Anybody who watched Carl Sagan's PBS series Cosmos probably became inspired to pursue a career in science or, at the very least, began to have a new appreciation for scientific inquiry, if they didn't already. He was a beloved figure in the scientific community, but unfortunately passed away at the age of 62 due to complications from bone marrow cancer.

There is one person, however, who had such enmity toward Carl Sagan, that, even after his death, continued to criticize him. That person is dubbed "the father of the hydrogen bomb" Edward Teller. But what was the reason for this vitriolic contempt against Sagan? Well, it was mainly because of their disagreement over thermonuclear weapons.

On one side, Teller had been a stalwart champion of nuclear weapons proliferation, opposing any bans to nuclear testing and supporting the Strategic Defense Initiative.

On the other, Sagan staunchly fought against nuclear weapons proliferation. He used his reputation to prove that nuclear warfare is a lose-lose scenario, supporting a study, conducted by his former students, which showed that such a situation would bring about a catastrophic global climate change and mass famine, apart from the destruction to the environment and human casualties.

Perhaps, as Sagan put it in his book The Demon-Haunted World, the reason why Teller has been such a strong advocate for nuclear weapons proliferation was simply to justify the hydrogen bomb. Scientific advancements, inventions, and technology are, in themselves, neutral. It's how we use them that matters.

Still, however, we can't ignore the massive potential for destruction that nuclear weapons possess. Though they may be used as a defensive measure for, say, a huge asteroid on a collision course with Earth, the risk of having them in the wrong hands just far outweighs the benefits they bring.

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For a season that's supposed to bring joy and good cheer to people, there is an awful lot of horrific beasts and creatures associated with Christmas.

Some are terrifying like the Yule Cat (Jólakötturinn) of Iceland which is said to prowl around in the night in search of naughty children to feast on, unless they're wearing new clothes, in which case, they're safe.

Another frightening creature which should probably be part of the Halloween canon instead is Krampus, the folkloric devilish creature who accompanies St. Nicholas, and gives naughty children lumps of coal and a bit of a scare. Countries whose lore features Krampus include those in the Central and Eastern Europe regions like Slovakia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania.

Poland, on the other hand, has a merry beast in Turoń, who is an auroch-like creature which dances around in festivals and is said to bring blessings of a good harvest, being a symbol of fertility, virility, and abundance to the people of the land. Turoń is probably the least monstrous on this list as it doesn't punish anybody for being naughty, although it did chase children around.

And then, there's the French and their Père Fouettard, literally Father Whipper. Much like Krampus, this old miser of a character tags along with Old St. Nick and gives children lumps of coal or beatings when they have been naughty. Sometimes, they get both, which is what earned him the nickname.

Then, going back to Iceland, we have Grýla the witch or ogress, and her 13 sons called the Yule Lads. Grýla, much like Jólakötturinn, likes to eat naughty children, whom she boils in a pot. Her 13 sons, on the other hand, are naughty pranksters who go gallivanting around town, stealing and harassing people. They also give obedient children gifts and naughty children rotten potatoes.

From these, we can infer that most of these monsters were created simply as deterrents for children's misbehavior. However, apparently, the Yule Cat also encouraged people to work harder. Since children needed new clothing to protect themselves from the clutches of the 12-foot black cat, this prompted many farms working on wool to increase their productivity.

Nowadays, these monsters have simply become part of some Christmas traditions like Krampuslauf, not necessarily as a means of scaring children during Christmas.

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According to a kinesiologist, it depends. Each individual has their own set of goals why they're going to the gym, and depending on their physical constitution and personal preferences, it might be better for them to start with one over the other.

Essentially, according to Randal Claytor, an exercise physiologist from Miami University, if your purpose for going to the gym is more generalized i.e. staying healthy, losing weight, or just enjoying working out, then it doesn't matter which one you start with, as both will provide you with similar benefits.

Things become a bit trickier when you have a performance-oriented goal, e.g. high-level athletes who are working toward more specific objectives like improving their speed, mobility, or quad strength.

