tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82933178477211539012024-02-22T04:32:38.560-08:00RPG Idea SeedsThis blog is a list of news articles and web pages that I think would make great idea seeds for role playing games. I'm also adding "random anything" tables that are available on the net. In my surfing of the net, whenever I see an article that makes me think of a RPG adventure, monster, or anything else that can help me as a GM, it goes here.Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.comBlogger166125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-55518516968577961662019-01-06T13:57:00.003-08:002019-01-06T13:57:51.166-08:00Ancient tsunami almost wiped out civilization in southern China, study finds - CNN<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/asia/china-guangdong-tsunami-study-intl/">Ancient tsunami almost wiped out civilization in southern China, study finds - CNN</a><br />
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<cite class="el-editorial-source" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: CNN, "Helvetica Neue", Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700;">(CNN)</cite>A tsunami which struck southern China around a thousand years ago nearly wiped out civilization in what is now one of the most densely populated regions of the planet, according to a new study by Chinese scientists.</div>
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The devastation caused by the giant wave raises new questions over the potential vulnerability of the region today, particularly in the wake of last month's Indonesian tsunami and the ongoing expansion of nuclear power plants in southern China.</div>
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Writing in the journal <a href="http://engine.scichina.com/publisher/scp/journal/CSB/doi/10.1360/N972018-00740?slug=abstract" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #006598; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Chinese Science Bulletin</a> this month, researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and East China Normal University said archaeological and sedimentary evidence, backed up by brief mentions in the historical record, pointed to a massive wave hitting what is now Guangdong province around 1076 AD, during the Song Dynasty.</div>
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The effects of the tsunami appear to have been devastating, resulting in a "drastic cultural decline" which did not rebound until some five hundred years later.</div>
Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-16554781399680147092017-11-30T19:37:00.000-08:002017-11-30T19:37:47.925-08:00A Nearby Neutron Star Collision Could Cause Calamity on Earth - Scientific AmericanFrom:<br />
<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-nearby-neutron-star-collision-could-cause-calamity-on-earth/">A Nearby Neutron Star Collision Could Cause Calamity on Earth - Scientific American</a>: <br />
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According to a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.04365" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(105, 105, 105); box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;">2016 study</a>, supernovae occurring as close as 50 light-years from Earth could pose an imminent danger to Earth’s biosphere—humans included. The event would likely shower us in so much high-energy cosmic radiation that it could spark a planetary mass extinction. Researchers have tentatively linked past instances of spiking extinction rates and plummeting biodiversity to postulated astrophysical events, and in at least one case have even found definitive evidence for a nearby supernova as the culprit. Twenty million years ago, a star 325 light-years from Earth exploded, showering the planet in radioactive iron<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearby-supernova-explosions-may-have-affected-human-evolution-video/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(105, 105, 105); box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;">particles</a><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearby-supernova-explosions-may-have-affected-human-evolution-video/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(105, 105, 105); box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;"> that </a><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearby-supernova-explosions-may-have-affected-human-evolution-video/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(105, 105, 105); box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;">eventually </a><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearby-supernova-explosions-may-have-affected-human-evolution-video/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(105, 105, 105); box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;">settl</a><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nearby-supernova-explosions-may-have-affected-human-evolution-video/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(105, 105, 105); box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;">ed in deep-sea sediments</a><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">on the ocean floor.</u> That event, researchers speculate, may have triggered ice ages and <u style="box-sizing: inherit;">altered the course of evolution and human history.</u></div>
