- Supersize Dust Storms Could Become Southwest Norm | Wired: Science • by Brandon Keim
- The massive dust storm that engulfed Phoenix last week was unusual for the 20th century, but could become more common in the 21st.
The storm resulted from thunderstorm-cooled air plummeting into the ground like mist pouring from an open freezer, only exponentially more powerful. Combine those winds with extremely dry conditions, and the result was a wall of dust 100 miles wide and 5,000 feet high.
- Triceratops Bones Support Asteroid Extinction Theory | Wired: Science • by Wired UK
- Palaeontologists in America have discovered the youngest known dinosaur bones, after digging up the fossilized remains of a Triceratops or Torosaurus’ 45cm-long brow horn. …
It’s generally believed that a colossal asteroid pummeled into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula about 65 million years ago, which led to a mass extinction of any animal that couldn’t fly, swim or burrow into the ground.
But some skeptics believe that the dinosaurs were already on a sharp decline, or even extinct, when the asteroid hit. This would have been thanks to climate change, unpredictable sea levels and intense volcanic activity.
…“The in situ specimen demonstrates that a gap devoid of non-avian dinosaur fossils does not exist and is inconsistent with the hypothesis that non-avian dinosaurs were extinct prior to the K-T boundary impact event.”
- Download Your Favorite Google Web Fonts to Install on Your Computer
- Do you love the web fonts that Google has made available for use on websites? Now you can download all of your favorites and install them on your computer in just a few minutes.
- 1 in 10 Pets Have a Social Networking Profile | Mashable! • by Stan Schroeder
- One in 10 UK pets have a profile on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, according to a recent study.
- Fil-Ams Protest Chinese Presence in the Spratlys | Filipinas Magazine
- Filipino Americans held a rally at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. It is part of a nationwide rally to protest the Chinese incursions into Philippine waters to explore for oil.
- Ingrid Dabringer’s Map Paintings: Finding Whimsy in Geography | Brain Pickings • by Maria Popova
- As a hopeless lover of maps, creative cartography and, especially, maps as art, I was utterly enchanted by the work of mixed-media visual artist Ingrid Dabringer, who uses acrylic paint to draw — or, more precisely, find — extraordinary, playful characters and vignettes in ordinary maps.
- Don’t blame ‘both sides’ for debt impasse – The Washington Post
- Washington has many lazy habits, and one of the worst is a reflexive tendency to see equivalence where none exists. Hence the nonsense, being peddled by politicians and commentators who should know better, that “both sides” are equally at fault in the deadlocked talks over the debt ceiling.
This is patently false. The truth is that Democrats have made clear they are open to a compromise deal on budget cuts and revenue increases. Republicans have made clear they are not.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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