Nullary Sources

Crows may make lightning-fast decisions, sometimes twice as fast as humans, study hints

chz — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:01:33 -0700

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry for Live Science:

Crows are intelligent animals that can use tools, hold grudges and even host funerals. Now, new research suggests these birds can make certain decisions faster than humans and monkeys — another potential sign of their smarts, the researchers argue.

In a study published Thursday (Oct. 22) in the journal Science, researchers found that two carrion crows (Corvus corone) could distinguish the direction of moving dots on a screen in an average of 235 milliseconds, or less than a quarter of a second.

When I saw the headline I was hoping I was going to be able to make a joke about teaching birds to make bad decisions, but it turns out the “decisions” here aren’t that kind of decision but actually a Mario Party minigame

Marine life in Gulf of Mexico has still not fully recovered from 2010 BP oil spill

chz — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:03:01 -0700

Maya Yang for The Guardian:

Marine life in the Gulf of Mexico plummeted by about 60% after BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and has still not fully recovered, according to a new study.

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The marine species most severely affected were also among the most vital to open-ocean ecosystems and global food webs. Krill, a primary food source for deep-sea fish and shrimp, plunged by 72.8%. Bristlemouths – likely the most abundant backboned animals on Earth – fell by 69%. Meanwhile, lanternfishes, which sustain seabirds, dolphins, sharks and commercial fisheries, dropped by 62.9%. A 2023 survey of the area found that many of these populations have not recovered sustainably.

Kinda wish this was surprising, but alas

Study: Overdoses spiked after city swept homeless camps

chz — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:02:06 -0700

Wish there was a little better source for this because I really don’t like the site’s writing style, but here’s Kyle Stokes for Axios:

When Minneapolis clears a homeless encampment, the surrounding area experiences a sharp uptick in drug overdoses for several days afterward, according to new research findings shared with Axios.

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Within a two- to four-block radius of a sweep, the risk of an overdose was 65% higher than expected over the next three days.

Even when testing a wider area (eight blocks) and longer timeframe (two weeks), the increase in overdose risk was still statistically significant, according to a summary of the findings, which are still pending publication.

Dang who could’ve seen this coming, besides literally everyone who works with homeless people

Time for some organ music? Sure, why not. Here’s Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Timpani, and Strings…

chz — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:00:44 -0700

Time for some organ music? Sure, why not. Here’s Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Timpani, and Strings in G Minor, as performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony with Iveta Apkalna on the organ.

2,200-Year-Old Fingerprints Reveal Who Really Built China’s Mysterious Terracotta Army

chz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 12:01:21 -0700

Michelle Starr for ScienceAlert:

For thousands of years, a mysterious army has stood vigil – silent and impassive in the dark, never wavering from their solemn duty.

They are the warriors of the Terracotta Army, carefully crafted 2,200 years ago in China to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang.

The work is exquisite – at first glance, the thousands of warriors look identical, but look closer, and you’ll find an astonishing variety of faces, hairstyles, and armor, a breathtaking display of craftsmanship.

Traditionally, archaeologists have assumed that the entire army was built by adult men.

New research reveals that this assumption may be wrong.

The sculptors – whose work endures long after the emperor they served – left their fingerprints in the still-wet clay, and it’s those fingerprints that suggest men, women, and children likely all collaborated in the epic undertaking of the Terracotta Army.

“Men, women, and children likely all collaborated” is one of several very funny ways this article dances around saying the government forced them to do this

Trans women no longer to be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance

chz — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:42 -0700

Jessica Murray for The Guardian:

Trans women will no longer be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance on single-sex spaces.

The new rules, published on Thursday, mean single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms will be used by people based on their biological sex, not their gender identity.

The guidance states that trans people should be “accommodated in line with their biological sex” while ensuring their clinical needs are met and their “privacy, dignity and safety are maintained”, along with other patients sharing their accommodation.

Pretty sure this inherently fails to “maintain” at least two of those, common UK L

Astronomers say they’ve discovered the first green star

chz — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:02:23 -0700

Jack Guy and Lauren J. Young for CNN:

Astronomers analyzing white dwarf stars have for the first time found a star that would appear green to human eyes, according to a new study.

While for most stars, color is temperature-dependent and limited to a few hues, white dwarfs, which are the dense remnants of sun-like stars that have died, can glow in an incredible range of colors, said lead study author Mark Hollands, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick, England, on Thursday.

…

Another notable star was “almost like a salmon pink,” due to the presence of a high density of carbon molecules, Hollands added.

That one’s a girl star

Elevation Lab Pulls AirTag Silencer After Stalking Concerns

chz — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:01:24 -0700

Juli Clover for MacRumors:

Earlier this year, Elevation Lab announced the launch of a “Silencer” for AirTag meant to pierce the speaker on the device to disable the sound.

