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July 6, 2024
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FREERunning Sporty CurioFree1 CQ
There's literally no hurdle that this runner can't get over. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has managed to beat her personal best and set a new world record during the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials finale. It would be an understatement to say that McLaughlin-Levrone is good at what she does. During the 2022 World Championships, the seasoned runner set a new world record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.68 seconds. Now, she’s broken the record again at Hayward Field ahead of the Paris Olympics. With a time of 50.65 seconds, she finished nearly two seconds ahead of second place finisher Anna Cockrell (52.64 seconds) and third place finisher Jasmine Jones (52.77 seconds) after leaping over ten hurdles followed by a sprint. The 24-year-old runner is so fast that the hurdles don’t even seem to slow her down—she also holds the record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.75 seconds. McLaughlin-Levrone is favored to take the gold in the event this summer, but she says she won’t stop there. After all, she already has a gold in the event from the last time she showed up to the Olympics. According to interviews, she’s aiming higher and hopes to break the 50-second barrier someday, possibly in Paris. At this point, she’s just racing against herself.
[Image description: Hurdles on an indoor track and field course.] Credit & copyright: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels
There's literally no hurdle that this runner can't get over. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has managed to beat her personal best and set a new world record during the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials finale. It would be an understatement to say that McLaughlin-Levrone is good at what she does. During the 2022 World Championships, the seasoned runner set a new world record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.68 seconds. Now, she’s broken the record again at Hayward Field ahead of the Paris Olympics. With a time of 50.65 seconds, she finished nearly two seconds ahead of second place finisher Anna Cockrell (52.64 seconds) and third place finisher Jasmine Jones (52.77 seconds) after leaping over ten hurdles followed by a sprint. The 24-year-old runner is so fast that the hurdles don’t even seem to slow her down—she also holds the record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.75 seconds. McLaughlin-Levrone is favored to take the gold in the event this summer, but she says she won’t stop there. After all, she already has a gold in the event from the last time she showed up to the Olympics. According to interviews, she’s aiming higher and hopes to break the 50-second barrier someday, possibly in Paris. At this point, she’s just racing against herself.
[Image description: Hurdles on an indoor track and field course.] Credit & copyright: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels
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9 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
The U.S. economy added 206,000 jobs in June, according to the labor department. But job growth in previous months was revised down significantly. What can we...
The U.S. economy added 206,000 jobs in June, according to the labor department. But job growth in previous months was revised down significantly. What can we...
July 5, 2024
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9 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: The Labour Party, led by Sir Keir Starmer, won a sweeping victory in the U.K.’s general election held Thursday. We’ll hear from v...
From the BBC World Service: The Labour Party, led by Sir Keir Starmer, won a sweeping victory in the U.K.’s general election held Thursday. We’ll hear from v...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: July 5, 2024\KASS-tuh-gayt\ verb
What It Means
Castigate is a formal word that means "to criticize harshly."
// He was wid...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: July 5, 2024\KASS-tuh-gayt\ verb
What It Means
Castigate is a formal word that means "to criticize harshly."
// He was wid...
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FREEMind + Body Daily CurioFree1 CQ
Happy belated Fourth of July! If a local fair was part of your celebrations this year, chances are good that you enjoyed some cotton candy with their fireworks. Highly portable, able to be served on sticks, in bags, or as a garnish on the rim of cocktails, cotton candy is a staple at American fairs. That’s fitting, since cotton candy made its worldwide debut at the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis. Funnily enough, despite the fact that this sweet treat isn’t great for your teeth, it was actually invented by a dentist.
Cotton candy, sometimes called candy floss outside of the U.S., is a confection made from spun sugar. By liquifying sugar with heat and then spinning it through small holes, long threads of sugar are formed and gathered into fluffy masses. Food coloring (most popularly pastel pink and blue) and flavoring is often added for variety. Though pre-bagged cotton candy is popular, so is the fresh-spun variety, in which watching a vendor create the candy in a large, cylindrical tub is part of the experience.
