Claire Glenn Atteberry

EarthSky Facebook friend Göran Strand posted the photo above of the midnight sun on the day of the northern summer solstice, in northern Sweden. He must have captured it just after midnight on June 21, 2016 because he wrote:

This was shot at 00:50 local time when the sun had passed into summer.

The solstice arrived on June 20 at 2234 UTC (0034 on June 21 for Sweden). Thank you, Göran!

And remember that this year’s solstice was accompanied by a full moon. Birgit Bodén is another EarthSky friend on Facebook who is also in northern Sweden. She caught the moon around the midnight hour as well, just 10 minutes earlier than Goran caught his midnight sun, at 00:40 local time.

Thank you, Birgit!

Bottom line: 2016 solstice midnight moon and sun, by photographers in northern Sweden.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle 
(recipe below is doubled)
 

1 1/2 C Butter (3 sticks)
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C  white sugar
2 small boxes Jello Pumpkin Spice instant pudding mix
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 C flour

Cinnamon Sugar Coating
1 C white sugar
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
salt

Cream - butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs
Then add remaining dry ingredients until creamy.
Roll 1-2in balls in palms of hand and roll in cinnamon in sugar.
Once  on cookie sheet, dash salt on all raw cookie balls.

Bake at 325 (Convection oven or 350 conventional) 9-10 min.

Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Immediate put a pinch of cinnamon and sugar on the top of each yummy morsel. Makes 4-5 dozen. Plenty to share with a friend in need!

Enjoy!

Homesweet Homegrown Tour continues…

Our next stop took us to Portland, Oregon, home of food trucks, kombucha on tap, vegan minimalls, pedal-powered coffee roasters, and speakeasy style pickles. Put a bird on it—we were in love.

We trekked down to City Farm, a new urban nursery in the St. John’s part of town. Owner Nik Hahn opened City Farm last February and is already off to an amazing start—this little shop is packed with everything urban homesteaders need to get their garden on, including a full line of canning supplies, organic mulches, soils and amendments, composters, bins of cover crops available by the pound, ducks, chicks, coops, bees, beneficial bugs, and a beautiful selection of books to get you started on basically any food/farm project you can think of. Oh, and the seeds!

As a self-described “plant nerd,” Hahn has a fantastic variety of rare medicinal seeds, annuals and perennials, eclectic heirlooms, fruit trees, flowering plants, and more—all with a focus on hyperlocal, sustainable, and organic growing. City Farm even has a whole wall dedicated just to local seeds, featuring seeds from Nichols Garden Nursery and Wild Garden Seeds, two Oregon-based companies.

When Hahn had the chance to move into the house next to City Farm last April, the first thing she did was rip up every last bit of lawn and start growing food.

“It was all sod as far as the eye could see,” says Hahn.

Well, not anymore. In its place, she planted a massive front-yard garden featuring potatoes, tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, eggplant, kale, herbs, edible flowers, and raspberry bushes. Melons now grow in the big, cooked-down pile of sod, and tomatoes climb bamboo trellises along the sidewalk out front.

It’s this vision that Nikki used to helped transform this little industrial corner of Portland into a thriving urban nursery store. Today in true Portland style, the store even has its own food truck parked out front—The Garden Well—which serves up local brew from St. John’s Coffee Roaster and Free Salad Fridays, featuring greens and edible flowers grown in the City Farm garden.

“The building itself used to be a muffler shop, and before that it was a Harley shop, so it’s been a lot of fun to take a space that was so machine-based and so mechanical and turn it into something green and repurpose it,” says Hahn.

This is definitely a running theme in the city, and it’s so refreshing to see people turning vacant spaces into something beautiful (and tasty). As we walked around Portland, I was amazed at all of the ways Portlanders were fitting in food—nasturtiums along the side of storefronts, trellised cucumbers along the front sidewalk, and raised beds built up around curbs.

Thanks to a new program we saw in Portland called Farm My Yard, there will be even more gardens popping up in Portland (and hopefully across the country). This genius program pairs urban farmers with vacant lawns and unused spaces throughout the city. It’s pretty simple, actually: If you have a patch of lawn that you’d like to offer up, you just put a Farm My Yard sign out, and an interested gardener can claim your space. Both parties sign an agreement, and the homeowner gets a share of all food grown—it’s a total win-win. Spread the word, and you can help bring a little bit of Portland’s front-yard garden charm to your neck of the woods.

Next Stop: Portland, Part II: Heirloom cocktails and restaurant farming at Besaw’s.

All Photos by Paul David, except the Farm My Yard, courtesy of FarmMyYard.org

A plastic sponge that sops up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) might ease our tranisition away from polluting fossil fuels to new energy sources like hydrogen. A relative of food container plastics could play a role in President Obama’s plan to cut CO2 emissions. The material might also someday be integrated into power plant smokestacks.

Meet Chaetopterus, also called a “parchment tube worm.”

It’s a marine tube worm that makes its home in ooze and produces light via bioluminescence. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have called the worms’ bioluminescent display dazzling. This display comes in the form of puffs of blue light, released into sea water. These scientists and their colleagues are unraveling the mechanisms behind Chaetopterus’ bioluminescent display.

Read more about the research on this creature from Scripps.

The parchment tube worms get their name from the opaque, cocoon-like cylinders in which they live. They’re found around the world in muddy environments, from shallow bays to deeper ocean canyons.

Indigo Rose Tomato Salad with Basil Vinaigrette. These tomatoes taste as good as they look! prepared with a light basil vinaigrette.

craving more? check out TasteSpotting

Following the description of the world's smallest frogs, biologists now offer three more species of tiny amphibians from the region of Papua New Guinea. Despite their minute size, around 20 mm, the three new frog species are still substantially larger than the prize holders, described in 2011. The new species represent a small part and attest for the remarkable anuran biodiversity of the Papuan region.

Happy equinox! We celebrate the September equinox as the first day of autumn for the Northern Hemisphere, and the first day of spring for the Southern Hemisphere. Watch a video about the September equinox, above.

The September equinox is a seasonal milestone in Earth’s yearly orbit around the sun. At an equinox, the sun appears directly above Earth’s equator. At the September equinox, the sun is moving from north to south as it crosses above the equator. It’s bringing summer to the Southern Hemisphere and winter to the Northern Hemisphere.

The 2024 September equinox will fall at 12:44 UTC (7:44 a.m. CDT) on September 22, 2024. On this day, days and nights are approximately (but not exactly) equal in length for everyone across the globe. The word equinox comes from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), that is, equal night.

Keep reading to learn more about this important day.

Earth’s tilt causes it

The earliest humans spent more time outside than we do. They used the sky as both a clock and a calendar. And they could easily see that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shift in a regular way throughout the year.

The equinoxes and solstices happen because Earth tilts on its axis by 23 1/2 degrees. Because of the Earth’s tilt, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly. The solstices indicate our greatest (or least) tilt toward the sun, in either hemisphere. The equinoxes fall midway between the solstices.

