Dragon Like Creature Found in Laos

Scientists found an ‘elusive,’ well-camouflaged animal living on a rocky peak in Laos and discovered a new species, a study said. Photo from Santi Xayyasith



A “dragon”-like creature climbed near the top of a rocky peak in Laos. The animal’s coloring blended seamlessly into the surrounding patchwork of sunlight and shadows. 

Well, almost seamlessly. 

A scientist was on a bird watching expedition in Khammouane Province in August 2022 when they spotted an “unusual”-looking lizard on the nearby karst rocks, according to a study published Oct. 10 in the journal Zoological Research.

Soon after, a tour guide leading tourists through a zip line course spotted another of these “unusual” lizards, and researchers captured it, the study said. Intrigued, researchers surveyed the area’s limestone karst rocks and captured a second similar-looking lizard. 

Taking a closer look, researchers realized they’d discovered a new species: Laodracon carsticola, or the Khammouane karst dragon.  READ MORE...

Under African Skies

 

My Monthly Chemo Treatments

 As you may recall from previous postings, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma 15 years ago, and Melanoma 10 years ago.  In January of 2024, I begin my 16th year of treatments.

I have had chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgery, and radiation all of which has left me with a weakened immune system, anemia, a damaged thyroid, night sweats, occasional nausea, and constant fatigue.

At the present time, my Melanoma has no metabolic activity and I receive monthly infusions of OPDIVO in the hopes that it stays that way.

I am also taking daily pills twice a day, Calquence, for my Lymphoma which does show some minor metabolic activity.

I have dead melanoma cells in my groin which feel like a ginger root.  No surgery will be performed because groin surgery does not heal very well or very fast.  It is weird feeling that lump whenever I take a shower.

Each month, because of my low immunity and my anemia, I get an IVIG infusion which is supposed either improve my situation or prevent it from getting worse.

I need to walk because of my back fusion surgery a year ago, but fatigue has kept me from feeling like doing that and it is very difficult to force myself to walk when fatigued.

GOOD NEWS...  I AM FRIGGING ALIVE...  and right now that is all that really matters to me.  My mother lived to almost her 96 birthday, and I would like to beat her record.  My dad lived until 89.

Most of the time, I don't feel sick nor do I feel like I have cancers inside of me...

Somewhat Political

 

PACKAGES: 8 Hot Dogs to 10 Hot Dog Buns - LOL

If you’ve ever hosted a tailgate party or cookout, you’ve dealt with this frustrating mismatch: hot dogs are usually sold in a package of 10, while bags of hot dog buns are sold in 8-packs.


Now if you whip up homemade vegan carrot dogs instead, this is no big deal since you can customize your number of marinated and grilled carrots to match the amount of buns and the amount of diners. 

Or you could slice up the extra hot dogs to use in pigs in a blanket. But otherwise, every time you make a platter of these beloved baseball stadium snacks and street-cart treats, you have a couple dogs without a bun to call home.


A dog without a bun is certainly edible, true, but not nearly as amazing. So we couldn’t resist turning to the experts to inquire about why these packages don’t pair up. 

While we were at it, we asked Eric Mittenthal, the Washington, D.C.-based president of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council to dish about his favorite fun facts about this family-friendly food. (Don’t worry, we saved the “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” debate for another day.)  READ MORE...

Chinese Robot Show

 

The Disappearing Middle Class

 

High Energy Scattering Data

Messenger from the dark side: Dark matter may interact with normal matter via a hypothetical particle known as a dark photon. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/80's Child)



A new analysis conducted by an international team of physicists suggests that dark photons – hypothetical particles that carry forces associated with dark matter – could explain certain data from high-energy scattering experiments. The analysis, which was led by,  Nicholas Hunt-Smith and colleagues at the University of Adelaide, Australia, could lead to new insights into the nature of dark matter, which remains a mystery even though standard models of cosmology suggest it makes up around 85% of the universe’s mass.

