Spectacular Fossil Forests Found In US Coalmine 197
Smivs passes along a report up on the BBC about the fossil forests found in coal mines in Illinois. "The [US-UK] group reported one discovery last year, but has since identified a further five examples. The ancient vegetation — now turned to rock — is visible in the ceilings of mines covering thousands of hectares. These were among the first forests to evolve on the planet, [according to] Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang... 'These are the largest fossil forests found anywhere in the world at any point in geological time. It is quite extraordinary to find a fossil landscape preserved over such a vast area; and we are talking about an area the size of [the British city of] Bristol.' The forests grew just a few million years apart some 300 million years ago; and are now stacked one on top of another."
Note on Units (Score:4, Funny)
Ten Thousand Square Meters (Score:3, Funny)
A hectare is fine, too.
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Note on Units (Score:5, Funny)
47 libraries of congress to a Bristol measured at 47 degrees Reaumur 83 furlongs above knee level,
Man, I've know that for about a microcentury.
Re:why looking at the ceiling? (Score:5, Funny)
global warming comment
Re:Note on Units (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone with worldly knowledge knows that Bristol was the standard unit of measurement for area within the British Empire for over 200 years. It seems I'll have to break it down for you ignorant Americans:
Bristol has an area of 1,184,832,000 square feet (source [wikipedia.org])
The Library of Congress has an area of 2,100,000 square feet (source [nps.gov])
Therefore 1 Bristol (and TFA's fossilised forest) == 564.2 Libraries of Congress
Re:Note on Units (Score:5, Funny)
It depends on how pregnant that Bristol is.
OK, bad bad taste. My coat's the one full of shot.
no, no (Score:4, Funny)
The GP post asked about "libraries of congre," clearly a misspelling of "libraries of conger" as in [[daggertooth pike conger]], a species of fish. So we're really talking upwards of 7,000 libraries of conger rather than 47 libraries of congress.
Re:Note on Units (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Note on Units (Score:5, Funny)
And how many firkins of beer could you keep at 45 deg. F for a fortnight assuming an ambient 70 deg temp assuming that each dram (weight, not fluid) of coal has 1373 btus of energy. Please state all simplifying assumptions. Keep 3 sig. figs.
Re:Great! (Score:2, Funny)
but do fossilized witches float?
Re:Note on Units (Score:5, Funny)
Answer: 0.000
Simplifying Assumption: I drank it all.
Re:Some better images (Score:5, Funny)
Fine, how about a new mantra? If atheism and religion were sex ....
Atheism would be like masturbation - you know you're there by yourself, but hell, you're having a good time!
Religion would be like masturbating with a happy face drawn on your hand - it's still only you, but you like pretending that you're not alone.
Re:Note on Units (Score:4, Funny)
My coat's the one full of shot.
Unfortunately, Bristol's baby's daddy's latex coat was not full of shot. That's why she is now pregnant.
Re:Football Fields (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Note on Units (Score:2, Funny)
Awe common, you guys are too rough.
Parent had a somewhat vaguely pertinent comment.
You know Seagate named a line of harddrives Barracuda; just so they'd have a bunch of jokes on hand when someone asked about missing bites.
Here's to hoping I used the ; properly, probably not, since I'm just guessing.