Peacock spiders: scientist finds seven new species.... Watch the video Cubs, they're cute and they dance

A scientist with a passion for peacock spiders – only a couple of millimetres long, extraordinarily colourful and “like dogs or cats” in their behaviour – has discovered seven new species.

Jürgen Otto, a biologist from Sydney, has been researching the arachnids since 2005, and has gained a significant following online with his footage. He first came across one while walking in the Ku-ring-gai Chase national park, north of Sydney.
“I’m always looking on the ground when I walk around, mostly for mites and other small things, and I almost stepped on this little spider.
“That’s what started my passion.”
A paper Otto co-wrote about the discovery of seven new species from Western Australia and South Australia was published in the international jumping spider journal Peckhamia on Sunday. He believes there are now 48 confirmed species of peacock spider within the Maratus genus, found across Australia but particularly in Western Australia – and many more awaiting confirmation.

The spiders are between three and five millimetres long and belong to the jumping spider family, which has tens of thousands of members. With their large eyes and almost mammalian characteristics, they look and behave differently to other spiders.
Their bright colors and patterns form a key part of courtship rituals, as with peacocks and birds-of-paradise.

Maratus vultus, one of the new species discovered by Jürgen Otto. Photograph: Jürgen Otto

“They’re fairly cute, which is why people are attracted to them,” Otto said.
“They behave very differently to how people think a spider does ... they behave more like cats and dogs, moving around, perceiving and reacting to their environment.”
Otto maintains a Facebook page dedicated to the colourful arachnid, which has more than 61,000 followers. He also posts videos to his YouTube channel; one video has 5.4m views.
“For me, it’s important to document all of these spiders and their behaviour ... I just wanted there to be a public record.”
He has dedicated a spare bedroom to his “spider work”.
“I wish it was larger, but it’s not ... this hobby sort of consumes everything.”
Otto’s day job is national mite expert for the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
“By comparison to mites, these spiders are actually quite large,” he said. “It’s all relative.
“If you know what you’re looking for, you can find them. But I have to be careful not to lose them – particularly the babies – and not to squash them.”
Otto continues his exploration with one eye on the ground at all times and is determined to identify every species of  Peacock spider and educate us about these tiny inhabitants of our planet.

Why is Guantanamo Bay detention centre still open?

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from inside Guantanamo Bay detention centre, which is still open, despite President Obama vowing to shut it down eight years ago.

I need a little clarification please

INVERNESS SCOTLAND

WHY IS THIS OLD, OLD  LADY PUSHING A PENIS AROUND ON HER WALKER?????? PEOPLE IN THE HIGHLANDS MUST BE A LITTLE WHACKO

OR MAYBE THEY JUST WORSHIP A PINK ALIEN GOD



And now just for the hell of it....A crazy Chewbacca lady



NOW PUT IT TO MUSIC

Trump wins enough delegates for Republican nomination...." I just learned I got the nomination"

Trump: "I just learned I got the nomination

The US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has reached the number of delegates needed to secure the party's presidential nomination. In North Dakota on Thursday, he thanked 15 unbound delegates from the state who he said "got us right over the top".

He defeated 16 other Republican contenders and according to the Associated Press has 1,238 delegates, one more than needed. Republicans will finalize their nomination at a convention in July.While Mr Trump has the required amount of delegates, his nomination by a divided Republican Party is not yet secured. Unbound delegates in the party are free to support the candidate of their choice.

If his nomination is confirmed, Mr Trump will face former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who are vying for the Democrat nomination.On Wednesday, the New York billionaire suggested going against Mr Sanders in a TV debate in California before the state's primary on 7 June. Mr Sanders agreed to the debate in a tweet, saying "Game on".

On Thursday, Mr Trump said: "The problem with debating Bernie? He's going to lose."

He also threw a barb in Mrs Clinton's direction, saying: "Here I am watching Hillary fight and she can't close the deal. That should be such an easy deal to close."

Earlier, the current US president Barack Obama said that world leaders "had good reason to be rattled" by Mr Trump, whose proposals he said were "either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude".

In response to that, Mr Trump told reporters in North Dakota that rattling leaders of other countries was a "good thing".

"[President Obama] knows nothing about business," he said.