Earth’s two hemispheres receive the sun’s rays about equally around equinox time. But Earth never stops moving in orbit around the sun. And these days of approximately equal daylight and night will change quickly as we move toward the December solstice. Maybe you’ve noticed that? The length of daylight changes more quickly from day to day around the equinoxes than around the time of the solstices.

A good day to find due east and due west

The day of an equinox is a good day for finding the directions due east and due west from your favorite place to watch the sky. The sun rises due east and sets due west at the equinoxes. It’s true no matter where you live on Earth. Why? Because we all see the same sky.

Everywhere on Earth, except at the North and South Poles, you have a due east and due west point on your horizon. And each point marks the intersection of your horizon with the celestial equator, the imaginary line above the true equator of the Earth.

At the equinoxes, the sun appears overhead at local solar noon as seen from Earth’s equator, as the illustration below shows. The sun is on the celestial equator. The celestial equator intersects due east and due west for everyone around the globe. So the sun rises and sets due east and due west at the equinox.

So go outside around sunset or sunrise on the day of an equinox. Notice the location of the sun on the horizon with respect to familiar landmarks. If you do this, you’ll be able to use those landmarks to find those cardinal directions in the weeks and months ahead, long after Earth has moved on in its ceaseless orbit around the sun.

Signs of the September equinox in nature

The signs that summer is gone – and winter is coming – are everywhere now on the northern half of Earth’s globe. In the Northern Hemisphere, dawn comes later, and sunset earlier. Also, notice the arc of the sun across the sky. It’s shifting southward now. And birds and butterflies are migrating south, along with the path of the sun.

The shorter days are bringing cooler weather. A chill is in the air. In New York City and other fashionable places, some people have stopped wearing white. Creatures of the wild are putting on their winter coats.

All around us, trees and plants are ending this year’s cycle of growth. Perhaps they’re responding with glorious autumn leaves, or a last burst of bloom before winter comes.

In the night sky, Fomalhaut – our Autumn Star – is making its way across the heavens each night.

September equinox images from EarthSky’s community

Equinoxes and Earth’s seasons

Bottom line: The September equinox is here! It’ll arrive at 12:44 UTC on September 22, 2024. The sun will be exactly above Earth’s equator, moving from north to south. Autumn for the Northern Hemisphere. Spring for the Southern Hemisphere. Here’s all you need to know.

Read: Year’s fastest sunsets at equinox

Read more: Equinox shadows trace a straight line from west to east

The post 2024 September equinox: All you need to know first appeared on EarthSky.

{recipe} Raw + vegan tacos! So delicious and healthy.

craving more? check out TasteSpotting

Conversation with Victor:

me: I FOUND A MAILBOX FOR US.

Victor: We don’t need a mailbox.

me: And yet I still found one.  It’s like a goddamn Christmas miracle.

Victor: Yeah.  You keep using that word.  I don’t think it means what you think it means.

me:  Miracle?  It means “A person or thing that is a marvelous example of something.”  I fucking dare you to find a more marvelous example of a metal chicken mailbox.  It’s the Beyonce of mailboxes.

Victor:  I’m taking all of your credit cards.

PS. I did not buy Miracle (the metal chicken mailbox) mostly because Victor accidentally quoted Princess Bride and it made me fall in love with him all over again.  And also because I felt bad about all the dead mice that I’d bought on ebay that morning.  Victor was not nearly as grateful as I thought he’d be because apparently Victor doesn’t understand how “compromise” works.  And also because he hadn’t been aware that I was buying a lot of dead mice on ebay.  And also, possibly, because he may have overheard me put an unnecessary metal chicken mailbox on layaway.  Honestly, it’s hard to tell with Victor.  That man is completely unpredictable.

Climate change alters the way in which species interact with one another–a reality that applies not just to today or to the future, but also to the past, according to a paper published by a team of researchers in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

“We found that, at all time scales, climate change can alter biotic interactions in very complex ways,” said paleoecologist Jessica Blois of the University of California, Merced, the paper’s lead author.

“If we don’t incorporate this information when we’re anticipating future changes, we’re missing a big piece of the puzzle.”

Blois asked for input from researchers who study “deep time,” or the very distant past, as well as those who study the present, to help make predictions about what the future holds for life on Earth as climate shifts.

Co-authors of the paper are Phoebe Zarnetske of Yale University, Matthew Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland, and Seth Finnegan of the University of California, Berkeley.

“Climate change and other human influences are altering Earth’s living systems in big ways, such as changes in growing seasons and the spread of invasive species,” said Alan Tessier, program director in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which co-funded the research with NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences.

“This paper highlights the value of using information about past episodes of rapid change from Earth’s history to help predict future changes to our planet’s ecosystems.”

Scientists are seeing responses in many species, Blois said, including plants that have never been found in certain climates–such as palms in Sweden–and animals like pikas moving to higher elevations as their habitats grow too warm.

“The worry is that the rate of current and future climate change is more than species can handle,” Blois said.

The researchers are studying how species interactions may change between predators and prey, and between plants and pollinators, and how to translate data from the past and present into future models.

“One of the most compelling current questions science can ask is how ecosystems will respond to climate change,” said Lisa Boush, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences.

“These researchers address this using the fossil record and its rich history,” said Boush. “They show that climate change has altered biological interactions in the past, driving extinction, evolution and the distribution of species.

“Their study allows us to better understand how modern-day climate change might influence the future of biological systems and the rate at which that change will occur.”

While more research is needed, Blois said, changes can be observed today as well as in the past, although it’s harder to gather information from incomplete fossil records.

Looking back, there were big changes at the end of major climate change periods, such as the end of the last Ice Age when large herbivores went extinct.

Without those mega-eaters to keep certain plants at bay, new communities of flora developed, most of which in turn are now gone.

“People used to think climate was the major driver of all these changes,” Blois said, “but it’s not just climate. It’s also extinction of the megafauna, changes in the frequency of natural fires, and expansion of human populations. They’re all linked.”

People are comfortable with the way things have been, said Blois. “We’ve known where to plant crops, for example, and where to find water.”

Now we need to know how to respond, she said, to changes that are already happening–and to those coming in the near future.

Via NSF

Jellyfish have an almost otherworldly beauty, and so they should. They’re not from another world, but they are from another time; they’ve roamed the seas for at least 500 million years, and possibly longer, making them the oldest multi-organ animal.

EarthSky Facebook friend Karine Gary captured this image of jellyfish in the medusa (adult) stage.

She took the image through rounded glass at the New Brunswick Aquarium and Marine Centre in Shippagan, New Brunswick, Canada.

Thank you, Karine!

How did life on Earth get started? Three new papers co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth’s first life began at alkaline hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans. Scientists are interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope to find life on other worlds — especially icy worlds with subsurface oceans such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus — we need to know what chemical signatures to look for.

