Sea lion who grooves to Boogie Wonderland proves animals can keep a beat
Not many animals show a clear ability to identify and move to a beat aside from humans, parrots and some primates. But then there's Ronan, a bright-eyed sea lion that has scientists rethinking the meaning of music.
A former rescue sea lion, Ronan burst to fame about a decade ago after scientists reported her musical skills. From age three, she has been a resident at the University of California, Santa Cruz's Long Marine Laboratory
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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Russia megaquake triggers tsunami warnings around Pacific
The megaquake off Russia 's coast may have done more than shake the region, it could trigger volcanic eruptions across the Pacific's 'Ring of Fire.' The Ring of Fire is a 25,000-mile chain of volcanoes and earthquake zones that stretches around the Pacific Ocean, home to about 75 percent of the world's active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The megaquake off Russia 's coast may have done more than shake the region, it could trigger volcanic eruptions across the Pacific's 'Ring of Fire.' The Ring of Fire is a 25,000-mile chain of volcanoes and earthquake zones that stretches around the Pacific Ocean, home to about 75 percent of the world's active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Experts warned the 8.8-magnitude quake released enough energy to disturb underground pressure systems far from the epicenter, potentially destabilizing magma chambers beneath active volcanoes along the arc. Michael Manga, a geoscientist at the University of California , Berkeley, told the Daily Mail: 'The volcanoes in volcanic arcs, including Chile, the US Cascades, Japan , Indonesia and Kamchatka, are prone to erupt after earthquakes.' He noted not all volcanoes will be affected, but those in the westernmost part of the arc are more likely to respond. That puts more than 100 volcanoes across Russia, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia at increased risk. 'The volcanoes in Kamchatka are the most likely to possibly respond. Klyuchevskoy erupted just after the earthquake ,' Manga said. Data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) showed the earthquake struck about 84 miles east-southeast of Kamchatska, Russia at around 7:24pm EST, marking the sixth strongest earthquake ever. It was also believed to be the strongest to strike on the entire planet in 14 years, when a 9.1 megaquake hit northeast Japan and left 19,747 people either dead or missing. Residents in Hawaii were forced to evacuate from coastal areas as the entire island chain braced for the impact to strike. Water was seen receding at around 1.40am ET. The first tsunami waves hit Hawaii at 2.20am ET. Water levels were above four feet in Haleiwa on Oahu's north shore, reaching five feet just minutes later and causing floods. While millions remain under tsunami advisories, experts are also monitoring volcanoes outside of the epicenter. While the overall threat is low, Manga said the quake raised eruption chances by five to 12 percent, meaning a volcano with a one percent yearly risk now faces about 1.1 percent. The elevated threat is predicted to last from two months to two years because the earthquake's impact on underground pressure and magma movement can take time to trigger an eruption. Large earthquakes like the one off Russia's coast can affect volcanoes in several ways, even at great distances. When tectonic plates suddenly shift, they release massive energy that travels through the Earth's crust as seismic waves. These waves can increase stress or pressure within magma chambers or along existing fractures in the crust. In some cases, this added stress can weaken the rock surrounding a magma reservoir or open new pathways for magma to rise. Additionally, the shaking can disrupt gas bubbles inside magma, making it more buoyant and unstable, conditions that favor eruption. Volcanoes that are already active or 'primed,' with magma close to the surface, are the most vulnerable to this kind of triggering. That is what Manga suggested led to the eruption of the Klyuchevskoy volcano in Kamchatka. 