We know that the earth is in constant motion, not just rotating on its axis or revolving around the sun, but also from within its crust and mantle. The tectonic plates have been shifting around and that has caused many geographical changes to occur.

The video above from ArcGIS gives us a short timelapse of how the supercontinent, pangea, broke apart and drifted such that the seven continents arrived at their current locations that we know today. The video starts from 200 million years ago and moves at a pace of 5 million year increments at the rate of 2.5 million years per second.

Not only that, Open Culture also explores what the future of earth's geography will be as well with the help of a video from Christopher Scotese titled Future Plate Tectonics: Pangea Proxima.

In it, Scotese postulates that in 250 million years, the seven continents will once again merge together to form Pangea Proxima.

The supercontinent is formed in multiple stages which starts with the merging of Africa, Europe, and Asia in 25 to 50 million years; which then proceeds with the movement of Australia and Oceania to merge with Southeast Asia from the 50- to 100-million-year mark; and from the 150- to 200-million-year mark, the Americas and the Africa-Eurasia-Australian mega-continent will drift toward each other until they eventually become Pangea Proxima with parts of the former Indian Ocean at the center.

Beyond this, another study suggested something somewhat similar to Scotese's Pangea Proxima, but with a different name, Pangea Ultima, and a more tragic end for mammals as the extreme temperatures would make 92% of earth's surface uninhabitable.

(Video credit: ArcGIS/Youtube; Christopher Scotese/Youtube)

We previously wrote about the case of Randy Gardner and his attempt at breaking the world record for longest time without sleep, at the time, which was held by a Honolulu DJ who hadn't slept for 260 hours straight. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Gardner's record.

Years ago, he revealed something interesting after achieving all that. In 2017, he shared with NPR how he developed insomnia as an adult ten years before. It hasn't been confirmed whether he still suffers from it today, but he did quip that it must have been some kind of "karmic payback" for what he put himself through 60 years prior.

For all it's worth, Gardner did think about quitting midway through or, at least, he hinted at it in the video above, but since he and his friends had already garnered so much attention from media, he just resolved to power through the whole experiment and broke the record with 264 hours of no sleep.

Furthermore, the record was actually broken in the same year that Gardner achieved his, but Gardner's experiment has been the most well-documented case of it. The last time that a Guinness world record was awarded for sleep deprivation was in 1986, and afterward, in 1997, the GWR stopped as it posed a risk on those who attempted to break the record.

(Video credit: Guinness World Records/Youtube)

Dark matter has been a tricky subject to broach over the past few decades, and according to the video above, some have taken to calling it "bunk science", but Sabine Hossenfelder does clarify that the original idea for dark matter was decent in order to explain the huge amount of data being detected that couldn't be explained by anything else at the time.

However, as technology improved and telescopes became more precise, the data that they gathered also increased in precision, and when juxtaposed with the theory of dark matter, it just didn't fit. So proponents of dark matter tried to make the theory fit the data but that reduced its explanatory power.

Now, there are two competing models of cosmology, dark matter and modified gravity. And although there are cases in which one model is preferred over the other, modified gravity seems to fit the data better and dark matter has become too complicated that it makes it difficult to get at a good conclusion with it.

In any case, the video above is a fun watch. It gives an overview of the theory of dark matter, and explores the progress of the theory over the years, and why it has received more criticism in recent times.

(Video credit: Sabine Hossenfelder/Youtube)

You might have heard the expression 'listening to your body' before, as a means of determining the limits that you can reach when exerting pressure or effort with respect to your physical capacity.

We sometimes go beyond our physical limits in the hopes of achieving a goal as quickly as we possibly can, or simply because we think that we can produce more results by exerting more effort, much like the adage 'no pain, no gain'. At times, we tend to ignore, for example, hunger and the signals that our body sends because we want to discipline ourselves in order to achieve our fitness goals.

