Walking across the Sahara Desert, you might not notice it from the ground, but from space, the so-called Richat Structure in western Mauritania is perhaps the most distinctive landmark in the Sahara. Although it might look like an impact crater or an open-pit mine, it is believed to be the weathered remains of a magma dome. www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_528.html
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Many Americans are aware that Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii ("the Big Island") has been actively oozing lava across the landscape for several weeks, causing property damage and creating impressive footage. There is considerable confusion, though, about how much of the Big Island is affected. This pair of maps may have been created in jest, but the map on the right shows the actual scope of the current eruption. pbs.twimg.com/media/Dd-GooRVMAAP0wj.jpg
This entertaining and thoughtful post from Oxford University's Practical Ethics blog considers "vegetarian Thanos" as a prelude to combining ethics, biomedical advances, and mandated behavioral change.
"Vegetarian Thanos, we might imagine, is hellbent on reducing the suffering of farm animals. The suffering inflicted on the 60 billion or so farm animals reared on planet Earth each year – or at least the suffering inflicted on the increasing proportion of them that are factory farmed – strikes an increasing number of people as plainly unjustifiable. The pleasure we get out of eating them can in no way outweigh the suffering entailed by intensive meat and dairy production. This has pushed some ethicists to argue for genetically modifying livestock so they feel less or no pain.... But I imagine Vegetarian Thanos, with his more heavy-handed approach to matters of justice, would take things in a different direction and look at modifying the humans instead. One way he could do that is by releasing upon humanity an army of ticks. Specifically, the lone star tick. The lone star tick is fairly common in the eastern United States and Mexico. It does not carry the bacteria associated with Lyme disease; instead, one bite from it leads its human victim to develop a troubled relationship with animal flesh. Within 3 to 8 hours of eating meat, those previously bitten by this tick will start to feel quite unwell, with a bad stomach ache and ferocious itching. Which is to say, a bite from a lone star tick leaves humans with a nasty, long-term allergy to meat. Could Vegetarian Thanos be the good guy here? And, Thanos aside, if you are a vegan/vegetarian for ethical reasons, should you be gathering these ticks and dispersing them among friends, family and passers-by?" blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/05/utilitarian-supervillains-moral-enhancement-and-enforced-vegetarianism We are about at the halfway point of Ramadan, the month during which observant Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. But, as this map shows, the time between sunrise and sunset varies greatly depending on where one is, from 11.5 hours in Melbourne to nearly 19.5 hours in Oslo. (However, according to this article, most Muslim scholars agree that Muslims near the poles can choose to fast during the daylight hours for Mecca or for the nearest Muslim-majority country, which in the case of Norway would be Bosnia.) www.statista.com/chart/13924/ramadan-fasting-times/
Want to learn about the cutting edge of ocean-related research? The National Geographic Society's Explorer Classroom has nine free webcasts -- with ocean biologists, deep-sea explorers, photographers and technology specialists -- coming up June 4-7. To register or to find out more, see www.nationalgeographic.org/education/programs/explorer-classroom/
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