Texas police said they found the remains of a missing elderly woman in the jaws of an alligator on Tuesday. The woman's identity was not yet released, but police said that her husband reported her missing early Tuesday morning after she went out for a walk at about 7:30 p.m. on Monday evening and never returned to their home in Clear Lake. The woman was in her 60s. 'They live down there. We see 8 feet, 10 feet babies. I know which banks to stay away from.' The Houston Police Department dive team reported that they had found her remains on an alligator in Horseshoe Bay near El Dorado Boulevard. A sergeant with the police department shot the alligator and killed it "to prevent it from doing more damage to the remains." Police are awaiting a report from the medical examiner to determine whether she was killed by the alligator. Maggie Berger, a spokesperson for the Law Enforcement Division with Texas Parks and Wildlife, released a statement about the incident to KTRK-TV. "On May 28, Texas Game Wardens provided assistance to the Houston Police Department (HPD) in the recovery of human remains found near an alligator. The woman's cause of death has not been determined. HPD is currently investigating the incident and will be the lead agency moving forward. Our thoughts are with the woman's family during this time."'That's the first time I've heard of that happening down here. It's a little scary.'Angela Derous, resident who often fishes in the bayou, said to KTRK that she often saw alligator babies in the region. "They live down there. We see 8 feet, 10 feet babies. I know which banks to stay away from and where they like to lay in the sun," she said. "That's the first time I've heard of that happening down here. It's a little scary."KTRK reported that fatal alligator attacks in Texas are rare, with the last one being documented in 2015 involving a 28-year-old. Prior to that, the last fatal alligator attack was reported more than 90 years previous. Clear Lake is a master-planned community of about 141k residents in the greater Houston area near Galveston. Here's the news video report from KTRK. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A Marin Corps veteran said that he was beaten by a gang of at least eight people outside of a grocery store on the South Loop of Chicago, Illinois. Kevin Qin said at a media briefing that he lost consciousness during the beating and suffered injuries to his head and body. Chicago police confirmed that they responded to an attack on May 21 at about 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Roosevelt Road & South Wabash Avenue. 'There has to be a big racial component to it because of what happened and what was said.' Qin, who is Chinese-American, said that the perpetrators yelled racial epithets at him during the altercation. He also said that none of his possessions were stolen during the attack, leading him to question the motivation of the attackers. “Of course, this is a little unsettling because the gravity of the situation, the fact that I was attacked by eight or nine individuals," said the 41-year-old. He said that he had gone to the store to get an ice cream cone and when he left, he walked around a woman at the entrance who was leaving with a shopping card. Qin says she allegedly hit him and a group of men then attacked him. “I just thought that, you know, there has to be a big racial component to it because of what happened and what was said,” Qin said. He went on to say that his military training helped him defend himself against the group of attackers, but he worried that others might not be able to defend themselves as well unless the attackers were brought to justice. “Basically what happened was very tragic and then something I thought would never happen in my life,” Qin continued. 'They know that there’s no punishment. It’s just going to be a slap on the wrist.' He also said the location where he was attacked was a magnet for crime. “The situation in the parking lot with many people loitering and just hanging around smoking, drugs and drinking alcohol and sometimes even fights broke out,” said Qin. He also said that lax prosecution enabled and emboldened criminal behavior. “These people who commit these kind of crimes, they know that there’s no punishment. It’s just going to be a slap on the wrist,” Qin concluded. A spokesperson for the grocery store said they were cooperating with police and had provided them with surveillance video of the incident. Here's the WGN-TV news report with the interview of Qin. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Andrew Weissman Says He Has a 'Man Crush' on Judge Juan Merchan

I've been a longtime iPhone and Apple Watch user, and that should tell you everything you need to know about how I track health parameters and fitness routines. I use the Apple Watch almost around the clock, whether training for my next marathon or sleeping. The problem I've always had with the Apple Watch is battery life. Since the first generation, the wearable has only been good for one day of use. I need to recharge it during the day to track my sleep. I could get the Apple Watch Ultra and get multi-day battery life out of it, but the size of it is currently the main obstacle. That's why I'm so interested in smart rings, with Samsung's Galaxy Ring at the top of my list. Apple is reportedly making its own smart ring. As for the Oura alternative, it's not widely available in Europe. I'd like a device like the Galaxy Ring to complement the Apple Watch, not replace it. The ring could cover the hours when the Apple Watch is charging. And it sure looks like Samsung might deliver the multi-day battery life I expect from such a device. Continue reading... The post Galaxy Ring: Multi-day battery life is one of the key features I want appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $89 AirPods, $19 Roku, $307 Apple Watch S9, $500 off Husqvarna robot lawn mower, more Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2024: Get $355+ free Today’s deals: $199 Bose soundbar, $38 Sony headphones, Energizer batteries, $200 off DJI Explorer, more Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales

A recent surge of interest by corporations affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of buying  U.S. farmland has congressional lawmakers working to further restrict Beijing and other foreign adversaries from securing such coveted property.

More than a third of American adults say they are changing their summer vacation plans due to high gas prices, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey.

