sintaur

sintaur t1_iyil2t3 wrote

Reply to comment by 1859 in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/​1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859

> Over a period of 36 hours, tens of thousands of workers pulled the spikes from the west rail of all the broad gauge lines in the South, moved them 3 in (76 mm) east and spiked them back in place.[6] The new gauge was close enough that standard gauge equipment could run on it without problem. By June 1886, all major railroads in North America, an estimated 11,500 miles (18,500 km), were using approximately the same gauge. To facilitate the change, the inside spikes had been hammered into place at the new gauge in advance of the change.

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sintaur t1_iu22ohs wrote

Reply to comment by GeoGeoGeoGeo in Magma on Mars Likely - Until now, Mars has been generally considered a geologically dead planet. An international team of researchers led by ETH Zurich now reports that seismic signals indicate volcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface. by GeoGeoGeoGeo

Summarized:

Other scientists: Mars is dead. It can't tectonic.

This paper : Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that Mars here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.

Other scientists : What's that?

This paper : send rovers across the planet and look for loose change.

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