In these cases, Claytor suggests doing resistance training first as it reduces what is called the "interference effect" which slightly decreases the benefits an athlete would gain from doing both exercises as they have competing influences.

Or, depending on their performance goal, they might want to start with aerobic exercise first. Furthermore, it would be best to take long breaks in between, especially when transitioning from one type of exercise to the other.

An in-between that he suggested was to do short bursts of both exercises, called "microcycles". Basically, they do a few minutes of weights followed by a few minutes of running, etc.

One important thing to note was that Claytor suggests that even though people who don't have performance-oriented goals in mind need not worry about the order with which they sequence their exercises, it would be best to still do both in one session.

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There are several difficult books to read, and you might find yourself in the awkward position of having to talk about them, whether to impress a potential partner at a soirée or not feel left out when your friends start talking about these books.

In such instances, you might want to use some of these tips to bluff your way into the conversation. These five books include War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Ulysses by James Joyce, In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Paradise Lost by John Milton.

This, however, may involve not just knowing these bits of information about the books, but also knowing how to pivot the conversation when people start to prod you for further details. Moreover, since most of these books are pretty long and thick, most of the bluff just involves feigning memory loss.

To be fair, however, these books usually delve into deeply philosophical themes, so it might be a lot easier to blab one's way out of it.

Still, as long as you can touch on some of the salient information of the book, then you might just be able to swindle others into believing you have actually read the whole thing.

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The pavlova is a meringue dessert which is said to have originated either in Australia or New Zealand. Not content with the uncertainty of its origins, two historians, Annabelle Utrecht from Australia, and Andrew Paul Wood from New Zealand, wanted to remove all doubt and get down to the bottom of things.

What they found was an interesting revelation indeed for the both of them. There have been attempts to assert the claim over the pavlova, and according to a few sources, it seemed that New Zealand was the clear winner. However, the two historians dug even further into the roots of pavlova, and traced its journey to the United States, and finally to Austria.

Apparently, the predecessor of the pavlova was called the Spanische windtorte, popular in Austria during the 17th and 18th centuries which was a variation of the European petit meringues.

When German immigrants traveled and settled in the United States, they brought those desserts along with them in the form of the schaum torte and baiser torte. Then, as these desserts rose in popularity, they found themselves traversing the globe and finding their way to New Zealand.

Why the pavlova was named such, however, was even more of a mystery and an interesting find for the two historians. It was named after Anna Pavlova who was a Russian ballerina.

Surprisingly, the meringue pavlova wasn't the only food named after the famous ballerina. There was also such a thing as "Strawberries Pavlova", which wasn't made of meringue at all. It was a sorbet.

In any case, how the pavlova got its name came from the story of a New Zealand chef who had taken inspiration from the Russian ballerina while she toured New Zealand and Australia, and so gave birth to the meringue pavlova, and named it in her honor.

And since the early 1930s, the pavlova has been a staple Christmas dessert in New Zealand and later in Australia.

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The Vangunu giant rat (Uromys vika) has been eluding scientists for decades, but with the help of the Zaira community residing in the Solomon Islands where the rat is native, and is the only place it is known to be found, they have finally obtained the first few photos of the critically-endangered mammal.

Since 2011, researchers have been trying to capture the giant rats on film, but the tree-dwelling rats have always found a way to give them the slip, and no photos were taken of them that time. However, the researchers did find a large fecal pellet which they believe was left by one of the giant rats.

In 2015, an injured Vangunu giant rat had been captured by some loggers felling a tree. They sent it to the Queensland Museum in South Brisbane, the first ever proof that the mammals existed, however, the rat died soon after from its injuries.

Now, the team of researchers led by Tyrone Lavery, a mammalogist from the University of Melbourne, with the help of the indigenous Zaira community, were able to strategically place cameras in trees where the Vangunu giant rat were known to scurry about, and finally, they have been able to take some of the first photos of living Vangunu giant rats.

With these photos, scientists want to urge local authorities to ensure the protection and conservation of the critically-endangered species, especially as their survival is being threatened by continuous logging of the island's forests, the giant rat's only habitat. -via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Lavery et al/University of Melbourne)

Not to be confused with the structural marvel that is the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Garisenda tower, one of the twin towers of Bologna, has raised the city's concerns that it might tip over and fall.

