Curio Cabinet
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September 28, 2023
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
In many parts of the U.S., it’s still legal to pay workers with disabilities a subminimum wage. But the Department of Labor said this week that it’s planning...
In many parts of the U.S., it’s still legal to pay workers with disabilities a subminimum wage. But the Department of Labor said this week that it’s planning...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: September 28, 2023\FER-vid\ adjective
What It Means
Fervid is a somewhat formal word describing people or things that expre...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: September 28, 2023\FER-vid\ adjective
What It Means
Fervid is a somewhat formal word describing people or things that expre...
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FREEBiology Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
If you’d like to be immune to most viruses, resilient against cancer, and have the ability to fly, what you actually want is to be a bat. A new study published by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution works to reveal the secrets behind the winged mammals’ hale and hearty nature. The secret to bats’ extraordinary immunity to diseases (like ebola) that kill other mammals lies in their inflammation response—or, rather, their lack of one. In humans, many symptoms of illness are actually the result of our bodies’ own immune response. This includes inflammation. Bats don’t experience the same level of inflammation, allowing them to tolerate viral loads that would kill most other mammals. It’s also the reason that bats are famously disease-ridden (the technical term is viral reservoir) and easily spread diseases, even as they remain unaffected by them. Recently, after using long-read sequencing, which allows scientists to study much longer fragments of DNA than other methods, researchers found that the DNA of the Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) and the Mesoamerican mustached bat (Pteronotus mesoamericanus), lack the gene for interferon(INF)-alpha. This protein is produced by other mammals’ immune systems to fight viruses. Instead, bats rely on INF-omega, which is more potent. Researchers have theorized that targeting genes that produce INF-omega in humans could one day be used to treat viral illnesses. As for cancer, long-read sequencing revealed the presence of 6 DNA repair genes and 33 tumor-suppressor genes in bats. These are genes aren’t entirely unique to bats, but bats do seem to use them more effectively than other animals. It’s possible that, one day, gene therapy using bat immunity as a blueprint could treat cancer in humans as well. Seems like a good idea, as long as no one grows wings.
[Image description: A black-and-brown bat with brown eyes hanging from a green treetop.] Credit & copyright: Pixel-mixer, Pixabay
If you’d like to be immune to most viruses, resilient against cancer, and have the ability to fly, what you actually want is to be a bat. A new study published by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution works to reveal the secrets behind the winged mammals’ hale and hearty nature. The secret to bats’ extraordinary immunity to diseases (like ebola) that kill other mammals lies in their inflammation response—or, rather, their lack of one. In humans, many symptoms of illness are actually the result of our bodies’ own immune response. This includes inflammation. Bats don’t experience the same level of inflammation, allowing them to tolerate viral loads that would kill most other mammals. It’s also the reason that bats are famously disease-ridden (the technical term is viral reservoir) and easily spread diseases, even as they remain unaffected by them. Recently, after using long-read sequencing, which allows scientists to study much longer fragments of DNA than other methods, researchers found that the DNA of the Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) and the Mesoamerican mustached bat (Pteronotus mesoamericanus), lack the gene for interferon(INF)-alpha. This protein is produced by other mammals’ immune systems to fight viruses. Instead, bats rely on INF-omega, which is more potent. Researchers have theorized that targeting genes that produce INF-omega in humans could one day be used to treat viral illnesses. As for cancer, long-read sequencing revealed the presence of 6 DNA repair genes and 33 tumor-suppressor genes in bats. These are genes aren’t entirely unique to bats, but bats do seem to use them more effectively than other animals. It’s possible that, one day, gene therapy using bat immunity as a blueprint could treat cancer in humans as well. Seems like a good idea, as long as no one grows wings.
[Image description: A black-and-brown bat with brown eyes hanging from a green treetop.] Credit & copyright: Pixel-mixer, Pixabay
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FREEScience Daily Curio #2732Free1 CQ
That’s no dog, that’s a dingo! A video from Australia, which showed a dingo committing literal daylight robbery, recently went viral. The tenacious pup swam to a boat where it proceeded to steal food and even a handbag. While dingoes may look similar to domesticated dogs, they’re considered wild animals. In fact, these pirate pests have actually carved out a niche for themselves in one of the planet’s harshest ecosystems.
Dingoes first arrived in Australia thousands of years ago, though it’s not known exactly when. Genetic analysis shows that dingoes are closely related to East Asian domestic dogs, meaning that they were likely brought over by humans who used them to hunt vermin. Archaeological evidence shows that dingoes have been in Australia for at least 3,500 years, but they likely arrived no earlier than 12,000 years ago. That’s around the time that rising sea levels separated Tasmania from the mainland, and no dingoes are found on Tasmania today. On the mainland, though, they went from human companions to apex predators.
Unfortunately, dingos were considered pests by many early Australian settlers looking to raise livestock. This led to massive culling programs in southeastern Australia that all but wiped out dingoes in the region. Then, farmers constructed a 5,600-kilometer-long fence meant to keep out rabbits, a more recently-introduced invasive species. The fence did little to keep rabbits out, but it did keep dingoes out. Settlers didn’t understand that dingoes had, by then, become an integral part of Australia’s ecosystem, even filling the ecological niche left over when thylacines (or Tasmanian tigers) went extinct. Without dingoes to keep kangaroos and other herbivore populations in check, the fenced-in area has become overgrazed, leading to a crash in biodiversity. The effects are so drastic that, today, the difference in vegetation levels on either side of the fence can be seen from space.
