Shapeshifting Animals

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESimage captionAustralian parrots' beaks are getting bigger as temperatures rise

When you hear the word "shapeshifting" you probably think of a sci-fi or horror film, and not the climate.  But that's what scientists say is happening to some animals in response to climate change.  Warm-blooded species are evolving to have larger beaks, legs and ears to regulate body temperature as the planet warms up, a new study suggests.

The scientists behind the study warn the physiological changes do not mean animals are coping with climate change.  "A lot of the time when climate change is discussed, people are asking 'can humans overcome this?' or 'what technology can solve this?'" says the study's author, Sara Ryding, from Deakin University. "It's high-time we recognised that animals also have to adapt to these changes."

Climate report is 'code red for humanity'
A really simple guide to climate change
Wildlife forced to move or adapt by climate change

If animals fail to control their body temperature, they can overheat and die.  Some animals in warmer climates have historically evolved to have larger beaks or ears to get rid of heat more easily.  A larger wing, ear or beak relative to body size gives smaller animals a greater surface area from which to lose excess heat.  READ MORE

Elephants

 

Zodiac Personality Disorders

Every person has a distinct personality and is capable of great things in life. Who they are, where they come from, where they wish to go are some of the factors that shape a person's character and determine what they become.

However, sometimes the things that meet the eye may differ from what actually is. This is when astrology comes in handy. Zodiac signs can reveal a lot about a person's nature and temperament. It can decipher and bring to the forefront the hidden aspects of a person, the traits that are good as well as bad.

That said, given that every person has a positive personality trait, there are certain negative qualities that can cause distinct personality disorders in each person. In respect to that, here are the kind of personality disorders one may experience, according to their zodiac signs.





Besides being impulsive, Aries can also be aggressive. People belonging to this zodiac sign may have sudden bouts of anger and explosive aggression, which may prove disadvantageous for them. Such behaviour can be characteristic of Intermittent Explosive Disorder, where a person has terrifying bursts of anger and aggression, often leading to worst scenarios.  READ MORE

Sleeping Cat

 

Martian Caves Offer Protection

Cave Entrance

There are very good reasons why Mars is such a desolate, barren landscape. With no thick atmosphere nor a magnetic field, the Red Planet’s surface is bombarded daily by radiation up to 900 times higher than seen on Earth. However, some places are sheltered. New research has found that cave entrances are shielded from the harmful radiation that normally hits Mars. This may make them ideal as both sites for future settlements and robotic missions meant to scour for signs of alien life.

Despite amazing advances in space exploration in the last decade, if we’re going to take the idea of settling Mars sometime during this century seriously, there are many challenges that need to be overcome. That’s unless we’re content with one-way suicide missions.

There’s no shortage of environmental hazards out to kill any astronaut bold enough to dare set foot on Mars. For one, the planet only has 0.7% of Earth’s sea-level pressure, meaning any human on Mars must wear a full pressure suit or stay barricaded inside a pressure-controlled chamber, otherwise oxygen wouldn’t flow through the bloodstream and the body could swell and bleed out.

Then there’s the issue of radiation. Mars is farther away from the Sun than Earth, receiving roughly 60% of the power per square meter seen on a similar site on Earth. But since Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field to deflect energetic particles, coupled with the paper-thin atmosphere, its surface is exposed to much higher levels of radiation than Earth. Furthermore, besides regular exposure to cosmic rays and solar wind, it receives occasional, lethal radiation blasts due to strong solar flares.

Measurements performed by the Mars Odyssey probe suggest that ongoing radiation levels on Mars are at least 2.5 times higher than what astronauts experience on the International Space Station. That’s about 22 millirads per day, which works out to 8000 millirads (8 rads) per year. For comparison, the people in the U.S. are exposed to roughly 0.62 rads/year on average.  READ MORE

Boarding

 

Unexpected Yet Anticipated

Most of us realize that we need to anticipate maintenance costs of our vehicles will happen sooner or later, but when they do, they are always unexpected as we hoped that we might have lasted a few months more.

This week I spent an easy $1,200 on my 2015 Toyota Venza...  I purchased the Venza used (it was leased by a company) and it only had 5,000 on it so it was practically brand new.  Today (2021), it has 70,000 mile on it...  so, in about 5-6 years, I put 65,000 miles on it...  or roughly just under 1,000 miles each month which is not bad.

On Monday, I purchased 4 new tires and today, I had a tune-up, oil change, and replace the back wheel brake pads and brakes all of which cost me about $2,000 but, $600 was spent in 2017 when I purchased 4 tires but only used 2....  

