#sarah kuta

[rank-sentimentalist]

#Sea Otter 841 #Smithsonian #Sarah Kuta #Otter 841 #surfboards

[quotesfromall]

Over the next two months, pet parrots made 147 deliberate video calls to other birds. Their owners took detailed notes about the calls and recorded more than 1,000 hours of video footage that the researchers analyzed. For starters, they found that the parrots took advantage of the opportunity to call one another, and they typically stayed on the call for the maximum time allowed during the experiment. They also seemed to understand that another live bird was on the other side of the screen, not a recorded bird, researchers say. Some of the parrots learned new skills from their virtual companions, including flying, foraging and how to make new sounds.

Sarah Kuta, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Other

#birdblr #parrotblr #animal rights #vegan #sarah kuta #kuta #scientists taught pet parrots to video call each other #Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Other—and the Birds Loved It #Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Other and the Birds Loved It #2023 #kuta 2023 #and the birds loved it #4/23/23

[quotesfrommyreading]

Polar bears in the Arctic Circle rely on sea ice to help them hunt for seals, their main source of food. But with warming temperatures brought on by human-caused climate change, that sea ice is melting sooner in the spring and freezing later in the fall, forcing the bears to go hungry for longer periods of time than they normally do.

Now, researchers have discovered a unique group of polar bears who’ve found an innovative way to survive in the absence of sea ice: By hunting from the ice that breaks off glaciers. The bears live in southeast Greenland and are a genetically distinct subpopulation, which suggests they’ve been isolated from other polar bears for around 200 years, according to a paper published this week in Science.

The findings offer a glimmer of hope for a species that, without intervention to halt climate change, will be trending towards extinction by the end of the decade. The researchers urged caution against extrapolating their findings to other populations of polar bears, who live in areas without glacial ice and are still increasingly threatened by the planet’s warming. The Arctic Ocean, research has found, is warming four times faster than the rest of the world.

“[The findings] show us how some polar bears might persist under climate change, but I don’t think glacier habitat is going to support huge numbers of polar bears,” Kristin Laidre, a polar research scientist at the University of Washington, tells CNN’s Ashley Strickland. “There’s just not enough of it. We still expect to see large declines in polar bears across the Arctic under climate change.”

  —  A Clever Population of Polar Bears Survives on Glacial Ice in Greenland

#sarah kuta #a clever population of polar bears survives on glacial ice in greenland #current events #environmentalism #global warming #climate change #ecology #wildlife conservation #animals #animal behaviour #meteorology #arctic circle #greenland #bears #polar bears #seals #ice #sea ice #glaciers

[deathwearshighheels]

Do Starter Homes Still Exist? Here’s What Real Estate Agents Have to Say https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/do-starter-homes-still-exist-37080207?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Category%2FChannel%3A+main

#Sarah Kuta by Apartment Therapy| Saving the world #one room at a time <img src="https://cdn.apartmen

[dinodorks]

[ Some of the approximately 75 dinosaur tracks discovered at the site. Photo courtesy of Paul Baker / Friends of Dinosaur Valley State Park. ]

"Drought has dried up part of a river in central Texas, revealing 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks. The prehistoric footprints emerged at Dinosaur Valley State Park, which is located in the town of Glen Rose, southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As the name suggests, the park already protects other dinosaur footprints. But the tracks that recently emerged are usually hidden under the mud, silt and waters of the Paluxy River. This summer, however, water levels have dipped so low that the prehistoric indentations are now visible. So far, volunteers have counted 75 newly exposed footprints in the parched riverbed. “It has been another very hot, very dry year, so our researchers are trying to take advantage of the drought,” says park superintendent Jeff Davis to the Dallas Morning News’ Sarah Bahari. Two different types of dinosaurs likely made the footprints, according to park officials. One was Acrocanthosaurus, a 15-foot-tall carnivore that weighed approximately 14,000 pounds. As the gargantuan reptile walked around the area on two legs, it left behind the outline of its three-toed feet. The other was Sauroposeidon proteles, which has been the official state dinosaur of Texas since 2009. This long-necked behemoth may have measured up to 100 feet long and weighed closer to 88,000 pounds. It left behind larger, bulbous-shaped tracks that are similar to elephant footprints."

