urban areas Archives

Patterns of water use efficiency across the continental United States. Color-coded values indicate the change in per-capita consumption in gallons per day per person between 1985 and 2010. Large numbers indicate the number of years per-capita withdrawals decreased from 1985 to 2010.

Water Efficiency in Rural Areas Getting Worse

May 19, 2017 Kay Whatley

By Lauren Lipuma (American Geophysical Union) and Matt Shipman (NC State University) A nationwide analysis of water use over the past 30 years finds that there is a disconnect between rural and urban areas, with […]

state-nc

The Strange-ness: Mysterious Activity in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

July 19, 2013

By Frank and Kay Whatley A deep crack was discovered July 12th slicing a Blue Ridge Parkway road in two. The feet-deep fissure, caused by weather, led to the road’s closure. This road closure northeast […]

strange

“Poop” (guano) Core Records 4,300 Years of Bat Diet and Environment

April 12, 2021

An inaccessible cave preserved clues to Jamaica’s climate past in the sedimentary layers of bat guano Deep in a Jamaican cave is a treasure trove of bat poop, deposited in sequential layers by generations of […]

editorial

Bigfoot (and more) Column: The Right Questions

March 21, 2019

By Dr. John Stamey The following sentence prompted me to write this short opinion essay. “When you ask the wrong questions, no matter how sound those questions may be, the answers never come.” This comes from […]