WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE: Faced with a three-year drought and an outdated, overused water system, California lawmakers approved a historic water deal Wednesday that was decades in the making. The package of bills is the state's most comprehensive aquatic overhaul since the 1960s, although everyone from conservationists to farmers to fishermen had to make concessions to get it passed. The package calls for a wide range of environmental upgrades to California's weary waterways, including an ecosystem restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (right), new dams and channels to control flows, more aggressive conservation goals and monitoring of groundwater usage — a simple precaution already practiced by other Western states but fought for years by many California farmers. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he'll sign the bills, which are a major policy victory in the twilight of his tenure, but voters must still approve a large chunk of the package. While most of the roughly $40 billion bill would be footed by local utilities via new user fees, Californians will vote next November on an $11.1 billion bond issue to fund the rest of the overhaul, which may be a tough sell in such a cash-strapped state. (Sources: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Associated Press)

 

AFTERSHOCK AND AWE: When an earthquake shakes up the middle of a continental plate, far from any fault lines, it might just be a long-delayed aftershock from an even bigger earthquake hundreds of years earlier, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature. For example, recent rumbling in Missouri has been traced back to the devastating 1811-'12 New Madrid quakes, which caused the Mississippi River to temporarily flow backward, meaning the area is still suffering aftershocks from an earthquake that occurred nearly 200 years ago. That's because fault-line earthquakes — such as those along the infamous San Andreas Fault — are the result of much faster continental movement, and the faults essentially "reset" themselves within a few years. But midcontinent quakes are often the legacy of much more ancient landmass collisions, which often move 100 times more slowly than at fault lines. The good news, at least for Missourians, is that aftershocks get smaller over time, and the New Madrid area seems to be entering a period of dormancy that could last thousands of years. (Sources: USA Today, BBC News, New Scientist, e! Science News)

 

OIL AND WATER: An oil rig that's been leaking into the Timor Sea for 10 weeks is finally plugged, and a fire that was raging there has been mostly extinguished, the rig's operator announced Wednesday. Officials with PTTEP Australasia poured a mixture of heavy mud and brine into the well to block the leak, which has been seeping 400 barrels of oil daily into waters 150 miles off Australia's northwest coast, and said that any remaining fires should fade as the last fuel dries up (the photo at right was taken Tuesday). The oil slick still stretches for thousands of miles across open ocean, and has been blamed for huge fish kills in Indonesia. Fishermen there have also reported skin rashes and diarrhea after eating local fish. Australia's federal resources minister said Monday that he'll launch an official investigation once the leak has been plugged. (Source: AP)

 

CLEARING THE AIR: You might want to think twice before letting another houseplant die, or it might just return the favor. Indoor air pollution is a sneakily dangerous threat in homes around the world, especially in developed countries where people spend 90 percent or more of their time inside, and researchers from the University of Georgia have shown that some ornamental indoor plants have the power to effectively remove all harmful volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, from the air. VOCs such as benzene, xylene and octane can be emitted by everything from paint to pants, are known to  cause cancer and other health problems, and kill more than 1.6 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization. But vegetation such as the purple waffle plant, English ivy and the asparagus fern can not only eliminate these threats to our physical health, but can also improve our psychological health, reducing stress and boosting task performance, the researchers found. (Source: ScienceDaily)

 

GOING UP: In the Mojave Desert on Wednesday, a laser-powered robot climbed a cable that hung from a helicopter half a mile in the sky, earning its operators at least $900,000 and possibly $2 million. The futuristic scene was part of a NASA-sponsored competition to produce a "space elevator," or a sci-fi space-shuttle stand-in modeled after a contraption from an Arthur C. Clarke novel. The idea is that, instead of going to all the trouble of launching rockets into orbit, we could simply send machines up long cables, using ground-based lasers to beam electricity up to them. The competition has produced no winners in the past three years, making Wednesday's success for the LaserMotive team all the more momentous, but both team members are quick to point out that working space elevators are a long way from reality. "We both are pretty skeptical of its near-term prospects," one tells the AP. The competition continues through Friday. (Source: AP)

 

WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN: A cat in Iowa has caught swine flu, making it the first known feline to contract the H1N1 virus, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The 13-year-old cat likely caught the disease from a person in the house who was carrying H1N1 — two of the three family members had suffered flu-like symptoms, which eventually spread to the cat. Both humans and the cat have now recovered, but the AVMA is using the case to remind pet owners to keep an eye on their animals' health during flu season. Before this feline case, H1N1 had been reported in people, pigs, birds and ferrets. (Source: Washington Post)

 

— Russell McLendon