Although historical records show that spun sugar has existed in various forms since at least the 1400s, it was very difficult to make before the 1897 invention of the cotton candy machine. That machine was created in Tennessee by confectioner John C. Wharton and dentist William Morrison. The duo debuted their sweet treat (which they called “fairy floss”) at the 1904 World’s Fair, to a crowd who had mostly never seen spun sugar. To say it was a hit would be an understatement. They sold over 68,000 boxes of it, and cotton candy machines were soon in high demand. In 1921, following the proud tradition of dentists making cotton-candy-related breakthroughs, a dentist from New Orleans named Joseph Lascaux coined the term “cotton candy” after inventing a machine similar to the original cotton candy machine. By the 1970s, automatic cotton candy machines made it possible for packages of the fluffy confection to be sold in stores. Today, cotton candy is sold all over the world, but it still retains its roots as a fair food. Personally, we think it’s still best enjoyed alongside a fresh corndog.
[Image description: A small piece of pink cotton candy against a hot pink background.] Credit & copyright: Nataliya Vaitkevich, PexelsHappy belated Fourth of July! If a local fair was part of your celebrations this year, chances are good that you enjoyed some cotton candy with their fireworks. Highly portable, able to be served on sticks, in bags, or as a garnish on the rim of cocktails, cotton candy is a staple at American fairs. That’s fitting, since cotton candy made its worldwide debut at the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis. Funnily enough, despite the fact that this sweet treat isn’t great for your teeth, it was actually invented by a dentist.
Cotton candy, sometimes called candy floss outside of the U.S., is a confection made from spun sugar. By liquifying sugar with heat and then spinning it through small holes, long threads of sugar are formed and gathered into fluffy masses. Food coloring (most popularly pastel pink and blue) and flavoring is often added for variety. Though pre-bagged cotton candy is popular, so is the fresh-spun variety, in which watching a vendor create the candy in a large, cylindrical tub is part of the experience.
Although historical records show that spun sugar has existed in various forms since at least the 1400s, it was very difficult to make before the 1897 invention of the cotton candy machine. That machine was created in Tennessee by confectioner John C. Wharton and dentist William Morrison. The duo debuted their sweet treat (which they called “fairy floss”) at the 1904 World’s Fair, to a crowd who had mostly never seen spun sugar. To say it was a hit would be an understatement. They sold over 68,000 boxes of it, and cotton candy machines were soon in high demand. In 1921, following the proud tradition of dentists making cotton-candy-related breakthroughs, a dentist from New Orleans named Joseph Lascaux coined the term “cotton candy” after inventing a machine similar to the original cotton candy machine. By the 1970s, automatic cotton candy machines made it possible for packages of the fluffy confection to be sold in stores. Today, cotton candy is sold all over the world, but it still retains its roots as a fair food. Personally, we think it’s still best enjoyed alongside a fresh corndog.
[Image description: A small piece of pink cotton candy against a hot pink background.] Credit & copyright: Nataliya Vaitkevich, Pexels
July 4, 2024
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
The national debt is tremendous and growing. And as lawmakers talk about ways to address it, Social Security spending — which totals roughly $1.5 trillion a ...
The national debt is tremendous and growing. And as lawmakers talk about ways to address it, Social Security spending — which totals roughly $1.5 trillion a ...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: July 4, 2024\PAY-tree-ut\ noun
What It Means
Patriot refers to a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for their...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: July 4, 2024\PAY-tree-ut\ noun
What It Means
Patriot refers to a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for their...
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FREEScience Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
They say the devil’s in the details, but it looks like they found him! Researchers at the University of Sydney's School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering have managed to interpret the atomic structure of alloys using atom probe tomography (APT), according to a paper published in Nature Materials. When scientists want to look at the atomic structure of a given material, they can’t exactly put it in a slide under a regular microscope. Instead, they have to use APT, which forms a 3D visualization using measurements of field evaporated ions. It’s not a direct peek at the atomic structure, exactly, but an advanced model created using data. Researchers at the University of Sydney used this technology to determine the short-range order (SRO) of a material, which they compare to the genome of living tissue. In other words, they were able to decipher how the smallest intricacies in the arrangement of atoms in a crystal affected the material as a whole. At the atomic level, the smallest changes can have huge impacts on a material’s properties, and being able to “see” the SRO of materials might lead to the development of advanced alloys that are stronger and lighter than their conventional counterparts. Would that be materials science or genetic engineering?
