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The earliest evidence for fire dates back nearly 440 million years. Our hominin ancestors first used natural wildfires to flush out prey and forage for food. Richard Wrangham's cooking hypothesis suggests that a ready supply of cooked food allowed the Homo lineage to develop its large, complex brains. Of humanity’s greatest inventions, fire remains as important today as in the time of our ancient ancestors — if not as apparent. We have replaced the hearth with electric ovens and central heating, but the burning of fossil fuels accounts for 63.5 percent of U.S. electricity generation. We still heat our homes and cook our food with fire — just in a more roundabout manner. We even use fire in ways our ancestors couldn’t have imagined. The internal combustion engine has replaced animals and our own wobbly legs as the preferred method of travel. We can go farther in a day than the vast majority of our ancestors did in a lifetime and even escape the confines of our planet. Thanks to fire. But fire has done more than create the energy that makes our lives comfortable. By one Harvard professor’s account, fire altered the course of our evolution.

Fire, a brief history

First, some Chem 101. Fire requires three elements for its reaction: oxygen, fuel, and a heat source. Since two of the three elements are provided naturally by plants, the history of fire became intricately tied to them.

Some of our earliest evidence for fire goes back 440 million years to the Silurian period when Earth’s climate stabilized and plants and animals began to move to land. Of note, this period provides the earliest fossil evidence of vascular plants. From this point, fire becomes a recurrent phenomenon with times of high and low activity based on environmental conditions. During the Carboniferous period, atmospheric oxygen hit a record high of 31 percent and plants spread across the supercontinent Pangea, so charcoal records suggest a lot of fire activity during this period. Conversely, the pittance of charcoal from the Triassic period suggests low atmospheric oxygen and fewer plants. Jumping a few million years to the late Miocene, hominins moved to the grasslands and began to further diverge from their ape relatives — likely due to the difference between the African savanna and the dense jungle. Here, they would have also encountered wildfires with far more regularity.

Read Full Article Here : https://bigthink.com/the-present/inventions-fire/

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“Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now,” Jack Kerouac wrote in a beautiful 1957 letter to his first wife turned lifelong friend. “Kindness, kindness, kindness,” Susan Sontag resolved in her diary on New Year’s Day in 1972. Half a century later, the Dalai Lama placed a single exhortation at the center of his ethical and ecological philosophy: “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Nothing broadens the soul more than the touch of kindness, given or received, and nothing shrivels it more than a flinch of unkindness, given or received — something we have all been occasionally lashed with, and something of which we are all occasionally culpable, no matter how ethical our lives and how well-intentioned our conduct. Everyone loves the idea of kindness — loves thinking of themselves as a kind person — but somehow, the practice of it, the dailiness of it, has receded into the background in a culture rife with selfing and cynicism, a culture in which we have come to mistake the emotional porousness of kindness for a puncture in the armor of our hard individualism. And yet kindness remains our best antidote to the fundamental loneliness of being human. Gathered here are two millennia of meditations on kindness — its challenges, its nuances, and its rippling rewards — from a posy of vast minds and vast spirits who have risen above the common tide of their times to give us the embers of timelessness.

Read Here Full Article : https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/03/12/kindness/

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Feed the baby

(via)

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Don’t mess with Dracula.

Don’t mess with Dracula.

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Hiroo Isono, 1982

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When in doubt of what to draw, always go for girls in armor !

Last drawing of 2022 🌟 

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Spring is coming 🌸

It was high time to design new spring themed thank u cards!! You'll get this kitty with every order from my shop.

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kitchen ghosts

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Types of Properties in the UK that you should know before investing | Joe Ricotta

The names of various home types in the UK vary depending on their characteristics, dimensions, and designs. As "Joe" Ricotta suggests, before renting or purchasing a home, it is crucial to understand the many types of housing that are available in the UK. Let's look at several types of property in the UK.  

The following are the main types of homes in the UK:

