Ever wondered where baby tarantulas come from? It all starts with a big walk and it’s about to begin in parts of the United States. Around this time of year, males begin marching about in search of mates, sometimes in large groups and traveling significant distances. Who said romance was dead?The movement of so many tarantulas at once has earned the phenomenon the name "the tarantula migration", but there’s a more lustful motivator driving their adventures.“The truth is male tarantulas are moving around this time of year in the quest for a mate,” Andrine Shufran, Oklahoma State University (OSU) Extension specialist and director of OSU’s Insect Adventure in a release ahead of the 2023 season. “Mating season is determined by temperature and microclimates. It can be earlier or later because the males are waiting on the right situation and cues to get on the move, but typically mating season is from late August through October.”Female tarantulas tend to stick to their burrows so when it’s time for making sweet, sweet tarantula eggs, they send out a signal. This involves releasing a pheromone to draw in lustful males, and they’ll travel a heck of a long way to find a fitting mate.        One such amorous tarantula species is the Texas brown tarantula, Aphonopelma hentzi. They tend to wander west of the Mississippi River to Colorado and New Mexico, across Louisiana, and – of course – Texas.If you’re reading this from the region right now and don’t fancy a swarm of softball-sized visitors, the good news is that the Texas brown tarantula isn’t as mean as the media would have you believe. According to the Missouri Department Of Conservation, these tarantulas aren’t aggressive and their venom is comparable to that of a bee sting. Furthermore, a recent study discovered that they’ll even hang out with toads in just one of several examples of tarantulas being pals with other animals.Elsewhere, the California black tarantula (Aphonopelma eutylenum) and the San Diego bronze tarantula (Aphonopelmus reversum) are also on the move. Rural areas such as El Cajon, Ramona, and Poway can see particularly heavy eight-legged footfall as they march through in their thousands."Around this time, it’s like clockwork – right around the middle of August,” said Cypress Hansen, Science Communications Manager at the San Diego Natural History Museum, in a statement in CBS8 in 2022. “There are two species of tarantulas in San Diego, and both start their mating season. Right around this time is when the males are leaving their burrows and they’re starting to look for females.”So, if you see a squad of tarantulas marching across the road, why not give them an encouraging wave? Dating is rough, even for tarantulas.

The Forsa Ring (Forsaringen in Swedish) is the oldest surviving legal text from Scandinavia, dating to around the 9th or 10th century CE. However, the information is not inscribed on paper, nor rock or wood, but on an iron ring.The legal document consists of a metal hoop around 43 centimeters (nearly 17 inches) in diameter that was likely used as a door handle, inscribed with almost 250 runes. The runic inscription on the ring describes fines for a specific offense which must be paid up in oxen and silver – or at least that's what we previously thought.In a new study, an economic historian at Stockholm University has taken a closer look at the inscription’s meaning and uncovered new insights into the legal document. “The Forsaringen inscription ‘uksa … auk aura tua’ was previously interpreted to mean that fines had to be paid with both an ox and two ore of silver. This would imply that the guilty party had to pay with two different types of goods, which would have been both impractical and time-consuming,“ Rodney Edvinsson, study author and Professor of Economic History at Stockholm University, said in a statement.According to his analysis, the "auk" should be interpreted as “also” as opposed to "and,” meaning the fines could be paid either with an ox or with two ore of silver. “This indicates a much more flexible system, where both oxen and silver could be used as units of payment. If a person had easier access to oxen than to silver, they could pay their fines with an ox. Conversely, if someone had silver but no oxen, they could pay with two ore of silver,“ Edvinsson explained.The mention of both “payment types” perhaps reflects the shifting economy of Scandinavia at the time. In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the region saw an influx of silver that boosted the economy. The newfound wealth led to the minting of the first domestic coins in Sweden around 995 CE. However, just a few decades later in the 1030s CE, coin minting ceased and the economy shifted back to using non-metallic goods, like livestock, as standard trade units. It’s likely that the Forsa Ring captures this brief transitory period when Vikings were using both rare metals and livestock to exchange value. As a non-literate culture, the Vikings aren’t known for their record-keeping and are often depicted as wild marauders. However, it is evident they created complexly organized societies and documented the everyday realities of their world in a truly unique style.They did this using runestones, a system of symbols often carved into rock to commemorate the dead, record significant events, or celebrate achievements. Among the most amazing are the Jelling stones in Denmark, a pair of 10th-century royal gravestones. The oldest was created on behalf of King Gorm the Old to honor his wife Thyra, while the second stone was raised by his son, Harald Bluetooth (the namesake of the wireless technology ).The new study is published in the journal Scandinavian Economic History Review.

