3.27.2023

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Mississippi Delta Tornadoes

At least 26 people died and dozens more were injured after at least 12 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi and Alabama overnight Friday, marking one of the region's deadliest tornado events. The White House issued an emergency declaration to unlock federal aid in the rural Mississippi Delta region, one of the nation's poorest.

A powerful, upward-rotating storm fueled by high temperatures known as a supercell (see 101) formed late Friday in northwest Mississippi and stretched into Alabama, leaving a 60-mile wide path of destruction. Of the dozen twisters spotted (see video), the strongest was an EF-4 whose near 200-mph winds flattened the Delta town of Rolling Fork, launching objects as high as 30,000 feet. See photos of the damage here and drone footage here. 

Residents in Amory, Mississippi, were asked to boil water amid damage to city water infrastructure. The system also wrought havoc in Ohio, where roughly 175,000 residents were without power as of Sunday evening. 

A Very Mad March

An upset-laden men's NCAA basketball tournament has narrowed its field down to the Final Four, with No. 9 Florida Atlantic set to take on No. 5 San Diego State (Saturday, 6 pm ET, CBS) and No. 4 Connecticut facing No. 5 Miami (Saturday, 8:30 pm ET, CBS). While each team has had a unique path to the final weekend, Connecticut enters the final two rounds having won each game by double digits, including a dominating 82-54 win over No. 3 Gonzaga Saturday. 

This year's tournament on the men's side has been one of the most chaotic in league history. For just the second time, a No. 1 seed lost in the first round (Purdue), a No. 15 seed advanced to the Sweet Sixteen (Princeton), and for the first time since seeding began in 1979, no No. 1 teams made it to the Elite Eight. Many have compared it to 2014, which saw 19 upsets where a team seeded at least two spots lower than their opponent ended up victorious. 

On the women's side, No. 3 Ohio State upset No. 2 Connecticut, ending an 18-year streak of Elite Eight appearances for the Huskies—the longest such streak in either men's or women's college basketball. See an updated bracket here. 

Gordon Moore Dies

Legendary technologist and philanthropist Gordon Moore passed away Friday at his Hawaii home at the age of 94 from natural causes, according to a family representative. Among other accomplishments, he cofounded the multinational Intel and coined the concept of "Moore's Law" in 1965—a prediction that computing power would increase exponentially because the number of transistors per microchip would double roughly every two years. 

Moore, trained as a chemist, initially joined the lab of Nobel Prize winner William Shockley, who had helped invent the transistor in the 1940s. Instead of remaining with Shockley, Moore was part of the so-called "Traitorous Eight"—a group of engineers who left to launch a competing semiconductor company and would go on to form what has become modern-day Silicon Valley (silicon is the base material for most common semiconductors). Along with a number of technology honors, Moore was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. 

See the data that bore out Moore's Law here.

Science & Technology

Business & Markets

Politics & World Affairs

The rise of single parenting in the US. 

Photos of Ramadan celebrations.

What retiring in the US with less than $1M looks like.

Watch babies racing. 

Scientists unveil the details of curly hair.

The amazing endurance of a farm dog (via Reddit, w/video).

Startup unveils a robot dog with musculoskeletal limbs.

Goalie scores goal from across the field. 

Clickbait: The rising price of brides in China. 

Historybook: Director Quentin Tarantino born (1963); Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, dies (1968); Mariah Carey born (1969); Tenerife Airport Disaster, worst accident in aviation history, kills 583 (1977).