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Monday, March 13, 2006

The Mightiest Wind

I'm surprised I hadn't heard that the Central Tower of Paine had been blown over by a 500 mph wind. But the Weekly World News (motto: "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper") is on top of the story. Seems the "strongest wind ever recorded" buckled the granite foundation of "Mt. Cordelia," toppling the tower onto the farming village below. I didn't even know there was a village on the glacier below the Torres del Paine, but pictures don't lie, do they? As meteorologist Pietro Baggia of the South American Meteorological Unit (SAMU) told a reporter from the Weekly World News' Valparaiso Bureau, "It was the perfect windstorm with gusts of 500 miles per hour. Thanks to increased global warming, the widening hole in the ozone, and the ocean-disrupting effects of La NiƱa, we can expect to see an increase in winds of this magnitude. Next time, we may lose an entire mountain range." Consider yourself warned.

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