-
Rare Sighting of a Sea Lion Battling an Octopus (Video)
A woman going for a swim in Canada had a “once in a lifetime” wildlife encounter when she noticed a sea lion fighting an octopus, a video shows.
Lindsay Bryant spotted the sea lion splashing off the coast of Nanaimo before a swim on Nov. 16, she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She swims regularly in the area and often encounters sea lions, but something seemed different this time.
“I actually thought the sea lion was tangled in something,” Bryant wrote in a Nov. 16 Facebook post. “For a minute, he went into a dead float.”
“I started recording because I couldn’t figure out why the sea lion was struggling so hard with what I thought was a fish,” she wrote in another Facebook post.
But when Bryant got home and rewatched the video, she realized the sea lion wasn’t eating a fish at all.
It was battling with an octopus.
Bryant shared the video on YouTube. The 3-minute-long video shows a sea lion thrashing about with an octopus. The sea lion flings the octopus forcefully away, then dives underwater and repeats the movement. Seagulls circle overhead.
“The octopus appears to have put up a really good fight! The sea lion looked to be struggling hard at a few points,” Bryant said.
A woman going for a swim in Canada had a “once in a lifetime” wildlife encounter when she noticed a sea lion fighting an octopus, a video shows.
Lindsay Bryant spotted the sea lion splashing off the coast of Nanaimo before a swim on Nov. 16, she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She swims regularly in the area and often encounters sea lions, but something seemed different this time.
“I actually thought the sea lion was tangled in something,” Bryant wrote in a Nov. 16 Facebook post. “For a minute, he went into a dead float.”
“I started recording because I couldn’t figure out why the sea lion was struggling so hard with what I thought was a fish,” she wrote in another Facebook post.
But when Bryant got home and rewatched the video, she realized the sea lion wasn’t eating a fish at all.
It was battling with an octopus.
Bryant shared the video on YouTube. The 3-minute-long video shows a sea lion thrashing about with an octopus. The sea lion flings the octopus forcefully away, then dives underwater and repeats the movement. Seagulls circle overhead.
“The octopus appears to have put up a really good fight! The sea lion looked to be struggling hard at a few points,” Bryant said.
-
Scientist Say Dinosaurs Still Exist on Other Planets
The dinosaurs may have been extinct for more than 65 million years but scientists have suggested that they could still exist as aliens on other planets.
Researched published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests that dinosaurs might not only be on other planets but that we could also find them.
The study suggests that if scientists researched compounds that are not currently on Earth but ones that were around during the age of the dinosaurs then it may yield some results.
One key element that scientists believe could unlock what would be a groundbreaking discovery is oxygen. The levels of oxygen on Earth at the moment are around 21 per cent but during the time of dinosaurs it was higher at 30 per cent. This, in theory, allowed the dinosaurs to flourish and rule the planet for millions of years.
The study suggests that if similar levels of oxygen can be discovered on faraway planets then the conditions could be right for alien like dinosaurs to exist.
The study’s co-author Lisa Kaltenegger said in a statement: “Modern Earth’s light fingerprint has been our template for identifying potentially habitable planets, but there was a time when this fingerprint was even more pronounced — better at showing signs of life.”
She adds: “This gives us hope that it might be just a little bit easier to find signs of life — even large, complex life — elsewhere in the cosmos.”
One clue that could unlock this discovery which scientists are looking for are signs of a Phanerozoic stage on a planet which would allow creatures like dinosaurs to evolve.
The study’s lead author, Rebecca Payne of Cornell University, said: “The Phanerozoic is just the most recent 12 per cent or so of Earth’s history, but it encompasses nearly all of the time in which life was more complex than microbes and sponges. These light fingerprints are what you’d search for elsewhere if you were looking for something more advanced than a single-celled organism.”
If they are successful in finding these conditions on other planets then Kaltenegger believes it could lead to the discovery of dinosaurs that have never been found on Earth.
“Hopefully we’ll find some planets that happen to have more oxygen than Earth right now because that will make the search for life just a little bit easier,” she said. “And, who knows, maybe there are other dinosaurs waiting to be found.”
-
Man Who Invented Sea Monkeys Made Thousands From Selling Fish That Never Existed
The man who invented Sea Monkeys also came up with a bunch of other weird creations that were the ideal fodder for birthday gifts.
You know, Sea Monkeys – the little brine shrimp thingies that lots of people got as presents and all you had to do was add them to water and watch them grow.
Of course, you do, and by now, you might know that those Sea Monkey eggs are all dried up in a state where they can survive for years before you restore them to the water.
