Recent posts

#11

Current Events / WW3?

Last post by zorkan - February 28, 2026, 12:15:06 PM

Woke up to a new world this morning.
It won't be like the Iraq wars.
Potential collapse of the world economy if it persists too long.

#12

Politics / Re: amerika

Last post by Dark Lightning - February 28, 2026, 04:56:53 AM

I haven't had my head up my ass.    I've seen with my own eyes all the criminal idiocy being perpetrated by the chump and his henchmen. I have some real schadenfreude watching the MAGAts when they complain about the face-eating leopards coming for them.

#13

Politics / Re: amerika

Last post by Recusant - February 28, 2026, 04:03:34 AM

I stumbled across this video that tells it like it is.  We Americans, with our heads up our collective asses, have failed to pay attention.  Our fearless leader with his imbecilic behavior has cost us dearly.

This is a 20 minute video that is realistic with bad news for us all.

The information is realistic and we'll see how it plays out. I didn't want to subject myself to 20 minutes of an AI video bot, so read and skimmed the transcript. Canada is trying to protect itself against the tariff idiocy of Trump, and I hope it goes well for them. Not sure though how much damage that will do in the long run to the US.

However, if enough countries follow a similar path it's going to be rougher sailing for a while.

#14

Religion / Re: Who Would Have Thought?

Last post by zorkan - February 26, 2026, 05:32:13 PM

News on bishops in the last few days.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/anthony-pierce-church-wales-court-33495228

https://news.sky.com/story/bishop-of-lincoln-arrested-on-suspicion-of-sexual-assault-13510228

There are now 30 women bishops in the Church of England.
The present Archbishops of Canterbury and Wales are both women.
I can only see this trend increasing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lxyxqzxkdo
https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/about-us/bishops/bishop-elect-cherry-vann-bishop-monmouth/

#15

Laid Back Lounge / Re: i was today years old when...

Last post by Recusant - February 26, 2026, 12:27:50 AM

To have a publisher of reference works with such a name was a splendid thing. In their time they were fairly respected in the business.

#16

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Spain, Portugal, Morocco

Last post by Ecurb Noselrub - February 25, 2026, 11:14:48 PM

I first learned of Marrakech in 1969 listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash. Ever since, I have wanted to go. Maybe in May I will make it. I want to see "colored cottons hang in the air, charming cobras in the square, striped djellabas we can wear at home". Let me hear you now.

#17

Laid Back Lounge / Re: i was today years old when...

Last post by Ecurb Noselrub - February 25, 2026, 11:11:50 PM

When I was 15 a friend of mine and I wrote stupid songs at his house. He had a second-hand electric guitar, and I used his Funk & Wagnalls as a drum, hitting it with a spoon from his kitchen. We recorded the music. Needless to say, that was an off-label use of a Funk & Wagnalls. Later, I learned the correct purpose.

#18

Sports / Re: World Cup - 2026

Last post by zorkan - February 25, 2026, 11:04:28 AM

Mexico will be safe for fans.
Hugs not bullets.
Let's hope so.

#19

Politics / Re: amerika

Last post by Icarus - February 24, 2026, 11:17:32 PM

I stumbled across this video that tells it like it is.  We Americans, with our heads up our collective asses, have failed to pay attention.  Our fearless leader with his imbecilic behavior has cost us dearly.

This is a 20 minute video that is realistic with bad news for us all.

 

[Abstract:]

#20

Science / Re: Dark Star

Last post by Recusant - February 24, 2026, 05:00:57 AM

Agreed. The Universe has plenty of curiosities and more unveiled as we build more powerful instruments. Early days yet for the Webb telescope and it's already shown us some amazing things. The Hubble is still excellent too--was used to help create the image behind the observation described below. Noting the usual headline editor's tendency to overstate things, creating certainty out of possibility.                         



"Dark star" you say? Well how about a dark galaxy?

Deep, man.     

"Hubble and Euclid Team Up To Identify A Dark Matter Galaxy" | Universe Today

Everybody knows that galaxies are large structures made of stars. That's a simple definition, and ignores the fact that galaxies also contain gas, dust, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, etc., and of course, dark matter. But one type of galaxy is mostly made of dark matter, and they're difficult to detect.

They're called dark galaxies, and they contain no stars, or only very few stars. Scientists have long theorized about their existence, which has remained hypothetical; they've found galaxies with low surface brightness, and they've found dark galaxy candidates. But new research has found the strongest candidate yet.

[. . .]

The candidate galaxy has been dubbed CDG-2, for Candidate Dark Galaxy 2. (CDG-1 is explained here.) CDG-2 is in the Perseus galaxy cluster about 300 million light-years away. The obvious question is, if it's so dark how was it detected?

It comes down to globular clusters (GC). Most galaxies have GCs. They're spherical groups of stars that are bound together gravitationally and can contain millions of stars. Around spiral galaxies like ours, they're mostly found in the galactic halo. Their origins are unclear, as is the role they play in the evolution of galaxies.

In this work, the researchers used the Hubble, the ESA's Euclid space telescope, and Japan's Subaru telescope. They searched for tight groupings of GCs that could indicate the presence of a galaxy. The Hubble found four closely-connected GCs in the Perseus cluster. The researchers then applied advanced statistical methods on data from the three telescopes that revealed a faint glow around the GCs. This glow is a strong indication that there's an underlying galaxy whose individual stars are too dim to resolve.

"This is the first galaxy detected solely through its globular cluster population," lead author Li said in a press release. "Under conservative assumptions, the four clusters represent the entire globular cluster population of CDG-2."

[Continues . . .]

The paper is open access:

"Candidate Dark Galaxy-2: Validation and Analysis of an Almost Dark Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster" | The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Abstract:

Candidate Dark Galaxy-2 (CDG-2) is a potential dark galaxy consisting of four globular clusters (GCs) in the Perseus cluster, first identified in D. Li et al. through a sophisticated statistical method. The method searched for overdensities of GCs from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) survey targeting Perseus.

Using the same HST images and new imaging data from the Euclid survey, we report the detection of extremely faint but significant diffuse emission around the four GCs of CDG-2. We thus have exceptionally strong evidence that CDG-2 is a galaxy.

This is the first galaxy detected purely through its GC population. Under the conservative assumption that the four GCs make up the entire GC population, preliminary analysis shows that CDG-2 has a total luminosity of L_V,gal = 6.2 ± 3.0 × 106 L⊙ and a minimum GC luminosity of L_V,GC = 1.03 ± 0.2 × 106 L⊙.

Our results indicate that CDG-2 is one of the faintest galaxies having associated GCs, while at least ∼16.6% of its light is contained in its GC population. This ratio is likely to be much higher (∼33%) if CDG-2 has a canonical GC luminosity function (GCLF). In addition, if the previously observed GC-to-halo mass relations apply to CDG-2, it would have a minimum dark matter halo mass fraction of 99.94% to 99.98%. If it has a canonical GCLF, then the dark matter halo mass fraction is ≳99.99%. Therefore, CDG-2 may be the most GC dominated galaxy and potentially one of the most dark matter dominated galaxies ever discovered.