Two papers published recently in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B provide more detail on the chemical and precursor metabolic reactions that have to take place to pave the pathway for life. Russell and his co-authors describe how the interactions between the earliest oceans and alkaline hydrothermal fluids likely produced acetate (comparable to vinegar). The acetate is a product of methane and hydrogen from the alkaline hydrothermal vents and carbon dioxide dissolved in the surrounding ocean. Once this early chemical pathway was forged, acetate could become the basis of other biological molecules. They also describe how two kinds of “nano-engines” that create organic carbon and polymers — energy currency of the first cells — could have been assembled from inorganic minerals.

A paper published in the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta analyzes the structural similarity between the most ancient enzymes of life and minerals precipitated at these alkaline vents, an indication that the first life didn’t have to invent its first catalysts and engines.

“Our work on alkaline hot springs on the ocean floor makes what we believe is the most plausible case for the origin of the life’s building blocks and its energy supply,” Russell said. “Our hypothesis is testable, has the right assortment of ingredients and obeys the laws of thermodynamics.”

Russell’s work was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute through the Icy Worlds team based at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. The NASA Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is a partnership among NASA, 15 U.S. teams and 13 international consortia. The Institute is part of NASA’s astrobiology program, which supports research into the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere.

Via NASA JPL

With sea ice at its lowest point in 1,500 years, how might ecological communities in the Arctic be affected by its continued and even accelerated melting over the next decades? In a review article in the journal Science, to be published on 2 August 2013, Eric Post, a Penn State University professor of biology, and an international team of scientists tackle this question by examining relationships among algae, plankton, whales, and terrestrial animals such as caribou, arctic foxes, and walrus; as well as the effects of human exploration of previously inaccessible parts of the region.

“Our team set out to explore the ‘domino effect’ of sea-ice loss on marine animals, as well as on land-dwelling species living adjacent to ice,” Post said. “Arctic sea ice should be thought of as a biome or an ecosystem and the effects of melting and warming on microorganisms living under ice in this biome already have received much attention. However, those animals living near the ice likely are feeling the effects, as well.”

Post explained that, after reaching its record low in August of 2012, sea ice is expected to continue to melt at an accelerating rate. “Over the entire period covered by the record, Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 86,000 square kilometers – a space slightly larger than the state of South Carolina – per year,” Post said. “That’s an area of critical habitat for many species and the rate of loss is increasing.”

Post added that an acceleration of this rate likely will be due, in part, to the loss of albedo – the white surface provided by ice that reflects sunlight – thereby causing a cooling effect. The high albedo of ice, Post added, will be replaced by a much less-reflective, darker surface of open water – and the effect will be accelerated warming and thus, accelerated melting.

“By viewing sea ice as essential habitat and a substrate for important species interactions, rather than as a lifeless blank surface, its loss as a result of warming becomes a rather stunning prospect,” Post emphasized.

The domino effect of sea-ice melting on terrestrial animals, Post explained, could happen in the following way though a disruption in the food chain: Sea-ice algae and sub-ice plankton, which together account for 57 percent of the total annual biological production in the Arctic Ocean, already are being immediately affected by sea-ice melting because ice loss triggers a significant change in the blooming times of these organisms. Likewise, land adjacent to areas of sea-ice loss will experience significant surface warming inland from the coastline, affecting soil conditions and plant growth. In their review article, Post and his colleagues hypothesize that, while invertebrate ocean-dwelling animals such as zooplankton that feed on algae and phytoplankton in the seas already are being affected, larger terrestrial animals such as caribou could find their land-dwelling food sources disrupted, as well, due to temperature changes affecting plant communities inland.

“A change in population mixing could be another, indirect effect of sea-ice melting,” Post said. He explained that populations of wolves and arctic foxes that currently are isolated only during the summer could become even more isolated: A longer period of the year without ice, which promotes travel between populations, could lead to a decline in crossbreeding.

However, for other species, the effect of sea-ice loss could be just the opposite: “We know that, for some species, sea ice acts as a barrier to intermixing,” Post explained. “So ice loss and a lengthening of the ice-free season likely will increase population mixing, reducing genetic differentiation.” Post explained that, for example, polar and grizzly bears already have been observed to have hybridized because polar bears now are spending more time on land where they have contact with grizzlies.

While such mixing of populations is not necessarily cause for concern, Post explained, it could lead to drastic changes in disease dynamics. For example, a population that currently is a host to a certain pathogen could carry that pathogen to another, previously unexposed population. “In addition, a decrease in sea ice in arctic Canada likely will increase contact between eastern and western arctic species, promoting mixing of pathogen communities that previously were isolated,” Post said. “For example, phocine distemper virus (PDV) currently affects eastern Arctic seals. But if these seals begin to mix with western arctic seals, the virus may reach other, naive populations.”

Furthermore, mere crowding of animals in coastal habitat as sea ice retreats also could present challenges to the health and vitality of populations of some species, especially walrus, Post explained. “Walrus are benthic feeders,” Post said, “which means they are specialists in foraging for food that occurs only in shallow waters. They also use the edge of the sea ice to rest and dive from while foraging. However, as sea ice melts and its edge retreats from the shoreline, it becomes located above deeper water. As a result, walrus have been observed abandoning the retreating ice edge and congregating along shorelines, from which they can try to maintain access to shallow water. This behavior, however, increases the local density of animals on such ‘haulouts,’ and can promote transmission of pathogens as well as lead to trampling of young.”

Post added that greater accessibility of previously remote parts of the Arctic to human exploration could be yet another unexpected consequence of sea-ice loss. “Retreating sea ice, longer ice-free seasons, and loss of sea ice are expected to promote development of shipping lanes and increased shipping traffic in areas that formerly were rather inaccessible,” Post said. “This increased marine access likely will accelerate the pace of mineral and petroleum exploration in the Arctic, which in turn could affect both terrestrial and marine animals; for example, bowhead whales and Pacific walrus.”

Via Eberly College of Science

Go someplace dark! Meteors will be flying this weekend and in the coming weeks

EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2014

These photos were posted last year by friends on EarthFacebook and Google+.

The rift that led to the new iceberg was discovered in October 2011 during NASA’s Operation IceBridge flights over the continent. The rift soon became the focus of international scientific attention. Seeing the rift grow and eventually form a 280-square-mile ice island gave researchers an opportunity to gather data that promises to improve our understanding of how glaciers calve.

“Calving is a hot topic in cryospheric research. The physics behind the calving process are highly complex,” said Michael Studinger, IceBridge project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Although calving events like this are a regular and important part of an ice sheet’s life cycle—Pine Island Glacier previously spawned large icebergs in 2001 and 2007—they often raise questions about how ice sheet flow is changing and what the future might hold. Computer models are one of the methods researchers use to project future ice sheet changes, but calving is a complicated process that is not well represented in continent-scale models.