But did you also know that the creator of Sea Monkeys also came up with X-Ray specs and was even able to sell non-existent fish?
Harold von Braunhut, the inventor of Sea Monkeys, had previously managed to sell off the ‘invisible goldfish‘ which he promised nobody would ever see and somehow, people bought them.
Considering that people once bought pet rocks, which were exactly what they sounded like, it shouldn’t be too surprising that people went for a fish you can’t see.
It’s literally just an empty fish bowl. Credit: Sea Monkeys von Braunhut sold people an empty fishbowl and some fish food and voila, you have an invisible goldfish that lives up to the promise that you can never see it because it doesn’t actually exist.
Something else von Braunhut was very interested in, though he didn’t invent this, was being massively racist.
You might be surprised to learn that the guy who invented X-Ray specs and Sea Monkeys was a white supremacist, but he was, and he didn’t even try to hide it either.
von Braunhut supplied weapons to the Ku Klux Klan and was a regular attendee at white supremacist meetings.
Once interviewed about his racism, von Braunhut said: “You know what side I’m on. I don’t make any bones about it.”
He certainly didn’t make any bones about it, and people discovering this information have said it certainly puts ‘a dark twist’ on his inventions.
If, for whatever reason, you want to buy an empty fishbowl and feed your non-existent fish then you can because the invisible goldfish is still a product.
Of course you could throw together your own spin on the invisible fish by buying pretty much any fish tank.
You could even branch out among the plethora of aquatic creatures that could inhabit the tank.
When he wasn’t supplying weapons to the KKK and attending white supremacist meetings von Braunhut was imagining there was a goldfish in a bowl.
You could think of some other kind of fish, and also how disturbing a person the inventor of the Sea Monkeys really was.
-
The Surprising Truth Behind The Pablo Escobar White House Photo (Rare Photos)
“Pablo Escobar” and “White House” don’t seem like they belong in the same sentence. Yet there’s a photo floating around the Internet of the infamous drug kingpin posing in front of the D.C. landmark with his son, looking like a tourist in his white shirt and blank pants. So what’s the story behind the Pablo Escobar White House photo?
The Rise Of Pablo Escobar
By 1981 — the year that most believe that the Pablo Escobar White House photo was taken — the drug kingpin was not as notorious as he would later become.
Born in 1949 in Colombia, Pablo Escobar grew up in a suburb near Medellín. After starting as a petty thief stealing cars and reselling stolen tombstones, Escobar became involved in the nascent Colombian cocaine industry. It was a family affair — Escobar’s cousin Gustavo Gaviria and brother Roberto were also involved — and Escobar soon consolidated power.
In the 1970s, Pablo Escobar helped establish what would become the Medellín Cartel. By the mid-1980s, Escobar’s cartel would dominate the drug trade and pull in some $420 million a week, according to History Defined. This would eventually give Escobar the eye-watering estimated net worth of over $30 billion.
But in the late 1970s, Escobar was not as wealthy and powerful as he’d later become. In addition to growing his cartel, Escobar was focused on his growing family. Escobar married his wife, Maria Victoria Henao, in 1976 and had two children with her: Juan Pablo Escobar and Manuela Escobar.
Pablo Escobar with his wife and two children in an undated photo. And like any well-off family, the Escobars planned a trip together in the 1980s. They would go to the United States and visit famous landmarks. There, Maria would snap a photo of Pablo Escobar at the White House.
Inside The Pablo Escobar White House Photo
By the time Pablo Escobar and his family traveled to the United States, the drug kingpin was on a mission to legitimize himself. As History Defined reports, he was on Medéllin’s city council, and would go on to win an alternate seat in the country’s Congress in 1982.
Pablo Escobar was trying to legitimize himself in the early 1980s and was, indeed, seen as a “Robin Hood” figure to many Colombians. Escobar may have used a diplomatic passport — or possibly even a fake passport — in order to get into the country with his family. That said, the United States didn’t view him as a great threat at the time. The War on Drugs was unofficially launched in the 1970s under President Richard Nixon, but not expanded until President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981.
At the onset of the decade, Escobar and his cartel weren’t yet seen as an important enemy. So Escobar, his wife, and two children were able to enter the United States without much difficulty in 1981. There, they acted like tourists.
Though details of the Escobar family trip are somewhat murky, they appear to have made at least two stops: in Washington D.C. and in Orlando, Florida. In the nation’s capital, Maria took a photo of Juan Pablo and Pablo Escobar in front of the White House. Juan Pablo is seen hanging off the railing as his father casts a protective glance down, one hand on his son’s arm.
