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Named “Scotty” after the drink used to toast it’s finding (scotch whisky), the skeleton is currently housed at the Royal Saskatchewan museum. The paper announcing it’s discovery was published in March 2019.

It was discovered in 1990, at the same time as the previous record holder, Sue, but due to the hardness of the rock around it’s skeleton unearthing the bones took decades.

Scotty is larger than Sue by 400kg. It’s estimated Scotty weighed 8,870kg, a number derived from the size of it’s hefty thigh bones.

Scientists estimate the T-Rex was able to grow to become the largest land predator on record because it was over thirty years old. 

For comparison, the largest male African bush elephant weighed over 10,400kg and on average are 6,600kg. So Scotty was the size of a large elephant!

The roots for the experiment extend back to 1961, to a Nobel-prize winning physicist named Eugene Wigner. His thought experiment involved him and another friend both measuring the state of the same particle and obtaining two different but correct results which would mean two realities exist at the same time.

A few details which are relevant:

1. A photon is an elementary particle which can have a spin of +1 or -1.

2. Before a measurement occurs these two states, +1 or -1, are unknown and can be assumed to both exist, a phenomenon known as “superposition.” 

3. Whether or not a photon is in a superposition can be measured without measuring the spin of the particle.

The recent experiment involved 6 photons, four “observers”, and two separate “labs”. Two of the “observers” are inside the “labs,” one in each, and outside the lab are the other two observers. 

In a nutshell, it is possible for the observers inside the lab to measure the spin of the photon while outside the lab it is possible for the other two observers to either verify the observations of those in the lab or take their own measurement and find the photons are in a superposition. 

Remember, if a superposition exists there is no definite spin. This produces two separate realities, both correct.

This flies in the face of the scientific method, that facts are universal and can be verified by multiple observers. Taking this further, there is now proof of a reality two observers don’t necessarily agree on. 

Spooky.

Nematodes, also known as roundworms, are microscopic organisms which have adapted to nearly every ecosystem. Two species of nematodes were recently thawed from Siberian permafrost and were found to be moving and eating.

The two species were from two different samples of permafrost, one ~32,000 years old and the other ~42,000 years old.

Nematodes have two abilities which allow them to survive the largest threat from a deep freeze: ice. First, they are able to produce proteins which surround ice crystals and cushion their cells from ice’s sharp edges. Second, they are able to pump the water from their cells, minimizing the amount of danger from ice their cells are exposed to.

This is the first evidence of the long-term cryopreservation of multicellular animals from permafrost, according to the study.

The sacrifice, performed by the ancient Chimú civilization, occurred in 1450 and also included the bodies of close to 200 young llamas. 

This is the largest known mass child sacrifice, the second being 42 children in an Aztec temple in modern-day Mexico City. 

The children, ranging in ages from 4-14, were organized according to age, which suggests the involvement of priests. Their heads were arranged with their heads facing the sea and the heads of the llamas facing the mountains. 

It is assumed the sacrifice occurred in response to heavy rainfall in the normally arid climate brought on by El Niño. The may have believed the sacrifice would appease angry gods. 

Knife marks were found on the ribs and sternum of the children and llamas, suggesting their hearts had been removed, a practice known to occur among Mesoamerican cultures. Archaeologists are unable to tell if the hearts were removed before or after death.

Other game engines use handcrafted rules written by professional players; AlphaZero

was only given the basic rules of the game. By playing millions of games against itself using a process of trial and error, AlphaZero was about to learn the games chess, shogi, and go without the use of opening books and endgame tables.

From the DeepMind website: “At first, it plays completely randomly, but over time the system learns from wins, losses, and draws to adjust the parameters of the neural network, making it more likely to choose advantageous moves in the future.” 

It took nine hours for AlphaZero to learn chess, twelve hours to learn shogi, and thirteen daysto learn go, highlighting the complexity of the ancient Chinese game.

AlphaZero is a follow up of AlphaGo, the artificial intelligence developed by DeepMind which was the first computer program to beat a human professional Go player of the highest rank. In AlphaGo’s second game of a five-game match, it played a highly unorthodox move which went against centuries of common knowledge. This move, move 37 in game two, set the computer program up to later win the game. 

By removing human input and letting AlphaZero learn for itself the program is able to teach modern human players what’s possible.

The Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba is the only mission in Texas ever completely destroyed by Native Americans. It was established in 1757 in an attempt to introduce members of the Apache tribe to Catholocism. 

The Apache are Native Americans whose traditional enemies were the Comanche people. The Comanche people believed the new Spanish mission had allied with the Apache and attacked, destroying it less than a year after it was founded.

A fortified base, the Presidio de San Sada, was created when the mission was founded for it’s protection. Located three miles away, the Comanche attack left the fort untouched.

The Spanish response did nothing to diminish the power of the Comanche. A Spanish force of 500 men were forced to retreat after attacking a town, fortified by a stockade and a moat, filled with Comanche armed with European guns.

The Presidio San Saba remained operational for another decade, in territory controlled by the Comanche, before it was abandoned. 

The First Jewish War occurred from 66-73 and was one of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire. The Jewish rebels overtook the Roman forces in Masada, a fortress built a century earlier by Herod the Great, and settled there.

The siege of Masada began in 72. The Romans built a siege ramp, then a siege tower with a battering ram, and breached the fortress’s walls in April 73. The Romans were greeted by death: all but five (two women and five children) of the Jewish rebels had committed suicide rather than fall under Roman rule, 960 in total.

There is some dispute as to the historical accuracy of the siege. The first issue is there is only one historian, Josephus, who mentions the siege at all. The other, more glaring, issue is the archaeological evidence doesn’t exist and doesn’t support the historians claims.

Modern Israel sees the siege in two differen lights. On the one hand, Masada has become a symbol of their national identity and the struggle against an oppressive empire. On the other hand it can be seen as a symbol of Jewish radicalism, of people who chose to commit suicide (forbidden in their religion) rather than compromise.

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