CaaC (John)

Funny that because when I was reading this news report this morning I thought "I wonder how Grizzly is getting on and seen any Polar Bears yet?" Canada murder hunt: search for teen suspects leads only to polar bear Australian Associated Press © Royal Canadian Mounted Patrol (RCMP) Manitoba Image of a polar bear spotted on the manhunt for suspects in a murder case in Manitoba, Canada. The threat of a polar bear attack has become a reality for the huge Canadian police and military contingent searching for the teenage duo suspected of shooting dead Australian tourist Lucas Fowler, his US girlfriend and a university botanist. The manhunt for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, continued on Saturday with the addition of a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-130H Hercules and personnel searching the unforgiving wilderness near Gillam, a remote area in northern Manitoba. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police distributed a photo on Saturday of a polar bear encountered by searchers 200km north of Gillam. McLeod and Schmegelsky have been on the run since the bodies of Fowler, 23, from Sydney, and his North Carolina girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24, was found dead on the side of a highway 3,000km away in Canada’s west on 14 July. Locals around Gillam predicted the teenagers would face extreme challenges – polar and black bears, wolves, irritating black flies and mosquitos, dense scrub and swamps – if they did, as suspected by the RCMP, enter bushland on Monday night after setting fire to their stolen Toyota RAV-4. “A polar bear was spotted during the search for suspects earlier today – about 200km north of Gillam,” the RCMP, with a photo of the bear, wrote in a tweet on Saturday. “Just some of the wildlife that can be found in northern Manitoba.” The nearby town of Churchill is on a polar bear migration route. The Canadian government, desperate to catch the fugitives, immediately approved the RCMP request for military support. On the ground authorities went door-to-door canvassing locals in their homes and searching abandoned buildings in the hope of finding the duo or picking up clues. The sweep included an abandoned hydroelectric building with 600 rooms. The RCMP surmised the teenagers torched their RAV-4 and fled on foot in Gillam because there have been no reports of stolen cars or carjackings in the area. After days of fruitless searching, the RCMP on Friday admitted they were “exploring the possibility” the teenagers may have fled Gillam with the help of a third person unaware the two were fugitives. McLeod and Schmegelsky, longtime school friends from Vancouver Island, allegedly embarked on 14 July near Liard Host Springs, in northern British Columbia, when they encountered Fowler and Deese. The old Chevrolet van Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were driving broke down on the Alaska Highway and left them stranded. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found in a ditch near the van. Four days later and 470km away, University of British Columbia botanist Leonard Dyck was found dead on another highway. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsworldcrime/canada-murder-hunt-search-for-teen-suspects-leads-only-to-polar-bear/ar-AAEYuKW

Not been attacked by a bear then?

Aye, our son was trying to get a ticket for that match seeing he is a Jambo/Liverpool nutter.

Harvey Elliott: Liverpool sign Fulham teenager Harvey Elliott made his Fulham debut aged 15 years and 174 days in a Carabao Cup tie at Millwall in September 2018 Liverpool have signed 16-year-old midfielder Harvey Elliott from Fulham. Elliott became the youngest player to feature in the Premier League when he came on as a substitute against Wolverhampton Wanderers in May, aged just 16 years and 30 days. The England youth international cannot turn professional until his 17th birthday next April. Liverpool says he will be in their squad for Sunday's friendly against Napoli in Edinburgh at 17:00 BST. Elliott, who attracted attention from Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain, Arsenal and Manchester City, will become the second emerging talent to join Liverpool this summer after 17-year-old Dutch defender Sepp van den Berg moved from PEC Zwolle. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49143438

