Kenya — A female zebra was recently found at the Chyulu National Park with a funny-looking zebra with her. The peculiar zebra only had stripes on its legs, so something was really weird about this foal.

When caregivers at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an animal rescue and rehabilitation organization, examined the foal up close, they were excited to discover it wasn't a zebra after all -- but a zonkey, a zebra-donkey hybrid.

[...]

"The zonkey combines the sturdy body of its donkey sire and the striped legs of its zebra mother, which makes for a striking creature," the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust said. "While it should otherwise lead a normal life, zonkeys are mules, meaning that it will be unable to successfully breed once it reaches maturity."

More details about this fascinating story over at CNN.

(Image Credit: CNN)

With the ongoing pandemic, a lot of people are staying at home. One of the things people at home have done to alleviate their boredom is to bake bread. So many people have been baking that flour and yeast have flown off grocery shelves. So if you’re looking for a yeast alternative other than the ones sold at supermarkets, maybe this piece by Eater can help you understand what yeast really is, and where else you can find the staple baking ingredient. 

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Insider takes us behind the scenes into some of its huge live-action remakes. From “The Jungle Book” to the “Lion King” watch as Disney shares clips of different virtual production methods they’ve used in their movies. I’m mostly there for the stunt actors in neon green suits. 

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This was HARD 🤯! Calling it the #JesusChallenge - watch with sound!

A post shared by Steel Lafferty (@steellafferty) on Apr 8, 2020 at 8:59am PDT

"You can't walk on water," they say. Well, maybe they haven't met this guy yet?

Video Credit: Instagram / @steellafferty

Via Geeks Are Sexy

Source: Port Sherry Comics | Follow “Port Sherry Comics” on Instagram | Like “Port Sherry Comics” on Facebook

The Ivy League schools (Brown, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, and Columbia universities, and the University of Pennsylvania) are now offering free online courses. If you’re interested to get a feel on how Ivy League schools handle their courses, maybe this is the right opportunity. It’s also another way to pass time if you’re at home during the pandemic. Check out Quartz’ full list of all courses offered!

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Connections and bonds are still made even if people are miles apart. For Ali Jaffe and her grandmother Roslyn, it’s through cooking together via Facetime. Ali is learning her grandmother’s recipes, and is also hearing different family stories through her grandmother.  Check out their cooking sessions through The Daily. 

(via The New York Times) 

image via The New York Times

I yam potato boss. You should see me in a crown, right @billieeilish? I yam glad this is making folks laugh at this time. Please stay planted at home and safe! For more needed laughs, follow my favorite comedian @cristela9 . Potate out. #HASHtag #PotatoBoss https://t.co/OxpidZc921

— LizetOcampo (@mlizetocampo) March 31, 2020

Two weeks ago, on March 30, the political director at People for the American Way, Lizet Ocampo, started a morning staff meeting via Microsoft Teams. She did not, in any way, however, expect the next things to happen at the meeting.

It was all business as usual, except Lizet had just installed a bunch of camera filters that connect with the video conferencing app her team uses — and totally forgot.

And then one of the filters activated.

And she couldn’t figure out how to turn it off.

So she spent the entire meeting as a potato.

It seems that Lizet had a fun time during and after the meeting, too!

(Image Credit: Petty Clegg/ Twitter)

Check out this beautiful *giant* siphonophore Apolemia recorded on #NingalooCanyons expedition. It seems likely that this specimen is the largest ever recorded, and in strange UFO-like feeding posture. Thanks @Caseywdunn for info @wamuseum @GeoscienceAus @CurtinUni @Scripps_Ocean pic.twitter.com/QirkIWDu6S

— Schmidt Ocean (@SchmidtOcean) April 6, 2020

Researchers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's RV Falkor used an ROV to survey the ocean floor off the western coast of Australia. They spotted this massive sinophore lying in a spiral shape.