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The exact details of past (and future) astrophysical cataclysms’ impact on Earth’s biosphere depend not only on their distance, but also their orientation. A supernova, for instance, can sometimes expel its energy in all directions—meaning it is not always a very targeted phenomenon. Merging black holes are expected to emit scarcely any radiation at all, making them surprisingly benign for any nearby biosphere. A kilonova, however, has different physics at play. Neutron stars are a few dozen kilometers in radius rather than a few million like a typical stars. When these dense objects merge, they tend to produce jets that blast out gamma rays from their poles.</div>
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“[W]hat it looks like to us, and the effect it has on us, would depend a lot on whether or not one of the jets was pointed directly at us,” Frank says. Based on its distance and orientation to Earth, a kilonova’s jets would walk the fine line between a spectacular light show and a catastrophic stripping away of the planet’s upper atmosphere. If a jet is pointed directly at us, drastic changes could be in store. And we probably wouldn’t see them coming. A kilonova begins with a burst of gamma rays—incredibly energetic photons that, by definition, move at light-speed, the fastest anything can travel through the universe. Because nothing else can move faster, those photons would strike first, and without warning.</div>
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“What [the gamma rays] would do, probably more than anything else, is dissolve the ozone layer,” says Andrew Fruchter, a staff astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Next, the sky would go blindingly white as the visible light from the kilonova encountered our planet. Trailing far behind the light would be slower-moving material ejected from the kilonova—radioactive particles of heavy elements that, sandblasting the Earth in sufficient numbers, could still pack a lethal punch.</div>
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That’s if the kilonova is close, though—within 50 light-years, give or take. At a safer distance, the gamma rays would still singe the ozone layer on the facing hemisphere, but the other side would be shielded by the planet’s bulk. “Most radiation happens very quickly, so half the Earth would be hidden,” Fruchter says. There would still be a momentarily blinding light. For a few weeks, a new star would burn bright in the sky before gradually fading back into obscurity.</div>
Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-87534890102640011732017-11-29T22:17:00.001-08:002017-11-29T22:17:40.606-08:00The Fungus That Turns Ants Into Zombies Is More Diabolical Than We Realized<br />
From:<br />
<a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-fungus-that-turns-ants-into-zombies-is-more-diaboli-1820301538?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow">The Fungus That Turns Ants Into Zombies Is More Diabolical Than We Realized</a>: <br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: ElizabethSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Carpenter ants of the Brazilian rain forest have it rough. When one of these insects gets infected by a certain fungus, it turns into a so-called “zombie ant” and is no longer in control of its actions. Manipulated by the parasite, an infected ant will leave the cozy confines of its arboreal home and head to the forest floor—an area more suitable for fungal growth. After parking itself on the underside of a leaf, the zombified ant anchors itself into place by chomping down onto the foliage. This marks the victim’s final act. From here, the fungus continues to grow and fester inside the ant’s body, eventually piercing through the ant’s head and releasing its fungal spores. This entire process, from start to finish, can take upwards of ten agonizing days</span><br />
<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-9731249387019482322017-10-29T09:36:00.000-07:002017-10-29T09:36:12.699-07:00Most Habitable Earth-Like Planets May Be Waterworlds<br />
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/most-habitable-earth-like-planets-may-be-waterworlds-1794500308">Most Habitable Earth-Like Planets May Be Waterworlds</a>: <br />
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A new study published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests that most habitable planets are wet. Like, extremely wet. Using computer models, astronomer Fergus Simpson from the Institute of Cosmos Science at the University of Barcelona found that habitable exoplanets, at least simulated ones, tend to be overrun by water, in most cases accounting for 90 percent or more of the total surface area.<br />
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Also interesting:<br />
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“Larger planets are thought to be more prone to flooding for two reasons,” Simpson told Gizmodo. “One is that if they have the same composition (percentage of water by mass) then their oceans are deeper. The second is that their higher surface gravity makes it harder to have such large surface perturbations [dynamic topological features].”<br />
