Gravel and Cobbles

There are days when it feels like there is an unusual amount of geology and earth science related stuff in my reader. Today was one one of those days. Calamities of Nature
Introduction to Volcanolgy, G411, from Bug. (Click to enlarge)
So CSM, could you, say, qualify that a little more carefully? For example,"Apophis asteroid will likely probably almost certainly not smash into Earth, unless it does, but that's doubtful, say most scientists, at least those we talked to."

see more Historic LOL. I really enjoy seeing people wearing rocks as decorations- that is, jewelry. I can't really wear it myself because I tend to smash things- not so much clumsy as forgetting that bumping into that wall may not hurt me, but it'll play havoc with the bracelet/watch/ring. And oversize jewelry can be a fun and attractive tongue-in-cheek joke. But this is a bit much.

We've seen this flick before: in rock Vs. car, rock wins. see more Very Demotivational

And there's some serious news, too!

Oobleck could've made all the difference. Why didn't the pin-heads in their ivory towers figure this out? Oh, that's right! They did! Saving BP all the tedious hassle of figuring out how to deal with deep water spills, and making sure the profits went to the right people.

The Earth... for Physicists. The BIG events in earth history, via Kottke.org.

Krugman is shrill again... crop failures and climate change? Followup- forgot I set this aside a couple of days ago: The Guardian paints an even gloomier and scarier picture than Krugman.

A bit behind the curve on this one, but it's mostly because I assumed those who might be interested had already seen it elsewhere; some conversations today and yesterday indicate I'm mistaken in that assumption. The Kepler orbital telescope has identified over 1200 candidate exoplanets- that is, each will need to be confirmed by further observations, but it's believed that most will be confirmed. This effectively triples the number of known exoplanets!

The sex life of anchovies. Isabella Rosselini was, half my life ago, what is known in the male biz as "hawt." (see, for example) And here's the thing: in my experience, once you've decided someone is beautiful, they always will be. Over the last few years, she has been getting quite a bit of acclaim for her work describing and popularizing the sex lives of various creatures. And this is relevant to earth science how? Sex and evolution are inextricable, and biological evolution is one of the major narratives (to some, the major narrative) in our planet's history. Plus, I have to applaud an iconic sex symbol using her fame to promote science education.