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Science (General/Chat)

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet R3 PanSTARRS Through Time

    06/08/2026 11:41:17 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 4 replies
    NASA ^ | 8 Jun, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Jakub Kuřák & Martin Mašek (FZU of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
    Explanation: What happens to a comet as it leaves our inner Solar System? Now, the arrival of a comet into the inner Solar System is typically heralded with great fanfare and high hopes that the comet will become bright and photogenic. But on the way out, the comet's nucleus is less warmed by the Sun, less gas and dust are expelled, the bright coma around the nucleus shrinks and fades, and the tail length drops off. Many comets will then return to the outer Solar System and only return in hundreds or thousands of years. In contrast, some comets --...
  • The Most IMPOSSIBLE Sculpture EVER Created [8:56]

    06/08/2026 9:34:12 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 23 replies
    YouTube ^ | May 6, 2026 | Marmoreo
    Michelangelo's Pietà showcases a level of artful mastery that beggars belief, especially considering he was only 24. This piece pushes the boundaries of amazing skills, making us question the very nature of human creativity. Join us as we explore this incredible work and what it reveals about the artist's genius, offering a unique perspective on art history. Giuseppe San Martino crafted this marble masterpiece in 18th-century Naples, challenging viewers to distinguish stone from fabric. While legends suggest alchemical secrets behind its creation, historical records offer a different perspective. Marmoreo explores the artistic techniques and theological questions surrounding this profound work...
  • 80 Medieval Swords Discovered Beneath a River | Medieval Dead Season 3 Episode 3 [44:29]

    06/07/2026 10:27:05 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 15 replies
    YouTube ^ | June 3, 2026 | Ancient History
    The final catastrophe of the Hundred Years War ended in 1453 with the total annihilation of Sir John Talbot’s English army at Castillon, but an extraordinary discovery made over five centuries later has rewritten the final moments of this medieval tragedy. Based on the authentic records from the file captions, this episode investigates the stunning 1974 retrieval of approximately 80 elite medieval swords from the mud of the Dordogne River -- a find originally kept under rigid Cold War secrecy by the French Navy. By dismantling the long -- accepted myth of defeated soldiers frantically dropping their weapons in flight,...
  • How to solve Corpus Christi and Austin water supply issues forever at under $7 billion in bonds.

    06/07/2026 3:11:46 PM PDT · by GenXPolymath · 41 replies
    Self | June, 7th 2026 | GenXpolymath
    Felt cute this morning hit the modeling software, ESRI, and thought why not solve Corpus Christi and Austin water supply issues forever for under $7 billion and a Capex return of 24 months in it's base config. The Japanese built past tense ABWR reactors in 39 months from ground breaking till first critical. Here is my summary report to the Texas Water Dev Board. Should I present it next time I am standing in their office in Austin. ## EXECUTIVE BRIEFING & PROJECT PROPOSAL To: The Board of Directors, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) Project Title: The Texas Multi-Energy Hydronic...
  • NYC rejects permits for MSG’s outdoor Knicks watch party for Game 3 of NBA Finals

    06/07/2026 1:58:54 PM PDT · by Libloather · 15 replies
    NY Post ^ | 6/07/26 | Larry Celona, Marisa Schultz, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
    The city pulled the plug on a planned Knicks watch party outside Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals Monday night with President Trump expected to be in the house. The move comes as security for the game will be amped up with TSA-level surveillance and scrutiny – and widespread street and sidewalk closures around the arena, officials said. “The permit for the Plaza33 Game 3 watch party was denied by the city’s permitting office in consultation with the NYPD,” an MSG spokesperson said in a statement to The Post. “However, the White House will confirm that...
  • Dwight Eisenhower's Son Talks About D-Day [53:50]

    06/07/2026 1:32:55 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 21 replies
    YouTube ^ | June 6, 2026 | C-SPAN's American History TV
    John Eisenhower, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General and son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, talked about his father's role as Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He also spoke about President Eisenhower's relationships with American and British generals and how Eisenhower compromised with Allied nations to bring World War II in Europe to an end. Dwight Eisenhower's Son Talks About D-Day | 53:50 C-SPAN's American History TV | 56.1K subscribers | 3,691 views | June 6, 2026
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Jupiter and Venus from Earth

    06/07/2026 11:50:07 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | 7 Jun, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Marek Nikodem (PPSAE)
    Explanation: It was visible around the world. The sunset conjunction of Jupiter (left) and Venus (right) in 2012 was visible almost no matter where you lived on Earth. Anyone on our planet with a clear western horizon at sunset could see them. That year, a creative photographer traveled away from the town lights of Szubin, Poland to photograph a near closest approach of the two planets. The bright planets were then separated by only three degrees and his daughter struck a humorous pose. A faint red sunset still glowed in the background. Jupiter and Venus are together again this week...
  • African figurines found in Israel reveal unexpected cultural connections

