Brand NEW Podcast!! Afraid of Nothing discusses "Afraid of Haunting of Emery Estate" with Drag Paranormal Investigator Monique Toosoon and Rob Gutro about their crazy 5-hour investigation in a haunted mansion in Massachusetts. They encountered 3 ghosts and one with a chilling personality...
ABOUT BAT GUANO - According to Planet Natural. Com, Bat guano, in particular, is highly sought after as it is believed to be superior to other types of guano. The bats’ diet of insects and small creatures results in guano that is exceptionally rich in nutrients. Moreover, it is a sustainable resource, as bats produce it continuously. However, while guano is beneficial for plants, it can pose a risk to humans and pets if not handled properly. It can harbor disease-causing fungi and bacteria.
Diagnostic dilemma: Growing weed with bat poop left 2 men with deadly infectionsBy Emily Cooke Live Science, March 12, 2025
Using bat poop to fertilize plants like cannabis can sometimes have deadly consequences. A report highlights two fatal cases that affected men in New York.
Two men in New York developed a severe fungal infection as a result of their efforts to grow their own bat-poop-fertilized cannabis.
The patients: A 59-year-old man (patient one) and a 64-year-old man (patient two) in Rochester, New York
The symptoms: Patient one was initially admitted to the hospital for respiratory failure after experiencing various symptoms, including a sore throat, difficulty swallowing and extensive weight loss for about six weeks. At the hospital, doctors ordered a computed tomography (CT) scan of the patient's neck, which revealed that he had mucus clogging his upper voice box and right-side vocal cord.
Patient two, meanwhile, was initially hospitalized for having low salt levels in his blood, which caused tissue swelling. His teeth were also in poor condition, which made it harder for him to eat or drink, leading to weight loss, and he had a chronic cough.
What happened next: When he was admitted to hospital, patient one seemed to be wasting away and had signs of bacterial blood poisoning. An additional CT scan, this time of his chest, showed that he had a buildup of fluid in his lungs. Doctors treated him with antibiotics and briefly put him on ventilation to support his breathing. The medical team later identified traces of fungi in the patient's urine and in coughed-up mucus from his respiratory tract.
In the hospital, patient two had a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). A CT scan revealed multiple lesions in his chest and abdomen. In addition, traces of fungi were detected in his urine.
The diagnosis: Both patients — who were not affiliated in any way but were from the same area — were diagnosed with a rare fungal lung infection called histoplasmosis.
This condition occurs when people inhale spores of a harmful fungus named Histoplasma capsulatum, which usually grows in soil and the poop of birds and bats. Approximately 1 to 2 people per 100,000 in the United States are infected with histoplasmosis each year. However, most people exposed to the fungus don't develop any symptoms. Symptoms are more likely to emerge in people with lung conditions or weakened immune systems, compared to the general population.
In these two cases, the patients' symptoms may have been exacerbated by other diseases that they had before they developed histoplasmosis. For example, patient one had emphysema, a common type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in which air sacs in the lungs are damaged, which constrains breathing.
The treatment: Following their diagnoses, the patients were prescribed antifungal drugs to combat their infections. However, despite this treatment, both died. Between 5% and 7% of patients who are hospitalized with histoplasmosis die of their infection.
What makes the case unique: Both patients in these cases were already using or planning to use bat poop as fertilizer to grow cannabis for personal use. Patient one had ordered bat poop — or guano — online, while patient two intended to use guano he'd found in his attic following a bat infestation.
In a report describing the cases, doctors noted that various online sources claim that bat guano is a "natural superfood" for cannabis plants because it contains lots of nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Meanwhile, numerous U.S. states have recently legalized the recreational use of cannabis — including Arizona in 2020, New York in 2022 and Ohio in 2023 — which may be encouraging more people to grow their own cannabis, the report authors noted.
The dangers of using bat guano as fertilizer aren't unique to cannabis — the product would be risky for any gardening, the authors emphasized. But given guano is being marketed for cannabis specifically, there is a need to raise public awareness around the potential risks associated with using the poop in this way, they warned.
This week's hero is a Border Collie named Zen who teaches other dogs in Italy how to rescue people from avalanches!
