#George Dvorsky

[andronetalks]

Newly Spotted Comet May Soon Be Visible Without Telescopes

Gizmodo By George Dvorsky PublishedFriday 3:30PM A comet recently discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura is garnering attention from NASA and skywatchers alike. Using a standard digital camera, Nishimura detected the celestial body on August 11 during a series of 30-second exposures, according to NASA. Though currently not visible to the naked eye, this status may soon change.…

[mikeoliveri]

Way cool.

[larryland]

REVIEW: "Annie" at the Mac-Haydn Theatre

REVIEW: “Annie” at the Mac-Haydn Theatre

[typhlonectes]

You’ve Heard Of Water Bears, But How About These Ancient Mould Pigs?

Newly discovered prehistoric creatures don't fit into any known animal group

by George Dvorsky -  October 9, 2019

An analysis of 30-million-year-old amber has resulted in the discovery of a previously unknown microscopic creature from the Cenozoic period. Bearing a resemblance to tardigrades (aka water bears), these now-extinct “mould pigs,” as they’ve been dubbed, are unlike anything seen before.

Introducing Sialomorpha dominicana, a newly discovered microinvertebrate found locked in amber from the Dominican Republic. Its discoverers, paleobiologist George Poinar Jr. from Oregon State University and invertebrate zoologist Diane Nelson from East Tennessee State University, have dubbed the creature a “mould pig” in honour of its portly, porcine appearance and its diet, which consisted primarily of fungi. Details of the discovery were recently published in Invertebrate Biology.

The 83-year-old Poinar is no stranger to working with fossils trapped in amber. His 1982 research paper gave sci-fi author Michael Crichton the idea of extracting dinosaur DNA from insects trapped in amber, as portrayed in the film Jurassic Park...

Read more: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/10/youve-heard-of-water-bears-but-how-about-these-ancient-mold-pigs/

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sialomorpha

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ivb.12265

[blueiscoool]

Two Polished 5,500-Year-Old Stone Balls Found in Neolithic Scottish Tomb

The rare artifacts were probably used as both weapons and symbols of power

Archaeologists excavating a tomb at one of Scotland’s oldest known monuments have discovered two polished, 5,500-year-old stone balls, reports Alison Campsie for the Scotsman.

The team made the find at Tresness, a chambered cairn on the Orkney island of Sanday that dates to around 3500 B.C.E.

“A cracking find from the tomb!” wrote Hugo Anderson-Whymark, senior curator of prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, on Twitter after the first ball’s discovery. “Only 20 or so Neolithic polished stone balls have been found in Orkney and few have been recovered from secure contexts.”

Anderson-Whymark later posted that the second ball was “the size of a cricket ball, perfectly spherical and beautifully finished. It’s split along bedding in the banded sandstone but will be amazing when conserved.”

Researchers have previously found plain stone balls at other sites in Orkney, including the Neolithic village of Skara Brae and the complex of buildings known as the Ness of Brodgar, reports the Press and Journal’s Ellie Milne. Archaeologists have also unearthed more than 500 carved stone balls, some in Orkney but most elsewhere.

Aberdeenshire, located on the Scottish mainland more than 100 miles south of Orkney, is particularly rich in these artifacts. One, known as the Towie ball, is carved into four knobs, three of which are decorated with intricate spiral patterns. Other examples found in the region feature distinctive patterns of spikes and ridges.

Researchers say the stones were probably used as both weapons and symbols of power. Remains of people of different ages and genders found in Orkney show signs of blunt force skull injuries possibly caused by such tools. But the discovery of polished balls in a burial is unusual.

The tomb at Tresness is split into several chambers. Vicki Cummings, an archaeologist at the University of Central Lancaster, tells the Scotsman that the tomb was probably connected to a Neolithic settlement at Cata Sand, about a mile and a half away.

“We have got the tomb and the settlement where people are living and they are more or less contemporary, so it seems very likely that the people building this monument were the people living at the settlement at Cata Sands,” she says.

Cummings adds that the landscape of the area was very different during the Neolithic period. Sea levels were lower, meaning the coast was farther from the tomb and the settlement, and the area was covered in trees.