They say the devil’s in the details, but it looks like they found him! Researchers at the University of Sydney's School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering have managed to interpret the atomic structure of alloys using atom probe tomography (APT), according to a paper published in Nature Materials. When scientists want to look at the atomic structure of a given material, they can’t exactly put it in a slide under a regular microscope. Instead, they have to use APT, which forms a 3D visualization using measurements of field evaporated ions. It’s not a direct peek at the atomic structure, exactly, but an advanced model created using data. Researchers at the University of Sydney used this technology to determine the short-range order (SRO) of a material, which they compare to the genome of living tissue. In other words, they were able to decipher how the smallest intricacies in the arrangement of atoms in a crystal affected the material as a whole. At the atomic level, the smallest changes can have huge impacts on a material’s properties, and being able to “see” the SRO of materials might lead to the development of advanced alloys that are stronger and lighter than their conventional counterparts. Would that be materials science or genetic engineering?
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FREEMind + Body Daily Curio #2902Free1 CQ
These instant noodles are causing lasting problems. Officials at the National Park Office of Mount Halla in South Korea are urging hikers to mind where they throw out their leftover ramen broth, as the salty soup has been found to be detrimental to wildlife. Mount Halla, located on Jeju Island, is the tallest mountain in South Korea and a popular hiking destination. In recent years, the hike has grown more popular than ever thanks to social media, and there’s even a trend where hikers post photos of themselves on the trail eating cups of instant ramen. It seems harmless enough, but the trend has led to some unexpected problems. According to officials, visitors have been dumping between 26 and 31 gallons of leftover ramen broth a day on the ground, and while that might not seem like a whole lot, it’s enough to disrupt the water supply that local fauna and flora depend on.
The issue with ramen broth is its high salt content, which officials say poses a danger to endangered plants found only on the island, as well as several species of insects and amphibians. Another issue is the smell—the aroma of ramen broth is apparently as enticing to weasels, crows, and badgers as it is to people. When broth is dumped on the ground, it attracts these animals, which venture into areas they would normally not be found in, disrupting the fragile ecosystem of the small island. To address the broth problem, officials are taking a two-pronged approach: they’re placing special containers on the trail where visitors are required to dump unfinished broth and also they’re also raising awareness of the issue on social media. Visitors who dump broth outside of the designated containers can face a fine of 200,000 won, which is the equivalent of about $150 or around 100 bowls of instant ramen. Imagine landing in hot water and not even having ramen to make with it.
[Image description: A block of instant ramen noodles against a gray background.] Credit & copyright: Ninosan, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.These instant noodles are causing lasting problems. Officials at the National Park Office of Mount Halla in South Korea are urging hikers to mind where they throw out their leftover ramen broth, as the salty soup has been found to be detrimental to wildlife. Mount Halla, located on Jeju Island, is the tallest mountain in South Korea and a popular hiking destination. In recent years, the hike has grown more popular than ever thanks to social media, and there’s even a trend where hikers post photos of themselves on the trail eating cups of instant ramen. It seems harmless enough, but the trend has led to some unexpected problems. According to officials, visitors have been dumping between 26 and 31 gallons of leftover ramen broth a day on the ground, and while that might not seem like a whole lot, it’s enough to disrupt the water supply that local fauna and flora depend on.
The issue with ramen broth is its high salt content, which officials say poses a danger to endangered plants found only on the island, as well as several species of insects and amphibians. Another issue is the smell—the aroma of ramen broth is apparently as enticing to weasels, crows, and badgers as it is to people. When broth is dumped on the ground, it attracts these animals, which venture into areas they would normally not be found in, disrupting the fragile ecosystem of the small island. To address the broth problem, officials are taking a two-pronged approach: they’re placing special containers on the trail where visitors are required to dump unfinished broth and also they’re also raising awareness of the issue on social media. Visitors who dump broth outside of the designated containers can face a fine of 200,000 won, which is the equivalent of about $150 or around 100 bowls of instant ramen. Imagine landing in hot water and not even having ramen to make with it.
[Image description: A block of instant ramen noodles against a gray background.] Credit & copyright: Ninosan, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
July 3, 2024
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
From the BBC World Service: The United Kingdom goes to the polls in the general election tomorrow — and polling suggests the economy is the No. 1 issue with ...
From the BBC World Service: The United Kingdom goes to the polls in the general election tomorrow — and polling suggests the economy is the No. 1 issue with ...