"Many of the countries in our beautiful world have been absolutely abusing us and taking advantage of us."

"We're going to have great relationships with these countries but if they're rattled in a friendly way that's a good thing, not a bad thing."

It wasn't a matter of if, only when. With no real obstacles between him and the nomination, Donald Trump was going to cross over the magic 1,237 delegate mark at the latest by the California and New Jersey primaries on 7 June.

It must be a bit of delicious irony for the New York real estate mogul, however, that the Associated Press has declared him the winner thanks to the support of a Republican Party establishment that largely recoiled from him for most of the campaign.

Of course the nomination isn't official until the balloons drop at the Republican convention in July, but the desperate attempts of the #NeverTrump movement to throw any obstacles in his path are essentially extinguished.

While his closest presidential rivals - Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Marco Rubio - have yet to free delegates pledged to support them at the convention, Mr Trump can win the prize with or without their help.

The Republican convention in Cleveland will be the Donald Trump show, and everyone not with him will be spectators or - as his recent criticism of Republican Governor Susanna Martinez of New Mexico has shown - targets.

First ever 360 degree panorama of Mount Everest



Conviction overturned in Georgia ...Judge rules racial bias in jury selection

 Foster was convicted in 1987 of murdering a 79-year-old retired school teacher in her home

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of a black death-row inmate, finding that state prosecutors in Georgia unlawfully excluded potential black jurors from his trial.

Timothy Tyrone Foster was convicted of molesting and killing a white 79-year-old retired schoolteacher in 1987.
But the court on Thursday overturned his conviction after ruling that the prosecution had broken the law. Foster may now face a retrial, 29 years after his death sentence.
A law introduced in 1986 made it illegal in the US to pick jurors based on the colour of their skin.

But the following year all four black members of the potential jury pool in Foster's case were struck from the pool by prosecutors, leaving an all-white jury.
Non race-related reasons were given for striking the black members from the pool, but prosecution notes released to Foster's lawyers in 2006 revealed racial motivations, the Supreme Court said. The notes show that the prosecution marked the names of black prospective jurors with a "B", highlighted them in green, and circled the word "black" on their juror questionnaires, Reuters news agency reported.
According to Foster's lawyer, Stephen Bright, one handwritten note titled "Definite Nos" listed six people, of whom five were the remaining black prospective jurors, the Associated Press reported. The sixth was a white woman who made clear she would never impose the death penalty, Mr Bright said.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the notes "plainly bely the state's claim that it exercised its strikes in a 'colour blind' manner".
The eight justices of the Court voted 7-1 in Foster's favour. The sole dissenter was Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative and the only black member of the court.
Foster, who was 18 at the time of the murder, was accused of breaking into the home of White, breaking her jaw, sexually molesting her and then strangling her, before stealing items from her house. So should they have followed the letter of the law or be guided by the severity of the crime? Hard choice, but personally, I think the law has to stand under these circumstances.

Golden Boy Slipping from Pedestal

 

It was quite a week for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. At least we no longer have to wonder how much longer this honeymoon will continue. The question is, how much worse will things get? This is the problem with placing public figures on a pedestal and treating them as untouchable. They soar pretty high. It’s a nice perch to look down from while you’re up there. But the higher they go, the further they have to fall.