Built around the 12th century, the Two Towers have been leaning ever since they were constructed. It comprises of the Asinelli, the taller of the two, and the Garisenda, the smaller one which leaned much further than its twin.

The Asinelli had been originally built at 70 meters high (230 feet) but was later increased to 97.2 meters (319 feet). Meanwhile, the Garisenda currently stands at 48 meters (157 feet), but it initially stood at a height of 60 meters (roughly 200 feet).

The reason for the decrease in the Garisenda's height was because of concerns that it might fall due to a yielding of the ground in the 14th century which caused it to tilt to a dangerous degree. From that time onward, it has been a constant fear for the people of Bologna.

Recently, in October 2023, the local government closed off the Garisenda because of the threat of falling. On December 2, 2023, the city announced that they will be spending €4.3 million (~$4.7 million) to reinforce the structure.

Construction work will begin in January next year, and local officials expect that it will take at least 10 years to finish. -via Atlas Obscura

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Once thought as a backwater town during the time of Julius Caesar, the ruins of Interamna Lineras, after 13 years of excavation work, is now being re-examined and new discoveries show that the former Roman colony had actually been a bustling town with its own commerce and urban development.

Historians have traditionally placed the peak of Interamna Lineras at around the late 2nd to early 1st century BCE, however, a team of archaeologists, headed by Alessandro Launaro, found remains of markets, structures, and thousands of local pottery which suggested that the town at its peak had been home to around 2,000 people.

Furthermore, although it was widely believed that Interamna Lineras had diminished by the turn of the 1st century CE, Launaro's team think that the evidence points toward the survival of the town well into the 3rd century CE, and perhaps even toward the 4th century, with some estimates suggesting that the town had been deserted by the 6th century CE.

From their geophysical surveys, they found that, not only did the town have a market, residential buildings, and other commercial establishments, but it also had a large 1,500-seater theater covered by a roof and decorated in marble. Moreover, it also had a warehouse, a temple, three bath complexes, and 19 courtyard buildings.

Just goes to show that if you dig deep enough, something is bound to turn up.

(Image credit: Alessandro Launaro)

You might have seen this video before showing the school bands of Bridle Path Elementary and Kulp Elementary performing Jingle Bells. It starts off with the maestro introducing the band and its soloist who will be performing the verses of the song on the trumpet.

Following the trumpeter, the beginner section of the band will join in the chorus, which will then pass again to the soloist, and then onto the advanced section of the band. The last verse and chorus will be played by the soloist and the whole band respectively.

The maestro also gives a small, cheeky caveat telling the students that if things go wrong, he might have a heart attack, but then immediately follows that by saying that even if things go well, he might still have a heart attack.

So, here's a throwback to the Jingle Bells performance that adorably "went wrong". Also, I'm quite surprised how most of the parents kept themselves together throughout, as I would have been giggling from just how cute the whole thing was. But the kids deserved that applause in the end. - via Digg

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More precisely, solastalgia is taken from the Latin word solacium, meaning comfort, and the Greek root -algia, referring to grief, pain, or suffering. It is the existential distress one experiences when they encounter environmental changes. Particularly, it's the feeling some people get when they miss what it felt like to celebrate the holidays before.

The feeling of solastalgia is typically associated with climate change, and how the changing weather patterns affect the way people have grown to live during the winter season.

Many people have ingrained traditions or lifestyles connected to winter and the holidays, but that has slowly changed due to the rising temperature, and extreme shifts in the weather.

Cold places, like Minnesota, are gradually becoming less cold and experiencing less snow, and there are even instances when warm places, like Texas or California, have started to experience cold snaps and snow storms.

Because of these changes in the weather, people experience disruptions in their coping mechanisms for the winter months, and that's when solastalgia occurs. There's a disorientation going on in our minds when things aren't the way we remember them, the way we're used to live.