Ever went caving as a child and were told all about the wonderful structures that form within these epic caverns, only to promptly forget everything the second you saw the sign for the gift shop? Well, wonder no more, as we break down the differences between those pesky cave structures.Stalactites and stalagmitesThe bread and butter of the mineral formations are undoubtedly stalactites and stalagmites. Formed by mineral deposits building up from precipitation within the cave, stalactites are the icicle-shaped formations that hang from the ceilings. Stalagmites are their upward growing partners that form as water is dripped from the roof onto the floor, creating mineral deposits that form from the ground up, explains NOAA.There are many fun ways to remember which one is which; some suggest that (stalag)mites crawl up your legs and (stalac)tites fall down, or use the “g” in stalagmites to refer to them growing up from the ground, and the “t” in stalactites as the top of the cave.Speleothem formationBoth stalactites and stalagmites are types of speleothems, derived from the Greek words spelaion meaning "cave" and thema meaning "deposit", explains the National Park Service. Rainwater lands on the ground before seeping into caves via cracks in the rock. Along the way the water picks up carbon dioxide gas, making the water more acidic. This then passes over limestone rocks (sometimes dolomite) dissolving some on the way past. When the water reaches the cave the gas is released, and the calcite is deposited in various forms across the cave drip by drip.These cave formations take a long time to build up, sometimes several thousand years.Image credit: zombiu26/Shutterstock.comOther formationsWhile stalactites and stalagmites are referred to as dripstones, because they are formed by dripping water, many other types of cave formations also occur. Columns are created when stalactites and stalagmites join up together, while the bizarre “cave popcorn” is formed when water comes through pores in the rocks, forming rounded bumps that resemble popcorn and in some cases trapping skeletons inside forever. In the Eastern United States, a vast expanse of stalactites and stalagmites have formed the world's biggest musical instrument.Funky flowstones can also occur when the water travels over the walls in sheets, creating longer layers. These can contain different colored mineral deposits, earning the nickname “cave bacon” due to their streaky appearance. Don't eat the forbidden cave bacon!Image credit: Winning Image Photography/Shutterstock.comThese cave formations take a long time to form, sometimes over millions of years, while others have been painted by Neanderthals and can even help trace ancient wildfires. 

