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Explanation: This was a good year for the Perseids meteor shower. A key reason was the Moon was absent from lighting up Earth's night sky so that more meteors were visible than usual. Where was the Moon? It was busy visiting the Sun. Near the Perseids peak, the Moon moved directly in front of the Sun and created a total solar eclipse visible from Greenland and Spain. The Perseids occur when the Earth collides with a stream of Sun-orbiting debris cast off by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Perseid meteors, although typically only the size of a sand grain, tend to be fast...

Around 8,500 years ago, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were living on the tiny islands of Malta -- thousands of years after the islands had become separated from Sicily. The shortest sea crossing was around 80 kilometres. So how did these prehistoric seafarers get there, and how could such a small population survive on Malta for around a thousand years? The Forgotten Seafarers of the Ancient Mediterranean | 12:41 MegalithHunter | 24.7K subscribers | 267 views | August 18, 2026

At Kimmeridge Bay [Dorset, UK] on the Jurassic Coast, the rocks have a bit of a pattern to them. And there's a good reason for that! It's a record of changes in Earth’s climate that were driven by something happening far beyond Dorset: the changing geometry of Earth’s orbit around the Sun... Because Earth's orbit changes over time in cycles! Welcome to Milancovich cycles! This is far from the only rock unit that shows this, and in fact the Blue Lias around Lyme Regis is also pretty famous for this, but I found this cool paper that really investigated it...

Readers of my previous (August 13) post on the Endangerment Finding (EF) litigation pending in the D.C. Circuit may have come away wondering about this issue: What is the basis on which this coalition of most blue states plus many major municipalities and big-time environmental NGOs seeks to put an indefinite stall on resolution of the litigation? As reported in that post, after the Trump EPA had finalized its rescission of the EF in February 2026, a large number of blue states, municipalities and environmental NGOs promptly filed Petitions in the D.C. Circuit seeking to have the court block that...

There is only so much capacity in space for objects; a cleanup is critical and overdue. Satellites bring to mind images of shiny, angular objects orbiting Earth at tremendous speed through the boundless emptiness of space. Yet the orbits are no longer empty. Besides traffic, they are teeming with debris from spacecraft breaking up because of age, explosions, or collisions. Orbital debris has doubled over the past decade. As of 2026, about 1.2 million objects measuring 1–10 cm are in orbit. Traveling at speeds of 7–8 km per second—10 times that of a bullet and 4–5 times that of the...

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has claimed he will slash people’s utility bills by granting two hours of free electricity per day — a plan his rival has blasted as “disqualifyingly stupid.” The Democrat unveiled his new policy pitch on Tuesday to give the handout to lower-income families, though he failed to lay out how it would be designed or funded. The so-called “power hour” plan comes as Californians struggle with the state’s increasingly high cost of living. Part of that crisis includes skyrocketing energy bills, which his opponent, Republican Steve Hilton, has also targeted. Californians have seen their energy...

Don’t believe the Democratic National Committee’s official storyline: The DNC’s decision to make South Carolina the first Democratic presidential primary in 2028 isn’t about introducing more racial diversity into the early contests. It’s actually about keeping power in the hands of the party establishment — the people who backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, and who are likely to wind up supporting Kamala Harris in 2028. The fix is in. South Carolina was the establishment’s firewall against Bernie Sanders’ left-wing insurgency twice over. In 2016, Sanders nearly beat Hillary Clinton in the first caucus, in Iowa,...

Since 8:46pm this evening, Guatemala's Fuego volcano has been erupting non-stop - possibly signaling a new phase in its eruptive behaviour. We are paying close attention. Welcome to our historic 24/7 live stream of the magnificent Fuego Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world! For the first time ever, experience the raw power and breathtaking beauty of Fuego live in stunning 4K resolution.

A hydrogen-powered streamliner has become the world’s fastest hydrogen vehicle, reaching an average speed of 406.32 mph (653km/h) over two runs on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. The JCB Hydromax’s run was verified by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, motorsport’s international governing authority, and stands as the fastest speed ever recorded by a hydrogen combustion engine. Andy Green, a 64-year-old former Royal Air Force officer who already holds the world’s outright land speed record after topping 760 mph in an earlier run, drove the Hydromax to the new mark. The run more than doubled the previous hydrogen combustion record of 185.5...

Iran’s oil exports have dropped to nearly zero under the renewed US naval blockade, according to analysis from a former senior US Treasury official — who predicts that the economic impacts could hit the elite and destabilize the regime within two to three months. Iran’s ability to ship oil out of the Strait of Hormuz to offset its current economic woes has hit a wall under the new blockade, with little to no activity seen at its Kharg Island hub, according to recent satellite images. As Iran and the US attempt to use economic pressures to see who will blink...