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FREENutrition Daily Curio #2901Free1 CQ
Sometimes, it pays to not go with your gut. Our gut bacteria are an integral part of our digestive systems, but they don’t always play nice with us. As some scientists recently discovered, the wrong kind of bacteria can cause food addiction. Food addiction isn’t as well known as some other forms of addiction like alcoholism, but it can be just as devastating. Excessive eating can lead to obesity and all its associated health issues, significantly shortening someone’s life expectancy. Furthermore, food addiction can be difficult to overcome because it’s impossible to avoid food completely. Like any addiction, it can be treated with the right support, but food addiction isn’t recognized as an official diagnosis by many medical professionals. That may change, though, thanks to Scientists at the Laboratory of Neuropharmacology-NeuroPhar at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. They found that food addiction might actually be caused by a certain kind of bacteria in the gut, since its presence is correlated with food-addictive behaviors. The researchers studied the gut bacteria of mice and human patients and rated their behavior on the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0), which looks for food-seeking behaviors, motivation and compulsive behavior associated with food addiction. According to the results, humans with more bacteria in the Proteobacteria phylum and less from the Actinobacteria phylum were more likely to have food addiction. Researchers believe that Proteobacteria might be interfering with the expression of certain genes that regulate food-seeking and compulsive behavior. While gut bacteria have been increasingly found to affect behavior and mental health in recent years, this discovery is the first time that scientists have found a direct link between specific bacteria and their effect on gene expression. With this in mind, it might be possible in the future to treat food addiction by targeting the responsible bacteria in the gut as well as promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria. That’s a lot to digest!
[Image description: A painting of food on a table including a basket of fruits and vegetables, a plate of pigs’ feet, a red plate with a fish on it, and a white-and-blue plate of butter.] Credit & copyright: Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Fruit c. 1615–20. Gift of Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Cleveland Museum of Art, Public Domain Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation.Sometimes, it pays to not go with your gut. Our gut bacteria are an integral part of our digestive systems, but they don’t always play nice with us. As some scientists recently discovered, the wrong kind of bacteria can cause food addiction. Food addiction isn’t as well known as some other forms of addiction like alcoholism, but it can be just as devastating. Excessive eating can lead to obesity and all its associated health issues, significantly shortening someone’s life expectancy. Furthermore, food addiction can be difficult to overcome because it’s impossible to avoid food completely. Like any addiction, it can be treated with the right support, but food addiction isn’t recognized as an official diagnosis by many medical professionals. That may change, though, thanks to Scientists at the Laboratory of Neuropharmacology-NeuroPhar at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. They found that food addiction might actually be caused by a certain kind of bacteria in the gut, since its presence is correlated with food-addictive behaviors. The researchers studied the gut bacteria of mice and human patients and rated their behavior on the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0), which looks for food-seeking behaviors, motivation and compulsive behavior associated with food addiction. According to the results, humans with more bacteria in the Proteobacteria phylum and less from the Actinobacteria phylum were more likely to have food addiction. Researchers believe that Proteobacteria might be interfering with the expression of certain genes that regulate food-seeking and compulsive behavior. While gut bacteria have been increasingly found to affect behavior and mental health in recent years, this discovery is the first time that scientists have found a direct link between specific bacteria and their effect on gene expression. With this in mind, it might be possible in the future to treat food addiction by targeting the responsible bacteria in the gut as well as promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria. That’s a lot to digest!
[Image description: A painting of food on a table including a basket of fruits and vegetables, a plate of pigs’ feet, a red plate with a fish on it, and a white-and-blue plate of butter.] Credit & copyright: Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Fruit c. 1615–20. Gift of Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Cleveland Museum of Art, Public Domain Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation.
July 2, 2024
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10 minFREEWork Business CurioFree6 CQ
From the BBC World Service : Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe is presenting lawmakers with a deal made by creditors after the country’s 2022 financ...
From the BBC World Service : Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe is presenting lawmakers with a deal made by creditors after the country’s 2022 financ...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: July 2, 2024\GLAYD\ noun
What It Means
A glade is a grassy open space in a forest.
// She felt the most at ease outdoors, ...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: July 2, 2024\GLAYD\ noun
What It Means
A glade is a grassy open space in a forest.
// She felt the most at ease outdoors, ...
