A great diversity of dinosaurs roamed the earth until 66 million years ago, when an asteroid impact changed the global ecosystem so much that they died out ...with the exception of a few kinds of avian dinosaurs that eventually became birds. What made those survivors so special? How were they different from all those dinos that died out in the aftermath of the impact? One theory holds that it was the beaks. 

When the extinction struck, the traits birds had been evolving for millions of years made the difference between life and death. While some birds survived the impact and its aftermath, not all of them did. “When we think about hypotheses of traits that let birds survive, we need to take into account that it was only a small sliver of diversity that made it to the other side,” Felice says. Entire groups of birds, such as toothed birds called enantiornithes, went extinct. It’s unlikely that one single trait determined the fate of all these species. Still, surviving extinction often comes down to luck, and beaks may have been some birds’ ace.

By the end of the Cretaceous, beaked birds were already eating a much more varied diet than their toothed relatives. These birds weren’t specialized on insects or other animal food, and so they were able to pluck up hard food items like seeds and nuts. And in the aftermath of the extinction, when animal life was severely cut back, those hard, persistent little morsels got beaked birds through the hard times. Beaked birds were able to feed on the seeds of the destroyed forests and wait out the decades until vegetation began to return.

There's a lot more to the story, which you can read at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Steveoc 86)

Yohei is living his best life as the sole inhabitant of an abandoned elementary school in the mountains of Japan. There are facilities that spark envy in anyone living in cramped quarters -and even those who have a big house already. A huge kitchen, a band room, a lovely view from the solitude of a mansion-sized home- what else could you ask for? As an American, I immediately had a couple of questions. First, what do the owners of the school think of Yohei living there? It appears that he's good for tourism, so maybe the local authorities have some agreement with him. They may even pay him for keeping the building up. If not, you may wonder how he pays for food and electricity and all that. Yohei roasts his own coffee and sells it online (only in Japan), he takes in guests and probably charges something, and he has a band that might bring in money. Anyhow, here's the second part of the story, in which our reporters stay the night and check for ghosts.  

You have to admit, Yohei has it made in the shade! -via Digg

Acorn woodpeckers are "unusual, socially complex birds," or in other words, they are rather weird. These woodpeckers live in colonies of up to 16 birds, only a few of which are allowed to breed. When one of the breeders dies, a slot opens up and war ensues. The birds battle each other for days until one wins the spot.

These are some of the findings from a study, published in Current Biology, that followed a California population of these unusual, socially complex birds. The immense and arduous effort required to win a key place within a territory’s pecking order is matched by an equally rare prize: a breeding position within a communal group of birds that raises offspring together and shares valuable stores of acorns that help them tough out food shortages. But the toll of a battle can be great.

“You can see birds with eyes gouged out, with blood on their plumage—they fall to the ground holding each other’s legs when they’re fighting,” says Sahas Barve, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “These birds have spears for mouths so they can do a lot of damage.”

When the fights happen, birds from other colonies come and watch, maybe to learn what's in store for them, or to pick up some fighting tips. Read about the extremely weird lives of acorn woodpeckers at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: gailhampshire)

We all learned that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, along with many of the other modern conveniences introduced in the late 19th century. He patented it, didn't he? Well, we know that Edison was big on patents and taking credit for various devices that his team, or even rivals, worked on. It turns out that the light bulb had already been patented in other countries. In fact, the process that led to the light bulb began in the early 19th century. So who did invent the light bulb?  

The question itself betrays an underlying assumption that is flawed, and so there is no one correct answer. Instead, we have to confront the underlying assumption – that one person or entity mostly or entirely invented the lightbulb. Rather, creating the lightbulb was an iterative process with many people involved and no clear objective demarcation line. However, there was a sort-of demarcation line – the first marketable lightbulb. That is really what people are referring to with Edison – not that he invented the lightbulb but that he brought the concept over the finish line to a marketable product.  Edison sort-of did that, and he does deserve credit for the tweak he did develop at Menlo Park.

There were at least a half-dozen men who could claim they invented the light bulb, which was actually a long process involving several breakthrough moments, not all of which were by one man alone. Read the steps involved in the invention of the light bulb at NeuroLogica blog. -via Damn Interesting

Malaysian student Zackrydz Rodzi woke up late Saturday morning and couldn't find his phone. The family looked all over, and called the phone, but did not hear a ring. There was no sign of a break in.

Mr Zackrydz said he failed to find any trace of his phone until Sunday afternoon when his father noticed a monkey outside their house. On calling his phone again he heard ringing from the jungle a few steps beyond the back garden, he said, then discovered the muddied phone on some leaves beneath a palm tree.

His uncle joked that maybe there was a photo in the phone of the thief, he said, so after cleaning it he opened the picture gallery "and boom, it's full of monkey photos".

