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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Friday, September 16, 2016

The Doomed Mouse Utopia That Inspired "The Rats of NIMH"

John Bumpass Calhoun was a researcher at the the National Institute of Mental Health beginning in 1954. He had spent years already studying the behavior of groups of mice kept in captivity. Now he had space and resources to build mouse utopias. And he did, ever bigger an better. His largest experiment was a room sized mouse universe in which he placed eight mice in 1968. They thrived quickly due to the many amenities: plenty of food and water, nesting boxes, room to run, and most important for a mouse, safety from predators. Soon, they began to have families.
This is a far cry from a wild mouse's life—no cats, no traps, no long winters. It's even better than your average lab mouse's, which is constantly interrupted by white-coated humans with scalpels or syringes. The residents of Universe 25 were mostly left alone, save for one man who would peer at them from above, and his team of similarly interested assistants. They must have thought they were the luckiest mice in the world. They couldn't have known the truth: that within a few years, they and their descendants would all be dead.
Calhoun saw the results of this population growth experiment echo his earlier, smaller mouse utopias. Read about Calhoun’s experiments and how he inspired a book called Ms. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which was later made into a movie called The Secret of NIMH, at Atlas Obscura. There's also a video that further explains the experiment. 

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Thursday, September 15, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally
On a trip ...! 
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   
  
Felt like the 70s ... !
Today is - Felt Hat Day

 You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Antigua - Argentina - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - Belize - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Chile  Colombia - Costa Rica - Dominican Republic- Ecuador - El Salvador - French Guiana - Haiti  Honduras - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay - Peru - Puerto Rico - Sint Eustatius and Saba  Sint Maartin - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos - United States - Uruguay - Venezuela
Virgin Islands
Europe
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia  Cyprus -  Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Estonia - Finland - France - Georgia - Germany Greece -  Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Isle of Mann - Italy - Jersey - Latvia - Lithuania - Macedonia  Malta - Moldova - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Northern Ireland - Norway - Poland Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden  Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Afghanistan - Azerbaijan - Bangladesh - Brunei - Burma - Cambodia - China - Hong Kong - India  Indonesia  Iran - Iraq - Israel - Japan - Jordan - Kazakhstan - Korea -  Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius
Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Plestine - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Taiwan Thailand - Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Algeria - Chad - Congo - Egypt - Ethiopia - Ivory Coast - Kenya - Libya - Madagascar - Morocco  Mozambique - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia - Zambia - Zimbabwe
The Pacific
Australia - French Polynesia - Guam - Marshall Islands - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1588 The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet.
1776
The British occupy Manhattan.
1788
An alliance between Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands is ratified at the Hague.
1858
The Butterfield Overland Mail Company begins delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The company’s motto is: “Remember, boys, nothing on God’s earth must stop the United States mail!”
1862
Confederates capture Harpers Ferry, securing the rear of Robert E. Lee‘s forces in Maryland.
1891
The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma.
1914
President Woodrow Wilson orders the Punitive Expedition out of Mexico. The Expedition, headed by General John Pershing, had been searching for Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary.
1916
Armored tanks are introduced by the British during the Battle of the Somme.
1928
Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers, by accident, that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.
1935
In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag.
1937
Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler.
1939
The Polish submarine Orzel arrives in Tallinn, Estonia, after escaping the German invasion of Poland.
1950
U.N. Forces, lead by the U.S. Marine Corps, invade occupied Korea at the port of Inchon. Considered the greatest amphibious attack in history, it is the zenith of General Douglas MacArthur‘s career.
1959
Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Soviet leader to visit the US.
1961
Hurricane Carla comes ashore in Texas, the second-most powerful ever to make landfall in that state.
1963
Four young African-American girls are killed by the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
1966
US President Lyndon Johnson urges Congress to adopt gun control legislation in the wake of Charles Whitman’s sniper attack from the University of Texas’s Texas Tower; in all, Whitman shot and killed 15 people before being shot dead himself by an Austin police officer.
1968
The USSR launches Zond 5, which becomes the first spaceship to orbit the moon and reenter Earth’s atmosphere.
1971
The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.
1981
Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.
1983
Menachem Begin resigns as premier of Israel.
1990
France announces it will send 4,000 troops to join those of other nations assembling in the Persian Gulf to protect Saudi Arabia and force Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein to withdraw troops from occupied Kuwait.
1998
MCI WorldCom begins operations after a landmark merger between World Com and MCI Communications.
2004
National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union.
2008
The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US history is filed by Lehman Brothers financial services firm.

