Leonardo da Vinci drawing sells at auction for $12.22M



"Head of Bear" is one of a number of drawings Leonardo da Vinci completed using the silverpoint technique. File Photo courtesy of Christie's

July 8 (UPI) -- A rare drawing by Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci sold at auction Thursday for $12.22 million in London, Christie's said.

The small drawing, Head of a Bear, sold as part of the auction house's "The Exceptional Sale" of artworks from antiquity through modernity. Overall, the auction realized $26.94 million.

The drawing, which is 2 3/4 inches by 2 3/4 inches, was completed using a technique called silverpoint. This process involves using a silver stylus to draw on specially prepared paper.

Leonardo used the technique for several drawings, including others of animals, having learned it from his teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio.

"In these early and innovative drawings, Leonardo infused a new level of realism into a longstanding tradition of animal imagery illustrating bestiaries and model books produced in Europe from the Middle Ages through the Early Renaissance," Christie's said in an essay about the artwork.

Christie's said Head of a Bear is one of a "very small" number of Leonardo artworks still held in private hands.

The drawing was completed sometime in the late 15th century and its ownership can be traced back to British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence, who passed it on to his art dealer upon his death in 1830. The dealer, Samuel Woodburn, sold it through Christie's in 1860, and it was later acquired by Capt. Norman Robert Colville, who died in 1974.

Christie's declined to identify the most recent owner of the drawing or Thursday's buyer.

Barrage of city-sized asteroids peppered Earth between 2.5B, 3.5B years ago
By
Brooks Hays


This crater in Arizona was produced by the impact of a 165-foot-wide meteor, the type of impact that new research suggests regularly happened between 2.5 and 3.5 billion years ago. Photo by Dale Nations/AZGS

July 8 (UPI) -- Early Earth was bombarded by massive asteroids more frequently than scientists previously thought.

According to new research, scheduled for presentation Friday at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference, Earth was struck by a city-sized asteroid an average of once very 15 million years between 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago -- a rate 10 times higher than earlier estimates

Though the asteroids ranged in size, most would have been comparable to the Chicxulub impact that wiped out the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

Just a few billion years ago, the inner solar system was a violent place.

The scars of this tumultuous period can be see on the surfaces of the moon, Mars and other rocky planets, but over time, plate tectonics and intense weathering, driven by Earth's dynamic, moisture-rich atmosphere, have helped mask the signatures of ancient collisions.

Authors of the latest study suggest an accurate reconstruction of the history of asteroid impacts on early Earth is essential for understanding the planet's near-surface chemistry, as well as early Earth's ability to host life.

Fortunately, locating crater contours isn't the only way to identify prehistoric asteroid impacts.

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Glass "spherules" formed from molten vapors expelled by massive asteroid collisions can be preserved in ancient rocks, revealing the presence of an impact a few hundred million years later.

By analyzing the distribution of spherules within ancient rock formations, researchers can gauge the size of a particular impact.

"We have developed a new impact flux model and compared with a statistical analysis of ancient spherule layer data," study author Simone Marchi said in a press release.

RELATED Melting ice sheets triggered 60 feet of sea level rise 14,600 years ago


"With this approach, we found that current models of Earth's early bombardment severely underestimate the number of known impacts, as recorded by spherule layers," said Marchi, a geoscientist at the Southwest Research Institute.

"The true impact flux could have been up to a factor of 10 times higher than previously thought in the period between 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago," Marchi said. "This means that in that early period, we were probably being hit by a Chicxulub-sized impact on average every 15 million years."

Because there is so much uncertainty about the history of major cosmic collisions on Earth, many scientists ignore the phenomenon entirely.

But the authors of the latest research suggest these impacts were likely big enough to significantly alter the course of Earth's geochemical and atmospheric evolution, and thus, shouldn't be disregarded.

The latest research suggests frequent asteroid impacts would likely have had a strong influence on Earth's oxygen levels, the researchers said.

"We find that oxygen levels would have drastically fluctuated in the period of intense impacts," Marchi said. "Given the importance of oxygen to the Earth's development, and indeed to the development of life, its possible connection with collisions is intriguing and deserved further investigation. This is the next stage of our work."

Billionaire Blastoff: Rich riding own rockets into space


This combination of 2019 and 2016 file photos shows Jeff Bezos with a model of Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar lander in Washington, left, and Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket in Mojave, Calif. The two billionaires are putting everything on the line in July 2021 to ride their own rockets into space. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Mark J. Terrill)


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two billionaires are putting everything on the line this month to ride their own rockets into space.

