Friday links

July 27 is free-market economist Milton Friedman's birthday: here are some favorite quotes and short videos. And Beatrix Potter's birthday is this weekend: in addition to Peter Rabbit et al, she produced some gorgeous botanical drawings.

How to build a mountain range.

Stealing Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards.

Advice from 1380: How to Tell if Someone Is or Is Not Dead (the onion test), plus bonus Monty Python.

How to Make a Fossil in a Single Day and How To Become A Fossil After You Die.

How the tiniest plot of land in Manhattan came to be.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include cutting hair with fire, the instant pot of the 1600s known as the Digester of Bones, the 2018 UK snail racing championship, and for Aldous Huxley's birthday, an audio of him narrating Brave New World.

1.7-billion-year-old chunk of North America found sticking to Australia

For geology buffs, this bit of history on the formation of the continents from Live Science:

Geologists matching rocks from opposite sides of the globe have found that part of Australia was once attached to North America 1.7 billion years ago.

Researchers from Curtin University in Australia examined rocks from the Georgetown region of northern Queensland. The rocks — sandstone sedimentary rocks that formed in a shallow sea — had signatures that were unknown in Australia but strongly resembled rocks that can be seen in present-day Canada.

The researchers, who described their findings online Jan. 17 in the journal Geology, concluded that the Georgetown area broke away from North America 1.7 billion years ago. Then, 100 million years later, this landmass collided with what is now northern Australia, at the Mount Isa region

Zoomable image here.

This diagram shows the Georgetown terrane, in green, joining Australia around 1.6 billion years ago during the
 formation of the supercontinent Nuna. (Credit) Zoomable image here.

Via Fox News.

How deep have humans dug into the Earth?

Business Insider:

We haven't dug as far into the earth's crust as you might think (in spite of what Jules Verne wrote): 

The typical grave is 6 feet down. 

Most Olympic swimming pools are 10 feet deep. 

Nile crocodiles dig burrows as deep as 39 feet deep. 

The Paris Catacombs are 65 feet underground.

The ancient city of Derinkuyu lies 279 feet below Turkey. 

The Greenbrier Bunker in W. Virginia, built to keep Congress safe in an emergency, is 720 feet underground.

The Woodingdean Well is 1,285 feet deep. It's the deepest hole that humans have dug by hand. 

The deepest known point in a cave is in Krubera Cave in Georgia. 

Switzerland's Gotthard Base Tunnel is the deepest railway tunnel. 

Mponeng in South Africa is the world's deepest gold mine.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole is only 9 inches wide. Russian scientists have been drilling it since 1970. It's now deeper than the deepest part of the ocean. The bottom is 356˚F, which is too hot for drills to go any further. 

In 2012, Exxon completed the Z-44 Chayvo Well. This oil well is the deepest humans have dug.

It would take another 60,000 feet to reach the end of the crust and another 21 million feet to the center of the Earth. 

Friday links

Excellent site for DIY intelligent women's costumes.

This 1935 Car of the Future Had Huge Spheres Instead of Wheels.

The Strange Real-Life Origins of the Fiendish Werewolf.

We've come a long way... from 2013: Obama Mask for Halloween? That'll get you and your 750 fellow employees sent to re-education camp.

Scientists Are Just Starting to Understand Earth's Eighth Continent, Zealandia.

The Bloodiest Day in American History: 31 Rare and Haunting Photos From the 1862 Battle of Antietam.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include Napoleon-era travel tips, the anniversary of the day the earth was created (October 26 in 4004 B.C. at 9AM), instructions for dog costumes, 1930s giant frog farms, and a gallery of Art Nouveau architecture.