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-54301973239597825682017-10-24T19:17:00.002-07:002017-10-24T19:18:20.701-07:00Move over DNA: Six new molecules can carry genes | New Scientist<div class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21720-move-over-dna-six-new-molecules-can-carry-genes/">Move over DNA: Six new molecules can carry genes | New Scientist</a>: </div>
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The ability to copy information from one molecule to another is fundamental to all life. Organisms pass their genes to their descendants, often with small changes, and as a result life can evolve over the generations. Barring a few exceptions, all known organisms use DNA as the information carrier. </blockquote>
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A host of alternative nucleic acids have been made in labs over the years, but no one has made them work like DNA.</blockquote>
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This problem has now been cracked. “This unique ability of DNA and RNA to encode information can be implemented in other backbones,” says Philipp Holliger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.</blockquote>
Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-22526981251137727572017-10-22T20:48:00.001-07:002017-10-22T20:48:21.809-07:00Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too<a href="http://www.space.com/36430-jupiter-has-a-great-cold-spot.html">Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too</a><br />
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Maybe some kind of adventure while refueling can be created from this story.Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-29698697396360533832017-10-20T21:26:00.000-07:002017-10-20T21:26:06.079-07:00New Theory Suggests Life Can Emerge On Planets Without Water<br />
All quotes from this story, and lots more information here:<br />
<a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/new-theory-suggests-life-can-emerge-on-planets-without-1660643383">New Theory Suggests Life Can Emerge On Planets Without Water</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: ElizabethSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">A new theory upends this assumption by suggesting that alien life could thrive on "supercritical carbon dioxide" instead.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: ElizabethSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Carbon dioxide becomes supercritical when its temperature exceeds 305 degrees Kelvin (about 88 F) and its pressure goes beyond 72.9 the standard atmosphere (atm) at sea level (the kind of pressure you'd find a half-mile beneath the ocean surface).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: ElizabethSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Fascinatingly, the atmospheric pressure of Venus is about 90 times greater than that of the Earth, with an average temperature of 467 degrees C. About 97% of its atmosphere is carbon dioxide. It's possible, therefore, that the atmosphere of Venus is a SCF. And indeed, the researchers speculate that organic remnants of life could still be preserved in such a fluid.</span><br />
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Also an article in Space: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/11/16/alien-life-could-thrive-on-supercritical-co2-instead-water">http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/11/16/alien-life-could-thrive-on-supercritical-co2-instead-water</a>/<br />
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And the original research: h<a href="ttp://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/4/3/331">ttp://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/4/3/331</a><br />
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-12509720126911790072017-10-15T22:36:00.000-07:002017-10-15T22:36:46.854-07:00Massive Lava Waves Detected on Jupiter’s Moon Io<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: ElizabethSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Thanks to a rare orbital alignment between Europa and Io, an international team of researchers has identified and tracked a pair of lava waves as they coursed around Loki Patera, which is larger than Lake Ontario, and with a surface area of 8,300 square miles (21,500 square km). The most likely explanation for this apparently periodic wave action is an overturning circulation pattern, in which cool surface crust slowly thickens and sinks, pulling nearby crust along with it in a wave that spreads across the surface. </span><br />
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More Info:<br />
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/massive-lava-waves-detected-on-jupiter-s-moon-io-1795088666">Massive Lava Waves Detected on Jupiter’s Moon Io</a><br />
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-23407978160371246782017-06-28T21:22:00.002-07:002017-06-28T21:22:29.448-07:00Hottest-Ever Alien Planet Discovered<a href="http://www.space.com/37092-hottest-alien-planet-found-kelt-9b.html">Hottest-Ever Alien Planet Discovered</a>: <br />
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Astronomers have found the hottest known exoplanet, a world where temperatures exceed those on the surface of most stars.<br />
