There Was a Massive Ice Storm… In Mexico… In the Middle of the Summer

 

On the last day of June, residents in various pockets of Guadalajara, Mexico woke up to find themselves surrounded by more than 3 ft (1 meter) of hail. As city officials scrambled to clean up the mess, the freak hailstorm wreaked havoc on buildings and roads, snarling the city in traffic.

 

 

 

“Hail more than a meter high, and then we wonder if climate change exists.” – Enrique Alfaro Ramirez, Governor of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara is the capital

 

 

 

“Low pressure extending south from the US and Mexico border had been forecast to contribute to developing storms along the boundary separating different air masses. Once these storms developed, all the ingredients came together for there to be this strange hailstorm over Guadalajara.” – CNN Meteorologist Michael Guy

 

 

 

In the days leading up to the freak storm, temperatures had averaged nearly 32°C/90°F. Even the day after the storm, temperatures were over 27°C/80°F. This melting created severe flooding in some areas and clogged drainage systems.

Thankfully nobody was hurt and order was eventually restored to Mexico’s second largest city.

 

 

 

Sources

– Guadalajara, Mexico, covered in ice after a freakish summer hailstorm
– Freak Summer Hailstorm Hits Mexico’s Guadalajara
– Freak hailstorm buries part of western Mexico in ice
– Freak summer hailstorm buries cars in Mexico’s Guadalajara
– Enrique Alfaro on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

150 Million Year Old Dinosaur Footprints in France

© P. Dumas

 

In the Jura Mountains, outside the French village of Plagne, you will find a ~500ft/150m long stretch of dinosaur footprints dating back 150 million years.

After examination, scientists from the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon (CNRS / ENS de Lyon / Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University), the Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans (CNRS / Université Clermont Auvergne / Université Jean Monnet / IRD), and the Pterosaur Beach Museum concluded the tracks were left by a Sauropod measuring at least 115ft/35m long and weighing no less than 35 tonnes. Today it is recognized as the longest Sauropod dinosaur trackway ever discovered.

You can read more about this fascinating discovery at the CNRS.

 

CNRS via reddit

 

 

Raikoke’s First Eruption in 95 Years Captured by NASA Astronauts

Image credit: NASA

 

Unlike some of its perpetually active neighbors on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands rarely erupts. The small, oval-shaped island most recently exploded in 1924 and in 1778.

The dormant period ended around 4:00 a.m. local time on June 22, 2019, when a vast plume of ash and volcanic gases shot up from its 700-meter-wide crater. The dramatic event was captured from space by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

In the image above we see the volcanic plume rising in a narrow column and then spreading out in a part of the plume known as the ‘umbrella region’. That is the area where the density of the plume and the surrounding air equalize and the plume stops rising. [source]

 

NASA Earth Observatory via Smithsonian

 

 

This is the World’s Oldest Porsche and It’s the Only One of Its Kind

 

This August, the oldest surviving Porsche in the world (and the only of its kind) will go to auction in Monterey by RM Sotheby’s. It’s expected to fetch at least US$20 million which will easily make it the most expensive Porsche ever. The current title holder is the Porsche 917K used in the film, Le Mans, which sold for US$17 million in 2017. [source]

 

 

Per Road & Track:

This car is a Type 64, which Ferdinand Porsche designed for a 1500-kilometer race between Berlin and Rome planned for September 1939. It was based on the Porsche-designed Volkswagen Beetle—then known as the KdF Wagen—but fit with streamlined aluminum body panels and a hotter 32-hp flat-four. The race never happened. Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September, 1939, and the Type 64 project was effectively cancelled. One car was built, which became property of the German government.
 
Ferdinand’s son Ferry built two more examples of the Type 64, though. Chassis #2 was completed in December, 1939, and chassis #3 was finished the following June. Type 64 #3 actually used the bones of the first car, which was crashed by the managing director of Volkswagen. While Type 64 #2 didn’t survive the war, chassis #3 did, and was retained by the Porsche family when they relocated to Austria. Ferry Porsche put the company name on the front of the Type 64, registered it in 1946, and had Battista “Pinin” Farina—who later founded design house Pininfarina—restore it in 1947.

 

 

“This is Porsche’s origin story, the car that birthed the company’s legend, and it offers collectors what is likely an unrepeatable opportunity to sit in the seat of Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche.”

 

 

The 1939 Type 64 #03 is the most historically significant of all Porsche cars and it is being offered in its original condition. It has only had 4 owners and even a number of original spare parts are included in the auction. You can learn more about this incredible vehicle at Road & Track as well as the original RM Sotheby’s press release which has many more photos as well.

 

 

 

A Rare Cat Born With Four Ears; Yoda His Name Is

 

A rare cat born with two extra ears (they are more like flaps) has recently resurfaced online after first garnering online attention over a decade ago.

Owners, Valerie and Ted Rock, adopted the frisky feline back in 2006 and decided to name him Yoda, a nod to the famous Star Wars character and legendary Jedi.

According to The Telegraph:

Yoda’s extra ears – which are not thought to help him hear – are not attached to the base of his skull, with one placed slightly behind the other. They are believed to be the result of a genetic mutation.