Days after spotting the rift, IceBridge researchers flew a survey along 18 miles of the crack to measure its width and depth and collect other data such as ice shelf thickness. “It was a great opportunity to fly a suite of instruments you can’t use from space and gather high-resolution data on the rift,” said Studinger.

Soon after, researchers at the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, started keeping a close eye on the crack from space with their TerraSAR-X satellite. Because TerraSAR-X uses a radar instrument it is able to make observations even during the dark winter months and through clouds. “Since October 2011, the evolution of the Pine Island Glacier terminus area has been monitored more intensively,” said Dana Floricioiu, a DLR research scientist, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

When IceBridge scientists returned to Pine Island Glacier in October of 2012, the rift had widened and was joined by a second crack first spotted that May. The close-up data gathered by the instruments aboard NASA’s DC-8 gave a view of the ice that added to TerraSAR-X observations. “It’s a perspective I hadn’t had before,” said Joseph MacGregor, a glaciologist at the Institute for Geophysics at The University of Texas at Austin, one of IceBridge’s partnering organizations. “Before, I was always looking nearly straight down.”

In the time since discovering the rift scientists have been gathering data on how changes in the environment might affect calving rates. For ocean-terminating glaciers like Pine Island Glacier the calving process takes place in a floating ice shelf where stresses like wind and ocean currents cause icebergs to break off. By gathering data on changes to ocean temperature and increasing surface melt rates, researchers are working toward implementing the physics of calving—a calving law—in computer simulations.

The data collected since 2011 is one step in building an understanding of calving and further research and cooperation is needed to understand not only calving but how Antarctica’s ice sheets and glaciers will change in the future. The unique combination of airborne and orbiting instruments that closely watched this recent calving event was the result of a spontaneous collaboration between researchers in the field. “It was at the level of colleagues coming together,” said Studinger. “It was a really nice collaboration.”

Via NASA

The discovery cracks the “RNA control code,” which dictates how RNA — a family of molecules that mediates DNA expression — moves genetic information from DNA to create proteins.

“For the first time, we understand the language of a code that is essential to gene processing,” said Morris, a professor in U of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research. “Many human diseases are due to defects in this code, so figuring out what it means is crucial to creating new treatments for many conditions.”

The scientific journal Nature published the study results in its July 11, 2013 issue.

The researchers translated the code with a biochemical technique developed by a research scientist in Hughes’ lab, Debashish Ray, and a student in Morris’s lab, Hilal Kazan. The team defined the meaning of “words” in RNA, allowing identification of patterns in RNA molecules that proteins use to control RNA processing and movement, which are often altered in disease.

One protein they looked at may explain some of the symptoms in children with autism. The researchers found that RBFOX1, a protein often turned off in the brains of patients, ensures the activity of genes important for the function of nerve cells in the brain.

“This was a surprising finding, because we knew RBFOX1 controls gene expression, but had no idea it also stabilizes RNA,” said Hughes, a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and the Donnelly Centre. “It’s a good example of the predictive power of the RNA control code, which we think will really open up the field of gene regulation.”

Hughes said the work also shows that the RNA control code may be easier to interpret than a similar control code in DNA. Researchers have been struggling for years to understand this DNA control code, but the new results suggest RNA control could offer a more fruitful area of inquiry, with autism as just one example.

The team is now working with autism experts to assess the potential of RBFOX1 in autism therapies, and exploring promising leads on the roles of unstudied proteins in many other diseases.

Via The University of Toronto

After the Quadrantid meteor shower in early January each year, we have a lull in meteor shower activity. No major showers are predicted between early January and the second half of April, when the Lyrid meteor shower will take place. Between now and then, we also have fireball season, which happens for a few weeks around the March equinox. Follow the links below to learn what to expect for meteor showers over the coming months.

Around the March equinox … fireball season.

Lyrid meteor shower peaks the morning of April 22, 2015.

Around the March equinox … fireball season. A fireball is just an especially bright meteor. Northern spring and southern autumn – for a few weeks around the March equinox – is a good time to see one. It’s fireball season — a time of year when bright meteors appear in greater numbers than usual. In fact, in the weeks around the equinox, the appearance rate of fireballs can increase by as much as 30 percent, says NASA.

Why does this happen? Why should there be more fireballs at one time of year than at another? The American Meteor Society says:

… evening fireballs seem to peak [around the March equinox] from the Northern Hemisphere. This could be due to the fact the antapex radiant [the point the solar system is moving away from, as we orbit the sun] lies highest above the horizon this time of year during the evening hours.

NASA has a different view on the possible cause. A NASA website suggests:

The reason why is still unknown, but one hypothesis is that more space debris litters this section of Earth’s orbit.

Meteors are debris from space. They typically range in size from a few feet (about a meter) to smaller than a grain of sand. As these objects enter Earth’s atmosphere, they vaporize due to friction with the air. That’s when you might see an ordinary meteor … or very bright fireball!

Lyrid meteor shower peaks the morning of April 22, 2015. The Lyrids are one of the dozen or so major meteor showers predicted to occur every year. They happen when Earth in its orbit crosses the orbit of this or that comet. In the case of the Lyrids, the comet is Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1).

In 2015, the Lyrids will peak on the morning of April 22, not the evening. The Lyrids’ peak tends to be short-lived, but, still, you might also see meteors before and after that date since we’re crossing the Lyrid meteor stream – that is, fording the meteoroid stream in space, composed of debris left behind by Comet Thatcher – from about April 16 to 25.

The good news for April’s Lyrid meteor shower is that the moon will not interfere. A waxing crescent moon will set early on the evening of April 21, 2015, leaving a dark for watching this year’s Lyrid peak on the morning of April 22.

The radiant for this shower is near the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra, which rises in the northeast at about 10 p.m. on April evenings.

On the peak morning, expect to see 10-20 meteors per hour. But you might see more. The Lyrids are known for uncommon surges that can sometimes bring the rate up to 100 per hour. Those rare outbursts are not easy to predict, but they’re one of the reasons the tantalizing Lyrids are worth checking out around their peak morning.

One last note: Lyrid meteors tend to be bright and often leave trails.

Want more? Everything you need to know: Lyrid meteor shower

Bottom line: There’s always a lull in meteor shower activity between the Quadrantid shower in January and April. Next major meteor shower will be the Lyrids.

EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2015

Homeowners often apply herbicides to their lawns to control weeds, but sometimes pets can be unintentionally exposed to those pesticides scientists say. In a new study published in the July 1, 2013 issue of Science of The Total Environment, scientists found detectable levels of commonly used herbicides in the urine of dogs. At the very least, they recommend that homeowners follow label instructions and allow any pesticide residues to dry completely before allowing pets onto lawns that have been treated.