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
This fast car sure hasn’t slowed down! We’ve written before about Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit Fast Car, a song famous for its unflinching look at working class struggles. On this day last year, the bluesy folk song became a chart-topper once again, this time as a country song. A cover by country star Luke Combs reached number one on the U.S. Country Airplay chart and stayed there for two weeks. Combs had been a fan of the song since his childhood, when his father would play it for him on a cassette tape. His own working class background made the song easy to relate to, and a natural one for him to cover. Of course, Combs’ version hits differently, with his unmistakably southern twang and country instrumentation in place of Chapman’s sparse, acoustic arrangement. The cover officially made Chapman the first black woman to top the country charts as a song’s sole writer, and she even appeared on stage with Combs at the 66th Grammy Awards for an emotional duet. It’s true what they say; a good song simply never goes out of style.
This fast car sure hasn’t slowed down! We’ve written before about Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit Fast Car, a song famous for its unflinching look at working class struggles. On this day last year, the bluesy folk song became a chart-topper once again, this time as a country song. A cover by country star Luke Combs reached number one on the U.S. Country Airplay chart and stayed there for two weeks. Combs had been a fan of the song since his childhood, when his father would play it for him on a cassette tape. His own working class background made the song easy to relate to, and a natural one for him to cover. Of course, Combs’ version hits differently, with his unmistakably southern twang and country instrumentation in place of Chapman’s sparse, acoustic arrangement. The cover officially made Chapman the first black woman to top the country charts as a song’s sole writer, and she even appeared on stage with Combs at the 66th Grammy Awards for an emotional duet. It’s true what they say; a good song simply never goes out of style.
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FREEScience Daily Curio #2900Free1 CQ
They may have been primitive, but they weren't cruel. Neanderthals are often portrayed as violent brutes, but several recent paleontological finds have proved that misconception very wrong. In fact, these prehistoric hominids looked out for and cared for one another as a matter of survival. Recently, researchers discovered a fossil belonging to a Neanderthal child who seems to have had Down syndrome and was at least six years old. The only way the child could have survived so long before the advent of modern medicine was for their family to provide them with continuous care. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder in which a person is born with 47 chromosomes instead of 46 (a pair of 23 chromosomes from each parent). This seemingly small change can have major impacts on a person’s health. The condition can affect the development of a person’s brain, leading to learning disorders, behavioral symptoms, and developmental delays. A host of other physical issues, including trouble breathing or seeing clearly, can also pop up. The syndrome can make one more vulnerable to infections and diseases and cause congenital heart defects that can greatly shorten a person’s life expectancy. It’s incredible that, faced with such immense odds, the Neanderthal child managed to survive for around six years. The 273,000-year-old fossil shows that these hominids were not only compassionate enough to care for a member of their family who could not help them in return, but that they had the means and knowledge to do so. It's all part of a growing body of evidence that Neanderthals might have actually valued compassion. In that way, they were more advanced than some of today’s homo sapiens.
[Image description: A painting of a family of neanderthals standing at the mouth of a cave. One is holding a spear.] Credit & copyright: Neanderthal Flintworkers, Le Moustier Cavern, Dordogne, France,
Charles Robert Knight (1874–1953). Wikimedia Commons,
American Museum of Natural History. Public Domain.They may have been primitive, but they weren't cruel. Neanderthals are often portrayed as violent brutes, but several recent paleontological finds have proved that misconception very wrong. In fact, these prehistoric hominids looked out for and cared for one another as a matter of survival. Recently, researchers discovered a fossil belonging to a Neanderthal child who seems to have had Down syndrome and was at least six years old. The only way the child could have survived so long before the advent of modern medicine was for their family to provide them with continuous care. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder in which a person is born with 47 chromosomes instead of 46 (a pair of 23 chromosomes from each parent). This seemingly small change can have major impacts on a person’s health. The condition can affect the development of a person’s brain, leading to learning disorders, behavioral symptoms, and developmental delays. A host of other physical issues, including trouble breathing or seeing clearly, can also pop up. The syndrome can make one more vulnerable to infections and diseases and cause congenital heart defects that can greatly shorten a person’s life expectancy. It’s incredible that, faced with such immense odds, the Neanderthal child managed to survive for around six years. The 273,000-year-old fossil shows that these hominids were not only compassionate enough to care for a member of their family who could not help them in return, but that they had the means and knowledge to do so. It's all part of a growing body of evidence that Neanderthals might have actually valued compassion. In that way, they were more advanced than some of today’s homo sapiens.