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We did not cover the launch of the Elevation Lab Silencer because we didn’t want to publicize an accessory that does away with the ‌AirTag‌’s anti-stalking feature, and Elevation Lab must have heard several complaints. Six Colors’ Glenn Fleishman, for example, said the device was “appalling.” When he asked Elevation Lab about it, Casey Hopkins, the company’s CEO, explained that users can already silence AirTags themselves, and people will still get smartphone notifications if an unknown ‌AirTag‌ is traveling with them.

Elevation Lab reversed course and sent out emails today letting customers know that the Silencer is no longer available for purchase.

Starting to feel like anyone who wants to do tech is ontologically too immoral to be allowed to do tech. Also I linked this somewhere earlier and someone hit me with the “I don’t see what the outrage is, people could already do this on their own,” and I didn’t respond because I didn’t feel like getting into an argument but I’m begging people to understand that just because instructions exist somewhere to do something doesn’t mean we therefore have to shrug our shoulders and allow people to sell foolproof kits that allow anyone to do that thing with no effort, it’s cool to discourage behaviors we find unacceptable actually that’s how society works

Necropsy Provides New Information About Beloved Bald Eagle Known as Jackie

chz — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:01:25 -0700

News release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife:

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), in partnership with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Ojai Raptor Center, today released the results of the necropsy and additional diagnostic testing conducted following the death of Patient 26-519, the bald eagle from Big Bear Valley known as Jackie.

The necropsy, performed by veterinary pathologists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, along with extensive additional laboratory and toxicology testing, provided new information about the complex medical condition that led to Jackie’s decline and death.

“Jackie’s necropsy confirmed Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) as the primary underlying cause of her decline,” said Steve Kubiski, Director of Disease Investigations, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “In an uncommon presentation of the virus, the infection caused a severe ulcer in her stomach that led to persistent internal bleeding, anemia, and the development of bacterial sepsis.”

Putting “highly pathogenic” in the name of the disease feels weird, not saying it’s inaccurate or anything but it sounds like they just couldn’t think of a better name to differentiate it from the normal flu so they just called it The Flu That Sucks Ass

The dying sun could tear the solar system apart sooner than thought

chz — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 12:01:35 -0700

Paul Arnold for Phys.org:

The fate of our solar system is written in the stars—well, one star to be precise: the sun. Estimates of what the end will look like once the sun sheds much of its mass and ultimately dies vary widely. New research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that the final curtain for some of the outer planets will arrive much sooner than previously thought, shrinking the timeline from a quintillion years down to roughly 1 billion years.

The rock we live on will probably be long gone by then, but Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune might not make it either.

Traditional models assumed that the outer solar system would survive for billions of years before a passing star might disturb it. However, recent modeling by theoretical astrophysicists Konstantin Batygin and Jim Fuller at the California Institute of Technology and Fred Adams of the University of Michigan shows that the dying sun could trigger a relatively rapid and chaotic upheaval.

Nice but can we move the timetable up even further, that sounds like it’ll be awesome to watch and I don’t want to miss it

Here’s a rare original composition by Bandai Namco composer Junichi Nakatsuru, “Midnight Circle”…

chz — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:01:46 -0700

Here’s a rare original composition by Bandai Namco composer Junichi Nakatsuru, “Midnight Circle” from the 2006 album FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. It’s just a jazzed fusion kind of Tuesday I think.

Scientists Collected Deep-Sea Rocks. They Spontaneously Caught Fire in The Lab.

chz — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:01:00 -0700

Carly Cassella for ScienceAlert:

Scientists investigating the possibility of a ‘gold rush’ on the bottom of the ocean have hit upon an unforeseen 'landmine’.

Researchers at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are now warning that some deep-sea minerals may spontaneously combust when they are brought to the surface.

In 2022, that happened to two samples of metal-sulfide rocks collected from the deep seafloor.

The event caused temperatures above 100 °C in the lab and completely oxidized the original samples.

I feel like I’ve been using the “I wanna eat it” punchline a lot lately, so even though I do definitely want to eat the literal hellrock, instead I’ll just say that chemistry is fucked up, man

Prize-winning image which sparked backlash was AI-generated, Nikon rules

chz — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:01:27 -0700

Zoe Kleinman for BBC News:

The winner of a prestigious scientific photography competition has been disqualified following concerns raised by other scientists that it was fake.

Nikon said the use of generative AI in the composition of the video broke the rules of its Small World In Motion contest, which accepts photos and video taken using powerful microscopes.

I was actually just thinking the other day about how I haven’t posted anything from a photography contest in a while, so of course this just came up on the news

Thieves pull off Italy’s biggest-ever wine heist, stealing 30,000 bottles worth 5 million euros

chz — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:02:19 -0700

Giada Zampano for the AP:

Thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of some of Italy’s most prized wines worth an estimated 5 million euros ($5.8 million) from a winery in Tuscany, in what the producer described Friday as the country’s largest wine theft on record.

