One of the world’s greatest examples of sexual selection is the elaborate performances put on by birds-of-paradise, and it’s possible the female’s choosiness may be a way of avoiding mating with males of the wrong species. However, new research has revealed that this isn’t always enough to prevent mating between species, as it has identified some rare birds-of-paradise hybrids.A hybrid is the offspring of two plants or animals that are different species, and we’ve seen remarkable examples in nature in the form of grolar bears, coywolves, and sturddlefish. The resulting animal borrows phenotypic traits from both species, which was the first clue for scientists in establishing if such hybrids existed among birds-of-paradise.There had been reports of “odd-looking males” entering museum collections that were notable for having the breast feathers of one species, while also having the tail feathers of another. To look into the evolutionary consequences of such hybridization events between these animals, researchers led by Dr. Mozes Blom from Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and Dr Martin Irestedt from the Swedish Museum of Natural History decided to compare the genomes of different specimens.Their focus was the birds-of-paradise family Paradiseaidae, found in Australasia. The ornately plumaged males in this group put on the performance of a lifetime to win favor with picky females, which got the team wondering: what happens when a male of the wrong species slips past her quality assurance checks?The results of their investigations have been published in two papers, revealing that rare hybrids do exist among birds-of-paradise with wildly different parents. In fact, not only are there hybrids, but some of them are the result of multiple rounds of hybridization, which is significant because it indicates that the hybrid offspring aren’t necessarily infertile – something that’s not uncommon among hybrids. The recurring process means that the genetic material of one species is repeatedly found in the genome of the other, suggesting the hybrids have been reproducing and exchanging their DNA.One of the Paradisaea raggiana museum collection specimens. Hybrids were detected of these birds with Paradisaea guilielmi and Paradisornis rudolphi.Image credit: © Carola Radke"Our two studies shed new light on the evolutionary consequences of hybridization in organismal groups with strong forms of sexual selection," said Blom in a statement sent to IFLScience. "Our findings not only confirm that it is indeed still possible to produce fertile offspring between species, where the males differ so radically in traits that are a key indicator for female preference, it has actually also resulted in the sharing of genes between species.”“There is a growing body of work which indicates that hybridization may lead to phenotypic diversification and our findings surprisingly suggest that this may still hold true for species with extreme forms of sexual selection. However, many questions remain, in particular regarding the functional significance of genes that have been shared between species and why females occasionally make 'mistakes' in the first place and mate with a male that is very obviously not of her own species". The studies are published in Evolution Letters and iScience.

An ex-Rockstar Games employee has shed some light on why Grand Theft Auto 5s cancelled single-player DLC never made it to release, but the exact reason probably wont come as much of a revelationspoiler alert, its because of GTA Online.

Earlier this week, Rust developer Facepunch Studios released a brand-new blog post for the games big monthly update. From motorbikes to handcuffs, July was another big month for Rust players.

Researchers have discovered exceptionally preserved “Pompeii” trilobite fossils in Morocco, providing new insights into the anatomy and preservation of these ancient creatures through advanced imaging...

There are plenty of harmful chemicals, but the devil is in the details when determining which is the most dangerous.

“O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, … The post The Editors’ Quote of the Day: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds … The post Editors’ Prepping Progress appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Editor’s Introductory Note:  This article was first published by WorldNet Daily (WND), and is reposted with permission. — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made known the immoral, illegal and unconstitutional actions of the U.S. government so that we now know that it is lying to the people on a grand scale. For this he should be heralded as a watchdog for accountable government, not denounced as a “commie who hates America,” says leading political economist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. When the government abuses its powers, it becomes the enemy of its people. History is filled with horrifying examples of how nations … The post Julian Assange Case Marks the End of Critical Journalism, by Hanne N. Herland appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Storm King Mountain wildfire that took the lives of 14 firefighters. Weather changes, resulting in 45 mph wind gusts, caused a modest wildfire to erupt into a blazing inferno, which threatened homes in and around the town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Firefighters from around the country were called to assist in fighting this wildfire. We will never forget the young men and women who lost their lives battling this fire: Prineville, Oregon Hotshots: Kathi Beck, Tamera Bickett, Scott Blecha, Levi Brinkley, Douglas Dunbar, Terri Hagen, Bonnie Holtby, Rob Johnson, Jon Kelso Missoula … The post Preparedness Notes for Saturday — July 6, 2024 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