Archaeological sites on the Scottish archipelago form a Unesco World Heritage site known as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney. Monuments, residential areas and artifacts found in the area testify to the farming practices of people who lived in northwest Europe before 4000 B.C.E.

In addition to the balls, notes the team on its blog, excavation of the cairn has uncovered fragments of pottery, knives and the antler of a Roe deer. As Cummings writes in a blog post, this season’s dig revealed how Bronze Age people altered the monument, removing stones and adding a new outer wall made up of large stones brought in from elsewhere.

“The Bronze Age cairn would have been really impressive,” she writes.

Archaeologists first explored the tomb in the 1980s. In 2017, a new series of excavations began “with an added sense of urgency,” according to Gizmodo’s George Dvorsky. The site faces erosion and the collapse of the cliff where it stands, so researchers are attempting to document the site and collect as many artifacts as possible before it’s too late. They have created 3-D models of the cairn that highlight sections constructed during the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age.

“At the end of the day, sadly this is a site that is disappearing into the sea so we are extracting this information before it is basically lost forever,” Cummings said.

By Livia Gershon.

[tlatollotl]

Beginning roughly 2,000 years ago, the Calusa enjoyed centuries of dominance as the undisputed rulers of southwest Florida. Theirs was a complex society with trade routes spanning hundreds of miles; a powerful military; and built works including wide canals, islands made of shells and towering buildings.

Unlike the Maya, Aztecs and Inca, the Calusa built their kingdom, which stretched from modern Tampa Bay to Ten Thousand Islands and as far east as Lake Okeechobee, without agriculture.

Researchers have long wondered how a society that collected all of its food by fishing, hunting and gathering was able to secure enough food to support its ambitious construction projects and military might. Now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals details of how the Calusa stockpiled live fish in massive holding pens, or “watercourts,” built out of oyster shells. The idea that these watercourts held fish is not new, writes George Dvorsky for Gizmodo, but the paper is the first to conduct a systematic analysis of the ancient structures.

The remains of these watercourts—the largest of which is seven times larger than an NBA basketball court—are located near Fort Myers in Mound Key, where the Calusa’s capital city of Calos stood for 500 years.

Mound Key is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. A human-constructed island made primarily of shells, the island’s building materials, by volume, could fill 200 Olympic swimming pools, Victor Thompson, lead author of the new study and an anthropologist at the University of Georgia, tells Haaretz’s Ruth Schuster. The Great Pyramid of Giza is made of roughly 1,000 swimming pools worth of stone, but as Thompson points out, “The ancient Egyptians didn’t eat the stones before they built it.”

The watercourts flanked a 100-foot-wide canal that bisected the entire island. Each one had a roughly six-foot-long opening onto the canal. The researchers speculate that this feature may have been used to drive fish into the pens before sealing them inside with a gate.

Atop a 30-foot-high shell mound, the Calusa constructed an expansive manor capable of holding 2,000 people, according to Spanish records. Fish stored in Mound Key’s watercourts may have provided the food resources needed to complete the project. (Florida Museum / Illustration by Merald Clark)

For the new study, researchers analyzed two watercourts to determine when and how they were built, how they worked, and whether their appearance mirrored other significant developments in the Calusa kingdom. The team used core samples, excavated fish bones, radiocarbon dating and remote sensing to probe the watercourts for answers.

Radiocarbon dating placed the construction of the watercourts between 1300 and 1400 A.D. This timeframe coincided with the second phase of construction of Calusa king Caalus’ manor—a massive building that could hold 2,000 people at the time of its completion, according to Spanish documents.

The watercourts could also have been an innovation prompted by a drop in sea level that occurred around 1250, potentially impacting “fish populations enough to help inspire some engineering innovation,” says Karen Walker, study co-author and an archaeologist at the Florida Museum, in a statement.

Bones and scales excavated from the ancient holding pens belonged to mullet, pinfish and herring, all schooling species that might have been easily herded inside.

Remote sensing yielded a 3-D map of the island’s surface that features what appear to be ramps leading from the watercourts to two shell mounds—perhaps facilitating the transport of food.

Excavations found ancient ash and other evidence pointing toward the presence of racks for drying and smoking fish, according to the statement. And core samples from the watercourts contained a layer of dark gray sediment that appears to be on par with ancient pond scum. The researchers say this suggests the water inside of the structures did not circulate much, and that the walls were tall enough not to get flooded by high tide.