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The Jupiter-like planet, known as KELT-9b, zips around its hot host star once every 1.5 Earth days. Its orbit is so tight that the gas giant is tidally locked, always showing the same face to the star, just as the moon shows only one face to Earth.<br />
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Temperatures on KELT-9b's "day side" reach a blazing 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,300 Celsius), the planet's discoverers said. That's hotter than the surface of the dwarf stars that dominate the Milky Way galaxy, and just 2,200 degrees F (1,200 degrees C) cooler than the surface of the sun. (However, temperatures in the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, can reach about 3 million degrees F, or 1.67 million degrees C.)Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-54490929883333521512017-06-28T21:19:00.002-07:002017-06-28T21:19:57.599-07:00Why did Russia seize oil off a Venezuelan cargo ship in the Caribbean? - CSMonitor.com<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2017/0418/Why-did-Russia-seize-oil-off-a-Venezuelan-cargo-ship-in-the-Caribbean">Why did Russia seize oil off a Venezuelan cargo ship in the Caribbean? - CSMonitor.com</a>: <br />
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Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA, sent a tanker in October to the Caribbean with the expectation that its cargo of crude would fetch about $20 million – money the crisis-stricken nation desperately needs.<br />
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Instead, the owner of the tanker, the Russian state-owned shipping conglomerate Sovcomflot, held the oil in hopes of collecting partial payment on $30 million that it says PDVSA owes for unpaid shipping fees.<br />
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Despite a longstanding alliance between Venezuela and Russia, Sovcomflot sued PDVSA in St. Maarten, a Dutch island on the northeast end of the Caribbean.<br />
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"The ship owners ... imposed garnishment on the aforementioned oil cargo," reads a March decision by the St. Maarten court.<br />
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Five months after crossing the Caribbean, the NS Columbus discharged its cargo of crude at a storage terminal on St. Eustatius, an island just south of St. Maarten, under a temporary decision by the court. Another tribunal in England will decide if Sovcomflot will ultimately take the oil.Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-36683724632855240542017-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:002017-06-28T21:06:03.361-07:001 week after black Saturday, 2 ships impounded, FIR filed | Chennai News - Times of India<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/1-week-after-black-saturday-2-ships-impounded-fir-filed/articleshow/56964532.cms">1 week after black Saturday, 2 ships impounded, FIR filed | Chennai News - Times of India</a>: <br />
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CHENNAI: As the extent of the oil spill caused by the collision of two ships off the Ennore Port in Chennai dawned on the authorities a week after the incident, multiple agencies stepped in to probe the accident. While the Chennai Port and police impounded both vessels, one of them registered abroad, the Madras high court said the government must take urgent action in this regard. The Chennai police have registered an FIR in connection with the collision and the oil spill, and issued a formal request to the port authorities not to allow the ships to sail away. The crew members too have been told not to leave without permission.<br />
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-67198222848608733942017-06-28T21:01:00.002-07:002017-06-28T21:01:55.839-07:00Newfound Alien Planet Is Best Place Yet to Search for Life<a href="http://www.space.com/36521-alien-planet-best-bet-search-for-life.html">Newfound Alien Planet Is Best Place Yet to Search for Life</a>: <br />
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The alien world known as LHS 1140b is rocky, like Earth. It is only 40 light-years away from our solar system (essentially, down-the-street in cosmic terms), and sits in the so-called habitable zone of its parent star, which means liquid water could potentially exist on the planet's surface. Several other planets also meet those criteria, but few of them are as prime for study as LHC 1140b according to the scientists who discovered it, because the type of star the planet orbits and the planet's orientation to Earth make it ripe for investigations into whether it’s the kind of place where life could thrive.Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-21366017460639840172017-06-28T21:00:00.001-07:002017-06-28T21:00:55.039-07:00TRAPPIST-1: System with 7 Earth-Size Exoplanets<a href="http://www.space.com/35806-trappist-1-facts.html">TRAPPIST-1: System with 7 Earth-Size Exoplanets</a>: <br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b5b5b; font-family: FreeSans, Arimo, "Droid Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Of the seven planets in TRAPPIST-1, three lie within the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water could form on a planet's surface, making them excellent contenders for the evolution of life. One world lies farther out, and is likely icy, while the three closest to the star are heated by its temperatures.</span>Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-16760205522219956812017-06-28T20:58:00.000-07:002017-06-28T20:58:16.795-07:00Why Are Martian Volcanoes So Different From Earth's?<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandrews/2017/03/23/why-are-martian-volcanoes-so-different-from-earths/#36ec7a022594">Why Are Martian Volcanoes So Different From Earth's?</a>: <br />
