Five Things to Know Today, May 2

Welcome to Wednesday. Here are some things to know today.

The weather: Another hot and sunny day is in the forecast. The high will be about 89 degrees, the National Weather Service says. The low tonight: around 64.

Gas prices: On average around the U.S., prices are 4 cents cheaper than a week ago. In Lilburn, the highest price dropped 5 cents from Monday among those reported to www.georgiagasprices.com, to $3.64 (at Gulf, 127 Arcado Road at North River Drive). The lowest price was unchanged at $3.58 (at Citgo, 331 Rockbridge Road at Lawrenceville Hwy).

Whereabouts: Remember using paper maps before GPS? The Global Positioning System was developed by the U.S. military between the 1970s and early 1990s. It’s still owned and operated by the Defense Department, but it’s shared with the rest of us under a policy first put in place in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. There was a transition period from less to more accurate data, but on May 2, 2000, Clinton announced that accurate GPS measurements were now available to the public. Now, remind me, how do I fold up this map?  

Nessie: A road had just been built along the shore of Scotland’s Loch Ness in 1933 when a visiting couple told a local paper of a curious sighting. That was how the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born. The story printed in the Inverness Courier on May 2, 1933, drew the London papers and then international attention. The new road meant tourists -- and reporters -- could easily flock to the mountain lake. Some of those grainy photos you’ve seen over the years were shot in this era. In the decades since, the deep, 23-mile-long lake has been probed over and over with sonar and cameras. Mysterious movements deep below have been recorded, but Nessie has yet to come up for a clear photo.  

Flash! There’s a phenomenon that occurs right at sunset called a green flash. It’s a quick burst of light just above the horizon at the moment the last sliver of the sun sinks below it. EarthSky.org has a handy guide to spotting the green flash, if you haven’t seen one. One tip: You need to be able to see the horizon far away, so it helps to be looking over a flat space, like the ocean or a prairie. Maybe next time you’re on the Gulf?