MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star-1, also known as Icarus, is a blue supergiant observed through a gravitational lens and the most distant individual star detected, at 9 billion light-years from Earth... Light from the star was emitted 4.4 billion years after the Big Bang. According to co-discoverer Patrick Kelly, the star is at least a hundred times more distant than the next-farthest non-supernova star observed, and is the first magnified individual star seen.More at the link. I find it curiously difficult to think about this star using verbs in the present tense, since everything we know about it (position, size, wavelengths) describe it nine billion years ago.
Cassina, or black drink, the caffeinated beverage of choice for indigenous North Americans, was brewed from a species of holly native to coastal areas from the Tidewater region of Virginia to the Gulf Coast of Texas. It was a valuable pre-Columbian commodity and widely traded. Recent analyses of residue left in shell cups from Cahokia, the monumental pre-Columbian city just outside modern-day St. Louis and far outside of cassina’s native range, indicate that it was being drunk there. The Spanish, French, and English all documented American Indians drinking cassina throughout the American South, and some early colonists drank it on a daily basis. They even exported it to Europe...For further discussion of the NON-emetic properties of the tea, see Atlas Obscura.
Upon export to Europe, cassina was marketed in England under the names “Carolina tea” and “South Sea tea,” and in France as “appalachina,” likely a reference to the Appalachee people.This confusing array of names emphasizes the practicality of the Linnaean classification system, which was still in its infancy when Europeans learned of cassina. William Aiton, an eminent British botanist and horticulturist, director of Kew Gardens, and “Gardener to His Majesty,” is credited with giving cassina the scientific name it bears to this day: Ilex vomitoria. Ilex is the genus commonly known as holly. Vomitoria roughly translates to “makes you vomit.”...
In the earliest days of the Southern colonies—when plantations were being carved out of woodland and luxury imports were rare—cassina drinking was widespread from slaves to plantation owners. But as plantations became larger and more profitable, the nouveau riche demonstrated their wealth by drinking expensive imported tea.
The peregrine falcon reaches faster speeds than any other animal on the planet when performing the stoop, which involves soaring to a great height and then diving steeply at speeds of over 320 km/h (200 mph), hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact. The air pressure from such a dive could possibly damage a bird's lungs, but small bony tubercles on a falcon's nostrils are theorized to guide the powerful airflow away from the nostrils, enabling the bird to breathe more easily while diving by reducing the change in air pressure. To protect their eyes, the falcons use their nictitating membranes (third eyelids) to spread tears and clear debris from their eyes while maintaining vision. A study testing the flight physics of an "ideal falcon" found a theoretical speed limit at 400 km/h (250 mph) for low-altitude flight and 625 km/h (388 mph) for high-altitude flight. In 2005, Ken Franklin recorded a falcon stooping at a top speed of 389 km/h (242 mph).Discussion of biomimetics/biomimicry here. Via.
"Alternating between upper and lower case and style...like a good ransom note."
As a child growing up in poverty in the rural Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, Moses Murandu was used to having salt literally rubbed in his wounds when he fell and cut himself. On lucky days, though, his father had enough money to buy something which stung the boy much less than salt: sugar...Anyone who doubts that wounds can be difficult to treat has never seen a sacral decubitus ulcer that has burrowed down to the level of the vertebral bodies. I do hope that more attention is paid to non-antibiotic interventions.
To treat a wound with sugar, all you do, Murandu says, is pour the sugar on the wound and apply a bandage on top. The granules soak up any moisture that allows bacteria to thrive. Without the bacteria, the wound heals more quickly...
The sugar Murandu uses is the plain, granulated type you might use to sweeten your tea... he found that it worked for diabetics without sending their glucose levels soaring. “Sugar is sucrose – you need the enzyme sucrase to convert that into glucose,” he says. As sucrase is found within the body, it is only when the sugar is absorbed that it is converted. Applying it to the outside of the wound isn’t going to affect it in the same way...
McMichael, who works at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital, first started using both sugar and honey on pets back in 2002. She said it was a combination of the simplicity of the method and the low cost that attracted her – especially for pet owners who couldn’t afford the usual methods of bringing the animal to the hospital and using sedation.
McMichael says that they keep both sugar and honey in their surgery and often used it on dogs and cats (and occasionally on farm animals). Honey has similar healing properties to sugar (one study found it to be even more effective at inhibiting bacterial growth), though it is more expensive...
