Saturday, September 6, 2014

HE WAS A BIG BOY...A VERY VERY BIG BOY

CNN) -- He was a big boy. A very, very big boy.
In fact, the Dreadnoughtus schrani dinosaur unveiled Thursday was one of the biggest -- if not THE biggest -- land animal ever to grace the Earth.
Experts estimate that back in its day -- the Upper Cretaceous period, approximately 77 million years ago -- this giant measured 85 feet long and weighed about 65 tons.
No wonder, then, paleontologists picked a first name that breaks down to "fear nothing." (The second name honors benefactor and tech entrepreneur Adam Schran.) You wouldn't be scared, either, if you towered over every creature in sight, could smash most anything with your whip-like tail and could smoosh most anything with your colossal feet.
"Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge," said Kenneth Lacovara, the lead author of the report published in Scientific Reports, as quoted on his school Drexel University's website. "It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex."
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The fossilized remains of this Dreadnoughtus were unearthed recently in Argentina's southwestern Patagonia.
And to think the massive dinosaur pieced together by Lacovara's team was still growing up, according to expert analysis.
It's hard to say how much bigger this or other Dreadnoughtus may have gotten had it fully matured. Nor, without a time machine, can one quickly determine whether this new species was bigger than fellow titanosaurs such as the similarly gargantuan Argentinosaurus.
That's mostly because other finds like these are relatively incomplete, forcing paleontologists to make estimates based off a bone or two here and there.
"Titanosaurs are a remarkable group of dinosaurs, with species ranging from the weight of a cow to the weight of a sperm whale or more," said Matthew Lamanna, a Carnegie Museum of Natural History scholar who was part of the team, in the Drexel piece. "But the biggest dinosaurs have remained a mystery because, in almost all cases, their fossils are very incomplete."
Not so with the new Dreadnoughtus specimen, which is another big reason -- big being the operative word for everything about this creature -- it's so special.
Those who excavated the sometimes snow-covered terrain not far from Antarctica were able to locate more than 70% of the Dreadnoughtus' bones, including part of a jaw. Compare that to maybe 3% to 27% for other dinosaur finds of its kind.
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Lacovara characterized the discovery as "by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet."
And it's not like the scientists unearthed little chicken bones. A picture Lacovara posted to Twitter showed a woman next to one of Dreadnoughtus' scapulas, or shoulder blades, both roughly the same size. Its humerus, or upper arm, bone was taller than the Drexel University professor. A neck vertebra measured about 3 feet in diameter.
All these things -- from fossils of large bones to a single tooth, from part of a jaw to toes and a claw -- coupled with digital technology could help to learn a great deal about the Dreadnoughtus and other titanosaurs' lived in their era, beyond the fact it had a 37-foot-long neck and 30-foot-long tail.
One thing that it would have had to do, to get this big, is eat. A lot. (And it was all plants, proving your mom right that veggies can make you big and strong.)
Lacovara thinks the Dreadnoughtus must have had "a life-long obsession with eating," perhaps spending all its waking existence chomping leaves from giant tree after giant tree.
He said, "Every day is about taking in enough calories to nourish this house-sized body."

LARGEST DINOSAUR TO WALK THE PLANET

ALL DATA RELEASED ON MISSING MALAYSIA 370?

CNN) -- In the aviation mystery which has baffled the world there is one fundamental question which continues to swirl: Has Inmarsat got its numbers right?
It was these very calculations which led the search for MH370 far from the plane's original route across South East Asia and deep into the southern Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Australia. No piece of work is more important in the search for the plane.
I was given exclusive access to the satellite experts who did the ground-breaking work. Time and again, I would ask them the toughest question: "Are you right?"
But before we get there ... How did the data come to light in the first place?
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Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Once the plane went missing, the ground station in Perth checked the logs and discovered that while the aircraft's communications systems were switched off, the plane and the satellite still kept saying "hello" to each other, every hour.
"Having messages for six hours after the plane is lost is probably the biggest disbelief," admits Inmarsat's vice president of satellite operations Mark Dickinson.
These messages are the raw data upon which everything rests.
After the alert had been raised at the company's London headquarters, engineers began urgently interpreting the raw data.
Dickinson explains: "We have some timing information ... that allows you to essentially work out the distance from the satellite ... and in addition to that there were some frequency measurements."
Using the discrepancy of satellite frequency known as theDoppler Effect, the team spent ten days refining their work before they briefed the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who stunned the world by revealing the plane's flight had ended in the South Indian Ocean.
Dickinson says that when he realized what had probably happened, his reaction was: "Let's check this and let's check it again, because you want to make sure when you come to a conclusion like that you have done the right work... As good engineers we are trained to check and check again."
So why is Dickinson so sure he is right? Because the model they created showing arcs and Doppler readings was rigorously tested, initially on other aircraft on the satellite at the same time, and then against previous flights by the same aircraft. With minor disagreements both the position and the Doppler reading of those aircraft was predicted accurately.
Other organizations created their own models, ran the comparisons and came to the same conclusions. It is essential to understand: This is not just Inmarsat's frolic.
"No-one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn't work with this particular flight when it has worked with others," Dickinson told me. "It's very important that this isn't just an Inmarsat activity."
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So why haven't they found the plane where Inmarsat says it should be? Simply put, it's a big ocean, the ocean floor is very deep, with valleys and hills. In the bigger picture, the search has really only just begun.
The families have been seeking the release of this raw data for weeks.
The satellite company has extracted the crucial lines from the logs and has published it with an explanation and analysis. They have not published the raw computer pages which is likely to raise questions about why not.
Inmarsat says nothing important has been left out, but that the raw data would not have been understandable on its own. The goal of publication is transparency, not verification.
"What this provides is some transparency on what actual data came back and forwards between the plane and the ground station... How that data has subsequently been used so it allows people to see what technique. I'm hoping a great deal of transparency in terms of the analysis by Inmarsat," says Dickinson.
So, will the publication quell the critics? Probably not. They want every last digit and bit of data so they can re-create the work, something that is impossible without detailed knowledge of the plane's modem, the satellite's own movement and the performance capabilities of the 777 aircraft.
Having covered this story from the moment the plane was lost, I know only too well that the everything hinges on Inmarsat's data.
Could Dickinson be wrong? As an engineer he is, of course open to the possibility, but he insists his data has been "checked and checked ... to make sure we've got it right. Checked against other flights in the area at the same time; checked against previous flights of this aircraft. At the moment there is no reason to doubt -- I believe what this data says."


