The Cool and Random News Thread

[Chino]

I'll start.

https://www.newsweek.com/six-ancient-plants-2000-year-old-seeds-grown-scientists-1485900

Nevertheless, in 2005, a team led by Sallon managed to germinate a 1,900-year-old Judean date palm seed that had been found at a historical site near the Dead Sea in Israel.
Following up on this achievement, Sallon and colleagues have now germinated six 2,000-year-old date seeds that had previously been uncovered from archaeological sites in the Judean desert and the Dead Sea between the years 1963 and 1991, according to the latest Science Advances paper

The scientists planted the well-preserved seeds in a research site in southern Israel, and they have now grown into plants measuring several feet high in some cases. These results—which confirm the longevity of Judean date palm seeds—could several implications, according to the researchers.

Pretty crazy to think that a seed can remain viable after all that time. I wonder if the seeds could have germinated without any human intervention under the right circumstances. Kind of cool to think that a plant could go extinct and them spawn back into existence a few thousand years later.

[Chino]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52267383?at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_campaign=64&at_medium=custom7&at_custom4=C71EEF62-7D77-11EA-B016-60F74744363C&at_custom2=twitter&at_custom3=%40BBCWorld

50,000-year-old string found at France Neanderthal site



The study - whose lead author was Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College in Ohio - concluded that the production of the cord demonstrated that Neanderthals had a detailed ecological understanding of trees and how to transform them into entirely different functional substances.

The production of the cord also implied a cognitive understanding of numeracy and context-sensitive operational memory, according to the study. That is because it required keeping track of multiple, sequential operations simultaneously.

"Given the ongoing revelations of Neanderthal art and technology, it is difficult to see how we can regard Neanderthals as anything other than the cognitive equals of modern humans," the study said.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Huh cool thread idea Chino!  I was looking for a thread to post a random interesting fact and this thread might be it.

Just saw this on Reddit and I found it to be mindblowing even though it's nothing new and just an historic fact.

"When Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen (King Tut) died in 1325 BCE, the first Imperial Chinese dynasty would not exist 1000 years, the Trojan War would not happen for 200 years, and Rome would not be founded for 600 years. However, the Great Pyramid of Giza was already over 1000 years old."


The timeline between historic events is just too abstract for our minds to grasp. 

[Stadler]

This is a cool thread; I missed it the first time.   The "string" story is fascinating.

I agree too; the way time - something we use in every day life as the epitome of objective; we all meet at the "same" 10:00 for that meeting, or 8:00 for that concert - is in reality so subjective is a dizzying thing.  I can't find a link to it right now, but somewhere floating around on the internet is a "graph" of the various famous composers set in time relationship.  I don't know about you all, but I kind of assume that all the greats - Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovksy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, etc. - were all sort of hanging around in the 1600's in their own version of "The Rainbow" in Los Angeles, but in some cases there are hundreds of years in between.   

[Chino]

You guys  want to hear something really wild? The T-rex is closer to humans in time than it was to the stegosaurus. The stegosaurus went extinct about 85M years before T-rex came onto the scene, but only 65M years has passed between T-rex going extinct and us.

[Lonk]

That is really cool about those seeds/plants being able to grow! Thanks for posting Chino.

I agree with the Time talk. Sometimes we look at history without realizing how much time passed in between events, but sometimes we don't even realize when they happened simultaneously. Since you mentioned Beethoven and Mozart, I remember I was so blown away to find out teenage Beethoven was supposed to study with Mozart, but it never happened (from what I remember, I might be wrong).

But I will contribute to the thread. Recently, some archaeologist discovered ancient roman mosaic floor that it's still in great shape.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/negrar-mosaic-floor-italy-discovery-scli-intl/index.html

[jingle.boy]

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/updates-on-canadian-cave-big-enough-to-fit-statue-of-l/

Despite its entrance ranging 330 feet wide and 200 feet deep, it went undetected for so long, geologists believe, because a plug of ice had formed underneath a significant pile of snow. The steadily warming climate since the 1940’s, as confirmed by geological survey and satellite imagery, eventually caused the ice to collapse, revealing the scope of the massive feature.

The called it "The Sarlacc Pit"   

[Chino]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-war-enigma-idUSKBN28D25F

BERLIN (Reuters) - German divers searching the Baltic Sea for discarded fishing nets have stumbled upon a rare Enigma cipher machine used by the Nazi military during World War Two which they believe was thrown overboard from a scuttled submarine.

“I’ve made many exciting and strange discoveries in the past 20 years. But I never dreamt that we would one day find one of the legendary Enigma machines,” said Huber.

[Stadler]

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/updates-on-canadian-cave-big-enough-to-fit-statue-of-l/

Despite its entrance ranging 330 feet wide and 200 feet deep, it went undetected for so long, geologists believe, because a plug of ice had formed underneath a significant pile of snow. The steadily warming climate since the 1940’s, as confirmed by geological survey and satellite imagery, eventually caused the ice to collapse, revealing the scope of the massive feature.

The called it "The Sarlacc Pit"   

Today I learned what an "umbral stain" is. 

[Chino]

A tortoise was recorded on video hunting for meat for the first time:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/08/24/vegetarian-giant-tortoise-eats-seabird/5570640001/

[Adami]

A tortoise was recorded on video hunting for meat for the first time:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/08/24/vegetarian-giant-tortoise-eats-seabird/5570640001/

I do appreciate that the bird didn't even feel the need to fly away but just kind of lazily hopped out of reach.

[TAC]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/100m-repair-to-fix-sinking-tilted-san-francisco-high-rise-halted-as-tower-continues-to-sink/ar-AANMpFl

Yikes!

[TAC]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-publicity-from-gabby-petitos-case-led-to-the-discovery-of-7-other-missing-people/ar-AAPTkow?li=BBnbfcL

[Chino]

https://www.wmbfnews.com/2021/11/08/city-myrtle-beach-trash-bin-washes-ashore-ireland/

City of Myrtle Beach trash bin washes ashore in Ireland