But there is now a growing interest in what these signals actually mean, and how they work in the context of brain-body integration. Scientists and researchers have now placed quite a considerable amount of attention to this dynamic, which is called interoception, defined as the process of sensing internal bodily signals that give us an idea of our current physical and mental state or condition.

In The Conversation's weekly podcast above, Gemma Ware, executive producer for the show, interviewed neuroscientist Sarah Garfinkel from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University College London to learn more about interoception and how it works, and how we can use the knowledge of it to better take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally.

For example, Garfinkel's focus in her work is helping people with autism, particularly in regulating anxiety. People on the spectrum generally have difficulty in identifying sensations of hunger, satiety, and anxiety, so they are unable to course-correct before it becomes unbearable.

With interoceptive training, people with autism were able to become more attuned to their internal bodily signals so that they can respond with the proper course of action to prevent their anxiety from getting worse, among other things.

One particular exercise you can do to check whether you are in tune with your body's internal signals is to count the number of heartbeats you make without any physical contact, similar to the one done in the podcast. Using an oximeter, you can check how you fared, and that will give you an idea of how interoceptive you are.

There are sensations that our body gives off and sometimes we don't understand why we're feeling such or from where they're originating, but being aware of them is one path toward maintaining our health, physically and mentally.

The quote mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, I think, perfectly summarizes the point of interoception, and it was by René Leriche, "Health is life lived in the silence of the organs."

(Video credit: The Conversation/Youtube)

Without many people noticing, the US has effectively gained more land over the course of the holidays, equivalent to the size of about an Egypt or two Californias. That's because the State Department announced on December 19, 2023, that they have defined the area of America's extended continental shelf (ECS). With it, the US added approximately 1 million sq. km. (roughly 386,000 sq. mi.) of seabed and subsoil.

Just to make things clear, the ECS is different from a country's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Territorial waters are defined as the portion of the waters that extend out to 12 nautical miles from a country's shoreline, on which a country has full sovereignty.

A country's EEZ means that they have economic jurisdiction over that part of the water, and thus they have the sole right to harvest, harness, or make use of the natural resources within that area. Meanwhile, the ECS only refers to the land mass under the water, and not any resources above it which is under the term EEZ.

The US ECS, as defined, currently consists of seven distinct maritime areas. As you can imagine, being bordered on different sides by at least three different bodies of water, there's much underwater ground that the US covers.

So, there's the Arctic ECS, the Atlantic ECS, the Pacific ECS, two different patches on the Gulf of Mexico, the Bering ECS, and the Mariana ECS. This is considered the largest addition to US land since the 1867 Alaska Purchase.

(Image credit: US State Department)

Live Science gives us an exclusive peek into National Geographic's A Real Bug's Life series with a short clip showing how an entire colony of fire ants, living near a Texas backyard with a swimming pool, banded together to create a makeshift raft to save their queen.

Ants are quite resilient creatures. No matter what happens to them, they will get back up and work, or if ever any threats approached them, they will defend their colony and queen at the risk of their lives. In that sense, they're almost like cockroaches except less creepy and more communal.

How they were able to achieve the feat of surviving this water calamity (from their perspective) is astounding. With the help of a phenomenon called the "Cheerios effect", these ants were able to clump together and ride the water. They locked their legs and mandibles, and used trapped air bubbles on the water to keep themselves afloat.

Ants can usually carry 10 to 50 times their own weight. The structure that they created can apparently withstand 400 times their body weight and stay afloat for 12 days. In the specific situation captured in the episode, the ants were able to land safely with the help of a pool noodle. - via The Daily Grail

(Image credit: National Geographic/Disney+/A Real Bug's Life)

Nobody should have to be worried about what they ought to wear or not when they're out on vacation on a cruise ship, except for camouflage clothing. It's the oddest piece of advice to give cruise-goers but there it is, and the reason is pretty simple: camouflage clothing is banned in several countries, which are popular destinations for cruises.