Science-loving boy, 10, discovers a nest of 11 dinosaur eggs after spotting a 'strange stone' in the ground while playing in a Chinese city SLIDES 1/8 A science-loving schoolboy has accidentally discovered a nest of fossilised dinosaur eggs while playing outdoors in China. Experts believe the 11 eggs, each about 3.5 inches long, date back some 66 million years to the late Cretaceous period just before the ancient beasts were wiped out. The third-grade pupil said he initially saw a 'strange stone' in the soil, but realised it could be a dinosaur egg after checking the object closely. Experts confirmed his speculation before excavating 10 more eggs nearby. The 10-year-old came across the extraordinary find on Tuesday while playing on an embankment in the city of Heyuan, Guangdong Province. The boy, named Zhang Yangzhe, was trying to look for tools to crack open walnuts when he found what he thought was a piece of rock that 'looked special'. He was accompanied by his mother while playing by the Dong River. He said at first he thought the rock had 'circles' on its surface. 'Then I called my mother over, [and we] thought the shell looked like that of a dinosaur egg,' Yangzhe told a reporter from Heyuan Radio and Television Station. According to his mother, Yangzhe loves science, especially dinosaurs, and has read many books about them. The parent, named Li Xiaofang, said her son remembered the shell pattern of dinosaur eggs after visiting a local museum to learn more about the ancient creatures. Ms Li called the police and guarded the site with her son until authorities arrived. Experts from Heyuan Dinosaur Museum confirmed that the 'strange stone' was indeed a fossilised dinosaur egg. After excavation, they found 10 more dinosaur eggs in the soil nearby which belonged to the same nest. Each of the eggs measures about nine centimetres (3.5 inches) in length. Huang Dong, the former director of the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum, told Beijing News that the fossils came from the late Cretaceous period. The eggs have been taken to Heyuan Dinosaur Museum for further studies to determine the type. Heyuan, a city with a population of three million, is billed as China's 'home of dinosaurs'. A giant clutch of 43 fossilised dinosaur eggs were discovered by workmen doing roadworks in the city in 2015. The first recorded dinosaur egg in Heyuan was found on March 1996, by the Dong River. Since then, more than 17,000 of them have been dug out in the city. The Heyuan Dinosaur Museum claims to have 10,008 dinosaur eggs, the largest collection of its kind in the world. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/science-loving-boy-10-discovers-a-nest-of-11-dinosaur-eggs-after-spotting-a-strange-stone-in-the-ground-while-playing-in-a-chinese-city/ar-AAEW8vQ

Scientists find 6.5ft thigh bone weighing half a tonne belonging to a giant sauropod dinosaur that lived 140 million years ago in south-west France Ian Randall For Mailonline SLIDES 1/6 Palaeontologists have unearthed a 6.5 foot-long (two metres) thigh bone that belonged to a giant sauropod dinosaur around 140 million years ago. The enormous bone — which weighs in at around half a tonne — was unearthed from a dinosaur fossil-rich dig site in the department of Charente south-west France. At the time that the giant dinosaur would have lived, the area — located near the town of Cognac — would have been a marshland. Located in southwestern France, the Angeac-Charente dig site is unique across all of Europe, with palaeontologists having already uncovered around 7,500 bones — from 45 different species of dinosaur — since excavations began back in 2010. 'This femur is huge! And in an exceptional state of conservation,' Angouleme Museum curator Jean-François Tournepiche told The Local. 'It's very moving.' Alongside the thigh bone, volunteers with the National Museum of Natural History in Paris also uncovered a giant pelvis bone from the same layer of clay. Experts believe that the thigh bone belonged to a sauropod — one of a group of long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs that include some of the largest animals to have ever walked the Earth. 'We can see the insertions of muscles and tendons, scars,' added Ronan Allain, a palaeontologist at Paris' National Museum of Natural History. 'This is a very rare find as large pieces tend to collapse on themselves, to fragment.' Palaeontologists have been working to reconstitute a complete sauropod skeleton from several different specimens that have been unearthed from Angeac-Charente in the last decade — with the reconstruction now around 50 per cent complete. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/scientists-find-65ft-thigh-bone-weighing-half-a-tonne-belonging-to-a-giant-sauropod-dinosaur-that-lived-140-million-years-ago-in-south-west-france/ar-AAETl8k

'Rain, Rain, Glorious Rain...' and nice and cool, better than the bloody heat, I have the lounge window open and a lovely cool breeze coming in... bliss.