Scientists from Purdue University and the University of North Carolina tested the urine of 25 dogs that lived in households where the homeowners applied herbicides to their lawns. They looked for and detected three commonly used herbicides (2,4-D, MCPP and dithiopyr). The herbicide levels were about 1.5 to 12.5 times higher in the dogs 24 hours after applications. By 48 hours, herbicide levels in the dog urine had decreased somewhat to near pre-treatment levels.

In experimental grass plots that were sprayed with herbicides (2,4-D, MCPP and dicamba) the scientists were able to detect a substantial amount of pesticide residue up to 48 hours after treatment. At the very least, they recommend that homeowners follow label instructions and allow any pesticide residues to dry completely before allowing pets onto lawns that have been treated. They also suggest that homeowners wash their dog’s feet if they come into contact with a recently treated lawn and to consider alternating the treatment of a front and back lawn by one week so that pets have an untreated area available to them.

Surprisingly, the scientists also detected pesticides in the urine of dogs from homes where no pesticides were applied. They suspect that these dogs may have been exposed to herbicides on lawns in other areas away from the home or that the home lawns were contaminated by pesticide drift from nearby areas.

While the exposure levels found in this study were not high enough to cause concern for acute poisoning, some studies have found that low level pesticide exposures may increase the risk for developing cancer in certain types of susceptible dog breeds.

Deborah Knapp, lead author of the study, is a professor at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. Her and her colleagues conducted the study out of concern for both pet health and the health of people. She explained to Discovery News how both people and pets can be exposed to lawn care chemicals:

Dogs can pick up the chemicals on their paws and their fur. They can then track the chemicals inside the house, leaving chemicals on the floor or furniture. In addition, if the dog has chemicals on its fur, the pet owner could come in contact with the chemicals when they pet or hold the dog.

Co-authors of the study included Wendy Peer, Abass Conteh, Alfred Diggs, Bruce Cooper, Nita Glickman, Patty Bonney, Jane Stewart, Lawrence Glickman and Angus Murphy. Funding for the research was provided in part by Purdue University Center for Cancer Research and private donations in support of bladder cancer research.

Bottom line: In a new study published in the July 1, 2013 issue of Science of The Total Environment, scientists found detectable levels of three commonly used herbicides in the urine of dogs after lawn applications. At the very least, they recommend that homeowners follow label instructions and allow any pesticide residues to dry completely before allowing pets onto lawns that have been treated.

Bee brain study reveals pesticide effect

How fast can a wet dog shake dry?

Homeschool Skedtrack is a schedule creator and tracker, especially useful for homeschooling teachers and private tutors. Here is a screenshot of the planning program... Here is a description from the site's owners: Homeschool Skedtrack is a FREE online lesson planner,...

Full moon falls on June 23, 2013 at 11:32 UTC (6:32 a.m. CDT in the U.S.). Thus, for many, the moon appears about as full in the June 22 evening sky as it does on the evening of June 23. This full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year. It also presents the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. The moon will not be so close again until August, 2014. In other words, it’s not just a supermoon. It’s the closest supermoon of 2013.

At United States’ time zones, the moon will turn full on June 23 at 7:32 a.m. EDT, 6:32 a.m. CDT, 5:32 a.m. MDT and 4:32 a.m. PDT.

We astronomers call this sort of close full moon a perigee full moon. The word perigee describes the moon’s closest point to Earth for a given month. Two years ago, when the closest and largest full moon fell on March 19, 2011, many used the term supermoon, which we’d never heard before. Last year, we heard this term again to describe the year’s closest full moon on May 6, 2012. Now the term supermoon is being used a lot. Last month’s full moon – May 24-25, 2013 – was also a supermoon. But the June full moon is even more super! In other words, the time of full moon falls even closer to the time of perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth. The crest of the moon’s full phase in June 2013, and perigee, fall within an hour of each other.

What does supermoon mean exactly? And how special is the June 23, 2013 supermoon? Follow the links below to find out.

What is a supermoon?

How super is this supermoon?

How often is moon both full and closest to Earth?

Will the tides be higher than usual?

Your best photos: May 2013 supermoon

Does a supermoon have a super effect on us?

Big sun-diving Comet ISON might be spectacular in late 2013

What is a supermoon? The word supermoon didn’t come from astronomy. Instead, it came from astrology. Astrologer Richard Nolle of the website astropro.com takes credit for coining the term supermoon. In 1979, he defined it as:

…a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, moon and sun are all in a line, with moon in its nearest approach to Earth.

By this definition, according to Nolle:

There are 4-6 supermoons a year on average.

That doesn’t sound very special, does it? In fact, the June 2013 full moon lines up much more closely with perigee – the moon’s closest point to Earth – than Nolle’s original definition. According to Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar 2013, the 2013 June full moon falls only 22 minutes after the moon reaches perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth for this month and year. At perigee, the moon lies only 356,991 kilometers (221,824 miles) away. Two weeks later, on July 7, the moon will swing out to apogee – its farthest point for the month and year – at 406,490 kilometers (252,581 miles) distant.

Day and night sides of Earth at instant of June 22-23 full moon

How super is this supermoon? June 2013 presents the moon’s closest encounter with Earth until August 10, 2014, at which time the moon will be a scant 5 kilometers closer to Earth. The full moon will come even closer to Earth on September 28, 2015 (356,877 kilometers) and closer yet on November 14, 2016 (356,509 kilometers). November 2016 will feature the closest full moon until November 25, 2034! Maybe this helps you see that supermoons – while interesting – are fairly routine astronomical events.

Even the proximity of full moon with perigee isn’t all that rare. The extra-close moon in all of these years – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 – finds the full moon taking place at or nearly the same hour as lunar perigee. More often than not, the closest perigee of the year comes on the one day of the year that the full moon and perigee most closely coincide. (See table below.)

Moon closest to Earth

Year

Date

Distance

2011

March 19

356,575 km

2012

May 6

356,955 km

2013

June 23

356,991 km

2014

August 10

356,896 km

2015

September 28

356,877 km

2016

November 14

356,509 km

How often is moon both full and closest to Earth? Closest full moons recur in cycles of 14 lunar (synodic) months, because 14 lunar months almost exactly equal 15 returns to perigee (moon’s closest point to Earth). A lunar month refers to the time period between successive full moons, a mean period of 29.53059 days. An anomalistic month refers to successive returns to perigee, a period of 27.55455 days. Hence:

14 x 29.53059 days = 413.428 days
15 x 27.55455 days = 413.318 days

This time period is equal to about 1 year, 1 month, and 18 days. The full moon and perigee will realign again on August 10, 2014, because the 14th full moon after the 2013 June 23 full moon will fall on that date.

Looking further into the future, the perigee full moon will come closer than 356,500 kilometers for the first time in the 21st century on November 25, 2034 (356,446 km). The closest full moon of the 21st century will fall on December 6, 2052 (356,425 km).

