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  • S Landreth
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    Gray wolf born in Colorado collared for first time


    A gray wolf pup that was born in Colorado was collared for the first time in the state on Wednesday.

    “The wolf pup was given a health exam during the collaring process and appears to be in good health,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Terrestrial Section Manager Brian Dreher.

    The female pup, given the identifier 2202, was born in a litter of six to two other collared gray wolves in 2021. Pup 2202, however, is the first gray wolf pup to be both born and collared in the state.

    Though the collar doesn’t provide real-time GPS data, it allows “our biologists and wildlife managers to learn more about the behavior of these naturally migrating wolves,” CPW Director Dan Prenzlow said.

    Gray wolves remain an endangered species in the state, with hunting or interfering with the animals for any reason other than self-defense carrying penalties such as fines of up to $100,000, jail time, and the lifetime loss of hunting license privileges in the state.

    On Thursday, federal courts reinstated gray wolves to federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. https://thehill.com/changing-america...ared-for-first

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Enigma Black Diamond Sells For $4.3 Million At Auction

    Sotheby’s sold a 555.55-carat Fancy Black Diamond—believed to have come from outer space—for an astronomical $4.28 million at auction on Tuesday. Bidding closed at £3.2 million, excluding buyer’s premium. This diamond will be offered without reserve.



    The Enigma, as it is known, is the largest cut diamond in the world, according to Guinness World Records, with 55 facets. It weighs more than the Great Star of Africa, (530.2 carats), and the Golden Jubilee, (545.67 carats). Rare carbonado type black diamonds are assumed to have extraterrestrial origins because they contain small amounts of nitrogen and hydrogen, and may be more than 2 billion years old.

    “The size, shape and source of the Enigma diamond make it groundbreaking and amazing,” says Tobias Kormind, cofounder and managing director of European online jeweler 77 Diamonds. “Apart from being the largest cut diamond in the world, the Enigma is remarkably unusual for additional reasons.”

    Traditionally, diamonds are prized for clarity and absence of color. Black carbonados are not normally used in jewelry and mainly used in industrial drilling. But in recent years, several natural black diamonds such as the Black Orlov (67.5 carats), the Amsterdam Diamond (33.74 carats) and now The Enigma have made black diamonds a prized commodity.

    The black carbonado diamond’s origins add to the allure of The Enigma, which jewelers and geologists alike have called an unsolved, interstellar mystery. While most diamonds are excavated from igneous rock formed deep within Earth, carbonados are found in sedimentary deposits closer to or on the Earth’s surface. This suggests that black diamonds can have origins in outer space and some believe carbonados were created either from meteoric impact or from supernova explosions.

    The Enigma’s exquisite cut and finish added fuel to the final auction price. The original Enigma was purchased in the late 1990s and would have weighed over 800 carats in its rough, freshly unearthed form. It took more than three years to sculpt it into its current shape. According to Sotheby’s, despite its staggering weight, the Enigma is rare because it only has 55 facets, yet has “such a high degree of polish that is almost inconceivable.”

    Kormind says that while most diamonds are cut into one of ten popular shapes, the Enigma resembles a hand, another rarity in the jewelry industry. Its shape is a nod to the Middle Eastern palm symbol, the Hamsa, a sign of protection and a tool of deflection against the evil eye; it also represents blessings, power and strength, according to Sotheby’s.

    While the final hammer price of The Enigma did not set a record, Kormind says: “What cannot be denied is that The Enigma is a diamond with unparalleled bragging rights.” He adds, “Just imagine revealing to your guests you are the owner of the world’s largest cut diamond.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyakl...h=58017ae1361c


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  • S Landreth
    replied
    NASA awards contract for Mars rocket to bring rock samples to Earth

    Scientists have long been trying to understand the rocky and cold planet Mars and they may be inching towards that goal as NASA awarded a contract to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) this week.

    NASA announced that it had awarded Lockheed Martin Space a contract to build a small, lightweight rocket to launch rock, sediment and atmospheric samples from the surface of Mars. It would be the first robotic round-trip mission to bring samples from Mars back to Earth through NASA’s Mars Sample Returns Program.

    The Perseverance rover is currently carrying out NASA’s ongoing series of missions to answer questions about the potential for life on Mars and the MAV would be a crucial part of that campaign. NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander would carry the MAV to Mars’ surface and land near the Jezero Crater to gather samples cached by Perseverance.

    The samples would then be returned to the Sample Retrieval Lander, which would be MAV’s launch platform and allowing it to take off with samples secured.

    “Committing to the Mars Ascent Vehicle represents an early and concrete step to hammer out the details of this ambitious project not just to land on Mars, but to take off from it,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

    “We are nearing the end of the conceptual phase for this Mars Sample Return mission, and the pieces are coming together to bring home the first samples from another planet. Once on Earth, they can be studied by state-of-the-art tools too complex to transport into space.”

