Our Universe Filled with Milky Way-like Galaxies

Through the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have been able to find multiple other galaxies like the Milky Way which they say should fundamentally alter our view of the universe.

In a new study by a team of international researchers, the JWST has been used to reveal galaxies similar to the Milky Way – ‘flat’ disc galaxies that rotate around a centre point, like CDs, and often contain vast spiral arms – in the early universe.
This involved looking “back in time” ten billion years or more, to a turbulent period that occurred in the wake of the Big Bang, which is just what the pioneering telescope was made for.

What does this mean? Apparently, these types of galaxies are the perfect places where life could have formed.

(Image credit: ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons)


Audubon Photography Awards 2023's Lineup of Bird Videos

The video above is only of the top 15 videos from this year's Audubon Photography Awards, and to me, it was quite a marvel to see what seemed like thousands of snow geese honking and flying across Freezeout Lake Wildlife in Montana. The video was taken by Ben Pierce and he shares the story behind it here on Audubon. You may also check out 14 other videos and how the photographers caught them in film.

(Video credit: Ben Pierce/National Audubon Society)


A Brief Overview of the Scarborough Shoal Dispute

It's been over decade since China and the Philippines have had tensions over the contested islands west of the Philippine island of Luzon, and Reuters gives us a quick summary of the salient points in this dispute and why it's significant in the grand scheme of things.

(Video credit: Reuters)


Ranking All 24 Studio Ghibli Films

Studio Ghibli fans are in for a treat with the 25th feature film, The Boy and The Heron, set to release in the US this coming December 8th. The new film is currently showing in Japanese theaters, and has been since July, and so far, it has received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic consensus of 89. So, in view of the upcoming new film, Vulture has republished their ranking of Studio Ghibli films.

(Image credit: Matt Popovich/Unsplash)


Most Common Words You'll Hear in Singlish and Manglish

English has become the common international language for communication between countries that don't share similar languages. And with its assimilation into different cultures, it also adapted and evolved into various forms that incorporated features from the cultures in which it thrived. One pair of countries in which English has taken on its own character is Singapore and Malaysia.

Two unique varieties of English have emerged in neighboring nations, Malaysia and Singapore, known as Manglish and Singlish, respectively.
Now, outsiders may feel a little out of the loop in their first exposure to Singlish and Manglish, so we’ve put together this list of some of the most common words you may hear during everyday conversation, and their subtle differences between Singapore and Malaysia. Learn some of these and you’ll be on your way, lah.

Coconuts Singapore has compiled these five words that you'll often hear when you travel to Singapore or Malaysia, and it would definitely be best to familiarize yourself with them if you ever feel like going to either of those countries.

(Image credit: Lionel Lim/Flickr, CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons)


Studio Ghibli Reveals Trailer for The Boy and The Heron, Their 25th Feature Film

It has been three years since Studio Ghibli made its last feature film with Earwig and the Witch, and 10 years since Hayao Miyazaki had last written and directed a film, his previous one being The Wind Rises in 2013. The Boy and The Heron will be the ninth feature film that Miyazaki has directed. Tokyo Otaku Mode shares more details about the film.

(Video Credit: GKIDS Films/Youtube)


This Unforeseen Series of Events Changed the Course of Marvel Comics' History

It was in the summer of 1955 when Connecticut was hit by two devastating hurricanes, Connie and Diane, which left the whole state reeling from the damages. In the meanwhile, Steve Ditko, who is known for co-creating Marvel superhero Spider-Man and creator of Doctor Strage, was struggling to find work back then as a comic book artist. After a series of unforeseen circumstances, it led him to Marvel Comics.

One surprising effect of the flooding was that the career path of Steve Ditko, one of the greatest comic book artists of the 20th Century was waylaid, and so Marvel Comics saw ITS path altered by Ditko being forced to go work for Marvel in 1955.

CBR's Brian Cronin tells the story of how Ditko was forced to work for Marvel in 1955.

(Image credit: Eric Mclean/Unsplash)


Ranking the Newest Crop of Bourbon Whiskeys

Zach Johnston from Uproxx gives us a short overview of the different new bourbon whiskeys recently released as a final toast to the closing of Bourbon Heritage Month. Some of you may know a few labels on the list including Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey Topflight Series and Jefferson's Finished in Singapore Tropics "Aged in Humidity" Fully Matured Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Here's the complete list and Zach Johnston's analysis of each one.

(Image credit: Adam Wilson/Unsplash)


Rest vs. Recovery: How to Deal with Burnout

At this point, it's quite a familiar sign to me when I'm experiencing the onset of burnout. The things that used to be enjoyable become a chore. You start to lose motivation to even get out of bed. And the world around you just seems completely gray, dull, and uninspiring. You lose sight of what your goal is or even the meaning of trying to achieve it.

There are several ways to combat burnout. Some have suggested to take time off and just replenish your empty tank. Take a rest and take your mind off of work or the things that cause stress in your life. But Kelli Thompson of Quartz suggests that there is a difference between rest and recovery when dealing with burnout.