Read more: "Drought Reveals 113-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks in Texas" by Sarah Kuta.

#palaeoblr #Dinosaur Valley State Park #Texas #Acrocanthosaurus #Sauroposeidon #Dinosaurs #Cretaceous #Mesozoic #Prehistoric #Extinct #Theropod #Sauropod #Sauroposeidon proteles #Trace fossil #Article #Photo

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Queer Books November 2023

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

❤️ The Pirate and the Porcelain Girl by Emily Riesbeck 🧡 Heading North by Holly M. Wendt 💛 The Wisdom of Bug by Alyson Root 💚 Trick Shot by Kayla Grosse 💙 A Holly Jolly Christmas by Emily Wright 💜 Outdrawn by Deanna Grey ❤️ Yours Celestially by Al Hess 🧡 The Christmas Memory by Barbara Winkes 💛 Violet Moon by Mel E. Lemon 💙 The Santa Pageant by Lillian Barry 💜 Only for the Holidays by Shannon O’Connor 🌈 Homestead for the Holidays by Wren Taylor

❤️ You Can Count on Me by Fae Quin 🧡 No One Left But You by Tash McAdam 💛 The Worst Thing of All is the Light by José Luis Serrano, Lawrence Schimel 💚 Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Sneed 💙 Wren Martin Ruins It All by Amanda DeWitt 💜 Emmett by L. C. Rosen ❤️ Finding My Elf by David Valdes 🧡 Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams 💛 Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng 💙 Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree 💜 A Power Unbound by Freya Marske 🌈 We Are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull

❤️ The Manor House Governess by C.A. Castle 🧡 You Owe Me One, Universe by Chad Lucas 💛 Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James 💚 Skip!: A Graphic Novel by Rebecca Burgess 💙 Something About Her by Clementine Taylor 💜 Touching the Art by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore ❤️ A Nearby Country Called Love by Salar Abdoh 🧡 Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us by Karen Tongson 💛 Sir Callie and the Dragon’s Roost by Esme Symes-Smith 💙 The Order of the Banshee by Robyn Singer 💜 Once Upon My Dads’ Divorce by Seamus Kirst, Noémie Gionet Landry 🌈 Forsooth by Jimmy Matejek-Morris

❤️ A Common Bond by T.M. Kuta 🧡 Risk the Fall by Riley Hart 💛 Just a Little Snack by Yah-Yah Scholfield 💚 Home for the Holidays by Erin Zak 💙 NeurodiVeRse by MJ James 💜 Dark Heir (Dark Rise #2) by C.S. Pacat ❤️ sub/Dom by Rab Green 🧡 Bitten by the Bond by Elaine White 💛 Heir to Frost and Storm by Ben Alderson 💙 The Sea of Stars by Gwenhyver 💜 Bad Beat by L.M. Bennett 🌈 Idol Moves by K.T. Salvo

❤️ Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa 🧡 In the Pines by Mariah Stillbrook 💛 The Crimson Fortress (The Ivory Key #2) by Akshaya Raman 💚 Only She Came Back by Margot Harrison 💙 Megumi & Tsugumi, Vol. 4 by Mitsuru Si 💜 Pritty by Keith F. Miller Jr. ❤️ Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfrid 🧡 An Atlas to Forever by Krystina Rivers 💛 Come Find Me in the Midnight Sun by Bailey Bridgewater 💙 Bait and Witch by Clifford Mae Henderson 💜 Shadow Baron by Davinia Evans 🌈 Day by Michael Cunningham

❤️ Livingston Girls by Briana Morgan 🧡 Delay of the Game by Ari Baran 💛 The Nanny with the Nice List by K. Sterling 💚 A Talent Ignited by Suzanne Lenoir 💙 A Kiss of the Siren’s Song by E.A.M. Trofimenkoff 💜 Rivals for Love by Ali Vali ❤️ Whiskey & Wine by Kelly Fireside, Tana Fireside 🧡 Buried Secrets by Sheri Lewis Wohl 💛 Ride with Me by Jenna Jarvis 💙 Living for You by Jenny Frame 💜 Death on the Water by CJ Birch 🌈 Merciless Waters by Rae Knowles