Not only this, but climate change has also affected certain cultural practices such as the indigenous hunters of Alaska who had a subsistence form of life by catching marine mammals. With the disappearance of sea ice, this has slowly vanished.

Despite the feeling of solastalgia becoming more pronounced as the years go by, people have been finding ways to adapt to the new circumstances. We may have this longing for the winters of old, but in time, we will develop newer coping mechanisms for the changing times.

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Ancient Romans used to start their new year in March, since their first calendar only had 10 months which ended in December, approximately harvest time, so people can celebrate at the end of the year with a good harvest. Then, two months of winter will pass by and they start a new year.

This configuration of the early Roman calendar had most likely been adopted from other dating systems like those of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Babylonians. The Roman simply named their months after gods and goddesses like the war god Mars for March, and Juno for June. The rest of the months had been named after the numbers such as septem for seven, and so on.

Later on, this 10-month calendar was replaced by a lunar calendar which added two new months, each consisting of 28 days: Ianuarius (named after the god Janus) and Februarius (a reference to the Roman purification festival, Februa).

The problem with this new calendar, they soon found out, was that it did not sync with the seasons. They tried to rectify this by adding an extra month called Mercedonius, every two or three years, which just made the matter more confusing.

It wasn't until Julius Caesar had commissioned a new standard calendar in 45 BC. Designed by Sosigenes, the Julian calendar consisted of 365 days with a leap year every four years. This was more consistent with the seasons, and finally synced with the sun.

January 1st became the beginning of the new year as well, as opposed to the original March. It was in celebration of the day that consuls, the highest elected public official in the Roman Republic, took office.

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We initially thought that boa constrictors like pythons and anacondas killed their prey by asphyxiation, or cutting the animal's airflow and depriving it from oxygen. However, research has suggested that boa constrictors stop the blood flow of their prey, causing immediate death from cardiac arrest.

The difference between asphyxiation and sudden cardiac arrest is that in the first situation, only the airways are constricted, but the heart continues pumping blood throughout the body. In this scenario, one would assume that the prey caught in the stranglehold would try to free itself and show signs of a struggle.

But this anecdote by a doctor who had witnessed the killing of a goat by a python indicated that there had been no signs of a struggle, but he observed depressions on the goat's chest. Granted, this is just one anecdote and the doctor did not investigate further.

Scientists who conducted experiments, however, have been able to figure out exactly how boa constrictors killed their prey. They attached sensors into anesthetized rats and a python in order to measure the rats' blood pressure, blood gases, blood ion balance, and heart function, as well as the amount of pressure that the python was exerting on the rat.

From the experiments, they found that the pythons had been exerting immense pressure on the rats' blood flow at a rapid pace. It caused instantaneous cardiac arrest. Again, a few caveats: rats are mammals, and quite small. So, attacking its circulatory system would entail instantaneous death.

On the other hand, if boas will try and constrict lizards or frogs, for example, will the manner of death be the same, considering cold-blooded animals don't have the same circulatory systems as mammals? This is a question for a future study.

But it makes sense why sudden cardiac arrest is more advantageous for boa constrictors.

First, it eliminates the possibility of harm when the prey struggles. In the example of the rat, it may use its claws or teeth to gnaw away at the python. Or, in the case of the goat, it may use its horns to stab the python or its hooves to trample on it.

Second, it saves the snake time and energy in hunting and eating its prey.

At the end of the day, I think the lesson is the same. Stay away from boa constrictors.

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Knights have mostly been depicted in period dramas, historical epics, or fantasy adventures as the noble warriors, tragic heroes, or some romanticized version of the ideal man during the Medieval Ages. But the truth is they were the elite soldiers of that time who constantly trained their bodies to their physical limits in order to protect their lords and realms.

It was extremely difficult to kill knights in a medieval battle. Although we have seen a lot of gory shows like Game of Thrones depicting knights being easily slain in battles or jousts, the reality is that knights generally avoided killing other knights in battle and because of their rigorous training and near-impenetrable armor, there were only two ways to actually kill medieval knights.

The two ways to kill medieval knights were (1) to break through their armor by brute force, and (2) to incapacitate the knight, and then attack the weak points in their armor.