The dingo is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Despite the fact that they weren’t originally wild animals, they’ve been part of the ecosystem for so long now that their demise would likely mean ecological disaster for Australia. Dingoes are still being baited, trapped, and hunted as pests, while conservationists work to educate the public about the valuable role dingoes play, as wild predators. It might be a long road ahead, but every dog has his day.
[Image description: A tan-colored dingo stands in green grass.] Credit & copyright: TheOtherKev, PixabayThat’s no dog, that’s a dingo! A video from Australia, which showed a dingo committing literal daylight robbery, recently went viral. The tenacious pup swam to a boat where it proceeded to steal food and even a handbag. While dingoes may look similar to domesticated dogs, they’re considered wild animals. In fact, these pirate pests have actually carved out a niche for themselves in one of the planet’s harshest ecosystems.
Dingoes first arrived in Australia thousands of years ago, though it’s not known exactly when. Genetic analysis shows that dingoes are closely related to East Asian domestic dogs, meaning that they were likely brought over by humans who used them to hunt vermin. Archaeological evidence shows that dingoes have been in Australia for at least 3,500 years, but they likely arrived no earlier than 12,000 years ago. That’s around the time that rising sea levels separated Tasmania from the mainland, and no dingoes are found on Tasmania today. On the mainland, though, they went from human companions to apex predators.
Unfortunately, dingos were considered pests by many early Australian settlers looking to raise livestock. This led to massive culling programs in southeastern Australia that all but wiped out dingoes in the region. Then, farmers constructed a 5,600-kilometer-long fence meant to keep out rabbits, a more recently-introduced invasive species. The fence did little to keep rabbits out, but it did keep dingoes out. Settlers didn’t understand that dingoes had, by then, become an integral part of Australia’s ecosystem, even filling the ecological niche left over when thylacines (or Tasmanian tigers) went extinct. Without dingoes to keep kangaroos and other herbivore populations in check, the fenced-in area has become overgrazed, leading to a crash in biodiversity. The effects are so drastic that, today, the difference in vegetation levels on either side of the fence can be seen from space.
The dingo is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Despite the fact that they weren’t originally wild animals, they’ve been part of the ecosystem for so long now that their demise would likely mean ecological disaster for Australia. Dingoes are still being baited, trapped, and hunted as pests, while conservationists work to educate the public about the valuable role dingoes play, as wild predators. It might be a long road ahead, but every dog has his day.
[Image description: A tan-colored dingo stands in green grass.] Credit & copyright: TheOtherKev, Pixabay
September 27, 2023
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
From the BBC World Service: Before Brexit, goods moved freely between the United Kingdom and the European Union, but now there are far more rules and checks....
From the BBC World Service: Before Brexit, goods moved freely between the United Kingdom and the European Union, but now there are far more rules and checks....
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: September 27, 2023\NEP-uh-tiz-um\ noun
What It Means
Nepotism refers to favoritism based on kinship, and especially to the ...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: September 27, 2023\NEP-uh-tiz-um\ noun
What It Means
Nepotism refers to favoritism based on kinship, and especially to the ...
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FREEEntrepreneurship Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
The internet not only allows people to work from anywhere, but in all sorts of new ways. Dropshipping, for example, is allowing many entrepreneurs to earn a living selling products that they don’t keep in stock. Instead, dropshippers function as middlemen between customers (who purchase from the dropshipper’s website) and retailers like Amazon, who stock and ship out the products themselves. For entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of this easy business model but also want to sell their own creative works, print-on-demand businesses are proving to be a good option. Owners of print-on-demand businesses don’t keep products in stock themselves, but unlike dropshippers, the things they sell incorporate original designs, like artwork or logos. Customers buy these designs as they’re presented on blank templates like t-shirts or mugs. Then, the business owner contacts a manufacturer or “printer” to put the design on the item and ship it to the customer. It’s a simple process that has allowed plenty of artists, as well as those with a broad eye for design, a way to profit from their work. Marketplaces like Etsy are home to many print-on-demand shops, and even shops like StopMockandRoll, which sell customized mock-up photos for others to use in their own print-on-demand shops. One print-on-demand entrepreneur, Heather Johnson of HeatherXStudio, found so much success with her own etsy shop that she has pivoted to teaching others how to achieve similar results via online courses. It goes to show that these days, you don’t have to live amongst wall-to-wall boxes of inventory to sell plenty of products.
[Image description: White t-shirts hanging from a wooden rack.] Credit & copyright: Leticia Ribeiro, PexelsThe internet not only allows people to work from anywhere, but in all sorts of new ways. Dropshipping, for example, is allowing many entrepreneurs to earn a living selling products that they don’t keep in stock. Instead, dropshippers function as middlemen between customers (who purchase from the dropshipper’s website) and retailers like Amazon, who stock and ship out the products themselves. For entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of this easy business model but also want to sell their own creative works, print-on-demand businesses are proving to be a good option. Owners of print-on-demand businesses don’t keep products in stock themselves, but unlike dropshippers, the things they sell incorporate original designs, like artwork or logos. Customers buy these designs as they’re presented on blank templates like t-shirts or mugs. Then, the business owner contacts a manufacturer or “printer” to put the design on the item and ship it to the customer. It’s a simple process that has allowed plenty of artists, as well as those with a broad eye for design, a way to profit from their work. Marketplaces like Etsy are home to many print-on-demand shops, and even shops like StopMockandRoll, which sell customized mock-up photos for others to use in their own print-on-demand shops. One print-on-demand entrepreneur, Heather Johnson of HeatherXStudio, found so much success with her own etsy shop that she has pivoted to teaching others how to achieve similar results via online courses. It goes to show that these days, you don’t have to live amongst wall-to-wall boxes of inventory to sell plenty of products.
