Yellowstone volcano has been struck by 1,400 earthquakes in recent weeks, leading to fears that the supervolcano is ready to blow and wipe out life on Earth.

Seismic activity around the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, US, is not uncommon, but the heaviest swarm in half a decade has people very concerned.

Since June 12, The Express reports there has been over 1,400 tremors in the region, and experts state that the swarm could go on for another month.

However, seismologists state that there is nothing to be concerned about yet. Jamie Farrell at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City told New Scientist:

“This is a large swarm but it is not the largest swarm we’ve recorded in Yellowstone.

 

“Earthquake swarms are fairly common in Yellowstone.

 

“There is no indication that this swarm is related to magma moving through the shallow crust.”

Neverthelesss, following Montana’s biggest earthquake in 34 years, a 5.4 tremor in early June, which is on the same fault line as Yellowstone, and coupled with the swarm of quakes in the National Park, many are convinced that the supervolcano is now ready to blow.

One local wrote on Twitter: “Earthquake in Bozeman = truly terrified Yellowstone volcano gonna go off.”

So what would happen?

Turn that crusty console into cash when buying an Alienware system

Alienware just expanded its trade-in program to include current consoles and is willing to pay $200 for your used Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, or Microsoft Xbox 360 when you purchase a new rig. The timing couldn't be any better, because with both Microsoft and Sony getting ready to launch new consoles next month, the value of these systems has never been lower. Trading in a Nintendo Wii is an especially interesting proposition.

A brand new Nintendo Wii with Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort bundle runs $130. Good luck trying to hawk a used Wii sans bundle for anywhere close to what Alienware is offering. Here are the other models that Dell's boutique arm is willing to accept:

• PlayStation 3 "Fat" (minimum 60GB)
• PlayStation 3 "Slim" (minimum 120GB)
• PlayStation 3 "Super Slim" (minimum 500GB)
• Xbox 360 "Slim" (minimum 250GB)

To take advantage of the trade-in offer, you first need to purchase an Alienware system. These machines tend to run higher than non-boutique systems, though you can snag an Alienware X51 small form factor (SFF) gaming rig starting at $699 (read our review of the previous generation model, and check out our autopsy too). After that, visit Alienware's Trade Up Portal to provide a copy of your PC receipt and bank information, then print out the shipping label and send the company your console. Once it arrives and has been inspected, Alienware will initiate a bank transfer for your system's value within 40 days.

You can look up the cash back value ahead of time to confirm the amount you should receive, assuming it's in working order.

Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

I’ll have more to say about Radley Balko’s excellent new book imminently, but this excerpt is must-reading:

Several months earlier at a local bar, Fairfax County, Virginia, detective David Baucum overheard the thirty-eight-year-old optometrist and some friends wagering on a college football game. “To Sal, betting a few bills on the Redskins was a stress reliever, done among friends,” a friend of Culosi’s told me shortly after his death. “None of us single, successful professionals ever thought that betting fifty bucks or so on the Virginia–Virginia Tech football game was a crime worthy of investigation.” Baucum apparently did. After overhearing the men wagering, Baucum befriended Culosi as a cover to begin investigating him. During the next several months, he talked Culosi into raising the stakes of what Culosi thought were just more fun wagers between friends to make watching sports more interesting. Eventually Culosi and Baucum bet more than $2,000 in a single day. Under Virginia law, that was enough for police to charge Culosi with running a gambling operation. And that’s when they brought in the SWAT team.

On the night of January 24, 2006, Baucum called Culosi and arranged a time to drop by to collect his winnings. When Culosi, barefoot and clad in a T-shirt and jeans, stepped out of his house to meet the man he thought was a friend, the SWAT team began to move in. Seconds later, Det. Deval Bullock, who had been on duty since 4:00 AM and hadn’t slept in seventeen hours, fired a bullet that pierced Culosi’s heart.

Sal Culosi’s last words were to Baucum, the cop he thought was a friend: “Dude, what are you doing?”

In addition to the problems of excessive force, the story is also an excellent illustration of why keeping crimes for minor, consensual crimes like small-stakes gambling and drug possession on the books is a terrible idea. Sure, if you’re a middle class white person a SWAT team is unlikely to raid your poker game or bust you for smoking pot in your home, but 1)not everyone is so lucky, and 2)having rarely enforced laws lying around for authorities who want to make a splash or have a grudge is inviting abuse. In theory, arbitrary prosecution violates the 5th and/or 14th Amendments, but good luck actually making the case.

When it comes to hidden gems in Windows, nothing beats the Reliability monitor tool, hidden behind a link inside of another tool that you don’t use either. Why Microsoft doesn’t shine more light on this really useful troubleshooting tool, we’ll never know.

Reliability Monitor tracks the history of your computer — any time an application crashes, hangs, or Windows gives you a blue screen of death. It also tracks other important events, like when software is installed, or Windows Updates loads a new patch.

It’s an extremely useful tool. And yes, it’s in Windows 7 and 8… and even 8.1. It might be in Vista, but who uses that anymore?