'It may have been active already as temperature anomalies were recorded by satellites in late May, so it could be it that it just became more active,' he said. Located approximately 280 miles north of the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Klyuchevskaya Sopka is one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, rising 15,584 feet in Russia's Kamchatka region. On Wednesday, observers reported explosive activity and streams of lava descending the volcano's western slopes. Scientists had been expecting the eruption, as the volcano's crater had been filling with lava for several weeks, accompanied by intermittent ash plumes. Often referred to as the 'Land of Fire and Ice,' Kamchatka is one of the most volcanically active regions on Earth, home to roughly 300 volcanoes, 29 of which remain active, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Geographically, the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire stretches from Russia and Japan in the west to the western coast of the US, and down to Antarctica, where it includes Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on Earth. The region also features deep ocean trenches formed by tectonic subduction zones. Because of this vast, interconnected system, a major eruption or earthquake in one part of the Ring of Fire can trigger alerts and concerns around the world. Manga said that US volcanoes along the arc will not respond to the major earthquake. However, there are several that have shown increased activity this year, including the Great Sitkin Volcano in Alaska, which is currently under 'Watch.' The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) shared an update on Tuesday, saying: 'Lava continues to erupt in the summit crater of Great Sitkin Volcano. 'Low-level seismicity continues with occasional small earthquakes and rockfall signals.' Hawaii's Kilauea is also under a 'Watch' due to its latest eruption ending just 10 days ago. 'Current hazards include volcanic gas emissions, along with windblown volcanic glass (Pele's hair) and tephra deposited during earlier eruptive episodes,' the USGS shared in a statement.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
‘I'm hoping to be the world's youngest dirty old man': the wit of Tom Lehrer, by those who knew him
A reputation for wit is often a burden – people expect bon mots to drop constantly from your lips – but no one ever wore their reputation for wit more lightly than the great American singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer, who has died aged 97. Lehrer admirers all over the world know his witticisms from his concert recordings. 'If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worthwhile,' he said. A doctor became a specialist, 'specialising in diseases of the rich'. And Lehrer reflected on protest singers: 'It takes a certain amount of courage to get in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favour of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on.' But Lehrer turned his back on fame and fortune in 1960, and after 1972 he spent most of his time teaching at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His students and close friends say he was wonderfully funny, scattering witticisms like confetti. Most of them are lost, but I've retrieved a few unknown Lehrer anecdotes. In 1943, aged 15, Lehrer applied to go to Harvard, and was accepted because he was a mathematics prodigy. His application took the form of a poem, that finished: But although I detest Learning poems and the rest Of the things one must know to have 'culture', While each of my teachers Makes speeches like preachers And preys on my faults like a vulture I will leave movie thrillers And watch caterpillars Get born and pupated and larva'ed And I'll work like a slave And always behave And maybe I'll get into Harvard … During his study there, the art historian Paul Turner (now of Stanford University) remembers a group sitting on the bank of the Charles River singing songs about their home towns, such as Chicago. Turner complained there was no song about his home town of Schenectady. Lehrer replied that there was, and sang: 'The toe bone Schenectady the foot bone, the foot bone Schenectady the ankle bone…' In 1970, a British graduate student at Harvard asked for an interview. Lehrer was inclined to refuse, but agreed because it was the young man's ticket to a job in journalism in London. He told him he was now 'on that vague borderline between adolescence and senility. I'm hoping to hang on to go from the world's oldest adolescent to the world's youngest dirty old man.' The interview did its job. The student got his job in journalism and is now the celebrated historian and member of the House of Lords Peter Hennessy. For 30 years beginning in 1972, Lehrer's working life was teaching two courses at Santa Cruz. One was a mathematics course for students whose main subject was something else – he called it 'Maths for Tenors'. The other was a course on The American Musical. It was work he loved, and his students loved him. But he was a private man, he disliked fame, and he did his best to live as though it had not happened to him. He was indifferent to money – he had enough for his needs, and no interest in acquiring more – so he put a legal instrument on his website allowing anyone to do anything they liked with his work, without paying him royalties. This is in amazing contrast with most high-profile performers, who have international legal teams to guard their intellectual property. In 2008 he was visited in Santa Cruz by Norwegian journalist Erik Meyn, who had set up a Tom Lehrer channel on YouTube without asking permission, and felt guilty about it. Lehrer explained that he didn't mind, and even insisted on paying for their lunch: 'It's the least I can do, and that's why I'm doing it.' Lehrer's copyright decision gave rise to two shows which make their cheerful way round London's theatres and occasionally further afield. One is Stefan Bednarczyk's one-man show The Elements of Tom Lehrer. The other is my play, Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn't Want to Talk to You, with Shahaf Ifhar as Lehrer, which includes many of his greatest songs but also tries to get to the truth about this extraordinary and enigmatic man. I think it succeeds as far as anyone has ever succeeded, which is not very far.