SNOVERKILL: Yet another blizzard is blasting the Mid-Atlantic today, further crippling the already snow-weary region and rendering Washington, D.C., virtually frozen in place. Roaring into D.C. Tuesday night, this latest storm is expected to pile up another 10 inches of snow there before banking northeast up the Atlantic coast and dumping nearly 2 feet on Philadelphia and New York. But not only is the storm unleashing 1 to 2 inches of snow per hour — it's also packing wind gusts up to 50 mph, making travel even more treacherous across the Eastern Seaboard. Dubbed "Snoverkill" for the excess of both snow and snow mania it's causing, the storm is just the latest wintry wallop dealt by El Niño, which has been lurking in the Pacific Ocean since August and isn't showing much sign of slowing down. This is the third major snowstorm to hit the Mid-Atlantic this winter, following previous blizzards last month and last week. (Sources: Washington Post, CNN, National Weather Service)

 

CHICAGO EARTHQUAKE: Heavy snow and high winds have also been battering the Midwest in recent days, but the Chicago area got an extra twist to its wintry weather this morning: an earthquake. A small, 4.3-magnitude quake rattled the Windy City at about 4 a.m., located about three miles deep near Virgil, which is some 50 miles northwest of Chicago. This was only the area's second notable tremor in 30 years, and there have so far been no reports of serious damage or aftershocks. "We got a lot of snow out here and we had a little earthquake," a spokesman for the Kane County sheriff's office tells the NY Times, "so it's been an interesting 12 hours." (Source: New York Times)

 

CHINESE WATER TORTURE: China has released its first national pollution census, offering an unprecedented overview of how the country's frenzied growth has affected its natural environment. For one, it shows the shortcomings of past data, since China's water pollution levels in 2007 were apparently more than double what Chinese officials reported two years ago. That discrepancy comes from using more detailed data and methods this time, officials say — for instance, agricultural waste wasn't included in the previous estimate. While the census doesn't paint an especially encouraging portrait, it does help China quantify the difficult task ahead of cleaning things up, one China expert tells the AP: "In terms of giving them an excellent basis for being able to manage and track what they're doing, it's a huge step forward." (Sources: Associated Press, Reuters)

 

EARLY BIRDS: Ever since Jurassic Park drove the idea home in 1993, the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs has become common knowledge in popular culture. But while there are plenty of studies supporting the theory, there's also some inconvenient evidence that things might not be so simple. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds to the latter argument, examining unusual fossils from the 2003 discovery of a "microraptor" — a small, feathered species that glided down from trees rather than truly flying. It's the latest sign that instead of being part of a linear evolution, birds and dinosaurs may have branched out separately from a common ancestor, much as humans and apes diverged from a shared forebear millions of years ago. "We're finally breaking out of the conventional wisdom of the last 20 years, which insisted that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that the debate is all over and done with," says an Oregon State zoology professor who wrote a commentary on the new study. "This issue isn't resolved at all. There are just too many inconsistencies with the idea that birds had dinosaur ancestors, and this newest study adds to that." (Source: e! Science News)

 

BAT SIGNALS: In other bird-evolution news, New Scientist offers a profile today of the oilbird, aka "guacharo," a sort of flying hybrid that could drive bird watchers batty. The animals are technically birds — e.g., they lay eggs — but they have several eerie characteristics of bats: They use echolocation to map their surroundings, roost in caves by the thousands, and coat the cave floor with guano that feeds an ecosystem of insects and microbes. But they also have very un-batlike vision, thanks to what are reputedly the most sensitive eyes of any vertebrate. Oilbird eyes are attuned for night vision, since they mostly hunt after dark, but researchers recently discovered that they also leave their caves for a few hours each day to roost in trees, which boosts their ecological importance. Roosting outside means the fruit seeds they eat are more likely to be dispersed back outside, where they can grow and help spread local vegetation like oil palms. (Source: New Scientist)

 

— Russell McLendon