    Lockheed Martin will play a key role the project, developing multiple MAV test and flight units. NASA has contracted them to design, develop, test and evaluate the integrated MAV system, along with designing and developing the rocket’s ground support equipment.

    It won’t be an easy task, as NASA explained that returning a ground sample from Mars is complicated. MAV will have to be robust enough to withstand Mars’ harsh environment and be adaptable to work with other NASA spacecrafts. MAV also has to be small enough to fit inside the Sample Retrieval Lander, which is planned to launch no earlier than 2026.

    NASA describes Mars as a rocky, cold and apparently lifeless planet. It's home to the largest volcano in the solar system, the deepest canyon and crazy weather and temperature patterns.

    Lockheed Martin’s contract has a potential value of $194 million, with a performance period beginning no later than Feb. 25 and will extend up to six years. https://thehill.com/changing-america...-to-bring-rock

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    related to the story above. I don't think I would leave either

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Rare eagle native to Asia is sticking around Maine, baffling birdwatchers



    A rare species of eagle that was spotted in Maine has shown no signs of leaving.

    The Steller's sea eagle was first seen in Maine in late December and has continued to frequent the area.

    Birdwatchers have been drawn to Maine to catch a glimpse of the sea eagle, which feasts on fish and ducks.

    “I took my mom with me, too, who isn’t a birder, but heard the story about the eagle and wanted to see it,” Allison Black, a birdwatcher from Connecticut, told The Associated Press (AP).

    With a wingspan of 8 feet and weighing about 15 pounds, the bird is considered rare, as there are only believed to be about 4,000 Steller’s sea eagles worldwide. How the sea eagle ended up in Maine is up for speculation, as it’s native to northeastern Asia, according to Doug Hitchcox, staff naturalist at Maine Audubon. But it shows no signs of leaving.

    “This one is so far off course, it's just purely speculation to say it could go back and then return. There is no reason it couldn't make its way back to Japan or Russia," Hitchcox told the AP. “It seems to be doing OK.” https://thehill.com/changing-america...ticking-around

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Woman gives birth during flight over the Atlantic

    A woman aboard a United Airlines flight traveling from Ghana to the U.S. gave birth to a baby boy over the weekend.

    The airline told NBC News in a statement its staff "acted quickly" to ensure a safe delivery, adding they “were especially thrilled to see the plane land with one extra, especially beautiful, customer onboard."

    Nancy Adobea Anane, a Ghana-based journalist aboard flight 997, told NBC’s “Today,” she noticed a woman, identified as “GG,” going to and from the bathroom looking “uncomfortable,” adding that passengers “thought it was someone who was unwell.”

    Anane said the pilot made an announcement asking if there were any medical personnel aboard the flight, before she heard “Push, push!” She said members of the flight crew and a Ghanian nurse and doctor assisted in the birth.

    "It was amazing," she told the outlet. "One of them said, 'I see the head.' Then (the) baby came out and was crying, and those of us close were clapping and so happy."

    "The rest of the flight didn't know what was going on," Anane said. "The pilot came on to say we just delivered a healthy baby boy."

    Anane added in a post on Facebook that paramedics were waiting on site when the plane landed, noting the baby was due in late February. https://thehill.com/changing-america...r-the-atlantic

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Scientists confirm record-breaking 17 second lightning strike

    Scientists recorded a single lightning flash lasting 17.1 seconds in June of 2020 over Uruguay and northern Argentina, becoming the longest lasting lightning flash ever recorded, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced.

    Why it matters: The strike was one of two new new lightning-related world records established by the WMO on Monday, the other being a lightning strike that covered around 477 miles in the southern U.S. on April 29, 2020.

    The WMO's Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes uses weather satellites to maintain official records of global, hemispheric and regional weather extremes.

    By the numbers: The distance of the April strike is equivalent to the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio, or between London and the German city of Hamburg and was 60 km longer than the previous record.

    The previous longest duration flash was 16.7 seconds.

    Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: Thanks to new observing platforms, scientists are gaining new insights into how lightning forms, its many varieties and the impressive characteristics it can exhibit.

    The satellite-mounted Global Lightning Mapper is one of the tools allowing researchers to track lightning from above, in addition to ground-based sensors. These newly certified records, in fact, could be eclipsed soon due to the new observing capabilities.

    What they're saying: “These are extraordinary records from single lightning flash events. Environmental extremes are living measurements of the power of nature, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments. It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves,” Randall Cerveny, rapporteur of weather and climate extremes for the WMO, said in a statement.

    The big picture: Both of the rec0rd-setting strikes occurred in hotspots notorious for extremely large thunderstorm systems in North and South America. https://www.axios.com/wmo-lightening...efaa1a95b.html

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Toddler spends almost $2K at Walmart on parent's phone

    A toddler from New Jersey surprised his family when he accidentally completed a purchase of around $1,800 in furniture saved in an online shopping cart on his mother’s phone.