The family also made their way to Disney World in Orlando, where Pablo Escobar was photographed looking like any other dad dragged to the theme park. Newsweek reports that Escobar even agreed to face his fear of roller coasters in order to go on certain rides with Juan Pablo.
Pablo Escobar at Disney World in 1981. The Escobar family’s trip to the United States passed without serious incident — Newsweek reports that Escobar made sure of that by hiring a bodyguard — and they returned to Colombia. There, Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel would soon grow dramatically more powerful.
But it wouldn’t last.
The Downfall Of The Infamous Drug Kingpin
After his trip to the White House, Pablo Escobar’s power and wealth grew. Living by the mantra of plata o plomo, which roughly translates to “silver or lead (bullets),” he and his cartel murdered police, politicians, journalists, and innocent citizens in order to consolidate their hold on the cocaine trade.
Escobar eventually controlled about 80 percent of the world’s cocaine trade, which brought him great wealth. He had a sprawling, opulent home called Hacienda Napoles, where Escobar kept his infamous pet hippos. And when Escobar went to prison in 1991, he did so on his own terms.
Then, Escobar entered a prison in Medellín that he had designed himself called La Catedral. Unlike most prisons, La Catedral had a sauna, a jacuzzi, a billiards room, and a disco. And unlike most prisoners, Escobar was able to continue conducting cartel business from behind bars.
One of Pablo Escobar’s infamous hippos. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that Escobar managed to escape from La Catedral in 1992. His flight triggered a massive, nationwide manhunt. Escobar was pursued both by a group called the Search Bloc, a Colombian police unit, and Los Pepes, which was comprised of many of Escobar’s enemies.
The Legacy Of Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar was finally cornered 16 months after he escaped from prison. The drug kingpin was killed on Dec. 2, 1933, while fleeing from Colombian authorities along rooftops in the Los Olivos barrio of Medellín.
With that, Escobar’s life ended. But his legacy has continued to loom large. Not only has his story been dramatized in films and television shows like Netflix’s Narcos (2015-2017), but Escobar remains a fascinating figure. It’s no wonder that the Pablo Escobar White House photo is a subject of interest to many.
In the picture, there’s little sign of who Escobar actually was. He looks like a tourist and a dutiful father, keeping one eye on his young son as they stand before an American landmark. In the photo, the truth of Escobar’s identity — as cartel leader, murderer, and more — is difficult to discern.
-
Historic Comeback: Scientists’ New Mission To De-Extinct The Woolly Mammoth
In a historic building in Deep Ellum, a colossal effort is underway to bring some of the most famously extinct animals back to life.
The wild mission comes from a Dallas-based company called Colossal Biosciences which is working to de-extinct the woolly mammoth, lost 4,000 years ago.
Matt James is Colossal’s chief animal officer.
“We are creating technology that’s going to change tomorrow with de-extinction but what’s amazing is that those technologies are making a difference to endangered species conservation today,” said James.
Using DNA from Asian elephants and DNA recovered from woolly mammoths frozen in the arctic tundra, researchers at Colossal Biosciences are using gene editing technology to reengineer the genome of an Asian elephant until it reflects that of a woolly mammoth.
“As it turns out the woolly mammoth and Asian elephant are 99.6% gnomically similar,” said James.
And that’s just part of the project.
Inside its labs in Deep Ellum, work is underway to create artificial wombs to grow a woolly mammoth calf.
Colossal has set a due date for the year 2028.
“When I was offered this position, I was sort of considering my life choices in this amazing opportunity to work at Colossal, my little brother called me and said, ‘Do you understand you could be the first modern human to ever see a woolly mammoth? You could be the first person that’s there to take that photo with a mammoth,’ and that opportunity is not lost on me. That privilege is incredible and it’s an amazing driving force,” said James.
But there’s an even bigger driving force.
James says restoring a mammoth ecosystem can preserve permafrost, or ground that remains frozen, and slow the release of greenhouse gases.
“This is probably worth 100 different lifetimes of achievement to accomplish this goal, but we have to push as fast as we can because we are facing this imminent threat of global climate change,” said James.
Since announcing its intention for the woolly mammoth, Colossal has announced similar plans for the dodo bird and Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine.
Work is also underway on the habitats to re-wild the animals at sustainable levels.
“People might think well this sounds like science fiction but it’s actually very achievable and it’s happening right now,” said James.
Since launching in 2021, Colossal Biosciences has raised $225 million for its research.
-
Massive ‘Devil Comet’ Explodes En Route to Earth
A giant horned “devil” comet has exploded en route to Earth — the second time the interstellar snowball’s blown its stack in two weeks.