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Shield volcanoes on Earth are so big because they are fueled by mantle plumes for many millennia. The lava that erupts is basic, unevolved and extremely fluid, which means it spreads out over long distances. Give these shields enough time, and they grow to immense sizes.</div>
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Mars is no exception, but all its shield volcanoes are far more sizeable than our own. Why is that?</div>
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Well, on Earth, our tectonic plates gradually and continuously move around, but the mantle plumes underneath them stay still. So in 100,000 years or so, Hawaii’s Kilauea will be extinct, and the baby volcano growing off its shore, Loihi, will become the primary source of volcanism in the region.</div>
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Mars, as aforementioned, doesn’t have plate tectonics, which means that the underlying mantle plumes just kept on melting rock beneath the same spot for millions of years. The shield volcanoes there got so large that if they were any more massive, they’d break the Martian crust and sink back into the mantle.</div>
Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-69860899259447702302017-06-06T21:51:00.002-07:002017-06-06T21:51:58.785-07:00NASA | A Black Widow Pulsar Consumes its Mate - YouTube<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgI3w4SOAik">NASA | A Black Widow Pulsar Consumes its Mate - YouTube</a>: <br />
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Idea seeds:<br />
* Go there to study the star (hiding behind the ionized gas).<br />
* Go there to study the effects of radiation on the ionized gas.<br />
* Go there to study the conversion from neutron star to black hole?<br />
<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-58622387497513334892017-03-09T20:19:00.000-08:002017-03-09T20:19:02.020-08:00Ancient skulls may belong to elusive humans called Denisovans | Science | AAAS<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/ancient-skulls-may-belong-elusive-humans-called-denisovans">Ancient skulls may belong to elusive humans called Denisovans | Science | AAAS</a>: <br />
<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-29694710922289827012017-03-09T20:18:00.002-08:002017-03-09T20:18:37.294-08:00Late Pleistocene archaic human crania from Xuchang, China | Science<a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6328/969">Late Pleistocene archaic human crania from Xuchang, China | Science</a>: <br />
<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-7021463256023213912017-03-09T20:18:00.000-08:002017-03-09T20:18:09.188-08:00Ancient Stone Tool Find Suggests Mystery Human Species : Discovery News<a href="http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/ancient-stone-tool-find-suggests-mystery-human-species-160114.htm">Ancient Stone Tool Find Suggests Mystery Human Species : Discovery News</a>: <br />
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Ancient stone tools from an archaeological site on Sulawesi have pushed back the date of the earliest human occupation of the Indonesian island to at least 118,000 years ago.<br />
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The discovery, published today in Nature, overturns the view that humans first entered the island between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago as Homo sapiens dispersed out of Africa on the way to Australia.<br />
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Instead the finding suggests an ancient human species inhabited the island well before Homo sapiens arrived.<br />
<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-13313200262632801262017-03-09T20:17:00.001-08:002017-03-09T20:17:33.039-08:00The Mystery of Red Deer Cave | Popular Archaeology - exploring the past<a href="http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2013/article/the-mystery-of-red-deer-cave1">The Mystery of Red Deer Cave | Popular Archaeology - exploring the past</a>: <br />