    Pramod Kumar told News 12 his 22-month-old son “just went to the cart and whatever was there, boom, he just clicked, and all payments just went through,” referring to a shopping list the boy’s mother, Madhu, had assembled for their new home.

    Madhu had added an assortment of items to the virtual cart but never checked out. But the payment information was already stored on the phone.

    The couple was unaware of their son’s buying blitz until the packages arrived, and they were unable to return the items.

    “We called, ‘Can you please cancel?’ They said no, it’s already delivered,” Madhu Kumar told News 12.

    The pair described Ayaansh to the outlet as a “covid baby,” a child born during the pandemic, who “likes phones.”

    “He likes phones because everybody is in virtual. They are busy with their phones, his siblings always with their phones and I don't know, I think he needs a phone,” Madhu added.

    Pramod Kumar told NBC 4 that the family will take preventative measures to avoid a mishap like this in the future.

    "Moving forward, we will put tough passcodes or face recognition so when he picks up the phone he finds it in locked condition," he said.: https://thehill.com/changing-america...-parents-phone

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    19-year-old lands in Belgium, becoming youngest woman to fly solo around the world

    Nineteen-year-old pilot Zara Rutherford touched down at an airfield in western Belgium on Thursday, becoming the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, as she closed the loop five months after taking off on her record-breaking journey.

    Rutherford's circumnavigation aboard her Shark UL plane took 155 days – two months longer than planned, thanks to loads of bad weather and visa holdups. Along the way, she crossed enormous stretches of desolate ocean and had to spend weeks in a tiny Siberian village. She also had to alter course to avoid North Korean airspace and wildfires in California.

    And, of course, she chronicled it all on social media.

    "It's just really crazy, I haven't quite processed it," she told reporters after landing in Kortrijk.

    Since her Aug. 18 departure, Rutherford covered 28,000 nautical miles, stopping in 41 countries and five continents. It's a journey that will land her in the Guinness World Records book, supplanting U.S. aviator Shaesta Waiz, who set the previous record in 2017 at age 30. Last year, Travis Ludlow of the United Kingdom set the overall record for youngest aviator to solo circumnavigate — at age 18.

    Article continues after sponsor message

    For anyone contemplating a similar adventure, Rutherford, who was met after landing by her Belgian mother and British father — both pilots themselves — had some simple but direct advice: "Go for it."

    "It takes a lot of time, patience, a lot of work, but it is incredible," she said. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/10743...king%20journey. - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8U...e0NjHPdoEJ_voQ

    19-year-old aviator sets new solo world record

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    College student only passenger on international flight

    A college student reportedly found himself alone on a flight from England to Central Florida when returning to U.S. from winter break.

    Kai Forsyth, a 19-year-old freshman, told News 6 he “didn’t really know what was going on,” when he discovered he was the lone passenger on the nine-hour flight. Forsyth said he was offered free food and drinks, but he was unable to sit in first class.

    “I’m guessing COVID-19 and precautions to fly and people are scared — especially back in the U.K.” he said, when asked why the flight was empty, telling the network it was the only question flight attendants failed to answer.

    Yet Forsyth said the in-flight service was exceptional and that he spent some of his time alone visiting the kitchen staff.

    “I actually went in the kitchen for a bit, and I was asking them like what are all these things in the storage units,” he told the outlet. “I had all the seats in the world to pick from to have my own nap which I did.”

    “I’d just like to say a massive thanks to British Airways for providing me with this flight,” he said. “That one flight attendant you know who you are, you sought me out. So, I had the best meals, all the desserts I needed.” https://thehill.com/changing-america...-international

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Scientists discover earliest man-made hybrid animal

    Scientists recently discovered an ancient Mesopotamian animal known as a “kunga” that was a cross between a donkey and a wild ass — and is the oldest known human-bred hybrid.

    Before horses arrived in the area, large male kungas were used to pull war wagons, while smaller one were used for agricultural purposes like pulling ploughs. The animals were considered a status symbol in ancient Mesopotamia, with archaeologists finding references of the animals being given as dowries in royal marriages and costing six times as much as a donkey in cuneiform tablets from Syro-Mesopotamia.

    Archaeologists have long assumed the animals were a mix of a donkey with another animal, since horses didn’t appear in the area until 4,000 years ago, but have had little evidence to prove it until now.

    A team of archeologists, geneticists and paleontologists used DNA sequencing to finally solve the long-standing mystery of the kunga’s genetic makeup, according to a recently published study in Science Advances.

    Researchers were able to discover that the kunga was a mix between a female donkey and a male Syrian wild ass by analyzing the bones of kungas that had been buried in an elite burial complex in Tell Umm el-Marra in northern Syria.

