I believe today is National Grilled Cheese Day. Enjoy your favorite maybe with a bowl of tomato soup.
Another week into 2025m and the useless news just keeps coming.
Locally–Lots of rain and then clear skies and much cooler temps….it was a joy. Spring breakers are here this weekend and traffic will be horrendous…I will stay home.
Personal–I had my last radiation treatment yesterday…..doctor says all looks great and that I need reevaluation in 6 weeks….radiation is done (for now) but the infusions continue….and still no super powers.
I am still find it hard to process the loss of Sue….grief prevents me from handling the estate stuff that she entrusted to me….the canine companions (Mojave and Sahara) have bee a great source of support and joy in this time of loss.
Plus today is my granddaughter’s 22nd birthday…a great and thoughtful young lady.
Shall we move on to the ‘Dump’?
They say gravity is a bitch especially when launching our space stuff….if only we could overcome the forces of gravity….but wait.
In 2001, British Electrical Engineer Roger Shawyer first introduced the “impossible drive,” known as the EmDrive. It was called “impossible” because its creator purported that the drive was reactionless, meaning no propellant required—in other words, it defied the known laws of physics (specifically, the conservation of momentum).
As with anything that appears to thumb its nose at Newton and Einstein, scientists raised more than a few eyebrows, and two decades of testing eventually boiled down to an inevitable (and somewhat predictable) conclusion in 2021: the EmDrive was bunk. But that’s the nature of the scientific method—take a seemingly impossible idea, put it through rigorous testing, and hopefully get to an unassailable conclusion (or new discoveries that lead in other directions).
The not-based-in-physics dream of a propellant-less machine, however, didn’t die with the EmDrive. Instead, a new challenger approaches, and this one has a former NASA scientist backing it up.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a64323665/overcoming-earths-gravity/
Cooling without electricity…..
We’ve all felt the rising temperatures for the past few years. That oppressive heat radiating off concrete walls in the sun has been baking our skins, straining air conditioners, and swelling energy bills. But what if buildings could cool themselves, the way elephants do?
A team of scientists in Singapore has taken an unusual step in that direction. Drawing inspiration from elephant skin, they’ve created facade tiles out of fungi that can cool indoor spaces—no electricity required.
This creative setup hinges on mycelium, the dense root-like network that fungi use to explore the world around them. When combined with agricultural waste, this humble biological material becomes a natural insulator. Add the right texture—deep wrinkles, much like the folds in an elephant’s hide—and it does something remarkable.
Is this wishful thinking or will it truly work?
If you are one of those people that believe aliens will eventually attack the earth will there be any safe place to be?
If you’ve ever watched a sci-fi film about an alien invasion and wondered how you and your family would fare if something that fantastical ever happened—well, maybe it depends on where you live. Citing stats analyzed by the folks who run the online calculator site GIGAcalculator.com, Mental Floss peeks at the states that would be most likely to survive such an attack from otherworldly creatures, considering such factors as terrain, population density, and how many first responders and engineers there are per 1,000 people. The state most likely to make it through an ET incursion, based on the data? Virginia. Least likely? Nevada—ironically, the home of Area 51. Here are the states most likely to survive:
- Virginia
- Alabama
- Massachusetts
- New York
- Minnesota
- Florida
- Wisconsin
- North Carolina
- Alaska
- Georgia
Drill down deep into the ET stats here.
Maybe consider, if you are worried, moving to a ‘safe zone’.
Speaking of those damn ETs….
A bone-chilling document declassified by the CIA has exposed an alleged massacre by aliens from a crashed UFO who turned an entire military unit into stone.
According to the report, Soviet troops shot down a flying saucer hovering over the Soviet military unit in Siberia roughly 35 years ago, and what happened next was truly terrifying.
In the document, summarizing a 250-page top secret file acquired by US intelligence agents, eyewitnesses said five aliens climbed out of their wrecked craft, combined themselves into one creature, exploded in a burst of intense energy, and turned 23 soldiers into solid rock.
