PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Powerful Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods before continuing its destructive march inland across the Southeast. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years and at least one death was reported during its passage.Supercharged by abnormally warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Category 4 storm crashed ashore in the early afternoon near Mexico Beach, a tourist town about midway along the Panhandle, a 200-mile (320-kilometer) stretch of white-sand beach resorts, fishing towns and military bases. After it ravaged the Panhandle, Michael entered south Georgia as a Category 3 hurricane — the most powerful in recorded history for that part of the neighboring state.In north Florida, Michael battered the shoreline with sideways rain, powerful gusts and crashing waves, swamping streets and docks, flattening trees, … [Read more...] about First death reported after Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle
What do termite holes look like
What it takes to restore an 80-year-old diorama at the Academy of Natural Sciences
For the past seven months on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, inside a building that was once heated by coal, teams of conservation scientists and museum designers in hazmat suits have scrubbed wax-pressed leaves with acetone, airbrushed animal fur, and re-staged lighting in two large dioramas.They're working on two scenes of the natural world first built in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University back in 1933 to show visitors far-away places they would never get to see in their lifetimes. So for 80 years behind glass, three taxidermic gorillas in the African jungle and a small group of stuffed elegant Chinese takin sat and watched history go by. After teams of historians, scientists, taxidermists, designers and artists completed the comprehensive restoration, the glass fronts on the two dioramas was re-sealed on Thursday and the scenes were permanently put on pause for the museum's visitors to see yet again. Jennifer Sontchi, the academy's senior director of … [Read more...] about What it takes to restore an 80-year-old diorama at the Academy of Natural Sciences
Tiny capuchin monkeys have entered their Stone Age with a bang
Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post Published 8:29 am PDT, Friday, July 6, 2018 For years, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama had whispered about the remote island where monkeys used stone tools. A botanist had witnessed the phenomenon during a long-ago survey - but, being more interested in flora than fauna at the time, she couldn't linger to investigate. A return to the site would require new funds, good weather for a treacherous 35-mile boat ride, and days of swimming, hiking and camping amid rocky, wave-pounded shorelines and dense tropical forest. "For a while, it kind of just stayed a rumor," said Brendan Barrett, a behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany and a visiting researcher at the STRI. But when Barrett and his colleagues finally arrived at Jicaron Island in Panama's Coiba National Park last year, what they found was well worth the effort: Tiny white-faced capuchin monkeys were using stones … [Read more...] about Tiny capuchin monkeys have entered their Stone Age with a bang