Latest news with #BermudaTriangle
Economic Times
06-06-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
Rare superorganism ‘wormnadoes' caught on camera for the first time; what is it exactly?
TIL Creatives When facing starvation and low oxygen, tiny aquatic worms unite to form writhing towers that move like a single superorganism. Known as 'wormnadoes,' this behavior was previously observed only in lab settings, but recent wild footage reveals how these creatures cooperate to survive extreme environments. When faced with starvation and low oxygen, some creatures don't just fight to survive; they unite. Tiny aquatic worms, barely visible to the eye, crawl toward one another and create writhing towers that move in sync like a single, squirming superorganism. This extraordinary behavior, known only from lab studies until recently, has now been filmed in the wild, shedding light on a remarkable natural squirming formations, sometimes nicknamed 'wormnadoes,' had previously been seen only in laboratory experiments. Now, their appearance in natural conditions offers fresh insights into how some animals work together to survive extreme environments. Also Read: Space's 'Bermuda Triangle' growing as mysterious force under Earth's outer core may cripple International Space Station, NASA perplexed The phenomenon was first captured by a group of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Georgia Institute of Technology. They observed these worm towers while studying aquatic blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) in their natural habitat. The worms, which are typically found in shallow freshwater bodies, were seen forming wriggling vertical columns, appearing almost like a single moving entity. This behavior is described as a form of 'active matter aggregation,' where individual organisms come together to act as a single, coordinated unit. These towers behave like superorganisms—structures made up of many organisms acting as one body. According to researchers, this form of collective behavior is a survival strategy. The worm towers were mostly observed in response to environmental stress, such as decreasing oxygen levels or changes in water temperature. By bundling together, the worms can reach the water's surface where oxygen is more plentiful. In some cases, these towers even moved as a group, flowing across a surface in search of better conditions. Watch video: The discovery in nature confirms earlier lab experiments, where researchers simulated harsh environments and noticed blackworms clumping together into blob-like masses. These blobs can adapt shape and flow in response to their environment, showing flexibility and coordination. The new observations suggest that the same behavior happens outside the lab—something scientists had not witnessed worm plays a role in the tower's movement and stability. As one worm moves, it can drag others with it. The coordination allows the mass to behave like a single structure, making it more efficient at reacting to environmental threats and changes. Also Read: Sun will die in 5 billion years but life could survive on Jupiter's moon Europa; here's how The implications of this finding go beyond biology. Understanding how simple organisms coordinate could inspire new ideas in robotics and swarm engineering. For example, scientists could design soft robots that mimic worm tower behavior, adjusting their shape and movement based on external study of these worm towers opens a window into the complexity of group behavior in even the simplest life forms. While it might look chaotic to the human eye, the movement is highly organized and purposeful. Researchers now aim to study other species that might show similar collective behaviors in the wild. Perez and her team at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior further studied this behavior under laboratory conditions to understand the sensory and environmental cues that drive it. Their findings could help decode the mechanics behind such coordinated survival strategies and their broader ecological roles.
