Now, that’s a mouthful. But, essentially, it just means that Zootopia 2 is the king of the animated box office when it comes to making money. The MPA (Motion Picture Association) bestowed that honor upon Disney’s film this weekend after the animated sequel passed $1.7 billion in theaters. All of that is impressive, but it also cements a hidden fact: it’s the Zoomers’ world now.
The ocean is continuously ventilated when surface waters sink and transport, for example, oxygen and carbon to greater depths. The efficiency of this process can be estimated using the so-called water age, which describes the time elapsed since a water mass last was in contact with the atmosphere.
Pūkeko use sound elements to create calls and combine them to create complex call sequences in order to expand the range of options for expressing themselves—these are the findings of an international team including Konstanz researchers. Until now, this behavior had only been known in vocal learning animals, such as primates, whales or songbirds.
A new analysis of air quality data from the past 70 years shows that Canada's record wildfire smoke in 2023 is part of a broader, continent-wide trend toward smokier skies across North America.
Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but other bacteria sense light for less well-known functions.
so why. why why why. Do I so often come across fic where the author clearly a) doesn't have any idea how far apart two places are, or how to get from one to the other, and b) never thought to check google maps?
Just read a fic where one character is thinking that "it's only an 8-hour plane ride!"
and. I have driven basically between those two places.
It's a 6-hour drive unless traffic is really bad. if you hit the most congested bits exactly at rush hour, it might take you 8 hours. to drive.
Flying? Well, if you were starting at a small regional airport and needed to make a connection, it might take you four hours.
I actually mind this shit more than the big stuff. The big stuff is hard to research. Google Maps is really really quick and easy.
A woman went inside a Goodwill and noticed a cute Dooney & Bourke bag hanging in-store. However, by the time she saw the item’s price tag, she thought the company was price gouging.
Goodwill was selling the item, which had obvious wear and tear, for $19.99. The reality astounded Julia (@juliasgems), who felt that the Goodwill had significantly high prices, especially considering they got the item for free as a donation. It was even more egregious when considering online prices for newer-looking, larger Dooney & Bourke bags that were only $10 more expensive than the one sitting in front of her.
Can people really change? According to anime, they can! While those who go bad tend to stay bad, there are a handful of anime villains that have managed to overcome the circumstances of their tragic backstories and become unexpected heroes. Kidnapping, murder, threats of world domination, all of the above are forgivable provided a character is willing to atone! And these characters? They’re the dictionary definition of “penitent.” Prepare to have your hard and wounded heart softened, because these are the 10 best redemption arcs in anime.
Vegeta – Dragon Ball Z
(Toei)
Vegeta started Dragon Ball Z as one of Planet Earth’s Most Wanted. He and his less-than-redeemable buddy Nappa traveled to the planet to steal the Dragon Balls, killing a whole slew of the world’s defenders in the process. He even kills Nappa after his partner loses to Goku! No loyalty! After his defeat by Goku, Vegeta is left totally humiliated. It’s this super saiyan-sized humbling that starts him down the road to redemption (though he does terrorize a few more innocent people first). Eventually, he’s forced to team up with Goku and the gang when fighting Frieza, and after the battle, he marries a woman from Earth: Bulma. It’s Bulma that truly pulls him back from the brink, as he sacrifices himself in a later battle with Majin Buu to save the woman he loves, and her planet with her. After this fight, he finally gets his act together and takes a final step towards romance, well, bromance—he and Goku become best of friends.
Researchers in the lab of Asst. Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) have spent three years looking for failure, scouring the academic literature for tales of battery breakdowns and degraded electrolytes.
A team of scientists announced Tuesday they have developed new deep-sea landers specifically to test their contentious discovery that metallic rocks at the bottom of the ocean are producing "dark oxygen".
A hundred years ago, quantum mechanics was a radical theory that baffled even the brightest minds. Today, it's the backbone of technologies that shape our lives, from lasers and microchips to quantum computers and secure communications.
"A plague is upon us'' may have been a common phrase in ancient Jordan, where countless people perished from a mysterious malady that would shape both a society and an era of civilization.
Challenging long-held assumptions, Aarhus University researchers have demonstrated that the protein building blocks essential for life as we know it can form readily in space. This discovery, appearing in Nature Astronomy, significantly raises the statistical probability of finding extraterrestrial life.
I'm in Massachusetts visiting friends and family, and the US border guard was even brusquer and more unfriendly than the one the last time I crossed the border. They used to be reliably genial-while-professional, and now they're barking grumpy questions at me -- and I'm a white English-speaking US citizen with a NEXUS card (pre-screened, "trusted traveler"). A Canadian friend who drove across the border last year said that guards were going down the line of cars waiting to approach the booth and pulling people out to interrogate them on the side of the road, and who'd a thunk it, everyone they pulled out was brown. (When I crossed yesterday, I was the only car in sight, which I'd love to think was because Canadian travel to the US is way down, but probably had more to do with the extremely bad weather forecast that day. I managed to get south of the storm band before it hit, though.)
