). Can anyone tell me or point me to a web-page?
Oh, is that why!
I subscribed to an online Page-A-Day calendar last year, and for Valentine's, they gave me a code to subscribe to one for free this year. So I opted for the Fact or Crap calendar. Browsing January, I got the answer to a puzzlement: Why do you see the whole moon even when it's new? Y'know, you look up, see that bare line of a crescent, but can also make out the rest of the circle, the rest of the moon. Why isn't the dark part completely invisible? Earthshine, that's why. Just like the moon, the Earth reflects sunlight, too - enough to let you make out the whole moon even when it's dark. The strength of the earthshine depends on Earth's cloud cover. I knew the Earth reflected light, like the moon, if not as well; I just never realized that was why a new moon is visible. UPDATE: There was a derailment in the comments; two trains of thought couldn't stay on the same track. My American pop culture references do not extend to TV-series of the 1950...
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