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It wasn’t altogether unique to find fossils of archaic humans in these parts. But what Curnoe and his colleagues found most noteworthy about these archaic human fossils was their unusual combination of primitive and modern features, coupled with the late date range—a time almost exclusively attributed to the presence of anatomically modern humans (AMH). All other species of human, at least in these regions of China, were thought to have gone extinct tens of thousands of years earlier. The finds harkened back to the sensational discovery made in 2003 on the island of Flores in Indonesia, where scientists recovered and identified skeletal remains of another unusual species of human with archaic features—Homo floresiensis, popularly known as the “hobbit”. That human, determined to have occupied the site possibly as late as only 12,000 years ago, featured a very small (average 3 feet tall) body and small cranium or brain capacity, and a mosaic of other features, including a Homo erectus-like skull with a chinless mandible. The Red Deer Cave finds, on the other hand, featured an altogether different mosaic of anatomical features, decidedly different than Homo floresiensis and any other known species of human in the paleontological record. This species sported long, tall, broad frontal brain lobes much like modern humans, but they also featured more primitive characteristics such as a smaller brain capacity, thick skull bones, a prominent brow ridge, a jutting jaw that lacked a chin, a flat upper face with a broad nose, and large molars. Other features were unique to the Red Deer Cave specimen, shared by neither archaic or modern humans, such as a very curved forehead bone, very broad eye sockets and very flat, flaring cheeks. “In short,” Curnoe told a LiveScience reporter, “they’re anatomically unique among all members of the human evolutionary tree.”Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-3080275895748708722017-03-09T20:17:00.000-08:002017-03-09T20:17:18.430-08:00Study reveals the mysterious ancestors of modern Europeans - The Washington Post<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/18/study-reveals-the-mysterious-ancestors-of-modern-europeans/">Study reveals the mysterious ancestors of modern Europeans - The Washington Post</a><br />
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-25352278535691329872017-03-09T20:16:00.000-08:002017-03-09T20:16:43.950-08:00The Crater of Fire | Earth Blog<a href="https://earthspacecircle.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-crater-of-fire.html">The Crater of Fire | Earth Blog</a>: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgro_H18RoIAEPVTzgvG-5jO0rRhOtB-zNZfmfzoRGkd_bH_iio1MWO8rtHIpR-f9SOz208DcmwJRczAtzNFQhLrXmzTcXlOu0Yjq7BdOl_fW7-clL54X7E3CU9uTCT9QbAwfheuDvcjZqW/s1600/Crater-of-Fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgro_H18RoIAEPVTzgvG-5jO0rRhOtB-zNZfmfzoRGkd_bH_iio1MWO8rtHIpR-f9SOz208DcmwJRczAtzNFQhLrXmzTcXlOu0Yjq7BdOl_fW7-clL54X7E3CU9uTCT9QbAwfheuDvcjZqW/s640/Crater-of-Fire.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-37566327132419354272017-03-09T20:14:00.000-08:002017-03-09T20:14:26.198-08:00Ecology and biogeography of megafauna and macrofauna at the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vents on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge : Scientific Reports<a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39158">Ecology and biogeography of megafauna and macrofauna at the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vents on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge : Scientific Reports</a>: <br />
<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-37554145919984475072017-03-09T20:13:00.000-08:002017-03-09T20:13:08.141-08:00World's oldest axe found in the wilds of Australia - CSMonitor.com<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0510/World-s-oldest-axe-found-in-the-wilds-of-Australia">World's oldest axe found in the wilds of Australia - CSMonitor.com</a>: <br />
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<br />Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-85440665339035314242017-03-09T20:12:00.001-08:002017-03-09T20:12:38.755-08:00Searchable Atlas Of Strange Places<pre>I'm still exploring it, but so far, so good. If you can't
get at least one "Oooh! That gives me an idea!" thought
from it I'll be very surprised.
<a href="http://atlasobscura.com/globe" target="_blank">http://atlasobscura.com/globe</a>
</pre>
Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8293317847721153901.post-66170126285080783342017-03-09T20:08:00.002-08:002017-03-09T20:08:33.750-08:00On Line NPC Generators<pre><ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.roleplayingtips.com/tools/one_sentence_npc_generator.php" target="_blank">http://www.roleplayingtips.com/tools/one_sentence_npc_generator.php</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.geocities.com/flynnwd/downloads/32pointbuy_random_scores.html" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/flynnwd/downloads/32pointbuy_random_scores.html</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.pathguy.com/eberron.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pathguy.com/eberron.htm</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://d20npcs.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">http://d20npcs.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.hailscape.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hailscape.com</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.darkmoongallery.com/npc/index.php" target="_blank">http://www.darkmoongallery.com/npc/index.php</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.slacknhash.com/addle-fly_swarm.html" target="_blank">http://www.slacknhash.com/addle-fly_swarm.html</a></li>
</ul>
</pre>
Joshua Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05300553471793001620noreply@blogger.com0