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Is Barron Trump on social media? Here's a teen who breaks the internet without even posting a thing
We need to talk about one of the most baffling enigmas of the 21st century. No, not the Bermuda Triangle, not the secret behind pineapple on pizza, but the real mystery: Is Barron Trump on social media? If you've been anywhere near the internet in the last decade, you'll know Barron Trump is basically the most elusive teenager. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The guy's like Bigfoot, but with better hair, height and an apparent disdain for public exposure. For years, the internet has been buzzing, theorizing, searching for any evidence that the youngest Trump is lurking somewhere on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or Snapchat. Spoiler alert: It's a ghost town. The case for Barron's social media absence First off, let's get real. Barron Trump is the son of Donald Trump, a man whose tweets have single-handedly fueled more drama than a whole season of reality TV. You'd think that with a dad like that, Barron would have at least one social media account filled with memes, political rants, or at the very least, a photo of his dog. But nope. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Why? Well, there's the obvious answer: his parents are very protective. They probably saw the trainwreck that is Twitter (X) and decided, 'Nope. Our kid stays off that digital rollercoaster.' Barron, at the tender age of teenager has managed to stay under the radar like a pro. The theories: Where could Barron be? Theory #1: The social media hermit Maybe Barron does have an account, but it's private, locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Imagine a username like @NotThePresident or @TooCoolForPolitics. He's lurking, silently liking memes and watching TikTok trends, but never posting. Just scrolling, scrolling… forever. Theory #2: The anti-social media activist What if Barron is the original social media skeptic? In a world obsessed with likes and followers, maybe he's the pioneer of the 'real-life, no-phone' movement. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The dude's out there, reading books, taking long walks, and secretly judging influencers who post a selfie every five minutes. Theory #3: The digital doppelgänger Or here's a spicy one: maybe there's a Barron Trump account out there, but it's run by a team of PR experts, bots, or a distant cousin. You never know. The internet is full of fake accounts, and the real Barron might be off living his best life, far from the chaos. What if Barron were on social media? Okay, let's get hypothetical for a moment. Imagine if Barron Trump did open an Instagram or TikTok account. What would happen? First off, every. single. post. would become a media circus. You'd see hashtags like #BarronWatch, #TrumpTeen, and #TheNextGenTrump trending worldwide. News outlets would analyze every emoji and filter choice. 'Is the use of the sad face emoji a political statement?' 'Did Barron's latest selfie confirm his stance on climate change?' You get the idea. Then there's the fan theories. Barron's account would spawn fan accounts, memes, conspiracy theories, and maybe even a Netflix documentary. People would speculate about who's actually running his social media. Is it Barron? Is it a ghostwriter? Is it Elon Musk? The internet would lose it. The social media responsibility of being Barron Trump On the flip side, being Barron Trump on social media sounds like a nightmare. Imagine the pressure of having your life under a microscope 24/7. Every post dissected, every typo a headline. It's the digital equivalent of living in a fishbowl with paparazzi swimming around you constantly. Plus, the trolls. Oh, the trolls. Social media is a jungle, and the son of Donald Trump? That's prime target material. The poor guy would need a full-time team of digital bodyguards just to keep his comments section civil. So, is Barron Trump on social media? The truth is, we don't really know. And maybe that's for the best. In an age where everyone shares every meal, mood, and minor life event online, Barron's digital absence is oddly refreshing. It's like he's the ghost in the machine, a reminder that not everything needs to be documented or broadcasted. Until he pops up with a viral tweet or TikTok dance, Barron Trump remains the internet's most charming mystery. And honestly? That's kind of cool.
E&E News
22-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Solar power's lost opportunity in PJM