There was also a video, which showed a closeup of the monkey's wide-open mouth, indicating he tasted the phone. Where Zackrydz lives, there is no history of monkeys stealing items from homes, as there are in more urban areas. Read the story and see the video at BBC news. -via reddit

Bu hanim her gun mahallede ne kadar hayvan varsa etrafina toplayip onlari doyuruyor. Kedi kopek karga hepsi sisko hahajd @MaltepeBelTr pic.twitter.com/f8r5UnDHUb

— ☽ Dilere (@cocukkilidi) September 23, 2017

Dilara İlter shot this footage of a parade in Istanbul, in which cats, dogs, and birds followed a woman leading them through the streets. It kept happening, and she found out the woman feeds stray animals, and they all know her. Years later, she still walks along, feeding the strays. Read the whole story at Bored Panda.

Dad: We are not feeding that feral cat. Also Dad: I set up a heated cat house in the backward and put a camera so we can make sure she’s home safe every night. from r/dadswhodidnotwantpets

Maria Cassano posted this picture that became the top post of all time at the subreddit DadsWhoDidNotWantPets. There's more to the story of how her father went from never allowing his children to have pets to doting over a stray mother cat. Read the rest of that story and those of other men who fell in love with pets they didn't want, plus a look into the psychology of how a dog or cat can transform a gruff guy into a softie at Mel magazine. -via Digg

In case you didn't know, the Mulan remake is out now. To watch it, you'll need a TV or computer screen, Disney+, and $30 more. Before you invest, check out this Honest Trailer. A departure from other Disney live-action remakes, Mulan is supposed to be closer to its roots. That means it lost the songs, the magical comedy sidekick, and the love interest. What's left is a lot of violence, so that Mulan resembles any number of high-budget wuxia films you've already seen. Well, at least it has a cool gender reveal party.

Everybody likes Shrek. Some people like Shrek so much, they travel from all over the world to attend the annual Shrekfest. This year, the event is still on, and it's still free, but it will be online so you can attend without all that travel. Enjoy communing with other Shrek fans, and enjoy cosplay, fan art, animations, and other entertainment, ending with a screening of the movie Shrek Retold. It all happens online Saturday, September 19th.

2020 marks Shrekfest’s 7th year. It started out in 2014 as an internet joke, but blossomed into an actual event that same year thanks to 3GI Industries, a comedy troupe in Milwaukee, WI. The event has exploded into an international event since then, seeing Shrekheads travel from all across the world to celebrate the big, green ogre. Shrekfest has always been free to the public and is known for its inclusive, easy going atmosphere. The physical fest event included live music, a costume contest, a roar contest, an onion eating contest, and an outdoor screening of Shrek.

Shrekfest has shifted gears into an Online event this year amidst the ongoing pandemic. While typically a physical event, this transformation opens the doors for an even larger audience and larger, more interactive spectacle. Earlier in the year 3GI had requested fans send in their artwork, films, animation and music. The end result is hours of content submitted from artists all over the world. They will be streaming these carefully curated Shrek tributes on September 19th as part of the Shrekfest 2020 Online experience.

Shrekfest will be hosted on Twitch. Find out more at the festival's website. -Thanks, Grant!

You know Centralia as the Pennsylvania coal town that has been on fire since 1962. The burning subterranean coal seams finally forced the town's residents out by 1992, although eight people still remain. As the town grew smaller, it became a tourist draw, first for the smoldering fires, then later for an organic art project that grew up on the pavement of Route 61.

Formally closed in 1993 due to a decades-long mine fire simmering beneath its surface, this abandoned 0.74-mile stretch of road had achieved cult status in the first decade of the 2000s. After years of disuse, it took on new life as an artistic commons adorned with everything from pineapple-carapaced turtles to less-than-family-friendly fare, often of the male anatomical variety. By 2017, it was anecdotally cited by some locals as the sixth-most-visited attraction in the state. Its warped surface was a magnet not just for taggers, but also for horror fans and gamers in search of one of the inspirations behind Silent Hill (the 2006 movie based on the video game), mountain bikers, skaters, ATV enthusiasts, photographers, local party people, ghost hunters, and the generally curious.

The new owners of the land did not welcome the visitors, and the art, and the road itself, are gone. Read the story of Centralia's Graffiti Highway and what happened to it at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Flickr user R. Miller)

Power plant wastewater just sounds extremely toxic, and in most places it would be dangerous. Iceland, however, is pretty good at using nature itself to generate power, namely, the volcanic activity underground. The country's very efficient power system lends itself to innovative uses for its byproducts, like an artificial warm water beach in Reykjavík and a lagoon spa near a power plant. Tom Scott visited because most of us can't right now.  -via Digg

Hey, give those back! 🙃

— OnePlus USA (@OnePlus_USA) September 14, 2020

The US Customs and Border Patrol announced that they had intercepted a shipment of counterfeit Apple AirPods from Hong Kong.

