I Don't Know Where To Put This, But...

[WstateU]

[SubGod22]

Scientifically speaking, Vincent Van Gogh was a freaking genius!

Van Gogh's Painting Starry Night Is Scientifically Accurate, Says New Study

It’s probably fair to say that Starry Night is the second most famous painting ever made behind the Mona Lisa, but what its many admirers likely do not know is that its famous swelling skies are “alive with real-world physics.”

Van Gogh’s brush strokes create an illusion of sky movement so convincing it led atmospheric scientists specializing in marine and fluid dynamics in China and France to wonder how closely it aligns with the physics of real skies.

They explained that while the atmospheric motion in the painting cannot be measured, the brushstrokes can act as a stand-in.

And, after measuring the relative scale and spacing of the whirling strokes, the researchers say van Gogh “accurately captures” cascading energy.

They discovered what they described as “hidden turbulence” in the painter’s depiction of the sky.

“The scale of the paint strokes played a crucial role,” in this discovery, said study author Dr. Huang Yongxiang. “With a high-resolution digital picture, we were able to measure precisely the typical size of the brushstrokes and compare these to the scales expected from turbulence theories.”

To reveal hidden turbulence, the research team used brush strokes in the painting like leaves swirling in a funnel of wind to examine the shape, energy, and scaling of atmospheric characteristics of the otherwise invisible atmosphere.

They then used the relative brightness, or luminance of the varying paint colors as a stand-in for the kinetic energy of physical movement.

“It reveals a deep and intuitive understanding of natural phenomena,” said Dr. Huang. “Van Gogh’s precise representation of turbulence might be from studying the movement of clouds and the atmosphere or an innate sense of how to capture the dynamism of the sky.”

I'm not going to pretend to fully understand any of this, but it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Van Gogh and have been since I was a kid. Learning his backstory and what he was challenged with just made me respect his art even more. A tormented mind that saw such beauty in the world and regardless of this study, I do believe that he was more aware of a number of things than a lot of people at the time.

But I just found this kind of cool that my favorite painter apparently captured something so remarkable in his greatest creation.

[SubGod22]

Original US Constitution Found in a Cabinet While Family Was Moving After 7 Generations - Now at Auction

An incredible piece of US history has been found, and is expected to bring $20 million at auction.

In the lead-up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 100 copies of the US Constitution were printed, but only 8 of them were signed by Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress, for the official purpose of being brought to each state for the delegates therein to deliberate on.

One of those 8 copies was just discovered inside a house in North Carolina, making it the only privately owned signed copy or the Constitution in the country. It’s now going up for auction at Brunk Auctioneers, and the opening bid of $1 million has already been met.

The family that found the historic document had been stewards of the Hayes Plantation in Edenton, on a property formerly owned by Samuel Johnston, who was North Carolina’s Governor from 1787 to 1789, and was the individual who ratified the document in the state.

They had kept the plantation for 7 generations, but in the process of passing it into the hands of the state to become a historic property, a massive cleanout of generations of items had to be undertaken. It was during this process that the signed copy was found.

“It wouldn’t surprise us for it to go for $20 million dollars, could be less could be more; another copy of the Constitution sold at Sotheby’s for $42.3 million,” said Andrew Brunk, the auction house’s CEO, in an interview with CBS News.

The document was preserved pre-cut, so the 8 pages remain on two sheets, with the famous preamble starting with “We The People” located in the top right. Also attached is a resolution from the (Articles of the) Confederation Congress to send the document to the states to ratify, explaining what it is, what’s to be done with it, and what the drafters think the state governors and congresses should do.

Pretty crazy to be sitting on this kind of history and be completely oblivious to it.

[WstateU]

Original US Constitution Found in a Cabinet While Family Was Moving After 7 Generations - Now at Auction



Pretty crazy to be sitting on this kind of history and be completely oblivious to it.

Wow! Unbelievable find!

[SubGod22]

We often hear about unreleased recordings and such of some of our favorite artists, sometimes they may come out after their death and other times they do not. But who saw this one coming?

Previously Unknown Mozart Song Discovered in German Library After 200 Years

Imagine if you were flipping through records at a store and discovered an unreleased single from Jimi Hendrix or Freddie Mercury.

That’s what archivists must have felt when they held up 200-year-old sheet music for a composition about 12 minutes long.

They realized that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was about to drop a new track, more than 200 years after his death.

Researchers at Leipzig Municipal Library were revising the Köchel catalogue, a physical, chronology of his compositions when they pulled out one from the 1760s—when the child prodigy was a pre-teen.

Entitled Serenate ex C. and given the shorthand name “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik,” the piece was composed for a string trio and contains 7 separate movements. The name on the music sheets is Wolfgang Mozart. He didn’t start including his middle name until he was 19.