And that is the heart of the matter. Inmarsat and others will never say they are convinced, they are not those sorts of people. Certainty is the prerogative of those of us less rigorously trained to consider fallibility. Inmarsat's engineers will just rely on the numbers.

MALAYSIA FLIGHT 370 NEVER FOUND......ALIENS?

AN AMAZING DINOSAUR FIND IN ARGENTINA!



Say hello to Dreadnoughtus schrani, a newly discovered dinosaur that was so formidable, it was named after a battleship that prowled the seas during the early 20th century.
"It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet," Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, a paleontologist at Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences and the scientist who discovered the skeleton, said in a written statement. "With a body the size of a house, the weight of a herd of elephants, and a weaponized tail, Dreadnoughtus would have feared nothing."
The titanosaur's skeleton, which dates back 77 million years, was discovered in Southern Patagonia in Argentina, and unearthed over the course of four digs between 2005 and 2009.
Rendering of the massive Dreadnoughtus schrani.
At 85 feet long and weighing 65 tons, Dreadnoughtus sets a new record as the land animal with the greatest calculable weight. (The record was previously held by Elaltitan, who weighed 47 tons.) That means that as an herbivore, Dreadnoughtus would have had to consume copious amounts of plant matter every day to become so "astoundingly huge," according to Lacovara.
"Imagine a life-long obsession with eating," he said, "Every day is about taking in enough calories to nourish this house-sized body."
Dreadnoughtus schrani was substantially more massive than any other supermassive dinosaur for which mass can be accurately calculated.
The skeleton is also the most complete of its kind, comprising 43.5 percent of the dinosaur's bones. It contains nearly all bones from the forelimbs and hind limbs, most of the tail vertebrae and numerous ribs.
Lacovara and his colleagues have digitally scanned the dinosaur's bones and constructed a "virtual mount" of the skeleton. The scientists hope their research on Dreadnoughtus will shed new light on the anatomy of supermassive dinosaurs, and how they walked and grew.

Dr. Kenneth Lacovara with the 30-foot tail of Dreadnoughtus schrani, stretching along the length of the wall and around the corner in his lab.

The research was published online today in the journal Scientific Reports.

GOD BLESS THE CUMBERLAND AMERICAN LITTLE LEAGUE AND THEIR COACH.

Cumberland American to be honored before Red Sox game

Posted: Sep 05, 2014 3:38 PM EDTUpdated: Sep 05, 2014 3:40 PM EDT
 
In this photo taken with a fisheye lens members of the Cumberland American Little League team from Cumberland ride in the Little League Grand Slam Parade as it makes its way through downtown Williamsport, Pa., Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. (AP Photo)
In this photo taken with a fisheye lens members of the Cumberland American Little League team from Cumberland ride in the Little League Grand Slam Parade as it makes its way through downtown Williamsport, Pa., Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. (AP Photo)
The Cumberland American Little League team will be honored at Fenway Park on Friday prior to the Red Sox-Blue Jays game.
The team represented New England at the Little League World Series.
Hundreds of adoring fans packed Diamond Hill Park for a homecoming celebration when the team returned from South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The team went 1-2 at the Little League World Series and was eliminated by U.S. champion Illinois.
Coach Dave Belisle told the players after the loss that they were one of the best teams in the world and had their hometown and the state of Rhode Island jumping with excitement. His inspiring speech went viral.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

BETTY WHITE IS NOT DEAD! SHAME ON YOU EMPIRE NEWS!


“Actress Betty White, 92, Dyes Peacefully In Her Los Angeles Home,” according to satirical news Web site “Empire News.”
That’s “dyes,” not “dies.”
Empire News explained: “In a press release from her long-time manager Jeff Witjas, it has been confirmed today that actress Betty White, best known for her roles on TVs The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls, and Hot in Cleveland, is not a natural blonde.”
Get it?
Many on the Internet did not.
LOS ANGELES, California -
White can be seen on cable channel TVLand starring in the sitcom Hot In Cleveland.