❤️ Vicarious by Chloe Spencer 🧡 Sapling’s Depths by Spencer Rose 💛 That French Summer by Sienna Waters 💚 System Overload by Saxon James 💙 King of Death by Lily Mayne 💜 Warts and All by Ashley Bennett ❤️ Principle Decisions by Thea Belmont 🧡 The Best Mistake by Emily O’Beirne 💛 Sugar and Ice by Eule Grey 💙 Until The Blood Runs Dry by MC Johnson 💜 Splinter : A Diverse Sleepy Hollow Retelling by Jasper Hyde 🌈 The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q by Felicia Davin

❤️ The Queer Girl is Going to be Okay by Dale Walls 🧡 Til Death Do Us Bard by Rose Black 💛 Leverage by E.J. Noyes 💚 Alice Sadie Celine by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright 💙 Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon 💜 Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher ❤️ To Kill a Shadow by Katherine Quinn 🧡 Warrior of the Wind by Suyi Davies Okungbowa 💛 For Never & Always by Helena Greer 💙 A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sally Hawley 💜 Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 8 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù 🌈 A Carol for Karol by Ann Roberts

#book release #queer fiction #queer romance #queer books #queer #books #books to read #queer book recs #book recs #batty about books #battyaboutbooks

[blueiskewl]

Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2024 'Peach Fuzz'

The gentle, pinkish-orange hue was chosen to reflect a collective desire for respite

A soft, pinkish-orange hue called “Peach Fuzz” is Pantone’s pick for the 2024 color of the year, the company announced last week.

Officially called “Pantone 13-1023 Peach Fuzz,” the color is “velvety,” “gentle” and “subtly sensual,” according to the design and color authority.

Pantone is best known for its color-matching system, created in the 1960s, that numbers and organizes hues with a distinct chip format. The company also runs the Pantone Color Institute, which selects the color of the year and conducts color trend forecasting research.

This year’s choice “echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, in a statement.

“We chose a color radiant with warmth and modern elegance,” she adds. “A shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless.”

Peach Fuzz is Pantone’s 25th color of the year. The annual announcements began in 1999 to “engage the design community and color enthusiasts around the world in a conversation around color,” per a statement from Laurie Pressman, the Pantone Color Institute’s vice president.

Every year, a team of color experts examines movies, art, fashion, design, travel destinations, technologies and more to figure out which colors are influencing the world in the current moment. They also use forecasting tools, color psychology research and other sources to predict upcoming trends. From all that research, they narrow down the options to just one color that they feel sets the tone for the year ahead.

Peach Fuzz is less bold than last year’s choice, a bright, pink-red shade called “Viva Magenta.” But the world felt different in 2023, when Pantone “celebrated coming out of the malaise of the last year,” as Eiseman tells CNN’s Leah Dolan. Viva Magenta was intended to evoke verve, power and grace as the world emerged from the pandemic and continued to grapple with social unrest, as NPR’s Rachel Treisman wrote last year.

Heading into 2024, however, Peach Fuzz “arrives at a dark time amid a tumultuous war and a tense election year,” as Angelica Villa writes for ARTnews. The more muted hue is meant to reflect the “need for some quiet, some peace, some respite,” Eiseman tells CNN.

Where will Peach Fuzz show up in 2024? Rugs, wallpaper, fabric, makeup, tea and more—which are all examples of products released in conjunction with Pantone’s announcement. The color is already showing up in fashion, with celebrities like Taylor Swift and the Rock wearing Peach Fuzz to various events, notes USA Today’s Emily DeLetter.

“It feels like another rediscovered neutral that’s meant to seep its way into every surface of our lives,” said Jeremy Allen, the art director for the New York Times Styles Desk, in a conversation with colleagues.

By Sarah Kuta.