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
‘I'm hoping to be the world's youngest dirty old man': the wit of Tom Lehrer, by those who knew him
A reputation for wit is often a burden – people expect bon mots to drop constantly from your lips – but no one ever wore their reputation for wit more lightly than the great American singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer, who has died aged 97. Lehrer admirers all over the world know his witticisms from his concert recordings. 'If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worthwhile,' he said. A doctor became a specialist, 'specialising in diseases of the rich'. And Lehrer reflected on protest singers: 'It takes a certain amount of courage to get in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favour of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on.' But Lehrer turned his back on fame and fortune in 1960, and after 1972 he spent most of his time teaching at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His students and close friends say he was wonderfully funny, scattering witticisms like confetti. Most of them are lost, but I've retrieved a few unknown Lehrer anecdotes. In 1943, aged 15, Lehrer applied to go to Harvard, and was accepted because he was a mathematics prodigy. His application took the form of a poem, that finished: But although I detest Learning poems and the rest Of the things one must know to have 'culture', While each of my teachers Makes speeches like preachers And preys on my faults like a vulture I will leave movie thrillers And watch caterpillars Get born and pupated and larva'ed And I'll work like a slave And always behave And maybe I'll get into Harvard … During his study there, the art historian Paul Turner (now of Stanford University) remembers a group sitting on the bank of the Charles River singing songs about their home towns, such as Chicago. Turner complained there was no song about his home town of Schenectady. Lehrer replied that there was, and sang: 'The toe bone Schenectady the foot bone, the foot bone Schenectady the ankle bone…' In 1970, a British graduate student at Harvard asked for an interview. Lehrer was inclined to refuse, but agreed because it was the young man's ticket to a job in journalism in London. He told him he was now 'on that vague borderline between adolescence and senility. I'm hoping to hang on to go from the world's oldest adolescent to the world's youngest dirty old man.' The interview did its job. The student got his job in journalism and is now the celebrated historian and member of the House of Lords Peter Hennessy. For 30 years beginning in 1972, Lehrer's working life was teaching two courses at Santa Cruz. One was a mathematics course for students whose main subject was something else – he called it 'Maths for Tenors'. The other was a course on The American Musical. It was work he loved, and his students loved him. But he was a private man, he disliked fame, and he did his best to live as though it had not happened to him. He was indifferent to money – he had enough for his needs, and no interest in acquiring more – so he put a legal instrument on his website allowing anyone to do anything they liked with his work, without paying him royalties. This is in amazing contrast with most high-profile performers, who have international legal teams to guard their intellectual property. In 2008 he was visited in Santa Cruz by Norwegian journalist Erik Meyn, who had set up a Tom Lehrer channel on YouTube without asking permission, and felt guilty about it. Lehrer explained that he didn't mind, and even insisted on paying for their lunch: 'It's the least I can do, and that's why I'm doing it.' Lehrer's copyright decision gave rise to two shows which make their cheerful way round London's theatres and occasionally further afield. One is Stefan Bednarczyk's one-man show The Elements of Tom Lehrer. The other is my play, Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn't Want to Talk to You, with Shahaf Ifhar as Lehrer, which includes many of his greatest songs but also tries to get to the truth about this extraordinary and enigmatic man. I think it succeeds as far as anyone has ever succeeded, which is not very far.