For the moon to come closer than 356,400 kilometers (221,457 miles) is quite a feat. In fact, this won’t happen at all in the 21st century (2001-2100) or the 22nd century (2101-2200). The last time the full moon perigee swung this close to Earth was on January 14, 1930 (356,397 km), and the next time won’t be till January 1, 2257 (356,371 km).

Will the tides be higher than usual? Yes, all full moons bring higher-than-usual tides, and perigee full moons bring the highest (and lowest) tides of all. Each month, on the day of the full moon, the moon, Earth and sun are aligned, with Earth in between. This line up creates wide-ranging tides, known as spring tides. High spring tides climb up especially high, and on the same day low tides plunge especially low.

Today’s extra-close full moon accentuates these monthly (full moon) spring tides all the more.

If you live along a coastline, watch for high tides caused by the June 23 perigee full moon – or supermoon – over the next several days. Will the high tides cause flooding? Probably not, unless a strong weather system moves into the coastline where you are. Still, keep an eye on the weather, because storms do have a large potential to accentuate high spring tides.

As a result, if you live near a coast, you’ll want to be on the lookout for higher-than-usual tides.

Because the moon – as always – shines opposite the sun in our sky at full moon, you’ll see the moon beaming all night tonight from dusk until dawn. This extra-close full moon is likely to usher in large tides along the ocean shorelines for the next several days, especially if these high tides are accompanied by strong onshore winds.

Bottom line: The full moon of June 22-23, 2013 is the closest and largest full moon of this year. By a new definition – one that has just entered the world of astronomy from astrology – many will call it a supermoon. There are three full moons in 2013 that meet the definition of a supermoon – May, June and July. But this June 22-23 full moon is the most super of the supermoons! A super-duper moon!

What is a supermoon?

Understanding the full moon

Each full moon has its own name. Here’s a list.

Looking for a tide almanac? EarthSky recommends . . .

Moon facts at your fingertips

Moon image at top of post: Alice Popkorn

By Michael Rolli—

I am a Professional Gardener student at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Originally from West Caldwell, New Jersey, I have a degree in sociology from Penn State University. Before I came to Longwood, I worked as a seasonal gardener at Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, New Jersey, a former private estate surrounded by scenic protected woodlands in its final stages of its restoration and transformation into a public pleasure garden. My primary interests in horticulture are native plants, sustainable landscapes, and organic gardening.

The Longwood Gardens Professional Gardener Training Program is a 2-year, tuition-free immersive program that offers horticulture education through traditional classroom-style learning and practical experience. Graduates of the program have ended up in various horticulture industries, from floriculture enterprises to nurseries to public garden management. There are two classes of about eight students each enrolled at all times. The class of 2012 is the “senior” class, while my class, the class of 2013, is the “junior” class.

The 2013 class of Professional Gardener students, or PGs, is made up of eight students of various ages, geographic locations, horticulture experience, and interests. For the next 2 years, we will be alternating through 3-month cycles of work rotations and classes. Work rotations are essentially month-long internships in different parts of the gardens; so far I have worked in indoor display (in the conservatory), production, and arboriculture. Classes are structured similarly to college semesters, where we learn everything from math and chemistry to landscape design and how to manage a greenhouse.

Housing is provided in the form of duplexes that date back to Pierre S. DuPont’s time, when he decided to keep his staff his close by. Living within the grounds of Longwood Gardens makes for an incredible learning environment.  PG students, interns, international trainees, and some staff members live on Red Lion Row (or simply, The Row), which is a straight road with houses on one side and garden plots on the other, tucked away behind Longwood’s production greenhouses, the Forest Walk, and the Meadow.

Each PG student is provided her or his own 16-by-50-foot garden space, divided into a 240-square-foot ornamental plot and a 560-square-foot vegetable plot. We have an ongoing garden practicum that provides a few guidelines for our ornamental plots but allows plenty of room for creativity and experimentation. The vegetable sides of our plots, however, are dedicated to what has been affectionately dubbed the “Veggie Venture.”

Never having grown my own vegetables before, I’m pretty excited by the Veggie Venture. We grow and sell organic produce to 1906, Longwood’s fine dining cafeteria, which is open to guests of the gardens.  One of the senior PGs is in charge of creating an accession sheet based on a list of vegetables, including specific cultivars, requested by the chefs of 1906. We grow what they ask for, they pay us for what we grow, and we put all of the money toward our trip to China in 2013. We each grow several different crops in our plots, oversee a certain category, and harvest when ready (for example: right now I’m growing lettuce, snap peas, Swiss chard, and peppers, but I am in charge of overseeing all pepper crops and their harvesting).

As a guest blogger, I will be writing about my experiences with organic gardening as a student at Longwood Gardens and as somebody who is completely new to gardening. More specifically, I will be writing about how my class is growing vegetables and cut flowers and pursuing other creative ways of raising funds for our trip to Shanghai, China, in 2013. I will also try to include “Top Three Things I Learned This Week” (about gardening, that is) and “My New Favorite Plant.”

The Top Three Things I Learned This Week:

1. Groundhogs will eat kohlrabi!

2. If you tell somebody at the supermarket that you are a gardener, he or she will assume that gardening is your hobby, not your profession or field of study.

3. Back up everything on your computer so that when your hard drive crashes you don’t have to write the same blog twice!

My New Favorite Plant:

Night-scented stock (Matthiola longipetala ssp. bicornis)

My neighbor grew some night-scented stock for our porch, and I couldn’t have asked for a better neighbor. Not only does this plant have little white and purple flowers that bloom at night, but they are more fragrant than I could reasonably expect for such small flowers. The flowers look wilted when I come back from class or work at the end of the day (as do I sometimes), but by the time I’ve eaten dinner, the flowers are wide awake and offering a pleasurable scent to anybody who happens by it.

More information: Professional Gardener Training Program

I feel like I’m always in a hurry to get things done, but some projects just take their good old time. My chicken tractor, for instance. I started this in early June. It was going to take me a week to build it, and then I was going to get some chickens.

And then it was July. The coop was sort of finished. Like 75% done. But still no chickens.

Then it was August. The coop was about 95% complete. Just needed a little more cage wire, a door, and some kind of ladder to let the bird get in and out of coop.  Oh, and wheels. And, of course, chickens.

There it sat in the yard. A daily reminder of every other half finished project in my life. If only some chickens would fall out of the sky. If only i had the motivation and time to finish the coop. I was tempted to tarp the whole thing and start over with peeps in the spring.

But then last week, my wife got a message from her friend Ruthie, asking if we wanted a few chickens, that they were down sizing their flock and would be willing to give us a few birds.

It was super short notice and exactly what I needed to finish the chicken tractor. So last Sunday, my daughter and I got to work. And just when we had the cage wire and door in place, Ruthie and her family pulled down the driveway. Her husband Jeremy handed me a burlap sack containing 4 hens: one Leghorn and 3 Golden Comets.