As well as being cheaper, sugar has another upside: as more and more antibiotics are used, we are becoming resistant to them.
Most important, though, your Peeps will make you the center of attention of any party lucky enough to have you as a guest. People will marvel at your boldness, creativity, and culinary expertise. “I didn’t even know you could make these at home!” they’ll say. Some will fall in love with you, others will resent you for the success you’ve achieved, but absolutely everyone will be talking about you and your Peeps.
Sinclair Media Group is the owner of the largest number of TV stations in America. “Sinclair’s probably the most dangerous company most people have never heard of,” said Michael Copps, the George W Bush-appointed former chairman of Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the top US broadcast regulator...Way more at the link. Does Sinclair own a station in your broadcast area? Almost certainly. Wikipedia has a list of the stations owned or operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
The New York Times refers to the group as a “conservative giant” that, since the Bush presidency, has used its 173 television stations “to advance a mostly right-leaning agenda”. The Washington Post describes it as a “company with a long history of favoring conservative causes and candidates on its stations’ newscasts”...
Another cause for concern, and increased scrutiny, is what’s seen as the company’s pronounced political agenda. Sinclair forces its local stations to run pro-Trump “news” segments. In April, they hired Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump campaign spokesman and member of the White House press office, as its chief political analyst. His “must-run” 10-minute political commentary segments unsurprisingly hewed closely to the Trump administration’s message. The news and analysis website Slate, referring to Epshteyn’s contributions, said: “As far as propaganda goes, this is pure, industrial-strength stuff.”..
The focus of the concern is Ajit Pai, the man Trump appointed as head of the country’s top broadcasting regulator, the FCC. Since he began work in January, Pai has been busy relaxing the protections for local broadcasting that had previously limited Sinclair’s expansion. Trump’s new-look FCC has moved swiftly to clear the hurdles for Sinclair’s proposed takeover of Tribune... In addition to changes paving the way for Sinclair’s merger, Pai’s FCC has proposed eliminating one of its most fundamental rules, which requires local news stations to actually have a local studio where they broadcast the news.
The uniquely designed limbs of the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, support the weight of the largest terrestrial animal. Besides other morphological peculiarities, the feet are equipped with large subcutaneous cushions which play an important role in distributing forces during weight bearing and in storing or absorbing mechanical forces... the cushion also presumably helps to distribute the animal's weight over the entire sole... deformable foot cushions serve to absorb mechanical shock, store and return elastic strain energy, protect against local stress and keep pressures low...This comment sums up some of the mechanical aspects:
In addition to the obvious mechanical functions, the cushions are important sensory structures. The high concentration of sensory receptors such as Vater–Pacinian corpuscles within the cushion and Meissner corpuscles in dermal papillae of the adjacent skin might rank an elephant's foot among the most sensitive parts of its body.
The heels of elephants compress as they walk along, a bit like suspension, so they can walk without their centre of mass moving up and down but maintaining it at a constant height. This means they are doing less work since they’re not having to raise and lower their mass, which because they are so large would be a huge waste of excess energy, even though it’s negligible for animals like us.And IIRC, elephants are capable of detecting infrasound, which I presume is related to that final comment about the sensory function of the feet.
"When culling was being done in some of the parks, the elephants could clearly detect andidentify the thump-thump-thump sound of the helicopter blades from 80 to90 miles (130 to 140 kilometers) away, identify it as danger, and take off in the opposite direction."This is way more interesting than I initially thought. You learn something every day.
If you’re one of the folks who for some reason still plays HQ Trivia, you may have been wondering where “quiz daddy” Scott Rogowsky’s been these past few weeks. Well, the short answer is simply this: He’s been replaced...
... it’s unclear what effect, if any, Rogowsky’s departure will have on HQ Trivia’s declining popularity. While HQ was looking at a $100 million valuation last February, that basically peaked by March. Where its viral popularity once grabbed headlines, it’s growth has since tapered off into steady decline.
"Veiled Lady by Rafaello Monti, c.1860, held by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts"Via Stuff about Minneapolis.
"short, pithy statement of general truth," 1570s, from Greek gnome "judgment, opinion; maxim, the opinion of wise men," from PIE root *gno- "to know."You learn something every day.
