Onthefly
Onthefly's JournalThese female divers spend more time underwater than any other humans
The way Korea’s Haenyeo divers push human physiology to extremes is surprising
By Brianna Randall
AUGUST 18, 2025 AT 2:00 PM
The Haenyeo women who dive deep into the East China Sea to harvest sea urchins and shellfish spend the most time underwater of any humans ever studied — one to five hours a day, researchers report August 18 in Current Biology.
“It’s as close as you get to studying a mermaid,” says Chris McKnight, a marine mammal biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
McKnight and colleagues worked with seven Haenyeo divers who live on Jeju Island in South Korea. Over 1,786 dives, the women wore devices that measured how long they stayed underwater and how deep they dove. The devices also tracked oxygen levels in the women’s brains and muscles.
The women dove repeatedly for two to 10 hours each day and spent an average of 56 percent of the time beneath the surface — more underwater time than many aquatic mammals, including beavers, polar bears and sea otters, the researchers say.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/female-divers-underwater-haenyeo-korea
From Tech Lords to Dr. Who Villains,
Digby’s Hullabaloo, Published by Tom Sullivan on July 21, 2025
Paul Krugman this morning considers that because “we live in a corrupted democracy in which wealth buys power,” our political discourse is driven by “crazy ideas.” One source of those crazy ideas — the sitting president’s name appears nowhere in Krugman’s comments — is Silicon Valley. Once upon a time, the public saw tech gurus as benificent. But that has changed. They have changed. Wealth that buys political power changed them. Once pro-Democrat tech scions have swung hard right as their public images sank.
Krugman references Wall Street’s post-financial collapse “Obama rage” as an analog:
Were the Masters of the Universe really that angry over Obama calling them “fat cats”? Or was their outrage performative, aimed at heading off tighter financial regulation? Yes.
The antipathy toward Obama came even as Obama’s team foamed the runway for banks in crisis. Their anger at being called out was strategic but also real, Krugman argues, suggesting “nothing makes a privileged man angrier than criticism of his privilege.”
https://digbysblog.net/2025/07/21/from-tech-lords-to-dr-who-villains/
Man who jumped from edge of space dies paragliding
Source: BBC World News
Felix Baumgartner, who once broke the world record for the highest skydive by jumping from the edge of space, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy.
The 56-year-old fell to the ground near the swimming pool of a hotel while flying over the village of Porto Sant'Elpidio in the eastern Marche region.
The Austrian daredevil made headlines in 2012 when he broke the world record for the highest-ever skydive, jumping from a balloon more than 39km (128,000 ft) up in the stratosphere.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2k7094e8xo
Bedbugs may have been one of the first urban pests
By Jake Buehler
MAY 27, 2025 AT 7:01 PM
The earliest cities may have had plenty of parasitic, six-legged tenants.
Common bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) experienced a dramatic jump in population size around the time humans congregated in the first cities. The wee bloodsuckers were probably the first insect pests to flourish in a city environment and possibly one of the first urban pests overall, researchers report May 28 in Biology Letters.
Originally, bedbugs fed on bats. But around 245,000 years ago, one lineage took up a human diet (probably starting with Neandertals) and never looked back. About a decade ago, urban entomologist Warren Booth of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and his colleagues extracted and analyzed the genomes of bedbugs from both lineages to aid future research on the insects’ evolutionary history. The team was interested in how organisms adapt to urban life, and bedbugs, as widespread indoor insects today, were a good example to study.
About a year ago, when Lindsay Miles — also at Virginia Tech — analyzed the genetic data to estimate past changes in bedbug population size, there were some surprises, Booth says. The team expected to see population drops about 19,000 years ago around the end of the last expansion of Ice Age glaciers due to environmental changes like habitat loss. While both lineages declined, the human lineage took a sharp upswing around 13,000 years ago, plateaued and then spiked again 7,000 years ago. In contrast, the bat lineage is still declining.
“Something different happened with human-associated bedbugs that caused that increase,” Booth says.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bedbugs-first-urban-pests
Important interview with Dr Brandy X Lee
Mindsite News
‘A Public Health Emergency’: The Crusade to Assess Trump’s Mental Fitness for Office
Dr. Bandy X. Lee says Trump has deteriorated, and the level of danger has vastly increased — especially because his symptoms have spread.
BY DIANA HEMBREE ● ESSAYS & INTERVIEWS ● APRIL 21, 2025
https://mindsitenews.org/2025/04/21/trump-and-dementia/
I can breathe! Just had my sinus splints removed.
I had endoscopic sinus surgery one week ago to treat chronic sinusitis.
Feeling better now.
Reporters call Medicaid a popular program
Medicaid is not a popular program for most people. It is a lifeline and the only viable option for low income people or people with disabilities. Calling it a popular program waters down the necessity of health care that Medicaid provides. Calling it a popular program is like saying you can choose between Cancun and Disney World. No. Medicaid is required.
HE IS A CRIMINAL RUNNING A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Extortion, kidnapping, perjury, and murder with obstruction and maleficence. Add to the list if you want.
When you look at Mike Johnson, what animal do you see?
March 31, International Transgender Day of Visibility
We celebrate the joy and resilience of trans and non-binary people everywhere by elevating voices and experiences from these communities.
Trump and Elon are trying to erase the rights of trans people. Let us stand in solidarity for our trans community.
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