“We are convinced that we can now present a completely unknown, charming piece by the young Mozart,” Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the Mozarteum Foundation, told the German Press Agency in advance of the opening night.

[SubGod22]

Frozen in Time: 32,000-year-old Wooly Rhino Found with Skin, Fur, and Organs Intact

Four years ago, someone came across an extraordinary find—a juvenile rhino from the Pleistocene ‘mummified’ in the Siberian permafrost.

Alerting the relevant authorities, the discovery turned out to be a 4-year-old woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) with its fur, skin, and organs intact, offering paleontologists a rare glimpse into the biology of this Ice Age behemoth.

The specimen was found in August 2020 on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River in Russia’s Sakha Republic. Researchers from institutes in Yakutsk and Moscow just released a paper on their investigations into the animal.

None of them were able to speak with Western news outlets, but the general consensus from scientists in the field not involved with the research is that the most notable discovery is the presence of a fatty hump around the shoulders very similar to the one seen in modern camels.

“We knew from skeletons and cave art that woolly rhinos had large shoulder humps,” Adrian Lister, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum in London told Ars Technica, adding that “maybe this is the first time fat has actually been discovered there, which for sure is a great discovery if so.”

Indeed it has been hypothesized that perhaps these woolly rhinos had reservoirs of calories stored in a camel-like hump for long, bleak winters. Other species of Ice Age mammals had this same trick, but other researchers assumed it was part of the animal’s display equipment.

While the authors of the examination didn’t explain how it was found, leading to the suspicion it was unearthed by mammoth ivory hunters, the animal’s left half was so badly damaged they could only conclude it was eaten by predators, perhaps suggesting it was found after defrosting naturally from the permafrost.

The specimen bore a light brown coat of fur, suggesting that rhinos were born with something like a blonde coloration that gradually darkened as hairs in preparation for adulthood.

[Kung Wu]

Whoa. That's actually super cool.

[SubGod22]

This is kinda cool.

Scientists Grow Tree from 1,000-year-old Seed Found in Cave - May Be Lost Medicinal Plant in the Bible

During an archaeological dig in a desert area north of Jerusalem 40 years ago, a seed was discovered which was determined to be in pristine condition but had obviously seen many a year.

Now, despite falling from its parent 1,000 years ago, it has grown into a mature tree, and botanists examining it believe it may be an extinct species that was used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years—even receiving a nod in the Bible.

Neither Israeli botanists, nor Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, could determine what species it was from simply from the seed covering. So they did what nature intended—they planted it.

Using a well-documented technique that saw 2,000-year-old date palm fruit pits germinate, Dr. Sallon soaked the seed in hormones, liquid fertilizer, and water, and then planted it in a pot of sterile seed; then waited.

Despite its genetic code being exposed to environmental stressors for over 1,000 years, the seed sprouted after 5 weeks. The shoot was protected by a caplike feature called an operculum. As the shoot grew the operculum was shed—leaving something for the team to radiocarbon date and which provided the age of the seed—between 993 to 1,202 CE.

Fast forward 14 years and the plant has become a 10-foot-tall tree. Dr. Sallon shared images of the tree, its bark, and its leaves with botanists around the world. One expert suggested it belonged to the genus Commiphora, found across the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa. A genetic analysis subsequently revealed this was the case, but a perfect match was lacking.

Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but the best way to confirm that suspicion would be to have some aromatic traces similar to the resins of the myrrh tree to which it is related. However, no such fragrant compounds were detected.

[Kung Wu]

This is kinda cool.

Scientists Grow Tree from 1,000-year-old Seed Found in Cave - May Be Lost Medicinal Plant in the Bible

Turns out it is an ultra invasive species that is severely toxic to all mammals and reptiles and is what killed all the dinosaurs. The scientists that grew it have never been found as their bodies were absorbed by the plant and it has now spread to all continents.

[ShockTalk]

Turns out it is an ultra invasive species that is severely toxic to all mammals and reptiles and is what killed all the dinosaurs. The scientists that grew it have never been found as their bodies were absorbed by the plant and it has now spread to all continents.

Funny..........................I think.

[WstateU]

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[Kung Wu]

I'm at a snooty charity, someone help!!! Which pinky goes out left or right????? Hurrry!!!

[1972Shocker]

I'm at a snooty charity, someone help!!! Which pinky goes out left or right????? Hurrry!!!

I believe it is the right one:

image.png

[ShockerDropOut]

I was going to go with a different finger, but Kung Wu is a pretty good guy.

[Kung Wu]

I'm at a snooty charity, someone help!!! Which pinky goes out left or right????? Hurrry!!!

Son of a gun! I lost internet right after posting and my wife had to pee, so when she left I got nervous and didn't know which one so I raised them both up.