May 19, 2014

Researchers Say They've Found The Biggest Dinosaur Ever


                                                                     




Three years ago, a family of rural farmers stumbled across an incredible archaeological site on their land in the Patagonia region of Argentina. The family notified nearby Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio (MEF), and now researchers at the site have unearthed what they believe is the largest dinosaur ever. It's estimated that the massive beast weighed almost 80 tons (80,000 kg) and stood 65 feet tall (20 meters) when it walked the earth some 95 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Measurements suggest it was over 130 feet (40 meters) from its head to the tip of its tail. That means it was roughly as long as a 13-story building.


But this truly gigantic dinosaur was a herbivore. The specimens found in Argentina's Chubut province (which is part of the Patagonia region) belong to the sauropod group of dinosaurs, which are noted by their small heads, thick, pillar-like legs, and long necks and tails. Perhaps the most well-known sauropod is the Apatosaurus, which often goes by the name "Brontosaurus" in pop culture. But this latest sauropod is twice as long and up to four times as heavy, and researchers are classifying it as a new species of Titanosaur, which is a group of extremely large sauropods.

Paleontologists led by Dr. José Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol of MEF found seven adult specimens in the same spot, and the roughly 200 fossils discovered so far are in wonderful condition. Among the cache of fossils they've found significant pieces of the neck, back, and legs, as well as "most of the vertebrae of the tail," according to a press release from MEF. "It's a real paleontological treasure," says Dr. Carballido. 

He suggests that the adult individuals likely died in the same spot, perhaps huddling around a dwindling water source.

By measuring the diameter of load-bearing bones like the femur and humerus, the team was able to estimate the size and weight of the dinosaurs. Their findings just beat out another very similar Titanosaur, Argentinosaurus (pictured above), which has long been considered the largest dinosaur ever. Argentinosaurus is estimated to have weighed roughly 73 tons. It, too, was discovered in the Patagonia region of Argentina, which is a hot spot for dinosaur fossils.

If initial estimates hold up, this latest find will not only take the title of largest dinosaur ever — it will be the biggest animal ever known to have walked the earth. But it doesn't have a name yet. Researchers tell BBC News that "it will be named describing its magnificence and in honor to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery."

Another discovery at a different site in Argentina this week proved that a much smaller member of the sarupod family, a group known as the diplodocids, lived not just in North America, but also in South America. Numerous media reports have conflated the two finds, but this second discovery is of a herbivore just 30 feet (9 meters) in length.

Nevertheless, there may be much more to find at the site in Chubut province. Dr. Carballido says that they are "still working on this extraordinary site." He adds: "We estimate that one fifth of excavation process [is complete], so there is still much work to do and probably much to discover."



Photographs and video of the dig site are available at BBC News.

With thanks to The Verge 

More here, and the You Tube clip sounds like it was narrated by a robot or some language software!


Fossilised bones of dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth has been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say.

Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.

Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus.

Scientists believe it is a new species of titanosaur - an enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period.

A local farm worker first stumbled on the remains in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km (135 miles) west of Trelew, Patagonia. The fossils were then excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.

They unearthed the partial skeletons of seven individuals - about 150 bones in total - all in "remarkable condition". A film crew from the BBC Natural History Unit was there to capture the moment the scientists realised exactly how big their discovery was.

By measuring the length and circumference of the largest femur (thigh bone), they calculated the animal weighed 77 tonnes.

"Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth," the researchers told BBC News.

"Its length, from its head to the tip of its tail, was 40m.

"Standing with its neck up, it was about 20m high - equal to a seven-storey building." This giant herbivore lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago, based on the age of the rocks in which its bones were found.

But despite its magnitude, it does not yet have a name.

"It will be named describing its magnificence and in honour to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery," the researchers said. There have been many previous contenders for the title "world's biggest dinosaur".

The most recent pretender to the throne was Argentinosaurus, a similar type of sauropod, also discovered in Patagonia.

Originally thought to weigh in at 100 tonnes, it was later revised down to about 70 tonnes - just under the 77 tonnes that this new sauropod is thought to have weighed.

The picture is muddied by the various complicated methods for estimating size and weight, based on skeletons that are usually incomplete.

Argentinosaurus was estimated from only a few bones. But the researchers here had dozens to work with, making them more confident that they really have found "the big one".

Dr Paul Barrett, a dinosaur expert from London's Natural History Museum, agreed the new species is "a genuinely big critter. But there are a number of similarly sized big sauropod thigh bones out there," he cautioned.

"Without knowing more about this current find it's difficult to be sure. One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurus and this new discovery is that they're both based on very fragmentary specimens - no complete skeleton is known, which means the animal's proportions and overall shape are conjectural.