[Image description: White t-shirts hanging from a wooden rack.] Credit & copyright: Leticia Ribeiro, Pexels -
FREEOutdoors Daily Curio #2731Free1 CQ
You’re deathly ill, trapped in the pitch black dark and—worst of all—nearly a mile underground. What do you do? In the case of American caver Mark Dickey, who was recently rescued from Morca Cave in Turkey, all he could do was wait. Caving, also called cave exploration or spelunking, might not sound particularly dangerous to the uninitiated. After all, tons of tourists flock to massive caverns along well-lit walkways every day without incident, but that’s not really what caving is. What draws hardcore cavers are deep, unexplored underground passages that often have little wiggle room. Traversing a cave often means taking a deep breath out and squeezing through a hole or tunnel barely big enough for a person. It’s a dangerous activity that leaves little room for error or sheer bad luck. In the case of Mark Dickey, an experienced caver who’s been exploring underground spaces for over 20 years, he simply came down with a stomach illness that left him unable to make the passage out of one of Turkey’s deepest caves. He was reportedly throwing up blood and required emergency medical attention after weeks spent trapped in the cave.
Other cavers have met their end due to sudden flooding, while others have fallen from great heights or gotten stuck between a literal rock and a hard place. The problem is that, when cavers need rescuing, it usually takes another caver to get them out or even reach them. Dickey’s grueling ordeal could have been a lot worse—while he may have been 0.8 miles underground, the deepest cave system in the world is Veryovkina Cave in Georgia, at 1.3 miles. That distance might be easy to traverse aboveground, but getting through the rocky, winding passages of a deep cave takes a long time. In fact, it can take days to explore caves like Morca or Veryovkina. Despite these immense risks, caving remains a popular hobby among extremophiles who prefer slow and steady over the quick thrill of activities like base jumping. If you’re considering cave exploration for your next adventure, you might want to give it some deep thought.
[Image description: A cave with ferns growing around its sunlit entrance.] Credit & copyright: Tama66You’re deathly ill, trapped in the pitch black dark and—worst of all—nearly a mile underground. What do you do? In the case of American caver Mark Dickey, who was recently rescued from Morca Cave in Turkey, all he could do was wait. Caving, also called cave exploration or spelunking, might not sound particularly dangerous to the uninitiated. After all, tons of tourists flock to massive caverns along well-lit walkways every day without incident, but that’s not really what caving is. What draws hardcore cavers are deep, unexplored underground passages that often have little wiggle room. Traversing a cave often means taking a deep breath out and squeezing through a hole or tunnel barely big enough for a person. It’s a dangerous activity that leaves little room for error or sheer bad luck. In the case of Mark Dickey, an experienced caver who’s been exploring underground spaces for over 20 years, he simply came down with a stomach illness that left him unable to make the passage out of one of Turkey’s deepest caves. He was reportedly throwing up blood and required emergency medical attention after weeks spent trapped in the cave.
Other cavers have met their end due to sudden flooding, while others have fallen from great heights or gotten stuck between a literal rock and a hard place. The problem is that, when cavers need rescuing, it usually takes another caver to get them out or even reach them. Dickey’s grueling ordeal could have been a lot worse—while he may have been 0.8 miles underground, the deepest cave system in the world is Veryovkina Cave in Georgia, at 1.3 miles. That distance might be easy to traverse aboveground, but getting through the rocky, winding passages of a deep cave takes a long time. In fact, it can take days to explore caves like Morca or Veryovkina. Despite these immense risks, caving remains a popular hobby among extremophiles who prefer slow and steady over the quick thrill of activities like base jumping. If you’re considering cave exploration for your next adventure, you might want to give it some deep thought.
[Image description: A cave with ferns growing around its sunlit entrance.] Credit & copyright: Tama66
September 26, 2023
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
President Joe Biden will join picketing autoworkers in Michigan today, while former President Donald Trump is slated to visit tomorrow. More labor organizing...
President Joe Biden will join picketing autoworkers in Michigan today, while former President Donald Trump is slated to visit tomorrow. More labor organizing...
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1 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree1 CQ
Word of the Day
: September 26, 2023\GRAHK\ verb
What It Means
To grok something is to understand it both profoundly and intuitively.
// She...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: September 26, 2023\GRAHK\ verb
What It Means
To grok something is to understand it both profoundly and intuitively.
// She...