A Fireball Meteor Lit Up Skies Over New England Last Night Michele Debczak Stargazers in New England were treated to a surprise light show last night. As NBC Boston reports, a green flash—likely caused by a fireball meteor—lit up skies over Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and other northeastern states on Wednesday, July 24, and the whole spectacle was caught on tape. Though they don't peak until August, the famed Perseid meteor shower has been peppering the Earth's atmosphere since mid-July. Most space debris that burns up in the sky is briefly visible as a faint streak of light, but the object that was spotted last night was much larger than the average shooting star. Some experts are calling it a "fireball," a designation reserved for meteors that are especially bright. The American Meteor Society began receiving reports of the flash after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night. The sightings came in from across New England and the Mid-Atlantic, with some originating as far south as North Carolina. Security cameras and dashcams throughout the region recorded the event, with the flash lasting just a few seconds. You can see a bright light illuminate skies in the video clips below. Fireballs are rare occurrences, but during the Perseids, which can reach over 100 meteors per hour, you have a better chance of spotting them. Scope out a place with clear skies and low light pollution when the meteor shower reaches its peak in mid-August. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/a-fireball-meteor-lit-up-skies-over-new-england-last-night/ar-AAET9zs

Our son told me to watch this Day of Thieves (2018} brilliant, I would give this a 9.0/10 and there must be a follow up looking at the ending.

Earth just had a near-miss with a 'city killer' asteroid Joe Gamp VIDEO An asteroid dubbed a ‘city-killer’ narrowly missed colliding into the Earth, say scientists. Asteroid 2019 OK - around 100 metres in diameter and racing at 24 kilometres a second - raced past earth at around 11.22am on Thursday morning. Astronomers had no idea the rock was heading towards our planet, due to the asteroid flying towards us from the direction of the sun. Associate Professor Michael Brown, from Monash University, said: “It’s impressively close. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. It’s a pretty big deal. "[If it hit Earth] it makes the bang of a very large nuclear weapon – a very large one." Three other asteroids also raced past Earth on Thursday, but none were as close or as large as 2019 OK. The asteroid was picked up by separate astronomy teams based in Brazil and the US over the past few days. Swinburne University astronomer Associate Professor Alan Duffy: "It would have hit with over 30 times the energy of the atomic blast at Hiroshima. "It's a city-killer asteroid. But because it's so small, it's incredibly hard to see until right at the last minute. "It's threading tightly between the lunar orbit. Definitely too close for comfort." https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/earth-just-had-a-near-miss-with-a-city-killer-asteroid/ar-AAERcGr?ocid=chromentp

The wifes going out tonight for a ladies night with our daughter and friends and I will be sitting in here all on my tod with some wine and the TV & the movie channels all mine including the Netflix channel. Anyone got any good films to recommend for me from Netflix, war, thriller, or a good drama?

Cloudy and muggy and I can see some dark clouds approaching from Leith waters so there might be some rain, I hope so then it will cool this place down as it's like an oven at the moment.

Looks cool buddy, I hate the heat and we have it right now and I am sweating my bollocks off, give me cold weather any day.