"Moreover, several different methods exist for calculating dinosaur weight (some based on overall volume, some on various limb bone measurements) and these don't always agree with each other, with large measures of uncertainty.

"So it's interesting to hear another really huge sauropod has been discovered, but ideally we'd need much more material of these supersized animals to determine just how big they really got."  




Some other related posts:

The Pelagornis Sandersi: Fossil Find Reveals Largest Flying Bird                                          Dinosaur Tail Found Encased In Amber    
Dreadnoughtus: A New Dinosaur Discovery
Shark-munching Spinosaurus Was First-known Water Dinosaur: Study Shows
Pterosaurs With 12 Meters Wingspan Struggled While Taking Off
Velociraptor: Facts About The 'Speedy Thief'
Two Jurassic Mini Mammal Species Discovered in China
Researchers Say They've Found The Biggest Dinosaur Ever
The Brontosaurus Is Officially Back
 Kronosaurus Dinosaur Jaw Found In Outback Queensland
Tiny Bat Wing Dinosaur Discovered
Kunbarrasaurus Ieversi: Australia's Newest Dinosaur 
What Killed The Dinosaurs?
Titanosaurs: The Largest Animals Ever To Walk The Earth 
Timurlengia Euotica: The Missing Link to Tyrannosaurus Rex  
Archaeopteryx: The Transitional Fossil
When Did The Dinosaurs Become Extinct?
Ancient Sea Monster The ­First Vegetarian Marine Reptile 
Spiclypeus Shipporum: New Dinosaur Species Sported Uniquely Spiked Shield
T-Rex Cooed With Mouth Wide Shut
Prehistoric Marsupial Lion Was The Size Of A Squirrel
Jurassic ‘Sea Monster’ From Scottish Loch
Psittacosaurus: Chinese Parrot Lizard Dinosaur First Found To Use Camouflage  
Scientists Discover A Mysterious Prehistoric Shark
'Beardog' Discovery Offers Clues As To How Canines Evolved 
Austroposeidon Magnificus: Brazil’s Biggest Dinosaur Has Been Rediscovered 
Ancient 400-Pound Salmon Fought With Dagger-Like Teeth
Newfound Ancient 'Sea Monster' Is Largest Yet from Antarctica
Dinosaur Tail Found Encased In Amber 





 

 





 





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Dracula's Castle Up For Sale


                                                                    

                                                                   


The 13th-century fortress in Transylvania called Bran Castle, and often referred to as Dracula's Castle, is up for sale by its owners — the Habsburg royal line — and the Romanian government has apparently placed an $80 million bid on the storied mansion, according to news reports.

Though the legendary vampire himself never stepped foot in this castle — he is fictional, of course — apparently images of it reached Bram Stoker, who penned the 1897 novel "Dracula."

According to statements on the Bran Castle website: "Bram Stoker never visited Romania. He depicted the imaginary Dracula's castle based upon a description of Bran Castle that was available to him in turn-of-the-century Britain. Indeed, the imaginary depiction of Dracula's Castle from the etching in the first edition of 'Dracula' is strikingly similar to Bran Castle and no other in all of Romania." [The Real Dracula: Vlad the Impaler] 

And in the novel, Stoker describes the Transylvanian Count's fortress as sitting high above a valley, perched on a rock above a flowing river. As the Bran Castle website notes, this castle is the only such fortress in Transylvania that fits the bill.

When creating the monstrous character, Stoker drew inspiration from a real-life man with an apparent taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (modern-day Romania), also called Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes); the prince seemed to have a fondness for impaling his enemies.

Vlad III was born in 1431 in Transylvania, a mountainous region in modern-day Romania; his father, Vlad II Dracul, ruled Wallachia, a principality south of Transylvania. 

After his induction into the Order of the Dragon, a Christian military order supported by the Holy Roman Emperor, Vlad II was given the surname Dracul ("dragon").

Read more about the sale of Dracula's castle.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. 

By Jeanna Bryner

With thanks to Live Science

More information here.



More on Literature: 
'The Great Gatsby': Seven Life Lessons
Shakespeare First Folio found on Scottish Isle of Bute
The Musketeers
Mysterious 'Man in the Iron Mask' Revealed
Father Of Anne Frank Listed As Co-Author Of Diary To Extend Copyright
William Shakespeare is still a relevant literary voice.
Queen Marks Magna Carta Anniversary
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass for the Spanish Civil War Found
Superheroes Of The Ancient World 

Palace Found At Tintagel, Fabled Birthplace Of King Arthur 
Who Was Cleopatra? 
The Untold Truth About The Holy Grail
 

 













 






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Online Passwords And How To manage Them


                                                               



I can't endorse any of these as I haven't used them. I don't have that many passwords: well, at least nothing like the author's 150.

