It's kinda neat, but his timescale of what precedes what is pretty whacked. Geez, it won't take 500 years for a forest to re-establish ... anyone who has seen a farmer's field go untended for a decade or two can tell you it's a LOT quicker than that... First the scrub brush comes in, then quick growing short-lived trees (birch, black locust, &c.), then longer lived species like oaks.

And how about vestiges of Mt. Rushmore likenesses still remaining after 7.2 million (!) years? They require a lot of maintenance, and will no way be recognizable as sculpture after even a fraction of that! The Sphinx has taken a pretty brutal beating after ~5K years (ok, Napolean supposedly took some shots at it, but it was also buried under sand much of that time). After 7.2 million years of the elements and complete neglect, there is no way you'd be able to tell Mt. Rushmore was carved.

The biggest thing that bugs me about this work (and I'm not opposed to the general idea) is that the guy writing about it has his background in literature, not engineering (particularly civil engineering). If the book had been written by a well-respected civil engineer (somebody like noted author & Civil Eng. Prof. Henry Petroski --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski ) I'd be really interested. Instead, we have another liberal arts weenie who thinks he understands science & technology because he subscribes to Scientific American & Pop Sci -- An Al Gore clone if ever there was one ... If one is that enamored with science & technology & wants to make it one's mission in life to argue these things, please get the basic education first.

Straight talk from Sid.

PS - I was amused that glaciers would crush NYC within just "thousand of years". Sounds like global warming is keeping that iceage at bay! Hooray!

Yeah, I spotted that a while ago and knew there was going to be horrible mayhem when the 2 Laurens are confused. O the humanity! O the chaos!

Seriously, don't worry too much for your Lauren (the smart one) -- not too many people are even aware that there IS a teen version of Miss America! Americans typically are aware that:

1. There is a Miss America pageant (the original..."Here she comes", formerly Atlantic City, &c.). It's faded much from its former glory, but still has tradition.

2. There is a Miss USA pageant (owned by Donald Trump)

3. There is a Miss Universe pageant. Winner of #2 goes there and competes against like winners from other countries. All owned by Trump. Lessons learned? try not to hold this in countries that adhere to Sharia. It didn't work out so well last time.

4. There is a Miss Teen USA pageant (owned by Trump - a slightly younger version of #2).

People are at least vaguely aware of the above 4, because they are annually aired on U.S. television. But, Miss America Teen? Nobody outside of demented pageant geeks (chiefly middle aged mothers living vicariously through their vacuous daughters) have ever heard of it! Is it even aired on network TV? Your "Smart Lauren" should be thankful she gets some extra attention and gets to talk up her own crown and her ill-publicized pageant whilst explaining that she isn't "the stupid one".

The Miss America organization needs to get their act together, because Trump is eating them for lunch.

Well, tinderbox, it sounded like it was natural in origin. "Pollution" generally implies man's evil hand at work, usually through some big uncaring corporation.

I've little doubt somebody will "study" the phenomenon and ascribe blame on "global climate change", though. Stay tuned... it's coming!

Lasse - No, one thing she (or her scriptwriter) did correctly was use the singular "is" with U.S. She was speaking of the collected entity of the *country* (singular), so "is" was correct. If she had said "I know where all fifty states is" ... well, that would have been wrong. U.S. in capital letters is a country and singular.

Something tells me this man gets a LOT of junk mail every day and a LOT of telephone solicitations.

oh, I never traded details with him on that one.... I would probably have to be less caustic and more even-handed. Thanks for the support, though 7:^)

a PS for my posting #22: Please don't get the idea that I'm an apologist for Republican policy -- I can find plenty of faults with that as well (usually involving spending too much $). If you read what I babble about carefully, I'm usually fairly libertarian.

Wow, after 4 days of scriptwriting and rehearsal, that was the best she could come up with?

Sadly, the notoriety will open a lot of doors for her, though. Thank you, Paris and Nicole.

ardyjay- I completely agree with your first sentence. Many young people are ignorant because we permit them to be that way.

Your 2nd sentence is groundless, though. The fact of the matter is that the *overwhelming* majority of teachers and administrators in U.S. government school system are Democrats and the 2 largest teachers' unions (the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, combining for 4.5 million members) have been major financial supporters of the Democratic Party and its candidates for decades. Nobody disputes that, so implying that the government schools try to indoctrinate young people into Republican policy is frankly absurd.

You used the phrase "your government" -- I'm curious... Where it is that you live where it is thought that U.S. government schools are pro-Republican?

Wow, that's rather stupid. It's amazing how far the bounds of people's foolishness can be stretched and have them still explain it away as "art". Oh well, I guess that explains the phrase "starving artist". If they were any good, they wouldn't be starving.

I can't say the blue appeals to me, but that's probably a matter of local style. I really do like the "boarding" and the windows are great.

Wait until they learn about vinyl siding and windows... Ugh. Nothing screws up an old house faster. Some idiots down the road from me just had the original (~1850) windows torn out of their farmhouse and replaced with ugly vinyl ones. Those "drafty" and "stuck" old windows were not only easy to fix & weatherstrip (for a lot less $ than new ones), but if they insisted on removing them, worth a lot to people in architectural salvage business or just preservation minded old house owners like myself. Unfortunately, I spotted their glaringly ugly replacements after the job was done and I was too late. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I would have paid them about $2,000 for the 30+ windows they tossed into the dumpster. Other people might have paid even more if the sizes were close to what they needed. Idiots.

angela - I just turned 41 (need an address to send the gift?) and I tell my kid that there are starving in Africa, not China. Nice Try. Pzzzt!

Looks cool, but the link seems down. Maybe all the hits from Neatorama readers overloaded their server?

I liked when the individual stores actually changed those signs periodically to try to keep up with the estimate of total burgers sold worldwide. Nowadays they almost all say "Billions Sold". Big deal... I think it was a lot more impressive when there was a real number that was occasionally changed. Lazy buggers!

I was the winner of Winston Churchill monkey... The original looks even better than the scan shown here -- the color transitions and shading are very subtle. Adam does really nice work! My wife is going to cut a mat for me and frame it up nicely. Thanks much!

Well, at least daddy didn't bury her shortly after birth as is more the custom there for unwanted girl babies.