The recent, record-setting heat wave appears to have been triggered by a little-noticed patch of storm activity off the western coast of Central America.

Descriptions abound of the so-called heat dome, a zone of high atmospheric pressure that pushed warm air down over the central and eastern United States, then held it for a sweltering week.

But with the average evening news weather map ending at U.S. borders, the heat dome seemed to come from nowhere. Of course that’s not the case.

“Subsiding” — descending — “air over the United States is associated with the heat wave. Where is the air subsiding...

After a steady stream of angry blog posts and heated debate among its own users over the value of pseudonymity on the web, Google announced Monday that it was revising its “real name” policy, at least for display, on Google+.

In a post on Google+, Google VP Bradley Horowitz promised greater transparency, particularly in suspension of user profiles. The new algorithm — human as well as computational — offers users a chance to correct their profiles before suspension. In the past week, most banned profiles simply disappeared without warning.

The great Google+ profile purge began last week with...