Frigatebirds can stay in the air for two straight months. They can travel more than 250 miles a day, reach altitudes as high as 2½ miles, and glide 40 miles without flapping their wings. The seabirds do this accomplish these fantastic feats by riding wind and clouds like roller coasters, a study said. Frigatebirds weigh 2 to 4 pounds and have wings spanning more than 7 feet, the highest ratio of wing size to mass of any bird.

The frigatebirds usually begin the fun by swooping beneath a fluffy cumulus cloud. Rising currents of warm air pull the birds up thousands of feet. The thermals are so strong that the birds don't need to flap their wings. For most frigatebirds, the ride ends once they reach the base of the cloud. But some will ride the updrafts into the middle of the clouds. There, the force sends the birds spiraling upward about 16 feet a second, and they typically ascend 1 mile to 1.8 miles high. One bird was observed making it to an altitude of 2.5 miles and then glided downward for about 40 miles. One juvenile used this technique to travel more than 34,000 miles around the Indian Ocean in about 185 days, resting only four times. That's like circling the Earth about 1½ times.

2016 is going to get a wee bit longer

Already a leap year, 2016 will drag on a bit longer. Timekeepers are adding a leap second at year's end. Because Earth is slowing down a tad, occasionally timekeepers insert another second or two to match Earth's rotation and the precise atomic clocks. So on Dec. 31, at 11:59 p.m. and 59 seconds Universal Time (5:59 p.m. central time), the next second will become 11:59:60.

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