After months of drought, it rained today in Vancouver! It’s raining right now, and we’re all hoping the rain will move up-country, where the firefighters haven’t been winning many recently. The rain arrived accompanied by a big thunderstorm, a rarity here, and I was explaining to the four-year-old about lightning and thunder, and how you shouldn’t go outside because you can get struck by lightning. He said “And when elephants go out in the storm, the lightning hits them, right?” Er, I suppose. I don’t know. And for that matter consider the giraffes with their little hornlets like lightning rods. Is there no lightning on the African savannahs, or do the elephants and giraffes just get zapped sometimes, or what? [Updated: It happens, and it’s worth reading about.]
If You Have Expensive Equipment, Invest in a Surge Protector · So Lauren said “Did you look it up on the Web?” Well, I hadn’t actually, so... well, I must say that a Google search for “elephant lightning” produces one of the single weirdest result lists I have ever seen. American circus elephants are particularly at risk, but also check out the aerial photos at Bible Doctrine News and at all costs don’t miss the story at crazylanka.com, which draws a practical lesson from the elephant/lightning story.