Second in an occasional series on PJM. Read the first here. Seven years ago, RWE, a multibillion-dollar German clean energy builder, launched a bold solar power program aimed at American farmlands. It proposed 28 solar and storage projects totaling 2,700 megawatts of new capacity. To move that electricity to cities and suburbs, RWE had to tie onto the mid-Atlantic region's interstate grid, PJM Interconnection. Advertisement But RWE soon found itself caught in a Bermuda Triangle of delay — PJM's 'interconnection queue' — where solar, wind and gas projects wait for years for technical analysts to assess how the new power supply will affect the carefully balanced regional grid. The regional transmission organization responsible for coordinating flows and managing the power market across a 13-state region from Illinois to Virginia saw its requests to tie onto the grid quadruple between 2015 and 2020 and continue to rise. In 2022, PJM stopped accepting project proposals to attack the backlog. By the end of 2023, according to a review by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, half of those projects were shelved by their developer. RWE shared that fate. It is still waiting for PJM to complete the approval process on 13 of the 28 projects, PJM's data shows. On 15 others, it has simply given up, withdrawing the projects after spending nearly five years waiting for final decisions. Unless the trends change, PJM — serving 20 percent of the U.S. population — will end this decade as a case study of a wasted opportunity to deploy mature, carbon-free solar technology. Solar power production is up dramatically from a year ago, but it remains a bit player inside PJM, contributing to just over 2 percent of the power generated in 2024, according to Monitoring Analytics, PJM's independent market monitor. 'Why are all those projects in the queue?' said Abraham Silverman, former general counsel of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. 'Because there was consumer demand to buy clean energy. Those projects all thought that they had a market opportunity in PJM.' The slow work of PJM as a gatekeeper for entry onto the grid is now colliding with skyrocketing electricity demand set for states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As a result, old coal plants primed for closure may run for longer, and a rush to plan for more natural gas generation to power the tech industry's data centers could cement fossil fuel use for decades longer. PJM Chief Executive Manu Asthana has faced withering questions from Washington and state capitals about why PJM had not acted with greater urgency to shift into higher gear when it was clear electricity supply and demand were out of sync, with one eye on getting more of that potential solar power built. PJM has made strides in overhauling its interconnection policy and hiring staff, cutting into the queue backlog, Asthana told Congress. 'We had a queue of about 200,000 megawatts of generation,' he said in March. 'We have whittled that down to 67,000 megawatts, an incredible amount of progress.' But most new solar projects with interconnection agreements from PJM never started construction. Project financing became wobbly. Landowner agreements ran out. Supply chain issues cropped up. Plans changed during their time in the queue, according to an analysis by POLITICO's E&E News. PJM and MISO, operator of the central U.S. grid that stretches from Canada to the Gulf Coast, are pushing to narrow the gap between the number of projects entering their queues and the number that make it out with any hope of being fully developed. Solar power has been by far the fastest growing new source of power in many parts of the country. It can be deployed relatively fast and at a lower cost than gas plants. Texas alone added enough solar power last year to power roughly 8 million homes. And solar and battery storage were expected to be more than 80 percent of the new utility-scale electricity added across the nation in 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in February. 'Imagine how projects deteriorate' The whipsaw effect of American politics and the relentless upping of future power projections are rapidly changing renewable energy's prospects, building the case for gas power now and nuclear power after 2030. Under former President Joe Biden, 15,000 megawatts worth of offshore wind projects were green-lighted along the Atlantic Coast. Democratic governors inside PJM counted on those projects to meet clean energy goals and power economic development. Their fate today is clouded at best, confronted by President Donald Trump's fossil energy 'dominance' agenda. Under Trump and in PJM, coal is getting a new lease on life. But it's also a result of deepening concerns about whether enough power will be running across PJM wires in 2028 to ensure (with room to spare) that the lights stay on and factories keep humming. With the extraordinary rise in projected power demand, PJM CEO Asthana, who has said he will leave PJM at the end of the year, told lawmakers coal has to keep burning. 'We must keep the supply that we have today,' he said, going one step further. 'We must try to bring back what we can from retirement.' RWE, the third-largest U.S. solar energy developer, has pulled back into a more conservative, risk-wary investment plan that may foreshadow a slower path for new renewable power in this country. 