1. Flat:   A flat, often known as an apartment, is one of the most well-known forms of real estate in the UK. A flat can be characterized as a minor component of a larger residential structure. It might be the entire floor or just a portion of it. Floors are separated into individual flats in a bigger structure. They share a shared parking space, reception lobby, and elevators. “There are numerous apartments available for rent in London; the rent will vary depending on the apartment's location and size” says Joe Ricotta. From studio apartments to two or three-bedroom apartments, you may rent an apartment in London based on your needs and budget. 2: A detached home This is a single dwelling, or you may say a single standing property. Since detached homes are not connected to other homes, they are referred to as private homes. These homes have more room and typically include a driveway and garden area because they are one residential unit. Due to their solitude, these homes are more expensive to rent. 3: Terraced house It usually referred to as townhouses, are continuous rows of shared residences. Every home has a similar appearance and is connected to others on both sides by side walls. The working class had a communal living space thanks to the prevalence of terraced dwellings in the UK throughout the 19th century, "Joe Ricotta" stated. Since the homes are constructed in a line, this form of property saves a lot of area. Terraced homes are less expensive since they lack seclusion. 4:  Cottage A cottage is a modest home with a few windows, thatched roofs, and substantial walls. This kind of property can have one or two floors, and the second level is often smaller than the first floor, giving it a trendier appearance. These residences are typically located in rural areas or on farms.     Rich individuals acquire cottages as their vacation or family holiday homes because they are so attractive, added Joe Ricotta. Cottages are unquestionably a highly pricey type of property in the UK. 5: Mansion Of all the homes in the UK, a mansion is the biggest and most costly. The UK's most opulent residence is this one. Large rooms, magnificent grounds, lounges, swimming pools, and plenty of space for hosting events or engaging in sporting activities are all features of this style of home. A mansion home is furnished with all the finest facilities and is frequently the choice of wealthy occupants.

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On a clear, moonless night, you might be able to see thousands of stars sparkling like jewels above. But a keen eye will notice that they don’t all look alike. Some glow brighter than others, and some display warm red hues.

Astronomers have identified several different types of stars in the universe, as diverse as small brown dwarfs and red supergiants. Stars in the prime of their lives, known as main sequence stars, are typically classified by how hot they are. Since most star temperatures can’t be directly measured, explains Natalie Gosnell, an assistant professor in physics at Colorado College, astronomers need to look at another signal: temperature. This is largely inferred by the color of the light a star emits, which is reflected in many names given to star types.  

Each category, however, is connected. A star moves through various designations throughout its lifetime, an evolution shaped by its original mass and the reactions that occur within the roiling stellar body.

In the beginning…

All stars form from a cloud of dust and gas when turbulence pushes enough of that material together, pressed into one body by gravity. As that clump collapses in on itself, it starts to spin. The material in the middle heats up, forming a dense core known as a protostar. Gravity draws even more material toward the developing star as it spins, making it bigger and bigger. Some of that stuff may eventually form planets, asteroids, and comets in orbit around the new star.

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Yoga can fix your Bad Body Posture at home | Joe Ricotta

We are all guilty of neglecting our posture when concentrating on our cellphones or working long hours. Poor posture and slouching pose major health risks. And by addressing your posture concerns, they can be prevented. "Young people reporting back, shoulder, and neck discomfort are becoming more prevalent every day. It's critical to unwind these stressed-out muscles, according to "Joe" Ricotta. Yoga may be used to rectify certain postures: 1: Balasana (Child's Pose) To create dysfunction, the first posture we execute is the child's pose says Joe Ricotta, which will curve our shoulders forward. When we genuinely open our body will be more eager to do so. In the child's position, you should lean back on your heels, extend your arms out in front of you, and allow your head and shoulders to fall towards the floor. 2: Dhanurasan (The Bow) The Bow simultaneously lifts the body's two halves. You use your hands and arms to bring your trunk and legs up together to make a curve, much like an archer string a bow. This enhances posture and energy by toning your back muscles and keeping your spine supple, added Joe Ricotta. Maintaining a balanced weight on your abdomen helps you lose belly fat and maintain a healthy digestive tract. 3: Utkatasana (Fierce Pose) The muscles in the back and legs are greatly strengthened by this position. Additionally, it helps relieve tension and bad posture by working on the shoulders. 4: Chakravakrasana (Cow-cat Stretch) The Chakravakrasana (Cat-Cow Stretch) is very effective in assisting you in identifying the optimum, natural curvature of your spine. You learn to evaluate the neutral posture more precisely by shifting the spine from flexion (cat) to extension (cow), passing through the center each time. Yoga poses like the cat-cow pose, which have been demonstrated to improve spinal flexibility and mobility, are advised for raising quality of life. 5: Plank Pose Speaking about developing core strength, the plank is another fantastic exercise. It also identifies your areas of weakness. As per Joe Ricotta, the plank can aid in developing core stability and strength to enhance posture and lessen spinal strain. Check to see that your butt is not protruding or sagging. To assist you in locating the center, try exaggerating each of them. Maintain abdominal engagement throughout and slightly indent your navel toward your spine. Try to keep this position for a minute or longer. 

Conclusion!

The hours spent each day bent over a computer at work or in a car are the root of many postural issues. Give it a try; you'll see obvious changes with persistent practice. These yoga positions will assist fight any propensity to slouch as well as develop your body awareness and core strength.

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The Drive 🌇 Long version here

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Forest God (pt2)

by 

Oleg Vdovenko

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Forest God (pt 1)

by

Oleg Vdovenk

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The foal-shaped void had Feelings about the wind and the rain.

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Big stretch