'Forgone conclusion'

'Murica!

When helmeted hornbills go to battle, they wield their giant heads as weapons in an airborne jousting competition. Diagrams reveal the calamitous outcomes that send one contender spiraling toward the ground as the victor rises, but how do they smash into each other without falling unconscious? That’s just what scientists have been trying to find out.As their common name would suggest, these birds are famous for their impressive headgear, armed with an enormous bulbous casque that’s both ornamental and protective. Known to science as Rhinoplax vigil, the helmeted hornbill is a curious species from an academic perspective as its giant helmet could explain how they’re able to bonk heads in midair without it ending in disaster for both parties.“As I learned more about this species, I discovered a cross-section of a dried skull in a museum, revealing a shocking trainwreck of trabeculae [inter-connected bony struts] in the casque,” said Dr Mason Dean, an Associate Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in a statement. “When I heard that individuals are known to ram their casques together in mid-air displays, I just had to know more about the functional morphology.”The team used micro-CT to peer inside the casque and uncover the secrets of the hornbills’ helmets. Their samples encompassed male and female specimens, including ones with joint flexibility and a rhamphotheca (the keratin sheath that covers the casque) that can slide off, so they could get a really good look at a wide range of helmets.Just look at that thing.Image credit: ZakiFF / Shutterstock.comThe results revealed that “trainwreck of trabeculae” were on average as thick as those found inside an elephant’s femur. If this seems excessive, you’re not wrong, as typically animal size corresponds to trabeculae thickness, so the helmeted hornbill has really taken this trait and run with it – even Dean’s socks were knocked clean off. “I’ve used micro-CT to look at a big diversity of animal skeletons, but I have never seen bony trabeculae like the ones we’ve found in the hornbill. That massive stand of trabeculae then channels back to the braincase, like a bundle of banyan tree prop roots, converging on a bony platform that’s far more reinforced than in other hornbills and relatives we’ve looked at,” he said. "Males butt heads in ‘aerial jousting’ at the speed of automobile collisions.”Image credit: Thipwan/Shutterstock.com“All of these anatomical features start to give a sense of how the skull of the helmeted hornbill is adapted to withstand one of the fastest known biological impacts, where males butt heads in ‘aerial jousting’ at the speed of automobile collisions.”This knowledge also has practical applications. “Understanding hornbill anatomy and how it allows for this jousting behaviour can give us clues about this elusive animal’s ecology and fundamental aspects of its life history and health,” said Dean. “Since hornbill functional anatomy is virtually unexplored, our findings will ideally also give new perspectives on the bio-inspired design of high-performing composites for tolerating damage from repeated collisions.”       While the helmeted hornbill’s casque is its greatest weapon, it’s also its greatest weakness. These animals are the subject of industrial-scale poaching that has been spurred on by a surge in demand for "avian ivory" coveted by some humans, so the race is on to protect the species before they get wiped out despite being as strong – in some respects – as elephants (which, by the way, are less athletic than flying hippos).Awareness is one step in the right direction to protecting a lesser-known and remarkable species, so we can all do our bit by shouting about the incredible talents of the helmeted hornbill’s midair jousting, and that truly remarkable casque.This study is being presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Prague on July 2-5 2024.

When Alba, the dog, first met the newborn baby, Nina, it was a moment filled with curiosity and excitement. Alba, known for her gentle nature, approached Nina with a mix of enthusiasm and tenderness. From the very beginning, it was clear that Alba was eager to get to know the newest member of the family.... The post Dog meets new baby sister and her ’emotional’ response melts hearts appeared first on Animal Channel.

