Sep 22, 2023 | Pennsylvania, Salon.com
Hundreds of farmed mink are wandering through central Pennsylvania after escaping from a nearby fur farm, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Ever since, the escaped mink have been spotted everywhere in the region of Rockefeller Township: In the woods, on the road and under buildings. Local authorities originally claimed that between 6,000 and 8,000 mink escaped, but later revised their estimate....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 21, 2023 | Salon.com
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to drag on, with cases rising or plateauing, President Joe Biden announced that his administration will provide all Americans with a means of monitoring their infection status: On Wednesday the president declared that his administration is setting aside $600 million for the manufacturing and distribution of new at-home COVID-19 tests....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 20, 2023 | Salon.com
If you struggle with depression, it can be a challenge to imagine feeling better even for a minute. Yet a new study by scientists at the University of Cambridge found that there is a technique which consistently helps people combat their feelings of depression. Even three months after the 16 country-spanning experiment had ended, these patients often reported that their depression symptoms remained less than they had been before....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 20, 2023 | Salon.com
There is a tiny species of carpenter bees known as the spurred ceratina (Ceratina calcarata) that behaves unlike any other known species of bee. With their elongated and shiny bluish-black bodies, the spurred ceratina is perhaps best known as a pollinator of delicious gourds like cucumbers and watermelons. At around 6.5 millimeters long, it’s about half the length of an aspirin....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 19, 2023 | Salon.com
When two dams in the Libyan city of Derna failed last week, the result was a flood that has claimed more than 11,000 lives, with thousands of people still missing. Because there were ample advance warnings that the dams needed to be repaired, much blame has been placed on the shoulders of local officials like the mayor and city council....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 19, 2023 | Salon.com
Humans have caused so many changes to our planet that some experts say we’re on par with mass extinctions of eons past. We are equivalent to the asteroid that crushed most of the dinosaurs or the Great Dying that wiped out nearly all life on Earth. Some have proposed calling our current geological age the “Anthropocene,” derived from the Greek word “anthropo” for “human.”...
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 17, 2023 | Salon.com
Autistic people who smoke marijuana often report having positive experiences. Yet their anecdotal evidence does not in and of itself prove that marijuana is an effective drug for treating autistic symptoms. To help fill that void, a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry examined 20 patients with autistic symptoms who had been treated with full-spectrum cannabis extracts (FCEs)....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 15, 2023 | Salon.com
A devastating flood that tore through eastern Libya has left at least 11,300 people dead and thousands more still missing. The deadly downpour began over the weekend when torrential downpours from Cyclone Daniel caused two upstream river dams to burst. The nearby city of Derna was overwhelmed, and reporters describe miles upon miles filed with distraught survivors and debris....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 14, 2023 | Salon.com
Summer 2023 is officially the hottest summer on record, while freak storms and rising sea levels are all around us. But we often only think of these impacts in terms of how they affect humans, such as how many billions of dollars in damages hurricanes or wildfires cause. A new documentary takes a different approach, with a specific eye toward how animals are reacting to climate change....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 13, 2023 | Salon.com
On Tuesday, while testifying under oath in front of Mexico’s Congress, journalist and ufologist José Jaime Maussan Flota shocked the world with two boxes that he claimed contained the bodies of deceased extraterrestrial visitors. Not surprisingly, social media has been abuzz about these reports. Yet are they valid?
“They are beings, non-humans who are not part of our terrestrial evolution.”