Tuesday, January 25
Antartic Megaberg
Scientists have been keeping a close eye on the 'megaberg' designated as A68a since it split off from Antarctica back in July 2017 – and new research highlights just how much freshwater it's released into the ocean during its late melting process.
Satellite monitoring systems indicate that for three months at the end of its lifetime, up to March 2021, the iceberg released an astonishing 152 billion tons of freshwater around the remote island of South Georgia – that's the equivalent of 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
There are worries about how this sudden injection of freshwater and the nutrients flowing off the iceberg could affect marine habitats around the island in terms of both ocean circulation and the biological food chain.
"This is a huge amount of meltwater, and the next thing we want to learn is whether it had a positive or negative impact on the ecosystem around South Georgia," says Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, a glaciologist from the University of Leeds in the UK and the study's lead author.
A total of five satellites were employed to keep tabs on the position, area, thickness, and volume change of A68a. At its peak, the iceberg was melting at a rate of 7 meters ror 23 feet per month. READ MORE...
Whales Don't Drown
Baleen whales are heavy drinkers. In just ten seconds, these giant mammals can down over five hundred bathtubs of ocean water, filtering out roughly 10 kilograms of krill in a single swig.
All they have to do is open their mouths and lunge forward at roughly 10 kilometers an hour (6 miles per hour).
The pressure of all that water rapidly hitting a whale's throat would surely be immense. So how does this group of creatures – which includes right whales, the humpback whale, and the monumental blue whale, amongst several others – make sure their lungs aren't suddenly flooded with water?
The dissection of several fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) has now revealed a fatty and muscular sac that stops the species from choking. When the whale opens its mouth to feed, this sac swings upwards and plugs the lower respiratory tract.
No such structure has ever been identified in any other animal, but the authors suspect it is probably present in other lunge-feeding whales (called rorquals), like humpbacks and blue whales.
"There are very few animals with lungs that feed by engulfing prey and water, so the oral plug is likely a protective structure specific to rorquals that is necessary to enable lunge feeding," explains zoologist Kelsey Gil from the University of British Columbia, Canada. READ MORE...
National Democratic Training Committee
Subject: re: Joe Biden's 2nd Year in Office
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Monday, January 24
Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana
Here are some examples:
"It is like a frog calling you ugly” - Comment about Cuomo lecturing us.
"This election in GA will be the most important in history, you have nothing to worry about unless you are a tax payer, parent, gun owner, cop, person of faith, or an unborn baby!"
Democrats are the "well intended arugula and tofu crowd."
"You can only be young once, but you can always be immature."
"Americans are thinking, there are some good members of Congress but we can’t figure out what they are good for. Others are thinking, how did these morons make it through the birth canal."
"It’s as dead as four o’clock"
"Always follow your heart... but take your brains with you"
"The short answer is 'No' The long answer is 'Hell No.'"
"It must suck to be that dumb."
"When the Portland mayor's IQ gets to 75, he oughta sell."
"I keep trying to see Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer's point of view, but I can't seem to get my head that far up my ass."
"Go sell your crazy somewhere else... we are all stocked up here."
"She has a Billy goat brain and a mockingbird mouth!"
Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) said that he trusted Middle Eastern countries "as much as gas station sushi, with the exception being Israel."
"You can get a goat to climb a tree, but you'd be better off hiring a squirrel."
"This has been going on since Moby Dick was a minnow."
"Don't stand between a dog and a fire hydrant."
"Our country was founded by geniuses, but it's being run by idiots."
"It appears that he might do the right thing, but only when supervised and cornered like a rat."
"This is why aliens won't talk to us."
"Democrats are running around like they found a hair in their biscuit."
"Chuck Schumer just moo's and follows Nancy Pelosi into the cow chute."
"What planet did you parachute in from?"
"Just because you CAN sing doesn’t mean you should”
Senator John Kennedy on Nancy Pelosi: "She can strut sitting down!"
"He has more screws loose than a 1942 Studebaker".
"It is like a frog calling you ugly” - Comment about Cuomo lecturing us.
"This election in GA will be the most important in history, you have nothing to worry about unless you are a tax payer, parent, gun owner, cop, person of faith, or an unborn baby!"
Democrats are the "well intended arugula and tofu crowd."
