P. J. O'Rourke, RIP.
1947 - 2022
Patrick Jake O'Rourke was the last satirist of the lineage of Twain.
recommended
>For many fans, his signature book was “Parliament of Whores,” subtitled “A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government” and first published in 1991.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/p-j-orourke-was-americas-greatest-satirist-and-coolest-conservative/
Discovery of ancient plant fossils in Washington points to paleobotanic mystery
Research published in New Phytologist details two fossil winged fruits from the genus Ceratopetalum—previously believed to be limited in range to the Southern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous. Yet these new fossils were found on Sucia Island in Washington state. The surprising discovery is causing paleobotanists to reconsider how extended their range may have truly been and how it may have occurred.
"In this paper, we were looking at two fossil fruits we had assigned to the genus Ceratopetalum, which is in the flowering-plant family Cunoniaceae," said lead author Keana Tang, doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas and the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum. "Both the family Cunoniaceae and the genus Ceratopetalum still have living members today. What's interesting is the genus Ceratopetalum is now only found in Australia. Well, the entire family is restricted to the Southern Hemisphere—so it's weird to find this fossil all the way up here in the Northern Hemisphere. We thought, 'Whoa, how did this get here?'"
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-discovery-ancient-fossils-washington-paleobotanic.html
University of Kansas…