My obsession with Heated Rivalry continues, though I'm trying hard not to be That Fan at people. I have successfully recommended it to two board members at my church 😈 A friend I'll spend a week with this summer wants to watch it with me then, so I have that to look forward to, and there's a chance I'll get to watch it with other friends this weekend, if they're interested. Meanwhile I'm reading a lot of fic, but also freely DNFing anything that isn't working for me, whether for characterization or bad grammar or spelling it "Rosanov."
["Why, oh why, do people keep incorrectly capitalizing dialog-tag fragments like this?" She wailed. -- I mean, I know why they do it: because autocorrect sees the punctuation ending the quotation and thinks the dialog tag is a new sentence, and the writer is foolishly trusting autocorrect over the evidence of every published text they've ever read. But it drives me nuts; my sense of the flow and pacing of a sentence is very much guided by its punctuation, and this is like hitting a pothole every time.]
Geoff and I have started the new season of The Pitt, and certainly I'm liking it so far! It's interesting how much less chaotic the ER seems than it was in the first couple episodes of the first season. I'm very curious about all the characters they've introduced (and about where Mateo, the World's Hottest Nurse™️, is), and I love seeing Whitaker now a fully qualified MD with his own little ducklings following him around. (Is he still living with Santos?) I don't see an overarching plot yet other than "just how suicidal is Dr. Robby?" but/and I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going.
I tested yesterday using a Binax. Negative. I tested today using Flowflex. Negative. So was the positive for Covid outcome on one of the two Walgreen's brand Covid + Flu A + Flu B test my fault? I wouldn't guess it was a badly made test because they were both in the same box, presumably made at the same time in the same factory, but who knows? Question: Why does every different test brand require a different number of drops of the reagent or whatever it is? Porosity of the test stick? At the advice of an even-more-cautious than me friend, I am still going to isolate another couple of days. That is an inconvenience for a variety of ways, including a somewhat odd one. The Stop Massport from letting ICE use their airports folks want letters written to the governor and the Massport board. I couldn't get the links to work to do it online. They suggest that it works better if one puts a paper letter in an envelope with a stamp. I am willing to do that, but I don't have a printer at home - I use the library to print things. My handwriting is not good enough to write the long, complicated letters they suggest, although I could shorten things. https://lexingtonalarm.org/stop-massport-ice-flights-campaign/
I have sent email messages in a fury to my elected folks (Rep Clark, Senators Markey & Warren, useless loudmouths Schumer and Booker) saying we don't want "accountability" (Clark's term) or better body cams (Booker and Shumer), we want ICE gone entirely. The Senate spending bill for DHS is coming up soon.
In and amongst all of that has been Lore Olympus, Rachel Smythe’s wildly successful Webtoon series retelling the relationship between Persephone and Hades in a modern context. After winning a slew of awards and being viewed millions of times during its tenure from 2017 through 2024, the series is finally getting adapted into a new medium.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz is proving once again that he is willing to go to any length to stroke the ego of Donald Trump, if that means that he can gain favours from him. Appearing on Fox News recently, Cruz revealed that he supported Trump’s plans of taking control of Greenland, saying that it was part of the “America First” policy as it would help the United States against adversaries like Russia and China.
A video that is currently doing the rounds on social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), sees Ted Cruz shamelessly sucking up to Trump by appreciating his upcoming potential annexation efforts in Greenland. Does anyone remember that he used to fight with Trump once? He has come a long way since then, well. The journey has been primarily downhill but substantial nevertheless. Anyways, this is what he exactly said in the context:
DC is shining the spotlight on three surprising fan-favorites. Last week, the publisher announced two new ongoing books: The Fury of Firestorm, which will be written by Jeff Lemiere (Sweet Tooth, Absoute Flash) with art by Rafael De Latorre (The Penguin); and Zatanna, which will be written and illustrated by Jamal Campbell.
The first issue of The Fury of Firestorm will be released on April 1st, while the debut issue of Zatanna will arrive on April 29th. Zatanna and The Fury of Firestorm will be part of DC’s Next Level initiative, which is pairing fan-favorite characters with all-star creative teams. Other titles that have already been announced for the initiative include Batwoman by Greg Rucka and DaNi, Deathstroke: The Terminator by Tony Fleecs and Carmine di Giandomenico, and Lobo by Skottie Young and Jorge Corona.
History will really not be kind to the people who could have stopped this, some of them years ago, people who were not True Believers but who refused to act when they could.
Cuts in sulfur emissions from oceangoing vessels have been tied to a reduction in lightning stroke density along heavily trafficked shipping routes in the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, according to new research from the University of Kansas.
