Latest news with #PaleBlueDot
The Spinoff
07-05-2025
- The Spinoff
Illegal cigarette smuggling man: an appreciation
New Zealand has lost its mojo. Maybe it could learn something from a man who strapped 1,620 cigarettes inside his pants and said 'today is the day I walk through an airport'. Sometimes a single image can change you. Carl Sagan grasped our cosmic insignificance more profoundly after seeing Pale Blue Dot. Millions of children were permanently traumatised at the sight of Simba trying to wake Mufasa up in The Lion King. On Monday, a similarly impactful image was released on the social media accounts of the New Zealand Customs Service. It showed a 35-year-old Indonesian man with 1,620 cigarettes stuffed under his white singlet. Customs said this man was detained at Wellington airport when officers somehow identified him as being in possession of more than the 50 cigarettes you're legally allowed to bring into the country. Its accompanying photo raises a plethora of existential questions. Chief among them is 'how does one man get 1,620 cigarettes inside his singlet?'. With some difficulty, it seems. The man's entire lower torso is a clown car of cigs. His trousers are straining at the sheer volume of nicotine they're being asked to contain. Several packets protrude from the side of his clothing. Furthermore, how did NZ Customs manage to catch this smuggler despite his sophisticated efforts at concealment? In a statement to The Spinoff, it said its officers spotted signs of the tobacco inside the man's 'choice of clothing', without elaborating further. Those officers must have been alert and eagle-eyed, because the organisation also confirmed his cigarettes originated in Jakarta. That means by the time he was apprehended, the smuggler had already transited through Indonesian Customs and transferred onto another flight bound from Sydney to New Zealand, all without anyone realising he had nearly 2,000 cigarettes stuffed into his belt. All up, the durries snuck 8,000km, past hundreds of fellow travellers and security personnel, only to come to a halt literally metres from finding a new life on the streets of the Miramar Peninsula. Though it didn't provide much other information, NZ Customs did furnish The Spinoff with an extra photo, which reveals both the cig man's brand of choice, and method of transportation. Its statement adds that the man had previously entered the country to work on New Zealand-flagged fishing vessels. He will no longer be allowed to do so. His Work to Residence visa has been cancelled due to the 'crime' of stuffing $2,447.38 worth of cigs into his pants. That's a shame, because New Zealand is desperately short of ambition. It's trying to plug a budget hole by taking money off low-paid women. Our prime minister is stumbling through farm fields trying to relocate our lost mojo. Where's the go-get-em attitude that propelled Richie McChayaw to the top of Mt Everest? The underdog spirit that saw us become the first country in the world to throw a nine-inch penis-shaped dog toy at a minister of the Crown? Maybe, just maybe, we detained it under the angry eagles at the Wellington domestic terminal. Perhaps the reservoir of confidence we're seeking is with the man who looked into the mirror with 1,620 cigarettes protruding from his trousers and said 'today is the day I fly to New Zealand'. As Steve Jobs once said, here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round cigs in the square holes, because they're the ones who'll change the world. So shine on, you crazy 35-year-old cig-covered diamond. Sorry you won't be subject to potential exploitation on a camera-free fishing vessel near Antarctica anymore. But if there's one thing this has proved, it's that even with the odds stacked against you, you'll find a way to get through.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Earth's Oceans Were Green a Billion Years Ago. They Could Soon Be Green Again.