“We can’t know exactly how the courts worked,” says Michael Savarese, study co-author and a geologist from Florida Gulf Coast University, in the statement. “But our gut feeling is that storage would have been short-term—on the order of hours to a few days, not for months at a time.”

The Calusa built their entire way of life around the ocean and estuaries of the Gulf Coast, creating a vast empire by learning to manipulate their environment. Though eschewing agriculture once led some researchers to assume that the Calusa were less sophisticated, it also made them innovative and unique.

“The fact that the Calusa obtained much of their food from the estuaries structured almost every aspect of their lives,” says Thompson in the statement. “Even today, people who live along coasts are a little different, and their lives continue to be influenced by the water—be it in the food they eat or the storms that roll in on summer afternoons in Southwest Florida.”

[downtobaker]

Le migliori 15 fotografie della Via Lattea del 2021

Le migliori 15 fotografie della Via Lattea del 2021

di George Dvorsky (traduzione di Vincent Baker) “Via Lattea sul Monte Taranaki,” Fanthams Peak, Monte Taranaki, Nuova Zelanda.Immagine: Larryn Rae/2021 Milky Way photographer of the year Sono stati annunciati i vincitori del 2021 Milky Way Photographer of the Year, i quali hanno prodotto alcune delle migliori vedute della nostra galassia che si siano mai avute. Identificare ogni singola stella…

[heyho-simonrussellbeale]

Kurt Weill: The Firebrand of Florence Broadway operetta in two acts. Music and lyrics by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. Book by Edwin Justus Mayer, based on his play The Firebrand.

Benvenuto Cellini..... Rodney Gilfry (baritone) Angel, his model and paramour..... Lori Ann Fuller (soprano) Alessandro de Medici..... George Dvorsky..... (bass) The Duchess of Florence..... Felicity Palmer.... (mezzo) Emilia, Cellini's servant..... Lucy Schauffer..... (mezzo) Ascanio, Cellini's apprentice..... Stephen Charlesworth..... (baritone) Ottaviano de Medici, the Duke's treacherous cousin..... Roger Heath..... (bass) Marquis Pierre, the French Ambassador..... Robert Johnston.... (tenor) A Hangman..... Henry Waddington..... (bass) Maffio, a villainous Florentine count..... Stuart MacIntyre ..... (baritone) Simon Russell Beale..... (narrator)

BBC Singers [Chorus Master: Stephen Betteridge] BBC Symphony Orchestra Andrew Davis (conductor)

[sciencespies]

Felines May Use Catnip for More Than Just Euphoria

https://sciencespies.com/news/felines-may-use-catnip-for-more-than-just-euphoria/

Felines May Use Catnip for More Than Just Euphoria

Cat owners—and the kitty-obsessed internet—have observed felines go into a frenzy after rubbing and rolling against catnip, Nepeta cataria, when it is nearby. New research published this week in the journal Science Advances suggests that cats not only use catnip for a high but may also use it as protection against mosquitos.

Catnip and a plant called silver vine, Actinidia polygama, are not closely related, but both make cats go wild. The two plants also contain iridoids, which are chemical compounds that protect the plants against sap-sucking insects, reports Sofia Moutinho for Science. After testing catnip and silver vine leaves for potent chemicals that give cats a bit of a buzz, biochemist Masao Miyazaki from Iwate University in Japan and his colleagues identified the silver vine iridoid, nepetalactol, as the key to the feline’s euphoric state and protection against mosquito bites.

Miyazaki and his team presented a menagerie of cats ranging from big cats at the zoo to domestic and feral cats with scraps of paper soaked in nepetalactol. No matter how big or small the cats were, the results were the same: All cats began to anoint themselves with the paper, reports Katherine J. Wu for the New York Times.

After observing the cats in ecstasy, Miyazaki and his colleagues were sure there had to be more benefits to this behavior besides the intoxicating experience. Previous studies have shown that catnip releases an iridoid called nepetalactone that is ten times more effective at repelling mosquitos than DEET. Taking a cue from past research, the team tested how well silver vine-derived nepralactol protected the felines against mosquitoes. Cats covered in nepetalactol attracted significantly fewer mosquitos——in some cases, by half as many—than cats left untreated with the chemical, reports George Dvorsky for Gizmodo.