This is certainly the case with Trudeau now. But the Liberal campaign convinced the people – and the people clearly wanted to be convinced – that their leader was going to transcend politics as we knew it. Good luck delivering on that commitment.
I vividly remember TV footage of people jumping up and down crying in the streets in elation over the election of Barack Obama. You almost had to feel bad for the guy. There was no way he wasn’t going to let them down. He's a human being not a miracle worker. Now we are reacting the same way to Trudeau, expecting far more than any one leader can reasonably deliver.
Trudeau had a terrible run of things last week, which cumulatively marked the beginning of his return to Earth. It began with the public still fiercely debating whether or not taxpayers who have no domestic help and make substantially less than the Trudeaus should have to pay for Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau to have yet another helper or two in addition to her current retinue. While public opinion was divided, the Trudeaus no doubt lost more supporters than they gained.
Then there was the PM’s unprecedented tantrum on the floor of the House of Commons Wednesday, complete with swearing and shoving, which generated headlines around the world. And the global tone wasn’t: “Hey look at the handsome PM being such a bad-ass once again.” Nope, there was no redeeming angle this time.
But there were other, deeper, problems festering as well. As Kady O’Malley tweeted on the night of Elbowgate: “I still think the attempt to rewrite the House rules to strip the opposition of their parliamentary rights is a bigger deal.”
The whole reason the PM was in a snit was because the opposition parties weren’t passing his bills as fast as he wanted. They were using the procedural rules at their disposal to ask questions, show their opposition and, y’know, do the job their constituents sent them to Ottawa to do.
So even though he already has a majority and knows his bills will get passed, the PM got his House leader to try to pass a bill that essentially strips the opposition of the few tools they have at their disposal to challenge the government.
It’s almost like he’s a particularly entitled birthday boy who won’t stand for the symbolic gesture of giving the other kids loot bags, even though his presents are far nicer and he’s still the centre of attention for every other moment of the party.

Then there was the exclusive interview with Reuters, released Thursday evening. Trudeau alludes to the fact that the deficit might end up clocking higher than the $29.4 billion it’s currently projected to be – which is three times higher than what he promised during the campaign. Right? I want to make sure we’re all clear on this point.
I’ve got the Liberal platform open in front of me and here’s what it says: “We will run modest short-term deficits of less than $10 billion in each of the next two fiscal years to fund historic investments in infrastructure and our middle class.”
Yet in that Reuters interview he turns around and says: "Yes, we need to be fiscally disciplined, we need to be responsible, but we need to be investing in the right kinds of things at the same time, so the arbitrary picking a number and trying to stick with it is exactly what I campaigned against in the last campaign."
Whoa, hold on. So he’s saying he campaigned against setting a deficit limit and sticking to it ... even though he clearly campaigned to stick to a specific deficit limit.
In another six months or so the previously forgiving public will be jaded and sneering that Trudeau’s just like the rest of ‘em. While Trudeau’s rising then declining popularity arc is all to be expected, I certainly don’t envy the remaining tumble that awaits him.
He is in there, attempting to do his job the best he knows how and does have Canada's welfare and well being at heart. But he is just a guy and he will have screw ups and bad moods and make bad decisions sometimes. And feel grumpy because he is constipated. So let's allow him to step down off that pedestal we have built for him before he comes crashing down.

Trouble for Trudeau: Canada's golden boy Prime Minister

Forced to apologize after he ELBOWS female opposition lawmaker during physical parliamentary fracas

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized 'unreservedly' for elbowing a female opposition member of Parliament in the breast as he waded through a group of her colleagues.
Ruth Ellen Brosseau said the fracas forced her to miss a vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday as she had to leave the chamber.
'I was elbowed in the chest by the prime minister and then I had to leave. It was very overwhelming,' she said.

Trouble brewed when the opposition parties' members filled the aisle and refused to sit down while others pounded their desks and ignored the parliamentary call to order. Somewhat like a filibuster, they were trying to delay a member of parliament from reaching his seat so voting could start on behalf of speeding up Trudeau's new bill for assisted suicide. There has been a prolonged and very tense debate over physician-assisted dying legislation.

Tempers were already running high in the Commons all week after the government gave notice of a motion to give cabinet tighter control over the House of Commons’ schedule, and when the House can break for the summer. Opposition MPs have criticized the motion as a “draconian” attempt to help the government get its way without debate.

On Wednesday, before the confrontation took place, members were gathered in the House to vote on a motion, to limit  the debate on its controversial assisted-dying legislation, Bill C-14. The government is pressing to get its bill passed by week’s end to meet a looming Supreme Court deadline. Opposition members, however felt it needed more discussion and refinement.

Trudeau and his  majority government sat politely for a time and then Justin lost his cool and marched into the group of troublemakers and told them to 'sit down'. In the video you can see he did not know who, if anyone, was behind him. Politicians are too aware what that kind of faux pas can do to a career. And Justin is known to be polite to all women.

But of course, opposition leaders have slammed the incident as 'violent' - branding Trudeau, an avid boxer, 'un-statesmanlike'.