These new tires are good for 60,000 mile (or at my current rate about another 5.5 years) and my brake shoes will last much longer...  so, I suppose one can prorate these monies over the next 5.5 years...  which means I will be spending about $350/year or about $30/month in future driving...

After another 60,000 miles, I will have a total of 130,000 and the year will be 2026/27 and the Venza will be 11/12 years old...  Most Toyotas last for a good 200,000 miles which means I should be able to drive the damn car for another 5-56 years or 60,000 miles.  In which case it will be 15/16 years old...  and, I will be in my 80's and will not really have much of a need to drive.

Japanese cars are much better than American cars...

I wonder why?

Waves

 

Ancient Egypt

The ancient Mediterranean was full of religious expression, and Kemetic culture’s concept of a divine family influenced early Christians.

Osiris flanked by Horus on the left and Isis on the right

To most people today, “the Trinity” is a distinctly Christian concept, referring to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But as African American studies scholar Jennifer Williams writes, this wasn’t the first religious trinity. Christianity borrowed the idea from ancient Egyptians, making some significant changes along the way.

Williams notes that early Christians found inspiration for their spiritual system in religions from around the Mediterranean. The region was full of stories involving resurrection, salvation, virgin births, and central figures who were the sons of supreme gods. In ancient Egypt—or Kemet, as it was known to its people at the time—one key concept was the relationship among three deities, Asar, Aset, and Heru. (Most Americans today know them better by the names the Greeks gave them: Osiris, Isis, and Horus, respectively.)

Like many Egyptian gods, these divine beings started out as humans. Asar was a revered king who was murdered by a usurper but became king of the afterlife, or spiritual realm. His wife, Aset, took their son, Heru, into hiding, and Heru eventually returned to reclaim the earthly throne.

Kemetic culture relied on the principle of Ma’at, or order. This included the grouping of deities in families or pairs, such as the Asar-Aset-Heru trinity.  “Enacting change on the tangible and intangible realms usually required more than one deity so that the essence of one deity would not overwhelm the balance of the worlds seen and unseen,” Williams writes.

A part of Ma’at was the complementary male and female principles, both in the universe and in human society. Egyptians passed property and titles down matrilineally. And while men typically occupied the formal positions of political authority, royal women also had a powerful role in decision making.

At the start of the Middle Kingdom, around 2040 BCE, Williams writes, Egypt was largely patriarchal, and celebrations often focused on Asar. But during the New Kingdom, a time of powerful queens that began around 1570 BCE, Aset gained new attention. She became known as the protector of the living and the most powerful healer among the gods. Over time, the worship of Aset spread to Greeks and Romans, particularly among women. Her identity sometimes merged with other goddesses, like Astarte and Hera.  READ MORE

Rock Formation

 

Talking Duck

Leiden University’s Carel ten Cate tracked down 34-year-old duck recordings—and the man who made them—to verify that musk ducks are capable of vocal learning, an ability that hadn’t been thought to exist in waterfowl.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a person, it’s probably a musk duck (Biziura lobata)—the only waterfowl species known that can learn sounds from other species. The Australian species’ facility for vocal learning had been mentioned anecdotally in the ornithological literature; now, a paper published September 6 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B reviews and discusses the evidence, which includes 34-year-old recordings made of a human-reared musk duck named Ripper engaging in an aggressive display while quacking “you bloody fool.”

The Scientist spoke with the lead author on the paper, Leiden University animal behavior researcher Carel ten Cate, to learn more about these unique ducks and what their unexpected ability reveals about the evolution of vocal learning.

The Scientist: What is vocal learning?

COURTESY OF CAREL TEN CATE

Carel ten Cate: Vocal learning, as it is used in this case, is that animals and humans, they learn their sounds from experience. So they learn from what they hear around them, which will usually be the parents, but it can also be other individuals. And if they don’t get that sort of exposure, then they will be unable to produce species-specific vocalizations, or in the human case, speech sounds and proper spoken language.

TS: What drew you to studying vocal learning?

CtC: I’m interested in communication by sound by birds. That has been a major topic in my research over the years, and that also included how do sounds develop. There are bird groups in which sounds—vocalizations—develop without much experience, like pigeons, for instance. Also, ducks and geese are usually considered not to be [vocal] learners, in contrast to songbirds. In songbirds, there is clear evidence for many species that, if they don’t have experience at an early age, they don’t sing proper species-specific songs. I’m interested in why [there is] this difference, and what’s the advantage of learning your vocalizations, as opposed to developing them without any impact of learning.