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
On September 23rd, American singer and songwriter Terry Kirkman passed away. While his name might not be familiar to younger pop listeners, it’s no exaggeration to say that Kirkman helped define the sound of 1960s pop. As a founding member of the pop/rock band The Association, comprised of seven talented singers and instrumentalists, Kirkman proved that pop music could be both musically complex and catchy. This was especially true of The Association’s first major hit, 1966’s Cherish. The song is sung by all six band members, four of whom also play instruments throughout, and features intricate, swelling harmonies. Some of these are performed in a haunting minor key, which is appropriate for Cherish’s sad lyrics about unrequited love. In some ways, the song sounds more like a choral number than a modern pop song, but it helped usher-in a vocal’s-first era in pop that stuck around into the early 70s. There are some things that autotune just can’t replace.
On September 23rd, American singer and songwriter Terry Kirkman passed away. While his name might not be familiar to younger pop listeners, it’s no exaggeration to say that Kirkman helped define the sound of 1960s pop. As a founding member of the pop/rock band The Association, comprised of seven talented singers and instrumentalists, Kirkman proved that pop music could be both musically complex and catchy. This was especially true of The Association’s first major hit, 1966’s Cherish. The song is sung by all six band members, four of whom also play instruments throughout, and features intricate, swelling harmonies. Some of these are performed in a haunting minor key, which is appropriate for Cherish’s sad lyrics about unrequited love. In some ways, the song sounds more like a choral number than a modern pop song, but it helped usher-in a vocal’s-first era in pop that stuck around into the early 70s. There are some things that autotune just can’t replace.
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FREEScience Daily Curio #2730Free1 CQ
Not everyone can be a Nobel Prize winner, so why not aim your ambitions just a tad lower? For those conducting scientific research that “makes people laugh…then think” there’s the Ig Nobel Awards, which just selected ten winners for 2023. The prize has been used since 1991 as a way to honor scientists who make quirky or humorous discoveries. One of this year’s winners was chosen for their research on why scientists like to lick rock samples, while a team of international engineers was selected for trying to reanimate dead spiders.
According to the journal Nature, “The Ig Nobel awards are arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.” While the “Igs,” as they’re also called, might seem like a mocking jab at frivolous research, they’re actually just the opposite. The award recognizes the value of oddball endeavors. The rock-licking study, for instance, was actually about the effectiveness of a real technique used in the field by paleontologists. Jan Zalasiewicz, who won the chemistry and geology prize, expounded in the study, “Wetting the surface allows fossil and mineral textures to stand out sharply, rather than being lost in the blur of intersecting micro-reflections and micro-refractions that come out of a dry surface.” In the case of the dead spiders, the engineers were taking inspiration from the arachnid’s anatomy to develop better mechanical grippers. They found that when spiders die and curl up, their legs are returning to their default “gripping” state. Based on this principle, the gripper they designed opens when pressure is applied instead of the other way around and is better at holding irregularly-sized objects.
Overall, the award is a tongue-in-cheek way for the scientific community to recognize the ostensibly absurd nature of their shared work while rewarding legitimate research. The awards are largely presented by Nobel Laureates and at least one Ig Nobel winner went on to win a Nobel Prize later. So it’s safe to say that the Igs are all in good fun. Even the prize money is absurd: each winner is given a “cash reward” of a $10 trillion dollar bill. Of course, that’s in Zimbabwe dollars, which haven’t been recognized as legal tender since 2009. Who said that scientists have no sense of humor?
[Image description: Two arms, each holding a large, gold trophy, reach in front of a yellow background.] Credit & copyright: Anna Shvets, PexelsNot everyone can be a Nobel Prize winner, so why not aim your ambitions just a tad lower? For those conducting scientific research that “makes people laugh…then think” there’s the Ig Nobel Awards, which just selected ten winners for 2023. The prize has been used since 1991 as a way to honor scientists who make quirky or humorous discoveries. One of this year’s winners was chosen for their research on why scientists like to lick rock samples, while a team of international engineers was selected for trying to reanimate dead spiders.
According to the journal Nature, “The Ig Nobel awards are arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.” While the “Igs,” as they’re also called, might seem like a mocking jab at frivolous research, they’re actually just the opposite. The award recognizes the value of oddball endeavors. The rock-licking study, for instance, was actually about the effectiveness of a real technique used in the field by paleontologists. Jan Zalasiewicz, who won the chemistry and geology prize, expounded in the study, “Wetting the surface allows fossil and mineral textures to stand out sharply, rather than being lost in the blur of intersecting micro-reflections and micro-refractions that come out of a dry surface.” In the case of the dead spiders, the engineers were taking inspiration from the arachnid’s anatomy to develop better mechanical grippers. They found that when spiders die and curl up, their legs are returning to their default “gripping” state. Based on this principle, the gripper they designed opens when pressure is applied instead of the other way around and is better at holding irregularly-sized objects.
Overall, the award is a tongue-in-cheek way for the scientific community to recognize the ostensibly absurd nature of their shared work while rewarding legitimate research. The awards are largely presented by Nobel Laureates and at least one Ig Nobel winner went on to win a Nobel Prize later. So it’s safe to say that the Igs are all in good fun. Even the prize money is absurd: each winner is given a “cash reward” of a $10 trillion dollar bill. Of course, that’s in Zimbabwe dollars, which haven’t been recognized as legal tender since 2009. Who said that scientists have no sense of humor?