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." A new study from scientists at Nagoya University in Japan analyzes how the Earth likely sported a green hue in its early days. Due to evolutionary pressures and the light spectrum available to photosynthesizing cyanobacteria on early Earth, the world's oceans were likely much greener than they are today. Although the Earth's been decidedly blue for 600 million years, rising populations of phytoplankton caused by rising temperatures are once again causing the world's oceans to turn green. On September 5, 1977, while venturing out of the Solar System, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft swung its gaze one last time to its home planet and snapped a photo. Now known as 'The Pale Blue Dot'—a famous moniker coined by the scientist Carl Sagan—the image shows the Earth suspended in a sunbeam, wholly insignificant against the black void of never ending space. However, for a majority of its history, the Earth wouldn't have looked blue at all. In fact, for billions of years, any visiting extraterrestrial would've more likely suggested the name 'Pale Green Dot.' From 3 billion years ago to roughly 600 million years ago—right at the dawn of complex life on the planet—the Earth's oceans would've been significantly more green than they are today. Scientists from Nagoya University in Japan investigated why ancient Earth would've donned such a greenish hue, and found that cyanobacteria were the driving factor. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. '[The 'Pale Blue Dot'] description is a consequence of the Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere, in conjunction with the reflection and scattering across the expanse of the ocean,' the authors wrote. 'Nevertheless, one might inquire: does only a blue hue of a planet serve as an indicator of its potential to nurture life?' A collection of various factors—particularly the make-up of the world's oceans during its early days—determined the planet's overall hue. In Earth's first few billion years, the planet's oceans were filled with iron hydroxide, which is an inorganic compound that absorbs blue light. Meanwhile, water present in these ancient oceans would've absorbed red light, creating a 'green light window,' Taro Matsuro, the study's lead author, told New Scientist. Cyanobacteria, much like plants, use chlorophyll to photosynthesize sunlight, which results in organism absorbing red and blue light and reflecting green. However, these organisms also contain pigments called 'phycobilins' that absorb red and green light. Matsuro and his team wanted to understand why, and what it tells us about the time in which these cyanobacteria evolved. The scientists created models to determine what spectrum of light would have been available to ancient photosynthesizing life, and found that the spectrum matched the light absorbed by phycobilin pigments. When replicating the conditions of Archaean Earth, cyanobacteria with these phycobilin pigments grew more rapidly, suggesting that evolution would have favored their inclusion. 'If we assume an atmosphere similar to today's, the green hue reflected by the ocean would have mixed with the blue from Rayleigh scattering, likely creating a more bluish-green color rather than the blue we see today,' Matsuo told New Scientist. He also says that the ocean was likely larger than it is today, so its effect on the planet's hue would've been more profound. However, just like old fashion trends can suddenly become the 'new hot thing,' the Earth's oceans might one day return to the green side of the color spectrum—though, likely through entirely different means. A 2019 study conducted by MIT suggested that by the century's end, half the world's oceans would turn green due to rising phytoplankton populations as the world warms. In 2023, a follow-up study confirmed that 56 percent of the world's oceans had already greened in just the past 20 years. The only constant is change—a bit of wisdom that relates to the world's oceans, as well. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Buzz Feed
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
My Entire Body And Mind Are Still In Complete Shock After Seeing These 25 Fascinating Pictures For The Very First Time Last Week
1. This is Jeanne Calment, the longest-lived person ever verified. Here she is at the tender age of 120 years and 239 days: 2. In Finland's Riisitunturi National Park, the extreme cold transforms trees into stunning, snow-covered sculptures, creating a surreal winter landscape: 3. These are apparently the requirements for being a flight attendant for one airline in 1954: That's gonna get a yikes from me. 4. You're probably familiar with the most terrifying looking fish in the ocean, the anglerfish... 5. Well, this is how big the males of the species actually are: Finding Nemo lied to us! Or, actually, it told the truth. 6. This is how big the anchor chains of a ship are: 7. Recently, a Russian drone attacked a gigantic radiation confinement tower at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, inflicting damage that required some repairs: 8. Here's a closer look at the people fixing the damage, to give you a better scale of the whole thing: 9. Speaking Chernobyl, this is the famous Azure Swimming Pool before the nuclear disaster... 10. And the same swimming pool today: 11. If you shine a black light on an Illinois driver's license, Abe Lincoln will be wearing a hat: If you shine a light on an Ohio license, William Howard Taft should get stuck in a bathtub. 12. This is what a deviled ostrich egg looks like: 13. 35 years ago, on February 14, 1990, the iconic 'Pale Blue Dot' photo was captured, showing Earth as a tiny speck from 3.7 billion miles away: 14. In 1990, the very first McDonald's opened up in the Soviet Union. This is how gigantic the line was: 15. Following the invasion of Ukraine, McDonald's sold its entire Russian operation to a Russian businessperson, resulting in over 800 restaurants being rebranded as "Delicious. Full Stop": 16. This is what the INSIDE of a chocolate-covered strawberry looks like: Click to reveal 17. This is what the back of a soda fountain looks like: 18. This is the first-ever photograph of an operation, taken in 1847 in Boston: Looks a wee bit unclean. 19. This is what a new pair of goggles looks like to a pair that was used frequently for a six months: So, if you want to turn the color of your grandparent's living room furniture, just start marinating in a pool. 20. The tiny island of Zavikon is home to the world's shortest international bridge, spanning from the owner's house, located in Canada, to their backyard, located in New York: 21. This is the PAGEOS satellite being inflated in 1965 before being put into orbit the next year: Notice the tiny, tiny people on the right. It was used for mapping and it looked really cool. 22. Some bars have... landing zones for the especially inebriated folks navigating the stairs: 23. There used to be cocaine in toothache drops: 24. Fingers can grow back. FINGERS CAN GROW BACK: u/ObscureOP / Via Don't try this at home. 25. And, finally, people were talking about climate change as long as 111 years ago: u/[deleted] / Via What's another way to say that this is the exact opposite of a comforting thought?