TS: What can comparative studies of vocal learning in different animals teach us?

CtC: An important reason to study that has to do with the fact that we are vocal learners. But among primates, and great apes, we are the only species who are vocal learners. In other great apes, they don’t need experience to develop vocalizations. . . . It’s quite a special feature of us. In order to understand why that might have evolved, and how that might have evolved, you need comparative studies on other animal species where you can make this contrast between learners and nonlearners.

For both mammals and birds, there are only a limited number of examples of vocal learners. That is to say, all the songbirds are vocal learners, and all the parrots are vocal learners, but because their ancestor, the common ancestor of these groups, were vocal learners, all the later-appearing species—they got that trait from that ancestor. We can’t look back in the past deep enough to understand why it evolved in the ancestor of parrots or hummingbirds or songbirds. This duck is so interesting because there you may have relatives, relatively close relatives, which don’t show vocal learning, and others which do.

TS: That brings us to musk ducks and Ripper. When did you first learn about Ripper?

CtC: I’ve been doing a review on vocal learning in birds—of the type I just discussed, but also in some bird species, there’s evidence that they may modify existing vocalizations by reinforcement. . . . So I was working on the review and reading up all I could find about vocal development in birds of any kind. And then, in a book chapter, someone mentioned, well, there is a report about a duck imitating vocalizations. That triggered me because that would be highly unexpected. So then I started to trace the reference for that. Through a whole series of various steps and computations, I managed to find the source of that reference. And it turned out that the recordings related to that reference were actually in an Australian sound archive. I got in touch with them, and after a long exchange, they managed to send me some of these recordings.  READ MORE

Will Rogers

Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash in Alaska with bush pilot Wiley Post (from Maysville, Okla.), was one of the greatest political country/cowboy sages this country has ever known.

Some of his sayings:

1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.

8. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.

The moral : When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.



ABOUT GROWING OLDER...

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable and relaxed.

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.

And, finally ~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old.

Greek Cotton Merchants

The Battle of Antietam, the Civil  deadliest one-day fight. Public Domain

The Confederates handed the Union a key victory on the “Cotton Front” before a shot was even fired in the American civil war. However, without the agility of the Greek cotton merchants, the alternative supplies may not have been enough, or established in time.

The “what ifs” of history have always been of interest to me, as a historian. In many cases profound events turn on chances both large and small, or in other cases, the game of history is well fixed, and in advance.

Sometimes, too, as a historian, one stumbles upon a “what if” investigative path, almost by accident.

I had always been interested in the Greek Orthodox Community of New Orleans, as it was the first Greek Church community in the United States. I understood it to be in many ways an outpost of a larger Greek merchant and expatriate network that extended throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.

When we lived in Europe, we visited the remnants of many of these communities, in Vienna, Venice, Trieste, Budapest, and elsewhere. I was well aware of this dynamic, articulate merchant/shipping diaspora, and its role in Greek independence and the growth of the Greek merchant fleet.

However, it was only after I began my master’s degree in history at Clemson University, in conjunction with teaching there, that I started to put the various threads together. As a Hydriot and the son and grandson of sailors, I quickly decided to focus on the Greek Merchant Marine for my thesis. The Greek merchant fleet specialized in the bulk carrying trade, and cotton was a key commodity in the 1800s.

At our local Greek Orthodox Church in Greenville, South Carolina I met a woman from New Orleans who introduced me to the New Orleans parish’s archives committee, which contained a treasure trove of information about the early Greek community there, where cotton merchants, usually agents of Greek houses located in Europe, settled in the boom times of the Antebellum South.

At the same time, I took a class on Middle Eastern History, where the professor suggested that I look at the Greek merchant community of Egypt in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  READ MORE

The Mysterious Pilot

This is a true story about an experience in 1967 by a young 12-year-old boy in Kingston, Ontario, Canada

In the morning sun, I could not believe my eyes. There, in our little airport, sat a majestic P-51. They said it had flown in during the night from some US Airport, on its way to an air show. The pilot had been tired, so he just happened to choose Kingston for his stopover. It was to take to the air very soon. I marveled at the size of the plane, dwarfing the Pipers and Canucks tied down by her. It was much larger than in the movies. She glistened in the sun like a bulwark of security from days gone by.

The pilot arrived by cab, paid the driver, and then stepped into the pilot's lounge. He was an older man; his wavy hair was gray and tossed. It looked like it might have been combed, say, around the turn of the century. His flight jacket was checked, creased and worn— it smelled old and genuine. Old Glory was prominently sewn to its shoulders. He projected a quiet air of proficiency and pride devoid of arrogance.