"It seems likely that this specimen is the largest ever recorded, and in strange UFO-like feeding posture," the institute wrote. Schmidt Ocean estimated the siphonophore's outer ring at 49 feet (15 meters) in diameter.  

While the siphonophore, which is related to jellyfish, looks like it's all one animal, it's actually a collection of parts.

A little math tells us that the outer ring could be as long as 150 feet, which means the entire length could make it the longest animal on earth. A single creature that evolved in that shape would be too vulnerable to survive, but since it's a colony, made up of many individual clones, it may just be a uniquely long-lived specimen. Jellyfish scientist Rebecca Helm tells us about the sinophore genus Apolemia. 

...they'll send the nutrients through a long digestive tract that travels down the whole colony, so that every other clone can use the nutrients. In this way, this siphonophore may remain still and feed for a long time, and I mean LONG...

— Open Ocean Exploration (@RebeccaRHelm) April 6, 2020

Find out more about this kind of creature in her informative Twitter thread. -via Digg

It's been 50 years now since we learned the Beatles were breaking up. The biggest band in the world who cranked out hits for years would cease to be, although it took a bit of reading between the lines to figure that out. Both Lennon and McCartney were doing solo albums, and McCartney included an interview in his marketing, in which his intention to leave the Beatles was leaked.   

Was McCartney’s “announcement” official? His album appeared on April 17, and its press packet included a mock interview. In it, McCartney is asked, “Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?”

His response? “No.”

But he didn’t say whether the separation might prove permanent. The Daily Mirror nonetheless framed its headline conclusively: “Paul Quits the Beatles.”

While the world was shocked, the band had been moving toward breakup for some time. Paul's single word blew up the group's agreement to keep their troubles under wraps, and only made tensions between them worse. And they still had an album coming out the next month. Read the story of the Beatles' breakup and how it finally became public at Smithsonian.

John Griffin, 53, of Sussex, UK, just completed a grueling ascent of Mount Everest. He did so entirely within the confines of his 3-storey home. To reach the height of Everest, he climbed those steps 1,363 times. Griffin publicized his efforts in order to raise money for food banks in his country. Runner's World reports:

The lightbulb fundraising idea came to Griffin after joking to his wife Niri, a GP, that he’d have climbed the height of Mount Everest by the time the crisis was over. He realised that, while he might not be able to make it to Nepal, he could recreate a slightly less snowy version of the challenge by completing 41,000 uphill steps in his own house.

-via Instapundit | Photo: Runner's World

A massive number of corals have been dying throughout the globe. Thus, a couple of researchers tried using 3-D printing technology to resemble their complex shapes that could possibly allow for new corals and other animals to grow on.

The resulting bioprinted structure is an ideal home for the algae, producing growth rates many times the speed of an ordinary medium. That doesn’t mean the next step is growing corals super-fast — in fact, there’s no reason to think this will actually lead to coral restoration. On the other hand, this type of simulation could lead to a better understanding of the ecosystem in which the coral-algae partnership thrives, and how it can be nurtured.

In the meantime, the promise of multiplying algae growth speeds has commercial appeal today, and a startup called Mantaz has been founded to pursue more near-term uses of the technology.

Some say that 3D printing is the future. Well, that might be true for this one.

Image Credits: Cambridge University

Some sports are slower. More about the strategy. pic.twitter.com/JMBaGJ1tSd

— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) April 9, 2020

That was one of the most intense 20 seconds of my life! Watch Oliver and Mabel as they compete against each other for a glorious bone.

Video by Andrew Cotter

For those who are concerned about the future of classical music, don’t worry. The new generation looks promising.

This is the grandson of Zubin Mehta, an Indian conductor. Mehta will soon be retiring from his career as music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and it looks like someone will soon take his place.

Mehta’s 18-month-old grandson was watching him conduct the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor on TV… and he decided to join in, with gusto.

Watch till the end.

Keep it up, kiddo.

(Image Credit: Emilie Hannon/ Facebook)