(Photo: Zen, an avalanche Border Collie, attends a training with the Italian National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps in Col Gallina, near Cortina D’Ampezzo, northern Italy, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno))
By COLLEEN BARRY and ANDREA ROSA , Associated Press, April 7, 2025
Zen, a 5-year-old Border collie, circled friskily around a mound of snow as he picked up a scent, his quick movements signaling to his handler that someone was buried deep below.
Zen has been a rescue dog for three years, and on this day, he was setting an example for 20 others dogs being certified for avalanche rescue in the heart of the Italian Dolomites, whose breathtaking jagged peaks have long enchanted writers, painters and outdoor enthusiasts alike.
The role of dogs in Italian alpine rescues is becoming more important as the number of people caught by avalanches increases — up by 50% over the past 25 years.
Climate change has made heavy, wet snow more common in mid-elevations between 1,500-2,500 meters (5,000-8,000 feet) where most excursionists venture, which makes avalanche survival less likely by compressing air pockets that would allow a trapped alpine or off-piste skier to breathe.
A trained avalanche rescue dog’s nose can locate someone buried deep in the snow more accurately than any transponder, making their role fundamental in reaching victims “in the shortest possible time,’' said Adriano Favre, who ran the canine training camp in the mountains above Cortina D’Ampezzo, a chic ski resort and a venue of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
After picking up the scent, Zen energetically emerged with a sign of life — a rope tug toy — from the manmade snow den masquerading, for the purposes of the training exercise, as an avalanche. Shortly after, his handler digs a volunteer victim out of the snow, and showers Zen with praise and affection.
“All of our dogs need to have an intense relationship with the handler. If not, we can’t read what he is trying to tell us,’’ said Zen’s handler, Paolo Sbisa, who has raised him from puppyhood. “Once the relationship is built, they will do anything to make us happy.’’
Dogs sniff out avalanche survivors, and bodies
Nine days earlier, on a nearby pass just 3 miles (two kilometers) away as the crow flies, Zen’s mission was deadly serious.
Three backcountry skiers were buried by an avalanche on Giau Pass at 2,300 meters — normally a route for beginners amid scenic rugged rockfaces near a mountain road that turned deadly the day after a heavy snowfall.
Zen and his handler were on the first helicopter leaving base 10 minutes away. By the time they arrived, witnesses had pulled a 51-year-old man from the snow. Rescuers located the second victim with a transponder, a 38-year-old man buried 2 meters (6 feet) deep.
Zen’s nose was key to locating the third skier, a 40-year-old woman buried in 3 to 4 meters (9 to 12 feet) of snow — deeper than the usual, according to Sbisa, making the role of a rescue dog critical in determining where to dig.
Despite their efforts, both she and the second victim died — revealing a disheartening truth: If you need a dog to find you, it’s probably too late. For this reason, Sbisa and other rescuers say it is critical for backcountry excursionists to have and know how to use transponders, foldable probes and shovels, as the best chance of survival is self-rescue by companions or witnesses. Dogs, more often than not, locate bodies.
“If something goes wrong though, the only weapon Alpine rescuers have to search is dogs,” Sbisa said. “We have no other chance.″
Italian avalanches rise 50% in 25 years
Avalanches involving people who need rescue in Italy have doubled since the turn of the century from a rolling average of 30 a year to 60, according to the AINEVA snow and avalanche monitoring service. During the same period, the number of excursionists struck on average also increased significantly, from 65 a year to 110 a year, based on rolling averages.
As a Superman fan, and a fan of westerns, I had to pick up the Trade Paperback of "The Kents." It's about the history of Clark Kent's adopted father's family history going back to the 1850s, detailing how they got to Kansas. I read three chapters (of the 12) into it, but although I loved the story, the book was narrated by a "diary" and the "diary" sections were in 2 or 3 point typeface, making them almost impossible to read... so sadly, I had to give up and flip through the rest of it. Looks like a great story, but the editor should have been more mindful of the size of the type. (If you can read type that small, go for it!) Today's blog is about the story:
ABOUT THE BOOK: This Superman - "The Kents" trade paperback is published by DC Comics. This collects comic book issues number 1 through 12, the whole series of the Kents that was printed in the late 1990s. The book features the work of renowned writer John Ostrander.