"You can only be young once, but you can always be immature."
"Americans are thinking, there are some good members of Congress but we can’t figure out what they are good for. Others are thinking, how did these morons make it through the birth canal."
"It’s as dead as four o’clock"
"Always follow your heart... but take your brains with you"
"The short answer is 'No' The long answer is 'Hell No.'"
"It must suck to be that dumb."
"When the Portland mayor's IQ gets to 75, he oughta sell."
"I keep trying to see Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer's point of view, but I can't seem to get my head that far up my ass."
"Go sell your crazy somewhere else... we are all stocked up here."
"She has a Billy goat brain and a mockingbird mouth!"
Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) said that he trusted Middle Eastern countries "as much as gas station sushi, with the exception being Israel."
"You can get a goat to climb a tree, but you'd be better off hiring a squirrel."
"This has been going on since Moby Dick was a minnow."
"Don't stand between a dog and a fire hydrant."
"Our country was founded by geniuses, but it's being run by idiots."
"It appears that he might do the right thing, but only when supervised and cornered like a rat."
"This is why aliens won't talk to us."
"Democrats are running around like they found a hair in their biscuit."
"Chuck Schumer just moo's and follows Nancy Pelosi into the cow chute."
"What planet did you parachute in from?"
"Just because you CAN sing doesn’t mean you should”
Senator John Kennedy on Nancy Pelosi: "She can strut sitting down!"
"He has more screws loose than a 1942 Studebaker".
"Kunga" in Syria
PARIS, FRANCE—Science News reports that analysis of a genome obtained from a 4,500-year-old equine skeleton discovered in northern Syria’s royal burial complex at Umm el-Marra suggests the animal had a donkey for a mother and a hemippe, a type of Asiatic wild ass that went extinct in 1929, for a father.
The resulting hybrid animal could be a kunga, a horselike animal mentioned in texts written on clay tablets and depicted in Sumerian artwork several hundred years before horses arrived in the region.
Paleogeneticist Eva-Maria Geigl of Institut Jacques Monod explained that donkeys can be timid and the Asiatic wild ass was untamable, but a hybrid of the two could have been valuable in warfare and useful for pulling wagons.
Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. For more on kunga burials, go to "Mesopotamian War Memorial."
Tourist Site Rewrites History
(CNN) — It's world-famous for the Roman ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E., but the latest tourist attraction in Naples shows a very different side of the city.
Opening in June, the Ipogeo dei Cristallini -- Hypogeum of Cristallini Street -- is part of an ancient cemetery, located just outside the walls of Neapolis, as the city was called 2,300 years ago.
Not only is the cemetery more than 400 years older than the ruins of Pompeii and the other Roman towns along the Bay of Naples, but it isn't Roman at all. In fact, it was built by the ancient Greeks, who founded Naples in the eight century B.C.E., and kept it a fully Greek city, even when it came under Roman control centuries later.
It's a game-changing opening, according to archaeologists, that promises to change how we think of Naples, the Mediterranean in ancient times, and even Greek artistry. It also, those involved with the project believe, has the potential to protect Naples from a tourism boom that, if it continues, could bring overtourism to the city.
In the bowels of the city
Forty feet below the garden of a 19th-century palazzo, in what's now the Sanità area of the city, a steep staircase burrowing underground leads to four tombs. Each with their own grand entrance -- one even has Ionic columns sculpted on its façade -- they open on to what is thought to have been the original pathway that mourners would have taken. READ MORE...
Filaments of Hydrogen
Roughly 13.8 billion years ago, our Universe was born in a massive explosion that gave rise to the first subatomic particles and the laws of physics as we know them.
About 370,000 years later, hydrogen had formed, the building block of stars, which fuse hydrogen and helium in their interiors to create all the heavier elements.
While hydrogen remains the most pervasive element in the Universe, it can be difficult to detect individual clouds of hydrogen gas in the interstellar medium (ISM).
This makes it difficult to research the early phases of star formation, which would offer clues about the evolution of galaxies and the cosmos.
This makes it difficult to research the early phases of star formation, which would offer clues about the evolution of galaxies and the cosmos.
An international team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy (MPIA) recently noticed a massive filament of atomic hydrogen gas in our galaxy.