What amazed me Sunday evening was when the chickens put themselves to bed. One by one, they hopped up the little ladder I made, right into the coop. I went out and closed the door, and learned first hand that chickens do indeed go home to roost. It’s not just a figure of speech.

We’re still waiting for our first egg. The birds are probably a little stressed by the move. And our dog is not helping the situation. He’s so excited about the new family members that he runs laps around the coop. My kids are pretty excited too. My 4 year old is very keen on feeding them and really wants to hold a chicken. She’s still working on the names. Two of her early name choices were Leafy & Rainbow, but she’s since withdrawn those and is working on new names. Stay tuned.

As many as 100,000 people may be forced to evacuate their homes in western Canadian province of Alberta today (June 21, 2013), due to heavy flooding. The Weather Channel is reporting that 12 communities in Alberta are now under states of emergency, including areas south of the just south of Calgary, a city of more than a million people. The floods are due to torrential rains throughout southern Alberta on Thursday, June 20. According to the Weather Channel, the floods have:

… washed out roads and bridges, left at least one person missing and caused cars, couches and refrigerators to float away.

Click here to see photos of the flooding in Calgary

It’s also being reported that mudslides have forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway, and that the mountain resort towns of Banff and Canmore are now isolated.

Officials said the evacuation would take place in stages over the next few days.

Earlier this week (June 17-21, 2013), parts of Alaska began experiencing temperatures warmer than the daily averages for Hawaii or Florida at this time of the year: Alaska temps soared into the 80s and 90s. A large ridge of high pressure has provided sinking air and plenty of sunshine to help break many record-high temperatures across the state. This heatwave has been ongoing for the past several days. It has brought windy, dry, and warm conditions responsible for wildfires burning now in parts of Alaska, mainly in locations to the east of Fairbanks. This heatwave developed after Alaska experienced below-average temperatures throughout this past spring.

According to Jeff Masters from Weather Underground, there was an unofficial 98°F measured at Bentalit Lodge on Monday, June 17, which would tie the record for the hottest reliably measured temperature in Alaska history. Talkeetna set an all-time high temperature record of 96°F on Monday, June 17, smashing its previous mark of 91°F set a day earlier, and previously set in June of 1969.

Prior to this June heatwave, Alaska had its 20th coolest and 14th wettest May. In fact, Alaska had its 18th coolest March-May since records began in 1918 with a temperature of 1.8 degrees Celsius below the 1971-2000 average. With such a cool and wet start for 2013, the weather has now done a complete 180, and we find unusually warm and dry weather across the region.

Long-range models are indicating that temperatures will likely remain well above average for parts of central and southern Alaska through the beginning of next week, although they will likely not reach the record warmth of this week. Temperatures in Alaska next week are likely to be five to 10 degrees above average. With dry and windy conditions.

There have been a few wildfires developing, mainly east of Fairbanks. On June 18, 2013, the Kanuti fire started in a neighborhood off Chena Hot Springs Road and has burned approximately 120 acres. It appears as if this fire was likely human-caused, but no specifics have been released as of today (June 21). Fortunately, the fire appears to have caused very little damage to homes or businesses.

Bottom line: Record warmth has occurred throughout parts of Alaska this past week (June 17-21, 2013) with a few areas experiencing highs in the 80s and 90s. An unusually large ridge of high pressure has given a large majority of the state plenty of sunshine, very warm temperatures, and gusty winds. The combination of the three caused a few wildfire issues, likely human-caused, primarily to the east of Fairbanks, Alaska.

1. He was a failed KGB Spy

In the last few years of his life, Ernest Hemingway grew paranoid and talked about FBI spying on him. He was even treated with electroshock therapy as many as 15 times at the recommendation of his physician in 1960. It was later revealed that he was in fact being watched, and Edgard Hoover had personally placed him under survelliance. In 2009, the publication of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, revealed that the FBI was in fact right to spy on Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel prize-winning novelist, because he really was on the KGB’s list of its agents in America. Based on notes from a former KGB officer who was  given access in the 1990s to intelligence archives in Moscow from the Stalin era, the book reveals that Hemingway was recruited in 1941 before making a trip to China, and was given the cover name “Argo”.

According to Soviet documents, he met with Soviet agents during the 1940s in Havana and London and “repeatedly expressed his desire and willingness to help us”. In the end, Hemingway turned out to be of little use to the Soviets  however, as it’s claimed he failed to give them any political information and was never “verified in practical work”. By the 1950s, “Argo” was no longer an active Soviet contact. Some project that Hemingway’s escapades as a KGB spy were more likely all part of an elaborate charade by him to gather literary inspiration. Others suspect his paranoia over being watched by the FBI may have led him to take his own life. Read more.

2. Ernest once took a urinal home from his favorite bar and moved it into his home, arguing that he had “pissed away” so much of his money into the urinal that he owned it.

Read more

Ernest Hemingway seated with the persons depicted in the novel “The Sun Also Rises”, 1925.

  

3. Hemingway’s Unusual Fishing and U-Boat hunting Habits.

Ernest Hemingway was known to use a machine gun on sharks to stop them eating his catch, and in 1938 he established a world record by catching seven marlin in one day. Hemingway also spent a considerable amount of time from the summer of 1942 to the end of 1943 on his wooden fishing boat, patrolling the waters off Cuba’s north shore hunting Nazi U-Boats with direction-finding equipment, his machine gun and hand grenades. More here.

 

 

4. Ernest Hemingway survived through anthrax, malaria, pneumonia, skin cancer, hepatitis, diabetes, two plane crashes (on consecutive days), a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured liver, a crushed vertebra, a fractured skull, and more.

In the end, the only thing that could kill Hemingway it would seem, was himself…

“In 1954, while in Africa, Hemingway was almost fatally injured in two successive plane crashes. He chartered a sightseeing flight over the Belgian Congo as a Christmas present to Mary. On their way to photograph Murchison Falls from the air, the plane struck an abandoned utility pole and “crash landed in heavy brush.” Hemingway’s injuries included a head wound, while his wife Mary broke two ribs. The next day, attempting to reach medical care in Entebbe, they boarded a second plane that exploded at take-off, with Hemingway suffering burns and another concussion, this one serious enough to cause leaking of cerebral fluid. They eventually arrived in Entebbe to find reporters covering the story of Hemingway’s death. He briefed the reporters and spent the next few weeks recuperating and reading his erroneous obituaries.”

More here

 

5. Ernest Hemingway killed himself with his favorite shotgun bought from Abercrombie & Fitch.

More here

 

6. Ernest Hemingway was charged with war crimes under the Geneva Convention when he took command and led of a group of French militia into battle against the Nazis.

