Thursday links

Scots, wha hae - Happy Burns Day! Here's a bio of Scotland's "prince of poets" Robert Burns, plus Braveheart, Burns Supper instructions,and lots of haggis.

Incredible 'Hypatia' Stone Contains Compounds Not Found in the Solar System.

The USS Akron plunges into the ocean: an airship disaster worse than the Hindenburg tragedy.

Dog vs cats video du jour - watch this dog intimidate a pair of much larger lions.

18th Century Cudgelling Matches.

The 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, who was born in 1790, has two living grandsons.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include why all the actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age have such a distinct and strange accent, an animated map of the changing borders and population of Europe by year since 400 BC, two new Van Gogh drawings, and why your car company may know more about you than your spouse.

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.

Cartoon: Folsom Prism Blues

A bit of physics humor, via Analytical Grammar:

Dog vs cats video du jour - watch this dog intimidate a couple of much larger lions

Taking the dogs vs cats rivalry to a new level:

Monday links

Animated map of the changing borders and population of Europe: every year since 400 BC.

Why all the actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age have such a distinct and strange accent.

We All Nearly Missed The Largest Underwater Volcano Eruption Ever Recorded.

Wave tank demonstration showing the impact of coastal defenses on flood risk.

Found: Two New Drawings by Vincent van Gogh

Big Brother on wheels: Why your car company may know more about you than your spouse.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include weird vintage beauty hacks, the birthdays of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stonewall Jackson (including the story of his left arm's separate grave), how apple pie became "American", and the anniversary of  French King Louis XVI's guillotining.