'President Donald Trump has set a new course for the country's energy and climate policy,' RWE observed in its just-issued 2024 annual report. 'It is impossible to predict the consequence of the change of course in U.S. energy policy for the expansion of renewable energy in the U.S. at this time.' A company spokesperson declined to discuss strategy but pointed to RWE AG Chief Executive Markus Krebber's remarks prepared for the company's annual meeting last month. There, Krebber outlined a policy to move away from competitive energy markets like PJM, which supply two-thirds of U.S. electricity by taking bids from generators' to fill each's day's supply. (The rest of the U.S. is served by traditional regulated utilities.) Given Trump's policy and tariff whipsaws, the company has said RWE's solar and wind deals will require data centers, utilities and other customers to pay up front for clean power. 'Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment,' Krebber said. His caution around new development is echoed by Mark Rostafin, co-chief executive of Texas-based Vesper Energy. Vesper just opened a 600-megawatt solar farm in the Texas Panhandle. 'You'll wait till the permitting is done and you have good visibility into equipment supply,' Rostafin said. A customer commitment will be part of the final financing agreements. Just four years ago, PJM's cluster of states seemed ready to host a sharp expansion of solar and wind energy to back Biden's aspirational goals for a carbon-free power grid. PJM states could not approach the solar power potential of the Sun Belt, but renewable energy's prices were competitive in PJM's power market. And many of the states had renewable energy targets. PJM's Grid of the Future report in 2022 predicted a bright future for carbon-free power. 'PJM's fuel mix will drastically change due to state and corporate clean energy policy targets, with solar and wind generation increasing and replacing coal and natural gas generation.' The report expected wind and solar resources to grow between three and eight times over the next 15 years. The prediction didn't factor in the near-paralysis in the PJM interconnection queue as project proposals poured in. 'Let's call it sort of a slow-motion car pileup,' said Kent Chandler, former chair of the Kentucky Public Service Commission. PJM has tended to react to problems, not get ahead of them, added Chandler, who led the Organization of PJM States, a sounding board for state interests in the regional grid. 'It seems like PJM management fixes issues with a 'squeaky wheel gets the grease' mindset,' Chandler added. 'Whatever issue poses the biggest risk, that's the one they go to next.' Jeff Shields, PJM senior manager of external communications, asked to respond to such criticism, said the organization has had to deal with costs of new generation that are higher than consumers want to pay. That has led to some 'piecemeal' policy changes, he said. PJM saw project applications accelerate in 2020 and had its new strategy in place in 2022, he said. 'We have processed two-thirds of our backlog and will be fully through our backlog next year.' New projects will be accepted in 2026 and decisions made in two years, he added. '[We] expect them to be a high percentage of renewable and batteries.' PJM's leadership is squeezed by conflicting climate policies in its domain, where blue states with strict clean energy mandates sit alongside red states that share Trump's romance with coal. When Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro threatened this year to pull his state out of PJM over rising energy prices, PJM listened. Would-be developers faced detailed analyses by PJM to make sure the new generation wouldn't overload the grid, notes University of Wisconsin, Madison, assistant professor Sarah Johnston. In PJM's case, three increasingly complex and expensive studies were required. Only at the end of the process did developers learn whether they would need to build new power lines or even substations to prevent possible overloading. 'Interconnection costs can be very high and are hard to predict,' Johnston and colleagues wrote in a 2023 analysis, with high-end charges reaching $41 million for a 100 MW plant. That is roughly one-quarter of the typical installation costs for a wind or solar generator plant, they said. 'Over half of the developers who reported withdrawing, suspending or pausing projects identified interconnection upgrade costs as a significant concern,' concluded Silverman, the former New Jersey regulatory counsel, and research colleagues who surveyed developers in the PJM queue for a 2024 report for the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy. Agreements with landowners are only good for one or two years typically. 'And then you have to start the whole process over again,' Silverman noted. 