fast erosion

Creationists will no doubt take solace from the way this article is phrased:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100620155748.htm

Sometimes erosion does occur rapidly. In a river such as the Colorado, for example, long periods of little erosion are punctuated by rapid erosion during peak flows. This does not, however, mean that all of geology is wrong and that the drainage of Noah's Flood carved the Grand Canyon.

Science writers should take better care to understand the ways in which their headlines will be misused.

very cool graphic

A quite cool graphic showing the highest mountain, the deepest trench, and everything in between:

http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/infographic-mountain-to-deepest-ocean-trench-0249

Anakin Skywalker--borderline personality?

A new paper argues that Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, displayed classic signs of borderline personality disorder.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/05/psychology-darth-vader-revealed/

If true, this could be the first time the prequels had any correspondence to the way people actually behave.

Time Lapse Glaciers

An excellent site, the Extreme Ice Survey, showing graphics of retreating glacial ice.

http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/index.php/new_gallery/

Shake Maps

Predicting earthquakes on a short time scale is impossible. However, we know in the long term where earthquakes will occur, and we also know pretty well how the ground will behave.

This site details recent work modeling how Southern California will respond to the next big quake. It's just a matter of time.

http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/feature-stories/2010/clear-with-a-chance-of-tremors/

Is Lady Gaga puppet of the Illuminati?

Everyone knows the Illuminati control everything. So it should come as no surprise that Lady Gaga is controlled by them, too.

http://www.disinfo.com/2010/03/lady-gaga-puppet-of-illuminati-mind-control/

This site of tin-foil hat paranoia is as crazy as it seems. To cleanse the mental palette, indulge yourself in a site that attempts to analyze Lady Gaga from a literary theory perspective:

http://gagajournal.blogspot.com/

world stats

Scientists love quantification. Although not every aspect of science lends itself to numerical description, when you've got solid numbers, that makes it much easier to sell your idea to other scientists.

Here is a great site of real-time statistics about the world:

http://www.worldometers.info/

I particularly like Society & Media section--it's spooky to think of the amount of info being generated each second of each day.