2016 Fall Foliage Map

One of the great joys of autumn is watching the trees turn brilliant colors. The Great Smokey Mountains National Park has an interactive map to help you plan your autumn road trips to coincide with the peak fall foliage in the 48 contiguous states. Use the slider at the site to check for the area of peak colors for every weekend. Scroll down on the page to find out more about the colors of fall. According to the map, during the week of October 21st, I will drive past a mountain and decide that this is the year I make a landscape quilt of the fall colors. I’ve been saying that for at least 25 years. Then a November rainstorm will bring all those leaves down, and I’ll be distracted by other holiday plans.

Secret Uses Of Uranus

Courtesy of historian Michael Beschloss, here’s the page of Stanley Kubrick’s notes from when he was brainstorming titles for Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Yes, folks, Kubrick considered naming it “Dr. Strangelove’s Secret Uses Of Uranus.” I want to live in the parallel timeline where he went with that one:

The 10 Most Interesting Pyramid Shaped Buildings

Why do people keep building pyramid-shaped buildings? Depending on the structure’s purpose, it could be for efficient use of indoor space, structural strength, or because it looks cool. The last reason may be the most common, because these buildings certainly stand out among others! While most are huge commercial or government buildings, at least one family has a pyramid home.
The 6-story Gold Pyramid House sits on 17,000 sq. ft land in Wadsworth, Illinois, and is described as one of the most interesting homes ever built. Its builders – Linda and Jim Onan – explain it simply as: Impressive, Exotic, Mystery, Gold, and Power. The two are avid believers of the 70’s cult concept of “Pyramid Power” and their home is said to be the biggest gold plated structure(utilizing 24 karat gold) in North America. Surrounded by a large moat on an island, the structure has several impressive features, including a 4-car garage topped by 3 smaller pyramids, a metal palm-tree, and a fifty-foot statue of King Tut.
Read about the other nine pyramid-shaped buildings at Housely.

10 Scientific Hoaxes That Rocked The World

Every now and then, a scientific discovery comes along that is just so wild that you can't wrap your head around it at first. A crazy-sounding discovery or invention is just that: crazy. And behind it is somebody willing to glue together bones or hire a man to turn a crank for fame or profit.
There's nothing like a good old-fashioned hoax to remind us to be a little skeptical of outrageous scientific claims. Here are 10 of history's juiciest scientific scandals.

9 Major Computer Bugs That Wreaked Havoc

Advances in computing, the web, and the internet have spawned some nasty bugs over the past several decades. Many companies use bug bounty programs or enlist software-savvy patrons to hunt down bugs before they cause too much trouble - but despite all our efforts, more than a few have gotten the best of us.

Military Academy lockdown caused by bubble wrap

Officials say the sound that was thought to be gunfire at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, was actually popping bubble wrap.
A student who lives in The Village, at the Eastern University rental apartments located on the Valley Forge Military Academy and College property, heard what was thought to be a gunshot and called 911.
The school was placed on lockdown for approximately an hour beginning at around 6pm on Monday. Police arrived on the campus with guns drawn, but soon realized there were no signs of an active shooter or shooting.
Cabrini University along with Eastern University were placed on lockdown due to the incident. Eastern University alerted all on their St. Davids campus to remain indoors. Around 10 minutes later, they said the lockdown was lifted.

