About 9:56 pm, there was a sound like either a very small earthquake or someone driving by, but the house didn't shake enough for the latter. So after a bit I checked the  USGS "Did You Feel It?" site to see if someone had reported one and they had*. Rated about 2.7 on the Richter Scale; won't be surprised if that goes down in a bit - it was teeny. ( Read more... )

Well, that was interesting.  Started out reading my ecopy of The Science of Discworld, when a stray remark therein reminded me of the fossilized natural nuclear reactors someone found in the early '70s, and told me the name of the place was Oklo, Gabon in West Africa.  So, Google being handy, off I went to find this:
The Oklo Fossil Fission ( Read more... )