This structure, named “Maggie,” is located about 55,000 light-years away (on the other side of the Milky Way) and is one of the longest structures ever observed in our galaxy.
The study that describes their findings, which recently appeared in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, was led by Jonas Syed, a Ph.D. student at the MPIA.
The study that describes their findings, which recently appeared in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, was led by Jonas Syed, a Ph.D. student at the MPIA.
He was joined by researchers from the University of Vienna, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIFR), the University of Calgary, the Universität Heidelberg, the Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, the Argelander-Institute for Astronomy, the Indian Institute of Science, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). READ MORE...
Sunday, January 23
Ancient Beer Straws
The problem with the old theory, these researchers note, is that the past analyses didn’t account for the tube’s complete design, such as its intricate configuration and hollow center.
“The idea of reinterpreting the ‘scepters’ first came to me about a decade ago, and I even shared it with my colleagues, but I didn’t get any support,” the paper’s first author, Viktor Trifonov wrote to Inverse. To prove his argument, Trifonov, an archaeology researcher at St. Petersburg’s Russian Academy of Sciences, knew he needed more substantial evidence.
The kurgan in which the straws were discovered comprised of a large chamber divided into three compartments, each containing the body of an adult in the fetal position. The body in the largest section was adorned with rich fabric and precious stones, as well as eight long, thin, hollow tubes. Since their discovery, they have been preserved at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
The breakthrough came when researchers found the supposed scepter’s inner filter curiously contained barley starch residue. The clue suggested something containing barley, such as beer, may have passed through these metal tubes.
This was the turning point for Trifonov. “I decided to check if there was any residue left from the beverage inside the Maikop tubes in the Hermitage,” he wrote to Inverse. “Everything else fell into place when my teammates found the starch, phytoliths, and pollen grains inside the filter.” READ MORE...
Laniakea Destroyed by Dark Energy
On the largest cosmic scales, planet Earth appears to be anything but special. Like hundreds of billions of other planets in our galaxy, we orbit our parent star; like hundreds of billions of solar systems, we revolve around the galaxy; like the majority of galaxies in the Universe, we’re bound together in either a group or cluster of galaxies.
And, like most galactic groups and clusters, we’re a small part of a larger structure containing over 100,000 galaxies: a supercluster. Ours is named Laniakea: the Hawaiian word for “immense heaven.”
Superclusters have been found and charted throughout our observable Universe, where they’re more than 10 times as rich as the largest known clusters of galaxies. Unfortunately, owing to the presence of dark energy in the Universe, these superclusters — including our own — are only apparent structures. In reality, they’re mere phantasms, in the process of dissolving before our very eyes.
The Universe as we know it began some 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. It was filled with matter, antimatter, radiation, etc.; all the particles and fields that we know of today, and possibly even more.
Superclusters have been found and charted throughout our observable Universe, where they’re more than 10 times as rich as the largest known clusters of galaxies. Unfortunately, owing to the presence of dark energy in the Universe, these superclusters — including our own — are only apparent structures. In reality, they’re mere phantasms, in the process of dissolving before our very eyes.
The Universe as we know it began some 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. It was filled with matter, antimatter, radiation, etc.; all the particles and fields that we know of today, and possibly even more.
From the earliest instants of the hot Big Bang, however, it wasn’t simply a uniform sea of these energetic quanta. Instead, there were tiny imperfections — at about the 0.003% level — on all scales, where some regions had slightly more or slightly less matter and energy than average.
In each one of these regions, a great cosmic race ensued. The race was between two competing phenomena:
In each one of these regions, a great cosmic race ensued. The race was between two competing phenomena:
- the expansion of the Universe, which works to drive all the matter and energy apart
- gravitation, which works to pull all forms of energy together, causing massive material to clump and cluster together
TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS, CLICK HERE...
Sixth Mass Extinction Underway
Bruno Kelly REUTERSIt is no secret that extinctions have been happening at an alarming rate in recent decades with human involvement and climate change blamed for creating habitats unsuitable for many species of wildlife.
Even more worrying is the findings of a major study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and BirdLife International which found that the earth may be on the brink of a mass extinction event.