It’s intended to be a flashy confidence boost for customers seeking their own short joyrides.

The lucrative, high-stakes chase for space tourists will unfold on the fringes of space — 55 miles to 66 miles (88 kilometers to 106 kilometers) up, pitting Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson against the world’s richest man, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos.

Branson is due to take off Sunday from New Mexico, launching with two pilots and three other employees aboard a rocket plane carried aloft by a double-fuselage aircraft.

Bezos departs nine days later from West Texas, blasting off in a fully automated capsule with three guests: his brother, an 82-year-old female aviation pioneer who’s waited six decades for a shot at space and the winner of a $28 million charity auction.

Branson’s flight will be longer, but Bezos’ will be higher.

Branson’s craft has more windows, but Bezos’ windows are bigger.

Branson’s piloted plane has already flown to space three times. Bezos’ has five times as many test flights, though none with people on board.

Either way, they’re shooting for sky-high bragging rights as the first person to fly his own rocket to space and experience three to four minutes of weightlessness.

Branson, who turns 71 in another week, considers it “very important” to try it out before allowing space tourists on board. He insists he’s not apprehensive; this is the thrill-seeking adventurer who’s kite-surfed across the English Channel and attempted to circle the world in a hot air balloon.

“As a child, I wanted to go to space. When that did not look likely for my generation, I registered the name Virgin Galactic with the notion of creating a company that could make it happen,” Branson wrote in a blog this week. Seventeen years after founding Virgin Galactic, he’s on the cusp of experiencing space for himself.

“It’s amazing where an idea can lead you, no matter how far-fetched it may seem at first.”

Bezos, 57, who stepped down Monday as Amazon’s CEO, announced in early June that he’d be on his New Shepard rocket’s first passenger flight, choosing the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing.

He too had childhood dreams of traveling to space, Bezos said via Instagram. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.”

Branson was supposed to fly later this year on the second of three more test flights planned by Virgin Galactic before flying ticket holders next year. But late last week, he leapfrogged ahead.

He insists he’s not trying to beat Bezos and that it’s not a race. Yet his announcement came just hours after Bezos revealed he’d be joined in space by Wally Funk, one of the last surviving members of the so-called Mercury 13. The 13 female pilots never made it to space despite passing the same tests in the early 1960s as NASA’s original, all-male Mercury 7 astronauts.

Bezos hasn’t commented publicly on Branson’s upcoming flight.

But some at Blue Origin already are nitpicking the fact that their capsule surpasses the designated Karman line of space 62 miles (100 kilometers) up, while Virgin Galactic’s peak altitude is 55 miles (88 kilometers). International aeronautic and astronautic federations in Europe recognize the Karman line as the official boundary between the upper atmosphere and space, while NASA, the Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration and some astrophysicists accept a minimum altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers).

Blue Origin’s flights last 10 minutes by the time the capsule parachutes onto the desert floor. Virgin Galactic’s last around 14 to 17 minutes from the time the space plane drops from the mothership and fires its rocket motor for a steep climb until it glides to a runway landing.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk doesn’t do quick up-and-down hops to the edge of space. His capsules go all the way to orbit, and he’s shooting for Mars.

“There is a big difference between reaching space and reaching orbit,” Musk said last week on Twitter.

Musk already has carried 10 astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, and his company’s first private spaceflight is coming up in September for another billionaire who’s purchased a three-day, globe-circling ride.

Regardless of how high they fly, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin already are referring to their prospective clients as “astronauts.” More than 600 have reserved seats with Virgin Galactic at $250,000. Blue Origin expects to announce prices and open ticket sales once Bezos flies.

Phil McAlister, NASA’s commercial spaceflight director, considers it a space renaissance, especially as the space station gets set to welcome a string of paying visitors, beginning with a Russian actress and movie producer in October, a pair of Japanese in December and a SpaceX-delivered crew of businessmen in January.

“The way I see it is the more, the better, right?” McAlister said. “More, better.”

This is precisely the future NASA wanted once the shuttles retired and private companies took over space station ferry flights. Atlantis blasted off on the last shuttle flight 10 years ago Thursday.

NASA’s final shuttle commander, Chris Ferguson, who now works for Boeing on its Starliner crew capsule, is impressed that Branson and Bezos are launching ahead of customers.

“That’s one surefire way to show confidence in your product is to get on it,” Ferguson said at Thursday’s 10th anniversary shuttle celebrations. “I’m sure that this was not a decision made lightly. I wish them both well. I think it’s great.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin Face Off In Space Tourism Market


By Lucie AUBOURG
07/09/21 

The era of space tourism is set to soar, with highly symbolic flights by rivals Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin scheduled just days apart.

