Is SCIENCE!!!! still weird and cool in 2025? You betcha.

Does it bear as well as the story of Davis dancing in the midstream of the hole of society? The spark of life and lying there ...

Resembles a "X" substituting for a "chi" while in flight ... ghe ... did you see it go? May be because in some traditions the "gh" is silent ... warping the effect 've Leight ... the "lei" crossing? Then we shift to Polynesian island tunes ... a low ah?

Non-sense ensues ... and it may be gritty ...

Gigantopithecus Is the largest known Great Ape. They are most closely related to orangutans among modern apes (per protein sequencing) but even the low end of the estimates of their size would make them much larger than even the largest gorillas. The big problem here is that the fossil record consists entirely of teeth and jaws, not even a skull or random bones. Even the proteins they sequenced represent one individual so far (though hopefully more will be found and extracted). So we are just guessing their actual size based on the size of their jaws relative to modern apes. Even a thigh or femur would really help here.

Gigantopithecus did co-exist with early humans, certainly homo erectus and, given when it became extinct (due to climate change most likely), maybe even early homo sapiens and homo longi (aka Denisovans). We have no clear evidence yet for these apes interacting with humans, but it seems likely. Here's paleontology doctoral student Ben Thomas to talk about Gigantopithecus and it's possible interactions with our ancestors. It is heavy on speculation, of course, and even Ben concedes that (he's a good young scientist) but there are some interesting hypotheses to be tested once the fossil record improves.

And Ben does get into the hypothesis that the alleged cryptids sasquatch and the yeti are surviving giganpithecuses. The former makes no scientific sense since no gigantopithecus remains have ever been found on this side of the Pacific. They are all from East Asia, mostly parts of China and surrounding. The latter actually is in the right neighbourhood geographically but with no gigantopithecus remains more recent than c. 100K years ago and no good evidence that the yeti even exists outside Nepalese and Tibetan folklore, it's still a big stretch. Also, these cryptids are generally described as bipedal hominins whereas gigantopithecus, being related to orangutans, likely was not fully bipedal and moved on all fours a lot.

Good Lord or other burger ... more intoxicating hairy monsters in the myth ...

Luce NDs said:

Good Lord or other burger ... more intoxicating hairy monsters in the myth ...

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Hey, some of us like hairy monsters in our myths.

Some folk about me really get upset with hair in their burgers ... that binding force?

Thus the hairless creatures evolved ... some with bristles?

One thing that will always be true about nature is that it is ultimately unpredictable. Sure, we can have probablistic models that help us give the chance of something happening with some accuracy. And some systems become quite predictable over time, e.g. the Reykanes volcano system in Iceland has been monitored and studied very closely over the part 3 or 4 years so geologists' predictions of eruptions are getting pretty good, not perfect but pretty good. But in the end, things will happen that we absolutely did not expect. Like this eruption in Ethiopia. While there are expectations of volcanic activity in this part of Africa, this one was not one that was expected or predicted. In fact, it has been over 10 thousand years since it last blew.

And it gets weirder. While the article is subscribers only, Scientific American is pointing out that the Ethiopian volcano, Hayli Gubbi, is a shield volcano which normally erupt more slowly with lava flows and fountains, similar to the Hawaiian volcanoes or the Reykanes volcano in Iceland. Instead, this was a major blast that put enough ash in the air to force some flight rerouting and cancellations.

Imagine grit in such salty old places! There are stories about salt producing areas in the Sudan and Ethiopian area that are clear desert ... an initiation of a real pickle!

A couple semi-related pieces. First, from PBS Terra's Weathered program, a look at a new paper on rising sea levels and just how bad it could get. TLDR is bye, bye several major world cities by 2100 or so if major action isn't taken. We are already seeing evidence of it.


And then a look back at another time when global temps were higher, causing the loss of much of the ice sheet on Greenland. DNA evidence collected from under Greenland's ice shows the island once had boreal forests and a diverse ecosystem up to and including mastodons (elephant relatives). It is important work both for showing us what a world without the Greenland ice sheet might have been like (and might look like again give the previous video I posted) and for testing and improving our ability to collect and analyze the random bits of DNA that tend to accumulate in the environment as animals and plants shed cells in various ways.

And if you've ever wondered why so many ancient cultures had their gods tossing lightning around as a weapon, this SciShow from earlier this week has a nice answer. It's incredibly powerful stuff. As in, certain types of lightning have taken out whole herds of sheep.

Is it potential that folk can be blinded to such information ... just because they could? Thus activities like vagal vassal syndrome that collapses veins and arteries ... causing what else ... Blac Kout! In those Wessels it is dark and bloody awful ... dissonance progresses as Eris ... contrary to the English Literature professors that berated me ... because they didn't grasp the word! Word is mostly a vast unknown sea ... thus inky!

We cannot see much of it due to obscure occultation ... blockage! It resembles baffles ...

Point men believe they cannot be restricted ... thus they may become dulled ...

My wife and I have been looking at travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in the new year. One of the things we might get to see is penguins . So guess what one of the last SciShow videos of 2025 is about?

Specifically, they look at a new paper that suggests that instead of evolving in the far South (i.e. Antarctica and nearby) and spreading to other areas like the Galapagos, penguins initially evolved in Australia, then spread South into Antarctica and East to the Galapagos and South America (and eventually to South Africa as well). It's based on mapping the genomes of all the known species, looking at evolutionary clues in the DNA markers, and correlating that with fossil evidence.

If you decide to visit Oz, let me see if my couple of relatives (Perthish and Melbourneish) are on your route.

BetteTheRed said:

If you decide to visit Oz, let me see if my couple of relatives (Perthish and Melbourneish) are on your route.

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It's actually South America we are looking at, a cruise from Buenos Aires to Santiago through the Strait of Magellan including a stop on the Falklands (most likely spot to see penguins).

OZ oozes of really strange science ... if you ever stop to observe it ...

Some pass over so quickly they don't know what ... decaying to nothing! Decay curves ... these may follow Eris 's but how would I know after being directed to ignore all knowledge and related matter ... unrelated, disconnects? Divine vacancies ... in other words ... delinquents rise ... it was once known as the Peter Prim. about which a temporal realm was arranged ... a loin cut?

Imagine a market called Peter's ... where old bodies are traded about for time ... currency? Weird exchanges ...

Obviously ... heh must be out there ... beyond "me" ... apparently an oye like an olihan ... de lipases as a mysterious kiss ...!

Its that thing that occurs between the trees ... 4 Estoril tackiness? St Eroids ... when they run free one is indulged to fight or fly ... thus Michael ... a missal?

Is what we don't know fatal? That's Ur ... tip of the hat! To the ultimate story that is unending ... keep it up ... or the virtue may bottom out --- Mark Twain (or his rural sister).

Could there be something to what appears a snot? (literary Eire ... as a kind of wind in essence, 4 square?)

Goes round ... sometimes as chigoes (look that up and down).

Like a word that drifts as vaporous ... ah Roues? Well Rhode into shape for the presence ... and here we are ... puzzling if not enigmatic ... matter? Di flowered item of contention ... left overs ... opposing the right?

The thing says; be gentile ... not juiced ... Ju Sayed ... used TU! Always takes a par ... mulligan! Paranoia erupts ...

Noida was once a mental concern ... and now we do not give a darn and become unstitched ... noidea whatsoever ... yet unprovable for obviously missing reason! It just isn't here ... Alice lives here no more ... reason departed?

Heal have to go ... dis eased ... hoofing it ...