Worldwide it is thought that more than 500 species of land animal are close to extinction and could be lost within the next 20 years. The report was published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and studied 29,000 species of land vertebrate. They estimated that the number of extinctions expected in the next two decades would likely take thousands of years if not for the negative impact of humanity.
What is a mass extinction?
Scientists estimate that 99% of all living organisms that have ever lived on earth are now extinct. The planet’s natural ecosystem is constantly evolving and as the environment changes certain older species will begin to fade away.
However there are some points in the earth’s history when the gradual evolution has become more of a sudden revolution and a majority of the planet’s living species are wiped out in a relatively short space of time. In the last 500 million years, there have been five occasions when 75-90% of all species have gone extinct, in what is called a mass extinction.
It should be remembered that the ‘short period of time’ is described in geological terms, dating back across the vast period of time since the start of life on earth. With this in mind, Earth.org explains that a mass extinction event can take anything up to 2.8 million years. READ MORE...
Saturday, January 22
Biden's First Year in Office
RESULTS:
Halted Keystone Oil Pipleline
Caused surge in gasoline prices
Reversed Trumps Executive Orders
Botched Afghanistan withdrawal
Caused supply chain problems
Could not Unite the US
Could not stop COVID-19
Could not stop illegal immigration
Could not stop Crime and Violence
Massive Government Spending
Caused structural inflation
Caused structural unemployment
Caused shut down of businesses
Caused shut down of Public School
Tried to mandate Covid Vaccinations
Increased RACISM in the USA
Achieved WORST ratings in first year
Insulted Ukranians with remarks about russia
Alienated NATO Allies
Alienated his own party
Observation
Whites 60.1%
Hispanic 18.5%
Blacks 13.4%
Asian 5.9%
US Census Bureau Demographics
Why are so many people listening to the blacks when they only represent 13% of our overall population here in the United States of America...?
History of Popcorn
Wednesday was National Popcorn Day, and what better way to celebrate than by learning about the history of the delicious snack?
According to The Popcorn Board, the oldest-known ears of corn that were popped are from about 4,000 years ago and were discovered in current-day New Mexico in 1948 and 1950.
Meanwhile, History.com reported in 2018 that there were traces of popcorn in 1,000-year-old Peruvian tombs.
Popcorn was also significant to the Aztec people for eating, ceremonies and decorations, according to The Popcorn Board.
Wednesday is National Popcorn Day. (iStock)
The snack became a common food in American households by the mid-1800s, according to History.com. Popcorn was popular for late-night snacks by the fire and at picnics, the website reported.
In the 1890s, Charles Cretors created the first popcorn-popping machine, and by 1900, he created a horse-drawn popcorn wagon, which led to mass consumption of the snack, History.com reported.
Popcorn didn’t hit movie theaters until the Great Depression, according to Smithsonian Magazine. In fact, the movie theaters that started selling popcorn were able to survive the Great Depression, while other movie theaters had to close because of poor sales. READ MORE...
Weird Sand Sculptures
Sand pillars decorate the shore by Lake Michigan at Tiscornia Park, with the North Pier Lighthouse in the
background, in St. Joseph, Michigan. (Image credit: Terri Abbott)
Bizarre sandy sculptures rising from the beach by Lake Michigan caught the eyes of at least two photographers in early January, who posted their images of the nature-made marvels online.
But what are these sandy statues and how on earth did they come to be?
Their construction depends on several factors, including sand-to-water content and wind conditions, said Daniel Bonn, a physicist and head of the van der Waals-Zeeman Institute at the University of Amsterdam.
The pillars, sometimes called hoodoos, were different heights, anywhere from 3 to 20 inches (7.6 to 51 centimeters) tall, said Terri Abbott, a nature photographer who lives in northern Indiana. Abbott was visiting Tiscornia Park in St. Joseph, Michigan, on Jan. 8, when she noticed the stunning shapes on the snowy beach.
"Laying on the ground and shooting through these sculptures made it seem like a different planet," Abbott told Live Science in a Facebook message. "They were frozen and hard to the touch. The intricate and ever-so-sharp edges made them each amazing in their own way."
Abbott had never seen sculptures like this before. "I could not believe how perfectly chiseled they were," she added. READ MORE...