Still, someone reading this may need a program like this very urgently.There are more clips available about Dashlane available.

And below is a clip on LastPass.I get the impression they are free.


THERE’S a war raging between hackers and companies, and you’re caught in the crossfire. Every time a company gets hacked, you have to change your password. And don’t you dare reuse it somewhere else. 
Dreaming up a different password for every site and service is the only way to keep your stuff safe online, but it’s also a gigantic nuisance. There’s one thing you can — and should — do to help: get a password manager program.

I have more than 150 logins and counting. I’d have to be Rain Man to memorise that many passwords. So I went on a hunt for the best services for storing all my passwords, and whittled down the list to four that get the job done and offer enough security for most of us: 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass and PasswordBox.

For most people, I recommend Dashlane. It’s simple, so you’ll actually use it. It may even save you clicks.

But wait — isn’t storing all your passwords in one place a terrible idea?

It’s better than reusing easily remembered passwords everywhere. Password managers hide your information behind a master password that only you know.

Nothing is 100 per cent guaranteed, but all four of these managers take the additional security step of never sending your master password over the internet. They’re like a safe-deposit box a professional keeps without knowing what’s inside, or even holding a key to open it.

Dashlane is like the memory you wish you had. It keeps track of not only passwords but also credit card numbers and user IDs, filling them in when you need them across many different devices.

It also keeps a scorecard on the quality of your passwords, and nudges you to improve them. Dashlane is free to use on any single device; a $US30 ($31.90) annual subscription lets the Dashlane apps automatically sync your data across devices. You can try the premium service free for 30 days.

Setting up Dashlane is a pleasure. Its app slurps up the passwords that have been saved unencrypted in your web browser and learns new ones as you type them. All of this gets protected by the master password, encrypted in a database on your computer or mobile device. Every time you start your computer or open the Dashlane app, you must log into the app with that master password.

Dashlane uses an add-on to web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. When you’re logging into a site Dashlane knows, it puts a small icon (a dashing impala) in the login box to let you know it can enter your username and password — even your credit card number. If you tell it to, Dashlane will automatically press the “login” button.

Along the way, Dashlane also tries to improve your security. When you’re changing a password or starting a new account, it suggests a strong one that would confound even a supercomputer.

Where password managers really become helpful is keeping your passwords up-to-date across computers, phones and tablets.

Dashlane works largely the same way on Android phones and tablets, automatically entering your passwords in apps, though not yet on the default Chrome browser. On iPhones and iPads, the Dashlane app gives you access to all of your logins and passwords, but can’t fill them in for you because of Apple’s programming rules.

Still, why should you place your trust in Dashlane, a two-year-old start-up with two million customers? Because selling security is the only way Dashlane makes money. And if you decide it is not worth $US30 a year, Dashlane lets you export your password database in forms that can be read by you or another password manager.

You could even use the old-fashioned technique and print out the database on paper.

As crazy as that sounds, it’s still safer than using the same password over and over again.
by Geoffrey Fowler

                                                                
 
With thanks to The Australian




                                                              
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May 15, 2014

Gary Turk: Look Up


                                                                   



How incredibly true!   And over 37 million hits!   Now that's what I call viral!

From You Tube:
'Look Up' - A spoken word film for an online generation.

'Look Up' is a lesson taught to us through a love story, in a world where we continue to find ways to make it easier for us to connect with one another, but always results in us spending more time alone.

Written, Performed & Directed by Gary Turk.

Featuring Louise Ludlam & Stuart Darnley.
Original score by New Desert Blues.
Sound engineering by Daniel Cobb.
Filmed and edited by Gary Turk.

www.garyturk.com
www.twitter.com/gary_turk
www.newdesertblues.com

Many thanks to Gary Turk for this presentation.

                                                                


Thanks to Edith for sending me this.

Related:  Modern Technology and Albert Einstein: Are We There Yet?








                                                                       
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May 13, 2014

"The Broken Circle Breakdown": A Belgian Bluegrass Music Movie


                                                                     


                                                                    
Bluegrass music is a form of American Roots music. It is inspired by the music of Appalachia and is essentially Irish, Scottish,Welsh and English, brought to the USA by immigrants during the 18th century although over the years other elements have been added to it as music,like language, is dynamic.

It is one of my favourite branches of Roots Music. 

Now it has been adopted by Belgium and an Academy Award nominated movie has been made.

It seems music can transcend all national and political barriers. We can see this with all kinds of music almost everywhere.

My first exposure to Bluegrass  happened many years ago and my favourite Bluegrass song is
"Callin' Baton Rouge" here performed by New Grass Revival. I don't know if this group still exists but I still listen to this CD which I bought many years ago.

