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Just when you thought it was safe to go outside. After apparently settling down a bit over the weekend, Chaiten has kicked it back up a notch. The latest reports say that two ash columns are active ... and that is about all we get for more news. Not surprisingly, most of the damage around the ...
Out of Toronto, this jaw-dropping story: Colleen Leduc, a local mother, was accused by school officials of letting her autistic daughter Victoria be sexually abused - based on the word of a psychic! (HT: Boing Boing). Leduc's weird tale began on May 30, when she dropped young Victoria off for ...
China has land borders with 14 other countries – a world record*. And yet you should not think of China as particularly well-integrated with its neighbours. In fact, as shown in this dramatic map, you should rather consider China to be an island. That stark image can be found illustrating this ...
While reading Richard Sloan's book Blind Faith, I came across a passage that jumped out at me: [Gallup Polling] also indicates that from 1939 to 2005, 37 to 49 percent of those surveyed reported that they attended church or synagogue in the week before they were surveyed. From the period to ...
Over the weekend, Mt. Etna (Italy) had some spectacular Strombolian fire-fountaining. Lucky for us, Marco Fulle and a group went up to the summit on Friday (the 13th) and got some great pictures of the current (ongoing) eruption which have been posted on Stromboli Online. Sounds like the ...
The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) – nearly 30% of its total territory. These federal lands are used as military bases or testing grounds, nature parks and reserves and indian reservations, or are leased to the ...
An interesting proposal has surfaced to help resolve the intra-Belgian political stalemate between Dutch-speaking Flemings and French-speakers, who prevail in Brussels and Wallonia: a couloir francophone (‘Francophone corridor’) that would link Wallonia to Brussels, thus ending the Belgian ...
I'm aware that commenting and permalinks were broken earlier today. I think all that should now be fixed. If you notice any further bugs or problems, please let me know.
I am always amazed by the number of volcanoes that show signs of activity every year that I have never heard of before. Case in point is this report of activity near Mr. Kurikoma, on the island of Honshu in Japan. The last known eruptions at Kurikoma were back in 1950, and they seem to be water ...
The newest reports out of Chile are indicating that the eruption at Chaiten has reached levels of intensity not seen since the eruption first started over six weeks ago. I have to admit, that isn't a good sign in terms of keeping the volcanic edifice in one piece. There have been frequent, small ...
In their endless quest to evangelize the world, Christian apologists like this one are prone to making grandiose claims about the supposed perfect accuracy of biblical prophecy: Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events - in detail - many years ...
Just a quick update for today (busy watching Red Sox vs. Reds, sorry, that is my other love: baseball). New reports concerning White Island suggest that an eruption is not imminent. Although there have been earthquakes nearby, whether or not they could directly lead to an eruption is unclear ...
I've posted a new essay on Dangerous Intersection, "The Supreme Court restores habeas corpus". This is a followup to my post from October 2006, "This Is Not America". This is an open thread.
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a book review of Year Million, a collection of essays by 14 prominent futurists and thinkers who collectively ponder the fate of mankind, one million years hence. Suffice it to say, the thinkers were encouraged to come up with some fairly ...
In the current issue of Contagious Magazine (subscription required), Noah Brier and Faris Yakob of Naked Communications have prepared a tour de force article about the new age of social (meta)data. Data is no longer just boring old data -- it is now a wonderfully fluid and shareable construct ...