All posts tagged: desert

Worries over water as a giant data center moves into the New Mexico desert : NPR

Worries over water as a giant data center moves into the New Mexico desert : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

The building site for the Project Jupiter data center in Doña Ana County, New Mexico STACK Infrastructure/Oracle hide caption toggle caption STACK Infrastructure/Oracle SANTA TERESA, N.M. – One of the largest data centers in the country is rising from the parched scrub desert of southern New Mexico. Most county officials are agog at the jobs and investment this high tech mega-project has promised to bring. But many locals are asking: can chile and pecan farming co-exist with Project Jupiter? The scale of the project befuddles the brain. At 1,400 acres, it could swallow New York’s Central Park. With two-and-a-half gigawatts of electricity, it could power more than half of New Mexico. And $165 billion in investment capital—if developers reach that goal—could pick up the tab for 40 Artemis moon shots. Yes, these clever comparisons were suggested by artificial intelligence—which is powered by data centers like Project Jupiter. But as they might say down in Doña Ana County: you can’t water pecans with data. “I have a little plot of land out here, grow some pecans,” …

China Warns of Risk of ‘Extreme Floods’ in Desert Regions

China Warns of Risk of ‘Extreme Floods’ in Desert Regions

Published by Sam Flores

HONG KONG, June 12 – China warned communities ⁠in ⁠its northwestern Xinjiang and nearby ⁠regions on Friday to prepare for “extreme floods” this summer, driven ​by abnormally high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and rapid glacier melt. Xinjiang’s Taklamakan Desert, China’s largest, ‌experienced its first flood of ‌the year in early June, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday, showing footage ⁠of water ⁠filling the typically arid dunes. While the Taklamakan has experienced similar floods ​since 2021, they typically occur in August, when temperatures peak. However, temperatures have surged much earlier this year. On June 12, Xinjiang was 7.3 degrees hotter than average for this ​time of year, reaching 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Reuters Climate ⁠Monitor. Western ⁠and southern Xinjiang have ⁠also seen ​more frequent rainfall recently. Precipitation in some areas has been double or even triple ​the historical average for ⁠early June, CCTV reported. GLACIERS AND SNOW MELTING The combination of intense heat and rainfall has triggered the desert floods. Large swathes of glaciers and snowpack in the Tianshan and Kunlun mountains have …

Even wild desert cats love catnip

Even wild desert cats love catnip

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Cats are famously obsessed with catnip, but a recent social media post from the Bronx Zoo in New York City highlights that it’s not just bossy domestic felines that take an interest in the plant.  In the zoo’s video, a three-year-old female sand cat (Felis margarita) plays with a catnip-filled ball. Sand cats are the sole only species that live in the true desert. They can withstand both exceptional heat and cold, from 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) to -13 degrees Fahrenheit (-25 degrees Celsius). They are found across northern Africa as well as southwest and central Asia. “The keepers added catnip to this ball to give the sand cats a novel item to stimulate them physically and mentally. Cats respond to …

Nigel Farage Branded 'Whining Narcissist' Over Desert Island Discs Snub Row

Nigel Farage Branded 'Whining Narcissist' Over Desert Island Discs Snub Row

Published by Sam Flores

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage walks through the House of Commons to attend the State Opening of Parliament last month. Nigel Farage has been branded a “whining narcissist” after he complained about not being invited on Desert Island Discs. The Reform UK leader called for the BBC licence fee to be abolished because he is not lined up as a guest on the long-running Radio 4 show. Those chosen as “castaways” are asked by presenter Lauren Laverne to name the eight musical recordings, book and luxury item they would like to have with them if they were stranded on a desert island. According to a new biography of Farage by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, Reform asked the BBC if he could be a guest, as Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch have been in the past, but were told they had no space in their schedule. A Reform source told The Times: “We approached the BBC as we thought it would be a no-brainer with Keir and Kemi going on, but it would appear they have …

World’s biggest permanent desert lake causes a world of woes : NPR

World’s biggest permanent desert lake causes a world of woes : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

School children walk through the shallows past submerged and abandoned school buildings at the El Molo Bay primary school in Komote, Kenya. Teachers at the school say the buildings have become a breeding ground for crocodiles. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption toggle caption Tommy Trenchard for NPR As a scorching wind tears across the barren, rocky slopes of Komote Island off the shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, Alfred Lenkutuk sits in the meager shelter of his hut, gazing out over the village where he was born and remembering better times. As little as 10 years ago, the village wasn’t on an island at all. But the lake has steadily expanded, swallowing homes, grazing lands, schools, roads and the burial grounds where Lenkutuk’s ancestors were laid to rest. Today, the village is separated from the mainland by about 660 yards of shimmering turquoise water where fishermen paddle on homemade rafts. Growing up, the 71-year-old remembers going on regular communal hippo hunts around the lakeshore, and fishermen coming home with catches of more than …