LIVESCIENCE By Sascha Pare March 13, 2025
Mount Washington is a prominent mountain in New Hampshire, known for its dramatic weather and conditions that are extremely dangerous for hikers and climbers.
QUICK FACTS
Name: Mount Washington Location: New Hampshire Coordinates: 44.270631129317565, -71.30324713195401
Why it's incredible: The mountain has some of the wildest weather on Earth.
Mount Washington is the tallest peak in the Northeast. The mountain is famous for attracting extreme weather, with winds that exceed the force of a hurricane more than 100 days per year.
The mountain is home to "the world's worst weather" for three main reasons.
Firstly, at 6,288 feet (1,917 meters) tall, it is the highest mountain in New England. Winds pick up speed when they can blow unobstructed, and the mountain is directly exposed to winds from the west that travel for hundreds of miles without obstruction. The closest mountains of a similar height to Mount Washington along this westerly windpath are the Black Hills of South Dakota about 1,600 miles (2,500 kilometers) away, according to the Mount Washington Observatory.
Finally, Mount Washington sits on the confluence of three major storm tracks. Storms hit the summit every three days on average in the winter, bringing high winds and huge amounts of precipitation, according to the observatory. Record levels of precipitation for Mount Washington were measured in 1969, when 4.1 feet (1.3 m) of snow fell within 24 hours.
As a result of its unique position, Mount Washington is a contender for the world's fastest recorded wind speed. On "calm" summer days, instruments on Mount Washington's summit record wind speeds of 40 mph (65 km/h). But when storms roll in, these winds can whip up gusts exceeding 100 mph (160 km/h).
On April 12, 1934, instruments at the summit measured a record wind speed of 231 mph (372 km/h), which is equivalent to wind speeds inside a level-5 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Such winds have the power to level well-constructed buildings, blow away structures with weak foundations and throw cars over large distances. The record still stands today as the second-fastest natural wind gust ever recorded, with the fastest occurring on Barrow Island in Australia on April 10, 1996 and reaching speeds of 253 mph (407 km/h).
Even wind speeds of 100 mph can rip huge chunks of ice off the mountain and the Mount Washington Observatory building at the summit, which poses a severe risk for hikers and climbers in the winter. The observatory has bulletproof windows to mitigate the risk of one of these chunks smashing into the building, according to its website.
As well as flying ice, people climbing Mount Washington in the winter are faced with the risk of avalanches, hypothermia and frostbite. Temperatures on the mountain average 27.1 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2.7 degrees Celsius), which can create extreme wind chill conditions, according to New Hampshire State Parks.
Several rescue teams monitor Mount Washington, and volunteers regularly save the lives of hikers who get lost or caught out by changing weather conditions.
VIDEO OF THE MT WASHINGTON AVALANCHE March 11, 2025
128 new moons discovered orbiting Saturn, nearly doubling the ringed planet's total
Faint signatures detected by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope have revealed 128 new moons around Saturn, making it the indisputable frontrunner for having the most moons in our solar system.
Astronomers have discovered 128 never-before-seen moons orbiting Saturn — giving it almost twice as many moons as all the other planets in the solar system combined.
The findings have further bolstered Saturn's status as our solar system's "moon king." With an updated total of 274 known natural satellites orbiting the gas giant, it is leagues ahead of its main competitor Jupiter, which has just 95 confirmed moons.
This week, the International Astronomical Union officially recognized the team's discovery. The researchers published their findings March 10 in the journal arXiv, so they have not yet been peer-reviewed.
"Our carefully planned multi-year campaign has yielded a bonanza of new moons that tell us about the evolution of Saturn's irregular natural satellite population," study lead author Edward Ashton, an astronomer at Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, said in a statement.
The newfound moons are situated within the Norse group of Saturn's moons — a group of moons that orbit in retrograde (travelling in the opposite direction to the planet’s rotation) along elliptical paths outside Saturn's rings. The 128 newly discovered objects are considered "irregular" moons, meaning they're only a mile or two in size and far from spherical.
Their diminutive sizes and location means these moons are likely fragments of larger moons that were smashed apart by a cataclysmic collision — probably with Saturn's other moons or a passing comet. This collision could have occurred as recently as 100 million years ago, the astronomers said in the study.