The 5 Deadly Sins of Big Pharma

Robert Reich Has the Perfect Solution for Corporate Tax Dodgers Like Apple

You Won't Believe the Surveillance Capabilities of Future Employee ID Badges

London Landlords Offer Desperate Women Free Rent in Return for Sex

The Craigslist ad said: 
"Free accommodation for genuine girl in spacious flat…No rent, no deposit, nothing to pay."

‘Christian’ Ex-Mayor Raped 4-Year-Old Girl For Three Years And Blames Her For It

Another hypocritical “christian” politician gets caught sexually abusing a child and has the gall to blame the victim instead of taking personal responsibility ...
Richard Keenan, who served as mayor of Hubbard, was indicted on eight counts of rape and 12 counts of attempted rape and gross sexual imposition. 

Teabagger Moron McCrory’s Bigoted Bathroom Law Costs NC Millions In Lost Events

Teabagger Moron McCrory’s Bigoted Bathroom Law Costs NC Millions In Lost Events
Once again, bigotry is costing North Carolina BIG.

O'Reilly Just Got Caught Lying About Defending Roger Ailes From Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

O’Reilly Just Got Caught Lying About Defending Roger Ailes From Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
Has O’Reilly really not learned what he says on video stays on video?

Ohio University Removes Roger Ailes' Name From Newsroom

Walter Buchanan was having the worst day at the DMV — before viral video caught his violent arrest

Walter Buchanan was having the worst day at the DMV — before viral video caught his violent arrest

Cop Crashes Cruiser Near School While Snorting Lines of Xanax

Drunk driver crashed into ‘Please Don’t Drink and Drive’ sign

The Washington State Patrol arrested a suspected DUI driver who crashed into a “Please Don’t Drink and Drive” sign on Monday.
Troopers said the accident occurred at about 8:30am on the outskirts of Bremerton. The driver was heading south when he left the road.
He struck several signs, a number of shrubs and two parked cars. The driver crossed back over the road and hit a fire hydrant where his car finally stopped.
The 23-year-old driver, who is from Port Orchard, was suspected of using inhalants. He was jailed on investigation of DUI. There were no injuries

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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally
Just in case you haven't heard ...! 
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   
  
Oh, yeah ... !
Today is - National Cream Filled Doughnut Day

 You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Antigua - Argentina - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - Belize - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Chile  Colombia - Costa Rica - Dominican Republic- Ecuador - El Salvador - French Guiana - Haiti  Honduras - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay - Peru - Puerto Rico - Sint Eustatius and Saba  Sint Maartin - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos - United States - Uruguay - Venezuela
Virgin Islands
Europe
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia  Cyprus -  Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Estonia - Finland - France - Georgia - Germany Greece -  Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Isle of Mann - Italy - Jersey - Latvia - Lithuania - Macedonia  Malta - Moldova - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Northern Ireland - Norway - Poland Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden  Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Afghanistan - Azerbaijan - Bangladesh - Brunei - Burma - Cambodia - China - Hong Kong - India  Indonesia  Iran - Iraq - Israel - Japan - Jordan - Kazakhstan - Korea -  Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius
Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Plestine - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Taiwan Thailand - Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Algeria - Chad - Congo - Egypt - Ethiopia - Ivory Coast - Kenya - Libya - Madagascar - Morocco  Mozambique - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia - Zambia - Zimbabwe
The Pacific
Australia - French Polynesia - Guam - Marshall Islands - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1146
Zangi of the Near East is murdered. The Sultan Nur ad-Din, his son, pursues the conquest of Edessa.
1321
Dante Alighieri dies of malaria just hours after finishing writing Paradiso.
1544
Henry VIII‘s forces take Boulogne, France.
1773
Russian forces under Aleksandr Suvorov successfully storm a Turkish fort at Hirsov, Turkey.
1791
Louis XVI swears his allegiance to the French constitution.
1812
Napoleon Bonaparte‘s invasion of Russia reaches its climax as his Grande Armee enters Moscow–only to find the enemy capital deserted and burning, set afire by the few Russians who remained.
1814
Francis Scott Key writes the words to the “Star Spangled Banner” as he waits aboard a British launch in the Chesapeake Bay for the outcome of the British assault on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
1847
U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott capture Mexico City, virtually bringing the two-year Mexican War to a close.
1853
The Allies land at Eupatoria on the west coast of Crimea.
1862
At the battles of South Mountain and Crampton’s Gap, Maryland Union troops smash into the Confederates as they close in on what will become the Antietam battleground.
1901
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as the 26th President of the United States upon the death of William McKinley, who was shot eight days earlier.
1911
Russian Premier Pyotr Stolypin is mortally wounded in an assassination attempt at the Kiev opera house.
1943
German troops abandon the Salerno front in Italy..
1960
Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia form OPEC.
1966
Operation Attleboro, designed as a training exercise for American troops, becomes a month-long struggle against the Viet Cong.
1975
Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton becomes the first native-born American saint in the Roman catholic cult.
1979
Nur Muhammad Taraki, president and former prime minister of Afghanistan, is assassinated in a coup in which prime minister Hafizullah Amin seizes power.
1982
Bachir Gemayel, president-elect of Lebanon, is killed along with 26 others in a bomb blast in Beirut.
1984
Joe Kittinger, a former USAF fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, becomes the first person to pilot a gas balloon solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1994
Major League Baseball players strike over a salary cap and other proposed changes, forcing the cancellation of the entire postseason and the World Series.
2007
Northern Rock Bank suffers the UK’s first bank run in 150 years.