Dark matter gets its name because it does not absorb, reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation. This makes it extremely difficult to detect in the laboratory, and so far all attempts at doing so have come up empty-handed. “No particle beyond the Standard Model, which describes all the matter with which we are familiar, has ever been seen,” says Anthony Thomas, a physicist at Adelaide and a co-author of the analysis, which is published in the Journal of High Energy Physics. “We have no idea what dark matter is, although it seems likely to be [a] beyond standard model particle (or particles).”
The dark photon hypothesis

Though dark matter is poorly understood, it is nevertheless the leading explanation for why galaxies rotate faster than they should, given the amount of visible matter they contain. But although we can observe dark matter interacting with the universe, the mechanism for these interactions is unclear. According to Carlos Wagner, a particle physicist in the High Energy Physics (HEP) division of Argonne National Laboratory and a professor at the University of Chicago and the Enrico Fermi Institute, dark photons are one possibility.   READ MORE...

DID YOU KNOW?

Back In the Day

I am reminded of a time in the 60s when my innocence was both a blessing and a curse.  It was a blessing because I did not think anything bad would ever happen to me and it was a curse because I did not think anything bad would ever happen to me.

In 1962, I was the mature age of 15 and not only did I feel invincible, but I thought both my parents were dumber than shit.

Early that summer, we were at the Outer Banks of North Carolina and a friend and I were out body surfing in the ocean after a terrible storm passed through.  The waves were a good 10-12 feet high and I remember were some of the best waves I had experienced in my entire lifetime up to that point.

My buddy and I body surfed for about 2 hours before we decided to get out of the water and take a break.  When we got on the beach, we did not recognize anything and decided to walk out to he beach road and see if we recognized anything there.  We did not.

We started walking to the north and after about 10 minutes of walking, a car going south slammed on its breaks and the driver rolled down the window.  An angry driver yelled out.  "You two get the hell into this car now!"  It was out fathers.  Apparently, the waves had taken us over 10 miles down the beach.

Needless to say, we were not permitted to get out into the water without supervision until we left.

A couple of weeks later, my parents, my brother and I boarded a cruise ship on our way to the Mediterranean, our final destination being Cairo, Egypt.

A solarium for teenagers was on the top deck and it was there that I met a group of other teenagers all of whom were accompanying their parents to foreign embassies.  We formed a quick bond and when we got to an Italian port, we all left the ship together to rent scooters.  We spent the entire day scooting around the city and when we dropped off our scooter and caught a taxi back to the cruise ship, the ship was not there.

There was a cruise ship representative on the pier waiting for us.  The ship went out to sea to ride out a potentially bad storm.  We were bussed to a location twenty miles away where the ship would temporarily dock and pick us up.

Needless to say, all our parents were pissed off at us...  but, we had no way of knowing that bad weather was approaching.  However, our parents disagreed and told us that we should have paid attention to the sky.

I was not restricted but every time we stopped at a port my parents warned me to pay attention.  To tell you the truth, I am not sure if I ever did.

Somewhat Political

Elusive Planet Nine

An artist's impression of what Planet Nine might look like at the edge of the solar system. (Image credit: Shutterstock)



The elusive Planet Nine, which is theorized to be lurking somewhere in the outer reaches of the solar system, may not be a planet after all, a new study suggests. Instead, what we assumed to be a massive object could be evidence that gravity doesn't work like we thought it does. But the new theory doesn't sit well with everyone.


The Planet Nine hypothesis, first proposed in 2016, argues that the unusual orbits of objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, which seem to be being pulled away from the sun, can be explained by the presence of an undiscovered ninth planet up to 10 times more massive than Earth. Astronomers have been looking for Planet Nine ever since. However, despite searching almost half of the night sky, they have so far come up empty-handed.

In the new study, published Sept. 22 in The Astronomical Journal, researchers proposed another explanation for the gravitational anomalies observed in the outer solar system — that there aren't any anomalies. Instead, the team shows that the inconsistencies disappear completely when applying an alternative concept of gravity known as modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND).   READ MORE...

Soweto Blues

 

Religion

 

Solid State EV Batteries Go 932 Miles

Toyota has struck a deal with fellow Japanese company Idemitsu Kosan to mass produce ultra-high-range EVs with solid-state batteries.

It's the first major update on the company's plans to be the first to offer these next-gen batteries. Toyota says the new technology will eventually enable EVs to go 932 miles on a single charge and power up in just 10 minutes, due to the higher energy density.

Idemitsu Kosan, Japan's second-largest oil refiner, may seem like an unlikely partner for the EV space. But Toyota says Idemitsu has been working on developing the "elemental technologies" for the batteries since 2001, five years before Toyota began pursuing them in 2006.

