[humanoidhistory]

TODAY IN HISTORY: Astronaut Neil Armstrong on August 5, 1930 in Ohio. Pictured here up for his Gemini 8 flight, March 16, 1966.

(Stellar Views)

on.io9.com

There's Growing Evidence That Venus Was Once Habitable

If you could hop in a time-traveling spacecraft, go back three billion years and land any place in our solar system, where would you want to end up? Earth, with its barren continents and unbreathable atmosphere? Or Mars, a chillier version its big brother? Wait, what about Venus?

Maddie Stone

[typhlonectes]

Venus has a rep for being a toxic hellscape, but three billion years ago, it may have been the best piece of real estate our solar system had to offer—or at least, a close second to Earth. This hypothesis has been around for years, but it’s gaining traction thanks to climate models developed by researchers at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and elsewhere.

Those models show that for two billion years, Venus could have had balmy, Earth-like temperatures and liquid water oceans, despite getting dosed with 40 percent more solar radiation than Earth is today. But it depends on whether the Venus of bygone days spun as slowly as modern Venus does…

[magical-meow]

Skip

bit.ly

Why Can We Laugh Before We Can Speak?

Laughter crosses all language barriers. Here's what makes this simple behavior transmissible all around the globe.

Natalia Reagan

[londomollari]

What

What

WHAT

[ladyyatexel]

I listened to commentary about this! Peter was pretty jazzed about it, like, oh oh, guess who is on that table? the rest of them were just like, what? What? Until they saw it.

[defconprime]

Star Trek - “A Bomb in Time”

Gold Key Issue 36

A scientist escapes into the past and threatens to destroy earth. An excuse to draw cowboys, chariots and sports cars I guess.

RATING: 26%

(Where to place: Between Balance of Terror and Arena)

[bimps]

When in LA… Bhangra on roof top! NSG

[madreesh]

Yes!

[whatsdifferentincanada]

#canada 

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day
Saturday 6 August 2016

Luffa cylindrica (smooth luffa, Egyptian luffa, dishcloth gourd, gourd loofa) is native to India and grown commercially in China, Korea, Japan and Central America. The fruits are edible although for this purpose they should be harvested when young - as they might be rather chewy when mature as the inner structure is the luffa. Here they were growing in the tropical waterlily house in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

Jill Raggett