Hello, hello, hello and good morning to you all, my fellow gnusies! I hope everyone had wonderful holidays, and, should you be one of the many who are weathering the weather, whether it be cold or otherwise inclement, you are doing so comfortably, well supplied, and supported.
Somewhat abbreviated roundup from me today, as I have had a number of family things in the very recent past, and a new hobby has somewhat disconnected me from the 24/7 news cycle. Yes, you heard it here, I’m actually taking a much-needed (mostly) break from the news. Taking my own advice, so to speak.
ANYWAYS. Enough from me. On with the good news.
Some familiar music to start, perhaps? For Reasons.
I played an arrangement of this music in all state orchestra way back when.
My new hobby has to do with dinosaurs, so I have to list this one first:
A newly discovered giant dinosaur species may be the closest relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, and could even represent the moment that the genus experimented with a huge body.
The new species was recently described in the journal Scientific Reports by paleontologist Sebastian Dalman and his colleagues. It was a mighty carnivore that lived in North America around five million years before T. rex.
Named Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, proof of its distinction came from examinations of parts of the animal’s fossilized skull, which was previously discovered at the Hall Lake Formation in New Mexico.
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Based on the locations of the remains in relation to rocks and other dinosaur fossils, the researchers suggest that T. mcraeensis may have lived between 71 and 73 million years ago—between five and seven million years before T. rex.
“Analysis of the relationships between T. mcraeensis and other theropod dinosaur species indicates that it may have been… the closest known relative of T. rex,” said Dalman, a doctoral student at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.
No relation to Barney, I’m sure.
I don’t think this one needs an introduction.
Cape Verde was given the status by the World Health Organization (WHO) as it has not reported a single case of local transmission in three years.
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Cape Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa, has taken years to reach this point by strengthening its health systems and increasing access to diagnosis and treatment of all cases.
Surveillance officers have been detecting cases early, as well as controlling mosquitoes.
Cape Verde's plan for malaria control has also ensured free care and diagnostic services for international travellers and migrants, with the aim of stemming the tide of cases imported from mainland Africa.
"This success reflects the hard work and dedication of countless health professionals, collaborators, communities and international partners. It is a testimony to what can be achieved through collective commitment to improving public health," Cape Verde's Health Minister Dr Filomena Gonçalves told the BBC.
I will note — given that there was a lot more info in the article and I ran out of fair use — that the last time an African nation reached this particular milestone, it was Mauritius, another small island nation, in 1973.
Teddy bear drops never get old. I hope to be able to participate in one at some point.
A professional ice hockey team in Pennsylvania broke a franchise record last week, not for goals scored, but for the number of teddy bears tossed onto the ice by fans to help local kids.
The plush pandemonium broke out in the second period as the Hershey Bears scored a goal to trigger the annual Teddy Bear Toss that collects toys for charity—while the announcer screamed, “Let the sweet cuddly mayhem commence!”
The exuberant downpour of plushies began 4 minutes into the second period at the Giant Center last week, with 74,599 stuffed toys raining down.
“You see it on video, but when you’re actually part of it, it was amazing. Just an incredible sight,” said Bears coach Todd Nelson.
Space! It’s what’s out there.
Everyone who’s given five seconds to look into it knows that the Aurora Borealis is cause by charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field, but what if there were no Sun, could there still be an aurora?
That’s what astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope seem to have observed after finding an object displaying what is probably an aurora like the familiar Northern Lights on our world.
The object in question is a brown dwarf, something larger than Jupiter but smaller than a star, known as W1935, and unlike any planets in our solar system that experience aurorae, it’s an isolated object in space with no nearby star to create one.
“This is an unexpected discovery because the brown dwarf is cold and lacks a host star; therefore, there is no obvious source of energy to heat its upper atmosphere and make the methane glow,” NASA writes.
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NASA say that for isolated brown dwarfs like W1935, the absence of a stellar wind to contribute to the auroral process and explain the extra energy in the upper atmosphere required for the methane emission is “a mystery”.
From the “The Kids are All Right” files:
Who’s a good boy? I know Kobe’s one good boy who’s probably going to have the entire neighborhood spoiling him.
Having moved into the home rather recently, [Chanell] Bell noticed Kobe was digging in the same spot in the yard hour after hour. She didn’t think much of it as he is an avid digger when the need arises, but as it got larger and larger, she took notice.
“I trust his judgment because that isn’t his typical behavior,” she said. “He has great senses and he never digs holes unless he is helping me dig; I knew something was up.”
Chanell had had a gas leak in the house earlier in December, and seeing that the hole went under the sidewalk, she “trusted her intuition” to take out her gas detection device.
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Chanell alerted authorities who informed her that if Kobe hadn’t detected the leak when he did on December 21, the consequences could have been fatal.
“We were told it could’ve caused serious health effects like respiratory issues, brain damage, and even death. They told me that something as simple as a light switch turning on could’ve caused an explosion too!” she said.
Apologies to any fellow Welcome to Night Vale listeners.
I have been waiting for a regular multi-cancer screening test to be announced. I love living in the future.
A US biotech firm called Novelna recently presented their findings of a trial of 440 humans with a total of 18 different cancers. Blood plasma samples were taken from each patient, along with 44 healthy blood donors.
By analyzing trace proteins in the blood, the Novelna team were able to achieve a high “sensitivity,” or the detection rate of early-stage tumors, and a high “specificity” or the control for false-positives. Furthermore, the proteins controlled for in the test are sex-specific.
At stage I (the earliest cancer stage) and at the specificity of 99%, the panels were able to identify 93% of cancers among males and 84% of cancers among females.
“This finding is the foundation for a multi-cancer screening test for the early detection of 18 solid tumors that cover all major human organs of origin for such cancers at the earliest stage of their development with high accuracy,” the authors wrote in the journal BMJ Oncology. “These findings pave the way for a cost-effective, highly accurate, multi-cancer screening test that can be implemented on a population-wide scale.”
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Dr. Peter Attia, the well-known MD, science communicator, and proponent of “medicine 3.0” which places strong emphasis on prevention over treatment, said recently that in order to truly bring down mortality levels of common cancers like breast, colon, and prostate cancer, early test detection should start in mid-life as often as twice a year.
That’ll be it for me, folks! I’ll play us out with one of my favorites.