He filed a quick flight plan to Montreal ("Expo-67 Air Show") then walked across the tarmac.

After taking several minutes to perform his walk-around check, the tall, lanky man returned to the flight lounge to ask if anyone would be available to stand by with fire extinguishers while he "flashed the old bird up, just to be safe." Though only 12 at the time, I was allowed to stand by with an extinguisher after brief instruction on its use: "If you see a fire, point, then pull this lever!" he said. (I later became a firefighter, but that's another story.)

The air around the exhaust manifolds shimmered like a mirror from fuel fumes as the huge prop started to rotate. One manifold, then another, and yet another barked— I stepped back with the others. In moments the Packard-built Merlin engine came to life with a thunderous roar. Blue flames knifed from her manifolds with an arrogant snarl. I looked at the others' faces; there was no concern. I lowered the bell of my extinguisher.

One of the guys signaled to walk back to the lounge; we did. Several minutes later we could hear the pilot doing his pre-flight run-up. He'd taxied to the end of Runway 19, out of sight. All went quiet for several seconds. We ran to the second story deck to see if we could catch a glimpse of the P-51 as she started down the runway. We could not. There we stood, eyes fixed at a spot halfway down the runway. Then a roar ripped across the field, much louder than before. Like a furious hell spawn set loose— something mighty this way was coming!

"Listen to that thing!" said the controller.

In seconds the Mustang burst into our line of sight. Its tail was already off the runway and it was moving faster than anything I'd ever seen. Two-thirds the way down 19 the Mustang was airborne with her gear going up. The prop tips were supersonic. We clasped our ears as the Mustang climbed hellishly fast into the circuit to be eaten up by the dog-day haze. We stood for a few moments, in stunned silence, trying to digest what we'd just seen.

The radio controller rushed by me to the radio. "Kingston tower calling Mustang!" He looked back to us as he waited for an acknowledgment.

The radio crackled, "Go ahead, Kingston." "Roger, Mustang. Kingston tower would like to advise the circuit is clear for a low-level pass."

I stood in shock because the controller had just, more or less, asked the pilot to return for an impromptu air show!

The controller looked at us. "Well, What?" he asked. "I can't let that guy go without asking. I couldn't forgive myself!"

The radio crackled once again, "Kingston, do I have permission for a low-level pass, east to west, across the field?" "Roger, Mustang, the circuit is clear for an east to west pass." "Roger, Kingston, I'm coming out of 3,000 feet, stand by."

We rushed back onto the second-story deck, eyes fixed toward the eastern haze. The sound was subtle at first, a high-pitched whine, a muffled screech, a distant scream. Moments later the P-51 burst through the haze. Her airframe straining against positive G's and gravity. Her wing tips spilling contrails of condensed air, prop-tips again supersonic. The burnished bird blasted across the eastern margin of the field, shredding and tearing the air. At about 500 mph and 150 yards from where we stood she passed, with the old American pilot saluting.

Imagine— a salute! I felt like laughing; like crying. She glistened; she screamed; the building shook; my heart pounded. Then the old pilot pulled her up and rolled, and rolled, and rolled out of sight into the broken clouds and indelibly into my memory.

I've never wanted to be an American more than on that day! It was a time when many nations in the world looked to America as their big brother, a steady and even-handed beacon of security who navigated difficult political water with grace and style; not unlike the old American pilot who'd just flown into my memory. He was proud, not arrogant; humble, not a braggart; old and honest, projecting an aura of America at its best.

That America will return one day! I know it will! Until that time, I'll just send off this story. Call it a loving salute to a Country, and especially to that old American pilot: the late JIMMY STEWART (1908-1997), actor, real WWII hero (Commander of a US Army Air Force Bomber Wing stationed in England), and a USAF Reserves Brigadier General, who wove a wonderfully fantastic memory for a young Canadian boy that's lasted a lifetime.


Jimmy Stewart's P-51-Mustang

A Divided America

The United States of America is currently divided on several fronts:

1. White/Black
2. Male/Female
3. Wealthy/Poor
4. Leader/Follower
5. Biased News/Unbiased News
6. Religious/Non Religious
7. Low taxes/High Taxes
8. Big Government/Small Government
9. Educated/Not Educated
10. Healthy/Not Healthy
11. Urban Living/Rural Living
12. North/South
13. Socialism/Capitalism
14. Large military/Small military
15. Liberals/Conservatives
16. Democrat/Republican
17. Obesity/Not Obese
18. Abortion/No Abortion
19. Guns/No Guns
20. Open Borders/Closed Borders
21. Black Lives Matter/All Lives Matter
22. Legal Marijuana/Illegal Marijuana
23. Defund Police/Fund Police
24. CRT/Non CRT

AND...  every 4 years, we elect the same representation or different representation to manage our country depending upon whether or not the news is good or bad...

