I just read through this month's issue of pop. sci. and damn, it was a pretty neat issue. The cover reads "The World's Fastest" and the feature article outlines everything from the fastest tectonic plate to the fastest a human has ever traveled. Some things were admittedly mundane but I found the fastest temperature swing, rainfall and snowfall unbelievable.
Temperature Swing - Loma, Montana saw a rise of 103 degrees Fahrenheit between January 14 and 15, 1972. The low was -54, the high 49.
Rainfall - Between July 25 and 26, 1979, tropical storm Claudette dropped 43 inches of rain near Alvin Texas.
Snowfall - 75.8 inches of snow fell in Silver Lake, Colorado between April 14 and 15, 1921.
Sidenote - the world's fastest roller coaster (when it debuts in April of this year at Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey) will "blast from a standstill to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds", damn.
Also, for Jon, there's an article on everything you need to build your own media center PC ... I know you're looking into it right now.
Posted by languorous at January 20, 2005 08:10 AM