“This is convincing evidence that the characteristic rubbing and rolling response functions to transfer plant chemicals that provide mosquito repellency to cats,” the researchers write in the study.

Cats’ attraction to iridoids has puzzled researchers for years, and experts still are unsure why the chemical affects cats but does not affect other animals like dogs or mice, reports the New York Times. The researchers involved in this study argue that this behavior evolved in cats to aid them when stealthily stalking prey.

“Anyone who has ever sat in the field to observe animals ambushing prey knows just how difficult it is for them to keep still when there are many biting mosquitoes around,” Miyazaki tells Science.

Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist at the University of California Davis, who was not involved in the study, says that this behavior could have also evolved to protect felines from mosquito-borne diseases like heartworm, reports the New York Times.

The researchers are currently looking into how nepetalactol could be used as an insect repellent for humans and have already submitted a patent, reports Science.

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[drmorbius12]

Prehistoric Britons traveled impressive distances to attend celebrations at monumental lithic sites like Stonehenge to watch the stars and participate in what can only be described as pork fests.

George Dvorsky, from an online article in Gizmodo entitled, Lost Monument of Early Maya Civilization Discovered in Mexico

Sounds like a BBQ party to me!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Smithsonian story:

For decades, mountain gorillas have been subjected to uncontrolled hunting, disease, habitat loss and the ravages of human conflict. Their numbers plummeted, and they are now considered endangered. But as George Dvorsky of Gizmodo reports, there is encouraging news for these great primates. A new survey has found that the mountain gorilla population has risen to 1,063 confirmed individuals—still a disconcertingly low number, but a sign that conservation efforts are working.

The population census focused on two areas where mountain gorillas, a subspecies of eastern gorilla, make their home: the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda and the contiguous Sarambwe Nature Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 75 trained workers participated in the survey, scouring gorilla habitats for fecal samples. According to John C. Cannon of Mongabay, around 2,000 samples were sent to the the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, where scientists used DNA analysis to identify individuals and group identities. In total, the team counted 459 mountain gorillas in these regions, up from the 400 individuals that were estimated to exist in a 2011 survey, UC Davis says.

Yet another survey conducted between 2015 and 2016 found 604 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif, a chain of eight volcanoes that stretches across Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Combined with the results of the new population census, that brings the total number of mountain gorillas up to 1,063—a considerable increase from 2008, when the mountain gorilla population numbered just 680.

It has taken a mammoth effort on the part of conservationists and local communities to rescue mountain gorillas from the brink of extinction. As Helen Briggs of the BBC reported last year, specially-trained vets care for the animals in the wild and patrols work hard to fend off poachers; park rangers have given their lives to protect gorillas. Carefully managed eco-tourism has also bolstered local economies and encouraged communities to keep mountain gorillas safe.

The results of the recent survey show “what can be accomplished by a cross-border, multipronged, unrelenting effort to protect a species,” says Tara Stoinski, president, CEO and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, which assisted in the Bwindi portion of the census. But she notes that mountain gorillas are still in dire need of protection.

[fumpkins]

Researchers Found out The Oldest Handmade String, And It Wasn't Made by Humans

Neanderthals were making cords and string from fibers long before early humans cottoned on to the method, according to a new archaeological finding.

Researchers have discovered a 6.2 millimeter(0.24 inch) fiber fragment which they date to about 41,000–52,000 years ago – so quite a bit older than the preceding record holder, a 19,000-year-old piece found in Israel.

The revelation was made in a cave in France, which would’ve been a Neanderthal community at the time. It suggests the species were keener and more skillful at crafts than we often give them recognition for.

“Understanding and use of twisted fibres suggests the use of complex multi-component technology as well as a mathematical understanding of sets, pairs and numbers,” penned the researchers in their published paper.

“Added to current evidence of birch bark tar, shell beads and art, the idea that Neanderthals were cognitively inferior to modern humans is turning to be increasingly untenable.”

After finding the fragment, the researchers used microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to analyze it and decide where the fibres had first come from – perhaps the inner bark of a non-flowering tree, such as a conifer, before it toughened.

The team proposes that we have a poor understanding of the Neanderthals because consumable materials like this are typically long gone by the time we reach to them. Bones and tools can only tell us so much.