The theft targeted Marchesi Antinori’s facility near Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, where a group of at least seven thieves on Saturday night made off with bottles of some of Italy’s most sought-after wines, including Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso. The theft was discovered Monday, but the company made it public on Friday to avoid interfering with the investigation.

I feel like it will probably be difficult to unload these, right, unless there’s a black market for stolen wine, which is a stupid thing to speculate about because of course there’s a black market for stolen wine, we’re humans we love our black markets

Otter-like critter swam lakes and rivers in the age of dinosaurs

chz — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:02:04 -0700

Will Dunham for Reuters:

About 165 million years ago, a furry critter that swam like a platypus, hunted like an otter and had a tail similar to a beaver’s frolicked in the lakes and rivers of what is now China pursuing fish and salamanders, the oldest-known example of a semiaquatic lifestyle in mammalian evolutionary history.

Researchers are describing a fossil unearthed ‌in the Inner Mongolia region of a mammalian species named Megacauda sungei that lived during the Jurassic Period in the age of dinosaurs.

Megacauda was about 20 inches (50 cm) long and weighed 2.2 to 4.4 pounds (1 to 2 kg). While dwarfed by most dinosaurs, Megacauda was still twice as big as the next-largest member of the mammalian lineage in the Jurassic — most were tiny shrew-sized creatures at that time — and displayed some critical anatomic features shared with modern mammals.

Yes I’ll take one thanks

Here’s an incredibly sick as hell ceramic piece by artist Keiko Masumoto titled “Book / Jar”; her…

chz — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:00:48 -0700

Here’s an incredibly sick as hell ceramic piece by artist Keiko Masumoto titled “Book / Jar”; her main gimmick is pieces like this where it looks like pottery and some other kind of object had a teleporter accident. In fact, she’s done several others with the exact same concept as this one, though I think the composition in this specific one is the most striking.

This pic is from an art blogger named しえろ on Twitter, who has a couple more; from other angles you can tell a bit more easily that this entire thing is ceramic, and there isn’t in fact a real book in there somehow.

Astronomers catch a star slowly snacking on a brown dwarf, 300 light years away

chz — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 12:00:48 -0700

Jennifer Chu for MIT:

Like Earth, most planetary bodies circle their star in stable, detached orbits. These companionable systems can suddenly change when a planet comes too close to its star. In such a close encounter, a star can pull the planet in and swallow it whole.

Across the galaxy, astronomers have seen plenty of stable, detached planetary systems. They have also observed a handful of stars quickly engulfing their planet. Now, for the first time, scientists have spotted a system that is striking a curious balance between the two extremes. And it’s revealing a new way that stars can interact with planetary companions.

In a paper appearing today in Nature Astronomy, scientists at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a star leisurely snacking on a closely orbiting brown dwarf — a planet-like object that is more massive than a planet yet not quite as big as a star.

Well now I, like all of you, am now suddenly curious what a brown dwarf tastes like

Just found out that Joe Hisaishi conducted a concert a couple of years ago where both Steve Reich’s…

chz — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:02:03 -0700

Just found out that Joe Hisaishi conducted a concert a couple of years ago where both Steve Reich’s The Desert Music and his own The End of the World were performed, and the concert was released as the album Joe Hisaishi Conducts last year. Didn’t know Hisaishi had ever conducted a Reich piece before, but it makes total sense given the minimalist stuff he’s written before. Anyway, here’s the second movement from the Reich joint.

Samoa prime minister apologizes for Nazi gesture and saying ‘Heil Hitler’ in 2007 video

chz — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:00:50 -0700

Charlotte Graham-McLay for the AP:

Samoa’s Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt apologized Monday for a video from 19 years earlier in which he said “Heil Hitler” and made a Nazi gesture during what he described as a family gathering.

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“I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them,” he said Monday. He added that the video was filmed “at a private family gathering — not intended for the public.”

…

What happened immediately before and after the moment depicted was unknown, the newspaper said, and Schmidt’s statement didn’t explain further.

Trying to explain it as “it was at a private family gathering” and refusing to elaborate further is baffling, unless the goal is to implicate his entire family as being Nazis

Scientists Invent Underwater Umbrellas to Protect Coral Reefs—and It Appears to Be Working

chz — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:01:05 -0700

Ellyn Lapointe for Gizmodo:

Earth is in the midst of its fourth global coral bleaching event. Scientists expect that by 2050, the world’s oceans will have warmed so much that most reefs suffer mass bleaching every year. A surprisingly simple invention could help protect some of them.

In a study published today in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers present “underwater umbrellas” that shade corals to reduce their Sun exposure, which exacerbates bleaching caused by warming waters. They tested these crafty canopies in the Caribbean, where corals are especially vulnerable to solar radiation and heat stress, and found that shaded corals indeed suffered less bleaching. Some even recovered some of their color.

This feels like some scientists got real drunk one night and had this idea