Our “10cc’s Best Song On Each Of Their Studio Albums” list presents our picks for the best song from each individual album. The original 10cc only released four albums, which may be a shock to some people who are not familiar with the history of the band. After the group’s fourth album, the band split up. Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman would continue on as 10cc for almost another 20 years. Still, this was a group that released some fantastic music in the early ’70s that has become a major part of classic rock history. We love all their albums, The post 10cc’s Best Song On Each Of Their Studio Albums appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

The Edinburgh Zoo has shared the first images of an adorable two-week-old Southern pudu fawn, the second smallest deer in the world. It was born to first-time parents Violetta and Evan. The tiny female youngster is doing well and has been named Gia by keepers at the zoo, managed by the Royal Zoological Society of […] The post Edinburgh Zoo Welcomes Adorable South American Deer Fawn the Size of a Bread Loaf–(LOOK) appeared first on Good News Network.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A group associated with big (and smaller) tech companies has filed a lawsuit claiming First Amendment violations against the state of Mississippi. This comes after long years of these companies scoffing at First Amendment speech protections, as they censored their users’ speech and/or deplatformed them. We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here. It might seem hypocritical, but at the same time, even a broken clock is right twice a day. In this case, it is the industry group NetChoice that has launched the legal battle (NetChoice v. Fitch), at the center of which is state bill HB 1126 which requires age verification to be implemented on social networks. NetChoice correctly observes that forcing people (for the sake of providing parental consent) to essentially unmask themselves through age verification (“age assurance”) exposes sensitive personal data, undermines their constitutional rights, and poses a threat to the online security of all internet users. The filing against Mississippi also asserts that it is up to parents – rather than what NetChoice calls “Big Government” – to, in different ways, assure that their children are using sites and online services in an age-appropriate manner. HB 1126 is therefore asserted to represent “an unconstitutional overreach,” and if passed, the industry group said, “may result in the censorship of vast amounts of speech online.” Age verification is a controversial subject almost everywhere it crops up around the world, particularly in those countries that consider themselves democracies. Another state, Indiana, is being sued on similar grounds – violation of constitutional protections – and for similar reasons, namely, the age verification push. This time, it’s not done in the name of Big Tech, but by what some reports choose to dub “Big Porn.” Indiana State Attorney General Todd Rokita is named as a defendant in this lawsuit, brought by major porn sites, industry associations, and marketing and production companies. And while those behind the state law which is about to come into force next month claim it is there to protect minors from adult content (via age verification), the plaintiffs allege that the law breaks not only the First, but also the Fifth, Eighth and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution – and the Communications Decency Act (CDA). If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Indiana and Mississippi Are Sued Over Online Age Verification Digital ID Laws appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