[Image description: A painting of a family of neanderthals standing at the mouth of a cave. One is holding a spear.] Credit & copyright: Neanderthal Flintworkers, Le Moustier Cavern, Dordogne, France,
Charles Robert Knight (1874–1953). Wikimedia Commons,
American Museum of Natural History. Public Domain.
July 1, 2024
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FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
That looks like an impressive haul for a day's work. Claude-Emile Schuffenecker created this scene out of black chalk, and despite its humble subject matter, it’s one of the defining pieces of the Synthetism movement. Seaweed Gatherers, Yport, shows women at a rocky beach carrying bundles of seaweed on their backs. The women are crouched forward as they walk on the sand with the sea in the background. Schuffenecker, along with Paul Gaugin, created Synthetism, a post-Impressionist style that moved away from relying on nature and the focus on the study of light. Instead, the artists relied more on memory and emphasized flat, two-dimensional shapes. Synthetism also heavily featured symbolism, and often had surreal, dream-like scenes. Despite his contributions to art, Schuffenecker's legacy was forever marred after his death, when it was discovered that he was involved in the sale of fake van Gogh paintings. It’s a revelation that certainly doesn’t paint him in a good light.
Seaweed Gatherers, Yport, Claude-Emile Schuffenecker (1851–1934), 1889, Black chalk, 11.5 x 8.93 in., The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
[Image credit & copyright: Claude-Emile Schuffenecker, Gift from Samuel and Paul Josefowitz in tribute to Jane Glaubinger and Heather Lemonedes, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Public Domain Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation.]That looks like an impressive haul for a day's work. Claude-Emile Schuffenecker created this scene out of black chalk, and despite its humble subject matter, it’s one of the defining pieces of the Synthetism movement. Seaweed Gatherers, Yport, shows women at a rocky beach carrying bundles of seaweed on their backs. The women are crouched forward as they walk on the sand with the sea in the background. Schuffenecker, along with Paul Gaugin, created Synthetism, a post-Impressionist style that moved away from relying on nature and the focus on the study of light. Instead, the artists relied more on memory and emphasized flat, two-dimensional shapes. Synthetism also heavily featured symbolism, and often had surreal, dream-like scenes. Despite his contributions to art, Schuffenecker's legacy was forever marred after his death, when it was discovered that he was involved in the sale of fake van Gogh paintings. It’s a revelation that certainly doesn’t paint him in a good light.
Seaweed Gatherers, Yport, Claude-Emile Schuffenecker (1851–1934), 1889, Black chalk, 11.5 x 8.93 in., The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
[Image credit & copyright: Claude-Emile Schuffenecker, Gift from Samuel and Paul Josefowitz in tribute to Jane Glaubinger and Heather Lemonedes, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Public Domain Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation.] -
FREEScience Daily Curio #2899Free1 CQ
Picture this—a forest in the middle of the Sahara. It might sound like a description of a mirage, but it was once reality. Archaeologists have just discovered 5,000 year-old cave paintings in Sudan that depict the Sahara as a green paradise, giving researchers an idea of what the region might have looked like before it became the barren desert it is today. It’s also a picture of what the desert could look like in the distant future. The Sahara is an expansive desert—for now. Over eons, it goes through cycles, turning from verdant, lush grassland into a harsh, inhospitable desert. This is due in part to its location and the effects of the Earth’s gradually shifting orbit, which changes the amount of sunlight that falls on the region. But the last time the Sahara turned into a desert around 8,000 years ago, it happened earlier and faster than it should have based on the Earth’s orbit. For decades, the discrepancy has been a mystery to both archaeologists and paleoecologists, but the mystery may finally be solved. According to archaeologists, the culprit might have been humans—specifically, ancient peoples with grazing livestock.
Part of the key to understanding the premature desertification of the Sahara is realizing that it happened in patches between 8,000 and 4,500 years ago. Researchers found that this lined up with the spread of people and their livestock in these areas. As their goats and cattle moved into an area, they would reduce the amount of atmospheric moisture by overgrazing. Removing vegetation also affects albedo, or the amount of sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface, further contributing to desertification. Lastly, fire may have been used as a land management tool, which also destroys large swaths of grasslands. Left to its own devices, the Sahara may very well turn into grasslands and forests again—just keep the goats out next time.