[Image description: Two arms, each holding a large, gold trophy, reach in front of a yellow background.] Credit & copyright: Anna Shvets, Pexels
September 25, 2023
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: September 25, 2023\KWOR-um\ noun
What It Means
Quorum refers to the smallest number of people who must be present at a meet...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: September 25, 2023\KWOR-um\ noun
What It Means
Quorum refers to the smallest number of people who must be present at a meet...
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FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
This is one horse that can’t be outrun. American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder created this dreary scene while mourning the loss of a friend. The oil painting, titled Death on a Pale Horse, depicts a ghostly humanoid figure holding a scythe while riding a galloping white horse around a racetrack. A snake in the foreground looks through a broken section of the track’s fence. Ryder painted this scene of sickly greens and grays after a tragic event; a friend of his had bet his life savings on a horse race and lost it all, leading him to take his own life. As an emotionally visceral reaction to the tragedy, Ryder’s painting contains straightforward symbolism: Death from the Christian Book of Revelations and a snake, which represents temptation in Christian imagery. As if to say that no one triumphs over death, the pale horse and its rider are the track’s sole racers. Only the snake is there to beckon viewers’ eyes toward the scene. But beware: it’s a race you can’t win.
The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse), Albert Pinkham Ryder
(1847–1917), c. 1896–1908, Oil on canvas, 27.75 x 35.43 in. (70.5 x 90 cm), Cleveland Museum of Art
[Image credit & copyright: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication.]This is one horse that can’t be outrun. American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder created this dreary scene while mourning the loss of a friend. The oil painting, titled Death on a Pale Horse, depicts a ghostly humanoid figure holding a scythe while riding a galloping white horse around a racetrack. A snake in the foreground looks through a broken section of the track’s fence. Ryder painted this scene of sickly greens and grays after a tragic event; a friend of his had bet his life savings on a horse race and lost it all, leading him to take his own life. As an emotionally visceral reaction to the tragedy, Ryder’s painting contains straightforward symbolism: Death from the Christian Book of Revelations and a snake, which represents temptation in Christian imagery. As if to say that no one triumphs over death, the pale horse and its rider are the track’s sole racers. Only the snake is there to beckon viewers’ eyes toward the scene. But beware: it’s a race you can’t win.
The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse), Albert Pinkham Ryder
(1847–1917), c. 1896–1908, Oil on canvas, 27.75 x 35.43 in. (70.5 x 90 cm), Cleveland Museum of Art
[Image credit & copyright: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication.] -
FREEDaily Curio #2729Free1 CQ
This might be the most unlikely museum conservation of all time. We’ve written before about thylacines (commonly known as Tasmanian tigers) and their extinction, but what about their resurrection? Recently, scientists from Sweden and Norway retrieved RNA from a thylacine specimen, marking the first time in history that RNA has been recovered from an extinct species. RNA is what reads the genetically-encoded instructions found in DNA. However, RNA is much more fragile and difficult to preserve. If a tissue sample containing RNA isn’t put into cold storage quickly enough, it’s promptly destroyed by enzymes. Against all odds, researchers managed to recover intact RNA from a thylacine tissue sample at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm even though it had been kept at room temperature. Using the surviving RNA, scientists were able to catalog a list of transcriptomes, or actively expressed genes. By looking at transcriptomes, they can tell what proteins were being produced by the tissues found in the sample when the animal was still alive.
Thylacines went extinct around 130 years ago, but before their disappearance, they were the top predators in Tasmania. Predators play a key role in their respective ecosystems, so some conservationists believe that resurrecting and reintroducing thylacines to Tasmania would be good for the island’s health. Unfortunately, those hoping for a Jurassic Park situation, it’s unlikely that a thylacine will be cloned using the recently-retrieved RNA. What is possible, however, is a synthetic reconstruction of the species via gene editing, though even that would be a long way off. There are still immediate benefits to the RNA’s recovery, though. It opens up a world of possibilities for recovering RNA from similarly-kept samples, most of which were assumed to be lost causes. The RNA will also undoubtedly give scientists a detailed glimpse into the lives of these extinct creatures. The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but RNA is a porthole to the past.
[Image description: A drawing of two thylacines looking to the left.] Credit & copyright:
Henry Constantine Richter after John Gould, 1863, Wikimedia Commons, This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.This might be the most unlikely museum conservation of all time. We’ve written before about thylacines (commonly known as Tasmanian tigers) and their extinction, but what about their resurrection? Recently, scientists from Sweden and Norway retrieved RNA from a thylacine specimen, marking the first time in history that RNA has been recovered from an extinct species. RNA is what reads the genetically-encoded instructions found in DNA. However, RNA is much more fragile and difficult to preserve. If a tissue sample containing RNA isn’t put into cold storage quickly enough, it’s promptly destroyed by enzymes. Against all odds, researchers managed to recover intact RNA from a thylacine tissue sample at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm even though it had been kept at room temperature. Using the surviving RNA, scientists were able to catalog a list of transcriptomes, or actively expressed genes. By looking at transcriptomes, they can tell what proteins were being produced by the tissues found in the sample when the animal was still alive.