#Peach Fuzz #Pantone 13-1023 Peach Fuzz #Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2024 'Peach Fuzz' #Pantone’s 25th color of the year #Pantone Color Institute #color #colorful #style #design #art #artist #art work #art world #art news #pink #pretty in pink

[unes3creations]

Nordic starter kitchen

Kitchen I build in one of my homes - you can get it on the gallery under Unes3

CC used :

1 - Ung999 - Kitchen Jen Refrigerator

2 - Ung999 - Kitchen Jen Counter

3 - SYB - Manon Trashbin

4 - Sundays - Kuta Kitchen Sink

5 - Minc - Jae Builit Induction Cook Top

6 - Ung999 - Living Kara Wall Shelf

7 - MXIMS - Sarah R Bock Clock

8 - Leo Sims - Farmhouse Kitchen Scale

9 - KKB - Kitchen Utensils 3 Pot Set

10 - KKB - Kitchen Utensils 2 Kitchen Towel

11 - Wondymoon - Rhodeus Refrigerator Cabinet

12 - KKB - Posters 2

13 - Novvvas - Random Kitchen Chopping Boards

14 - Leo Sims - Harleigh Mandarin Pot

15 - Leo Sims - Grocery Bag

16 - Pinkbox Anye - Farmhouse Pumpkins

#ts4 #sims 4 #unes3 #ts4 screenshots #unes3creations #s4 screenshots #cc finds #modern #kitchen #cc room #minimal #nordic

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Sarah Kuta

September 20, 2023

Tetris is one of the world’s best-selling video games and even the subject of a recent film — but the beloved 1980s digital puzzle may also help improve your mental health.

More specifically, psychologists are studying whether playing Tetris can help reduce the number of flashbacks or intrusive memories people have after a traumatic experience, such as sexual assault, a car accident, combat, a natural disaster, or a difficult childbirth.

Most people — roughly 70 percent — have had some traumatic experience in their lives.

But only a small fraction of the population, around 4 percent, will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosable psychological issue with symptoms ranging from sleep disturbances to self-destructive behaviors.

But whether trauma leads to full-blown PTSD or not, painful memories can spring to mind without warning.

Flashbacks are not only emotionally distressing, but they can also make it difficult to concentrate, which can lead to problems at work or school.

These intrusive memories often pop up as a picture or a short movie in our mind’s eye.

Against this backdrop, British psychologist Emily Holmes wondered if she could reduce the number of flashbacks people had by giving their brains a competing image to focus on shortly after they experienced trauma, while their memories were still forming.

The painful recollection would still exist, it just wouldn’t intrude as often.

“The human mind isn’t like a video camera — it doesn’t just immediately record everything we’ve experienced,” says Emily Holmes, a psychology professor at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden.

“It actually takes some time, possibly hours, before a memory gets solidified into mind. What we were interested in was: Is there something we can do as the memory is still consolidating that would help it not become a flashback?”

A ‘cognitive vaccine’

Her team began testing an array of visuospatial tasks that involve generating or manipulating images in the mind’s eye, such as imagining a constellation or tapping out a complex pattern.

One day, a student suggested they try a video game — and Tetris became the obvious answer.

“It involves colors, it involves space because you’re having to move blocks around to complete lines and, critically, it requires you to rotate the shapes in your mind’s eye,” Holmes says.

“You really have to use your mental imagery skills because you’re trying to fit the blocks into the right place.”

They started to experiment with Tetris — first, in the lab, by showing participants a traumatic film and, later, in the real world, by meeting with people in hospital emergency departments who’d just been in car accidents.

In both settings, people who played Tetris within hours of the trauma experienced significantly fewer flashbacks over the course of the next week compared to those who didn’t.

(58 percent fewer in the film study, and 62 percent fewer in the car accident study)

Based on the promising results of this proactive, preventative approach — which Holmes describes as being like a “cognitive vaccine” — they next turned their attention to established memories.

“The reality is, we’re not going to be able to get to most people within a few hours of a traumatic event occurring,” she says.

“People can have intrusive memories for years or decades, so clearly we need to do something for those older memories.”

In one study, Holmes’ team asked people receiving treatment for PTSD to focus on a specific flashback while playing Tetris for 25 minutes once a week for several weeks.

By the end of the experiment, participants saw a 64 percent reduction in the number of times that specific memory popped up, as well as an 11 percent reduction in memories they hadn’t targeted.

In another study, they worked with intensive care unit nurses who had established intrusive memories — including many that were more than three months old — of traumatic events from the COVID-19 pandemic.

After four weeks, nurses who played Tetris experienced one-tenth the number of intrusive memories compared to those who did not play.

They also reported improvements in other symptoms, such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression.

Overall, nurses who played Tetris saw a 73 to 78 percent reduction in flashbacks.

