I Think It’s Important To Realize You Can Miss Something, But Not Want It Back

Ahhh! This is so cool!

BREAKING NEWS

I just learned about a bird species called Golden Plover. Their chicks have an amazing camouflage: their baby fluff resembles MOSS!

LOOK AT THEM! JUST LOOK AT THEM!

...Oh to be a tiny golden plover lying in the moss safe and sound waiting for your mom to bring you some worms...

This is a free coupon/excuse for you to infodump on the current topic you’re obsessed with. Take some time away from internet discourse and share with us something you find interesting.

Today I read about Precambrian animals!

The above one is Thectardis, which is an animal so weird we have almost no inclination of how to categorize it. We know it was alive and it was cone shaped. That’s it.

The thing about fossil life from 500+ million years ago is that there often aren’t really any living analogs for it? Many of the animals from that time were sessile, many filter feeders, without much in common with what comes to mind when we think “Animal”—something that moves around and has a brain and thinks. The strata that preserve these animals are very rarely accessible, and these glimpses we have are hard to interpret.

Many of these creatures are known from a single fossil. Many are too weird to interpret or classify even tentatively.

Here’s another organism from that time, Eoandromeda:

Look at this thing. I can’t explain why, but Eoandromeda makes me feel some kind of deep dread. Like...we don’t know what this thing was. We don’t even know if it was an animal. I look at that shape and I want someone to tell me what that thing is. But we don’t know. We don’t have the words for What That Thing Is.

Imagine something so alien, so divergent from the paths life took to the present day, that we can’t look at it and say “That’s a worm” or “That’s a sponge” or “that’s a jellyfish” or...anything. The words for it literally don’t exist, because nothing like it now exists, and we know nothing about it. We’re not looking at different versions of the same categories of creature we have now. We’re looking at something that is too obscure to have a category. We can guess what it might have looked like. But it is so utterly unlike anything that exists now that we know nothing—except that undeniably, it existed.

Namacalathus. Be honest, doesn’t this make you scream inside? Or is it just me? This was a real animal that existed. It doesn’t know or give a fuck what a “snail” or “bird” is.

Learning about dinosaurs is DIFFERENT. We know what bones are. We have them! When we say that sauropod dinosaurs ate plants, we can imagine those plants. We can describe dinosaurs as having a “neck” and “claws” and “legs.” And I think that’s comforting because whatever I feel when I look at Namacalathus is not that.

This one invented muscles! Muscles are okay! I have muscles! That should make me feel better, right!

...Not really! Put it back!

For millions of years these things existed, living their unknowable lives. There was an entire world of these organisms. This was EARTH, our world.

People mostly haven’t heard of these. I think people care less about these strange early creatures because they seem less charismatic, not having brains or doing anything, but I think there is a lot of charisma to the Unknowable Cone Animal, the Dread Spiral, and all the other unsettling animals of the Precambrian.

January 26 1988 - Burnum Burnum plants the Aboriginal flag at the cliffs of Dover, claiming England for the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, exactly 200 years after Arthur Phillip claimed Australia for the British. [video] The full Burnum Burnum Declaration:

I, Burnum Burnum, being a nobleman of ancient Australia, do hereby take possession of England on behalf of the Aboriginal people. In claiming this colonial outpost, we wish no harm to you natives, but assure you that we are here to bring you good manners, refinement and an opportunity to make a Koompartoo - ‘a fresh start’. Henceforth, an Aboriginal face shall appear on your coins and stamps to signify our sovereignty over this domain. For the more advanced, we bring the complex language of the Pitjantjajara; we will teach you how to have a spiritual relationship with the Earth and show you how to get bush tucker.

We do not intend to souvenir, pickle and preserve the heads of 2000 of your people, nor to publicly display the skeletal remains of your Royal Highness, as was done to our Queen Truganinni for 80 years. Neither do we intend to poison your water holes, lace your flour with strychnine or introduce you to highly toxic drugs. Based on our 50,000 year heritage, we acknowledge the need to preserve the Caucasian race as of interest to antiquity, although we may be inclined to conduct experiments by measuring the size of your skulls for levels of intelligence. We pledge not to sterilize your women, nor to separate your children from their families. We give an absolute undertaking that you shall not be placed onto the mentality of government handouts for the next five generations but you will enjoy the full benefits of Aboriginal equality. At the end of two hundred years, we will make a treaty to validate occupation by peaceful means and not by conquest.

Finally, we solemnly promise not to make a quarry of England and export your valuable minerals back to the old country Australia, and we vow never to destroy three-quarters of your trees, but to encourage Earth Repair Action to unite people, communities, religions and nations in a common, productive, peaceful purpose.