The best weapons to crush a knight's full set of chainmail or plated armor were lances, maces, and warhammers. The second method, which was most often used by groups of regular soldiers since they could not beat a knight one-on-one, was for four or five soldiers to wrestle the knight to the ground while one would stab the knight through the armor's weak points.

Weak points in a knight's armor generally would be located in the groin area, the inside of the legs, the armpits, and the slits on the helmet. Or, if they were lucky enough to remove a knight's helmet, then the chances of killing the knight increased exponentially.

However, knights already knew that their armor was not invulnerable, so it was very difficult and dangerous to attempt to kill a knight, since it required one to get very close to the knight, at which point, the knight would have already killed the assailant.

One prime example, however, when knights had been killed en masse was at the Battle of Agincourt. That was an incredible feat accomplished by the English infantry who killed a lot of French knights. To do that, they killed the knights' horses with arrows, and falling off their horses, the knights were immobilized, and stabbed to death.

Learn more about medieval knight history on Neutral History.

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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1966 is a law that ensures the security of sensitive patient health information by issuing national standards that prohibit the disclosure of such without the patient's consent or knowledge.

One misconception that people generally have with HIPAA is that all health-related data is secure. They're not. HIPAA doesn't cover everything.

Entities under HIPAA include (1) healthcare providers such as hospitals, private medical offices, medical professionals, labs, clinics, and pharmacies, and (2) subcontractors or "business associates" which include third-party vendors, health plan providers, and insurance companies.

HIPAA doesn't include pharmaceutical companies, employers, universities, and social media businesses. This means that, for example, giving personal information on Instagram for buying health-related products or services will not be covered by HIPAA in case a data breach occurs.

Employers asking about an employee's health-related concerns will not be considered an HIPAA issue, although it could be a discrimination issue.

Also, universities accessing students' records from the campus health clinic regarding any issue students may be involved in, for example, sexual assault cases or other violent crimes like hazing incidents, is not covered by HIPAA, although it is under the Federal Educational Records and Privacy Act (FERPA).

One way experts suggest to increase one's data security is by enabling two-factor authentication. Also, it is best to avoid connecting through public WiFi to prevent sensitive information from being leaked.

On the part of healthcare providers, getting more secure and efficient software or ERP systems will most likely let doctors focus on being doctors instead of worrying about their patients' data security, just as ZDoggMD's music video above astutely points out.

(Video credit: Dr. Zubin Damania aka ZDoggMD/Youtube)

A new sequel to Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been published this year and it's titled How the Grinch Lost Christmas. It was written by Alastair Heim, illustrated by Aristides Ruiz, and approved by the Dr. Seuss estate. 

I have only watched the 2000 film adaptation, which starred Jim Carrey, and I wasn't that big of a fan of the character, mostly because of how it was portrayed. Dan Kois, however, makes the case for the original 1966 animated film adaptation, the screenplay of which was written by Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss himself.

The appeal of Geisel's Grinch, according to Kois, was the very essence of the character. The Grinch was a miser who hated Christmas and the raucousness of the whole occasion. Although he couldn't actually help it as he was born that way.

Although we want children to enjoy the spirit of the occasion, sometimes we just feel it's just too much work and too much madness. At the end of the day, the moral of the Grinch's story is that the core of the holiday season is that we get to spend it together. It's not the presents or all the other decorative elements, it's the spirit of family and community.

The new Grinch book, on the other hand, picks up a year after the events of the original (spoilers will follow).

It involves a Christmas tree-decorating contest. The Grinch enters, loses, and sulks about it. Instead of the malevolent creature threatening the Whos and all the readers that Christmas will be lost forever, the Grinch turned into the sore loser. Then, the Whos invite him back and he regains his Christmas spirit.

It's a nice children's story, though Kois argues that it lost sight of who the Grinch is, in favor of teaching its readers the moral that Christmas isn't about the glitz and the glamor. But there is perhaps an expectation that this sequel will open the doors for the Grinch to become more relevant as he permeates through other aspects of culture.

(Image credit: Slate)