Free Republic

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump used a “SpongeBob SquarePants” meme on Truth Social to mock federal employees after an email from Elon Musk to federal works sparked an outcry. The meme, posted to Truth Social Sunday afternoon, depicts SpongeBob reviewing a checklist entitled “Got Done Last Week.” Items on the checklist are “Cried about Trump,’ “Cried about Elon,” “Made it into the office for once,” and “Cried about Trump and Elon some more.” The hoopla began Saturday when Musk, labeled a special advisor to Trump for the new Department of Government Efficiency, warned federal employees of a new policy requiring...

Lycopodina hystrix. (Ekins et al., Zootaxa, 2020) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even though we know the deep sea is weird, 'carnivorous sea sponges' still sound like something from a sci-fi movie. And yet, researchers just announced the discovery of three new such species off the coast of Australia. Go a few hundred metres deep into the ocean, and it starts to look like you're in a whole new world: From a creature that looks like a sea star crossed with an octopus, to shark-devouring fish, to carnivorous sponges we've never seen before. "It just goes to show how much of our deep oceans...

THERE is a backlash growing across Asia against Western ‘begpackers’ who want the locals to fund their travels around the world. People across the continent are growing tired of the sight of seeing relatively affluent Westerns begging on the streets in the hope that locals help pay for their journey to the next destination.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello last month asked federal taxpayers to shell out $94 billion to pay for the territory’s recovery from Hurricane Maria — then turned around and paid out about $100 million in Christmas bonuses to government employees on the island. The governor’s aides say the bonuses were part of a long-standing tradition and were included in the budget approved over the summer. But that budget came well before Hurricanes Irma and Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, leaving much of the territory in ruin and the government begging for federal assistance. The island’s financial oversight board, created by...

Sponges are among the simplest of multicellular organisms, but they contain an advanced human technology: fiber optics. In a case of reverse biomimetics, scientists have determined that one of the products of proud human engineering was already at work in a lowly sponge...

<p>AP) -- Scientists say they have identified an ocean sponge living in the darkness of the deep sea that grows thin glass fibers capable of transmitting light better than industrial fiber optic cables used for telecommunication.</p> <p>The natural glass fibers also are much more flexible than manufactured fiber optic cable that can crack if bent too far.</p>

<p>The protests have now spread to other cities, with violence reported in parts of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.</p> <p>Great Britain and other parts of the world are experiencing unrest at a time of global economic uncertainty and stock market volatility.</p>

...The fossilized embryos shatter some ideas about evolution. Not only have certain cellular processes been pushed way back in time, but also there does not appear to be any evolution seen in these embryos, since many cellular processes, including some modern features, go clear back to the beginning of the fossil record. These embryos demonstrate that complex metazoans have been around since at least the Neoproterozoic and that from an evolutionary point of view their origins go back even further. Thus, the origin of animals is firmly based on nothing, and a huge evolutionary mystery: ‘The origin of animals is...

Enlarge ImageMolecular fingerprints. Sedimentary rock formations in Oman, like this one, contain chemical evidence of the planet's first animals, which appeared at least 635 million years ago. Credit: David Fike, Nature Where did all the animals come from? The fossil record is virtually animal-free up until the Cambrian Explosion 540 million years ago, and then--boom--thousands of critters of all shapes and sizes show up. The mystery has plagued scientists for more than a century and a half, beginning with Charles Darwin. Now, with a brilliant bit of detective work, researchers have located our missing ancestors. The problem with the...

Source: University of Florida Date: January 22, 2007 Microwave Oven Can Sterilize Sponges, Scrub Pads Science Daily — Microwave ovens may be good for more than just zapping the leftovers; they may also help protect your family. University of Florida engineering researchers have found that microwaving kitchen sponges and plastic scrubbers — known to be common carriers of the bacteria and viruses that cause food-borne illnesses – sterilizes them rapidly and effectively. That means that the estimated 90-plus percent of Americans with microwaves in their kitchens have a powerful weapon against E. coli, salmonella and other bugs at the root...

Animal weaves strong glass For tips on building sturdy skyscrapers and bridges, you could consult engineering textbooks. Or you could plumb the frigid depths of the western Pacific. There, a not-so-humble sponge called Euplectella has been demonstrating fundamental principles of engineering since long before the dawn of skyscrapers, bridges or engineers. Euplectella weaves an intricate skeleton of glass. If you are a shrimp living inside this glass house, you can throw all the stones you want. This latticework is built to last, scientists from Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs report in today's issue of Science. "What is fascinating is that nature...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate gave final congressional approval Tuesday to the most sweeping changes to Medicare since its creation in 1965, including a new prescription drug benefit for 40 million older and disabled Americans. The 54-44 vote sends the bill to President Bush, who is eager to sign it into law.

BOSTON – Surgical teams accidentally leave clamps, sponges and other tools inside about 1,500 patients nationwide each year, according to the biggest study of the problem yet. The mistakes largely result not from surgeon fatigue, but from the stress arising from emergencies or complications discovered on the operating table, the researchers reported.It also happens more often to fat patients, simply because there is more room inside them to lose equipment, according to the study.Both the researchers and several other experts agreed that the number of such mistakes is small compared with the roughly 28 million operations a year in the...

<p>VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) -- Trawl fishing will be banned in areas off the Queen Charlotte Islands inhabited by rare colonies of glass-like sponges to protect the living fossils from further damage, officials say.</p> <p>"Soon the sponge reefs will be closed to groundfish trawling," said Allan Macdonald of the Canadian Fisheries Department.</p>