 

Aside from his genetic mutation, Yoda is a happy indoor cat with an ‘interesting obsession with bread’ according to Valerie. To learn more about Yoda, you can check out this Daily Mail article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holocaust Survivors in Same Line at Auschwitz Meet 72 Years Later

Photograph by Sandi Bachom

 

Indenpendent documentary journalist, Sandi Bachom, shared this incredible photo last week on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). On Twitter, Bachom added:

 

Today is #YomHaShoah #HolocaustRemembranceDay. In 1944, the year I was born, my friends Werner and Walter were tattooed 10 numbers apart in #Auschwitz. Because of a Facebook miracle I was able to film their first meeting 72 years later. #NeverAgain

 

Social Media news channel NowThis produced the interview segment with these two survivors and their story is worth a watch (embedded below). Even though they were in the same line a mere 10 people apart, this is the first time the two ever met.

 

 

 

It’s Only April and We Already Have the Best Selfie of the Year

 

The official Instagram account for the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently shared this viral selfie of a park ranger and two orphaned gorillas named Ndakazi and Ndeze.

According to The BBC:

The image was taken at a gorilla orphanage where the animals were raised after poachers killed their parents. The park’s deputy director told BBC Newsday that they had learned to imitate their carers, who have looked after them since they were found.
 
The gorillas, he added, think of the rangers as their parents. The gorillas were just two and four months old at the time. Because they’ve grown up with the rangers who rescued them, Mr Mburanumwe added, “they are imitating the humans” – and standing on two legs is their way of “learning to be human beings”. But it “doesn’t happen normally”, he said.

 

Pictured above is Ranger Mathieu Shamavu. In the images below we see more gorilla selfies taken by another ranger, Patrick Sadiki Sadiki. Being a ranger is an incredibly dangerous job. Five rangers were killed in Virunga National Park last year in an ambush by suspected rebels, and more than 130 park rangers have been killed in Virunga since 1996.

The park also reminds people that this photo happened under exceptional circumstances and that it is never permitted to approach a gorilla in the wild. Donations to the park and their conservation efforts can be made here.

 

 

 

 

 

Photographer Captures Two Sharks Swimming Through a Cresting Wave

© SEAN SCOTT
Website | Instagram | Prints

 

Photographer Sean Scott captured this incredible photo off the coast of Red Bluff in Western Australia.

Scott had spotted a giant congregation of fish feasting on a bait ball when he noticed roughly 200 copper sharks also show up to the ‘dinner’ party. From his setup on the beach, Scott snapped away and was able to capture this amazing frame of two sharks swimming through a cresting wave.

Prints of this perfectly timed shot are available through Scott’s website. For more fantastic nature photography be sure to follow Sean on Instagram

 

Sean Scott on Instagram via Colossal

 

 

The Tallest, Shortest, and Fattest Men in Europe, 1913 (Colorized)

Colorized by Jecinci

 

In this colorized photo by Jecinci, we see Europe’s tallest known man (Cornelius Bruns) playing cards with Europe’s fattest man (Cannon Colossus) and shortest man (unknown) in 1913.

According to sleuths and commentors on reddit, the original caption of the black and white photo reads:

“Cannon, the giant Dutch colossus weighing 738 pounds, doing a game with the biggest Russian Casacque and the 70 year old Dwarf Chip”

 

Did you notice that Cannon is also sitting on two chairs tied together? I wasn’t able to find much additional info on these gentlemen, however another photo of Cornelius Bruns can be seen here, and a younger photo of Colossus can be seen here.

 

via Jecinci on reddit

 

 

“Travelled 300 Million Miles, Took This Pic”

NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the robotic arm of NASA’s InSight lander, took this picture of the Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018, the same day the spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. The camera’s transparent dust cover is still on in this image, to prevent particulates kicked up during landing from settling on the camera’s lens. This image was relayed from InSight to Earth via NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. It is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the “inner space” of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.

The lander uses cutting edge instruments, to delve deep beneath the surface and seek the fingerprints of the processes that formed the terrestrial planets. It does so by measuring the planet’s “vital signs”: its “pulse” (seismology), “temperature” (heat flow), and “reflexes” (precision tracking). [source]

 

NASA/JPL-CalTech

 

NASA’s InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC). This image was acquired on Nov. 26, 2018, Sol 0 of the InSight mission where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 13:34:21. Each ICC image has a field of view of 124 x 124 degrees.

InSight touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458-million-kilometer) journey from Earth. It’s mission on Mars is targeted to last two years. While the mission on Mars has just begun, the successful touchdown on the red planet was a huge accomplishment. It marks the eighth time in human history that we have successfully landed on Mars.

 

What was your reaction to today’s #MarsLanding? 🚀
STEP 1: Reply with a GIF or photo of your reaction
STEP 2: See how others reacted by taking a look at this @Twitter moment: https://t.co/39T6BFwgNj pic.twitter.com/6YULrFsiEs

— NASA (@NASA) November 27, 2018

 

“We hit the Martian atmosphere at 12,300 mph (19,800 kilometers per hour), and the whole sequence to touching down on the surface took only six-and-a-half minutes,” said InSight project manager Tom Hoffman at JPL. “During that short span of time, InSight had to autonomously perform dozens of operations and do them flawlessly — and by all indications that is exactly what our spacecraft did.”