James' World 2

Click the link below the picture

.

Now, according to a report released this week by the World Wildlife Fund, we have another creature to add to a growing list of the imperiled. Populations of snow leopards, considered among the most elusive big cats on the planet, have declined more than 20 percent over the past 16 years. Should climate change continue unchecked, more than a third of the animals’ limited habitat may disappear.

The conservation group calls for urgent international action to protect these “ghost cats,” which live some 3,000 meters above sea level in the rocky mountains of Central Asia. There may be fewer than 4,000 snow leopards left in the wild. The animals have been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered since the mid-1980s.

Some of the prime drivers of the species’ decline are familiar — hunting, poaching, retribution killing by communities that lose livestock. But snow leopards are highly adapted to the snow-covered peaks far from humanity, with a coat that makes them near invisible when the weather is right.

.

Credit: ©naturepl.com / Reinhard / ARCO / WWF

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

This week, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”—a song from the soundtrack to Disney’s latest animated film, Encanto—climbed toward the top of the music charts, nestling itself among the likes of Lil Nas X and Adele on the Billboard Hot 100 and Spotify’s most-played tracks. The song sets one of the film’s dramatic climaxes, consisting of a revolving door of magical characters interjecting a whirlwind of melodies. It all culminates in the film’s protagonist, Mirabel, piecing together one of the movie’s central mysteries: What’s the deal with Bruno?

There are many aspects of this track contributing to its rising popularity, weeks after Encanto’s release: Not only is the song narratively compelling, but it’s also a total bop. The music is a remarkable mixture of Broadway and Latin American influences, with a particularly distinctive rhythm. While the characters each sing the catchy and tight melodies we’ve come to expect from Lin-Manuel Miranda, they almost always avoid singing on the beat. The song’s repeating bass line also constantly teases our expectations; of the 30 notes that make up this lick, only two align with the beat! This pervasive off-the-beat-ness is precisely why we can’t help grooving to this song; when music evades the beat, it evokes a feeling of motion in listeners, tugging on our own centers of gravity as it narrowly avoids coinciding with where we expect it to land.

.

Disney

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________

Click the link below the picture

.

So how are we going to quench our thirst if we do start building condos on Mars? Importing water from Earth is expensive and unsustainable long-term. And trying to imitate the survival steps taken by the stranded astronaut from The Martian — burning oxygen and hydrogen to produce water — would be extremely dangerous. Some have suggested setting up a huge humidifier to extract water from Mars’ thin atmosphere. Others think that loading up soil, which contains trace ice crystals, into a heater is the way to go. You could trap the water vapor, then condense it back to a liquid.

.

.

.

Click the link below for the article:

.

__________________________________________