Hawaii TMT: Desecrating sacred land or finding new frontiers? Rifts over a dormant volcano in Hawaii have resurfaced in recent days, pitting the state's culture and history against its ambitions. Plans for a powerful new telescope near the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano could bring in hundreds of jobs and boost science and the economy. But some native Hawaiians insist the site is sacred and that the long-planned construction should not go ahead. Last week, protesters blocked access to the building site on Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the world when measured from its underwater base. At least 33 people were arrested, given citations and released. Hawaii's governor has issued an "emergency proclamation" that increases powers to break up the blockade but said he wanted to find a "peaceful and satisfactory" solution for both sides. Here, some of the people at the centre of the debate explain what Mauna Kea and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project mean to them. For: 'It might lead us to alien life' The $1.4bn (£1.1bn) TMT could help answer one of mankind's biggest questions: is there life on other planets? That's according to Roy Gal, an associate astronomer at the University of Hawaii. "We will, for the first time, be able to make measurements of the atmospheres of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone around other stars," he said. "We will see if those planets' atmospheres have water and molecules that could be due to biological activity. "I study galaxies and how they evolve over time in different kinds of environments in the universe. The TMT would allow us to push these studies to fainter galaxies - ones that are further away and therefore we see them a longer time ago. It would allow us to paint a more complete life story of galaxies, from infancy to adulthood. "With current telescopes, it's like studying humans starting when they're teenagers. The TMT would allow us to see them as infants." Roy said Mauna Kea had the ideal conditions for viewing the cosmos and that telescopes there had already contributed to major findings, including the observation that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. "Any new telescope capability we get, we always, always without fail to find something new that we didn't expect," he said. Against: 'It is our temple' The mountain is a temple to native Hawaiians, offering a connection between "creation and creator", said Kealoha Pisciotta, president of the Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, one of the main groups opposing the TMT. "It contains some of our highest born and most revered ancestors. It is a symbol of peace and aloha", she said. The summit, considered to be in the realm of gods, "is reserved for very special things, unique things, things done by the chiefs and chiefesses, things done by priests and spiritual leaders. It is not just a general place for man." A number of telescopes have already been constructed on top of Mauna Kea, and Kealoha and others say they do not believe promises that the TMT will be the last. "We allowed astronomy to have a place on the Mauna Kea but they continue to ask for more and more and more, and we have to say no at this point. Because when we say yes it means saying yes to the destruction of our endangered lands," she said. Building on Mauna Kea was like "destroying the inside of a church because within the whole landscape are religious things", Kealoha added. "All these man-made structures are right in the middle of our environment of belief." She said that the planned construction of the TMT was a sign of economics taking precedence over human rights and that, in addition to it being a sacred landscape, the mountain was an important environmental site and source of water. Kealoha urged the groups behind the TMT to consider moving it to a backup site in the Canary Islands and said the protests would continue until this happened. "Human life is more important than our sense of discovery. Sense of discovery is good and all but what does it mean when you're willing to let people get hurt?" she asked. For: 'Astronomy helps me feel connected to my culture' The volcano is a "sacred and special place that must be treated with the utmost respect", said Alexis Acohido, a native Hawaiian who has worked for more than four years at existing observatories on Mauna Kea. "I support the Thirty Meter Telescope project because of the educational opportunities it can provide," she said. "Astronomy is one of the ways I feel most connected to my culture. Hawaiians are incredible scientists, engineers, and overall problem solvers. The way that they were able to navigate the vast Pacific by observing the winds, waves, and stars is inspiring to me. "Itʻs my belief that the science we are doing on Mauna Kea is an extension of that legacy, and makes me proud to call myself Hawaiian." Alexis said the TMT would not disrupt culturally significant sites on the mountain. "To me, TMT has been pono" - a Hawaiian term meaning proper or morally correct - "throughout this whole process. That demonstrates to me that they are willing to be responsible stewards on Mauna Kea." Against: 'Not an opposition to science' "The Mauna Kea is recognised as the home of several deities all of whom are associated with water," said Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua, a professor of political science focusing on indigenous and native Hawaiian politics. "They are embodied in the forms of precipitation that surround the mountain." The mountain is part of Hawaii's "ceded lands", which once belonged to the Hawaiian kingdom and are now held in trust by the state. The land on which the telescopes are built is leased to the University of Hawaii, where Noelani works. She said the division over the project had trickled down to the university itself, as she questioned the research ethics of the project. Hundreds of scientists and astronomers, including many from institutions linked to the project, have also condemned the "criminalisation" of people opposing the TMT. Noelani stressed that the protests against the TMT were not "an opposition to science". "It's really an opposition to industrial development and the destruction of land and natural resources and precious and fragile ecology," she said. "We have stood by while too many of our precious resources and environment have been degraded and harmed and we're not going to stand for it any more." For: 'The mountain is big enough for everyone' Kalepa Baybayan, a native Hawaiian navigator, said Mauna Kea had long served as a "beacon" that had led him home from journeys at sea. "My relationship with the mountain comes from the experiences that I've had voyaging across the ocean and using the stars as a means to help create a guidance system for ourselves," he said. "In my travels, in navigating to Hawaii without any instruments, we usually start with Mauna Kea. "My appreciation for astronomy comes from a totally cultural lens," he added. "Our job as humanity is to ensure that our planet lives a long, full life. But sometime in the very, very distant future, life on this planet will come to an end and astronomy looks at the very beginnings of the universe and where we're going. "The reason that I support astronomy is because I want to know what options there are for humanity. What I don't want is for humanity to slide backwards into a scientific dark age all over again," Kalepa said. Kalepa argued that his ancestors would have approved of the TMT as a "portal to the universe". "I just think that people have forgotten the fact that as early oceanic explorers, we left the safety of the shores and discovered the stars through sailing our canoes across thousands of miles of the ocean," he said. He also said there would be economic benefits to the TMT, including rent payments and jobs. "There is enough room on the mountain for everyone. What people have to learn is to share." Against: 'Hawaii is its culture' The mountain is central to Hawaii's identity, said Theresa Keohunani Taber, an opponent of the TMT project who helps to raise support for the movement on social media. "Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian language and Hawaiian resources and Hawaiian people are what Hawaii is. If you start eliminating that narrative then there is no Hawaii," she said. Theresa first became involved in protecting Mauna Kea after moving to Hawaii from the mainland US and attending a meeting of hundreds of opponents of a separate project on the mountain in 2002. "It was my very first introduction to how important, how impactful the Mauna Kea has been, not only to our state but to our culture and history as Hawaiians," she said. "That was a very powerful moment." She said she and other Hawaiians "felt the pain" of people in France when a fire engulfed the Notre-Dame cathedral in April. "We wouldn't wish that on any people; to lose their place of worship or the place that connects them to the higher power that they believe in. Mauna Kea and all mountains, all sacred places, are just as reverent, just as important as a church or a mosque." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49082156