Why a volcano, Frankenstein, and the summer of 1816 are relevant to the Anthropocene

California first US state to promise overtime to farmworkers

D.C. Will Hide Banned Books Around the City

September is banned books month and in celebration of all the great banned books that later were recognized as classics, the Washington D.C. library set up quite a clever scavenger hunt. Hidden in businesses around the city are copies of once-banned books -find one and it's yours. It's not just a matter of finding a free book of course, the program is a great way to look back on the history of censored books and each title will be wrapped in a cover that explains why the book was challenged. Clues to finding the secret treasures can be found on the library's Twitter account.

Was This America’s Worst Utopia?

In the early 1980s, Baghwan Shree Rajneesh brought his cult Osho from India to Wasco County, Oregon, and began a community of around 7,000 people called Rajneeshpuram. As the community expanded, they needed more space, but that would butt up against the rights of other communities.
In 1983, the Red Vermin started taking over nearby towns and tried to weasel representatives into government positions to gain control of the area and independence. Locals grew resistant and began to worry about the Rajneeshpuram utopia’s presence. Then, Wasco County turned into a battle zone when the Rajneeshees wanted to expand their city up on a mountain but city officials rejected the request. Enraged, the Rajneeshees bused in 2,000 homeless people to vote Rajneeshee members into the county government. However, the county did not recognize the homeless as voters.
The Rajneeshees then came up with an extravagant backup plan: poison the restaurant salad bars in the area with salmonella to prevent locals from voting against them. The Red Vermin created a brown liquid mixture of salmonella, carried it around in bags labeled “salsa,” and contaminated wherever they could—salad dressings, produce, water. After the salmonella salsa raid, 751 people fell ill, 45 were hospitalized, and two Oregon officials got sick. Thankfully, no one was killed.
The Rajneeshees were implicated in the plot, and their leaders fled, spelling the end of Rajneeshpuram. But that’s only one of the six utopian communities in this list. Read about their philosophies and how they crashed and burned -literally, in one case- at Alas Obscura.

Americans Are Drowning in Credit Card Debt, and It's Not Because They Are 'Irresponsible'

5 Ways You Are Subsidizing Big Meat Without Knowing It

NCAA moves ‘March Madness’ basketball finals out of North Carolina over anti-trans law

The governing board overseeing U.S. college athletics said on Monday it will move seven championship sporting events out of North Carolina to protest state laws deemed discriminatory to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals.