China is Now Threatening to Arrest Foreigners in the South China Sea

The baobab tree looks almost alien in the modern environment, and no wonder, considering these plants first emerged around 200 million years ago when dinosaurs were making their debut. Hailing from the genus Adansonia, they have captivated humans for thousands of years, with records of Homo sapiens’ appreciation for baobab trees dating back 2,300 years to the ancient Egyptians.The baobab treeThere are eight distinct species of baobab tree that can be found in Australia, across Africa, southwest Asia, and Madagascar. One theory as to why they can be found in such a wide range of places is because they existed before the supercontinent Pangea split up – that’s how old they are. All but A. digitata are threatened to some degree, with A. perrieri being critically endangered, which got scientists eager to better understand their genetics in order to safeguard their future. They conducted chromosomal-level genome assemblies for all eight baobab trees to uncover the evolutionary history of the Adansonia genus, including its origin, diversification, and the instances of baobab tree hybrids popping up. It revealed that the species’ niches were shaped by the temperature, altitude, and amount of rainfall of the geographic locations they ended up in. Their distribution has seen them develop different flowering times, which has been a key reproductive barrier, but that didn’t stop hybridization events from occurring among baobabs in Madagascar – a place that’s likely the origin of baobab trees based on gene flow patterns between the plants found here and other species. Unlike cavities formed by wood being taken away, the false cavities of baobab trees are thought to be the natural result of stems growing in a ring-like loop fusing together.Image credit: © 2015 Patrut et al., PLoS ONE (CC BY 4.0)The baobab tree’s unique way of growing is thought to contribute to its incredible longevity, as a radiocarbon investigation concluded that some of the oldest and largest trees develop natural empty spaces between fused stems called false cavities. These girthy trunks can hold a lot of water for surviving the dry season, and the spaces are so big that humans can pose for a photo or even set up a wine bar inside them.As for how long they can live, trees radiocarbon dated along the Lebombo Eco Trail had ages of around 1,400 years, while some estimate they could live to be as old as 3,000 years. When the time finally comes for the baobab to kick the proverbial bucket, they rot from the inside and collapse.The queen of the baobab treesThe giant baobab tree Adansonia grandidieri is known locally as "renala", which is Malagasy for “mother of the forest”. Such trees line the Avenue of the Baobabs, which can be found between Morondava and Belon'i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region of Madagascar.This variety of baobab tree can grow to dizzying heights of 25 to 30 meters (82 to 98 feet), but while some are tall and slim, some resemble "overweight dwarves" with trunks wider than they are tall. They also demonstrate why baobab trees are known as “upside down trees," as their broad and bare trunks look as if they should be buried underground, like a giant tuber. Meanwhile, the wiggly branches at the top of the tree look like roots – especially when the leaves are shed during the dry season and the baobab looks like it’s waving its roots in the air (like it just don’t care).Without their leaves, the baobab tree looks upside down with its roots in the air.Image credit: Gavinevans via wikimedia commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)Baobab tree fruitBaobab tree fruit is known as monkey bread and the Ethiopian sour gourd, and it’s a whopper. It can grow to be around a foot long with a woody exterior and squishy pulp-like center. According to Michigan State University, the flavor of baobab tree fruit has been compared to a combination of grapefruit, pear, and vanilla. Baobab tree fruit is prepared by being left to dehydrate under the heat of the Sun, becoming a powder that can be used in drinks, ice cream, and baked goods.The fruit of baobab trees has become a big industry in recent years, as there are several companies eager to buy them, harvest the fruit powder for the food industry, and crush up the seeds to extract oil. The oil is coveted by the cosmetics industry, while the bark is good for making rope, and the fruit is rich in vitamin C.The peculiar flowers of baobab trees are pollinated by nocturnal creatures like insects and bats.Image credit: Daolauong Kamkhom/Shutterstock.comBaobab tree pollinatorsOf course, the baobab tree fruit would be nothing without pollinators. Despite being hermaphrodites, research has shown that baobab trees can’t produce fruits without pollen from another tree, and when they unleash their large pendulous flowers at night, the pollinators only have until the following morning to get in there and do their job.Baobab tree nectar lures in a range of pollinators, but in southern Africa, it’s predominantly insects like the hawk moth, while elsewhere on the continent, bats are the key pollinators. By moving from tree to tree, these nocturnal critters can facilitate fruit production for baobab trees. Just goes to show that whether your might is in your height or girth, even Earth's giants can't get by without a helping hand from the little guys.

Taylor Swift and her fans (known as "Swifties") have triggered earthquake sensors once more, this time setting off British Geological Survey (BGS) equipment 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the concert venue.Swift is currently on tour in the UK, and played the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh from June 7-9. Monitoring the seismic activity generated by the concert and dancing attendees, the BGS was able to find differences in activity depending on the song being played."BGS monitoring stations around Edinburgh recorded seismic activity generated by the concerts," they explained in a statement. "Each of the three evenings followed a similar seismographic pattern, with ‘…Ready For It?’ ‘Cruel Summer’ and ‘champagne problems’ resulting in the most significant seismic activity each night."       An earthquake-inducing song, apparently.Analyzing the data, the BGS found that the most enthusiastic dancing took place on Friday, though each concert created detectable seismic activity."The activity was mainly generated by fans dancing in time to the music and reached its peak at 160 beats per minute (bpm) during ‘…Ready For It?’, where the crowd was transmitting approximately 80 [kilowatts] of power (equivalent to around 10-16 car batteries)," the BGS added.The activity was not huge, causing 23.4 nanometers of movement on the Friday when activity peaked, and it is unlikely anyone outside the immediate vicinity would feel it. However, it is pretty cool that we can use seismic detectors to figure out which Taylor Swift songs fans danced the hardest to."It’s amazing that we’ve been able to measure the reaction of thousands of concert goers remotely through our data," Callum Harrison, BGS Seismologist, added. "The opportunity to explore a seismic activity created by a different kind of phenomenon has been a thrill. Clearly Scotland’s reputation for providing some of the most enthusiastic audiences remains well intact!"This isn't the first time Taylor Swift and fans have caused such a quake, with a previous concert in Seattle creating the equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.

