Weird cool SCIENCE! Stuff : The Return

[Mendalla]

Yes the Russians have to wait now.

I imagine there will be 3 or 4 again. When you can only launch every 2 years and Mars is becoming a hot destination, those windows are going to get mighty busy. Imagine if you could only fly from Toronto to Cancun for two weeks out of the year or something.

 

[ninj]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-garry-goodyear-weird-fish-1.5695082

 

[Luce NDs]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-garry-goodyear-weird-fish-1.5695082

I once was told that there was no such thing as chimaera ... and then these things pop up from the deeps ...

Reminds me of profound context! It is there in the obscure, etc. Cos truth is not well accepted as it the narrative, ba'aL Ad ... and des Tories!

 

[ninj]

Sad and interesting. I hadn't really been aware of Pangolins. What fascinating creatures!

Did Pangolin Trafficking Cause the Coronavirus Pandemic?

The elusive animals’ possible involvement in the origins of COVID-19 gives them a weird ambivalence: threatened and, perhaps, dangerous.

www.newyorker.com

 

[ninj]

...and since I'm here, another interesting little guy.

Zoologger: Mouse eats scorpions and howls at the moon

Super-aggressive grasshopper mice are not put off by the deadly venom of the scorpions they feast on – in fact, nothing much seems to scare them

www.newscientist.com

 

[Mendalla]

I hadn't really been aware of Pangolins. What fascinating creatures!

I first heard of them as a kid but I've always had a bit of a thing for animals. The weirder and rarer the better, too.

 

[Waterfall]

I first heard of them as a kid but I've always had a bit of a thing for animals. The weirder and rarer the better, too.

They're rare? Why are they eaten?

 

[Mendalla]

They're rare? Why are they eaten?

Because some people think they taste good, presumably. And no one is stopping them. Well, until now.

 

[BetteTheRed]

Actually, pangolin scales are very valued in TCM.

 

[Luce NDs]

Actually, pangolin scales are very valued in TCM.

How did they weigh in?

 

[Mendalla]

This cool factoid came up in the Environment Canada weather app today. Apparently, gravity is lower than it should be in the region around Hudson's Bay. Now, gravity on Earth is not uniform. Things like the bulge around the equator (I have one of those, too ) and mountain ranges cause mass to be distributed unevenly, leading to variations in gravity (which is based on mass). However, the variance in the Hudson Bay area has not yet been definitively explained. There's a couple hypotheses. Here's a good article on it.

How can parts of Canada be 'missing' gravity?

For more than 40 years, scientists have tried to figure out what's causing large parts of Canada to be "missing" gravity. The force of gravity around Hudson Bay is lower than surrounding areas. Learn about two theories that may explain the phenomenon.

science.howstuffworks.com

 

[Waterfall]

This cool factoid came up in the Environment Canada weather app today. Apparently, gravity is lower than it should be in the region around Hudson's Bay. Now, gravity on Earth is not uniform. Things like the bulge around the equator (I have one of those, too ) and mountain ranges cause mass to be distributed unevenly, leading to variations in gravity (which is based on mass). However, the variance in the Hudson Bay area has not yet been definitively explained. There's a couple hypotheses. Here's a good article on it.

How can parts of Canada be 'missing' gravity?

For more than 40 years, scientists have tried to figure out what's causing large parts of Canada to be "missing" gravity. The force of gravity around Hudson Bay is lower than surrounding areas. Learn about two theories that may explain the phenomenon.

science.howstuffworks.com

Does that mean the rapture will be in Hudson Bay?

 

[Mendalla]

Does that mean the rapture will be in Hudson Bay?

I am not about to move up there to find out. I'd lose a pound or two due to the lower gravity (but not any grams, weight is dependent on gravity but mass is not) but that's not worth freezing my butt off and hiding from polar bears.

 

[ninj]

Good for tourism. The whole area is just one fun trampoline.

 

[Mendalla]

Interesting thread about the bearded vulture aka lammergeir. Apparently they eat bones.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1313145998844268544

 

[Luce NDs]

Big Byrd Syndrome ...

 

[ninj]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Mendalla]

Remember the famous binary sunset in Star Wars : A New Hope? Apparently our solar system might have had a second sun at one point. That's a new hypothesis out from a team at Harvard University. Sounds like it would have been fairly far out so I doubt we would have had a Tatooine style double sunset, though.

The Sun May Have Started Its Life with a Binary Companion

A new theory published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by scientists from Harvard University suggests that the Sun may once have had a binary companion of similar mass.

www.cfa.harvard.edu

They also mention that a new scope going online next year might be able to detect and confirm the hypothesized Planet Nine (or Planet Ten if you're one of those iconoclasts who still count Pluto as a planet).

The scene from Star Wars that I referenced:

 

[ninj]

Arakus has two moons. So watching Star Wars IV and then Dune, you'd get both sunrise and moonrise.

 

[Mendalla]

Arakus has two moons. So watching Star Wars IV and then Dune, you'd get both sunrise and moonrise.

Works for me. Arrakis was pretty obviously an inspiration for Tatooine, just as Asimov's Trantor inspired Coruscant in the prequels. Also, I could get behind Denis Villeneuve doing a Star Wars movie.