Research conducted by an international team of astronomers from Southwest Research Institute, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences in India and the Max Planck Institute in Germany could help predict upcoming solar cycle activity.
Quantum mechanics is rich with paradoxes and contradictions. It describes a microscopic world in which particles exist in a superposition of states—being in multiple places and configurations all at once, defined mathematically by what physicists call a "wavefunction." But this runs counter to our everyday experience of objects that are either here or there, never both at the same time.
An atmospheric scientist at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has helped uncover a previously unknown chemical pathway that plays a major role in the formation of air pollution particles in environments influenced by both natural and human-made emissions—an advance that could reshape how scientists understand air quality and climate impacts.
Researchers from the South Pole Telescope project team looked deep into the center of the Milky Way, discovering powerful, surprising bursts of light from two accreting white dwarf systems.
Researchers report the first documented case of tool use in cattle, based on a Swiss Brown cow named Veronika who doesn’t just grab an object and rub it against herself.
She chooses the “right” part of a tool for the job, changes her technique depending on where she’s scratching, and repeats those choices in a way that looks consistent and intentional.
Three times in the last week I’ve gotten inquiries from authors, about email from an account purporting to be me. This account praised their book in a very “AI” fashion and tried to get them to write back to the account, with the end goal, no doubt, of scamming them out of money via “marketing services” or some such. These authors, quite reasonably, wanted to confirm that the email they got sent was a scam.
I was happy to confirm it, and was happy that they checked rather than allow themselves to be taken in. Nevertheless, this is one of those times where it will be useful to have a post dealing with it that I can point people to (and other people can point people to as well). So here it is, in convenient list form.
1. If I were going to contact you, about anything, it would be from my actual email address and not any other. If you get an email from “me” from any other domain, it’s not me. If you’re not sure, even though I just told you now, you can email me at my actual address and I will tell you. Actually what I will probably do is link you to this post. Hi! You’re not the first person to have a scam attempted on them!
(If you do get a suspicious email that appears to be from my actual address, and you want to double-check: one, make sure the actual reply address matches mine, and two, you can send me a brand new email, not as a reply, saying “hey, was this really from you?” I don’t mind you checking.)
2. No, I almost certainly have not contacted you to tell you privately how great your book is. I probably haven’t read your book (sorry) unless I’ve been contacted by your publisher/editor/publicist about the possibility of blurbing it. If that’s the case, the blurb would be going through that channel, not to you directly.
Conversely, if I don’t like your book, I’m not going to email you about that, either, because I’m not that kind of asshole. Similarly, I will never email you offering suggestions about how to make the work better, because that’s not my job, and also the book is already published, it’s too late for that.
The point of the scam person buttering you up (or negging you, depending) is to get you to start a conversation where they will segue into offering a “service” of some kind, which would entail you sending money, and them taking it and running off with it. Don’t fall for any of that.
3. If I had read your book outside of blurbing and thought it was terrific, it’s extremely unlikely I would contact you directly about it, and not just because I couldn’t be bothered to track down your email. What I would do is praise it publicly, through this site and/or social media. Why publicly instead of privately? Because that’s what would do the most good for you — to tell other people they should look out for your work, and maybe even buy it. That’s how you help other writers in the age of social media: Tell people about them.
4. Outside of you (or anyone else) purchasing my books, I neither want nor need your money. Likewise I don’t use any publishing, marketing or promotion services outside of my publishers. Additionally, I myself do not offer any editing/consulting services directly to other writers. To top it all off, I would never ever just randomly pull up in your email about any of the above. I am both too lazy, and have too much to do, for any of that. So if you see “me” doing any of that crap, it’s not me.
5. Nearly all of the above can be applied to pretty much any “big name” writers that scammers will impersonate to gain your trust and from there, your money. You know what, most of us just don’t have time for individual outreach, and if we did, we’re not going to segue into trying to offer you publishing-related services. We have books to write and our own things to deal with.
Now, some authors do offer consulting, or do workshops, or other things. What they are not likely to do, and what should be a red flag for you, is track you down individually and offer that service directly. They will do it via their sites, or announcements through social media, or through their newsletters, etc. Beware that “personal outreach.”
6. I don’t typically encourage writers to use “AI” for anything — do your own work, it’s better that way — but here’s one thing you can do: Go to ChatGPT, or Gemini, or any other “AI,” and enter the following prompt: “Write me an email to [Your Name] telling them in no more than 150 words how awesome their book [Your Book Title] is.” Put in your name and your book title where directed, and hit enter. There, now you have an idea a) what “AI” praise looks like, so you will recognize it in a scam email, b) how fast a scammer can now produce an individualized piece of praise.