Countries like those in the Caribbean e.g. Jamaica, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas. Why it's illegal to wear camo in these countries boils down to laws which maintain the distinction between civilians and military personnel.

To avoid confusion and prevent security threats, civilians are prohibited from wearing camouflage clothing since they might be mistaken for someone who is impersonating military personnel. Though cruise ships won't restrict you from entering the ship if you accidentally brought camo, it would be best to keep it in the ship when going out for excursions in those territories.

Furthermore, travel advisor Lauren Doyle remarks that there's also the association of camo with criminal gangs apart from the armed forces. Some other things that you shouldn't bring on a cruise according to Doyle include small appliances, electric blankets, drones, and medical marijuana. For other things that you can't do on cruises anymore, check out this article from Reader's Digest.

(Image credit: Peter Hansen/Unsplash)

Usually around summer or spring, depending on the region, you'll hear a chorus that sounds like a very loud buzzing or whirring noise, shaking of maracas, or two percussion instruments being rubbed against each other. Cicadas make this familiar song to attract each other during mating season, and after two to six weeks, they die.

Many species of cicada generally have a life cycle between two to five years, but the eastern North American species of the genus Magicicada, have either a 13-year or 17-year cycle which means these cicadas spend 13 and 17 years of their lives respectively before coming up out of the ground for their once-in-a-lifetime venture into the outside world to mate and die.

This year marks the first time in more than 200 years when two different broods of cicadas will be emerging simultaneously. Brood XIII from the 17-year group and Brood XIX from the 13-year group will be emerging from Illinois and several other states which hasn't happened since 1803.

Why the Magicacada live for so long underground and go out in large batches, one can only speculate to be a strategy against predators. Being able to come up altogether in such a huge throng makes it impossible for birds or other predators to thin out the number making it easier for the cicadas to mate and secure their posterity.

The map above shows the different cycles and times for when each brood will be coming up and where. From this year until 2038 except 2026, there will be broods emerging on the eastern part of the US.

(Image credit: Andrew M. Liebhold, Michael J. Bohne, and Rebecca L. Lilja, USDA Forest Service/Wikimedia Commons)

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the data presented on the map, a disclaimer needs to be said. In determining the highest-paid jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the illustrators of the map used annual mean wages, which leaves out other professions like athletes, lawyers, and CEOs from being considered since most of these professions are salaried.

Moving onto the data presented, we see that medical professions dominate the highest paid list of wage-earners in the country, which makes sense given that the medical field has always been lucrative, considering the kind of work they do and how many hours they often spend each day at work.

Out of all the annual mean wages, the highest is in Maine at $287,030 for surgeons. Not including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam, the lowest is in Arkansas at $247,280 for internists, or specialists in internal medicine.

A large percentage of the highest-paid jobs are for anesthesiologists, followed by surgeons. There's a large clump for OB-GYNs in the northwest, and a smattering of dental-related jobs in other states.

 Despite being relatively close in range to one another, the main difference that the article points out is the cost of living for each state. So, for example, even though anesthesiologists make almost the same annual income in California and Ohio, the cost for housing is significantly higher in California, which would shift people's financial decisions greatly.

One other thing to note is that this map used 2017 statistics. Howmuch created a newer map using 2020 median annual wages, and also included salaried occupations. - via Reddit

(Image credit: Howmuch.net)

A man by the name of Jonathan Childe, an army officer, had fallen into the delusion that the young Queen Victoria was madly in love with him. At the time, she was only 18 years old and had just met her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a year before.

In the course of five years, Childe had sent Queen Victoria several love letters which grew in intensity and offense. These were rebuffed by the young queen, and Childe was then requested to stop sending the letters. When he didn't stop, his father determined to have him checked by doctors.

At the time, nobody understood Childe's psychological condition, and doctors merely marked it as some form of partial insanity. Nevertheless, he was sent to a private asylum. Childe maintained that such treatment was uncalled for, and appealed to various people who defended him on his behalf.