As Holmes points out, there’s probably nothing special about Tetris specifically.

She suspects any task with high visuospatial demands — like drawing, doing a jigsaw puzzle, or making mosaics — might achieve similar results.

However, tasks that are verbally distracting, like doing a crossword or reading, probably wouldn’t work as well.

Tetris as a coping tool

Importantly, in their experiments, researchers aren’t just handing over a Game Boy and telling people to start playing Tetris.

Rather, they first ask participants to call to mind a particularly bad piece of a memory, called a hotspot.

Then, during gameplay, they instruct patients to mentally rotate the shapes, called tetrominoes, in their mind’s eye before they fall into the field of play.

They also ensure participants play Tetris for a sufficient length of time, usually between 10 and 20 minutes.

So far, all of their work has involved this procedure, which the researchers suspect is important to achieving results.

“Historically, intrusive memories of trauma are quite difficult to treat because they’re stuck in your mind for a reason — your brain’s gone into red alert and is trying to keep you safe,” says Holmes.

“They’re just really tricky things to alter. So if you’re just playing a game, it may help take your mind off things or reduce distress, but it might not help stop the flashbacks from intruding in the future.”

Still, playing Tetris on your own, without following the research procedure, likely won’t hurt you — and it may even help you feel better.

Canadian therapist Morgan Pomells recommends it to her clients as a coping tool for soothing feelings of anxiety or hyperarousal.

She doesn’t use Tetris during therapy sessions but, rather, suggests it as a potential option for moments when distressing memories or mental images arise during daily life.

“It’s one of the tools in the toolbox,” she says.

“A lot of people find it to be really helpful, especially people who have a really visual element to some of the symptoms they experience.

Turning to Tetris and being able to really sink into that game, even just for a couple minutes, allows them to feel a little safer and it really quiets their minds.

And when they resurface, they’re in a calmer state and actually able to take stock of their surroundings.”

However, Pomells cautions, Tetris or any other type of coping tool is not a substitute for seeing a therapist.

Holmes echoes that sentiment, adding that people who are suffering from flashbacks should first seek evidence-based treatment from a healthcare provider.

While Tetris may eventually become an evidence-based treatment itself, right now, researchers are still in the early stages of gathering clinical evidence.

“This is more of a journey of curiosity,” says Holmes.

Additional clinical studies are underway now. In the future, researchers also hope to test the long-term effects of Tetris on flashbacks, as well as understand what’s actually happening in the brain.

More broadly, they want to see if Tetris is effective at reducing intrusive memories related to other conditions beyond trauma, such as substance abuse disorders and depression.

“Mental images can haunt people in a variety of forms and I think it’s a real scientific challenge of the future,” says Holmes.

“It’s like being a physicist some centuries ago. We’ve just started to see the stars and planets, now we’ve got to go explore them.”

Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer.

It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s.

After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, the rights reverted to Pajitnov in 1996, who co-founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.

—

Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian computer engineer and video game designer who is best known for creating, designing, and developing Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).

#Tetris #video games #mental health #mental heath awareness #mental heath support #1980s #80s #20th century #digital puzzle #traumatic experience #trauma #post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) #PTSD #flashbacks #memories #psychology #cognitive vaccine #Game Boy #Alexey Pajitnov #puzzle video game #Nintendo #Tetris Company #Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov

[xumoonhao]

what i read in august 2023 💖

(entries marked with an * indicate favourites)

{articles in green are short reads [2-10 minutes]; articles in yellow are medium [11-25 minutes]; articles in red are long [longer than 25 minutes].}

ONLINE ARTICLES

“Orange Is the New Black” Signalled the Rot Inside the Streaming Economy by Michael Schulman | The New Yorker

* The Trans Son Of Anti-Trans Influencer Tania Joy Gibson Speaks Out by Christopher Mathias | Huffington Post

Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Other—and the Birds Loved It by Sarah Kuta | Smithsonian Mag

How People Sentenced to Life in Prison Made Their Case for Release by Issie Lapowsky and Abdul Kircher | The New York Times

A Light Under the Door by Matthew Eng | Hazlitt

“Girl Dinner” and “Hot Girl Walks” Aren’t TikTok Trends, They’re Marketing Campaigns by Rebecca Jennings | Vox