What’s the first thing you think of when you consider asset protection, and I mean physical assets? Probably a safe, right? Maybe an alarm system? hiding a can of food behind books on bookshelf Whether you’re keeping cash, jewelry, gems, precious metals, critical documents, or anything else worth protecting, these traditional measures are certainly worthwhile but, sadly, increasingly vulnerable… Smash-and-grab robbers will detach and haul away even large home safes and do so in minutes. Home invaders will move to neutralize you before robbing you blind. Professional theft rings and cat burglars will strike when you aren’t around and then pick your house clean at their leisure. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a safe, but if you really want to keep your goods protected, you need a top-tier hiding place where these bad guys would never think to look. From the subtle and sneaky to the incredibly clever, we’ll be looking at 13 such hiding places just below… hidden gun inside open book (book safe) A Book Safe This is a classic method of hiding valuables, and one that works particularly well if you have large and well-stocked bookcases in your home. For those who aren’t already in the know, a book safe is nothing more than an actual book with a compartment cut out of its pages or a specially designed container that looks very much like a book, able to blend in with real ones. Depending on the size of the book, you can store a quantity of jewelry, cash, or other small but important items in plain sight. Only someone who knows what they’re looking for or cares enough to check every single book is likely to locate the stash easily, but you, of course, will be able to go right to it… This is one hiding place that, however elegant it is, is also so well known it is basically a trope, and professional thieves that have time will rip books off shelves looking for such hiding places. Use with discretion! Stashed Inside a Vent A really clever way to hide valuables of all kinds is deep inside a vent. Whether it is a floor vent with an elbow that curves out of sight or a horizontal vent that is either low or high on a wall, stashing your goods in a bag or other container and then shoving them back into the vent as far as you can is a great way to stash them. Chances are any thieves that are ransacking your house will be on the clock and won’t waste time pulling hardware off the wall looking inside as long as it’s out of sight. Obviously, this is not the most quickly accessible hiding place, and you must be careful of moisture, heat, or cold affecting your goods as appropriate. But for durable items, this is a great choice. Inside a Thick Picture Frame Another classic hiding place and one that works quite well as long as you don’t choose a frame housing a valuable-looking piece of art or keepsake. Thick, ornate frames allow some standoff between the back of the frame, and the part that’s against the wall, and it is usually the backer board that supports whatever is mounted inside. This space is perfect for flash drives, cash, and other small valuables. Be careful to remove the felt or paper on the back of the frame to hide your stuff, and also take care that it can’t fall out while the frame is hanging on the wall. But if you have some kitschy posters or cheap prints of ubiquitous works of art from the masters, this might be one of the best hiding places available to you and one that most thieves won’t think to check. Use an Old Food Box or Bag Far and away one of my very favorite hiding places for valuables, but one with some serious caveats, is simply to repurpose a food container to hide things in plain sight right in the kitchen or pantry. It could be something like a box for saltine crackers or even an old bag of frozen peas. Remove the food, or securely encase the valuables, and then put the container back where you would normally expect to find it. Simple as that! But as you might have anticipated, you’ve got to be very careful with this technique: if you forget what you have stashed, it’s easy to accidentally throw away your valuables when cleaning house one day or rotating your goods. Visiting company, friends, or family members might also inadvertently discover your stash innocently when trying to get a snack or prepare something to eat. This probably isn’t the best trick for families for obvious reasons but is a flexible and effective technique for couples or single folks. Among the Attic Clutter Another time-tested approach to stashing valuables is simply to camouflage them among the many boxes and other knickknacks that people tend to accumulate in their attic or garage. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got countless boxes of old inherited family junk, decorations for every major and minor holiday, abandoned projects, and things you just can’t get rid of for whatever reason… As long as it doesn’t look overtly fancy, you can easily hide a box of real valuables somewhere in the mixture, and chances are very, very good that no thief will come across them. But think twice before you commit to this plan: anything that’s stored in either of these locations is going to be subjected to intense heat or cold and potentially moisture, so proper packaging is a must. In the Crawl Space The crawl space is another location that is considered very low probability for investigation by thieves. The crawl space of most homes contains nothing but the furnace, pipes, crickets, cobwebs, and vapor barrier. It sure isn’t convenient or pleasant for you to access either, but a well-chosen hiding