Bayard

Bayard's Journal

June 27, 2024

If Dracula had a cat....

June 26, 2024

Atheist parolee to get $100,000 in damages after being jailed for rejecting Bible study

An atheist inmate whose parole officer punished him for not attending Christian worship services will receive over $100,000 in monetary damages as part of a settlement that will finally end the years-long saga.

The case dates back to 2015, when Mark Janny, an atheist, was released from jail. His parole officer, John Gamez, told Janny that if he wanted to remain out of prison, he would have to live at the Denver Rescue Mission, a Christian homeless shelter, because he needed a “residence of record.”

That shelter’s rules required residents to participate in worship services, Bible studies, and faith-based counseling, none of which Janny had any desire to join. And he shouldn’t have had to. The courts should never force anyone, much less an atheist, to attend a Christian anything as a requirement of parole.

Janny actually suggested an alternative: staying at the home of some family friends. That option was rejected, though, so Janny went to the shelter… but didn’t participate in the religious activities. Because he didn’t participate, he was kicked out of the shelter. Because he was kicked out of the shelter, Gamez revoked Janny’s parole and sent him back to jail.

When the Parole Board saw him a few weeks later, they agreed that Janny violated his parole for not having a place of residence and sent him back to jail for five more months. In short: Janny was incarcerated unnecessarily all because he refused to participate in a Christian ministry.

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/atheist-parolee-to-get-100000-in

June 26, 2024

Stunning photos show 44,000-year-old mummified wolf discovered in Siberian permafrost

Scientists perform necropsy on an ancient wolf pulled from Russian permafrost that may still have prey in its stomach.

The mummified wolf was discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2021. (Image credit: North-Eastern Federal University)

In a first-of-its-kind discovery, a complete mummified wolf was pulled from the permafrost in Siberia, after being locked away for more than 44,000 years. Scientists have now completed a necropsy (an animal autopsy) on the ancient predator, which was discovered by a river in the Republic of Sakha — also known as Yakutia — in 2021.

This is the first complete adult wolf dating to the late Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) ever discovered, according to a translated statement from the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, where the necropsy was performed. The discovery, scientists say, will help us better understand life in the region during the last ice age.

Photos from the necropsy show the wolf's mummified body in exquisite detail. Animals are preserved in permafrost through a type of mummification involving cold and dry conditions. Soft tissues are dehydrated, allowing the body to be preserved in a frozen time capsule.

Researchers took samples of the wolf's internal organs and gastrointestinal tract to detect ancient viruses and microbiota, and to understand its diet when it died. "His stomach has been preserved in an isolated form, there are no contaminants, so the task is not trivial," Albert Protopopov, head of the department for the study of mammoth fauna of the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia, said in the statement. "We hope to obtain a snapshot of the biota of the ancient Pleistocene."

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/stunning-photos-show-44000-year-old-mummified-wolf-discovered-in-siberian-permafrost

June 26, 2024

Self-healing 'living skin' can make robots more humanlike

Self-healing 'living skin' can make robots more humanlike — and it looks just as creepy as you'd expect

A combination of cultured cells and silicone could help robots appear more human in future thanks to realistic skin elasticity. And they can smile like us too.

Researchers have pioneered a method that involves injecting artificially grown skin into tiny holes in a robot's skeleton, so the skin can extend v-shaped hooks known as "perforation-type anchors" and bind to the surface without drooping away. (Image credit: Shoji Takeuchi, Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo)

Robots of the future could be wrapped in lifelike skin that can repair itself, in a similar way to the way human skin heals, thanks to a novel approach involving cultured skin cells. The skin will also appear more lifelike thanks to a new way of attaching it to the robot's skeleton as well the fact that it can repair any cuts or scrapes by itself — researchers said. They published their findings June 25 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

Artificial skin has long been touted as a way to make robots appear more human-like — and cultured skin appears more lifelike than synthetic materials such as latex. But without the right kind of adhesive approach, artificial skin can sag off a robot's frame in a visually disturbing manner.

Robotics researchers have previously tried to solve the problem of artificial skin sagging off the metallic frame by pinning it down with "anchors", hooked or mushroom-shaped structures. This prevents the skin from shifting around atop the robot’s frame, but the adhesive structures can stick out as lumps under the skin — compromising its human-like appearance.

In the new study, researchers pioneered a method whereby the robot's skeleton contains tiny holes into which the artificially grown skin can extend v-shaped hooks known as "perforation-type anchors". These keep the artificial skin stuck to the robot while maintaining a smooth and flexible surface.

https://www.livescience.com/technology/robotics/self-healing-living-skin-can-make-robots-more-humanlike-and-it-looks-just-as-creepy-as-youd-expect

Terminators R' Us!

June 26, 2024

Strange creatures in the past few days

I was sitting on the front porch, and this little guy looked like he was drinking from one of the flowers, but then, perched on the stem. He sat like this for a good 15 minutes. Very small. Maybe a confused baby Ruby-Throated hummer?

This moth was hanging out in one of the potted flowers too. Interesting coloration.