Thylacines went extinct around 130 years ago, but before their disappearance, they were the top predators in Tasmania. Predators play a key role in their respective ecosystems, so some conservationists believe that resurrecting and reintroducing thylacines to Tasmania would be good for the island’s health. Unfortunately, those hoping for a Jurassic Park situation, it’s unlikely that a thylacine will be cloned using the recently-retrieved RNA. What is possible, however, is a synthetic reconstruction of the species via gene editing, though even that would be a long way off. There are still immediate benefits to the RNA’s recovery, though. It opens up a world of possibilities for recovering RNA from similarly-kept samples, most of which were assumed to be lost causes. The RNA will also undoubtedly give scientists a detailed glimpse into the lives of these extinct creatures. The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but RNA is a porthole to the past.
[Image description: A drawing of two thylacines looking to the left.] Credit & copyright:
Henry Constantine Richter after John Gould, 1863, Wikimedia Commons, This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928. -
7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
Almost a week into the autoworkers strike, there are few signs of progress. If little movement is made by tomorrow, the United Auto Workers union is promisin...
Almost a week into the autoworkers strike, there are few signs of progress. If little movement is made by tomorrow, the United Auto Workers union is promisin...
September 24, 2023
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
During the pandemic, federal subsidies kept many child care facilities afloat. But that aid will begin to disappear at the end of the month. Meanwhile, feder...
During the pandemic, federal subsidies kept many child care facilities afloat. But that aid will begin to disappear at the end of the month. Meanwhile, feder...
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FREEBiology PP&T CurioFree1 CQ
Who’s that rarefied, long-legged beauty in pink? No, it’s not Barbie—it’s the flamingo. Some of these fine, feathered flyers were recently blown astray by Hurricane Idalia and found themselves scattered across the U.S. There have been sightings of them from Texas to Ohio, but even without the storm, these plucky proprietors of pink plumage have been spotted in places beyond their usual hangouts due to a number of factors.
Most flamingos in the U.S. reside in Florida, where they are a native species. There aren’t that many of them left in the Sunshine State, though, since overhunting nearly drove them to extinction in the early 1900s. When Hurricane Idalia struck the Southeastern U.S. this year, some Florida flamingos fled outside of their natural range to avoid the storm, while others got caught in it and were knocked off their usual flight paths by force. Luckily, the birds should be able to get back home. Flamingos may look like fussy fashionistas, but they’re actually hardened survivors that have conquered some of the harshest environments on Earth.
Flamingos have been around for about 30 million years, making them quite a bit older than humans, and they’ve survived so long via some impressive adaptations. While no one knows why they’re pink, we do know how they become pink. A flamingo’s diet consists mostly of plants and brine shrimp. The pigments or carotenoids in these foods are absorbed by the flamingos’ feathers. Flamingos aren’t born pink, but rather a dull gray. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for flamingo chicks to grow their adult feathers, and they retain their pink hues as long as they have a decent source of food. Flamingos have very attentive parents who feed them something called “crop milk,” a high protein liquid produced in the crop, a muscular pouch near their throats. Besides these adaptations, flamingos have unusual beaks that almost appear to be attached upside-down. These are used for filter feeding. While standing in shallow water, flamingos dip their heads down and take in whatever plant matter, insects, or shrimp they can, using their beaks like scoops. They then expel the water through thin, comb-like plates inside their beaks. Flamingos’ legs also look as if they’re pointing the wrong way because they seem to bend backwards at the knee. However, the bending joint that’s visible is actually their ankle. Their knees are hidden under their feathers, much closer to their bodies. Flamingos can stand on just one of these long, sturdy legs for hours at a time—even sleeping in that position. They do this because their unique anatomy lets them use less energy to stand on one leg than on two. Some scientists believe that this also allows them to conserve heat when it’s cold. Their legs have thick, durable skin, which is particularly useful for flamingos living near alkaline lakes. These bodies of water have high concentrations of highly corrosive carbonate salts that would be deadly to most other animals, yet adult flamingos are practically immune to them.
Despite these incredible adaptations, flamingo populations around the world are only tenuously safe. Per the The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, American flamingos and greater flamingos are considered species of “least concern.” Meanwhile the Andean flamingo is considered “vulnerable” and the Chilean flamingo is considered “near threatened.” The greatest threats facing the latter are hunting, habitat loss, and pollution, but all species can be affected by storms or flooding, which are increasing in severity and frequency with climate change. Then again, maybe flamingos will surprise us—they’re so weird, you never know what surprises they’re hiding under their gorgeous getups.
[Image description: A pair of deep pink flamingos stands in front of a flock of lighter-pink flamingos.] Credit & copyright: Alexas_Fotos, PixabayWho’s that rarefied, long-legged beauty in pink? No, it’s not Barbie—it’s the flamingo. Some of these fine, feathered flyers were recently blown astray by Hurricane Idalia and found themselves scattered across the U.S. There have been sightings of them from Texas to Ohio, but even without the storm, these plucky proprietors of pink plumage have been spotted in places beyond their usual hangouts due to a number of factors.
Most flamingos in the U.S. reside in Florida, where they are a native species. There aren’t that many of them left in the Sunshine State, though, since overhunting nearly drove them to extinction in the early 1900s. When Hurricane Idalia struck the Southeastern U.S. this year, some Florida flamingos fled outside of their natural range to avoid the storm, while others got caught in it and were knocked off their usual flight paths by force. Luckily, the birds should be able to get back home. Flamingos may look like fussy fashionistas, but they’re actually hardened survivors that have conquered some of the harshest environments on Earth.