Burnum Burnum

لماذا يرتفع معدل الموت المفاجئ

الافتراض العام هو أننا نعيش في عهد مهووس بتعاليم السلامة. لقد تقلصت المزاليق ومتاهات اللعب في الملاعب الأمريكية لحماية الأطفال من السقوط الخطر. العديد من الولايات لديها قوانين تتطلب من سائقي الدراجات ارتداء خوذات؛ وبعض المنتجات لديها تحذيرات سلامة سخيفة جدا لدرجة أنها تثير السخرية. ( الحبوب المنومة التي "قد تسبب الوهن"، على سبيل المثال).   ولكن الأرقام تشير إلى قصة أخرى. وفقا لكتاب جديد، (حذرا: دليل المستخدم إلى عقولنا المهووسة بخطر الإصابة)، انخفض معدل الوفيات المفاجئة  بشكل كبير من عام 1918  إلى 1992، ولا شك بسبب الاهتمام الجديد نحو أنظمة السلامة والعلامات التحذيرية. ومع ذلك، في عام 1992، توقف انخفاض الوفيات المفاجئة - ومنذ عام 2000، كان الارتفاع بمعدلاتها بدأ مرة أخرى. البيانات حول حوادث السيارات لافتة  للنظر بشكل خاص. يقول (جوشوا روثمان) في مقال نشر مؤخرا على موقع "نيويوركر":   "في عام 2015، بعد ما يقرب من قرن من الانخفاض المطرد في وفيات المتعلقة بالسيارات ، السائقين و المشاة وسائقي الدراجات النارية، ارتفع عددهم إلى ثمانية، عشرة، واثني عشر بالمائة على التوالي". مؤلف الكتاب المذكور - ستيف كاسنر، يكتب أن هناك العديد من التفسيرات المحتملة لهذا، ولكن العديد منها يشير الى الحالة الحالمة و المتفائلة المضللة للعقل البشري. وقد اقترحت بعض الدراسات، على سبيل المثال، أنه عندما يرتدي راكبو الدراجات خوذات، فإنهم يجرؤون على أخذ المزيد من المخاطر؛ ومن غير المستغرب، أن سهو عقولنا المتكرر الناجم عن الكثير من ملهيات عصرنا يمكن أن يكون سببا في ذلك أيضا. يشرح روثمان نظريات كاسنر الرئيسية و يقول: " أحد التفاسير هو ميلنا عندما نكون أكثر أمانا أكثر أمانا، لاتخاذ المزيد من المخاطر. (على سبيل المثال، يميل راكبو الدراجات الذين يرتدون الخوذ إلى الاقتراب من السيارات أكثر من أولئك الذين لا يرتدون الخوذة.) الاختراعات الجديدة تلعب دورا أيضا، الهواتف الذكية التي تشتت انتباهنا، والأدوية التي تحيرنا؛ شعبية رياضات المغامرة، مثل تسلق الصخور. هناك ثقافة صاعدة من صنع الأشياء بأنفسنا: "الناس عادت مرة أخرى إلى بناء الأثاث الخاص بهم، نفخ الزجاج، تحسين منازلهم، تقطيع الحطب الخاصة بهم،" يكتب كاسنر. وتحدث العديد من الإصابات عندما يحاول الناس "طهي الطعام أو صنعه أو تزيينه أو إصلاحه". وهناك عامل آخر مهم هو أن الناس يعيشون حياة طويلة، تصل إلى سن الشيخوخة الضعيفة والتي يتزايد فيها أخطار الإصابات بكل أنواعها. " رأي كاسنر هو أن أنظمة السلامة قد أخذتنا إلى أبعد الحدود الممكن لها أخذنا اليها. يقول كاسنر: "لقد وصلنا إلى نهاية مرحلة جيدة حقا. "لقد نجحنا في كسب جميع المكاسب الكبيرة التي سنحصل عليها من وضع زوايا مطاطية على الأشياء و من قول :" مهلا، لا تفعل ذلك "." يعود الأمر إلى حد كبير لنا الآن أن نتوخى المزيد من الحذر في حياتنا اليومية. ومن روح ثقافة الوسوسة في حياتنا اليومية، يقول روثمان أن كاسنر "يكرس عدة صفحات للتقنية المناسبة لتقطيع الكيك" - بالنهاية، إصابات المطبخ المتعلقة بالسكين ترسل حوالي 333،000 من الأميركيين إلى غرفة الطوارئ كل عام. الموت عن طريق الكيك وسيلة غبية حقا للذهاب. صفحتنا على الفيسبوك :

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المقال الأصلي باللغة الانكليزية: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/06/the-accidental-death-rate-is-rising.html?utm_campaign=sou&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1

Still Life with Roses, c. 1860. Adelheid Dietrich (German, 1827 - 1891)

When are Pterotrachea finally going to go viral? How does anyone look at this animal and not flip their shit? I first saw them in a BBC documentary when I was a toddler and I still can’t believe a real thing evolved like this, but somehow as soon as I’m done thinking about them they just quietly retire to the background of my memory. Multiple divers say that they have a tendency to follow you around when they see you. :) :) :)

Metamorphosis

By Ruth Stone

Now I am old, all I want to do is try;

But when I was young, if it wasn’t easy I let it lie,

Learning through my pores instead,

And it did neither of us any good.