As Hannah Montana once wisely said: “Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days.” But for scientists studying the 508-million-year-old sea creature Pikaia gracilens, make that approximately 41,639 days, as it turns out they’ve likely been looking at it upside down since 1910.The first Pikaia fossils were discovered in the Burgess Shale fossil beds of Canada’s Yoho National Park by the American palaeontologist Charles Walcott in 1910. On average around 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) long, these ribbon-shaped creatures are believed to have appeared during the Cambrian explosion, the biggest burst of evolution in Earth’s history.What remained unclear was what exactly Pikaia was. Walcott classified it as a marine worm, or polychaete, but even he wasn’t that sure. “I am unable to place it within any of the families of the Polychaeta, owing to the absence of parapodia on the body segments back of the fifth,” he wrote in the paper describing his discovery.Researchers have since spent decades arguing over where the ancient sea creature fits in the tree of life, including if it’s a vertebrate ancestor – but palaeontologist Jakob Vinther and colleagues have now proposed those scientists have been going about things the wrong way. Quite literally, in fact; they’ve been looking at it upside down.It had previously been reported that Pikaia had a rod-like structure, dubbed the “dorsal organ” running along what was thought to be its back. But, as Vinther told the New York Times, high-resolution photographs had shown the presence of sediment from the seafloor within the organ. This, Vinther and colleagues suggest, provides “evidence for a gut canal”. Taking that and running with it, they flipped Pikaia horizontally and suddenly, what others had concluded was a blood vessel looked a lot more like a dorsal nerve cord. This thickened towards the head into a “bulb-like” region, similar to the tubular structures seen in modern-day creatures like lancelets and the embryos of vertebrates.The authors propose the findings are evidence that not only is Pikaia a chordate, but that it and fellow chordates, the vertebrates, are in fact descended from a group of alien-looking creatures called the vetulicolians.“They just looked like freaky beasts,” Vinther remarked to the New York Times.It’s likely to be a controversial proposal and one that doesn’t just flip Pikaia’s world upside down; humans are vertebrates, which would also make us descendants of these bizarre beasties.On the upside, it would give worms a bit of a break – now you can ask your partner if they’d still love you if you were a vetulicolian instead.The study is published in Current Biology.

Wednesday marked this year’s congressional baseball game, where Republicans and Democrats play a ball game against each other for charity. Two separate protests broke out before and during the game an attempt to get the game shut down.  Uniquely however, fans on both sides erupted in a “USA” chant. The first protest was a pro-Palestine protest where individuals, during the colors presentation before the game, unfurled flags and started screaming through their N-95s, yelling “Free Palestine!" as they were escorted out by Capitol Police.  Members of the crowd laughed and booed at the protestors as they were leaving and began the first round of the “USA” chants.    The next protest was in regard to the climate - as in, the weather.  The protestors, from the self-described “youth-led group” Climate Defiance, started their evening outside of the game. They were a small crew huddled up by the game entrance with signs insisting that the game, which was “Chevron-sponsored,” was “unconscionable.” After their scene from outside the stadium, those social justice warriors began their descent onto the field. Obviously they only came to virtue-signal, since they didn’t even make it through the second inning of the game. Related: Animal Rights Activists Vandalize Brand New Portrait of King Charles III Eight of them jumped onto the field wearing shirts that said “END FOSSIL FUELS.” Capitol Police tackled them almost immediately. Climate Defiance posted a video of the incident on X and noted, “Eight of us have been arrested for shutting down the Congressional Baseball Game. They are behind bars right now. Make no mistake: It’s the Members of Congress who should be locked up.” It was epic, but what was even more hilarious was when the rest of the crowd began a massive “USA” chant - again. Video footage posted by numerous attendees doesn’t fully encapsulate the volume of the chants, and you could feel the energy and patriotism from every bit of the stadium. Authorities were warned that there would likely be protestors at the game.  “Before the charity game, we were aware that some people planned to possibly protest. This was discussed during our planning meetings and put in our comprehensive action plan to ensure we had plenty of resources to swiftly respond,” Capitol Police said in a statement. After the game, police reported that "eight people are being charged with federal charges - Interference with a Member of the U.S. Capitol Police.” While I’m all for peaceful protests, this was not peaceful, nor was it beneficial or productive. But hey, it brought both sides together to shout and celebrate our great nation, so I guess we can’t count it as a complete loss. USA! USA! USA! Follow us on Twitter/X: Things That Need To Be Said: It's Time to End the Pro-Hamasholes Leftists hate America, and it's time to stop letting them promote their hate without repercussions. pic.twitter.com/wKXTL9628v — MRCTV (@mrctv) June 10, 2024

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