These are just some of our freedoms that we enjoy and many of us take for granted because we have never served in the military and had to protect those freedoms from extinction....

Most people cannot appreciate SHIT until it has been taken away from them...  and, once it has been taken away from them, it is too late to get it back...  at least in a timely manner...  getting it back could take years or decades...

Another issue, that a divided country does not appreciate is the fact that other countries can easily take over a country that is divided as opposed to one that is united in a common belief and/or philosophy...   This is easily evidenced by those people who believe in Islam and in the death to ALL CHRISTIANS and all NON BELIEVERS whether they be Christian or not...

It is no longer my place to try and keep America UNITED...  I have little interest in whether or not America maintains its status or looses it because of ignorance and arrogance and egotistical stupidity.  My vested interest nowadays is ejoying my retirement and making the most out of each of my remaining days...  as whether you believe this or not...  old age happens quickly and unexpectedly...  and, once you have it, you cannot go back under any circumstances.

Embers

 

Meyers Briggs Takeover

The MBTI’s different permutations amount to 16 types of personality, each with innate strengths and blind spots. Illustration: Ricardo Cavolo/The Guardian


Deemed ‘astrology for businessmen’ for some, lauded as life-saving by others, the personality tests are a ‘springboard’ for people to think about who they are

Iam a born executive. I am obsessed with efficiency and detached from my emotions. I share similarities with Margaret Thatcher and Harrison Ford. I am among 2% of the general population, and 1% of women.

People like us are highly motivated by personal growth, and occasionally ruthless in the pursuit. We make difficult partners and parents, but good landscape architects. We are ENTJs: extroverted, intuitive, thinking, judging – also known as the executive type or, sometimes, “the Commander”.

This, over a decade ago, was my auspicious entry into the world of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Based on psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theories of personality, the assessment maintains that we are all born with a preference for extroversion or introversion, intuition or sensing, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving.

The different permutations amount to 16 types of personality, each with innate strengths and “blind spots”. By understanding which one we are, so the theory goes, we might apply ourselves more effectively in our personal and professional lives.
As an insecure teenager, finding out my type online was like being handed an instruction manual

The business of “typing” people generates the Myers-Briggs Company a reported $20m annually from public and private institutions, militaries and universities, charities and sports teams who make use of it – not to mention 88 of the Fortune 100 companies. Away from the corporate world, the Myers-Briggs theory of personality has been embraced by enthusiasts as a hobby – even a way of life.

As an insecure teenager, finding out my type online was like being handed an instruction manual; ENTJ became as much part of my identity as my astrological sign. Even a decade later, I will still catch myself reaching for Myers-Briggs terms – talking about “thinkers versus feelers”, or having mostly “intuitive” friends.

About 50 million people have taken the MBTI since the 1960s; 2 million continue to do so every year. Why is the idea of there being just 16 types still so seductive?  READ MORE

Saving a Cat

 

Hypersonic Drone Landing

Chinese military researchers note that they might have cracked the possibility of landing a hypersonic drone. Landing an unmanned aircraft that is flying over five times the speed of sound on a general standard air strip is not easy at all.

Chinese Military Researchers on Hypersonic Flight
According to the story by SCMP, Chinese military researchers note that they have reportedly found a way to make the process safer and is potentially bringing applications for hypersonic flight a full step closer. The technology has reportedly progressed quite considerably.

China and Russia have been deploying various types of different hypersonic missiles in the recent year as well as the growing interest in applying the advances of these drones. Bringing such aircrafts back to the ground safely has reportedly proven to be problematic especially with the added complexity and urgency of military settings.

Modern Planes of Today
A modern plane reportedly relies on software in order to look for an optimal path of descent and humans can now intervene if anything would go wrong. At hypervelocity, however, even the fastest type of flight control computer still struggles to be able to calculate it in time.

In a particular paper that was published in a peer-reviewed domestic journal known as Tactical Missile Technology, Dai Fei as well as colleagues that come from the People's Liberation Army Air Force notes that they have made improvements that are based on a certain classified model of hypersonic drone. The rocket-propelled surveillance drone known as the Wuzhen 8 appeared in Beijing's military parade two years ago.  READ MIRE

Hot Trees