Bisexual Men (Who Definitely Do Exist) Are Better Boyfriends and Dads

The brain’s stunning genomic diversity revealed

The brain’s stunning genomic diversity revealed
The brain’s stunning genomic diversity revealed
Our brains contain a surprising diversity of DNA. Even though we are taught that every cell in our body has the same DNA, in fact most cells in the brain have changes to their DNA that make each neuron a little different. Now researchers at the Salk Institute and...

Atheists remain most disliked religious minority in the U.S.

Atheists remain most disliked religious minority in the U.S.Atheists remain most disliked religious minority in the U.S.
Ten years ago University of Minnesota sociologists conducted research showing that, among a long list of racial and religious minority groups,  atheists were the most disliked group of people in the United States. Last month they followed up with new research that...

Unusually addressed letter somehow made it to right recipient

An envelope addressed to "Scott, from Scotland" has somehow made it to its destination in New Zealand. Tiniroto resident Scott O'Brien could not believe his eyes when he saw the envelope in his letterbox. It was addressed to: "Scott, from Scotland ... aged about 60/70?? ... corner of Tiniroto Road (almost). By a bridge. Has a Japanese wife - who may be older but looks about 20 ... also has a daughter, about 3. Loves history ... Good sense of humor ... tells a good tale ... Rural delivery area, sort of south east of Gisborne."
The letter was from the man who delivers the phone books to all the homes in the district, George MacLachlan. He was keen to catch up with O'Brien again after meeting by chance outside his home while delivering the phone book about five months ago.
"The dog barked at him when he pulled up the drive and I went out to see what it was. We had a good chat for about half an hour and then off he went. The next I heard from him was this letter and it's amazing it arrived." O'Brien has high praise for NZ Post for making sure the mail got to the right owner. He hopes he will meet up with MacLachlanagain next year.

Woman still intends to marry fiancé despite his attempt to secretly film her mother taking a bath

The fiancée of a man who was convicted of trying to secretly record his future mother-in-law taking a bath has insisted she is standing by her man. Nicole Mageean, 20, from Portaferry, Northern Ireland, says that she still intends to marry Thomas Edgar, 19, and believed that he meant to record her, something she said she would have consented to. On Thursday, Edgar walked out of Newtownards Magistrates' Court with two years' probation and an order to sign the sex offenders' register for five years. The victim, Nicole's mother, said the ordeal was like an episode of the Jerry Springer Show and had put an enormous strain on her family and her relationship with her daughter.
She added that the "door is always open" to Nicole if she decided to end the relationship. The court heard on Thursday that while Nicole's mother was at home on November 21, she spotted Edgar's mobile phone hidden in a slipper when she went to use the toilet. She noticed it was "glowing", picked it up and saw it was set to record. Concerned, she left to get advice from friends. When she returned, she told Edgar and her daughter she was going for a bath. Edgar was said to have become agitated and asked to the toilet. When she returned, "his iPad was against the wall". After he was arrested, he told the police that he was trying to record his girlfriend as a "practical joke", rather than something more sinister. Judge Hamill said the trial had been a "ludicrous contest from start to finish" and called Edgar's version of events a "fairy story."
Nicole said: "If he was a bad a person I wouldn't be with him or engaged. I was there the night everything happened, so I know. The night that everything kicked off, mum just came into me and just told me. She brought me down to the bedroom with Thomas sitting on the bed and he was near enough in tears. He told me that he tried to do something stupid." She said that the couple had consented to film each other in private before. "We did stuff like this all the time," she explained. "We've done this a couple of times." Asked how she would react if Edgar had recorded her in the bathroom without her knowledge, Nicole replied: "That would have been fine from my point of view. But he wouldn't have been doing it to random people in my house." Asked again if he had been reckless with others in the house she replied: "No, I don't think that at all." Nicole added that staying with Thomas was not hard, despite his conviction.
"No, it wasn't difficult - there was never a question," she explained "My friends are all sticking by me 100%. They've got my back because they know him and that he would never do such a thing." She also admitted that she could see no way at present to reconnect with her now estranged family. Nicole's mother said she could not believe the situation. "Where do I start?" she said. My daughter comes from a good home. She has a ticket to university, a future. He (Thomas) admitted everything. My daughter knows the truth, and she has heard it from him." She also told how Thomas "slipped up" in court because when asked if Nicole knew about the video, he allegedly replied, "No, she would have cracked up". Nicole's mum admitted she hoped to reconnect with her daughter, but only "if she was to admit what was going on and leave that family - she knows that my door is always open". "How she can even stomach being in the same room as him?" she asked. "It's like Jerry Springer. I can't move on because that's my daughter, not till I save her."