Virgin Galactic -- founded by flamboyant British billionaire Richard Branson -- is planning for a July 11 space flight. Blue Origin -- started by Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame -- is set to blast off on July 20.

The two companies will serve the nascent market for suborbital flights lasting just a few minutes, long enough for passengers to experience weightlessness and view the contour of the planet.

But that's where their similarity ends.

Branson, who heads the Virgin Group conglomerate that includes everything from entertainment to financial services to telecoms, founded Virgin Galactic in 2004. The 70-year-old's previous daredevil exploits include crossing the Pacific in a hot-air balloon and navigating the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle.

The view inside the Virgin Galactic spaceship, which can accommodate up to six passengers who float in space for a few minutes in zero gravity Photo: Virgin Galactic / Handout

Bezos is 57 years old and the world's richest man. A science fiction fan, he founded Blue Origin in 2000 and recently stepped down as Amazon CEO to focus on space projects and other endeavors.

The spacecraft developed by the two companies could not be more different.

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft is not a classic rocket. It's attached to the belly of a large carrier airplane that takes off from a runway.

The view inside the Blue Origin capsule, which has six seats and six large windows Photo: BLUE ORIGIN / Handout


After an hour it reaches an altitude high enough to release the smaller spacecraft, the VSS Unity, that in turn fires its engines and reaches suborbital space -- where passengers float weightlessly for a few minutes -- then glides back to earth.

The spacecraft can accommodate two pilots and up to six passengers. The cabin has 12 large windows and 16 cameras.

Blue Origin in contrast is more of a classic rocket experience, with a vertical blast-off that accelerates to more than Mach 3, or three times the force of Earth's gravity.

Once it reaches the proper altitude, a capsule separates from the booster and then spends four minutes at an altitude exceeding 60 miles (100 kilometers), during which time those on board experience weightlessness and can observe the curvature of Earth.

The booster lands autonomously on a pad two miles from the launch site, and the capsule floats back to the surface with three large parachutes that slow it down to about a mile per hour when it lands.

The capsule has six seats and six large windows.

Virgin Galactic plans to start regular commercial operations in early 2022, and is aiming to carry out 400 flights per year from Spaceport America, its base in New Mexico.

Some 600 tickets have already been sold, including to Hollywood celebrities, for prices ranging between $200,000 and $250,000. Tickets are expected to be even more expensive when they go on sale to the public.

Blue Origin has yet to announce ticket prices or a date for the start of commercial operations. But a seat for the July 20 flight was sold an auction -- and the mysterious winner paid $28 million.

JODER EL CLIMA***SEZ AMLO

Mexican president wants to compete with private gas firms


Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a ceremony marking the third anniversary of his presidential election at the National Palace in Mexico City, Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Thursday he wants to create a government company to distribute cooking gas following a surge in LP gas prices.

Critics called it yet another nationalistic, big-government step by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the energy sector. But the problem is hitting Mexicans in the pocketbook. Cooking gas is used by 70% of Mexican households and home deliveries have increased in price by as much as 50% in some areas over the last year.

The country’s annual inflation rate is running at a worrisome almost 6%, and cooking gas prices have fueled that problem. The president says private gas distribution companies have inflated their profit margins — sometimes to as much as 50% — and he wants to start a state-run delivery company charging lower prices.

Opposition legislators say Mexico doesn’t need, or have the money, to acquire tanker trucks and distribution hubs. And many doubt the government — whose Pemex oil company suffered a pipeline gas leak that ignited a huge, subaquatic fireball in the Gulf of Mexico in June — is up to the task.

But one of the president’s key promises has been that basic fuel prices won’t increase above the rate of inflation, and the largely privatized market for cooking gas cylinders has made that unobtainable.

“They are leaving me looking like a demagogue, like a liar, (because) I made a promise that prices were not going to increase,” López Obrador said Thursday.

Mexico doesn’t produce enough gas from domestic oil fields, and refuses to approve fracking to obtain more. The country imports about 70% of the LP gas it uses.

But prices on the international market fluctuated wildly this winter and spring after winter storms hit Texas. That’s what gas companies point to as one factor in the price increases.

The federal antimonopoly commission says it is looking into whether a small number of firms exercise control over pricing in some markets, which rely heavily on small-tank delivery routes.

The Mexican Gas Distributors Association says that private firms also have to compete against criminals who steal as much as $1.5 billion in gas every year from government pipelines, by drilling thousands of illegal taps each year.

López Obrador wants to regulate the price of gas, and launch a state gas company called “Wellbeing Gas” to compete with private distributors.