    The discovery is considered the earliest example of hybrid animal breeding. https://thehill.com/changing-america...-hybrid-animal

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    A hungry badger may have helped uncover a Roman treasure

    A local resident initially found the coins scattered about the floor of the cave of La Cuesta in the municipality of Grado, Asturias. The man, Roberto Garcia, alerted archaeologists who visited the cave in April 2021 and ultimately recovered a collection of 209 pieces of Roman coins just outside a badger’s burrow.

    Researchers called the discovery an “exceptional find,” as the coins date back to the third and fifth century AD.

    While no badger was observed at the scene, researchers hypothesize some of the coins were likely dug up by a badger searching for food following storm Filomena, a massive snow storm that blanketed the region with snow in January 2021, making it difficult for the animal to find berries, worms or small invertebrates to eat.

    Researchers believe that in the animal’s desperate attempt to find food, it scratched and tucked its legs into a small crack open next to its den, but didn’t find much to feed on except old, inedible coins from the late Roman period.

    “When we arrived we found the hole led to the badger’s nest, and the ground around it full of coins,” Alfonso Fanjul Peraza, a researcher who helped make the discovery, told CNN.

    Peraza told the news outlet more than 90 coins may have been excavated by the animal. This led researchers to dig in the area and uncover the rest of the Roman-era coins.

    Most of the coins are believed to have originated from the north and eastern Mediterranean, including Antioch, Constantinople, Thessaloniki and later passed through Rome, Arles and Lyon in Southern France. At least one coin originated from London.

    The findings were published in the Journal of Prehistory and Archaeology last month. https://thehill.com/changing-america...roman-treasure



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  • S Landreth
    replied
    A letter from an American soldier in Germany was delivered 76 years late

    John Gonsalves was an American soldier serving in Germany and a letter he wrote to his mother was recently delivered 76 years after he dropped it in the mail.

    Gonsalves’ wife, Angelina “Jean” Gonsalves, received the unexpected delivery last month, hand delivered by a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier. Upon opening the envelope, Angeline found a letter her husband had written to his mother while he was stationed in Bad Orb, Germany, near a Nazi-prisoner-of-war camp that was liberated by American Troops, according to The Washington Post.

    The couple had been married for 61 years when Gonsalves passed away in 2015 at the age of 92. While reading the letter Jean told The Post it felt as though her husband was in the room with her.

    “It was a weird feeling — like he was standing there, reading it to me. I smiled when I saw his beautiful handwriting. I always loved how he wrote his E’s,” said Jean.

    Gonsalves’ letter detailed his experience serving in Germany, describing gloomy weather and unappetizing food.

    Jean said her and Gonsalves met in 1949. The two got married four years later and went on to raise five sons together.

    “There was nothing he loved more than taking the boys camping and hiking and fixing things up around the house for all of us. I miss him every day,” said Jean.

    A mail carrier delivered Gonsalves’ letter to her home in Woburn, Mass., last month and it also included a letter from Stephen D. Stowell, a USPS worker from the agency’s processing and distribution center in Pittsburgh.

    Stowell acknowledged the unprecedented delay in delivering the letter and said USPS was uncertain about where the letter had been for the past seven decades or how it arrived at his facility.

    “By virtue of some dedicated sleuth work by postal workers at this facility, we were able to determine your address, hence this letter delivery to you, albeit 76 years late,” said Stowell, according to The Post.

    Despite the staggering delivery delay, Jean and her sons welcomed Gonsalves’ letter.

    “I can picture my dad writing that letter to his mom, hoping he would soon be coming home to see her. Although it never made it to his mom, it made it to mine. And we’ve all been on an amazing little journey because of it,” said Brian Gonsalves, to The Post. https://thehill.com/changing-america...in-germany-was

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Good News!

    'My dad's a fighter': Man's recovery exceeding expectations after receiving first heart from gene-edited pig

    Dave Bennett, the Maryland man who received the first heart transplant from a genetically modified pig last week, continues to recover well, his doctors said late Wednesday.

    "The new heart is still a rock star," said Dr. Bartley Griffith, who led the transplant team at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "It seems to be reasonably happy in its new host … It has more than exceeded our expectations."

    Bennett, 57, is now off of the machine that kept blood circulating through his body for more than 45 days, including several days after the surgery. He is breathing on his own, and speaking with a quiet voice.

    Griffith had planned to leave Bennett plugged into the heart-lung machine for another week or so — comparing it to "training wheels," as the pig heart got used to its new environment. "But the heart was rocking and rolling and he was so stable that we elected to remove it," he said. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ry/9193886002/

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  • S Landreth
    replied
    Originally posted by S Landreth View Post
    Maryland doctors transplant pig’s heart into human patient in medical first
    hope he's still with us

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