spot somewhere down there is unlikely to ever be investigated, much less found. A major risk factor associated with this location is flooding, for obvious reasons, as rising water that wouldn’t even reach the door of your home could still completely inundate the crawl space. Behind a False Receptacle A clever hiding spot that you can DIY yourself or install as a purpose-built module. Electrical receptacle boxes are small but ubiquitous and can hold a stash of jewelry, cash, and similar items. All you need is the faceplate, the actual receptacle faces themselves, and the box, no wiring necessary. A little caulk or glue and a few minutes with a drywall saw, and you are in business. If you’d rather have something that is easier to access on a whim, you can buy tiny “wall safes” that look identical but have a hinge that allows you to open them at will. Either works fine and can be installed virtually anywhere and camouflaged by matching it to the hardware throughout your home. Note that I recommend doing this with light switches unless you’re installing a single dummy switch in a larger switch panel; a single switch that doesn’t seem to do anything might arouse suspicion by searchers. Under a Small Trash Can Here is another technique that I use myself in the home office. You can easily install a false bottom compartment in a small trash can for hiding virtually anything you want, up to and including a handgun or a large quantity of cash. If you don’t want to go through all that trouble, simply use a decoy trash can full of actual garbage like paper, junk mail, and so forth; just keep your goodies hidden at the very bottom and leave the trash in there. Obviously, you don’t want to put any trash in the trash can which could rot, stain, or otherwise harm your stuff. Inside the Frame of a Sofa or Loveseat If you flip a sofa or loveseat onto its back, yours will probably have black or gray fabric stapled across the bottom that hides the interior structure that gives it shape. By carefully pulling a corner or side of this fabric back, you can gain access to the interior and bolt or tape a container of valuables on the inside. This will never be discovered, even accidentally, by visitors and is very likely to elude thieves who don’t have all the time in the world to do their nefarious work. Just make sure you collect your goodies before you sell or throw away the furniture! Inside a Waterproof Container Inside the Toilet Tank This hiding spot has been around for a while and has a long and distinguished history of success. Who goes poking around inside the guts of a toilet looking for something to steal, after all? Very obviously, anything you are going to hide inside a toilet tank must be completely waterproofed inside its container, and also not interfere with the function of the toilet itself. This will necessitate the use of heavy-duty zipper locking bags, specialized dry bags, or completely watertight cases. Using a Decoy Paint or Stain Bucket This is probably the cleverest hiding place on the entire list. If you have an old paint bucket, a bucket of deck sealer, or anything like that that’s just been hanging out in your workshop, shed, or basement, you can clean out the interior but leave the outside nice and thrashed. This will provide perfect camouflage for concealing your treasure among all the other things you would expect to find in such places. If you have a variety of old paint cans and lots of tools, this method means it will blend in imperceptibly and only the most painstaking, centimeter-by-centimeter search would ever reveal it. As you might have guessed already, the trick is to keep your chosen bucket in a location where it makes sense for it to be: for instance, most people don’t keep an old bucket of paint in the bottom of their pantry or master bedroom closet. Hanging Under a Sink Stand A small container or bag can be rigged to hang high up in the plumbing or above the upper jamb of a washstand or sink stand where it is very unlikely to be noticed by anyone who doesn’t get down on their hands and knees and look in there. This hiding spot is also quite convenient for you and other authorized people to access, and compared to hiding stuff in the toilet tank like we discussed up above, the risk of water damage is greatly reduced as long as you stay on top of maintaining your plumbing. My favorite approach is to actually mount a strong magnet above the door on the inside, and then glue the mating one to a small latching plastic box. It won’t shake or jiggle free, but I can easily pull it out with no fuss and no muss when I need to. A Hidden Compartment A true hidden compartment is limited only by your ingenuity, skill, and imagination. This could be a bespoke compartment hidden under a floor beneath removable slats, a false wall in the back of a closet, or anything else. You can do a search on YouTube for lots of ideas. The trick to making a hidden compartment work for you is to make it completely invisible. This may require a level of craftsmanship or finish work that is beyond your current skill level. The obvious solution to that is to hire someone with the skills to make it. But then again, doing that means there is a leak, at least one other person outside your circle of trust who knows where and what it is! How you overcome this catch-22 is up to you, but if you are serious about using a hidden compartment for asset protection, it would be best if you figure out a way to install it yourself. The post 13 Places to Stash Your Valuables (No One Will Ever Look) appeared first on Survival Sullivan.