Man fatally shot by his cousin while attempting to see whether bullet-resistant vest still worked

A Florida man faces a manslaughter charge after shooting his cousin in an attempt to see whether a bullet-resistant vest still worked, according to police. At 10pm on Saturday, Joaquin Mendez, 23, tried on the bullet-resistant vest, Tampa police said.
He wondered aloud whether it was functional. "Let's see," replied his cousin Alexandro Garibaldi, who pulled out a gun and shot at the vest, according to police. Police officers responded to the address in Tampa minutes after the shooting.
They said they found Mendez outside, wounded in the chest. Inside, they found blood and the vest, which had a bullet hole. Garibaldi, 24, told officers he heard a gunshot, then discovered his wounded cousin outside. But police said they heard a different story from a witness.

The witness reported that Mendez sat in a chair and put the vest on, wondering whether it worked, and that Garibaldi took out a gun, said, "Let's see," and shot. Mendez was taken to a hospital, where he died. In addition to the manslaughter with a weapon charge, Garibaldi faces a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter

Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter
Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter
Dwarf galaxies are enigmas wrapped in riddles. Although they are the smallest galaxies, they represent some of the biggest mysteries about our universe. While many dwarf galaxies surround our own Milky Way, there seem to be far too few of them compared with standard...

Explaining why the universe can be transparent

Explaining why the universe can be transparent
Explaining why the universe can be transparent
Two papers published by an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside and several collaborators explain why the universe has enough energy to become transparent. The study led by Naveen Reddy, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and...

Snail venom holds key to better diabetes treatments

Snail venom holds key to better diabetes treatments
Snail venom holds key to better diabetes treatments
New research has found that venom extracted from a species of marine cone snail could hold the key to developing ‘ultra-fast-acting’ insulins, leading to more efficient therapies for diabetes management. Researchers from Australia and the US have...

Family rescued after being trapped by wolf

A family of four hiking on Discovery Island off Oak Bay in British Columbia, Canada, had to be rescued by the Coast Guard on Saturday afternoon when they were trapped by the island’s resident wolf. The distress call to the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Center was taken by Dylan Carter.
“We deal with bears and things like that from time to time, and people stranded with bears in the area. But this is the wolf call I’ve ever had. They were stalked by a wolf and had made their way to the lighthouse, and climbed on top of the foghorn building of the lighthouse to escape it.” The Coast Guard’s M. Charles M.B. vessel was a short distance away, with two armed fisheries officers aboard.
“They hiked ashore and helped them down off the roof of this old lighthouse building, and helped them under armed escort down to the Coast Guard zodiac which took them back to their campsite.” Ian Cesarec patrols the waters in and around the Chatham Islands, property belonging to the Songhees First Nation. “Access to any of the Songhees territorial lands are 100 percent no go. That includes half of Discovery Island, including the lighthouse property.
“If, in fact, these people did have a dog with them, they would have attracted that wolf. And possibly that would have been the curiosity factor around the wolf.” The wolf appeared on the island at same time as the death of Songhees Chief Robert Sam four years ago. And Discovery Island is off limits to the public where the family was rescued. “It doesn’t matter if they have a dog or anything with them. No trespassing means no trespassing. And people should be aware of their environment.” Despite the signs, and warnings, many people continue to travel to all areas of the island.

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