Mt. St. Helens just blew up about two minutes ago, sending up a nice plume of smoke. I’ll post a picture shortly.
UPDATE: Never mind. By the time I got my camera, the plume had disappeared. Looking at the mountain now it’s like nothing happened. This was probably just round 1, and we’ll see what follows.
UPDATE AGAIN: Here are some pictures taken by a helicopter flying overhead at the time of the eruption:
See a video here.
Experts explained the reason the volcano shut down so quickly: Native Americans in the area tossed a virgin into the crater as soon as she blew. As this was the last and only virgin in the State of Washingtin, we’re in for it if she blows again. You can thank Justice Scalia for the shortage of virgins, naturally.
So did someone decide to start a company, a kinda V-Prize company, called Virgin Volcanic? (Hm. come to think of it, Paul Allen—benefactor for the Rutan team?s White Knight SpaceShipOne , which Virgin Galactic has taken a stake in—has a company called Vulcan Ventures. Coincidence?)
Probably not, since geeks have a thing for virgins.