'You can imagine how the projects deteriorate.' AI stunner If the backlog was a surprise, the generative artificial intelligence blockbuster stunned PJM and the rest of the industry. In just the past two years, private-sector and government projections of power demand across the country through 2030 have changed a lot. Six months after the release of the Grid of the Future report in 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, triggering what is now a relentless drive by big tech companies to secure electricity supply. PJM's estimate of future peak demand skyrocketed. PJM leadership is now riveted on the risk that existing coal- and older gas-fired power plants will retire faster than they can be replaced. Today, according to PJM, the grid has a comfortable level of spare capacity to meet the top demand forecast for this summer of 154 gigawatts. By 2030, however, PJM predicts maximum demand could exceed 180 GW if enough power can be brought on line to satisfy data center developers. At the same time, today's peak capacity of 183 GW could drop by 40 GW if plant retirements go as planned, leaving PJM's market far short of supply. To replace shuttered coal and gas plants with variable renewable power would require at least building 83 GW of wind, solar and storage, according to PJM. Now, with energy scarcity dominating the outlook, the value of around-the-clock gas-fired and nuclear generation appears to have vaulted ahead of renewable power in PJM. Evidence of this shift was the organization's decision this year to offer fast-track reviews to 'shovel ready' power plant projects that could have the biggest impact on future supply shortages. PJM's criteria favored gas plants, which ended up by far the biggest source of proposals, offering more than 16 GW of potential new capacity. Just one small solar project asked to be included in the process. This month, PJM announced it had selected 51 of the projects, and natural gas unsurprisingly dominated the list. Storage projects were chosen, but the solitary solar proposal wasn't picked. Opportunity lost The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved major changes in the interconnection process proposed by PJM that can help future solar, wind and storage projects, industry leaders and energy analysts say. But many wish it had come sooner. For example, PJM has scrapped a 'first-come, first-served' policy that considered projects as they arrived and now prioritizes proposals that are closest to construction. Many of the renewable energy projects that piled up in the queue previously were speculative, but they still took the time of PJM analysts. The new policy should help the strongest applicants, including renewable projects, advocates say. Another proposed change, not yet approved by FERC, would make it easier for new generators to take over the grid connection of a closed-down coal or gas plant as long as the total power output didn't increase. A relatively simple, speedier review would replace the yearslong queue analyses. 'That's a really important piece of creativity that PJM has embraced in order to move things along more quickly,' Andrew Levitt, senior consultant at the Brattle Group and former PJM market expert, said in an interview. 'I don't know why it took them a while to get there,' he said. 'If these changes had been available three or four years ago, it would have been much easier to bring solar and battery storage on using the grid connections of retiring fossil plants,' said Hannes Pfeifenberger, a Brattle Group principal, in the same interview. 'It would have made a big difference.' 'The human condition can be summarized as we ought to, but we don't,' Pfeifenberger added. 'We would all say, 'How come it took so long?'' said George Hershman, chief executive of SOLV Energy, one of the largest U.S. solar project builders. 'We should have solar plants and storage plants at every decommissioned power plant in the country,' he said. 'It should have been a quick study.' PJM, a nonprofit with more than 500 energy sector voting members — who can leave the organization if they choose — deserves great credit for managing a secure, competitive power market, says Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, a research and analysis firm. But the members aren't looking for more competition, he added. 'It doesn't help that probably the stakeholders in PJM — the incumbent companies — tend to benefit from high prices,' Gramlich said, adding that a jammed-up interconnection queue that blocks new entrants serves that goal. 'That's not PJM staff's fault, but sort of the structure of the situation.' Hershman and other clean energy advocates hold on to hopes for solar power's future in PJM despite the darkening present. Looking ahead, if Congress cancels the clean energy tax benefits in the Inflation Reduction Act, 'that is whole new kettle of fish that developers would have to look at very carefully' Silverman said. 'But in an alternative universe where PJM's interconnection queue is a predictable, two-year process,' Silverman said, 'I don't think there's any reason why you wouldn't see solar projects flooding back in to PJM. The economics are all there.'