The discovery was made using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which combed the sky around Saturn between 2019 to 2021 and discovered an initial 62 additional moons in its orbit. The team also found faint signals of an even larger number of orbiting bodies but were unable to confirm them at the time.
"With the knowledge that these were probably moons, and that there were likely even more waiting to be discovered, we revisited the same sky fields for three consecutive months in 2023," Ashton said. "Sure enough, we found 128 new moons. Based on our projections, I don't think Jupiter will ever catch up."
March 12, 2025, NBC NEWS, By Mithil Aggarwal
For 20 years, students and teachers at Biloela State High School in Australia studied and worked next to a beige boulder without realizing it was a window into a lost world.
In 2021, following media coverage of dinosaur remains in the area, someone thought to have an expert look at the big rock sitting in foyer of the school in Queensland, eastern Australia. The boulder was covered in what looked like chicken feet — if those chickens were big and had only three toes.
That's when paleontologist Anthony Romilio came to the high school to examine the boulder and its unusual markings.
“I thought, 'Yes, it’s a small boulder, so I can just lift it up.' But oh my goodness, it was so heavy so I had to rethink this,” Romilio told NBC News in a phone interview.
Dinosaur footprints discovered on a rock in Australia Dinosaur footprints discovered on a boulder outside a school in Queensland, Australia. University of Queensland “They did not know that this was an actual fossil itself,” said Romilio, a research associate at the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab and co-author of research published online Monday in the Historical Biology journal
He went on to identify 66 fossilized footprints from 47 individual dinosaurs left during the early Jurassic period, nearly 200 million years ago.
“It’s a huge number of dinosaurs, and it’s the highest number found in a single slab in Australia,” he said.
The school's deputy principal, David Hall, told the The Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Romilio's discoveries had been a shock, but also "a bit exciting."
Dinosaur footprints discovered on a rock in Australia
Romilio spreads silicone on a cast made from one of the rock samples.University of Queensland "It sits in a very public area in our student foyer and our kids walk past it every day, and so do we," he said.
He added that the school had ended up with the boulder about 20 years ago when a geologist who was married to one of the school's teachers came across it in a nearby mine.
“That area was going to be blasted or disturbed with the mining activities, and he saved that specimen and donated it to the school,” Hall added, according to ABC.
After seeing the remarkable rock at the school, Romilio decided to dig into the matter further, and drove to a nearby coal mine in Callide. There, another open-air secret confronted him.
“As I am coming into the car park, there was this massive boulder with another massive dinosaur footprint that’s just staring at you,” he said.
Dinosaur footprints discovered on a rock in Australia
An artist's impression of a herd of Pisanosaurus, believed to have made the footprints.University of Queensland
“And just my jaw dropped," he said, and remembers thinking: "This is incredible.”
The boulder at the mine contained two footprints, one that was obvious and another half broken and hidden with mud. Together with a third rock that is part of a private collection and encased in resin, researchers have been able to piece together an ancient history of the area.
These records are a critical window into the Jurassic period in Australia, when “the most common dinosaur fossils are footprints, by several orders of magnitude,” Romilio said.
For now, the school boulder remains where it is, and discussions are underway for it to be relocated to a more public venue.
“It’s a part of their community and really a part of their heritage,” Romilio said.
In 1997-1998, I attended Western Kentucky University for a degree in meteorology. Now, 27 years later, I happily connected with 4 old friends from that time and one recent one from my paranormal books. Of course, there was a little hotel issue, but i rectified it. That's what today's blog is about.
WHY KENTUCKY? - WKU offered a 2 year degree program, with a deep concentration. Prior to that, I had degrees in radio and television, English and Business management. I had also taken all the prerequisite math courses at a community college, so I only needed the hard-core meteorology and physics courses. Within 1 1/2 years I graduated with distinction, but over that time I made some wonderful friends with whom I've always stayed in touch.