It feels good to get praise! It feels even better to get praise from someone who is, to some degree or another, successful in the field! This is why these scammers do this. They want to get past your defenses and aim for your money. The better you understand how this fake “praise” is generated, and how quickly it can be generated, the better armed you will be against it.
7. Does it feel like a scam? It’s a scam. Are you not sure if it’s a scam? It’s a scam. Absolutely certain it’s not a scam? My friend, I have some real bad news for you.
8. This should in no way preclude you, as a writer or a fan (or both!), from sending a nice email to a writer telling them how much you enjoyed their work. Write it yourself — don’t have an “AI” do it, come on now — and I recommend being brief. It is actually nice for writers to get positive email about their work from real people.
Likewise, if you are a writer, you don’t have to mistrust every complimentary email you get. In a short enough time, it becomes clear which emails are from actual people, and which ones are “AI”-generated scams (hint: the real emails tend to be more endearingly awkward). But if that “big name” shows up in your email box, it’s not only okay to give it heightened scrutiny, it’s actually necessary to do it.
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in collaboration with the University of the Virgin Islands have discovered that microorganisms in seawater surrounding corals provide a powerful indicator of coral disease, potentially transforming how reef health is monitored worldwide.
Forensics experts gather DNA to understand who was present at a crime scene. But what if the crime occurred in the middle of a lake, where DNA could be carried far and wide by wind and waves? That's the challenge faced by aquatic ecologists who study environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor endangered animals, track invasive species, or monitor fish populations.
This is just a blog post to whinge about having to complete paperwork, which takes time and brain capacity that I'd rather be using for other things, like SCIENCE.
I'll get over it eventually. A certain amount is necessary, anyway.
At which I was able to make a couple of minor contributions.
Reason why serving soldiers a very small statistical minority in divorce statistics pre-1914 (post then increased massively....): there were huge restrictions on how many could marry 'on the strength' so there were fairly few actually married in the first place. Mi knowinz on this partly from Victorian fiction (I think it features in one of Charlotte Yonge's) but mostly from Being A Historian who had to do with the Contagious Diseases Acts.
Also able to make some comments apropos of preserving archives of relevant organisations and the problems of digital records.
A lot of oh dear less change than one would like to imagine took place over time in matters of divorce, family disruption, domestic abuse, gendered assumptions, etc etc: but also, a sense that, in fact Back in The Past when women may not have had much agency, they were nevertheless using what they could get, e.g. separation law, protection orders, and various legal intricacies.
Also wondered how far they were able to manipulate (or the law was actually based on) certain patriarchal assumptions, which is what I found when reviewing book by one of the major contributors - i.e. that deserting husbands were falling down on doing patriarchy like they should, bad boy, no more right of coverture if your wife goes through a fairly cheap and simple legal procedure, post-1857.
Solar panels on bodies of water in the northeastern U.S. might generate renewable energy but could also carry risks for birds, especially waterbirds. Now a new study provides a data-informed approach to siting floating solar that could protect waterbirds and others, without sacrificing the potential for energy generation.
Precise methods for shredding or repairing and replacing specific cancer-causing proteins in a malignant cell, developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, could have applications beyond cancer to a wide range of immunological diseases, members of the interdisciplinary research team say. The work was published recently as an article and a Communication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
I've been profiling my home and work environments for ambient noise to better understand my listening experience. At home, it's a serene 25 dBA, while my workplace averages a much more active 50 dBA.
To maintain focus, I use headphones that provide 40 dB of isolation, and I typically listen to music at levels between 70-75 dB. Because most commercial music is mastered with a dynamic range of around 60 dB, the audio easily swamps any stray external sounds that might try to sneak through. All told, this setup creates a total sonic bubble—don't hear the background at all, regardless of what's happening around me.
Hey ding-dongs, let’s have a chit-chat about Ablaut reduplication.
If you have three words, the order usually goes 'I-A-O.' -tic-tac-toe
If there are only two words, ‘I’ is the first and the second is either ‘A’ or ‘O.’ -click-clack -King-Kong
I can think of a few exceptions, like "bone-dry," and more rhymes like "helter-skelter." Some like "merry-go-round" seem to follow a similar high to low pattern.
A woman and her brother wait painstakingly for his luggage to arrive at the Pittsburgh Airport baggage claim carousel. They can’t believe the state his personal belongings arrive in.
In a video with over 6.2 million views, TikToker Loons (@laysuperstar) and her brother stand at a mostly empty baggage claim. Her brother chases a small item on the conveyor belt.
CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).
So yesterday while doing some editing on Fanlore I found out what a colorbar was and I thought they were kind of neat. So for today's Snowflake Challenge I'm twenty years too late for a trend and made a colorbar for Holmes/Watson:
And yes I do realize one pic is of Basil/Dawson, but they are the mouse equivalent for Holmes/Watson, and I love them.
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