Weird & Interesting science

[Star Ranger4]

ah. Okay, so not 'Getting it' means I might or might not be safe from San Loss.

[DHBirr]

ah.  Okay, so not 'Getting it' means I might or might not be safe from San Loss.

It was Edgar Allan Poe's almost a hundred years before Lovecraft used it.  But Lovecraft mentioned Poe's usage, so he didn't plagiarize.  Instead he implied that Poe knew something about the Mythos, information he found in some "quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore."  In both cases it deals with something weird in the Antarctic region.

[Norgarth]

well, this is 'fun', a new species of giant centipede from SE Asia, which is amphibious (the first amphibious centipede discovered)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/...w-species/

[classicdrogn]

Just when your players thought it was safe to go back in the water!

(The only TPK that ever happened to a group I was part of happened at the mandibles of giant centipedes, so it's always the first thing I think of when they come up...)

[robkelk]

Scientists discover fossils of giant parrot

Comparison artwork: "Reconstruction of the giant parrot Heracles, dwarfing a bevy of 8-cm-high Kuiornis, small New Zealand wrens scuttling about on the forest floor. (Brian Choo/Flinders University)"



Whatever Polly wants, Polly can bloody well have!

[classicdrogn]

Alas, it is an ex-parrot.

[Bob Schroeck]

And I'm suddenly picturing it with a tiny pirate on its shoulder.

[robkelk]

Looks like this is the month for giant-bird-fossil stories.

Fossils of giant, human-sized penguin found by amateur fossil hunter

[DHBirr]

Looks like this is the month for giant-bird-fossil stories.

Fossils of giant, human-sized penguin found by amateur fossil hunter

Oh, dear. I'm beginning to regret my Lovecraftian wisecrack of two weeks ago....

For it was only a penguin — albeit of a huge, unknown species larger than the greatest of the known king penguins, and monstrous in its combined albinism and virtual eyelessness.

— At the Mountains of Madness, H. P. Lovecraft

Y'think I may've invoked something, accidental-like?

[Star Ranger4]

Looks like this is the month for giant-bird-fossil stories.

Fossils of giant, human-sized penguin found by amateur fossil hunter

Oh, dear. I'm beginning to regret my Lovecraftian wisecrack of two weeks ago....

For it was only a penguin — albeit of a huge, unknown species larger than the greatest of the known king penguins, and monstrous in its combined albinism and virtual eyelessness.

— At the Mountains of Madness, H. P. Lovecraft

Y'think I may've invoked something, accidental-like?

You seem far too coherent and rational to have done it on Purpose D.H.  *thhhhbbbbpppppttttt*

[RMH999]

People who eat the same amount of calories and exercise the same amount as the 1980's are 2.3 BMI larger today than the 80's.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-i...ket-newtab

Abstract of the actual scientific article
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...3X15001210

[RMH999]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23005-1

Cockroaches can be magnetized. Live cockroaches demagnetize much faster than dead cockroaches (50 min avg vs 47 hours).

[Labster]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23005-1

Cockroaches can be magnetized.  Live cockroaches demagnetize much faster than dead cockroaches (50 min avg vs 47 hours).

That was one of this year's Ig Nobel Prize winners, taking the laurel in Biology.

My fav was the Psychology award, to Fritz Strack, "for discovering that holding a pen in one's mouth makes one smile, which makes one happier—and for then discovering that it does not."

[robkelk]

National University of Singapore researchers report that daily consumption of tea halves the risk of cognitive decline in older people.

(Yes, of course this is on a British website.)

[Bob Schroeck]

<goes and reads> Ooh, cool. I'm well past the 25-year-mark...

[robkelk]

Why did the female orgasm evolve? Experiment supports theory

[Black Aeronaut]

It's a good start, but I feel like they're missing something glaringly obvious.

Simply, when you have a biological process that is critical to the survival of the species, then it's highly likely that evolution is gonna go in the direction that the process winds up being a pleasurable experience. Just like how we now have a problem with obesity - fattening foods were incredibly scarce in the wilds, so we evolved to seek that stuff out like a homing missile on a SAM site. Same applies to sex - survival of the species = having lots of babies. What to do? Make the most critical part of reproduction pleasurable.

So, while orgasm may have started out as a mechanism to trigger ovulation, it likely stuck around because the individuals that had the most pleasurable sensations were more driven to copulate as much as possible. Which means more babies. Which means that trait got passed on more than any other involving reproduction.

I read somewhere that the evolution of human reproduction is particularly complex - it was almost like an arms race between the sexes. When females evolved discreet periods with "spontaneous" cycles instead of a seasonal heat/estrus, males evolved to have semen loaded with all kinds of hormones like testosterone, progesterone, and a whole lot of others that wind up promoting female fertility in all kinds of ways (increased sex drive, more regular ovulations, better health in general).

[robkelk]

Who's got the most moons in the Solar System?

That we know about, that is.

Nope, not Jupiter...

[RMH999]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...9618308221

Crime drops 4% in US cities on high allergy days.

[hazard]

Not entirely surprising; it's not as if criminals aren't just as susceptible to allergies or to taking care of family members with allergies.

[robkelk]

Hey, folks, how old is the Periodic Table this year?

Yea, that's a nice round number, isn't it?

So... Elements, one at a time. They're nowhere near finished the series.

[Star Ranger4]

which prompts me to reply with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW50F42ss8

[classicdrogn]

I'd have put this in the Epic Quotes thread in OPF, but since it's my own post that would be kind of gauche. All you need for context is that the high chemical reactivity of oxygen and hydrogen came up in a typical SB thread derail, really.

"And that's why water is such a good solvent - at any particular time only part of it is the familiar, wholesome, family-freindly mickey-mouse molecule from junior high science classes. The rest lurks in various more predatory combinations, on the prowl to plunder some unsuspecting schoolmolecule's electrons, or shoot its own all over the gaps in their outer layer. DHMO: It's not just an environmental hazard, it's more rapey than ducks!"

e: and Pyrotech replied
What water really looks like:

[robkelk]

Ceres might not be the smallest dwarf planet

The ESO has photos that indicate 10 Hygiea is round.

[robkelk]

2014 MU69 has a name now

You've probably seen a photo of it - New Horizons did a flyby at the beginning of this year.