[Image description: Sandy desert dunes.] Credit & copyright: Amine M'siouri, PexelsPicture this—a forest in the middle of the Sahara. It might sound like a description of a mirage, but it was once reality. Archaeologists have just discovered 5,000 year-old cave paintings in Sudan that depict the Sahara as a green paradise, giving researchers an idea of what the region might have looked like before it became the barren desert it is today. It’s also a picture of what the desert could look like in the distant future. The Sahara is an expansive desert—for now. Over eons, it goes through cycles, turning from verdant, lush grassland into a harsh, inhospitable desert. This is due in part to its location and the effects of the Earth’s gradually shifting orbit, which changes the amount of sunlight that falls on the region. But the last time the Sahara turned into a desert around 8,000 years ago, it happened earlier and faster than it should have based on the Earth’s orbit. For decades, the discrepancy has been a mystery to both archaeologists and paleoecologists, but the mystery may finally be solved. According to archaeologists, the culprit might have been humans—specifically, ancient peoples with grazing livestock.
Part of the key to understanding the premature desertification of the Sahara is realizing that it happened in patches between 8,000 and 4,500 years ago. Researchers found that this lined up with the spread of people and their livestock in these areas. As their goats and cattle moved into an area, they would reduce the amount of atmospheric moisture by overgrazing. Removing vegetation also affects albedo, or the amount of sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface, further contributing to desertification. Lastly, fire may have been used as a land management tool, which also destroys large swaths of grasslands. Left to its own devices, the Sahara may very well turn into grasslands and forests again—just keep the goats out next time.
[Image description: Sandy desert dunes.] Credit & copyright: Amine M'siouri, Pexels -
8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
In a 6-3 ruling, Supreme Court justices have narrowed the scope of federal corruption law, as it pertains to state and local officials. Justices ruled that a...
In a 6-3 ruling, Supreme Court justices have narrowed the scope of federal corruption law, as it pertains to state and local officials. Justices ruled that a...
June 30, 2024
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day
: June 30, 2024\KOO-dahss\ noun
What It Means
Kudos refers to praise someone receives because of an act or achievement, or to...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day
: June 30, 2024\KOO-dahss\ noun
What It Means
Kudos refers to praise someone receives because of an act or achievement, or to...
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As a rule, humans aren’t the world's best swimmers…but rules were made to be broken. While most members of our terrestrial species are much faster on land than in the water, Olympian Michael Phelps is a notable exception. This record-breaking athlete, born on this day in 1985, has a unique physiology that makes him perfectly suited for the pool, and an aquatic nickname to match.
Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, following in his sisters’ footsteps after they joined a local swim team. Long before he boasted nicknames like “Flying Fish” and “Baltimore Bullet,” swam competitively for his high school team and even made it onto the U.S. Swim Team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Though he didn’t win any medals that year, he still made history by being the youngest male Olympic swimmer in 68 years. He began setting world records while still in high school, a trend that continued when he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It was during Phelps’ second Olympics appearance in 2004, in Athens, that he became a household name after winning eight medals, including six golds. After not winning a single medal at his first Olympics, Phelps was suddenly just one gold away from Mark Spitz's record of seven. He went on to break the record during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by winning eight gold medals, which was also the record for the most gold during a single Olympics. By the time he retired in 2016 after the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he had 28 medals to his name, with 23 golds including 13 individual golds.
While hard work and perseverance surely played a role in Phelps' dominance in the water, he also benefited from having what may be the ideal swimmer’s body. Most of the best swimmers in the world have a similar body shape that gives them an advantage over the average person, beyond their training. Firstly, it pays for a swimmer to be tall, and indeed, most of the top Olympic swimmers hover around six feet tall. But proportions matter too, with long, flexible torsos allowing for more power behind strokes and a center of mass closer to the lungs (the center of flotation) allowing for less energy wasted in trying to stay level in the water. It also helps to have large hands and feet, which act like paddles or flippers in the water, while large lungs help swimmers stay afloat and take in more oxygen. Many swimmers have these traits, but Phelps’s physique seems to take some of them to an extreme. His lung capacity sits at 12 liters, twice that of the average person, and he has double-jointed elbows. He’s also hyper-jointed at the chest, allowing him to leverage more of his body to power each stroke. Even for a swimmer, he has a massive “wingspan,” the distance from fingertip to fingertip when the arms are held out horizontally from the body. While most people have wingspans that are about the same as their height, Phelps’s wingspan of six feet, seven inches is three inches longer than he is tall. Finally, his body was found to produce half as much lactic acid than even other trained athletes, which allows him to recover faster between training sessions.