With the inklings of burnout creeping in, I was intentional about taking vacations over the summer, reducing my client workload, and allowing more downtime in my daily schedule.
This felt so reenergizing that I became intentional about setting boundaries and having a lighter workload for the fall when my book was set to officially launch. I prioritized recovery, not just rest.

(Image credit: Marcos Paulo Prado/Unsplash)


Here's What You Can Expect from Season 7 of Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty are back for another season of shenanigans, and this trailer for the seventh seems to be showing us that there is much more to unpack in this wild, chaotic show.

Rick is back and he’s not a pickle this time. Instead, he shows an unimpressed and probably exhausted Morty that he’s a leg. It’s the start of what is a chaotic collection of clips.

Nerdist gives us a sneak peek and a quick rundown of the myriad scenes that we see from the trailer.

(Video credit: Nerdist)


Pebble's Road to Becoming the Next Twitter

About a week or so ago, the new social media app called T2, decided to rebrand and changed their app's name to Pebble. It was created by former Twitter employees Sarah Oh and Gabor Cselle with the help of former Discord engineer Michael Greer, and their plan is to build the social network that Twitter could have been.

Pebble only has about 15,000 users, but that’s intentional. The co-founders of this new social media platform, known until earlier this week as T2, wanted to move slowly and build it right—not move fast and break things.
Pebble’s founders know they’re not the only ones trying to replace Twitter—there’s Bluesky, Mastodon, Meta’s Threads, and many, many more—but they think if they can start small, grow gradually, build a good product, and foster a healthy community, they could have a real shot at being the platform that actually succeeds in claiming Twitter’s defectors.

Quartz sits down with the two co-founders who share the story of Pebble and what their hopes and ambitions are for the future of the budding social media app.

(Image credit: Screenshot of Pebble)


New MIT Implant Device May Help Do Away with Insulin Injections

Type 1 diabetes is a life-long struggle and it can be tedious, cumbersome, and painful for those who have it. It requires regular maintenance and insulin injections which sounds like a heavy burden to bear for the rest of one's life. So, in lieu of that, a team of MIT engineers are hoping that the implantable device that they developed would help diabetes patients.

In trials, the implant kept the blood sugar levels of diabetic mice stable for a month. The team now hopes to scale the device to humans to help treat those with type 1 diabetes—and they believe it could be used to treat other diseases as well.
“You can think of this as a living medical device that is made from human cells that secrete insulin, along with an electronic life support-system,” senior author Daniel Anderson, a chemical engineer at MIT, said in a statement. “We’re excited by the progress so far, and we really are optimistic that this technology could end up helping patients.”

- from The Daily Beast

(Image credit: Dennis Klicker/Unsplash)


Here's a Ranking of 90 Animals Based on Their Eyesight

Having 20/20 vision is cool and all, but in terms of different aspects of vision, humans may not be at the top compared to other animals. Lasik by OCLI Vision has attempted to make a ranking of 90 different animals based on their eyesight and how those compared to humans.

To get all of these animals ranked by eyesight, we considered factors such as distance accuracy, color and light perception, field of vision, and vision speed based on flicker fusion frequency.

Check out the full infographic on Lasik by OCLI Vision's site. - via Digg

(Image credit: Lasik by OCLI Vision)


Much Like Humans, Pandas Can Also Feel "SAD"

Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is a type of depression which usually occurs during late autumn and winter, and the cause of which is generally thought to be the scarcity of sunlight. You might feel lethargic and a lack of motivation during the winter months because our bodies are yearning for the warmth of the sun. But SAD doesn't only affect humans. Apparently, many animals suffer it too and we are now just figuring out what that entails.

When animals are being transferred from their natural habitats to new locations—for example from southern latitudes to northern ones—they suffer similar consequences, experiencing their own version of SAD. This is particularly problematic when it comes to zoo animals, many of which did not evolve to exist in the latitudes where they live now, says Kristine Gandia of the University of Stirling, in Scotland, who studies animal welfare. 
“Animals, including humans, have evolved rhythms to synchronize their internal environments with the external environment,” says Gandia. “When internal clocks are not synchronized with external cues like light and temperature, this can cause adverse effects.” Gandia’s team wanted to understand how SAD affects zoo animals, so they picked 11 giant pandas to study, and published their findings in Frontiers in Psychology.

Read more about Gandia and her team's research on Nautilus.

(Image credit: shiyang xu/Unsplash)


Zealandia, Earth's Long Lost Eighth Continent Is Lost No More

Located in the Southern portion of the Pacific Ocean near Australia, 95 percent of Zealandia, the most promising eighth continent of the world, was submerged underwater, until recently when researchers have finally mapped out the rest of the land mass.

The latest research, led by Nick Mortimer, dredged the northern two-thirds of the submerged area, pulling up pebbly and cobbley sandstone, fine-grain sandstone, mudstone, bioclastic limestone, and basaltic lava from a variety of time periods.
By dating the rocks and interpreting magnetic anomalies, the researchers wrote, they were able to map the major geological units across North Zealandia.
“This work completes offshore reconnaissance geological mapping of the entire Zealandia continent,” they said.

More on this from Popular Mechanics.

(Image credit: NOAA/Wikimedia Commons, public domain)


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