There are many other excellent Bluegrass bands out there too.
                                                                

One of cinema’s great pleasures is opening your eyes to unknown worlds. And who knew there was a thriving bluegrass music scene in Belgium? That’s a revelation from one of this year’s Academy Award nominees for best foreign language film, The Broken Circle Breakdown. 
 
Well, maybe not a thriving bluegrass community, the film’s director Felix van Groeningen concedes.

“I think there are four bands and when they play there’s usually more people on the stage than in the crowd,” he says.

“But like everything, you don’t know that it’s out there until you dive into it. And then you see that there is throughout Europe a small community. But it’s presented a little more hipper in the movie than it is in real life.”

The success of the film has pushed the genre, though. The band assembled for the film, adapted from the stage play of the same name by Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels, has begun touring Belgium and is on its third tour, selling out 30 concerts.

“I have to say with the whole movie it’s been crazy how people have embraced this music,” van Groeningen says.

The band, in one sense, has been a handy distraction for the director because, on paper, The Broken Circle Breakdown is not the kind of film to bring audi­ences through the door.
Its central theme is loss, the most heartbreaking kind, and its chronology is muddled. And it is melodramatic.

Yet the chemistry between the two lead characters — tattooist Elise (Veerle Baetens), who falls in love with banjo player Didier (the play’s writer, Heldenbergh) — and the savvy collection of old-time country classics and originals elevates the movie. Nevertheless, without spoiling the key story points, I had to ask van Groeningen if he encountered any doubts in adapting the film.

“It was never told to me, ‘no’, because the people who were involved had seen the play and knew it was working, so there had to be a way for the film to work too,” he replies.

His producer was keen to hide key plot points in the trailer and they asked Belgian journalists not to mention one key narrative strand “because we were really afraid it would turn people off”.

“And it would turn people off but you can’t really control it,” he adds. “On the page it’s a weird story but it works.

“It’s a love story. That’s how we sold it. The US trailer is just the music and people but there’s also no dialogue so people wouldn’t even know it was a foreign film.
“Whatever works, you know. You’ve got to get people to see the film and if they like it they’ll talk about it.

“And what we noticed was if we showed it enough, it had the potential to become a hit film because it would stick with people and they’d talk about it and go and send other people to see it.”
And so it was. 

The Broken Circle Breakdown was a commercial hit in its homeland and in neighbouring France. It was a darling of the film festival circuit, playing here last year at the Sydney Film Festival, and ultimately grabbing the Oscar nomination earlier this year.

The 36-year-old concedes he lost perspective on whether an audience would embrace the story. “At some point I just didn’t know any more,” he admits.
But the stage play touched him so deeply it gave him the energy to dive into it.
“It was an amazing experience, just amazing,” he recalls.
“I’ve never had something that was so sad and yet beautiful at the same time.”

Even so, he doubted the play could be adapted to film. The bluegrass thing seemed a roadblock and the play was too simple structurally. Essentially two characters and the bluegrass band told their stories to the audience and it played with its chronology — not very cinematic.

Yet the play continued to reverberate with the director.
“It was just everything,” he recalls. “You see a beautiful couple. Everything just fitted. They play that music; I didn’t know that music and it starts getting to you.
“Then you ask why that music because on every level it’s part of the story, the lyrics of the songs are part of their journey, the way the movie soothes, helps you digest it all.
“It all fitted together at some point and led up to something very harsh and dark and yet true and very cathartic,” he adds.

“I came out of that theatre and realised it made me love life more than before.” Van Groeningen took up the challenge, despite the playwright telling him he would have to adapt the play by himself.
“It’s not easy, but isn’t that why you make films, to do something that seems impossible in a way?”

The Broken Circle Breakdown is van Groeningen’s fourth feature film. He notes he has been “lucky” and is happy to fend off overtures to make movies in the US, including an incomprehensible offer to direct an adaptation of a video game.

He is one of the few who can sustain a living within the Belgian film industry, which is divided into the French-speaking part (best known for producing brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, directors of Rosetta, The Son and The Kid with a Bike), and the Flemish-speaking part.

“As with everything in the country, it’s much divided,” van Groeningen says. “We know each other, we look at each other but it’s a very different kind of industry because the language is so, so different. We share a lot in humour or general cultural view, I would say. But it doesn’t reflect in our art.”

But he says the Flanders side of the industry has been flourishing lately, a fact that seems to surprise him. “We’re doing a lot of things and people watch them, more than in the French-speaking part. And they’ve been finding their way into the world, and that’s crazy.”

By MICHAEL BODEY

With thanks to The Australian 

The Birthplace Of Country Music



 
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