- Scientists racing to tackle plastic pollution have created a surprising new contender: a biodegradable packaging film made partly from milk protein. Researchers at Flinders University blended calcium caseinate with starch and natural nanoclay to form a thin, durable material designed to mimic everyday plastic. In soil tests, the film fully broke down in about 13 weeks, pointing to a realistic alternative for single-use food packaging.
Thursday, March 5, 2026
This plastic is made from milk and it vanishes in 13 weeks | ScienceDaily
Leopards adapted to South Africa's Cape so successfully that they're genetically unique
Well. What do you know? These leopards evolved and adapted, based on their environment.
Shocking. Said no one with half a brain ever.
Disney's Disability Assistance Program
As I've noted in the past, Disney has always been inclusive, and had a program to make it easier for people with specific issues (like, say, autism) could get a pass to have a return time, so they didn't have to wait in line ... because in some cases that would be impossible.
Knuckleheads abused the system, and they changed it to be more complicated - but still made it so that people with certain conditions didn't have to wait in lines. But.... Disney doesn't like the way the current system is setup, given all the technological innovations they've put in place and the fact that the system can (and is) still be abused.
Couple that with the very weird climate around any sort of "differences" in people that we have in society today, and Disney wants to rethink their strategy.
They are asking shareholders to weigh in on whether they should create a sort of executive review panel to look into this further and come up with better solutions.
And one might assume that the outcome might be that they will find a way to provide a better solution - for a price. It might be more inclusive, but surely will ask people to spend more.
Paramount Won't Say Whether Middle East Money Is Funding Its WBD Deal - Business Insider
The FCC wants to "quickly approve" the merger of paramount and Warner brothers. But how did this come to pass?
Why three nations in the Middle East funded it! So it's not US based media anymore. Now it's all owned by T-rump loving countries.
I guess we don't have independence anymore.
The 2026 World Cup faces big challenges with 100 days to go : NPR
The future - as it extends to the World Cup - remains kind of uncertain.
There are questions about security at games and around the venues (the images from last year of the game in Miami still come to mind), and fan events are getting cancelled due to lack of structure, stability, and money.
Homeland security blames the shutdown and assorted things, but yet still has plenty of money to round people up and fly them to a third world prison. Go figure.
Meanwhile, we have the ongoing conflict in Iran that surely will prevent fans from attending … and there are questions about whether the team can/will participate.
Mexico also has a host of issues - mainly because the US helped kill a drug lord which caused chaos that has been spiraling.
And countries from Europe and Africa are voicing concerns.
Under 100 days until the games kickoff. And nothing is certain.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Stupid is as stupid does
The orange menace opts to attack another sovereign nation for reasons that make no sense. Iran didn't do anything to incite the US, but he attacked purportedly to make a regime change. That's a war crime, something he should be held accountable for. Innocent people are dying at his hands.
But what makes this so much worse is that there really is no plan here. The objective and end game are unknown. Heck, apparently many allies were caught off guard, too. That's a contributing factor to why Kuwait shot down some US planes; they had no idea what was happening.
And there is this oddity too. The US is making statements about how the Iranian military needs to surrender. Except that this message is not getting through. The internet was suppressed in Iran by their government. And the US made no effort to turn it back on or provide another means to get online. Also, in all his cost cutting, T-rump cut funding for Air America and other propaganda tools. Meaning that no one is relaying information to Iranians on our behalf.
Telling people to surrender has no effect if they can't hear you.
There's also the matter of people traveling anywhere in that region and getting stuck. They are paying for an "extended vacation" with no end in sight, missing work and their families, with no means to get home. Heck, there's not even a plan. Often, the US government would alert people to leave or not travel, and / or have an evacuation plan for citizens (which the citizen must reimburse the government for).
And because of this surprise war, the markets don't know how to react, and thus go down. And because it's a Middle East conflict, gas prices go up… which affects our economy.
It's all just nuts.
Monday, March 2, 2026
Kryptos - the sculpture at CIA headquarters.
Back in 1990, artist Jim Sanborn created a sculpture for the CIA that was appropriate in that it had 4 parts which had a code embedded on them. The codes were all different and he challenged anyone to decipher them all.
3 were deciphered fairly quickly by cryptographers at the CIA, though the results were kept secret for a few more years.
But the 4th one remained unbroken. Until a couple of reporters figured out a way to break the code via a side door - at the national archives.
They're not saying what the answer is, and the code itself remains undeciphered still.
And the person who owns the key to all of it tells us that there is a 5th cypher that hasn't revealed itself yet.
This is kind of amazing and the article breaks it down for us.
Sunday, March 1, 2026
The original Epstein whistleblower, 90s supermodel Karen Mulder. Why didn’t they believe her?
Here's a short synopsis of her life and involvement with Epstein - and what happened when she came forward.
Saturday, February 28, 2026
The president has run amok. To our senators and congresspeople.
