E4 tornado track still visible five years later

Three-hundred sixty-three tornadoes raked across the southern, midwestern, and northeastern United States between April 25 and April 28, 2011. The extraordinary event proved to be the largest and costliest outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded in the United States. When the dust settled, authorities blamed the storms for the deaths of 348 people and $11 billion of damage.

About a month after the tornado outbreak, the Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5 captured this image (top) of a damage track cutting through Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Meteorologists estimate that the tornado that caused it was an EF-4, meaning it had wind speeds between 166 and 200 miles (267 and 321 kilometers) per hour. At its widest point, the damage track was about 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) wide. As seen in the lower image, which was acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI), much of the vegetation had recovered five years later, but signs of the damage track were still visible. 

Via Earth Observatory

After yesterday's epic trip to SF, believe me, I feel it!

Friday Open Road

Big rock from Botswana

The diamond was unearthed in November in Botswana at a mine owned by Canada's Lucara Diamond Corporation. It measured 1,109 carats, the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered. Its name means "our light" in the Tswana language of southern Africa.

In the language of the Anglo-Saxons, that's called a cool million.  I'll be interesting to see how it's cut.

Amphorae with 1,300 lbs of Roman coins found in Spain. Not 1300 coins, 1300 pounds of coins. That's a pile of loot!

On Wednesday, April 27th, workers digging a trench in Olivar del Zaudín Park in Tomares, a suburb of Seville, Spain, discovered a cache of clay jars nestled three feet under the surface. They alerted the Civil Guard who found there were 19 Roman-era amphorae crammed full of bronze coins from the late 3rd and early 4th century A.D. The number of coins has yet to be determined, but the total weight of them is a staggering 600 kilos (1,300 pounds).

 Initial examination has found the coins were minted during the reigns of the emperors Maximian (r. 286-305) and Constantine (r. 306-337) and appear to be in brilliant uncirculated condition, with no signs of wear whatsoever. They are made of bronze but some of them show signs of having been silvered, ie, coated with a thin layer of silver totalling maybe four or five percent of the coin weight.

Ruth Davidson Leads Scottish Tories to Massive Gains

Davidson, a former Army veteran, is a plain spoken lesbian who has charmed the hell out of Scotland since her election.

What's going on in Scotland?  I'll tell you what, they're coming back to sanity.

I had to get up early this morning, at 4am, to drive into the Bay Area for work. I snapped this picture of myself.

Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946).

Yep

Red Chinese army tries a hip hop video to recruit - but it looks like it came from the Onion.

The initial narration is especially laughable.

Mom and daughter, nearly 29 years apart.

Wreckage of Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour found.

In Rhode Island, of all places.

The ship, which Cook sailed in the Pacific Ocean, passed through a number of hands before eventually being renamed the Lord Sandwich and used in the revolutionary war blockade.

The Lord of Sandwiches is not a very ferocious name for a famous ship.  Please, Brits, could you not have come up with something better, like Queen of Soups, or Duke of Condiments?

Of course, I suppose a ship so closely associated with Captain COOK could be named after the lord of SANDWICHES.

RIMAP said it had pinpointed the wreckage at a site that included five other vessel, off the state of Rhode Island in Newport harbor.

The wreck of the USS Shenandoah Rigid Airship - 1925.

I wonder what it looks like there nowadays.

Santa Fe artist Sheldon Parsons

Freckles, they are good

Monica Vitti