Specifically, Idemitsu has been working on developing a new material to go in the batteries, a solid sulfide electrolyte. With the partnership, Toyota aims to combine Idemitsu's material expertise with its own production prowess to make solid-state batteries a reality for consumers."This collaboration focuses on sulfide solid electrolytes, which are seen as a promising material to achieve high capacity and output for BEVs [battery electric vehicles]," Toyota says. "Sulfide solid electrolytes are characterized by softness and adhesiveness to other materials, which is suitable for battery mass production."

Toyota laid out a three-phase plan toward a goal of commercializing solid-state batteries by 2027-2028. However, that doesn't mean solid-state EVs will be widely available at that time, as "full-scale mass production" will begin after. It also remains to be seen what markets Toyota would launch them in, and how much they would cost. They are likely to be more expensive, and remain that way for years, Reuters predicts.     READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

Pet Peeve

I started watching FOX News about 8 years ago.  Before FOX, I was a faithful follower of CNN and CBS.  What happened was this:  my insurance company offers me a free gym membership at participating gyms.  

One of those gyms was about two miles from the house.  I would go there about 5/10:00 am and work out for about an hour on the treadmill, the stationary bike, the rowing machine, and a few strength building machines.

While walking on the treadmill (and there were 8 or so of them) I would watch whatever was playing on the four monitors mounted on the wall.  Most of the time, FOX News was on one or more of them.

What I discovered and quite by accident was that CNN and CBS did not air the same news that FOX News was broadcasting.  In fact, further investigation showed me that most news that was not favorable to the Democratic party was not being broadcasted.

NEEDLESS TO SAY THAT PISSED ME OFF...

I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat nor an Independent...   but I hate when any organization decides to keep me from knowing all the news.  That is censorship and violates my first amendment rights.  I want to be aware of all the news and then I will decide what I want to believe and what I do not.  And when I say what I want to believe, it is done based upon further research of the FACTS.

While FOX News was airing broadcasts about Hunter Biden, CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC had made the decision NOT TO AIR THIS NEWS...  instead, they wanted to fill all their air time with news that was against DONALD TRUMP.

I remember talking with my sister about Hunter Biden and she said she had not seen anything about him on the stations she was watching.

BUT THAT IS NOT MY PET PEEVE...

My Pet Peeve is this...

For the last week solid, FOX News has been spending 99% of its air time about what is happening in Israel with Hamas.  And while that is necessary to share, it should not be the only news they talk about.

They did the same thing with hurricane coverage in Florida and the coronation of the new King of England.

Granted I want to hear about that, but I also want to hear about other news as well...  and I know that there is other news about which to talk.

I have not checked out the other stations, but I would assume that they are doing to same thing, so that one station does not out-shine another.

When this happens on FOX News, I just watch for about 30 minutes and turn the damn TV off.

High Speed Train

 

An Ocean of Water Under An Ocean of Water

Ancient volcanic rocks were eroded and stored a sea's worth of water in Earth's crust as they became buried. (Image credit: James O'Neil via Getty Images)



Porous rock that formed during one of Earth's biggest volcanic eruptions absorbed so much water as it eroded that it created a huge reservoir over the eons, now buried deep in Earth's crust.

A massive water reservoir is hidden deep beneath the ocean floor off the coast of New Zealand — and it may explain why the region experiences slow-motion earthquakes, scientists have found.


A sea's worth of water became locked inside volcanic rocks that formed 120 million to 125 million years ago during the early Cretaceous, when a lava plume the size of the U.S. burst through Earth's crust and solidified into a vast plateau, researchers said in a statement. Thick layers of sediment have since blanketed these rocks and buried any trace of their explosive past 2 miles (3 kilometers) below the Pacific Ocean seabed.

The researchers mapped a fault line along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island and found that these ancient rocks were abnormally "wet," with water making up nearly half the volume of cores drilled up from the ocean floor.

"Normal ocean crust, once it gets to be about seven or 10 million years old, should contain much less water," study lead author Andrew Gase, a marine geophysicist and seismologist who conducted the research while at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), said in the statement.


Shallow seas that surrounded the ancient volcanic plateau may have eroded the rocks into a porous honeycomb, which sponged up water and stored it like an aquifer, according to the statement. This water-logged terrain slowly transformed over the eons, absorbing more water as the rocks were ground into clay and became buried.  READ MORE...

Made With Cows