López Obrador has also launched a nationalistic campaign to end gasoline imports and stop or reduce exports of crude oil, by boosting domestic refining capacity.

His pet projects include building oil refineries in Mexico, and he has also tried to rein in foreign companies that built wind and solar farms to produce electricity in Mexico. He has also put on hold long-anticipated bidding on oil exploration contracts.

López Obrador pushed through a law earlier this year that will allow the government to seize private gasoline stations in case of “imminent danger to national security, energy security or the economy” and give them to the state-owed oil company to run.

Judges in Mexico have granted injunctions against some of the president’s measures.

***FUCK THE CLIMATE

California nixing algae that crowds out food for sea animals


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Marine scientist Robert Mooney shows off Caulerpa, an evasive alga, that is being removed from China Coast in Corona del Mar, Calif. on Wednesday, July 7, 2021. (Mindy Schauer/The Orange County Register via AP)

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — For the first time, scientists say they have seen a species of bright green algae growing in the waters off California — and they are hoping it’s the last.

The invasive algae can overtake the environment and displace critical food sources for ocean animals on the Southern California coast. A team on Wednesday started removing the patch of fast-growing algae known as caulerpa prolifera from the harbor in Newport Beach, suctioning it through a tube and filtering the ocean water back out.

The process will take four or five days to complete and much longer until scientists can determine the algae is gone for good. So far, it’s been confined to a roughly 1,000-square-foot (90-square-meter) area not far from a small but popular beach. But tiny fibers can easily break off and take hold elsewhere.

“We’re at a point here where we’ve got a shot to get rid of it,” said Robert Mooney, a biologist with Marine Taxonomic Services overseeing a large pump that a team of three divers uses to remove the algae. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting to see what happens.”

The discovery of the species late last year and confirmation this spring spurred federal, state and local officials to act. They are eager to prevent it from spreading, noting the algae has invaded other habitats like the Suez Canal. It was crucial to act quickly, they said, because swimmers and boaters moving through the water could contribute to the algae spreading.

California faced a similar problem two years ago when a related invasive algae was detected off the coast of Huntington Beach and Carlsbad. It cost $7 million to eradicate and prompted the state to ban the sale of caulerpa taxifolia and other algae.

That species — known as “killer algae” — has caused widespread problems in the Mediterranean Sea. It isn’t edible by many fish and invertebrates and can displace plants that are, Mooney said.

“It looks like somebody took a roll of AstroTurf and laid it out across the sea floor,” said Christopher Potter of California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The invasive algae recently identified in Newport Beach is related but isn’t prohibited in California. It is used in some saltwater aquariums, and scientists think it likely wound up in the harbor when someone washed out a fish tank, possibly into a storm drain.

“It’s more than likely the source is an aquarium release,” said Keith Merkel of Merkel & Associates, biological consultant on the project. “It can spread from very small fragments if you replace water in your aquarium, cleaning gravels and using buckets to dip water out and in.”

For now, the source hasn’t been confirmed, and the push is on to remove the algae as quickly as possible from Newport’s China Cove. While native to Florida and other tropical locations, it can overtake natural habitats in California, experts said.

So far, divers haven’t detected the algae elsewhere in the harbor. But it will require surveys over time to be sure, and repeat removals if more is detected, Merkel said.

“There’s a good chance that it has spread, we just don’t know where — which is the biggest fear that we have,” Merkel said.

Beyond Meat adding substitute chicken tenders at 400 U.S. restaurants


Beyond Meat announced the chicken substitute, a mixture of fava beans and peas, will be available in 400 restaurants nationwide. Photo courtesy of Beyond Meat

July 8 (UPI) -- Beyond Meat announced on Thursday that it's launching substitute chicken tenders at restaurants nationwide.

The company, which produces alternative beef products, said the breaded chicken substitute will be available in more than 400 restaurants.

"The demand for our beef products really started to pick up to the point where we really had to allocate all of our production capacity to it," Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said, according to CNBC.

The company said it's shifting focus to chicken after spending years working on its Beyond Burger products. It's been testing the chicken substitute -- a mixture of fava beans and peas -- with partners like Yum Brands, which operates KFC.

"We're innovating the poultry market with the new Beyond Chicken Tenders -- the result of our tireless pursuit for excellence and growth at Beyond Meat," the company's chief innovation officer, Dariush Ajami, said in a statement.

The company, which reports annual sales of about $400 million, first tried a plant-based "chicken" product a decade ago.