HOW DID I KEEP UP? - One of the things I love to do is send postcards. I even make my own by cutting out boxes of food items, like my Pop Tarts, cereal, protein bars, and other things. It takes 2 minutes to write a post card and it lets friends know you're thinking of them. Of course, in the late 1990s, email started to come into its own, so that became a thing. Then facebook and all kinds of social media came along, making it easier to stay in touch. Everyone I befriended also got Holiday cards to let them know where I was and what was happening.
No one that I attended school with lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky any more, but there were still friends I met in other ways.
FRANK - We met when I attended church in Bowling Green. You know that sometimes you sit next to someone and start talking? That's what happened with us, and we became good friends. Frank is an amazing man. He's worked for a city fitness center as a Fitness Wellness Supervisor, through the Parks and Recreation division. He's also a CPT, and EMT. He teaches fitness courses, too. I was so excited to see him after all this time!
JOHN AND MARTHA - When I was living in Bowling Green, I also met John in church. In fact, I did readings for him... he was a priest, but retired and went to work in another profession. He also later met and married Martha, and together they're a spiritual, progressive powerhouse. Both are warm and wonderful and I've even connected to their cat Faith who passed.
(Photo: Kuntry Kitchen in Morgantown, Kentucky)
Since they live over 1 hour from where I was, we made plans to meet at a small restaurant in between, called Kountry Kitchen - a true Kentucky experience. John has been great at staying in touch by email over the last quarter century, and I appreciate that so much. I couldn't hug them enough, and John very much remembered Frank from church.
CHRIS B. - When I went to school in Bowling Green, I worked part time for a cable company in the production department, and worked with Chris. I remember Chris as a very tall, wiry guy with glasses and a wry smile, who was so incredibly talented as a TV producer and photographer. It was like 27 years had not gone by. We enjoyed breakfast in a local restaurant called Teresas. It had wooden beams in the ceiling and a tile floor. It had a true rural feel, and good food.
CHRIS & LESLIE - A couple of years ago I did a pet spirit reading for a dog named Winnie. His parents, Chris and Leslie had several questions about Winnie and were thankfully comforted by Winnie's messages. Chris continued to stay in touch and ask great paranormal questions. I really enjoy conversing by email and when I told him about my trip, he was excited to meet me, as I was to meet him. I didn't arrive to the city until 8pm, but we met at the Waffle House and had coffee and great conversation. You never know how you'll make friends that mean so much.
HOTEL STUFF - Before the trip I booked a room for a couple of nights at the Days inn by Windham, which unfortunately was right against Interstate 65, a highly traveled Truck route between Nashville and Louisville. I slept maybe 2 hours. It was brutal. I booked through Hotel.com, and they refused to refund anything as I cancelled the other 2 nights. The people managing the hotel were nice enough, but can't do anything for 3rd party bookings.
LESSON - NEVER USE 3RD PARTY HOTEL BOOKINGS.
(Photo: It was springtime in bloom in Bowling Green, while southern Maine got snow, rain and sleet).
HOTEL SALVATION - Tom and our friend Jeff texted me and directed me to the Hilton 1 mile away from the interstate. I drove there, and booked a room. The woman at the desk, Debbie, was a kind, sweet, sympathetic southern woman, who obviously knew I hadn't slept by looking at me! So she booked me on the newly updated 4th floor with no one else on the floor. I slept from 9:30pm to 7a.m. I haven't slept that long since I was 16. The Hilton was awesome, clean and quiet and I got to work out at the nice gym (they had a pool, too, which I didn't use).
BOTTOM LINE - I missed connecting with my friend Sheryl from the cable company, but there were only 2 days and a lot of driving. Overall, the trip proves that when you make good friends, they'll always be good friends.
Robert Morris, former Texas megachurch pastor and Trump adviser, indicted for child sex crimes
Morris is a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, and Gateway — one of the nation’s largest megachurches — has been particularly active in Dallas-area GOP politics.
By Robert Downen, March 12, 2025, The Texas Tribune
Robert Morris, the Dallas-area megachurch pastor who resigned last year amid sexual abuse allegations, has been indicted in Oklahoma for child sex crimes that date back to the 1980s.
Morris is a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, and Gateway — one of the nation’s largest megachurches — has been particularly active in politics. In 2020, Trump held a “Roundtable on Transition to Greatness” there that was attended by then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr and other prominent Republicans.
Morris faces five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said in a Wednesday evening press release.