Flamingos have been around for about 30 million years, making them quite a bit older than humans, and they’ve survived so long via some impressive adaptations. While no one knows why they’re pink, we do know how they become pink. A flamingo’s diet consists mostly of plants and brine shrimp. The pigments or carotenoids in these foods are absorbed by the flamingos’ feathers. Flamingos aren’t born pink, but rather a dull gray. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for flamingo chicks to grow their adult feathers, and they retain their pink hues as long as they have a decent source of food. Flamingos have very attentive parents who feed them something called “crop milk,” a high protein liquid produced in the crop, a muscular pouch near their throats. Besides these adaptations, flamingos have unusual beaks that almost appear to be attached upside-down. These are used for filter feeding. While standing in shallow water, flamingos dip their heads down and take in whatever plant matter, insects, or shrimp they can, using their beaks like scoops. They then expel the water through thin, comb-like plates inside their beaks. Flamingos’ legs also look as if they’re pointing the wrong way because they seem to bend backwards at the knee. However, the bending joint that’s visible is actually their ankle. Their knees are hidden under their feathers, much closer to their bodies. Flamingos can stand on just one of these long, sturdy legs for hours at a time—even sleeping in that position. They do this because their unique anatomy lets them use less energy to stand on one leg than on two. Some scientists believe that this also allows them to conserve heat when it’s cold. Their legs have thick, durable skin, which is particularly useful for flamingos living near alkaline lakes. These bodies of water have high concentrations of highly corrosive carbonate salts that would be deadly to most other animals, yet adult flamingos are practically immune to them.
Despite these incredible adaptations, flamingo populations around the world are only tenuously safe. Per the The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, American flamingos and greater flamingos are considered species of “least concern.” Meanwhile the Andean flamingo is considered “vulnerable” and the Chilean flamingo is considered “near threatened.” The greatest threats facing the latter are hunting, habitat loss, and pollution, but all species can be affected by storms or flooding, which are increasing in severity and frequency with climate change. Then again, maybe flamingos will surprise us—they’re so weird, you never know what surprises they’re hiding under their gorgeous getups.
[Image description: A pair of deep pink flamingos stands in front of a flock of lighter-pink flamingos.] Credit & copyright: Alexas_Fotos, Pixabay
September 23, 2023
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: September 23, 2023\TEN-uh-brus\ adjective
What It Means
Tenebrous is a formal word that is often used as a synonym of gloom...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: September 23, 2023\TEN-uh-brus\ adjective
What It Means
Tenebrous is a formal word that is often used as a synonym of gloom...
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6 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
The owner of the Everton soccer club in England’s Premier League has agreed to sell the Liverpool-based team to an investment group based in Miami. If approv...
The owner of the Everton soccer club in England’s Premier League has agreed to sell the Liverpool-based team to an investment group based in Miami. If approv...
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FREEMind + Body Sporty CurioFree1 CQ
You could say that Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles tendon was his Achilles heel. In the first quarter of his debut as the quarterback for the New York Jets, Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon. He is now expected to sit out the rest of the season, and fans are wondering if he will return at all. The concern has merit, since an Achilles tear is a potentially career-ending injury. The Achilles tendon, also known as the calcaneus tendon, connects the heel bone to the calf muscles. It’s an incredibly strong piece of connective tissue—the largest in the body—and for good reason. The tendon bears the weight of the entire body when a person takes a step, jumps, or stands on their toes. Without it, it wouldn’t be possible to flex the foot, which is kind of important when you’re a football player. Rodgers likely tore his tendon by making a sudden movement with his foot that stretched the tendon beyond its limit, made more likely by a previous calf injury that weakened the attached muscles. An Achilles tear requires rehabilitation and/or surgery, and the resulting loss in tendon strength was once considered a sure career-ender. Luckily, recent studies show that proper rehabilitation might end up strengthening the surrounding structures, allowing athletes to perform at the same or higher levels, as is sometimes the case with ACL reconstructions. As for Rodgers, he is expected to make a recovery in about a year, albeit at around 90 percent strength. As a quarterback, he’s less reliant on the tendon’s strength, which improves his odds of fully recovering. Just keep any poisoned arrows off the field.
[Image description: A pair of feet in orange-and-black sneakers shown climbing a stone staircase from behind.] Credit & copyright: StockSnap, Pixabay
You could say that Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles tendon was his Achilles heel. In the first quarter of his debut as the quarterback for the New York Jets, Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon. He is now expected to sit out the rest of the season, and fans are wondering if he will return at all. The concern has merit, since an Achilles tear is a potentially career-ending injury. The Achilles tendon, also known as the calcaneus tendon, connects the heel bone to the calf muscles. It’s an incredibly strong piece of connective tissue—the largest in the body—and for good reason. The tendon bears the weight of the entire body when a person takes a step, jumps, or stands on their toes. Without it, it wouldn’t be possible to flex the foot, which is kind of important when you’re a football player. Rodgers likely tore his tendon by making a sudden movement with his foot that stretched the tendon beyond its limit, made more likely by a previous calf injury that weakened the attached muscles. An Achilles tear requires rehabilitation and/or surgery, and the resulting loss in tendon strength was once considered a sure career-ender. Luckily, recent studies show that proper rehabilitation might end up strengthening the surrounding structures, allowing athletes to perform at the same or higher levels, as is sometimes the case with ACL reconstructions. As for Rodgers, he is expected to make a recovery in about a year, albeit at around 90 percent strength. As a quarterback, he’s less reliant on the tendon’s strength, which improves his odds of fully recovering. Just keep any poisoned arrows off the field.