Named 12P/Pons-Brooks, the falling star’s latest display was caught on camera by Arizona-based astronomy buff Elliot Herman.
“Comet 12P appears to be manifesting more frequent outbursts, a new outburst only two weeks from the prior outburst is now apparent,” gushed the University Of Arizona plant sciences professor, who’s been chronicling the cosmic hailstone’s intergalactic ice capades since its inaugural outburst on July 20 (its first in 69 years up to that point).
According to Elliot, this marks the fourth blast in four months for 12P, which is a cryovolcanic — or cold volcano — comet that measures a colossal 18.6 miles in diameter, or the size of a small city.
Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, is 29,029 feet high — or about 5.5 miles.
For the uninitiated, such eruptions occur when a large level of gas and ice amasses and combusts like a frozen Coke can. This causes the comet’s frosty insides to burst forth from large cracks that form in the nucleus crust.
During prior eruptions, the arctic blast caused the coma — the cloud of gas at the comet’s center — to sprout “horns” like some sort of intergalactic Beezlebub, earning 12P the moniker “Devil Comet.”
However, astronomers have pointed out that these horns have been less pronounced during the Halloween eruption even though that phenomenon was 100 times brighter than usual.
Meanwhile, this latest eruption appeared to have an almost perfectly spherical atmosphere.
Despite this satanic space ball’s ominous shape and trajectory, there’s no need to brace for armageddon just yet.
The cosmic ice cube — which orbits around the sun every 71 years — won’t reach its closest point to Earth until 2024, whereupon it will become visible to the naked eye.
“There’s a chance that Pons-Brooks will be bright enough to see with your naked eye next spring, but it will almost certainly be bright enough to see with even a small set of binoculars or a starter backyard telescope,” said Teddy Kareta, a postdoctoral researcher at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
12P will then be catapulted back into the solar system. It won’t make its cosmic comeback tour until the year 2095.
-
Radio Signal Discovered in Space Is Eight Billion Years Old
According to indy100, scientists have received a radio signal from space that is some 8 billion years old. The signal was a “fast radio burst” that lasted for a millisecond but contained extremely high levels of energy.
Designated as FRB 20220610A, this burst of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation registered an impressively large amount of energy roughly equivalent to what is released by our sun over the course of 30 years.
It Could Be The Merging Of Galaxies
Since these quick radio signals from space last for such short periods of time, it can be difficult to know what their true nature actually is. Astronomers believe that these bursts occur when galaxies merge and create new stars.
These signals can also be “weighed,” allowing astronomers to measure the mass of those unaccounted-for elements in the universe that exist between galaxies.
The SKA Pathfinder First Detected The Signal
As Ryan Shannon, co-author of the study of the radio signal from space says, about half of the matter that should be in our universe appears to be missing when we count up all of the normal matter. That means missing matter could be tucked away between galaxies in states that are so diffuse and hot that normal techniques are incapable of detecting it.
Shannon and his team made their findings using Australia’s SKA Pathfinder radio telescope, after which scientists in China used their own telescope to take further measurements.
The Oldest Signal Ever Recorded
This short-burst radio signal in space was then determined to be the most remote and oldest example of such a signal yet recorded. Similarly, earlier this year, astronomers discovered an object that emits radio waves every 21 minutes, leaving them mystified as to how this phenomenon takes place. That object has been putting out radio signals for some 45 years.
The Cosmic Timing Of The Ancient Signal
There are all sorts of radio signals and other mysterious phenomena in space that encompass the entirety of our universe, leaving astronomers with much still to discover in our own solar system, let alone everywhere else. In a universe as large as ours that has existed for as long as it has, there is a multitude of things that might occur in time periods that, from our perspective, are very long, but from a cosmic perspective represent relatively shorter moments. This means that something we have only recorded once could happen with a frequency that, on a cosmic time scale, is much more common than we might initially expect.
Does that mean we will discover other radio signals in space that are older than the one scientists recently recorded, or that contain more energy? It is very possible that we could, and even possible that such signals could exist without our detecting them.
As these signals are quite short in nature, especially from a cosmic perspective, it’s actually truly remarkable that our astronomers are able to capture and record them to learn more about their origins.
With a great deal more than radio signals to study in space, there is a great deal of information to collect, and astronomers are constantly on the lookout for new discoveries. Those new discoveries, however, as this new information shows, may actually be only new to us and in fact very, very old.
The age, depth, and breadth of our universe continues to be explored by scientists, telling us once again, in the words of the Jodie Foster film Contact’s Eleanor Arroway, “how small and insignificant and rare and precious we all are.”