The last time I saw the bar our target had been reached.

Is it just my laptop playing up but where is the donations bar gone (Top r/h corner)?

Humongous, Chihuahua-Sized Species of Flying Squirrel Has Been Discovered in China Ellen Gutoskey © shabeerthurakkal/iStock via Getty ImagesHumongous, Chihuahua-Sized Species of Flying Squirrel Has Been Discovered in China Flying squirrels can be found in most of Earth’s forests, but you probably wouldn’t be able to actually find one—the elusive little mammals are so good at flying under the radar that scientists have a hard time studying them. That’s why, when Quan Li of the Kunming Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences spotted a strange-looking squirrel specimen in the institute’s collection last year, he thought it was just a variation of the rare Namdapha flying squirrel, a species in the Biswamoyopterus genus. Upon further investigation, Smithsonian.com reports, he realized the differences were considerable enough that it must be a previously unknown species within the same genus. The new species (called Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis, or the Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel, after the region where it was first discovered) has bi-coloured ear tufts, a dark brown scrotum, a white belly, and a shorter, wider skull than other close relatives. Like its relatives, the new guy weighs between 3 and 4 pounds, or about the size of a Chihuahua. © Provided by Sportority, Inc. (Mental Floss) Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel Part of the reason that Quan Li first misidentified the squirrel he saw as a Namdapha squirrel is because we don’t know that much about Namdapha squirrels—scientists have only ever spotted one of them, in 1981. It’s critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. To study the new flying squirrel species further, Quan Li and his colleagues travelled to Mount Gaoligong in Yunnan Province in southwest China, where the specimen had been collected before being brought to the institute. There, they were able to obtain another Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel specimen, as well as observe two others. The area in which the new species was found is within the 777-mile-long region between where the Namdapha squirrel was first observed in 1981 in India, and where a specimen from the Laotian giant flying squirrel (the other known species in the Biswamoyopterusgenus) was observed in 2013. This “suggests that the genus is much more widespread than we previously thought,” Quan Li said in a statement announcing the finding. Quan Li and his team are hoping to discover more squirrels in the area, and soon. Because these squirrels inhabit low-altitude forests near human settlements, they’re extra-susceptible to poaching or habitat destruction. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/humongous-chihuahua-sized-species-of-flying-squirrel-has-been-discovered-in-china/ar-AAEPptK