If these early hominids were certainly able to make string, they would have had to know about the seasonality and growth of the trees the fibers were taken from, and been able to relate some numeracy skills to twist and bundle the fibers into yarn.

In simple words, making fibers and string is more complex than you might realize. The researchers think the fragment they’ve found might have been a handle for the flint tool it was fixed to, or part of a bag or net for holding tools.

And this goes way more than a bit of string. Once you can make a string like this, it’s not a huge jump to making fabric, mats, baskets and even boats. Again, the inference is that Neanderthals and their societies were more refined than we give them credit for.

Some experts have advised caution about the findings, suggesting that the fibre may have been left behind by early humans – but this is distant from the first study to produce evidence that Neanderthals were smarter than earlier thought, nor is it the first study to offer that they could make crafts in this way.

“The cognitive abilities for making string and rope are very alike to those for making language,” anthropologist Bruce Hardy, from Kenyon College, told George Dvorsky at Gizmodo. “This expresses the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals.”

The research has been issued in Scientific Reports.

    New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2020/04/14/researchers-found-out-the-oldest-handmade-string-and-it-wasnt-made-by-humans/

[larryland]

CHATHAM, NY—The Mac-Haydn Theatre presents Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s sci-fi hit Little Shop of Horrors, running August 8 through 18.

Get ready for this beloved and out-of-this-world comedy. Down on Skid Row we meet the meek and loveable Seymour Krelborn, where he discovers a carnivorous plant that needs more than just plant food to grow; it needs blood and has plans for total world domination! This smash hit sci-fi musical will crash like a meteorite onto the stage and satisfy every appetite!

Fresh off his run in Ragtime as Houdini, Andrew Burton Kelley takes on his second role of the season as Seymour. Credits include: National Tour: A Christmas Carol. Regional: A Chorus Line, Rock of Ages, Beauty and the Beast (Palace Theatre), Xanadu, Violet, Titanic, The Producers (Seacoast Rep), Mitch Albom’s Hockey-The Musical (Detroit City Theatre).

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Berkshire Theatre Award Winner Emily Kron returns to the Mac-Haydn stage as Audrey. She dazzled audiences last season as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and won a Berkshire Theatre Award for her performance as Mrs. Lovett in our 2017 production of Sweeney Todd. Mac-Haydn credits also include South Pacific (Nellie) and The Baker’s Wife (Genevieve). NY Credits include: Private View(Atlantic Theater), The Europeans (Atlantic Theater), Sweet Tooth (Cherry Lane Theater), Love in a Tub (LaMaMa), The Gold(NYMF). Emily has her own band, Em & the Fates, and has performed renowned venues, such as 54 Below, BB King, Rockwood Music Hall and more.

Pat Moran stars as Orin (The Dentist) after his highly-praised performance as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard earlier this season. Now in his third season at the theatre, Pat has been featured in previous Mac-Haydn productions such as Cabaret (Emcee), Chicago(Billy Flynn) and Into the Woods (Cinderella’s Prince). Pat’s New York credits include Spring Awakening (Hanschen) and Carrie: The Musical (Tommy Ross), and his regional credits include Damn Yankees (Joe Hardy), She Loves Me (Kodaly), and The Sound of Music (Rolf).

Rounding out the cast are Alecsys Proctor-Turner as Audrey II, Berkshire Theatre Award winner George Dvorsky as Mushnik, Atsushi Eda as the Audrey II puppeteer and Maya Cuevas, Madi Cupp-Enyard and Angel Harrison as the Urchins: Ronnette, Chiffon and Crystal, respectively.

  Little Shop of Horrors is directed by Erin Spears Ledford, choreographed by Lauren Monteleone and music directed by David Maglione, with costume design by Alison Zador, wig and makeup design by Matthew Oliver, scenic design by Emma Cummings, lighting design by Kevin Gleason, props by Joshua Gallagher and sound design by Nathan Schilz.

For tickets and details please visit www.machaydntheatre.org or call the box office at (518) 392-9292.

The Mac-Haydn Theatre Presents “Little Shop of Horrors” CHATHAM, NY—The Mac-Haydn Theatre presents Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s sci-fi hit Little Shop of Horrors,