All that isn’t to discount his talent. While Phelps may have been gifted with natural advantages, his drive and willingness to train hard are even more important. Those who’ve worked with Phelps have often expressed that the true secret behind the swimmer’s success is his immaculate technique, which can only come from extensive training. Swimming is extremely inefficient for human beings, so every movement of every stroke counts, especially at elite levels where a fraction of a second can make all the difference. It wouldn’t matter if you had shark skin and flippers for feet if you didn’t know how to use them!
[Image description: A large, empty swimming pool with blue-and-white lane dividers.] Credit & copyright: Jan van der Wolf, PexelsAs a rule, humans aren’t the world's best swimmers…but rules were made to be broken. While most members of our terrestrial species are much faster on land than in the water, Olympian Michael Phelps is a notable exception. This record-breaking athlete, born on this day in 1985, has a unique physiology that makes him perfectly suited for the pool, and an aquatic nickname to match.
Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, following in his sisters’ footsteps after they joined a local swim team. Long before he boasted nicknames like “Flying Fish” and “Baltimore Bullet,” swam competitively for his high school team and even made it onto the U.S. Swim Team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Though he didn’t win any medals that year, he still made history by being the youngest male Olympic swimmer in 68 years. He began setting world records while still in high school, a trend that continued when he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It was during Phelps’ second Olympics appearance in 2004, in Athens, that he became a household name after winning eight medals, including six golds. After not winning a single medal at his first Olympics, Phelps was suddenly just one gold away from Mark Spitz's record of seven. He went on to break the record during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by winning eight gold medals, which was also the record for the most gold during a single Olympics. By the time he retired in 2016 after the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he had 28 medals to his name, with 23 golds including 13 individual golds.
While hard work and perseverance surely played a role in Phelps' dominance in the water, he also benefited from having what may be the ideal swimmer’s body. Most of the best swimmers in the world have a similar body shape that gives them an advantage over the average person, beyond their training. Firstly, it pays for a swimmer to be tall, and indeed, most of the top Olympic swimmers hover around six feet tall. But proportions matter too, with long, flexible torsos allowing for more power behind strokes and a center of mass closer to the lungs (the center of flotation) allowing for less energy wasted in trying to stay level in the water. It also helps to have large hands and feet, which act like paddles or flippers in the water, while large lungs help swimmers stay afloat and take in more oxygen. Many swimmers have these traits, but Phelps’s physique seems to take some of them to an extreme. His lung capacity sits at 12 liters, twice that of the average person, and he has double-jointed elbows. He’s also hyper-jointed at the chest, allowing him to leverage more of his body to power each stroke. Even for a swimmer, he has a massive “wingspan,” the distance from fingertip to fingertip when the arms are held out horizontally from the body. While most people have wingspans that are about the same as their height, Phelps’s wingspan of six feet, seven inches is three inches longer than he is tall. Finally, his body was found to produce half as much lactic acid than even other trained athletes, which allows him to recover faster between training sessions.
All that isn’t to discount his talent. While Phelps may have been gifted with natural advantages, his drive and willingness to train hard are even more important. Those who’ve worked with Phelps have often expressed that the true secret behind the swimmer’s success is his immaculate technique, which can only come from extensive training. Swimming is extremely inefficient for human beings, so every movement of every stroke counts, especially at elite levels where a fraction of a second can make all the difference. It wouldn’t matter if you had shark skin and flippers for feet if you didn’t know how to use them!
[Image description: A large, empty swimming pool with blue-and-white lane dividers.] Credit & copyright: Jan van der Wolf, Pexels -
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As cities look to grow and innovate in the recovery from the pandemic, some are pushing for new sports stadiums. The idea is that fresh ballparks attract vis...
As cities look to grow and innovate in the recovery from the pandemic, some are pushing for new sports stadiums. The idea is that fresh ballparks attract vis...