Is this a serious report?
Have you heard about the South Korean company that is planning to bring back the mastodon or is it the mammoth?
Well here is one for the books….
Colossal Biosciences says it’s achieved its first successful case of de-extinction in reviving the dire wolf, a top predator that roamed North America before going extinct about 13,000 years ago and later finding fame on Game of Thrones. Researchers at Colossal, which is working to revive various species from the woolly mammoth to the dodo bird, reconstructed the dire wolf’s genome with DNA taken from a 13,000-year-old tooth and 72,000-year-old skull, keying in on versions of genes not found in any other wolf relatives, per Live Science. They then made 20 edits in 14 genes of gray wolves, the closest living cousins to dire wolves, to give the animals features of their extinct cousins, including a wider head, larger teeth, and thick, pale coats.
Embryos were then created from the edited cells and implanted in surrogate dog mothers. Three healthy wolves resulted, according to Colossal. The team is calling it the “world’s first de-extinction,” though it comes more than 20 years after scientists revived the Pyrenean ibex, an extinct wild goat species, per Live Science. The goat lived only a few minutes. Colossal’s two male wolves, dubbed Romulus and Remus, are now six months old, while a female named Khaleesi is two months old, per the New York Times. They’re not exactly dire wolves, but “essentially a hybrid species similar in appearance to its extinct forerunner,” per CNN.
“Across the genome, this is 99.9% gray wolf,” Colossal adviser Love Dalén, a professor in evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University, tells CNN. But “it carries dire wolf genes, and these genes make it look more like a dire wolf than anything we’ve seen in the last 13,000 years.” Housed at a private 2,000-acre facility somewhere in the northern US, the wolves are “snowy white” and “reminiscent of Ghost,” Jon Snow’s dire wolf in Game of Thrones, Live Science reports. Footage shows Romulus and Remus taking their first steps, howling, and playing in the snow. In a statement, Colossal says it also produced four cloned red wolves, a critically endangered species with fewer than two dozen remaining in the wild, per ABC News.
If you listen close enough you can hear cattle rancher striking out.
This was the best story of the past week….Boris gets bitten….
Boris Johnson has been out of office for more than two years but the mishaps haven’t ended. The former British prime minister, who is vacationing in the US with his family, was pecked by an ostrich during a visit to a safari park in Texas, the Independent reports. Video shared on Instagram by his wife, Carrie, shows Johnson in a vehicle with his 4-year-old son on his lap. An ostrich approaches the car, then leans in to peck Johnson’s hand. “Oh cripes, f—— hell,” he shouts before driving off.
“Too funny not to share,” Carrie Johnson said. Johnson “has a history of finding himself at the centre of gaffes,” the Telegraph notes. In 2012, when he was mayor of London, he ended up stuck on a zipline while celebrating an Olympic gold medal for the UK. As prime minister in 2019, he lost control of a bull he was leading during a visit to a farm in Scotland.
I have found a new respect for the ostrich. How about you?
Finally a helpful IST household hint….for socks….
The world’s most hated chore might just be folding laundry. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and nearly impossible to do well. So, naturally, when it comes to putting away socks—usually the final summit to tackle in our mountain of freshly-washed clothes—it’s easier to simply bundle up our toe-huggers, toss them into a dark drawer, and call it a day. But, if you’re one of the many who store your socks like knitted baseballs, you’re probably making things harder on yourself in the long run.
Bundling your socks actually wears them out quicker, stretching the elastic in the cuff and thinning the material. If you’ve noticed your crew socks slipping down your ankles and getting lodged in the heel of your shoe after just a few outings, your method of folding and storing them could be the culprit.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/how-to-fold-your-socks
Save your socks…..you are welcome.
That does it for this Saturday’s edition …..go out and enjoy your weekend…..and as always….Be well and Be Safe….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”