Science (General/Chat)
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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...
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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...
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A clever swap has extended the historic Voyager 2’s mission in interstellar space. Engineers are hoping to do the same for Voyager 1. An ambitious effort to boost an aging probe on its journey through the uncharted territory of interstellar space seems to have found success. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have spent the last few months implementing what they nicknamed the “Big Bang” fix to buy the historic Voyager 2 spacecraft more time to continue its science mission. Voyager 2 is roughly 21.35 billion kilometers (13 billion miles) away from Earth, while its twin, Voyager...
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This artist’s concept shows the red supergiant star Betelgeuse and a companion star orbiting within the supergiant’s tenuous outer atmosphere. Artwork: NASA, ESA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI); Science: Andrea Dupree (CfA) Betelgeuse has always been something of a mystery. And by “mystery,” I mean a source of endless fun, fascination and frustration for astronomers. Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the sky, marking the right shoulder of the constellation Orion. It’s a red supergiant, a massive star with more than a dozen times the sun’s heft, that’s blasting out many tens of thousands as much light as our own...
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This video explores some of the Byzantine ruins hidden beneath the streets of modern Istanbul. I'd like to thank the management of the Ring Stone Hotel and Alp Watmough for making my filming possible. YT Summary: toldinstone explores the architectural palimpsest of Sultan Ahmed, tracing remnants of the Great Palace of the Byzantine emperors hidden within modern structures. From repurposed cisterns and sarcophagi to surviving ramp towers, the narrative uncovers how historical layers continue to shape the fabric of daily life in contemporary Istanbul. Istanbul's Hidden Byzantine Ruins | 9:34 toldinstone | 645K subscribers | 19,389 views | August 15,...
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At the quantum scale, tiny particles behave in bizarre ways. One reason for this is the uncertainty principle, which says that the more you know about where a quantum particle is, the less you can know about how fast it’s moving, and vice versa. The new uncertainty principle relates to fractals, shapes that remain equally complex no matter how much you zoom in on them. Around a decade ago, Semyon Dyatlov was studying whether quantum particles behave differently than ordinary particles when put into the same chaotic situations. Sometimes, an object moving chaotically can become trapped into following a fractal-like...
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Explanation: Known for its bright and fast meteors, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower comes to planet Earth's skies from a radiant in the heroic constellation Perseus. The popular northern summer celestial spectacle is created as grains of dust cast off along the orbit of periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle vaporize in Earth's dense atmosphere, tracing brief, but beautiful streaks through the night. Taken near the shower's peak of activity on August 12, this composite image recorded two bright perseid meteors and one meteor's watery reflection from a location near the coastal village of Grisslehamn, Sweden. Almost as bright as Altair, brightest star...
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Researchers are shell-shocked at the latest marine discovery. Dolphins have been filmed using shells to ensnare their prey off the coast of Australia, marking the first time this clever tactic has been caught on camera, per a bombshell paper in Marine Mammal Science. “The second I saw that shell in the air, I immediately knew what was happening,” the study’s head author, Alexis Levengood, a marine mammal biologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, told ScienceAlert. Levengood said she and her team were on a research vessel off Hervey Bay when they spotted a female Pacific bottlenose...
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has made at least $174,000 annually for nearly eight years as a member of Congress, but like many of her “Squad” colleagues, she has yet to put a substantial dent in her student loan debt, according to House financial disclosures. The Bronx and Queens Democrat has owed between $15,001 and $50,000 in federal student loan debt since her election to the House in 2018. That’s the same amount she owes now, according to her August disclosure, where lawmakers report ranges for debt and income. The “Tax the Rich!” pol reported less than $81,000 in...
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...at the Carrarzu Iddia archaeological site in Bortigali, a short distance from the town of Macomer. The monument still preserves its burial chamber and exedra and provides new insights into Nuragic civilization...The monument, which had long been completely hidden by vegetation, was rediscovered thanks to survey activities...The tomb is located on the southern slope of Crastu Littu, at an elevation of approximately 740 meters...The funerary monument is constructed of trachyte blocks... the burial chamber and the monumental semicircular exedra preceding the entrance...are still clearly visible......the space is divided into two levels near the entrance -- a construction solution that has...