Twelve years after his admission into the asylum, he was given a day in court in 1854. Overall, Childe appeared rational and normal in everyone's eyes and he had the public on his side.

Childe had written a lot of letters to his friends and supporters. But some of these letters had strange codes written on them. So, his father sent some of his letters to Charles Babbage, the polymath, to decode the enigmatic ciphers.

Apparently, the ciphers, an example of which can be read on History Today, revealed the true nature of Jonathan Childe and his obsession over Queen Victoria, which bordered on insanity. Due to this revelation, Childe was sent to Ticehurst asylum, where he spent his days until his death at the age of 49 due to necrosis.

Although the case proved that the doctors had been justified in their assessments of Childe's psychological condition, many believed that the way they dealt with it, particularly Childe's confinement in a lunatic asylum, was unjust.

(Image credit: Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Public Domain)

Many people have probably heard about the Ten Commandments which God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. But though these summed up the basic moral laws that God told his people to keep, they were not the only laws that he passed on to his people.

All in all, there were 613 laws for the ancient Jewish people to live by. Many of the laws involve Jewish rites and are related to Jewish festivals. There are also more practical laws which relate to properties, legal procedures, and health. But there are some laws that may sound strange.

For example, there is the law that acquits a person who killed a burglar before sunrise. Now, although it sounds like it's giving an okay to violence or murder, the core of the provision is that a thief must make restitution for what he has stolen.

In the case that the owner accidentally kills the thief at night, then the owner will not be guilty because it is presumed that it is difficult for the owner to identify who the thief was. If it were during the day, then the owner could simply accuse the thief publicly and they will be brought to justice.

It is also possible that killing a thief at night exonerates the killer because it might be that the owner of the goods (let's say, livestock) was under the impression that the thing that trespassed and tried to do away with the livestock is a wolf or a wild beast.

Another strange law is the one that involves a woman drinking bitter water to prove that she did not commit adultery. The whole procedure is called the ordeal of bitter water, which is an elaborate trial in which a husband who suspects his wife to have committed adultery brings her to a priest, and the priest then lets the woman drink bitter water.

The priest says to the woman that if she is innocent of adultery, then let no harm befall on her from drinking the bitter water. If she is guilty, then curses will be brought upon her, causing her womb to discharge and her uterus to drop.

Whether or not such cases actually happened is uncertain, although it is believed that these laws might never have been observed, for some due to the highly specific nature of the circumstances.

(Image credit: Hendrick de Somer/Wikimedia Commons)

An antique silk dress with a secret pocket. Inside, scraps of crumpled paper with seemingly random words and numbers written on them. These appear to be elements of a good mystery, and they are. It has come to be called "The Silk Dress Cryptogram".

Sara Rivers Cofield, an archaeologist, had been shopping for old dresses and handbags in 2013, and happened upon a shiny bronze-colored dress, which she presumed to be dated around the 1880s. After buying the dress and giving it a thorough look, she found the pieces of paper with lines of words written on them such as:

Bismark, omit, leafage, buck, bank

Calgary, Cuba, unguard, confute, duck, fagan

Spring, wilderness, lining, one, reading, novice.

Not knowing what they meant, she posted it online and asked help from cryptographers and antiques experts to decipher what the code was referring to. Ten years later, a researcher from the University of Manitoba, Wayne Chan, had decided to try and crack the code.

Given everything that was known about the dress and about codes, Chan waded through 170 telegraphic codebooks to figure out what the cryptic lines represented.

Despite not finding anything from those codebooks, he did find a book called Telegraphic Tales and Telegraphic History which contained a section that matched several of the words from the cryptogram. He dug a bit deeper, and his search led him to the "Weather Code" from NOAA's Central Library in Silver Spring, Maryland.

With the help of that codebook, Chan was able to decipher what the lines meant. For example, the line Bismark, omit, leafage, buck, bank referred to the station name (Bismarck, North Dakota), air temperature, dew point, state of weather, and current wind velocity.