Hemingway as a young soldier

Serving as a war correspondent during WWII, he had removed his non-combatant insignia and posed as a colonel. In the end, he was not convicted and claimed that he only offered advice and any titles given to him by the men were simply signs of affection. According to Hemingway himself, he and his unit were the first to enter the city during the Liberation of Paris, when he and his unit retook the Ritz Hotel, and more importantly the Ritz Bar, from Nazi control a full day before the Allied liberation force entered the city! More here

 

7. In the Florida Keys, there are a lot of 6-toed cats, because Ernest Hemingway’s cat “got around” a lot.

Hemingway was first given a six-toed cat by a ship’s captain and became one of the more famous lovers of polydactyl cats. Upon his death in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida, became a museum and a home for his cats, and it currently houses approximately fifty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl). The “Hemingway Kitty Cat”, or simply “Hemingway Cat”, is a term which has come to describe polydactyls. More here. 

8. Ernest Hemingway once examined F. Scott Fitzgerald’s penis in a cafe toilet and assured him it was of “normal” size.

(Because Zelda Fitzgerald has told him that the size of his penis could never make any women happy). An account from Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, the only book about Paris in my opinion, that you’ll ever need to read…

 

9. Hemingway’s brother founded a nation off the coast of Jamaica that consisted of a raft and 7 citizens. It had currency, postage, and a constitution.

The Republic of New Atlantis founded by Leicester Hemingway in 1964 habitable man-made island; in practice they were limited to a 2.44 x 9.14 metre steel and bamboo raft, was anchored to the floor of the Carribean Sea with the aid of an old Ford engine block. It was a destroyed two years later in a tropical storm. In 1973, he created a second micro-nation in the Bahamas on a a 91 metre-long sandbar. Four officials from the US State Department met with Hemingway and concluded that the “alleged president” as “not a kook”, and stated that “Attempts at creating this island would be viewed by the United States as a highly undesirable develpment averse to our national security, particularly as it might encourage an archipelagic claim.” Leicester also committed suicide in 1982, as did Ernest’s sister, father, grandfather and granddaughter. More here.

 

 

10.There’s an Ernest Hemingway lookalike society that holds yearly contests.

 

HemingwayLookalikes.com

 

Bonus! Ernest Hemingway had a rather flat derrière!

Via Reddit.com

:::

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

.

 

Whether you call them lightning bugs or fireflies, these beetles are a sign of summer. Indeed, you’re most likely to see them in warm weather, when rainfall has been plentiful. Many a child has spent a summer evening chasing them. And, with this in mind, maybe you’ve wondered: Why do fireflies light up? And how do they do it?

How fireflies light up

First, let’s talk about the how. The light of a firefly is a chemical reaction caused by an organic compound – luciferin – in their abdomens. As air rushes into a firefly’s abdomen, it reacts with the luciferin. Consequently, it causes a chemical reaction that gives off the firefly’s familiar glow. This light is sometimes called cold light because it generates so little heat.

According to Firefly.org:

Scientifically, fireflies are classified under Lampyridae, a family of insects within the beetle order Coleoptera, or winged beetles. There are estimated to be 2000+ firefly species spread across temperate and tropical zones all over the world.

In addition, fireflies can regulate the airflow into their abdomens to create a pulsating pattern.

Why fireflies light up

First, fireflies light up for safety. Some experts think the firefly’s flashy style may warn predators of the insect’s bitter taste. On the other hand, some frogs don’t seem to mind the flavor. In fact, they eat so many fireflies that they themselves begin to glow.

Second, fireflies light up for romance. Male fireflies’ light signals their desire for mates. Also, willing females attract males with flashes of their own.

Lastly, fireflies light up to attract dinner. While each firefly species has its own pattern of flashing, some females imitate the patterns of other species. As a result, males land next to them, only to be eaten alive.

So, the next time you see a firefly, keep in mind that its flickering isn’t just a wonder of the night. Indeed, it’s also a unique, and sometimes deadly, language of love.

Photos from the EarthSky community

Bottom line: Fireflies – aka lightning bugs – light up because of a chemical reaction between an organic compound in the fireflies’ abdomens – called luciferin – and the air.

Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!

The post Fireflies: How and why they light up first appeared on EarthSky.

On May 8, 2013, NOAA scientists discovered a new deep sea community off the coast of Virginia in the Atlantic Ocean. The community consisted of shaggy, white patches of bacteria, dense clusters of chemosynthetic mussels and other organisms including crabs, sea cucumbers and fish. It is one of only a few known deep sea communities that exist along the U.S. Atlantic coastline.

Deep sea communities are fascinating because they are made up of organisms that are able to thrive in complete darkness. Many ecological communities on Earth rely on sunlight and the process of photosynthesis for food. In contrast, deep sea communities get their food from the process of chemosynthesis, which is driven by the chemical energy released from bacteria as they metabolize substances like sulfides and methane seeping from the seafloor.

The new deep sea community off the coast of Virginia was first detected in 2012 when NOAA scientists observed gas bubbles rising from the seafloor about 147 kilometers (91 miles) east of Cape Henry, Virginia. This is near the area of the Atlantic Ocean where the continental shelf plunges into the deep sea. In 2013, they decided to go back and investigate.

With the use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) called Jason, NOAA scientists collected photographs and samples of the seafloor near the seepage site at a depth of 1,600 meters (1 mile). At the site, they found shaggy, white patches of bacteria, dense clusters of mussels and other organisms including crabs, sea cucumbers and fish. The mussels were the dominate type of organism present in the deep sea community. According to NOAA, these mussels harbor specialized bacteria in their gills that use methane to make energy.

The new deep sea community is one of only a few known to exist along the U.S. Atlantic coastline. The best known seepage community is located off the South Carolina coast at a depth of approximately 2,500 meters (1.6 miles). During the 2012 NOAA cruise, three other potential seepage areas were identified, but they have yet to be explored.

Bottom line: On May 8, 2013, NOAA scientists discovered a new deep sea community off the coast of Virginia in the Atlantic Ocean. The community consisted of shaggy, white patches of bacteria, dense clusters of chemosynthetic mussels and other organisms including crabs, sea cucumbers and fish.

Water-rock reactions may sustain life below Earth’s oceans, or on Mars

Tiny crustaceans play a big role in protecting seagrass beds

As you may or may not know, I suffer from a chronic illness called, Early Onset Curmudgeon Syndrome [EOCS]. There's no cure, but most people suffering from EOCS, live long and cranky lives. No need to start up a fund raiser, just send truffles. So, when I saw this "Hi-Falutin'" whiskey, I knew I had to have it, even if it tasted terrible.

It neither treats nor alleviates the symptoms of EOCS but it tastes just fine and dandy. Why not enjoy a lovely adult beverage while telling the neighbors' children to pull up their pants and turn their music down?

When I have a flare up of my EOCS, I find the best remedy is a healthy dose of this:

Because afterwards, I get a few days of this:

And, if you are so inclined, a splash of whiskey while a few tired mutts curl up next to you on the couch, isn't so bad, either.