On August 31, CBP officers seized 2,000 counterfeit Apple Airpod Earbuds from Hong Kong destined for Nevada at an air cargo facility located at John F. Kennedy International Airport. If the merchandise were genuine, the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) would have been $398,000.

“CBP Officers are protecting the American public from various dangers on a daily basis,” said Troy Miller, Director of CBP’s New York Field Operations. “The interception of these counterfeit earbuds is a direct reflection of the vigilance and commitment to mission success by our CBP Officers daily.”

However, it is clear from the pictures they posted that these are OnePlus Buds. They are even labeled as OnePlus, and there is no attempt on the package to claim they are any kind of Apple product. OnePlus sells wireless ear buds at around half the price of AirPods, and they have a different shape. See a comparison of the two brands at Geekologie. Many people responded to the announcement to let CBP know it made a mistake, but the agency is not backing down.

“Upon examining the shipment in question, a CBP import specialist determined that the subject earbuds appeared to violate Apple’s configuration trademark. Apple has configuration trademarks on their brand of earbuds, and has recorded those trademarks with CBP,” the spokesperson said. Configuration trademarks cover the general appearance of a product, if you were wondering. “Based on that determination, CBP officers at JFK Airport have seized the shipment under 19 USC 1526 (e).”

OnePlus introduced its wireless earbuds on June 24th, and Apple has made no attempt to claim intellectual property rights under their trademark.

Phosphine can be created in the lab, but as a naturally-occurring chemical, it is usually formed by the decay of organic matter. At least here on earth. It appears that astronomers have detected phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. It's too early to say what that really means, but the news is exciting. 

The presence of phosphine is seen by many astrobiologists as a "biosignature" i.e. an indicator of the possible presence of life. The detection was made by the Atacama (ALMA) array located in Chile and the James Clerk Maxwell telescope located in Hawaii. The research team includes members from the University of Manchester, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cardiff University. A paper will appear in the 14 September issue of Nature Astronomy.

From what we're told the researchers have concluded that abiotic mechanisms (i.e. ones that do not involve life) that might produce phosphine cannot account for the large amount that they have detected. The phosphine has been detected in the region within the atmosphere of Venus that is considered by some to be potentially habitable.

Much more research is needed to detect whether this might mean that microbial life forms are floating in Venus' atmosphere, or possibly that some life existed long ago. Or maybe it means that some mechanism for producing phosphine exists on Venus that does not exist on Earth. See a video on the subject at Astrobiology. The announcement from the Royal Astronommical Society is here. -via reddit

(Image credit: NASA)

There are two kinds of people in autumn: those who consume pumpkin spice in every form possible, and those who blow up pumpkins. Lauri Vuohensilta (previously) is squarely in the second category. Here he experiments to find out whether gunpowder or dynamite is better at making a pumpkin explode. Either will do the job, but these guys employ a high-speed camera to get a real good look at what they have wrought. -via Digg

Larry Harnisch has spent the past 24 years researching the Black Dahlia murder case, in which the body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was found nude and dismembered. That was in 1947, and the case has never been solved. While researching the story for the 50th anniversary of the murder, Harnisch ran into so many loose ends, he couldn't let the story go. He found that the published accounts were so rushed by the journalists of the day that they often filled in the blanks with speculation and titillation.   

Some writers claimed she was lured to Hollywood from the East because she was an aspiring actress. She wasn’t. Others wrote that the newspapers gave Short the sobriquet. They didn’t. A few have intimated she was a hooker. She wasn’t.  Or that, at the very least, she was promiscuous. She wasn’t.  Some writers contended the original detective team was inept. They weren’t. She’d been called a war widow. She wasn’t.

Will Fowler, a reporter for the Examiner at the time, told Harnisch that he had been the first reporter at the scene and had arrived before the police. Fowler claimed there were no officers to prevent reporters and photographers from tromping through the crime scene and interfering with the evidence.  Shortly before police arrived, Fowler, who wrote a memoir, Reporters, told Harnisch that he had closed Short’s eyes and later helped load the bottom half of Short’s body into the coroner’s vehicle. Later, Harnisch tracked down retired LAPD patrol officer Wayne Fitzgerald who, along with his partner, were the first cops on the scene. He contradicted almost every element of Fowler’s account.  During an interview Fowler quoted Napoleon: “History is an agreed upon lie.” Fitzgerald contended that when he arrived there were no reporters or photographers.

Harnisch's research over the years led him to a suspect he is convinced was guilty. "Was" guilty, because almost all the principles of the story are now dead. Harnisch is still researching the murder of Elizabeth Short for a book that has yet to be finished, but you can get a taste of what he found at The Delacorte Review. -via Strange Company

(Image source: Los Angeles Police Department)