I Will Be Dumbing Down Right After I Finish Writing This

Before you start your full day of watching

Equestrian Square Dancing,

Soccer Balling,

Hoop Dreaming,

Cricket Batting,

Rugby Punching,

Volleyball Chopping,

Skateboard Falling,

Martial Arts Bowing,

Bicycle Peddlers,

and

College Football Hecklers,

maybe we have time to learn something

Scientifically.

Is that a word?

Well,

Spell Check

didn't correct it,

so I guess it is.

So here are some of the stories I like

Scientifically!

New Zealand Earthquake Lifts a Bizarre Sea Wall up to Land.

By Sara Chodosh for Popular Science.com

"The mass of rocks and seaweed comes courtesy of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that thrust parts of the sea floor up and out of the water on Monday. It triggered tsunamis and landslides, stranded thousands, and killed at least two. But it’s the bizarre photos of the newly emerged seabed that are making the disaster go viral. Some of the landscapes look completely alien, even though the cause is entirely terrestrial. This is the wonder of plate tectonics. The enormous slabs of Earth’s crust that our continents and oceans sit atop are not stationary. They move around, mostly at rates so slow that we can’t tell there’s movement at all (except by using scientific instruments). Mostly the plates exert a constant, gradual force in one direction or another."

Stephen Hawking opens British Artificial Intelligence Hub.

on PHYS.org

"Professor Stephen Hawking on Wednesday opened a new artificial intelligence research center at Britain's Cambridge University. The Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) will delve into AI applications ranging from increasingly smart smartphones to robot surgeons and Terminator style military droids. Funded by a £10 million (11.2 million-euro, $12.3-million) grant from the Leverhulme Trust, the center's express aim is to ensure AI is used to benefit humanity. Opening the new center, Hawking said it was not possible to predict what might be achieved with AI. Perhaps with the tools of this new technological revolution, we will be able to undo some of the damage done to the natural world by the last one—industrialization. And surely we will aim to finally eradicate disease and poverty. Every aspect of our lives will be transformed. In short, success in creating AI could the biggest event in the history of our civilization, Hawking said."

Long-Glanded Blue Coral Snake has unique venom.

on PHYS.org 

"One of the world's most beautiful and venomous snakes has a venom unlike that of any other snake, research involving University of Queensland scientists has revealed. The School of Biological Science's Associate Professor Bryan Fry said venom from South-East Asia's long-glanded blue coral snake had been found to send a massive shock to the system, triggering full body spasms by causing all nerves to fire at once. This style of venomous predation is identical to that of a cone snail, and not like any other snake in the world, he said. Ironically, the discovery could eventually lead to improved pain treatment for humans. These snakes are killer's killers, Professor Fry said. They specialize in preying on other venomous snakes, including young king cobras, so they play a hunt the most dangerous game. With its combination of electric blue stripes and neon red head and tail, the blue coral snake is arguably one of the world's most striking species of snake. It also has the biggest venom glands in the world, extending over a quarter the length of its body."

Faraway Star is Roundest Natural Object Ever Seen.
by Mike Wall for Space.com on MSN News.com

"A star 5,000 light-years from Earth is the closest thing to a perfect sphere that has ever been observed in nature, a new study reports. Stars, planets and other round celestial bodies bulge slightly at their equators due to centrifugal force. Generally speaking, the faster these objects spin, the greater the force, and the larger the bulge. For example, the sun rotates once every 27 days, and an imaginary line drawn through its center at the equator is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) longer than a similar line drawn from pole to pole. The equatorial diameter of Earth, which completes a rotation every 24 hours, is 26 miles (42 km) longer than the polar diameter, even though Earth is much smaller than the sun. [Solar Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Sun?] But the distant star, known as Kepler 11145123, has Earth, the sun and every other object that's ever been measured beat in terms of roundness, study team members said."

Now your

Cerebrum

has something to think about before it dumb downs from a full day of

Sports.

This is,

Don't Get Me Wrong,

I Love Sports As Much As The Next Guy,

I Will Be Dumbing Down Right After I Finish Writing This,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
- Carl Sagan -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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