Over the last few months, Universe Today has explored a plethora of scientific fields, including impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, meteorites, radio astronomy, extremophiles, and organic chemistry, and how these various disciplines help scientists and the public better understand our place in the cosmos. Here, we will discuss the fascinating and mysterious field of black holes with Dr. Gaurav Khanna, who is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Rhode Island, regarding the importance of studying black holes, the benefits and challenges, exciting aspects of studying black holes, and how upcoming students with to pursue studying black holes. So, what is the importance of studying black holes? “Gravity is the oldest known, but the least understood force in nature,” Dr. Khanna tells Universe Today. “For students of gravity, black holes are amongst the most interesting objects to study because gravity is the dominant force there — in fact, it is infinitely strong! Then there are astrophysical reasons of interest in black holes. They play important roles in galaxies, perhaps even in the large-scale behavior of the universe and more. The other thing to note about black holes is that they are very ‘simple’ especially when compared to stars and other astrophysical objects. This is a consequence of the so-called ‘no hair’ theorem that states that black holes can be fully characterized by only 3 attributes — their mass, charge and spin. That simplicity makes them particularly appealing to study and research.” Black holes are known for exhibiting gravity so strong that light can’t even escape, and while Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity in 1915 is often credited with first proposing the concept of black holes, the concept of an object whose size and gravity would not allow light to escape was first proposed in a November 1784 letter by English philosopher and clergyman, John Mitchell. In this letter, Mitchell referred to these objects as “dark stars” since he postulated that stars whose diameters exceeded 500 times that of our Sun’s diameter would trigger the formation of these objects. Additionally, he suggested that gravitational waves influencing nearby celestial bodies would enable these objects to be detected. Fast forward to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which also predicted both the existence of black holes and gravitational waves, both of which continued to be scrutinized throughout the 20th century, which includes what’s called the “golden age of general relativity” during the 1960s and 1970s. This includes the first object accepted by the scientific community as a black hole, called Cygnus X-1, which was discovered in 1964. However, it took another 52 years for the existence of gravitational waves to be confirmed through a black hole merger, which was accomplished by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Therefore, given the extensive history combined with key discoveries only occurring within the last few years, what are some of the benefits and challenges of studying black holes? Dr. Khanna tells Universe Today, “As I stated above, studying black holes, which are a consequence of Einstein’s relativity theory, offers insight on the nature of gravity, space and time at the most fundamental levels. As physicists, we are yet to develop a complete understanding of the quantum nature of gravity, and black holes are the key to unlocking that mystery. On the challenges, I’d say that the clearest one perhaps is that black holes can only be observed indirectly. Unlike stars, since they don’t emit radiation themselves, it is difficult for astronomers to collect data on them. At best, we can observe their influence on their environment (like gas, stars, etc.) and infer their properties and behavior. On the theoretical side, while it is indeed true that black holes are very “simple” compared to stars, there are still challenges. The mathematics and physics that describe them is fairly advanced and even computer simulations involving them are challenging requiring massive processing power and memory.” While it took over 100 years between Einstein introducing his theory of general relativity in 1915 and the confirmation of gravitational waves in 2016, it only took another three years for astronomers to publish the first direct image of a black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and based on observations taken in 2017 by the powerful Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). While Messier 87 is located approximately 53 million light-years from Earth, the closest hypothesized black hole, Gaia BH1, is located approximately 1,560 light-years from Earth. In 2022, astronomers published a direct image of Sagittarius A*, which is the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Additionally, scientists hypothesize the number of black holes in our Milky Way Galaxy is in the hundreds of millions, despite only a few dozen known black holes having been confirmed, thus far. But what are the most exciting aspects about black holes that Dr. Khanna has studied during his career? Dr. Khanna tells Universe Today, “I suppose I’d probably refer to my recent work on how very rapidly rotating black holes attempt to ‘grow hair’ but ultimately fail. The project is interesting because it appears to suggest a violation of the ‘no hair’ theorem that I mentioned earlier, but it ultimately doesn’t. So, it is provocative, but then relieving! More importantly, we are now using the main context of that research to develop a new observational ‘signature’ or test for rapidly rotating black holes, a.k.a. near-extremal black holes. Such black holes have several peculiar properties and aspects and are an area of active research.” Black holes are studied by astronomers, physicists, and astrophysicists, who use a combination of theory and observations to construct what black holes might look like, and in rare cases, as discussed, obtain direct images of them. Regarding theory, researchers use mathematical calculations and computer models to simulate what black holes might look like, and then have used powerful ground-based telescopes like EHT to obtain the few direct images of black holes. It is important to note that these direct images don’t capture the black hole itself, but the gases that are encircling the black hole’s event horizon, or the unofficial boundary where light can’t escape the black hole. But what advice can Dr. Khanna offer upcoming students who wish to pursue studying black holes? Dr. Khanna tells Universe Today, “I would offer them a lot of encouragement! There is a lot to do in this space and many mysteries to solve. New observations are going to open many new doors and brand-new avenues for research. This is amongst the best times to be a black hole astrophysicist!” Dr. Khanna continues, “The one thing that I could say perhaps that isn’t as much emphasized elsewhere is about computing as a tool to study black holes. Mostly there is heavy emphasis on learning advanced mathematics as the background for serious research in black holes — and for good reason — that continues to be critical for every student of Einstein’s relativity theory which is the foundation for black hole physics.  In recent years, computer simulations have advanced rapidly, and one can now make major discoveries about deep questions using computational tools. In the long run, computer programming would be a very promising tool for advancing research in this field and many others as well.” How will black holes help us better understand our place in the universe in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! The post Black Holes: Why study them? What makes them so fascinating? appeared first on Universe Today.

What's the secret?

Made to be destroyed.