New Mars rover could swim through sand like a desert lizard

New Mars rover could swim through sand like a desert lizard

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. To effectively travel on Mars, rovers need to deal with a lot of sand. German engineers have created a new kind of ground rover that uses swimming motions to push through sand that may otherwise cause the  wheels to get stuck. Its inspiration: the African sandfish (Scincus scincus), a lizard known for burrowing into the Sahara Desert and literally swimming through its sand like a fish. It’s one of the animal kingdom’s strangest methods of propulsion, but it may help shape the future of Mars exploration. A video of the rover, released this week by the University of Würzburg, shows a mini-fridge-sized, silver rover making its way through a sandy, Martian-mimicking test floor. Rather than rolling forward, each of its four wheels cuts through the sand in what looks like a figure-eight motion. The rover pushes on several yards and then cuts a corner and returns to where it started. Sandfish-inspired rover “The wheels mimic the animal’s [sandfish’s]characteristic interaction …

She built a life as a top Realtor. She was found dead in the desert

She built a life as a top Realtor. She was found dead in the desert

Published by Sam Flores

The last time Steve Robles spoke to his mom was two days before Mother’s Day. Lorraine Bird had received an offer for her Twentynine Palms home. She planned to counter, she told her son, describing the terms. Then, the 86-year-old disappeared. Ten days later, a content creator exploring a desolate stretch of the Mojave Desert found Bird’s nearly naked body curled up inside a graffiti-splashed boulder pile. Authorities haven’t determined if her death was a homicide or from natural causes and have made no arrests in the case, but say that an investigation is ongoing. The mystery has split her surviving family members and pushed her loved ones to seek answers. “This is a really, really ugly story,” Robles said. “There’s no good ending to it.” Bird’s daughter, Doreen Bird, did not return messages seeking comment for this article. A photo of Lorraine Bird in front of a fish vase containing her ashes. (William Liang / For The Times) Lorraine Blondina Bird was born in East Los Angeles. She made her name as a top …

The Sonoran Desert teems with wildlife. These 3D scans could help protect its future : NPR

The Sonoran Desert teems with wildlife. These 3D scans could help protect its future : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

The RAF Exhibit Gallery hosts an immersive with mutliple screens showing FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse on April 14, 2026 at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. Caitlin O’Hara for NPR hide caption toggle caption Caitlin O’Hara for NPR PHOENIX — It was about 6:30 a.m. when the saguaro fell and the group chat lit up. Lidar scanners — the same tech that allows self-driving cars to create 3D maps of their environments — had been capturing the day-by-day evolution of the giant cactus for six months. They recorded the colossus as it pulsed with life, eventually tilted and ultimately toppled in the vast Sonoran Desert of Arizona in February 2024. That WhatsApp chat was filled with researchers, technicians and artists who had been scanning the plant as part of a yearslong art and data project, said Laura Spalding Best, the senior director of exhibits at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, which commissioned the project. “It was so emotional and meaningful for everybody. [There] was like an excitement. But it was also super sorrowful at the …

Tesla owner uses emergency solar to trickle charge after running out of battery in desert

Tesla owner uses emergency solar to trickle charge after running out of battery in desert

Published by skeptic

Screenshot A YouTuber driving a Tesla Model X the entire length of the Americas ran out of battery in Chile’s Atacama Desert — the driest place on Earth — and had to deploy emergency solar panels on the side of the highway to survive. The whole ordeal, captured on video, is a fascinating look at both the promise and the very real challenges of long-distance EV travel in regions where charging infrastructure remains sparse. Overlanding the Americas in a Tesla Model X Sandro van Kuijck, an Oregon-based creator who runs the YouTube channel EverydaySandro, has spent the past three years driving his Tesla Model X — nicknamed “Beluga” — from the northern terminus of the Pan-American Highway in Tuktoyuktuk, Canada, toward the southern tip in Ushuaia, Argentina. Chile marked country number 14 on his solo expedition. Beluga is no ordinary Model X. Van Kuijck converted the electric SUV into a full-time overlanding rig with a custom slide-out kitchen, induction cooktop, running water, a refrigerator, and a sleeping setup — all while keeping the exterior mostly …