[Image description: A pair of feet in orange-and-black sneakers shown climbing a stone staircase from behind.] Credit & copyright: StockSnap, Pixabay
September 22, 2023
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
From the BBC World Service: The United Kingdom is set to clear a fresh Microsoft-Activision deal. In August, the “Call of Duty” maker agreed to sell its stre...
From the BBC World Service: The United Kingdom is set to clear a fresh Microsoft-Activision deal. In August, the “Call of Duty” maker agreed to sell its stre...
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FREEMind + Body Daily CurioFree1 CQ
It’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s scrumptious. It’s also associated with Russia even though it wasn’t invented there, and named after an ingredient that is rarely used to make it anymore. Suffice it to say that borscht has a long and complicated history. Luckily, the tangy soup itself is quite simple to make.
Borscht is a bright red soup made from meat stock, sautéed vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, and carrots, and fermented beetroot juice, called beet sour. This final ingredient is what gives the soup its famous color. One ingredient you won’t find in most modern borscht is hogweed ( also called cow-parsnip), a common European weed related to fennel. Yet the original Slavic name for borscht refers to this plant. That’s because, before beets were widely cultivated, hogweed was the ingredient that gave borscht its sour kick. In fact, borscht dates back to around the fifth century C.E., when foraging for wild ingredients was common practice.
In what is now Ukraine, ancient Slavic peoples would pick and chop up hogweed in early summer, then place it in clay pots filled with water and leave it to ferment. The result was a sour ingredient that could be combined with meat, cream, and egg yolks to make tarts or used as a primary component in soup. Hogweed remained the main ingredient in borscht until around the 17th century, by which time it had spread throughout what we now think of as Eastern Europe. Despite the fact that many people, including famed Polish botanist Simon Syrenius, considered hogweed a great hangover cure at the time, borscht began to change alongside Slavic farming practices. No one knows when, exactly, beetroot replaced hogweed as the soup’s primary ingredient, but many historians believe that it happened east of the Dneiper River in the late 17th century. The change was likely made by Ukrainian farmers living under Russian rule who turned to their own crops for sustenance.
As Russia became a dominant force in 18th century Europe, borscht’s popularity grew further. Meatless versions were often eaten by Christians during religious fasts, and Russian churches would sometimes distribute bowls of borscht to the poor. Today, this flavorful soup is considered a Russian staple food, and is often served with a dollop of sour cream on top, alongside boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Still, its humble origins have never been forgotten. In Poland, the common phrase “tani jak barszcz” even means “cheap as borscht.” Hey, the most delicious things in life aren’t always the fanciest.
[Image description: A bown of borscht topped with sour cream and fennel against a white background. There is sliced, brown bread in the upper right.] Credit & copyright: Polina Tankilevitch, PexelsIt’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s scrumptious. It’s also associated with Russia even though it wasn’t invented there, and named after an ingredient that is rarely used to make it anymore. Suffice it to say that borscht has a long and complicated history. Luckily, the tangy soup itself is quite simple to make.
Borscht is a bright red soup made from meat stock, sautéed vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, and carrots, and fermented beetroot juice, called beet sour. This final ingredient is what gives the soup its famous color. One ingredient you won’t find in most modern borscht is hogweed ( also called cow-parsnip), a common European weed related to fennel. Yet the original Slavic name for borscht refers to this plant. That’s because, before beets were widely cultivated, hogweed was the ingredient that gave borscht its sour kick. In fact, borscht dates back to around the fifth century C.E., when foraging for wild ingredients was common practice.
In what is now Ukraine, ancient Slavic peoples would pick and chop up hogweed in early summer, then place it in clay pots filled with water and leave it to ferment. The result was a sour ingredient that could be combined with meat, cream, and egg yolks to make tarts or used as a primary component in soup. Hogweed remained the main ingredient in borscht until around the 17th century, by which time it had spread throughout what we now think of as Eastern Europe. Despite the fact that many people, including famed Polish botanist Simon Syrenius, considered hogweed a great hangover cure at the time, borscht began to change alongside Slavic farming practices. No one knows when, exactly, beetroot replaced hogweed as the soup’s primary ingredient, but many historians believe that it happened east of the Dneiper River in the late 17th century. The change was likely made by Ukrainian farmers living under Russian rule who turned to their own crops for sustenance.
As Russia became a dominant force in 18th century Europe, borscht’s popularity grew further. Meatless versions were often eaten by Christians during religious fasts, and Russian churches would sometimes distribute bowls of borscht to the poor. Today, this flavorful soup is considered a Russian staple food, and is often served with a dollop of sour cream on top, alongside boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Still, its humble origins have never been forgotten. In Poland, the common phrase “tani jak barszcz” even means “cheap as borscht.” Hey, the most delicious things in life aren’t always the fanciest.
[Image description: A bown of borscht topped with sour cream and fennel against a white background. There is sliced, brown bread in the upper right.] Credit & copyright: Polina Tankilevitch, Pexels