After ten years, the silk dress cryptogram's code has been cracked, but questions lingered. Whose dress was it? Why did they keep pieces of paper with weather codes written on them? Rivers Cofield had tried to do some sleuthing in that regard, but there's no way to conclusively know such details, and so, that part of the mystery is left for someone else to solve. - via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Sara Rivers Cofield)

The way we express laughter online as English speakers have evolved throughout the years. From the simple "haha", acronyms and slang terms emerged to signify different kinds of laughter. The acronym "lol", meaning "laugh out loud", has probably become the most ubiquitous slang term for laughter online. But there are others of its kind like "lmao" (laughing my ass off) and "rofl" (rolling on the floor laughing).

However, these terms are only limited to the English language. Other languages have their own ways of expressing laughter as well. For example, the Japanese way of typing "haha" is by using the character for grass, 草.

The reason for this is that the Japanese word for laughter is "warau" which was then shortened to just the first syllable or letter "w". However, people started noticing that "www" looked like blades of grass, and so they represented laughter by the kanji for grass. To take a bit further, for a bigger laugh, Japanese people would type 大草原 which means "a giant field of grass".

Turkish people have an interesting way of typing out laughter, by keyboard spamming. So, something like "asdfkhglkjlj" means that the person has been overcome by laughter because they could not form any coherent words or sentences.

Many of the other cultures simply type "haha" in their own languages like "jaja" in Spanish and Guarani, "ههههه" in Arabic, "χαχαχα" in Greek, and "חחח" in Hebrew.

A few interesting acronyms are "mdr" and "ptdr" in French which mean "mort de rire" and "pété de rire" and translates to "dead from laughter" and "exploded from laughter", respectively. And in Irish, "abmtag" which is shorthand for "ag briseadh mo thóin ag gáire," meaning "lmao". - via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Surface/Unsplash)

In the short Instagram reel posted by comedian Ronny Chieng, he asked the audience if they knew what the state motto of Texas was. There were a few good guesses. The "Lone Star State" was one of those he considered "good guesses" but that's actually just the nickname for Texas, not the state motto.

After rattling several possible mottos people might have come up with, he finally revealed the correct answer: "Friendship". I'm not from Texas neither am I American, and since that was a comedy clip, I needed to make sure. So, I found this article on USA Today which listed all the state mottos across America. And there it was, Texas' state motto: "Friendship."

They included a little explanation and backstory to that motto, and it was because the state name actually originated from a Caddo Indian word roughly translating to "friends".

Of course, the US' national motto is "In God We Trust" which was established in 1956 through a law signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And in 2011, Congress voted to reaffirm that national motto. But before the current motto, the unofficial de facto US national motto was E pluribus unum, which translates to "Out of many, one". - via Digg

(Image credit: Nico Smit/Unsplash)

Researchers from the University of Southern California, in partnership with the San Francisco-based non-profit Miracle Messages, wanted to study the effects of giving homeless people a monthly stipend to see where the money would go and what would happen to the homeless people afterwards.

They gave $750 to 103 homeless people in San Francisco and Los Angeles for a year. What they reported was that most of the money went to food, which was about 36.6% of the total monthly spending, then housing at 19.5%, transportation at 12.7%, clothing at 11.5 percent, and healthcare at 6.2%. The rest went to "other expenses".

Despite the stereotype that homeless people use most of the money they can scrounge to fueling their substance addictions, that wasn't the case based on what the researchers observed. Only 2% of the monthly stipend went to drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. From that portion, most actually went to cigarettes.

Furthermore, the researchers indicated that after six months, the number of people spending time unsheltered had decreased from 30% to just under 12%.

Another initiative was also launched by Denver, wherein they gave 800 homeless people a monthly stipend, from $50 to $1,000, and saw many of those participants getting jobs, paying off debt, and getting housing among other results.

Stockton, California did a similar study and it also resulted in positive outcomes.

(Image credit: Jp Valery/Unsplash)