[QUOTE=ewmayer;372506][URL="https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/4472460b82c2"]In the 1970s, Scientists Discovered a 2 Billion-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor in West Africa | The Physics arXiv Blog[/URL]
[/QUOTE]I recall reading about the Gabon discovery when it was first announced, but hadn't remembered about the U-235 deficit that led to it.

(Maybe, forty years ago governments were more cautious about publicizing their ability to deduce things from isotope measurements. Thirty years later, that ability was routine plot material in Tom Clancy novels such as [I]The Sum of All Fears[/I].)

[url]http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/the-other-downside-of-antibiotics-killing-the-useful-bacteria/[/url]

[url]http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/eu_tef/#.U2VNRvldW4p[/url]

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/fracking-linked-earthquakes-may-strike-far-wells-133057848.html"]Fracking-Linked Earthquakes May Strike Far from Wells[/URL]

[QUOTE]In Oklahoma, where a magnitude-5.7 earthquake damaged houses in 2011, the earthquake rate now seems to exceed that of California, once the size of each state is taken into account, said Keranen's study co-author Geoff Abers, a seismologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229672.900-why-did-evolution-stall-during-the-boring-billion.html[/url]

[url=www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/03/solar-powered-ford-c-max-energi-chases-the-sun-by-itself/index.htm]Solar-powered Ford C-Max Energi chases the sun by itself[/url]: [i]Would you buy a car that moves all by itself?[/i]

In response to the subtitular question - Uh, that is kinda the point of the 'auto' prefix before -mobile...

This car was just featured on the local n00z tech segment - the 300W from the roof array sounds impressive until you convert watts to horsepower ... still useful for battery-recharge-while-parked, though.

The article explains how the giant-magnifying-glass-carport add-on option can yield 8kW ... I'm picturing Youtube videos of unattended cars bursting into flame like giant ants under a kid's magnifying glass.

[URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/famous-literary-meals-recreated-fictitious-dishes-article-1.1759962"]Iconic meals in literature recreated for new photo book[/URL]

[URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/history-nerd-travel_n_5128435.html"]7 Places In America History Nerds Need To See[/URL]

[URL="http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertsher/2014/04/12/the-worst-thing-any-leader-can-do-to-high-performers/"]The Worst Thing Any Leader Can Do To High Performers[/URL]

[URL="http://io9.com/the-rise-of-augmented-reality-makes-humanity-easier-to-1563068308"]The Rise Of Augmented Reality Makes Humanity Easier To Enslave[/URL]

[URL="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/22/mind-reading-brain-scans/7747831/"]Scientists explore possibilities of mind reading[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140423095208.htm"]Liquid spacetime: What if spacetime were a kind of fluid?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140429125825.htm"]Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identities, find algebraic gold[/URL]

[URL="http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/04/lix-the-worlds-smallest-3d-printing-pen-lets-you-draw-in-the-air/"]LIX: The World’s Smallest 3D Printing Pen Lets You Draw in the Air[/URL]

[URL="http://www.caltech.edu/content/intergalactic-medium-unveiled-caltechs-cosmic-web-imager-directly-observes-dim-matter"]The Intergalactic Medium Unveiled: Caltech's Cosmic Web Imager Directly Observes "Dim Matter"[/URL]

Clicking one of your links, and from there, another link, this is freaking mind-blowing (or...[URL="http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/c2978f510e2165314fac20d5058759b1.htm"]universe blowing[/URL]?)

[url=www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/11/us-usa-fossils-idUSBREA4A06W20140511?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews]Fossils withdrawn from auction donated to new Kansas museum[/url]

Shame on the The San Diego Natural History Museum for even considering such a sale in the first place. Check out the disingenuous commentary from the museum director:
[quote]Michael Hager, president and CEO of the San Diego museum, said in an email his institution was very pleased to see the fossils "repatriated to Kansas where they were collected nearly 100 years ago by Charles Sternberg".

[u]Hager's museum had said previously the auction plan was not intended for financial gain or to minimize the importance of the fossils[/u].[/quote]
So the reason for the original plan to sell them was ... lack of shelf space?

... lack of operating funds (i.e., keeping financially afloat, not "gain").

But as far as I can tell museum mgmt never presented that argument - I'm sure a fudraising appeal with a "...or else we will be forced to sell off some of prized fossils to cover costs..." would have been quite effective, given the amount of biotech-and-software-industry money sloshing around the SD area. And that assumes there was a money shortage, which has not been established ... A [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Natural_History_Museum]cursory glance at Wikipedia[/url] paints a picture more in the other direction, and everything points to a highly competent, fiscally prudent management of the institution:
[quote]In April 2001, new construction more than doubled the size of the old building, from 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) of usable space to approximately 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2). The expansion provided new space for the Museum's research, educational, and administrative activities. Architects for the expansion were Dick Bundy and David Thompson. With the addition of the new wing to the Museum, areas for permanent exhibitions, such as Fossil Mysteries, were created along with five new exhibition halls. Also added was a state-of-the-art theater with a 56' screen and a Dolby Digital 3D projector. However, the new museum got rid of the popular old "mine" with minerals, gems, and fluorescent rocks that were on display until around 2000.

From June 29, 2007, to January 6, 2008, a collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls were on display to the public – ten of them for the first time ever.[3] The attendance was nearly 400,000, which was a record for any exhibit at the museum.[4]

In December 2009, the San Diego Natural History Museum was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) Certification, becoming one of the oldest privately owned institutions to achieve the award.[/quote]
Next let's head to the Museum's own website to look at [url=http://www.sdnhm.org/about-us/our-museum/annual-reports-and-financials/]the financials[/url] - their most-recent (2012-13) report mentions their long-term debt - likely related to the aforementioned mega-expansion - having been refinanced in that FY, "...resulting in a favorable improvement of our ongoing bottom line." Nothing indicative of the kinds of dire money pressures which might justify desperate remedies such as the sale of such rare/unique specimens would represent, that's for sure.