Mr. Trudeau said the NDP members of Parliament appeared to be blocking Mr. Brown from taking his seat so the vote could start. When he went to help Mr. Brown to his seat, he says, he extended his arm to assist Brown to break out of the group of MPs surrounding him, and hit Ms. Brosseau by mistake. His explanation is plausible but many MPs feel he should have remained in his seat. And he also said, "Get the fuck out of my way," as he charged through the group to rescue Mr. Brown, which is hardly gentlemanly.
After the incident, all hell broke loose and everyone got out of their seat to join the fracas.

His apology:

I admit that I came into physical contact with a number of members as I extended my arm, including someone behind me whom I did not see. I certainly did not intend to offend or impact on anyone,' Trudeau said. 'I apologize for that unreservedly and I look for opportunities to make amends.

So, Golden Boy has a temper. That just proves he is human and impatient to get on with the job. Some of us are glad he is showing a little spunk.

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Mercury passing the sun...For the Cubs

Of course the journey didn't happen that fast but see how small Mercury is next to the sun

Published on May 11, 2016

SPACE — On May 9, NASA filmed footage of Mercury passing by the sun. The rare event, called a transit, only happens slightly more than once a decade. According to NASA, while Mercury passes the sun every 88 days, over four times faster than the Earth, it's not normally visible to us as the three celestial bodies rarely align.
Mercury was seen passing by the sun as a tiny black dot. The planet's entire travel across the sun, as visible from Earth, took about 7.5 hours. But Mercury is too small to be visible without magnification, so NASA took it upon themselves to create a stunning video, which was released the night of the event.



To Aunt Jeannie ---Volcanoes expose 4.5 billion-year-old pieces of Earth: Material could shed light on the formation of our planet

Volcanoes have spewed out material created within the first 50 million years of the solar system's creation.
The material - found in Canada's Baffin Island and in a region near the Solomon Islands - is about 4.5 billion years old, dating back to shortly after Earth formed.
The fact that these materials have survived billions of years hints at the limited of motion in Earth's interior and could shed more light on the birth of our planet.

Volcanoes have spewed out material created within the first 50 million years of the solar system's creation. The material - found in Canada's Baffin Island and in a region near the Solomon Islands - is about 4.5 billion years old, dating back to shortly after Earth formed
Scientists say the discovery could help researchers understand the processes that shaped our planet's birth.
Earth formed from the accretion of matter surrounding the young sun.
The heat of its formation caused extensive melting of the planet, leading Earth to separate into two layers when the denser iron metal sank inward toward the center.
This created the core, leaving the silicate-rich mantle floating above.
Over the subsequent 4.5 billion years of Earth's evolution, convection in Earth's interior - like water boiling on a stove - caused deep portions of the mantle to rise upwards.
This motion caused the mantle to separate once by density.

Pictured is Baffin Island, where a research team was able find a geochemical signature of material left over from the early melting events that accompanied Earth's formation

The mantle residues of crust formation were previously believed to have mixed back into the mantle so thoroughly that evidence of the planet's oldest events was lost completely.  Pictured is a diagram of Earth's interior showing the crust (aluminium, silicate), the mantle (magnesium, silicate) and the core (iron, nickel)
                   EARTH'S FORMATION :
Earth is believed to have formed from the accretion of matter surrounding the young sun.
The heat of its formation caused extensive melting of the planet, leading Earth to separate into two layers when the denser iron metal sank inward toward the center.
This created the core, leaving the silicate-rich mantle floating above.
Over the subsequent 4.5 billion years of Earth's evolution, convection in Earth's interior - like water boiling on a stove - caused deep portions of the mantle to rise upwards.
This motion caused the mantle to separate once by density.
The melts, since they were less dense than the unmelted rock, rose to form Earth's crust, while the denser residues of the melting sank back downward, altering the mantle's chemical composition. 
The mantle residues of crust formation were previously believed to have mixed back into the mantle so thoroughly that evidence of the planet's oldest geochemical events was lost completely.
However, the research team, which included scientists from Carnegie Melon University and the University of Maryland, was able find a geochemical signature of material left over from the early melting events that accompanied Earth's formation.
They found it in relatively young rocks both from Baffin Island, off the coast of northern Canada, and from the Ontong-Java Plateau in the Pacific Ocean, north of the Solomon Islands.
These rock formations are called flood basalts because they were created by massive eruptions of lava.