What Is Narcissism? Science Confronts a Widely Misunderstood Phenomenon by Diana Kwon | Scientific American

There are Complex Reasons for Our Dire Wildfires, but Scientists Say Climate Change Plays Key Role by Bethany Lindsay | CBC News

It’s Never Too Late for Siblings to Change Their Relationship by Angela Chen | The Atlantic

What Separates Highly Creative People by Brian Gallagher | Nautilus

Your Clothes Don’t Fit. Here’s Why by Elizabeth Endicott | The New York Times

Hollywood’s Strikes Illuminate Something Crucial About the Present—and Future—of Art by Aaron Bady | Slate

Why Some People Struggle With Procrastination by Lauren Geall | Stylist

BOOKS

Divine Rivals (The Letters of Enchantment Duology #1) by Rebecca Ross (2023) ★★⋆ 2.5/5

* Timekeeper (The Timekeeper Series #1) by Tara Sim (2016) ★★★★ 4/5

The Magdalen Girls by V.S. Alexander (2016) ★★★★ 4/5

reader apps: pocket | omnivore my storygraph

#finally read a few more articles this month :o also all fiction books omg.....tho the magdalen girls was historical fiction so #still a bit nonfiction-y!! that one was vvv sad tho. if you do read it please look up trigger warnings for it bc its very :((( #also hi linking the things i use to read articles and review books <3 #reading list #🎆.txt

[jalonsoarevalo]

un distrito escolar de Iowa utilizó inteligencia artificial para determinar qué libros prohibir en las bibliotecas escolares,

Sarah Kuta. «Why This School District Used A.I. to Help Determine Which Books to Ban». Smithsonian Magazine. Accedido 16 de abril de 2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-this-school-district-used-ai-to-help-remove-library-books-180982762/. El Distrito Escolar de la Comunidad de Mason City de Iowa utilizó inteligencia artificial para determinar qué libros prohibir en las…

View On WordPress

#Bibliotecas escolares #Censura #Estados Unidos #Inteligencia artificial

[historyinthemakingamazingfinds]

England’s Beloved Sycamore Gap Tree Has Been Chopped Down

Authorities arrested a 16-year-old boy on Thursday in connection with the felling

September 29, 2023 2:32 p.m.

Tree chopped down next to Hadrian's Wall

The beloved tree was one of the most photographed in the United Kingdom. Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

For centuries, the Sycamore Gap tree stood near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, where it had been growing in a large dip in the rolling landscape. But on Thursday morning, the beloved tree’s crown was discovered lying on one side of the wall, while its stump stood on the other.

Based on the appearance of the stump, officials say the perpetrator likely used a chainsaw. “We have reason to believe it has been deliberately felled,” according to a statement from the Northumberland National Park Authority.

Later in the day, police arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the incident. Officials say he is in police custody and “assisting officers with their inquiries,” according to the Associated Press.

When Jamie Driscoll, mayor of the North of Tyne Combined Authority, visited the site on Thursday, he was struck by how skillfully the cuts had been made. “It requires an awful lot of premeditation to do something like that,” he tells the New York Times’ Jenny Gross. “This is not just young, stupid drunk people keying someone’s car.”

The Sycamore Gap tree is one of the most photographed trees in the United Kingdom, reports the Guardian’s Robyn Vinter. It’s also known as “the Robin Hood Tree” because it appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. In 2016, the conservation charity Woodland Trust named it “English tree of the year.”

The tree meant so much to locals and tourists that it’s been the site of marriage proposals, picnics and many other happy moments; some have also had their ashes scattered there, as Driscoll writes on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“It’s part of our collective soul,” he adds.

The tree is also a favorite subject of photographers, including Sophie Henderson, who lives in nearby County Durham. She recently captured the tree amid the glow of the northern lights. She even used the tree in the logo for her photography business.

“I know a lot of people will say, ‘It’s just a tree,’ but it’s so much more,” she tells the Times. “It makes me so angry and upset that somebody would do such a thing to something that’s so special to so many people.”

Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the felling. Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images

Still, authorities are urging onlookers to “let justice take its course,” as Kim McGuinness, the Northumbria police and crime commissioner, says in a statement, per the Northumberland Gazette’s Ian Smith.