The indictment comes less than a year after Morris resigned from Gateway Church in Southlake after an adult woman, Cindy Clemishire, said Morris repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she was a child in Oklahoma in the 1980s. Morris was at the time working as a traveling preacher.
In a Wednesday text message, Clemishire said through an attorney that she was grateful for the indictments.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” she said. “Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable. My family and I are deeply grateful to the authorities who have worked tirelessly to make this day possible and remain hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail.”
Clemishire’s disclosure came as the Dallas religious community was still reeling from a handful of recent sex abuse scandals. Since then, at least a dozen Dallas-area churches or pastors have been accused of committing or concealing sexual misconduct — allegations that have ensnared some of the area’s most prominent leaders and institutions.
Few, if any, were more high-profile than Morris, who steadily involved himself in state and national politics after founding Gateway in 2000. In 2017, Morris was tapped by Gov. Greg Abbott to help support the so-called “Bathroom Bill” that sought to ban transgender people from using their preferred bathroom — in part by arguing that it would allow children to be sexually abused.
During Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Morris was among at least three other Dallas-area religious leaders who served on Trump’s evangelical advisory board. And in 2021, Morris was part of an effort to mobilize conservatives and evangelicals ahead of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
As Morris’ national political spotlight grew, so did his church’s local footprint. For years, Morris and Gateway would show slates of local school board candidates on the church’s massive screens in the lead up to elections — potentially in violation of federal rules that prohibit overt political activity by churches.
“Many of you see what Satan has been trying to do even in our school systems,” Morris told some of the church’s roughly 25,000 members in 2023, before showing a list of Republican candidates.
Those tactics have since been replicated at nearby congregations such as Mercy Culture Church. The Fort Worth church was founded with financial support from Gateway, and has become a staple of local Republican circles, often hosting local elected Republicans and the chair of the Texas GOP.
On Friday night, I made a Surprise Ghost Box Radio Appearance- Reading w/ Linus the cat
Last night, I had the pleasure of joining Greg Bakun, host of the Ghost Box Radio, to talk about a reading his spirit cat, Linus nudged me to do while I was on vacation last week. Greg read the reading and we talked about it. Greg was able to confirm many things Linus said. Hope you enjoy this as I did! WATCH BELOW
LINK TO WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/live/Ir8qy16-Klw?si=ONXTjp5z4xUdliLn
A pilot and his two young daughters have survived on the wing of a plane for about 12 hours after it crashed and was partially submerged in an icy Alaska lake. Hero pilot Terry Goades located them and the Alaska Army National Guard came by and rescued them!
(This photo provided Monday, March 24, 2025 by Dale Eicher shows an airplane partially submerged into the ice of Tustumena Lake near Soldotna, Alaska, with the three survivors standing on the plane's wing. (Dale Eicher via AP)
Pilot and 2 young daughters survive the night on airplane wing after crashing into icy Alaska lake
By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press, March 25, 2025
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A pilot and his two young daughters survived on the wing of a plane for about 12 hours after it crashed and was partially submerged in an icy Alaska lake, then were rescued after being spotted by a good Samaritan.
Terry Godes said he saw a Facebook post Sunday night calling for people to help search for the missing plane, which did not have a locator beacon. On Monday morning about a dozen pilots including Godes headed out to scour the rugged terrain. Godes headed toward Tustumena Lake near the toe of a glacier and spotted what he thought was wreckage.
“It kind of broke my heart to see that, but as I got closer down and lower, I could see that there’s three people on top of the wing,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
After saying a prayer, he continued to approach and saw a miracle.
“They were alive and responsive and moving around,” Godes said, adding that they waved at him.
The missing Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, piloted by a man with two juvenile immediate family members aboard, was on a sightseeing tour from Soldotna to Skilak Lake on the Kenai Peninsula. It was not immediately clear how old the juveniles were.
VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFEfvMicvdc
In a social media post early Monday, John Morris implored people to help search for his son and granddaughters, saying they were late returning from a Sunday afternoon flight.
“There are friends ready to search at daylight. But this is my plea for any and all help to locate my family,” he wrote.