Explanation: This total solar eclipse appeared not only poetically beautiful but scientifically interesting. Usually the solar corona appears white, and to some observers the corona of last week's total solar eclipse did appear this pearly color. But this time, totality observers in Spain saw a corona that appeared unusually golden. For one reason, from Spain, the totality occurred when the setting Sun was near the horizon. That low, sunlight travels through a large amount of air which scatters out blue light. An unusual amount of smoke in the air from nearby forest fires acted as a second filter, further scattering...

Archaeologists in El Salvador are examining a discovery that may date back to around 850 B.C. According to a news release from El Salvador's Ministry of Culture, a pre-Hispanic burial site was found in Antiguo Cuscatlán, a suburb of San Salvador, earlier this month. An excavation of the remains began on July 21... A human skull was found alongside a small Usulután ceramic vessel shaped like a sea turtle, per the news release. Layers of volcanic ash also preserved the remnants of cassava branches... The remains, which were found face down, are set to undergo radiocarbon dating to determine their...

Do other countries ignore science when they have fewer shots?By age 18, a child in the United States can receive roughly 30 to 75 total vaccine doses if they follow standard schedules and get annual flu shots. Fewer shots are needed because vaccines are combined. By comparison, in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (via the Standing Committee on Vaccination, STIKO) recommends routine protection against about 12 to 15 infectious diseases for children. Because Germany relies heavily on multi-component combination shots (like the 6-in-1 hexavalent vaccine), children receive roughly 11 to 14 actual physical injections. Elsewhere in Europe, in England,...

A Roman cavalry mask. Found on the remote Baltic island of Gotland. Altered centuries later, with its right eye deliberately removed and buried beneath a longhouse -- possibly echoing Odin's sacrifice of his eye for knowledge. But why was a Roman object, made hundreds of miles away, being ritually transformed in Scandinavia? And what does it have to do with Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon England, Viking helmets and the strange movement of Roman culture across Europe? The Hellvi Mask may be one of the missing links between Rome, Scandinavia and the warrior culture of early medieval Britain. A Roman Mask BURIED...

The skeleton of a young 6ft 5in-tall (1.9m) Viking-era man who had undergone trepanation has been found in a mass grave.A hole had been bored in his skull while he was alive. It had signs of healing before his remains were flung into a burial pit with nine other men, some dismembered...The grisly discoveries were found during a University of Cambridge training dig just outside the city last year...If the young man had had a tumour on his pituitary gland, this could have caused an excess of growth which might explain his height, explained Biers, curator of the Duckworth Collections...

The Endangerment Finding (EF) is the completely absurd piece of regulatory overreach by which the Obama EPA in December 2009 purported to determine that the trace atmospheric gas carbon dioxide was a “danger to human health and welfare.” That action may have been absurd, but it was by no means benign. CO2 is a principal product of all combustion of fossil fuels. Following on the EF, EPA and other government agencies in the Obama and then Biden Administrations set out to use the EF as the basis to transform our entire energy economy — suppressing drilling, blocking pipelines, forcing closure...

Written in ancient Greek poet Homer's "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad," the legends of the Trojan War and the lost city of Troy were believed to be nothing more than myth for centuries. But in 1860, a millionaire named Heinrich Schliemann set out on a relentless quest to prove the legends were real, uncovering ancient secrets and sparking a golden age of archaeology. In this full episode of The Legend of Troy: Epic Rise and Fall from National Geographic, explore ancient civilization and early archaeology in episode one, "The Schliemann Legacy." Finding the Lost City of Troy (Full Episode) |...

In 1791, before Washington DC became the capital of the United States, surveyors placed a series of 40 boundary stones to mark the original 100-square-mile District of Columbia. Today, many of those historic markers still survive -- hidden in neighborhoods, parks, and along roads around the capital. Join me as I drive around Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC searching for these forgotten pieces of American history and visit several of the original boundary markers placed between 1791 and 1792. These stones witnessed the birth of the nation's capital and are some of the oldest surviving monuments connected to the creation...

At least one person was killed in a storm-related car crash on Hawaii’s Big Island as Hurricane Lala struck late Saturday night. Gov. Josh Green confirmed the death, along with 19 roofs ripped off buildings after what he described as an “enormous storm.” Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast as Lala slowly passed by. Howling winds whipped palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways. Lala was downgraded to a tropical storm as of Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. More than 130,000 households were without power Sunday morning across...

Explanation: The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake. The colorful pool of water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA. Illuminated artificially, the colors are caused by layers of bacteria that grow in the hot spring. Steam rises off the spring, heated by underground magma associated with the Yellowstone Hotspot. Unrelated and far in the distance, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches high overhead, a band lit by billions of stars. The picture features a 16-image panorama taken in 2014. If the...