Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for January 09, 2015

That’s loco, La Paz!

Google has underwater cables?

I have a watch that runs counter clockwise, with Goofy on it instead of Mickey Mouse.

I’ve always said my two long haired cats shed enough to knit a coat. Never thought anyone would actually do it!

Since when the the Coriolis effect apply to timepieces?It’s nice to know that no matter what the hemisphere, there is a bunch of Congressmen with their brains running counterclockwise!

Both coats are ‘funky’.

Counter-clockwise?….Hmmmm…. I wonder if they will decide that everyone must walk backwards.-(That makes as much sense!)

And now, honoring the great Japanese artistic tradition of Yoko Ono…

Does Hugo Chavez have relatives in Bolivia?

The thing in Bolivia is silly, but it’s partially sound, and has nothing to do with the Coriolis effect one way or the other. The reason that clocks go clockwise is that sundials go clockwise—in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, sundials go counterclockwise, and if mechanical clocks had been invented in the southern hemisphere, they’d probably go counterclockwise, too. Of course, mechanical clocks /weren’t/ invented in the southern hemisphere. I’m sure it’s just another piece of so-called “anticolonial” political theatre done to make headlines in spite of Latin America having been free of Spanish (or Portuguese) rule since long before any living Bolivian was born.

But if that is the way the clock turns in Bolivia, then isn’t it now clockwise, not counter-clockwise?

If sundials in the Southern Hemisphere run counterclockwise, then the sun rises in the west and sets in the east there.

Now, don’t make fun of the southern hemispherians. They already have a hard enough time walking upside down.