Dog Days of Summer

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
~ Marcus Aurelius

What kind of star is our sun?

It’s a yellow dwarf star.

The 7 Main Spectral Types of Stars:
    •    O (Blue) (10 Lacerta)
    •    B (Blue) (Rigel)
    •    A (Blue) (Sirius)
    •    F (Blue/White) (Procyon)
    •    G (White/Yellow) (Sun)
    •    K (Orange/Red) (Arcturus)
    •    M (Red) (Betelgeuse)

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky.

It’s nicknamed the “Dog Star” because it is part of the constellation Canis Major, Latin for “the greater dog.” The expression “dog days” refers to the period from July 3 through Aug. 11, when Sirius rises in conjunction with the sun, Space.com previously reported. The ancients felt that the combination of the sun during the day and the star at night was responsible for the extreme heat during mid-summer. (source)

~~~

A few facts about mammoths:

• The fossil record suggests mammoths lived on all continents except Australia and South America.
• Most mammoth populations had died out by around 10,000 years ago although a small population of 500-1000 woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic until as recently as 1650 BC. This was approximately 1000 years after the pyramids at Giza were built.
• Some experts think mammoths were hunted to extinction by the species that was to become the planet’s dominant predator - humans.
• Others argue that climate change was more responsible. As the climate warmed, forests spread and replaced the mammoth’s grassland habitat. Hunting by humans may have tipped the balance once mammoth numbers had declined significantly.
• A 2016 study suggests that one of the last known groups of woolly mammoths died out because of a lack of drinking water. BBC News: Last woolly mammoths ‘died of thirst’

Mammoth myths

• From the Middle Ages up to the 18th Century, many Europeans believed that the bones of mammoths and mastodons belonged to giants drowned by Noah’s flood.
• Mammoths discovered preserved in the Siberian permafrost were believed to be burrowing animals that avoided sunlight and died when exposed to the sun. It was thought this explained why they showed so little decay.

Grotte de Rouffignac in the Dordogne

AND the mammoth may be making a comeback.

Tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm is helping to fund a project by Harvard geneticist George Church to revive the woolly mammoth.

Why?

The start-up’s (Colossal’s) goal is ambitious and a little bit crazy: It aims to create a new type of animal similar to the extinct woolly mammoth by genetically engineering endangered Asian elephants to withstand Arctic temperatures

Proponents of the project say rewilding the Arctic with woolly mammoths could slow global warming by slowing the melting of the permafrost, where methane is currently trapped. (source)

~~~
Tardigrades are interesting and could one day help humans colonize outer space. That is, IF we survive the absolute stupidity, greed and insanity of, specifically, the current Republi/Russian Fascist coalition. 

Okay, it's time to exercise before it's too obscenely hot in here. I hope you're all able to stay outta the heat today.