Mr Trump has engaged in a military action - again - against a sovereign nation (Iran) that has not otherwise provided a credible threat to the United States.
This is inexcusable and he must be held to account.
Do your job! Impeach and remove.
This is inexcusable and he must be held to account.
Do your job! Impeach and remove.
Friday, February 27, 2026
Colorado 12-year-old nationally awarded for invention | FOX31
This is the story about a boy named
Anirudh Rao who has several amazing inventions. But the one that stands out is an early detection system for tornadoes.
He deploys a series of drones that can detect changing weather patterns and can indicate a tornado brewing as much as 40 minutes in advance. Current systems allow for about 13 minutes; this invention could save lives.
It's amazing what someone can do when they put their mind to it.
A continent-long “brown ribbon” has appeared in the Atlantic off Africa — and scientists say it’s not a good sign - Futura-Sciences
There's a brown streak that has appeared across most of the Atlantic. And this mass is … sargassum!
The scourge is back and essentially worse than ever. But of course, we merely shrug.
China's water battery hits 120,000+ cycles, can beat lithium by decades
Tofu for the win! These scientists have found a way to use a tofu brine as the means to allow batteries to conduct electricity - in place of lithium.
It's less costly, lasts longer, and in-all safer.
See? Even cars are going vegetarian. lol.
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Ford Has a Patent for a Shifter That Could Give the Manual New Purpose | Gear Patrol
With all the talk about moving away from computers, or even that ford is somehow abandoning advanced tech or EVs, this is an interesting twist.
Monday, February 23, 2026
Olympian Eileen Gu
As we bid goodbye to another Olympics, we can marvel at the (mostly) young athletes who got to do something amazing as a representative of their country - while the IOC makes a ton of money and leaves the host city holding the bag from a financial perspective.
But this item is about one of these youngsters - Eileen Gu, who is an American, but represents China at the Olympics. She's a remarkable person and I thought it was worth commenting on her.
You see, Gu is a smart woman, and she figured out how to make the most of her opportunity and love of skiing early on. She created a social media presence and got noticed. And because she's of Chinese ancestry, she was invited to participate on behalf of that country. They pay for her training and related expenses. And yet they allow for her to continue to use her presence to maintain sponsorships, and continue modelling. And she is able to remain in the United States and pursue a degree at Stanford. She's studying International Relations, but that hasn't stopped her from taking courses in Quantum Physics! (and as a few physicists have noted, that may help her perform better because she understands what it takes to make her successful at her sport.
She went on to win 6 medals across two olympics. And yet, she is mostly humble and understands her place as a kind of leader - and took the high road when several knuckleheads tried to chastise her for not representing the United States.
Heck, she cried after her last event, while giving an interview, because she was informed her grandmother - an inspiration - had just died.
I have so much respect for her and her intelligent approach. Consider this quote:
"I'm an introspective young woman. I spend a lot of time in my head. It's not a bad place to be. I journal a lot. I break down all of my thought processes. I'm 22, so with neuroplasticity on my side I can literally become exactly who I want to be. How cool is that? How empowering is that, right?
"I get to become every day the kind of person that me, at age eight, would revere. I would be obsessed with me today. Are you kidding? I would love me and I think that's the biggest flex of all time."
We need so many more people like her in the world!
Albert Einstein predicted it and Mars has now confirmed it: time flows differently on the Red Planet, forcing future missions to adapt
This feels crazy!
Essentially time is a construct that we came up with, and while it mostly works, consider that we have to add in time periodically (hence the leap year), and because of the constraints on it, "time travel" as we think of it is impossible. It's a linear function within the construct.
But Einstein used the theory of relativity to help us think about the construct and how it might not apply in every situation, because of orbits around the sun, gravity, and other factors.
And we're seeing that this is the case on mars. Time is not absolute, and what we think of in that sense does not apply on mars (or really anywhere else).
So that means when you're "late for work ," you really aren't because time itself doesn't make sense. (Ha)
And in science fiction when they talk about traveling through time by somehow warping space-time, they're actually applying science.
It kind of blows my mind.
China invention turns desert sand into fertile soil in just 10 months - Earth.com
Well, this is interesting. A group of scientists are using bacteria to mix in with the sand, and then providing nutrient in order to stabilize the soil. From there, they can plant other types of living things that can take root and grow.
Essentially reclaiming deserts.
Friday, February 20, 2026
A Spacecraft Flew Closer to the Sun Than Ever – and Is Rewriting a Century-Old Mystery
This spacecraft is collecting new information about the sun, its composition, and the atmosphere around the sun.
The objective is to help us better understand more about the sun, and how it affects the other. We're learning more about solar wind and how it is heated on its journey to earth.
But on that last one, shhh! Don't tell anyone that it will help us understand how earths climate is affected by the sun, because that might be considered climate science. And that's not allowable in this day and age.
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