The solidified lava itself is only between 60 and 120 million years old, depending on its location.
But the team discovered that the molten material from inside the Earth that long ago erupted to create these plains of basaltic rock owes its chemical composition to events that occurred over 4.5 billion years in the past.

Rock formations, such as the one pictured, are called flood basalts because they were created by massive eruptions of lava. Pictured is Baffin Island

The research team found the material in relatively young rocks both from Baffin Island, off the coast of northern Canada, and from the Ontong-Java Plateau in the Pacific Ocean, north of the Solomon Islands
They made the discovery by measuring variations in these rocks to see the abundance of an isotope of tungsten—the same element used to make filaments of incandescent light bulbs.
Isotopes are versions of an element in which the number of neutrons in each atom differs from the number of protons.
These differing neutron numbers mean that each isotope has a slightly different mass.
The team's discovery offers new insight into the chemistry and dynamics that shaped our planet's formative processes
The team's discovery offers new insight into the chemistry and dynamics that shaped our planet's formative processes
Tungsten contains one isotope of mass 182 that is created when an isotope of the element hafnium undergoes radioactive decay, meaning its elemental composition changes as it gives off radiation. The time it takes for half of any quantity of hafnium-182 to decay into tungsten-182 is 9 million years.
This may sound like a very long time, but is quite rapid when it comes to planetary formation timescales. Rocky planets like Earth or Mars took about 100 million years to form.
The team determined that the basalts from Baffin Island, formed by a 60-million-year-old eruption from the mantle hot-spot currently located beneath Iceland, and the Ontong-Java Plateau, which was formed by an enormous volcanic event about 120 million years ago, contain slightly more tungsten-182 than other young volcanic rocks.
Because all the hafnium-182 decayed to tungsten-182 during the first 50 million years of solar system history, these findings indicate that the mantle material that melted to form the flood basalt rocks that the team studied originally had more hafnium than the rest of the mantle.
The likely explanation for this is that the portion of Earth's mantle from which the lava came had experienced a different history of iron separation than other portions of the mantle, since tungsten is normally removed to the core along with the iron.)
It was a surprise to the team that such material still exists in Earth's interior.
'This demonstrates that some remnants of the early Earth's interior, the composition of which was determined by the planet's formation processes, still exist today,' explained lead author Hanika Rizo, now at Université du Québec à Montréal.
'The survival of this material would not be expected given the degree to which plate tectonics has mixed and homogenized the planet's interior over the past 4.5 billion years, so these findings are a wonderful surprise,' added Richard Carlson, Director of Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.

The team's discovery offers new insight into the chemistry and dynamics that shaped our planet's formative processes.
Going forward, scientists will have to hunt for other areas showing outsized amounts of tungsten-182 with the hope of illuminating both the earliest portion of Earth's history as well as the place in Earth's interior where this ancient material is stored. 

Going forward, scientists will have to hunt for other areas showing outsized amounts of tungsten-182 with the hope of illuminating both the earliest portion of Earth's history as well as the place in Earth's interior where this ancient material is stored.

Aunt Jeannie ,  this  so interesting  , we hope you enjoy it . Daddy posted it  for us .  Aunt Jeannie , we  hope you are  getting better  .
Chris and I will be in high school this fall ,  everyone is passing to the next grade  , Man  will be in the  3 grade  , Poppa and Man stay in trouble . 
Aunt Jeannie  , Chris  and I  have a business  deliver packages UPS and Fed-Ex leave at the guard house , they drive to fast  , we have lots of little  kids . Adam  and Eric will help us when we  go on vacation . Hope you like  the post . We asked Daddy  how far from you  was the Baffin Island , daddy said  a long  distance . Jenny said  you know daddy is going to tell you to look it up .
From the Cubs . We love you very much .
Wrote by Jonny

These Strange creatures are called Narwhals. They are abundant around Baffin also whales and walrus and seals.

This one of two places Norwhals exist. The other is the Russian Arctic, where a few have been spotted. There are only 75,000 left in the world. They are endangered