SMALLER THAN A MEGALODON

Rhode Island researchers tag second 'GREAT' white shark in season

July 7, 2021

WAKEFIELD, R.I. (AP) — Researchers have tagged their second great white shark on the Rhode Island coast in two weeks.

The Atlantic Shark Institute said in a statement that the female juvenile shark is about 5 1/2 feet long. It was tagged and released on Saturday.

The tag will allow researchers to trace the shark whenever it passes within 500 to 800 yards of an acoustic receiver. The tag should record the time that the shark swam by and it should for last 10 years, the Providence Journal reported.

Jon Dodd, executive director of the Atlantic Shark Institute, said so far this year, this was the third shark they tagged. Fewer than 300 sharks have been tagged with this technology in the Northwest Atlantic, he said.

The tag will allow the institute to collect insightful information about complexities of white sharks, he said.

“That’s what makes this work so exciting and so important,” Dodd said. “These juvenile white sharks aren’t easy to find, tag and release so every one of them is really important if we are to understand how size, age and sex plays a role in what they do and where they go.”

The Institute is studying sharks in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the newspaper said.

Florida man finds a second megalodon tooth in three weeks

July 8 (UPI) -- A Florida man talking a walk on a beach found a 4-inch tooth from a prehistoric megalodon shark just three weeks after he found a smaller tooth from the same species on the same beach.

Jacob Danner said he was walking on Fernandina Beach on Thursday morning, after Tropical Storm Elsa swept through the area, when he came across the 4-inch tooth.

Danner said he found the tooth near where he found a 3-inch megalodon tooth three weeks earlier.

Jim Gelsleichter, an associate biology professor at the University of North Florida, said the first tooth Danner discovered could be millions of years old. He said tooth discoveries can tell researchers a lot about the extinct species.

"The megalodon fossils that have been observed usually run around 30 feet in length or so," Gelsleichter told WJXT-TV.

"So we can use information about the size of the teeth to extrapolate the ultimate size of the animal. We can look at the distribution of where teeth are found and get an idea of the distribution of the animal."

 BIBLE LITERALISTS ARE WHITE SUPREMACISTS

Noah’s Ark park seeks expansion with new religious exhibit

July 7, 2021

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A Bible-themed attraction in Kentucky that features a 510-foot-long (155-meter-long) wooden Noah’s ark is planning to begin fundraising for an expansion.

The Ark Encounter said Wednesday that it would take about three years to research, plan and build a “Tower of Babel” attraction on the park’s grounds in northern Kentucky.

A release from the Ark Encounter park said the new attraction will “tackle the racism issue” by helping visitors “understand how genetics research and the Bible confirm the origin of all people groups around the world.” No other details were given on the Babel attraction or what it might look like.

Answers in Genesis, the ministry behind the ark, raised private funds to construct and open the massive wooden attraction in 2016. The group preaches a strict interpretation of the Earth’s creation in the Bible. The group also founded The Creation Museum, which asserts that dinosaurs walked the earth just a few thousand years ago, millions of years after scientists say they went extinct. That facility is just south of Cincinnati in Boone County, Kentucky.

The Ark Encounter’s expansion plans also include an indoor model of “what Jerusalem may have looked like in the time of Christ.”

The Ark Encounter said attendance is picking up after the pandemic lull in 2020, with up to 7,000 visitors on Saturdays, according to the news release.

THEY SHOULD KNOW

Vatican suppresses Italy group, determines revelations fake

July 3, 2021

ROME (AP) — The Vatican has taken the unusual step of suppressing a small Italian lay movement after determining that the presumed “revelations” that were the basis of its 1979 foundation were fake.

The dissolution of the Apostolic Movement, which is based in Catanzaro, Italy, and boasts a presence in several European and African countries, is the latest move taken by Pope Francis to crack down on local-level religious orders and Catholic movements. These groups were often encouraged under the previous two popes but in many cases have turned out to have serious governance, financial, sexual abuse or other problems.

In a joint decree, three Vatican offices — the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for Clergy and the Dicastry for Laity — ordered the dissolution of the Apostolic Movement and the distribution of its assets to charity.

It took action after concluding a six-month investigation into concerns about the legitimacy of the movement’s origins, doctrinal, disciplinary and governance problems, as well as the “profound divisions” its presence had created among the diocesan clergy, the decree said.

Fundamentally, the Vatican investigation determined that “the presumed revelations that gave origin to the Apostolic Movement through its founder, Ms. Maria Marino, are to be considered to not have a supernatural origin.”

The decree was dated June 10 and published this week on the website of the Archdiocese of Catanzaro, where the movement was founded as a private association of the faithful and received local diocesan approval in 2001.