    06/07/2026 4:26:34 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 28 replies
    Heritage Daily ^ | May 14, 2025 | Mark Milligan
    Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Cologne University have made an unexpected discovery in Israel's Negev Desert: carved figurines with apparent African origins.The figurines were uncovered during excavations at Tel Malhata, an elliptical-shaped mound located in the eastern sector of the Arad -- Beer-sheba Valley.The site is often identified as Moladah, the biblical town of Simeon, and one of the cities of Judah (although other identifications have been suggested). Previous excavations at the Tel have found occupational layers dating from the Middle Bronze Age to the Byzantine period.According to a study published in 'Atiqot -- Publications of the Israel...
  • 5 health risks from consuming too much protein, from heart disease to weight gain

    06/06/2026 3:41:25 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 48 replies
    Many of us eat more protein than we need. We asked experts what can happen if people have too much of a good thing.If you’ve browsed the packaged-food aisle of a grocery store lately, or scanned the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans, you might think that when it comes to protein, more is better. Packaged cereal, popcorn, pancake mix and coffee drinks are being infused with the nutrient. And the new inverted food pyramid, released by the US government in January, features protein prominently, with steak, chicken and cheese at the top. Research suggests that most US adults are eating...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Charon: Moon of Pluto

    06/06/2026 12:42:37 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 13 replies
    NASA ^ | 6 Jun, 2026 | Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory
    Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier view of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The high-resolution image was captured by the interplanetary space probe New Horizons near its closest approach to distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared image data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to...
  • Gessel gold hoard: A 3,300-year-old stash of gleaming treasures that's one of the largest Bronze Age hoards from Europe

    06/06/2026 5:17:40 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 24 replies
    Live Science ^ | June 1, 2026 | Kristina Killgrove
    In April 2011, excavators working on a natural gas pipeline in northern Germany unearthed one of the largest gold hoards from prehistoric Europe. Dated to about 1300 B.C., the Gessel gold hoard consists of 117 artifacts that together weigh over 3.7 pounds (1.7 kilograms).The hoard was discovered in the village of Gessel near the town of Syke and is now the centerpiece of the Forum Gesseler Goldhort museum. Around 3,300 years ago, someone placed the gold objects in a linen bag, secured the bag with six bronze pins, and buried it in the dirt...The Gessel gold hoard includes 82 spiral...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies

    06/05/2026 12:08:42 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 5 Jun, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Rafael Sampaio
    Explanation: Within our own Milky Way galaxy, two bright, spiky stars stand like sentinels in the foreground of this cosmic snapshot. Far beyond them are the galaxies of the Hydra Cluster. In fact, while the spiky foreground stars are hundreds of light-years distant, the Hydra Cluster galaxies are well over 100 million light-years away. Three large galaxies near the cluster center, two yellow ellipticals (NGC 3311, NGC 3309) and one prominent blue spiral (NGC 3312), are the dominant galaxies, each about 150,000 light-years in diameter. An intriguing overlapping galaxy pair cataloged as NGC 3314 lies above and left of NGC...
  • Antares Mark-0 Becomes First Advanced Nuclear Reactor to Achieve Criticality Under DOE Pilot Program

    06/05/2026 9:07:53 AM PDT · by Pontiac · 33 replies
    Power Magazine ^ | June 5, 2026 | Sonal C. Patel
    Antares Nuclear Inc.’s Mark-0—a sodium heat-pipe-cooled microreactor fueled by high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel compacts—has achieved zero-power criticality at Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) Reactor and Critical Experiment (RACE) facility, becoming the first advanced reactor to reach that milestone under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program.The development, announced on June 4, also marks the 53rd reactor built at the INL site since 1951 and the first novel reactor design to achieve criticality at the laboratory in more than 50 years, according to INL Laboratory Director John Wagner. The much-watched DOE Reactor Pilot Program, established under President...
  • An Update of Evidence that Glyphosate (Roundup) is a Cause of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

    06/05/2026 7:46:15 AM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 35 replies
    Science Direct ^ | Mar 2026 | Dennis D. Weisenberger
    Glyphosate-based formulations (GBFs), such as Roundup, are the most heavily used herbicides in the world. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate and GBFs are probably carcinogenic to humans, mainly for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)... In 2021, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research... also found that many studies demonstrated genotoxic damage (DNA breaks or structural changes) consistent with the induction of oxidative stress by glyphosate/GBFs, sometimes at exposure levels experienced by human populations... In a recent study of Thai farmers, a high frequency (97.6%) of those spraying GBFs with backpack sprayers had high...
  • Climate Alarm On The Run, Part II