West Australian
25-04-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Collingwood forward Bobby Hill defies ‘Bermuda Triangle' with goal of the year contender on Anzac Day
Collingwood forward Bobby Hill has made an early submission for the AFL goal of the year with a 'ridiculous' effort from the boundary line during the traditional Anzac Day clash against Essendon . The 2023 Norm Smith medallsit was unsighted in the first half, not registering a single stat as rain soaked the MCG on Friday. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Bobby Hill nails impossible goal from the pocket. Hill finally got involved early in the third quarter, contributing twice to a chain of play that ended in his own hands with a shot at goal from deep in the pocket at the Punt Road end of the ground. It's a pocket that was made famous by West Coast midfielder Dom Sheed, who sunk Collingwood hearts with the match-winning goal from the impossible angle in that very spot on grand final day, 2018. Hill's shot on Friday was not quite as perfect, spraying across the face of goals for a point. 'You talk about this being the Dom Sheed pocket — Dom Sheed's almost the only player that's ever kicked one from there,' James Brayshaw said. Brian Taylor added: 'Yeah, it's hard, it's a really hard pocket. A strange little pocket, this one at the 'G.' Just before missing it, Brayshaw foreshadowed what would eventually happen — but not with this kick. 'If anyone's going to do it, it's Bobby Hill,' Brayshaw said before Hill missed the shot. Matthew Richardson joked: 'So you're saying it's the Bermuda Triangle, BT?' Barely two minutes later, as though it were scripted, Hill pounced on a ground ball in the exact same spot and, this time on the run, snapping a freakish goal to arrest the lead back from Essendon. 'Here is Bobby Hill... that pocket! Broken play, he makes it work — that is ridiculous!' Brayshaw said of the goal. Brayshaw, Taylor, Richardson and Dale Thomas were all in awe of what they'd just seen, especially given how difficult Hill himself had just proved kicking a goal from that spot to be. Richardson: 'You wouldn't read about it!' Taylor: 'That can't be true.' Richardson: 'That might be the end of the Triangle, that's broken it.' Taylor: 'Nah, I don't think so — that's exceptional. That doesn't break Bermuda, ever.' Richardson: 'Well, they needed him in the game, Bobby, and he's come alive in the last couple of minutes.' Thomas: 'You just see the energy he got from those couple of touches before, and from the Bermuda Triangle, you've got to pay your respects, and he certainly did.' Taylor: 'That is, well, that's a Bermuda goal. That is amazing.'
7NEWS
25-04-2025
- Sport
- 7NEWS
Collingwood forward Bobby Hill defies ‘Bermuda Triangle' with goal of the year contender on Anzac Day
Collingwood forward Bobby Hill has made an early submission for the AFL goal of the year with a 'ridiculous' effort from the boundary line during the traditional Anzac Day clash against Essendon. The 2023 Norm Smith medallsit was unsighted in the first half, not registering a single stat as rain soaked the MCG on Friday. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Bobby Hill nails impossible goal from the pocket. Hill finally got involved early in the third quarter, contributing twice to a chain of play that ended in his own hands with a shot at goal from deep in the pocket at the Punt Road end of the ground. It's a pocket that was made famous by West Coast midfielder Dom Sheed, who sunk Collingwood hearts with the match-winning goal from the impossible angle in that very spot on grand final day, 2018. Hill's shot on Friday was not quite as perfect, spraying across the face of goals for a point. AFL world in meltdown over 'pipes of an angel' 2 min read 'You talk about this being the Dom Sheed pocket — Dom Sheed's almost the only player that's ever kicked one from there,' James Brayshaw said. Brian Taylor added: 'Yeah, it's hard, it's a really hard pocket. A strange little pocket, this one at the 'G.' Just before missing it, Brayshaw foreshadowed what would eventually happen — but not with this kick. 'If anyone's going to do it, it's Bobby Hill,' Brayshaw said before Hill missed the shot. Matthew Richardson joked: 'So you're saying it's the Bermuda Triangle, BT?' Barely two minutes later, as though it were scripted, Hill pounced on a ground ball in the exact same spot and, this time on the run, snapping a freakish goal to arrest the lead back from Essendon. 'Here is Bobby Hill... that pocket! Broken play, he makes it work — that is ridiculous!' Brayshaw said of the goal. Brayshaw, Taylor, Richardson and Dale Thomas were all in awe of what they'd just seen, especially given how difficult Hill himself had just proved kicking a goal from that spot to be. Richardson: 'You wouldn't read about it!' Taylor: 'That can't be true.' Richardson: 'That might be the end of the Triangle, that's broken it.' Taylor: 'Nah, I don't think so — that's exceptional. That doesn't break Bermuda, ever.' Richardson: 'Well, they needed him in the game, Bobby, and he's come alive in the last couple of minutes.' Thomas: 'You just see the energy he got from those couple of touches before, and from the Bermuda Triangle, you've got to pay your respects, and he certainly did.'