For now she is gone who slept away my life,

And I am ignorant who inherited,

Though the head has grown so lively that I laugh,

“Come look, come stomp, come listen to the drum.”

I see more now than then; but she who had my eyes

Closed them in happiness, and wrapped the dark

In her arms and stole my life away,

Singing in dreams of what was sure to come.

I see it perfectly, except the beast

Fumbles and falters, until the others wince.

Everything shimmers and glitters and shakes with unbearable longing,

The dancers who cannot sleep, and the sleepers who cannot dance

To Damascus, years are only moments, decades are only flitting trifles of time. She measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise, and prosper and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality. Damascus has seen all that has ever occurred on earth, and still she lives. She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires, and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies. Though another claims the name, old Damascus is by right the Eternal City.

Mark Twain (via mideastnrthafricacntrlasia)

Athletes Go for the Gold with NASA Spinoffs

NASA technology tends to find its way into the sporting world more often than you’d expect. Fitness is important to the space program because astronauts must undergo the extreme g-forces of getting into space and endure the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body. The agency’s engineering expertise also means that items like shoes and swimsuits can be improved with NASA know-how.

As the 2024 Olympics are in full swing in Paris, here are some of the many NASA-derived technologies that have helped competitive athletes train for the games and made sure they’re properly equipped to win.

The LZR Racer reduces skin friction drag by covering more skin than traditional swimsuits. Multiple pieces of the water-resistant and extremely lightweight LZR Pulse fabric connect at ultrasonically welded seams and incorporate extremely low-profile zippers to keep viscous drag to a minimum.

Swimsuits That Don’t Drag

When the swimsuit manufacturer Speedo wanted its LZR Racer suit to have as little drag as possible, the company turned to the experts at Langley Research Center to test its materials and design. The end result was that the new suit reduced drag by 24 percent compared to the prior generation of Speedo racing suit and broke 13 world records in 2008. While the original LZR Racer is no longer used in competition due to the advantage it gave wearers, its legacy lives on in derivatives still produced to this day.

Trilion Quality Systems worked with NASA’s Glenn Research Center to adapt existing stereo photogrammetry software to work with high-speed cameras. Now the company sells the package widely, and it is used to analyze stress and strain in everything from knee implants to running shoes and more.

High-Speed Cameras for High-Speed Shoes

After space shuttle Columbia, investigators needed to see how materials reacted during recreation tests with high-speed cameras, which involved working with industry to create a system that could analyze footage filmed at 30,000 frames per second. Engineers at Adidas used this system to analyze the behavior of Olympic marathoners' feet as they hit the ground and adjusted the design of the company’s high-performance footwear based on these observations.

Martial artist Barry French holds an Impax Body Shield while former European middle-weight kickboxing champion Daryl Tyler delivers an explosive jump side kick; the force of the impact is registered precisely and shown on the display panel of the electronic box French is wearing on his belt.

One-Thousandth-of-an-Inch Punch

In the 1980s, Olympic martial artists needed a way to measure the impact of their strikes to improve training for competition. Impulse Technology reached out to Glenn Research Center to create the Impax sensor, an ultra-thin film sensor which creates a small amount of voltage when struck. The more force applied, the more voltage it generates, enabling a computerized display to show how powerful a punch or kick was.

Astronaut Sunita Williams poses while using the Interim Resistive Exercise Device on the ISS. The cylinders at the base of each side house the SpiraFlex FlexPacks that inventor Paul Francis honed under NASA contracts. They would go on to power the Bowflex Revolution and other commercial exercise equipment.

Weight Training Without the Weight

Astronauts spending long periods of time in space needed a way to maintain muscle mass without the effect of gravity, but lifting free weights doesn’t work when you’re practically weightless. An exercise machine that uses elastic resistance to provide the same benefits as weightlifting went to the space station in the year 2000. That resistance technology was commercialized into the Bowflex Revolution home exercise equipment shortly afterwards.

Want to learn more about technologies made for space and used on Earth? Check out NASA Spinoff to find products and services that wouldn’t exist without space exploration.   

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