    06/05/2026 7:23:43 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 14 replies
    Issues & Insights ^ | 5 Jun, 2026 | I & I Editorial Board
    Another media global warming team has been terminated, this time the National Public Radio climate desk. This is what happens when “journalists” keep reporting about a dead horse. Eventually the public realizes the horse has perished and there’s nothing left to talk about. Or that there was no horse to begin with. NPR is the third media outlet to rein it its diehard band of Democratic Party scribes dedicated to exaggerating climate fears, following the Washington Post and CBS News. The former was sawed roughly in half while the latter was, to our grand delight, “gutted.” Unfortunately, taxpayer-funded radio...
  • Scientists in 'autonomous laboratories' are starting to outsource work to robots

    06/05/2026 7:16:19 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 9 replies
    NPR ^ | June 5, 20265:00 AM ET | Katy Riddle
    Nearly two decades ago, four graduate students from MIT united around a shared idea. "We believed that programming cells would ultimately be more important than programming computers," says Jason Kelly. It felt like an outlandish bet at the time. Things like gene editing or testing new molecules typically demanded many hours in the laboratory — carefully mixing hundreds of chemical cocktails by hand and pipetting them into petri dishes, tasks that required an enormous amount of human labor. Early potential investors, Kelly recalls, were not excited. "We were living on ramen, buying equipment on eBay, and we could not raise...
  • The Shocking Damage Caused by Covid Policies

    06/05/2026 6:03:57 AM PDT · by Heartlander · 64 replies
    Brownstone Institute ^ | June 5, 2026 | Ian Miller
    The Shocking Damage Caused by Covid PoliciesThe Covid lockdowns may not have been remotely effective, but at least they harmed millions of people and created long-lasting negative impacts that we’re still dealing with today.That’s the conclusion of a massive new body of research into the nonsensical policies promoted by the public health “expert” class, promoted by their media partners, and enacted by incompetent, cowardly politicians.Mask mandates had been thoroughly discouraged by decades of pre-Covid pandemic planning. There was no body of research supporting the closing of certain businesses at different hours of the day, as many jurisdictions demanded.No studies were...
  • Rare Meteorite Hints A Moon-Sized Lost World Once Existed In Our Solar System

    06/04/2026 8:08:38 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 23 replies
    Study Finds ^ | June 04, 2026 | Aaron S. Bell (University of Colorado Boulder)
    A slice of NWA 12774.The green circle is an olivine crystal, a magnesium-rich mineral. (Credit: John Kashuba) In A Nutshell A meteorite recovered from the Sahara contains crystals that could only have formed deep inside a large, now-destroyed ancient planet, giving scientists their first direct physical evidence of its enormous size. Using a newly developed pressure-measuring tool, researchers calculated the parent body was at least 1,000 kilometers in radius, far larger than any asteroid previously linked to this class of meteorite. Textural clues in the crystals suggest the planet may have been Moon-sized or even larger, though that conclusion depends...
  • Water begins refilling Reflecting Pool after Trump's renovation to repaint it 'American flag blue'

    06/04/2026 5:34:54 PM PDT · by Libloather · 15 replies
    WASHINGTON – Water began refilling the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office. Trump showed a video during an unrelated event with water bubbling into the freshly painted basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. “That's clean, beautiful water,” the president said. Live video showed water accumulating in the center of the basin, with workers and trucks still inside the pool. Trump noted the work to paint the shallow basin a deep shade, which he calls “American flag blue,” was completed Wednesday. The administration said in a court filing that...
  • California’s revolt: Spencer Pratt, Steve Hilton stun Democrats in early result shake-up

    06/04/2026 12:23:45 PM PDT · by Libloather · 42 replies
    California Post ^ | 6/03/26 | Josh Koehn
    California voters frustrated by the routine failures of state and local leadership look set to send Spencer Pratt and Steve Hilton to runoff elections for mayor and governor after the first few ballot drops. In a major rebuke of Democratic rule in both Los Angeles and the state, both Pratt and Hilton held their positions steady Wednesday night. Hilton remained in the lead for the governor’s race with 27.6% of the vote and Xavier Becerra was in second place with 25.6% with 56% of the ballots counted. Pratt remained in second place with 29.91% of the vote behind incumbent Mayor...