It’s not every day you find a 2-meter (7 foot) tusk from a member of the same order as elephants, so finding one sticking out of a steep embankment in Madison County, Mississippi was a big event for amateur collector Eddie Templeton. When he alerted the Mississippi State Geological Survey, he learned he had found something more significant – the state’s first mammoth tusk, rather than the legacy of a mastodon as he first imagined.North America supported an impressive array of Proboscideans until the party was ruined by humans or climate change, depending on who you believe. Woolly mammoths are the most famous of these, thanks to their presence across much of Eurasia as well, and their relatively late survival. However, even at the peak of the Ice Age no woolly mammoth would have ventured as far south as Mississippi, they were woolly for a reason. Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), and Jefferson’s mammoth (which may or may not be distinct species) ventured into territory as warm as Florida and Mexico, however. Nevertheless, mammoth tusks were unknown in Mississippi before because at the time the state was mostly forests, and mammoths of any sort preferred open grasslands.Mississippi and similarly forested areas were left to mastodons, which were browsers on tree leaves more adaptable in their territory. Gomphothere, a few of whose teeth have been found along the river that gives the state its name, also had a presence.     Irrespective of the species, Templeton knew this was a find worth preserving, and to do so he needed to contact the Survey. Tusks may seem tough, but even exposure to the summer sunlight can destroy them.Fortunately, the tusk was largely underwater, and a team was able to dig it out in a day. Extraction revealed its shape to be that of a mammoth’s and that it weighed 270 kilograms (600 pounds). "When I learned it was a mammoth and not a mastodon, I got even more excited. I've never found any part of a mammoth. I always hoped to find a part of a mammoth, but that's pretty rare down here," Templeton told the Clarion Ledger, of nearby Jackson.A State Geological Survey employee with the tusk while it was being covered in aluminum foil and covered in burlap strips soaked in plaster to protect it.Image Courtesy of Mississippi Department of Environmental QualityScientists from the Survey concluded its former owner had died in or near a stream and been washed onto a sandbar in a flood, where its body got covered, preserving the tusk.Templeton has found the area a happy hunting ground for Ice Age fossils. He recently came upon a well-preserved toe-bone of Smilodon fatalis or saber-toothed cat (more often known as a saber-toothed tiger, but their tiger relationships is remote) in neighboring Yazoo County.The Survey’s James Starnes told the Clarion Ledger this was the largest animal whose remains had ever been found in the state.  "This was a big, big animal. This would have dwarfed a woolly mammoth."So what was a mammoth doing in Mississippi in the first place? Ice Age animals did not respect future state boundaries, and while most of Mississippi was forested, there was some grassland that would have appealed to Columbian mammoths, including Madison County. Although this is the first mammoth tusk found in the state, a few teeth had previously established their presence.As the size of the tusk hints, Columbian mammoths were bigger than woolly mammoths, or modern elephants for that matter, reaching 4.5 meters (15 feet) at the shoulder and weighing as much as 10 tons. The project to bring back the woolly mammoth might even be said to be under-ambitious.

A new study has put astrologers to the test, ultimately determining that they are confident in what they are saying, but no better at it than random chance.Astrology mentions the planets and stars a lot, so can sound sort of science-y to laypeople, until you start looking into it. In fact,  Gallup and YouGov surveys found that about 25 percent of Americans believe that the movements of stars and planets can affect people's lives through some unknown mechanism.There have been many scientific tests of astrology, and yet zero evidence has been produced in its favor.    One team, earlier this year, attempted yet another study to see if there was any validity to it, though of course not expecting to find any. They looked at a number of characteristics of 308 people (from religiosity to political persuasion) and various life outcomes (such as their mental wellbeing, achievements, and how busy their social lives were). Using zodiac signs, they found no connection. However, they were criticized by astrologers for using Sun signs, whereas astrologers say they use "entire astrological charts". The team decided to work with six astrologers to create a better test, to see whether astrologers could match people to their astrological charts.The test, which is still available to take if you think you have astrological skills, was then put to 152 astrologers to see if they could perform better than random. The team found that more experienced astrologers were more confident about how many of the 12 people they had correctly assigned to their star sign. However, this added confidence did not translate to better performance, and they all performed in line with what you would expect from picking an astrological chart out of a hat. Those who considered themselves a "world-class expert" guessed 2.2 out of 12 correctly on average."If astrologers as a group had been able to do meaningfully better than chance, this study design would have supported the conclusion that astrology works," the authors explained in a blog post. "But, as it turned out, astrologers in the study performed in a manner statistically indistinguishable from random guessing."The team was able to look at how astrologers from different schools of astrology (e.g. Chinese, Western, Mayan, and Renaissance) performed. They found that Hellenistic astrologers got the most right, 2.9 out of a possible 12, but this was still statistically in line with guessing. The team attempted to find out whether, though they were wrong in their assessments, astrologers at least agreed with each other. For instance, did they all pick the same incorrect answer."The agreement rates among astrologers are very low, ranging from about 21 percent to 28 percent depending on experience level," the team explained. "This suggests there is little consensus among astrologers when interpreting the same charts, even among those with high levels of experience."The team identified a number of limitations of the study, which has not been peer reviewed, including that the astrologers' experience level was self-reported, and that no single study is definitive."An individual study can only provide strong evidence related to a claim, not definitive proof," the team concluded. "Every study, including this one, should be interpreted in the context of other evidence."Unfortunately for astrologers, all the evidence (including far larger studies) so far points to no validity to their claims.The study's results are posted to Clearer Thinking.

