Odd News II

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Caroluna
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Re: Odd News II

Post by Caroluna »

I.D.10-t wrote:Amateur effort finds new largest prime number

...and of course it is an odd number.
Both odd, and new!
Well, new to us of course. It's been there forever.
Unless you believe that math is actually created in humans' minds as it's discovered, rather than existing out there in some vague Platonic Idea-Space...um...what was I saying? Image

Anyway, a prime discovery, and I don't mean to rib you about that! :wink:

Here's some odd old news.

The oldest living organism in the world is 80,000 years old, and clones itself. Known as Pando, and nicknamed The Trembling Giant, this organism is a single grove of Quaking Aspen trees in Utah.
http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/na ... es-itself/
The grove is called Pando, which is Latin for "I spread" -- and spread it does. The grove is actually a single clonal colony of a male Quaking Aspen. Simply put, it is essentially one massive root system that began life an estimated 80,000 years ago. The root system currently has somewhere around 47,000 stems that create the grove of trees that keep the root system going. Pando is not only considered the oldest living organism but also possibly the heaviest. The colony has spread over about 106 acres and experts think in all it weighs about 6,600 short tons. However, some experts think that chunks of the root system have died off leaving parts of the colony separated, making it effectively more than one organism. And other less-studied clonal colonies of aspen may be contenders for the title of heaviest. Pando exists in part because frequent fires have kept conifers out of the area, and because a shift to a semi-arid climate has kept other aspen seedlings from taking root. This has left plenty of space for the ancient root system of Pando to spread and thrive. The fact that Pando is one giant organism wasn't discovered until the 1970s, by Burton V. Barnes of the University of Michigan. Currently, experts are worried that a range of factors are threatening the life of this ancient organism. While Pando's estimated age of 80,000 years may be staggering, even more amazing is the possibility that experts have underestimated its age. Because the age of the organism cannot be determined through tree rings (the average age of the stems being around 130 years), many factors such as the history and climate of the local environment over millennia. Taking different factors into account, some experts think that Pando could be closer to 1 million years old! There is a lot of debate and speculation around Pando, but one thing is certain: this organism is mind-blowing.
The link includes very pretty pictures!
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Caroluna
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Re: Odd News II

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By way of my husband.

Think Nemo’s Bad? In Brazil It’s Raining Spiders
http://gawker.com/5982891/meanwhile-in- ... ng-spiders
What's that? You're worried about a little snow falling on your head? How adorable.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, it's raining spiders.

Footage posted online yesterday shows thousands of spiders "falling from the sky" in the southern Brazilian town of Santo Antônio da Platina.

"Still do not know what causes such behavior," writes the video's uploader. "We are researching and will post the answer to the question here."

I know exactly what causes such behavior. A little something called the end of the world.
By the way -- Santo Antônio da Platina is not too far from the city of Curitiba, which I had the pleasure of visiting about 18 yrs ago. That part of Brazil is not Amazon-Jungle-vines-snakes. It's more like South Carolina. It gets cold in the winter. Curitiba struck me as a very European sort of city and I would certainly be freaked out to see spiders raining down from the skies there.
UPDATE: Brazilian news portal G1 reports that this footage was captured by 20-year-old web designer Erick Reis as he was leaving a friend's engagement party this past Sunday.
video
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=389_1360330426
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Caroluna
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Re: Odd News II

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This is very very odd, and it's news to me. I didn't realize this crazy bird existed.
Here's a diagram of its insides. With a long "tube" like that I was expecting a very low voice.

Image

But no-- instead it has a large vocal range -- and beautiful tone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C6EbpDks-A

If you go to the YouTube link they connect to the Cornell website, where you can download a FREE CD of the songs of this bird and others that it is related to.
http://dl.allaboutbirds.org/birds-of-pa ... d-download

Oh how I love the Internet...

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Caroluna
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Re: Odd News II

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Frogs make some really weird noises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBkWhkAZ9ds
desert rain frog

Image



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=948rhsRvIkw
screaming frog -- from the Netherlands -- don't know if we have anything in the US like that??

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Re: Odd News II

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Church organist steals church organ (Pittsburgh Pennsylvania news)

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/pol ... 200/nWgSm/

I'm not so sure that I would have turned myself in but I'm sure the neighbors would have figured it out.
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Caroluna
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Re: Odd News II

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mutepointe wrote:Church organist steals church organ (Pittsburgh Pennsylvania news)
That must have been heartrending for the poor guy to see it in danger. I can totally relate. It would be like "adopting" a neighbor's dog when you see that they haven't been taking good care of it.
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Caroluna
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Re: Odd News II

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Just got this link from a birdwatcher friend of mine.
She wrote: Check this out - it is the best visualization tool for biological species, evolutionary relationships, timelines, etc. that I've ever seen. Fun to play with on your computer! When you zoom all the way out you see the "big picture", then as you zoom in you get progressively more detail. Eventually it gets down to info about each species, including conservation status. Currently the tree includes only tetrapods (reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals). Maybe someday they will be able to add plants, fish, fungi, insects, etc. http://www.onezoom.org/

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By the way, it's worth watching the tutorial video. It's short, and there are cool features you'd never guess at just by playing around by yourself.
Of course I had to zoom in on birds

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Passerines are about halfway up here

Image

Closer

Image

You can also switch to this way of viewing it. I'm more familiar with this representation, although you have to fight the impression that the things at the top of the tree are somehow "superior" to the ones lower down.

Image

After watching the tutorial I was able to type in the name of some favorite species and then watch an animation of "flying in" to view the tree closer and closer. I was expecting ravens to be at the tippy-top of the tree. But I guess just because they are the most intelligent birds doesn't mean they evolved the most recently!

You can also travel back in time and watch as the tree is pruned away to stubs. My new buddies the emus were pretty close to the trunk of the tree.

Image
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Re: Odd News II

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Yep. That's West Virginia. We're all about the bottle rockets.

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Re: Odd News II

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Us Illuminati love this kind of stuff.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/1 ... ostpopular
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Re: Odd News II

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... So it says "Wendy's Mom"?
That's pretty subversive, all right.
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Re: Odd News II

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One of the endearing - if that's the right word - aspects of Wendy's has always been that there is a real-live eponymous Wendy, founder Dave Thomas' daughter. But I noticed that within the past month or so, Wendy's TV advertising has replaced Wendy Thomas herself as spokeswoman with a young and perky (and obnoxious) redheaded actress. Presumably because, like many of us real people, Wendy has become a bit old and, er, plump. And, apparently, insufficiently rude to appeal to hipster burgerphages. How ... ironic.
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Re: Odd News II

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Further proof that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Literally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23729570
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trill
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Re: Odd News II

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Goodbye, poor literally. I knew you well . . .

Yech. Sure, it's fun to use as an intensive, but I don't like the dilution of the original meaning. In fact, without the original meaning, it really has no value as an intensive. Sounds like a kid calling a red crayon blue, just for the fun of it, and then demanding that everyone agree.
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Re: Odd News II

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burgerphages.
Terrific word.
Though that sounds like the greasiest supervillain ever. "I am the Burgerphage! Fear my ketchup-ray!"
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Re: Odd News II

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Voyager is sending the sounds of interstellar space

This was too awesome when this happened when we were in school, grade school, I might add. And to bring some context to the time, here is a quote from the article.

"Solar flares send shock waves through the plasma, causing particles to vibrate like a violin string, and those vibrations are picked up by Voyager’s antenna, recorded on an 8-track tape aboard the probe, and transmitted back to Earth."

There is an 8-track player on board and it's still working. Click click, click click.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... space.html
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