The three were rescued on the eastern edge of Tustumena Lake on Monday by the Alaska Army National Guard after Godes alerted other searching pilots that he had found it. Another pilot, Dale Eicher, heard Godes’ radio call and related it to troopers since he was closer to Skilak Lake and figured he had better cell reception. He was also able to provide the plane’s coordinates to authorities.
DOUG'S TAKE ON HIS ALBUM: When I asked Doug about his new album he said: "I tried to have a wide variety of sounds with each song, so they would all sound different, but still hold together as an album. It's the first/only instrumental album I've made, and I wonder why it's taken me so long. I put a lot of detail in my arrangements and whenever I lay vocals on top, it obscures at least some of what I'm playing. So I'm really pleased that sounds aren't fighting in the way of each other. It took over a month to mix, as the multitracks are a mess, but I plugged away at it and am happy with the result."
MY ENJOYMENT: Here's what I told my friend Doug after my first listen: I really enjoyed it.
TO ENJOY THE ALBUM: The album, Thought Bubble: Skinned Instrumentals by Douglas Chay, has just been released on all the major streaming services, such as Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Amazon Music (these are the links to it on those platforms).
If you've read this blog, you know I get excited about prehistoric fossils and discoveries of never before seen species. Today's blog is about scientists that found ancient nail tooth shark fossils deep inside Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, revealing new information about a mysterious group of extinct predators. I lived near there in the 1990s, when I studied for my meteorology degree, and have been to Mammoth Cave- and it is "Mammoth." Today's blog provides a little about Mammoth Cave first, then gets to the discovery.
(Image: An illustration of McGinnis' nail tooth (Clavusodens mcginnisi) depicted hunting a crustation in a reef-like crinoidal forest during the Carboniferous period. McGinnis' nail tooth (Clavusodens mcginnisi) depicted hunting a crustation in a reef-like crinoidal forest during the Carboniferous period. (Image credit: NPS Illustration / Benji Paysnoe)
Researchers collecting fossils deep inside Kentucky's Mammoth Cave have uncovered the remains of a never-before-seen species — an absolutely tiny ancient shark with nail-like teeth.
The newfound species is called Clavusodens mcginnisi, or McGinnis' nail tooth. The animal lived 340 million years ago and belonged to a group of sharks known as obruchevodid petalodonts, or "chipmunk sharks" because of their tiny size and unusual teeth.
These sharks grew to just 3 to 4 inches (7.5 to 10 centimeters) long and fed on crustaceans, worms and other prey on the seafloor, according to a statement released by the National Park Service (NPS). It's thought their tiny size helped them avoid large predators while foraging.
Researchers unveiled McGinnis' nail tooth in a study published Jan. 24 in the Journal of Paleontology. The species name is named after David McGinnis, a retired National Park Service superintendent, and their teeth, which resemble old iron nails.
VIDEO OF MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK (Credit: U.S. National Park Service)
Mammoth cave A team of researchers plucked the fossils out of rocks inside Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system in the world. Mammoth Cave is a treasure trove for ancient fish fossils, with more than 70 different species identified within its walls, according to a 2024 study published in the journal Parks Stewardship Forum.
Underground rivers and streams forged the cave's passages, which are made up of rocks that have preserved marine sediment from the Carboniferous period (358.9 million to 298.9 million years ago). The cave has given researchers a unique window inside these rocks, and therefore the marine environments they preserve, according to the 2024 study.
Researchers have been documenting vertebrate fossils in Mammoth Cave since 2019. The work is challenging because of the cave's often cramped conditions and limited space to move equipment in and out.
The newly discovered fossils came out of the Ste. Genevieve rock formation and date back to 330.9 million to 323.2 million years ago. The fossils are the oldest obruchevodid petalodonts discovered so far, according to the study.
Discoveries like McGinnis' nail tooth enable researchers to learn more about long-extinct sharks and the ecosystems they inhabited.
"The fossil discoveries in Mammoth Cave continue to reveal a wealth of new information about ancient shark species," Barclay Trimble, the superintendent at Mammoth Cave National Park, said in the statement. "Researchers and volunteers collected samples from the main Mammoth Cave system and from smaller isolated caves throughout the park that have provided new data on previously known ancient sharks and revealed several species that are brand new to science."