Western society used to celebrate excellence. But excellence is inherently exclusionary. It makes less talented people feel bad. Thus, our cultural overlords have institutionalized mediocrity, appointing white women with PhD’s complete with abject inability and attitude to put us in our place. As a result, we were all graced with the “talents” of this “Gender and Dance Politics” professor sent to decolonize the Olympics with her... Breakdancing.  See for yourself how it went: Tune in every Tuesday to watch 'Woke of the Weak' host Justine Brooke Murray brings you some of the Left's most insane moments and exposes their attempts to weaken our minds.

It’s been well over three years since the Capitol was stormed in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. Why then are arrests up 43% seven months into 2024? Investigative journalist and Blaze Media correspondent Steve Baker, who has been a victim of the DOJ’s persecution of J6ers, joins Jill Savage and the “Blaze News Tonight” panel to shed light on the spike in January 6 arrests. “We're looking at a big budget increase that the Department of Justice got last year in the omnibus bill,” says Steve, adding that the DOJ, per its request, received “tens of millions of additional dollars to go after up to 2,000 additional January 6 defendants.” The other factor contributing to the increase in arrests, Steve explains, is the reality that “the statute of limitations is going to run out” on January 6, 2026. “So they really only have a year and a half left to hit their stated goal of about 1,500 to 2,000 more arrests,” he says. “Any thoughts about the CIA’s involvement [in January 6]?” asks Blaze Media’s editor in chief Matthew Peterson, citing Judicial Watch’s recent lawsuit demanding that the CIA disclose its involvement in January 6. “We do know that they had boots on the ground,” says Steve, noting that CIA presence at a large gatherings, like the one on January 6, is to be expected, as the agency is “supposed to be looking at foreign terror threats.” “What we don’t have the answers to yet” is “whether the CIA's bomb-sniffing dog activities had anything to do with Kamala Harris being at the DNC, or were they using their dogs later at the Capitol after they were cleared?” he explains, adding that as of now, congressional investigators “do not have a clear timeline" for “exactly when the CIA was there, why they were there, and what their actual function and orders were.” For an update on the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ashli Babbitt as well as the Pakistani national who was arrested for allegedly plotting the assassination of Donald Trump on July 12 – the day before Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania – watch the clip above. Want more from Blaze News Tonight?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Participants at the Voting Village event at the 2024 DEF CON Hacking Conference in Las Vegas were able to uncover vulnerabilities in various voting machines, e-poll books, and other equipment used in elections across America — but officials say they do not have enough time to address these issues before Election Day in November.As it has for nearly a decade, the DEF CON conference featured a Voting Village event that permitted some of the world's most skilled hackers to take their best shot at finding vulnerabilities in election-related equipment, including different sorts of voting machines, most of which are used in at least one jurisdiction in America, Politico reported.'Even if you find a vulnerability next week in a piece of modern equipment that’s deployed in the field, there’s a challenge in getting the patch and getting the fix out to the state and local elections officials and onto the equipment before the November election.'The event drew significant interest, and hackers stood in long lines to attempt to circumvent firewalls and other security tools meant to deter cybercriminals. They also had to go out of their way to participate since Village Vote was held in an isolated area away from the main floor this year after some online users leveled threats and accused the event of undermining democracy.According to Voting Village co-founder Harri Hursti, the list of security vulnerabilities discovered this year spanned "multiple pages," though he added that the total number of vulnerabilities was about average for Village Vote events.The good news is that security vulnerabilities can often be fixed. The bad news is that the repair process takes time, and the 2024 election is only about 12 weeks away."Even if you find a vulnerability next week in a piece of modern equipment that’s deployed