Researchers estimate that due to a lack of sediments flowing downstream and rising sea levels that by 2100 the Mississippi Delta around the area of New Orleans will loose nearly as much land as an area the size of Connecticut. The Mississippi River system is not flowing with the sediment that it once did and slowly rising sea levels will erode away what sedimentary-deposited land currently exists.

Huge ant colonies from around the world now appear to be inter-connected, with mega ant colonies in Europe, Japan, and North America all familial and friendly with one another. These colonies of Argentine ants have been spread by humans to every region of the world, except Antarctica. Now, these transplanted ants have become huge colonies that stretch hundreds of miles. Read this biogeographical story from the BBC.

There's an amazing new source for free blank outline maps on the Internet - D-Maps includes more than 3500 printable maps, available in six different graphic formats. A link now resides in my Blank and Outline Maps category of resources.

The L.A. Times has an interesting gallery of photos of unusual travel destinations. It's worth a look but be forewarned, the site will resize your browser window.

Wildland fires are becoming so very prevalent as more people move to the fringes of urban areas, called exurbs. This creates a wildland/urban interface that makes property destruction all the more likely. Read Amanda's latest article on wildland fires and consider the problem. Should zoning prohibit such development or should something else be done? Share your thoughts by commenting...

The G8 begins a meeting today in L'Aquila, Italy, which was the site of a magnitude 6.3 earthquake last April. Due to safety concerns to protect the world's top leaders, an earthquake evacuation plan has been developed to helicopter out Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister Taro Aso, President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and President Barack Obama in the event of another earthquake.

Take a look at this photo essay from The New York Times that records the situation in America's cities where major construction projects have been stopped suddenly due to the economic situation.

Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that New Orleans was the fastest growing city in 2008, as it grew by 8.2% as it welcomed home residents who evacuated from Hurricane Katrina. Four of the ten fastest growing cities in 2008 were in Texas and all ten can be considered part of the Sunbelt:

1. New Orleans, Louisiana
2. Round Rock, Texas
3. Cary, North Carolina
4. Gilbert, Arizona
5. McKinney, Texas
6. Roseville, California
7. Irvine, California
8. Raleigh, North Carolina
9. Killeen, Texas
10. Fort Worth, Texas

Egypt's Suez Canal is a 101 mile (163 km) long canal that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez, a northern branch of the Red Sea. Learn all about the Suez Canal and its fascinating history in this latest article from Amanda Briney.

UNESCO has added thirteen new sites and has deleted one site to the much coveted World Heritage List. The deletion of the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany from the list is the first European deletion from the World Heritage List in the nearly 40-year history of the list. The World Heritage Committee removed Dresden from the list due to the start of construction of a four-lane bridge, the Waldschlösschen Bridge, in the heart of the cultural landscape.