The largest city in New Hampshire has already begun to clean up its streets just days after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pivotal ruling likely to have a significant impact on the country's growing homelessness problem.While much of the focus on homelessness has been on California and other West Coast states, Manchester, New Hampshire, has had a major homelessness problem of its own in recent years. Perhaps as many as 140 Manchester residents are homeless, and another 400 or so are living in shelters, the city website said.'During walks with my kids, we've encountered human excrement. I've had to teach them to be looking out for needles.'"I'll be frank with you," said Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg. "This has been a strain on this police department and this community as a whole for the last several years."Last Friday, SCOTUS justices ruled 6-3 that cities can ban sleeping and camping in public areas such as streets and parks. By Tuesday evening, Manchester leaders had already voted to change the city's local ordinances to make public areas safer.The previous ordinance in Manchester banned public sleeping and camping only from sunrise to sunset, a measure that could be enforced only when space was available at local shelters.On Tuesday, Mayor Jay Ruais and the city's aldermen met and voted overwhelmingly, 14-1, to ban public camping entirely, effective immediately. The measure gives police the option to impose a $250 fine on violators, and the city also allotted police an extra $500,000 to help with enforcement.Despite the apparent enthusiasm for the new ordinance from local leaders, some residents spoke out against it during the public comment portion of the meeting. Often echoing tired platitudes, these critics expressed deep sympathy for the homeless population but seemingly little concern for area families."We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness," said one man."Unhoused people need homes, not handcuffs," added a woman.One woman has even bragged that she regularly visits homeless encampments and does not believe they pose a threat to public safety. "I often walk through the homeless encampments while walking around town," said Phoebe Youman. "I'm a young woman. I'm under five feet tall, and I walk alone most times, and not once have the people living on the streets or living in their cars made me uncomfortable or harassed me, let alone caused a safety risk."An area father and business owner took a decidedly different view. "I've seen camps set up on school property where our children, where my children, should feel safe and secure," said Adam Alvarez, a Manchester native."During walks with my kids, we've encountered human excrement. I've had to teach them to be looking out for needles."Mayor Ruais has since defended the measure and slammed those accusing him and others of unfairly attacking the homeless."This is not criminalizing [homelessness]," he said. "Nobody's going to jail as a result of this. This is the deterrence effect."Ruais also noted that the city does offer assistance to those who want and ask for it. "What we won't tolerate is people breaking our laws or ignoring our ordinances," he said.Police Chief Aldenberg added that homeless residents may use public parks like anyone else — so long as they abide by the rules."If they want to be in the parks as well and act appropriately and not drink there, not urinate there, not sleep there, then they're more than welcome to be there, as well," he said.Aldenberg also indicated that the new ordinance will allow all Manchester residents to enjoy their beautiful city: "People that want to come and sit in the park with their family on a nice day like today ... [will] feel more comfortable doing so."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

It's being reported that Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake desktop gaming CPUs could be easier to keep cool, and thus to overclock, thanks to a new mounting system. The new Intel Arrow Lake RL-ILM reportedly system puts less strain on the chip than the current LGA1700 mount, meaning it stays flatter and makes better contact with typical CPU coolers. Although Intel's current best gaming CPU options are able to be cooled well enough, it can take special measures to get the best from the chips. For instance, we've seen how Noctua has had to engineer a specific variant of its new NH-D15 G2 cooler with a more convex base plate in order to cool Intel's 12th, 13th, and 14th gen chips properly. Continue reading Cooling your new Intel CPU will depend on your motherboard, says leak MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Core i5 14600K review, Best gaming CPU, Core i9 14900K review

Is Zenless Zone Zero Steam Deck compatible? Much like some other HoYoverse games, Zenless Zone Zero hasn't launched on Steam, making it a little tricky to start playing on the Steam Deck. It's far from impossible, though, and once you've jumped through some hoops, the performance is pretty good. Despite being the best handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck is often at the mercy of Valve's game library, and if a game doesn't launch on Steam, it can lead to complicated workarounds being required. With Zenless Zone Zero, it's possible to play it on the Steam Deck, but you'll need to venture into desktop mode to get it installed. Continue reading Is Zenless Zone Zero Steam Deck compatible? MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

The government of Japan has just ditched over 1,000 regulations in a bid to rid itself of the tyranny of floppy disks. Until this point, the archaic storage devices were still in regular use in Japanese government bureaucracy, but the country’s digital minister Taro Kono has now proudly proclaimed that Japan has “won the war on floppy disks,” and banished the flimsy magnetic media to the past. A staple of PC games hardware in the 1980s and early 1990s, floppy disks took several forms over the years, from massive 8-inch disks to the mini 3.5-inch disks that became synonymous with the Save icon in software. The latter only held 1.44MB of storage space in their high-density form (and 720KB in the previous double-density form), and they’re notoriously hard to buy new now. That’s less than a millionth of the space found on some of the best microSD cards right now. Continue reading Japan’s government has only just stopped using floppy disks MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

THIS! --> Rob Schneider Posts Thoughtful, Super-Helpful Meme That Just So Happens to VAPORIZE Team Biden

If there's only one thing you can say about GTA Online, that would be that Rockstar surely knows how to keep its content fresh over the last 11 years. With a slew of ever-evolving online challenges, bounties, and activities, you'd be hard-pressed to find another online game where you can discover and participate in so much, whilst also getting in heap loads of trouble.