in the field, there’s a challenge in getting the patch and getting the fix out to the state and local elections officials and onto the equipment before the November election," explained Scott Algeier, executive director of the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center."It’s not a 90-day fix," he continued.Catherine Terranova, executive director of Voting Village, likewise doubted that anything could be done before November."As far as time goes, it is hard to make any real, major, systemic changes, but especially 90 days out from the election," she said. "It's particularly troubling during an election year like this."The truncated timeframe is not the only problem. Hursti also expressed concerns about foreign adversaries."We are here only for two and a half days, and we find stuff," he said. "It would be stupid to assume that the adversaries don’t have absolute access to everything.""If you don’t think this kind of place is running 24/7 in China, Russia, you’re kidding yourselves."Politico reported that secretaries of state and other election officials attended the event, a sign that they are aware of potential problems with voting machines. However, these officials spent much of their time at the conference giving "talks on misinformation and disinformation threats facing the upcoming election," the outlet claimed."There’s so much basic stuff that should be happening and is not happening," Hursti claimed. "So yes, I’m worried about things not being fixed, but they haven’t been fixed for a long time, and I’m also angry about it."Village Vote may be doing important work, drawing attention to vulnerabilities in American voting machines, but there are indications it may have a left-leaning political ideology.For one thing, the main page of its website features the tagline "It takes a village to preserve democracy," seemingly adopting a phrase from Hillary Clinton, who penned a book entitled "It Takes a Village."The social media accounts of some of its leaders likewise indicate that they harbor liberal opinions. Chair of the board Matt Blaze proudly lists his preferred pronouns in his X bio. An account believed to be run by secretary of the board David Jefferson retweeted a number of liberal messages and memes. One particularly disturbing meme retweeted by the account regurgitates the most extreme talking points of abortion supporters, including that pro-life advocates are "monitoring ... period apps."Blaze News reached out to Village Vote to inquire about its apparent political biases but did not receive a response.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The American Sheriff Alliance issued a press release Tuesday blaming the Biden-Harris administration for allowing Tren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang, to enter the United States.The sheriffs torched the administration, stating that the presence of TDA in the country is the latest example of how its open-border policies have failed.'Due to the increase in human smuggling, illicit narcotics, and violent criminals coming across all borders, every county in the United States is now a border county.'The group referenced a recent leaked memo from the Homeland Security Investigations office in Chicago that warned law enforcement officers that TDA members in the U.S. have been given the “green light” from the gang to “fire on or attack” police. The American Sheriff Alliance also noted that TDA has been “linked to violent crimes across the country,” including a jewelry store armed robbery in Denver, Colorado, that occurred on June 24.According to an NBC News report released in June, the gang has been linked to more than 100 criminal investigations. In July, the Department of the Treasury sanctioned TDA as a transnational criminal organization.“TDA participates in human smuggling and trafficking, kidnapping, extortion schemes, and moving illicit narcotics in their areas of operation,” the American Sheriff Alliance’s media release stated. “The total number of TDA members operating in the United States is unknown due to the number of ‘got-a-ways’ entering the country, as well as those who may have been recruited domestically since TDA has showed its presence in the country.”National Sheriffs’ Association president and Canyon County, Idaho, Sheriff Kieran Donahue, said, “When we allow a brutal and violent gang, like TDA, to operate in the United States, we have failed in terms of border security.”