July 22, 2002


THEY NEVER FALL ON CRAWFORD...
MERNA, Neb. (AP) - A mysterious mile-wide dent in the earth has generated a debate among scientists about whether the depression was the catastrophic creation of a meteorite, or the patient work of Mother Nature. Wakefield Dort Jr. - yes, that really is his name - a retired University of Kansas geology professor, will make his case for the crater's unearthly origin at the annual Meteoritical Society meeting in Los Angeles on Tuesday. According to Dort's theory, the depression was formed by the impact of a large meteorite that packed an explosion with the force of several hydrogen bombs between 3,000 and 500 years ago.

Dort began studying the site in 1991 after he and some colleagues discovered the unusual dent on a topographic map - a nearly perfectly round formation smack dab in the middle of Nebraska. Dort has collected samples from the site and claims he found thousands of minute black magnetic particles not native to Nebraska. He also notes that Pawnee Indian legend tells of a "thundering cloud" that appeared over the area "leaving behind children of black stone." Dort's team also found a layer of crushed glass about three feet below the surface with a pocket of gray soil underneath. - From Yahoo News.



GIANT SQUID FOUND
And it's not dick Cheney. A giant squid that washed up on an Australian beach could be a previously unknown species, scientists said today. The 550-pound creature was found dead Saturday on a beach in Hobart in Tasmania state and was transported Monday to the Tasmanian Museum. Experts were studying its unusual characteristics, which include long, thin flaps of muscle attached to each of its eight arms.

"What we've seen on this animal we haven't seen on other squid, and it's a significant feature," said zoologist David Pemberton. "It's basically like having a pile of muscles on your own body that nobody else has ... and I think it will rewrite the taxonomy." The squid had lost its two tentacles, which Pemberton said would have been about 50 feet long. - From Yahoo News.



WHAT, NO 'TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS'?
The "One Hundred Albums You Should Remove from Your Collection Immediately" list practically decimates my music library. See how your's fares at Jaguaro.

Selections include Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti: "The primary inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap, and that's not a compliment. All the years of Quaaludes and teenage groupies culminated in this plodding, faux-blues double LP. The moronic 'Kashmir' is ten minutes of pure torture and is symbolic of the entire affair" and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: "Nearly killing rock and roll in the name of 'psychedelia' by adding strings and excessive
production. You pretentious Limeys, Sinatra had been doing the same thing for years!!"





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