Monthly Archives: January 2016

RIP, Henry Worsley—Explorer Dies Attempting Solo Trek across Antarctica

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1600 km across the frozen wastes of Antarctica—to complete Ernest Shackleton’s failed lost expedition mission, and to raise money for wounded troops. And he almost made it. Just 48 km shy of the end of his trip, Henry Worsley’s body gave out—forcing him to call for help.

After 71 days alone on the ice, pulling his supplies on a sled, and suffering every step of the way, he finally succumbed.

Worlsey was an ancestor of Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton’s ship, The Endurance, had been trying to find a route across the Antarctic through the South Pole, but had been trapped by pack ice. In a desperate bid for survival, Shackleton successfully led his crew across the ice to the safety of a whaling station.

Worsley was attempting to complete that original mission and find a way across the barren continent. Unfortunately, after being airlifted to a hospital in Punta Arenas, Worsley’s body could take no more punishment. He passed away the next day.

Rest in Peace, one of the great explorer’s of our, or any time.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/25/british-explorer-henry-worsley-dies-on-solo-antarctic-trek.html

And Then There Were Nine…Planets…Again

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We kicked Pluto out of the happy planets club a decade ago, meaning the solar system’s active roster was down to just eight planets in the solar system. But now there’s a new member on the scene—dubbed Planet X.

On Jan. 20, Caltech scientists, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, announced their discovery of evidence suggesting the evidence of a Neptune-sized planet out beyond the orbit of outcast Pluto. Evidence suggest it’s a gaseous ice giant that’s up to ten times the mass of the earth. And it’s orbiting so far beyond Pluto that it takes 10,000 years to orbit the sun

Brown and Batygin went looking for evidence of Planet X because something was pulling the orbits of recently discovered planetoids out past Pluto towards a common point near the plane of the solar system—something huge…

And of course, conspiracy theorists have wasting no time in announcing that the discovery of Planet X obviously portends the end of the world. Stay tuned for more on apocalypse times and dates in your local area.

The only thing left now is for someone to actually lay eyes on the elusive giant. Check out the details here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/20/new-evidence-suggests-a-ninth-planet-lurking-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-system/

 

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Movie Stars and Stolen Dinosaurs—Update

Eight years after purchasing a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull from L.A. art gallery, I.M. Chait, actor Nicholas Cage has returned the stolen find to its native Mongolia.

Cage outbid fellow star and fossil buff, Leonardo DiCaprio for the skull back in 2007, paying $276,000. Cage received a certificate of authenticity from the gallery, and, at the time, all seemed cool.

But then the Department of Homeland Security came knocking. And suspicions were raised that perhaps the skull had connections to infamous fossil thief, Eric Prokopi—who has since served a stretch in the big house for the theft of another Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton from Mongolia.

Once he was advised of that his bataar had been illegally smuggled out of Mongolia Cage agreed to give it back to its country of origin.

Way to do the right thing, Mr. Cage!

Check out the details here:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/22/nicolas-cage-returns-stolen-mongolian-dinosaur-skull-he-bought-at-gallery