Living in a Vegetative State for 12 Years
In the 1980’s, 12-year-old Martin Pistorious became seriously ill with what doctor’s believed was Cryptococci Meningitis. His health started deteriorating and Martin lost his ability to move, make eye contact and even speak to others. His doctors told his parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorious, to bring him home and let him die. They told them he was as good as a vegetable.
However, he didn’t die.
Joan said, “Martin just kept going, just kept going.”
According to NPR news, his father would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, get him dressed, load him in the car, take him to the special care center where he’d leave him. Rodney said, “Eight hours later, I’d pick him up, bathe him, feed him, put him in bed, set my alarm for two hours so that I’d wake up to turn him so that he didn’t get bedsores.”
For twelve years, Martin’s family cared for him without any sign that he was improving. Joan started to despair and even told her son, “I hope you die.”
Today she acknowledges that was a horrible thing to say but says she just wanted some sort of relief. Remarkably, now Martin is 39-years-old and says he was totally aware of everything going on around him.
He said, “Yes, I was there, not from the very beginning, but about two years into my vegetative state, I began to wake up. I was aware of everything, just like any normal person. Everyone was so used to me not being there that they didn’t notice when I began to be present again. The stark reality hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life like that — totally alone.”
Unfortunately, Martin was even aware of his mother’s harsh words and began believing that no one would ever love him. He said, “You don’t really think about anything. You simply exist. It’s a very dark place to find yourself because, in a sense, you are allowing yourself to vanish.”
Martin spent most of those days at a care center where his caregivers played Barney reruns over and over again. They did this because they believed he was a vegetable too. He said, “I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney.”
But eventually, Martin became frustrated with being trapped in his own body and started to try and take control of his life. He learned to tell time by the rising and setting of the sun and would reframe even the ugliest of thoughts that haunted him like his mother’s wish for him to die. “As time passed, I gradually learned to understand my mother’s desperation. Every time she looked at me, she could see only a cruel parody of the once-healthy child she had loved so much,” said Martin.
Now Martin is married and has penned a memoire about his life. He has gained control of his body and in his book Ghost Boy, he writes, “My mind was trapped inside a useless body, my arms and legs weren’t mine to control and my voice was mute. I couldn’t make a sign or sounds to let anyone know I’d become aware again. I was invisible—the ghost boy.”
However, he didn’t die.
Joan said, “Martin just kept going, just kept going.”
According to NPR news, his father would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, get him dressed, load him in the car, take him to the special care center where he’d leave him. Rodney said, “Eight hours later, I’d pick him up, bathe him, feed him, put him in bed, set my alarm for two hours so that I’d wake up to turn him so that he didn’t get bedsores.”
For twelve years, Martin’s family cared for him without any sign that he was improving. Joan started to despair and even told her son, “I hope you die.”
Today she acknowledges that was a horrible thing to say but says she just wanted some sort of relief. Remarkably, now Martin is 39-years-old and says he was totally aware of everything going on around him.
He said, “Yes, I was there, not from the very beginning, but about two years into my vegetative state, I began to wake up. I was aware of everything, just like any normal person. Everyone was so used to me not being there that they didn’t notice when I began to be present again. The stark reality hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life like that — totally alone.”
Unfortunately, Martin was even aware of his mother’s harsh words and began believing that no one would ever love him. He said, “You don’t really think about anything. You simply exist. It’s a very dark place to find yourself because, in a sense, you are allowing yourself to vanish.”
Martin spent most of those days at a care center where his caregivers played Barney reruns over and over again. They did this because they believed he was a vegetable too. He said, “I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney.”
But eventually, Martin became frustrated with being trapped in his own body and started to try and take control of his life. He learned to tell time by the rising and setting of the sun and would reframe even the ugliest of thoughts that haunted him like his mother’s wish for him to die. “As time passed, I gradually learned to understand my mother’s desperation. Every time she looked at me, she could see only a cruel parody of the once-healthy child she had loved so much,” said Martin.
Now Martin is married and has penned a memoire about his life. He has gained control of his body and in his book Ghost Boy, he writes, “My mind was trapped inside a useless body, my arms and legs weren’t mine to control and my voice was mute. I couldn’t make a sign or sounds to let anyone know I’d become aware again. I was invisible—the ghost boy.”
Written by Sarah Zargorski
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