“TDA is the latest example where failed policies have allowed violent gangs and criminal cartels into our country who subsequently commit heinous acts of violence and cause fear in our communities,” Donahue added.Former Sheriff Clint McDonald, who now serves as the executive director for the Southwestern Border Sheriff's Coalition and the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition, also blamed the current administration for the increase in gang-related crime.McDonald stated, “The American Sheriff Alliance issued a call to action in February regarding the fear of violent criminals, cartel members, and those on the Terrorist Screening Database.”“It is evident with the number of TDA members increasing rapidly in our country that we are failing at the border to ensure bad actors are not entering our country for nefarious reasons,” McDonald continued. “Coming to the United States and threatening to kill American law enforcement is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”The American Sheriff Alliance declared that it is dedicated to finding a solution to the border crisis.“Due to the increase in human smuggling, illicit narcotics, and violent criminals coming across all borders, every county in the United States is now a border county, feeling the effects of foreign policy which has not adequately addressed issues with violent gangs and the manufacture and smuggling of fentanyl and other drugs by organized criminal cartels,” the group concluded.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Newly ranked UFC fighter Paddy Pimblett showcased a remarkable weight gain within about a week of an impressive showing at UFC 304.Pimblett choked out opponent Bobby Green in just three minutes and 22 seconds at the Manchester, England, event and noted that he quickly got to work putting weight back on after fighting at 156 pounds.Sitting down at a restaurant with his wife, Pimblett admitted that the night of the fight he had a roast dinner at a birthday party just a few hours after his submission victory. It should be noted that UFC 304 went past sunrise after the Pay-Per-View began at 3 a.m. local time to line up with the eastern time zone.'Hopefully I'll never go above 90 kilos again.'Pimblett said the feast happened after he took a one- to two-hour nap.At breakfast, he ordered iced tea, a chicken wrap, a breakfast wrap, and two full plates of curly fries followed by a giant plate of pancakes covered with white chocolate, Nutella, Biscoff, and pistachios. Following his family vacation, cameras caught up with Pimblett a week later on the way to his gym. His training partners and coaches quickly noticed his accelerated weight gain that was apparent on his face."He was having a meal, two desserts, and then an ice cream on the way home," one of his coaches said in the video. Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImagePimblett then remarked on how his teammates tease him after every fight."Probably start getting called fat f*** by everyone. Didn't do too bad. Didn't do great, though, at the same time. Still a bit chubby. I'm not as fat as I have been but I'm still a bit chubby," the Liverpool native explained."We were eating all sorts, Chinese, Thai, steaks, burgers, and s***. But I just need to train, that's the main thing, lad. Obviously, eating copious amounts of food doesn't help with your weight, but when I don't train, I put weight on," he added.The fighter was then forced by his friends to weigh himself, which revealed that he weighed 89.8 kilograms, or about 198 pounds. The shocking 42-pound increase is remarkable for such a short time, and critics often warn Pimblett that cutting weight will only get harder as he ages.In July 2023, Pimblett actually remarked that he was going to slow down his eating between fights:"Now I'm just walking around at about 84-85 kilos and not really watching what I'm eating, I'm just hobbling around at that weight, which is nice," he said, per TalkSport. "It plateaued around this weight, which is nice. Hopefully I'll never go above 90 kilos again."It seems Pimblett was correct in his assessment, while also having predicted that he would become a ranked fighter before the end of 2024; he is now No. 15 in the world.The 29-year-old explained that he tends to look heavier than he is because the weight seems to go right to his face."All to my face, though. That's why everyone does call me Chris Griffin. Right to my face. Know what did my head in the other day? Someone calling me a weight bully. 'He should move up in weight. He's a weight bully.' Are you mad?" Pimblett exclaimed. Chris Griffin from "Family Guy"Photo by FOX Image Collection via Getty ImagesPimblett added that fighters in the next highest weight class, 170 pounds, are far too big for him to compete against."They f***ing massive!" he said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!