“Sycamore Gap was a place of happy and moving memories for millions of people,” she adds.

The Roman army built Hadrian’s Wall after the emperor Hadrian visited Britain around 122 C.E. An estimated 15,000 men spent at least six years constructing the defensive fortification, which marked the Roman Empire’s northwest boundary.

The wall spans 73 miles—all the way across what is now northern England—and is made primarily of stone and turf. It’s dotted with observation towers and forts, which Roman soldiers used to keep an eye out for intruders.

Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

[projectourworld]

To manage overwhelming tourist numbers, Venice will begin charging some visitors a fee on high-traffic days next year, reports Reuters’ Keith Weir.

Though public officials are still working out all the details, the fee will be €5 (about $5.35) for tourists over age 14 who are visiting the historic Italian city for the day. If all goes according to plan, Venice will charge the fee on 30 specific days in 2024, likely over holiday weekends or on weekends during the peak summer tourism season.

By Sarah Kuta | Smithsonian Magazine #combating #overtourism

[quotesfrommyreading]

When temporary ice sheets form on the ocean during each fall’s freeze, the bears walk across it in search of food, often by sitting next to gaps in the ice and waiting for seals to come up for air. When the ice melts in the spring thaw, polar bears typically survive between 100 and 180 days without food until the ice forms again, reports Live Science’s Harry Baker. As temperatures rise, however, that fasting period is becoming longer, which is harming the bears and pushing them toward starvation.

The bears living in southeast Greenland go even longer without sea ice—around 250 days. But they’ve been able to continue hunting during that period by using glacial mélange, or chunks of ice that break off from glaciers into the water.

Researchers had long known about the southeast Greenland bears because of indigenous knowledge and historical records. But until now they hadn’t studied these bears’ genetics and behavior. Scientists studied 36 years of GPS collar tracking data, tissue samples, helicopter observations and other data to get a fuller picture of the polar bears. Though exact numbers were hard to estimate, they suspect there are around 300 individuals in this group, per Live Science.

[…]

And though the southeast Greenland bears have adapted to survive in their surroundings, rising temperatures may ultimately cause their glacial ice to shrink, too. As Steve Armstrup, a scientist with Polar Bears International who was not involved in the study, tells the New York Times’ Henry Fountain, the study “is not some kind of salvation for polar bears.” While the southeast Greenland bears are able to hunt via glacial ice today, he says, “going into the future, that will change unless we arrest the rise of global greenhouse gases.”

  —  A Clever Population of Polar Bears Survives on Glacial Ice in Greenland

#sarah kuta #a clever population of polar bears survives on glacial ice in greenland #current events #environmentalism #global warming #climate change #ecology #wildlife conservation #animals #animal behaviour #meteorology #arctic circle #greenland #bears #polar bears #seals #ice #sea ice #glaciers

[dinodorks]

"A team of Spanish and Portuguese paleontologists uncovered G. morellensis’remains while working at the Sant Antoni de la Vespa fossil site between 2005 and 2008. The region, which is located near the city of Morella in eastern Spain, has produced numerous dinosaur fossils. But researchers say many more remain buried, and further excavations could help reveal even more about its past. “Here in this region, we say that ‘tota pedra fa paret’—every stone makes a wall—and this stone is helping to build the paleontological wall, because it is big,” says study co-author José Miguel Gasulla, a paleontologist at Spain’s National University of Distance Education (UNED), to El País’ María Pitarch. They discovered vertebrae, leg bones and foot bones, which they believe belonged to at least three separate G. morellensis individuals. These sets of remains likely date to the Early Cretaceous period, which spanned roughly 145 million to 100.5 million years ago. The foot bones were especially noteworthy, as paleontologists unearthed “two almost complete and articulated feet,” which is “particularly rare in the geological record,” Mocho says in a statement. They can’t tell exactly how large G. morellensis could have grown. But they do know from the creatures’ bones that it was massive: Some of the vertebrae they discovered were 3.3 feet wide, and one of the femurs was 6.6 feet long. According to their estimates, these dinosaurs may have been 33 feet tall and likely ate between 66 and 88 pounds of vegetation each day, per El País. The dinosaur’s name is also a nod to its colossal size, as well as the geography of the region, according to the statement. Garumbatitan means “the giant of the Garumba” and refers to Muela de la Garumba, a mountain peak in the Els Ports region of Spain near where the fossils were discovered. Morellensis, meanwhile, is a reference to the nearby city of Morella."