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Fighting in the Second World War went on until the very end. WWII: The Last Day | 20:41 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.64M subscribers | 14,619 views | August 14, 2026
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California Post on Google Beverly Hills diners hoping to chow down on expensive filet mignon were treated to a different kind of beef at Steak 48. The messy melee exploded between two women at the pricey Beverly Hills steakhouse, captured on video obtained by TMZ. As forks clinked and calming music played, the two women brutally yanked each other’s hair as confused employees tried to stop them and entertained diners watched. "Oh my god, I love this,” one woman could be heard saying in the video. Both brawlers sported fancy dresses without undergarments as they attacked each other. They rolled...
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Dazzling new images taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope show an astronomical object known for its striking resemblance to a lion’s face. NGC 2392, more commonly called the Lion Nebula, received its nickname from its hazy dust “mane” and the dying star at its center, which resembles a “button nose,” according to NASA. The images were taken by Webb, using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) The agency previously captured images of the feline-themed planetary nebula in 2000 using the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb’s higher-resolution images show that...
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President Trump said Friday that he plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States” after the Iran war. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said during a Long Island rally for Republican candidates in the gubernatorial and congressional elections. Trump’s preliminary peace deal with Iran — signed June 17 — fell apart last month after Iran attempted to assert control over the strait, including by opening fire on commercial ships that used a sea...
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Explanation: On August 12, the Moon's shadow reached out to touch our fair planet. Beginning in the Arctic Ocean, it swept along a narrow track that led the dark lunar umbra across parts of Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic, Portugal, and northern Spain. And for a moment, denizens of Earth who found themselves with clear skies under the shadow of the Moon could witness a total solar eclipse. After dodging the weather by sea and making a landing along Rype Fjord on the Greenland east coast (at 71.07055N, 27.71252W), this hard-won snapshot was captured at 17:33:26 UTC. That's near the initial...
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Explanation: On August 12th, 2026, the Moon totally eclipsed the Sun and cast its shadow across Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal. Today’s image features two total solar eclipses viewed from Zaragoza, Spain, one over the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar and the other reflecting in the Ebro River. For a few moments, Spain saw its first major total solar eclipse since 1905. Those witnessing totality may experience a chill in the air, the quieting of birds, the confused chirps of insects, and the shared awe of many. It’s the corona’s time to shine as the Sun’s bright...
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Popocatepetl volcano is just east of Mexico city and is the 5th highest peak in North America ( 17,694 feet (5,393 meters) tall.) It is erupting steam right now. You can slide the time backward to see the last 12 hours. This mountain is where I did my first technical climb following the "Ventorillo Route" up the inactive vent on the right hand skyline, across the saddle and up the glacier to the summit.
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Explanation: It looks like a view from the Little Prince's planet. The featured image is a throwback to the 2024 Perseid meteor shower, surrounded in this projection by the Bieszczady Mountains in Poland. Visible in the sky is the arch of the Milky Way, along with several nebulas in red and over a hundred meteors pointing to the radiant. The Perseids are easily visible and quite popular in the Northern Hemisphere summer. (Watching meteor showers in the winter is less convenient for a good reason). This year they are expected to offer an even more dazzling spectacle than usual, because...
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WASHINGTON — Speculation is swirling over whether Democrat darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has quietly split with her longtime beau Riley Roberts — following her public announcement this week that she was freezing her eggs to feel “more in control of my life.” The “Squad” star, 36 — who got engaged to Roberts in April 2022 — has been spotted in recent months without her engagement ring and it was noticeably absent in May when the pair was photographed together at a Manhattan burger joint. She also carefully chose her words when asked this week by a reporter about her choice...
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A hobbyist searching a forest in northern Poland stumbled across an unusual sight: a bronze sword that had been standing upright in the ground for nearly 2,700 years. The remarkably well-preserved weapon was discovered by metal detectorist Marcin Wiśniewski in the Gdańsk Forest District, according to the Pomeranian Provincial Heritage Conservator. Officials say the sword dates to the Late Bronze Age, between 900 and 700 B.C. Photos released by the conservator show the ancient weapon protruding vertically from the sandy soil before archaeologists carefully removed it. Rather than excavating the find himself, Wiśniewski reported it to heritage officials, who recovered...
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