June 22, 2024

Hilarious New Pics In "Give Me A Sign"

More at:
https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-interesting-signs/

June 20, 2024

Watch lion looking for sex make record-breaking swim

'It's pretty incredible, the guy's got three legs'
Ugandan lion brothers Jacob and Tibu were filmed swimming a mile across the Kazinga Channel in Uganda — the longest swim ever recorded for the species —after getting their "butts kicked" by rival males.

A three-legged lion and his brother made a record-breaking swim across a river teeming with crocodiles and hippos in a desperate search for sex, researchers have revealed. The pair has now been seen traversing the treacherous Kazinga Channel in Uganda six times, including a nearly mile-long (1.5 kilometers) swim that was captured on film.

This is believed to be the longest swim by a lion (Panthera leo) ever documented: Normally, lions' maximum observed swim distances are around 330 feet (100 meters). The Herculean feat is even more remarkable considering that one of the brothers is missing a limb. "It's pretty incredible, the guy's got three legs," said Alex Braczkowski, lead author of a study documenting the encounter.

"He was swimming [at a] much slower speed compared to [his brother]. But he made it," Braczkowski, a researcher at Griffith University in Australia and scientific director of the Volcanoes Safaris Kyambura Lion Project, told Live Science.

Cameraman Luke Ochse filmed the two lions — Jacob, who lost his foot in a poachers' trap, and Tibu — swimming across the channel that connects the George and Edward lakes on Feb. 1 with a drone carrying a thermal camera. The big cats initially attempted the swim three times (the first attempt captured in the footage above) but were forced to turn back after encountering either hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) or Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus), both of which can kill lions in the water.

Jacob, one of the lions that made the record-breaking swim, lost part of his leg in a poachers trap. (Image credit: Alex Braczkowski)

https://www.livescience.com/animals/lions/its-pretty-incredible-the-guys-got-three-legs-watch-lion-looking-for-sex-make-record-breaking-swim-across-treacherous-river-filled-with-crocs-and-hippos

June 18, 2024

Rare video shows elusive deep-sea squid cradling her gigantic, translucent eggs

While navigating a remotely operated vehicle in the Gulf of California, scientists spotted a brooding squid cradling translucent eggs.

Scientists at MBARI encountered a female squid brooding giant eggs at a depth of more than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) during an expedition to the Gulf of California. The squid was from an unknown species in the family Gonatidae. (Image credit: MBARI)

Scientists have captured stunning video of a female deep-sea squid cradling unusually large eggs in her tentacles. The footage, taken by the team via a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) off Mexico's coast, reveals that the mother squid was carrying about 40 eggs, each around twice as large as those of previously encountered squid.

The new video reveals additional details about the life cycle of deep-dwelling squid. These animals are rarely seen alive at depth and little is known about how they reproduce in a dark and cold environment, where oxygen and food is limited.

"The deep sea is the largest living space on Earth and there is a lot left to be discovered," Steven Haddock, a senior scientist and expedition leader at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), said in a statement. "Our unexpected encounter with a squid brooding giant eggs caught the attention of everyone in the ship’s control room." The findings were published in May in the journal Ecology.

Seeing a deep-sea squid brooding, or protecting eggs after laying them, is especially rare. Most squids leave their eggs drifting in the water column or attached to the seafloor, according to the statement. Brooding is extremely arduous for female squid. This process often leads to the mothers dying after the eggs hatch, Henk-Jan Hoving, a deep-sea biologist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany and lead author of the paper, said in the statement.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/squids/rare-video-shows-elusive-deep-sea-squid-cradling-her-gigantic-translucent-eggs

June 18, 2024

Planet Nine: Is the search for this elusive world nearly over?

Astronomers have been scouring the outer solar system for signs of a hypothetical ninth planet for almost a decade, without success. However, we may finally be on the cusp of finding it, experts say.

Scientists think there may be a ninth planet hiding in the distant reaches of the solar system — and a new telescope could finally prove its existence. (Image credit: Nicholas Forder for Live Science)

Deep in the outer reaches of the solar system — so far away from the known planets that the sun would barely be distinguishable from a nearby star — a massive, icy world may be lurking in the shadows, waiting to be discovered by humanity. And the day that we finally find this elusive planet may be coming soon, thanks to a state-of-the-art telescope that will begin scanning the sky next year.

The solar system has eight official planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. But in recent years, astronomers have proposed that a ninth world, imaginatively nicknamed "Planet Nine," could be hiding in the far reaches of our cosmic neighborhood.

And no, we're not talking about Pluto, which was demoted from full planetary status to "dwarf planet" in 2006. Instead, scientists believe Planet Nine is a gas or ice giant billions of miles farther out than the rest of the planets. If it exists, it could also rewrite our understanding of the solar system's origins and evolution.

Astronomers have predicted how big this hypothetical world could be, how far away it could lie and even where it should be in its orbit around the sun. Yet actually finding Planet Nine, sometimes called Planet X, has eluded scientists for nearly a decade.
But the hunt for the solar system's potential ninth planet may soon be coming to a close. With the opening of the groundbreaking Vera C. Rubin Observatory in 2025, we may either finally find Planet Nine within the next few years — or rule out the idea for good, experts told Live Science.

https://www.livescience.com/space/planets/planet-nine-is-the-search-for-this-elusive-world-nearly-over

June 18, 2024