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11 Things We Learned This Week

This week, we learned …

… just in time for Halloween, glaciers are giving up their ghosts. Read of the week!

Melting glaciers in the Alps, Himalaya, and Andes are revealing bodies lost for dozens, hundreds, thousands of years.
Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic

The photograph above is the Ötzal Alps, in northern Italy. Who gave up the ghost there?

 

 

… 41 phrases only people in the military understand. (Obvious warning: Salty language.)

Marines like this one are “good pieces of gear.”
Photograph by Corporal Meredith Brown, U.S. Marine Corps, courtesy Wikimedia

Learn more about the military with our collection of maps, articles, and media.

 

 

… coyotes are moving to Chicago.

This urban coyote is a Californian.
Photographed by Volunteer Photographer Connar L’Ecuyer, National Park Service

Use our ideas to find slightly more accessible examples of urban nature.

 

 

… bad maps cost a lot of lives, and a lot of money.

Sandy Island, part of cartographic history for more than a century, does not actually exist—and probably never did. Learn more about the myth of Sandy Island from the good folks at GIS Lounge.

A conspiracy of cartographers!

 

 

… what it takes to keep the internet cool.

Learn how an energy efficient data center’s power-saving features significantly reduce energy use.

 

 

… Europe’s most active volcano is sliding into the sea.

Sicily’s Mount Etna is succumbing to gravity and the Mediterranean Sea.
Photograph by Tino Soriano, National Geographic

How does Mount Etna contribute to Europe’s physical geography?

 

 

… America’s grip on children’s entertainment may be coming to an end.

Keep counting—Indian YouTube channel ChuChu has 19 billion views—thats more than five times as many as Sesame Street.
Subscribe to National Geographic Kids’ YouTube channel for fun, educational videos.

 

 

… viruses spread to crops by insects may lead to food security and/or a biological arms race.

Some scientists are skeptical about an idea to unleash millions of insects carrying viruses to descend upon crops and then genetically modify them to withstand droughts, floods and foreign attacks.
Photograph by Otis Imboden, National Geographic

What are GMO foods and how do they contribute to the issues surrounding food security?

 

 

… how to build a better pig.

This pig looks pretty perfect as-is.
Photograph by Jim Richardson, National Geographic

Why do you think pigs were among the fist animals to be domesticated?

 

 

… humans have a big influence on the rock cycle.

What else contributes to the rock cycle?

 

 

… no one keeps the Shetlands in a box.

Map by National Geographic

We certainly don’t!

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