Read more: "New ‘Giant’ Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Discovered in Spain" by Sarah Kuta.

#palaeoblr #Palaeontology #Paleontology #Dinosaur #Fossils #Garumbatitan #Garumbatitan morellensis #Cretaceous #Mesozoic #Sauropod #Prehistoric #Extinct #Article #Photo #Information

[biglisbonnews]

Wonder Is Everywhere: Civil War Gold, a New Moai, and More From Around the Web Every other week, Atlas Obscura drags you down some of the rabbit holes we encounter as we search for our unusual stories. We highlight surprising finds, great writing, and inspiring stories from some of our favorite publications. The Mystery of Salvador Dalí's "Visions" by Jacqui Palumbo, CNN.com As curators at the Art Institute of Chicago prepared for an exhibit on Salvador Dalí, they began to worry that one of the paintings in the museum's collection had been incorrectly attributed to the celebrated Surrealist. Their search for the truth led to the discovery of a hidden portrait and a forgotten mural. The Turkish and Syrian Heritage Lost in the Recent Earthquakes by Arie Amaya-Akkermans, The Art Newspaper In the aftermath of two of the largest earthquakes ever to hit the Eastern Mediterranean, as Turkey and Syria struggle to house survivors, recover those still missing, and mourn the dead, the full scope of the the damage to the region's heritage sites is also becoming clear. Among the hardest hit sites: Gaziantep Castle, built in the second millennium B.C. Inside the FBI’s Secretive Search for Civil War–Era Gold in Pennsylvania by Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press In March 2018, the FBI went digging for Union gold believed to have been lost or stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1863. A federal judge has now ordered the public release of records pertaining to the treasure hunt. The secret is that it isn't over—the FBI says it never found the booty. Did a Giant Ancient Fish Unearthed in South Africa Prey on Human Ancestors? by Sascha Pare, LiveScience Researchers have identified a new species of giant tristichopterid: Hyneria udlezinye, a name derived from "one who consumes" in IsiXhosa, an Indigenous language in South Africa. The voracious predator fish, which lived about 350 million years ago, measured up to nine feet long, and had both fangs and an appetite for tetrapods. "The tristichopterids evolved into monsters that, in all likelihood, ate [our ancestors]," one scientist said. Two Antlers in a Vietnamese Museum Are Actually Ancient Musical Instruments Artnet When they were found in the 1990s, these two 2,000-year-old antlers were consider simply well-preserved specimens from a long-dead Sambar deer or an Indian hog deer. Now researchers have determined they are also the earliest-known stringed instruments from the region. They were perhaps played like a k’ný, a modern single-string Vietnamese instrument known as a "mouth violin." This 500-Year-Old Nordic Shipwreck Still Has a Fully-Stocked Pantry by Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine When Gribshunden sank in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden in 1495, it was carrying coveted foods and spices, meant as a diplomatic offering from King Hans of Denmark and Norway to the people of Sweden, whom he hoped would make him king of that country as well. Archaeologists have found evidence of 40 different types of fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts, and cereals in the wreck—including 13 ounces of saffron, which has, remarkably, retained its distinctive aroma for 527 years. A New Moai Statue Was Discovered on Rapa Nui by Angeline Jane Bernabe, Erin Brady, Faryn Shiro, and Robyn Weil, Good Morning America Nearly 1,000 moai—human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people centuries ago—have been found on the Polynesian island that shares the name of the people (also known as Easter Island). The newest find, the smallest known, was discovered in a now-dry lake bed on the island, which is dealing with the effects of climate change. The Two Brothers Who Made Helped Preserve Scores of Black Landmarks by Nick Tabor, Washington Post The Washington, D.C., home of Charlotte Forten Grimké—educator, abolitionist, activist, and poet—is just one of 67 Black history sites that became National Historic Landmarks in the 1970s thanks to the research and advocacy of Vincent deForest and his late brother Robert DeForrest, who founded the Afro-American Bicentennial Corp. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wonder-is-everywhere-march-1

#April White #Atlas Obscura