© Universal Images Group Editorial/ FILE PHOTO
While 15-year-old Cori 'Coco' Gauff's Wimbledon win over Venus Williams was undoubtedly impressive, this one-year-old Arctic fox may have made the most impressive athletic debut of the year, occasionally clocking nearly 100 miles a day during its epic intercontinental journey.
Equipped with a GPS tracking band by the Norwegian Polar Institute, researchers were already impressed when the fox reached Greenland 21 days after its release on March 26, 2018. But the little critter was only getting started, eventually crossing into Canada's Ellesmere less than two months later. With an astounding average pace of 28.5 miles per day, no fox has ever been recorded traveling that far, that fast before.
"The fox's journey has left scientists speechless," reported Greenland's Sermitsiaq newspaper.
"We couldn't believe our eyes at first. We thought perhaps it was dead, or had been carried there on a boat, but there were no boats in the area. We were quite thunderstruck," Eva Fuglei of the Polar Institute told local media in Norway.
Fuglei was working with Arnaud Tarroux from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) to learn more about how the species survives throughout different seasons, particularly during winter when food is scarce. Upon arrival in Canada, the fox will likely skip Tim Hortons and stick to a diet consisting mostly of the plentiful local lemmings.
Unfortunately, the polar institute's transmitter proved less rugged than the exceptional creature and broke in February... meaning we may never know for sure what it gets up to in Canada.
While the fox proved to be quite the intrepid traveler, global climate change has reportedly closed off some routes formerly frequented by the species, including the path to Iceland. Scientists are worried that even the trip to Canada might soon no longer be a possibility, as shrinking polar ice caps threaten to isolate Svalbard altogether.
Reader Comments
So maybe the little Fox relied on stars? Did they strap an astrolabe around its neck? (I would guess it's a male, as they tend to wander farther in search of... well, we all know.)
R.C.
It details the death of Socrates, (hemlock) as written up later by Plato, although it reads as though Phaedo was a regular court reporter/high speed dictation scribe, for it reads like a deposition* and it has more than enough verisimilitude to make me believe that Plato had a copy of Phaedo's transcript and copied it nearly verbatim. (He was one of Socrates' 'disciples'/'students' etc. but wasn't present at that time.)
One point Socrates goes into detail about is the fact that man does have inherent knowledge and Socrates does a great job of proving his point that we had life and learning before this and will have it again when we pass away. (In a way similar to Jung's Collective Unconscious, but it's really focused instead on our ongoing reincarnations.)
Although I've not read anything else on/of/by Socrates (I might have read some excerpts/summaries in some college philosophy class or such, but nothing since then.); from only reading Phaedo, I would not be surprised if the same issues are discussed at even greater length in one Socrates' other 'works' (which I believe were all? mostly? written by his followers/friends etc.) But he's convincing.
I thank whoever it was who discussed that here at SOTT So here's the links to Pheado and also Plato's 'Big Three On Socrates' (it has a fancier name than that. )
Here's only 'Phaedo' [Link]
And here's the 'Big Three"(a/k/a, "Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates by Plato") at [Link]
Enjoy. Again kudos to the SOTTite(s) who brought this up.
R.C.
* Of a friendly, cooperative witness.
RC
I did insert the "allegedly" as that is the narrative imposed on us ... but I don't believe it for a minute
e.g.
British woman wakes up from coma speaking fluent French
It was May 2006, and I had just been swimming. I was on my way from my home in Hastings to work as a revenue executive for HMRC. It was raining hard, and the visibility was terrible. I was...Pretty soon we will have mandatory education from 3 to 18 ... 15 years of dumbing down and conditioning, leaving people with no free thought, math and language phobias and incapable of reading anything larger than a 23 word sound bite
[Link]
Now that might not otherwise be special, as shark bites happen here more than anywhere in the world. (The 'problem' - if one wishes to call it that - is that Florida shark bites are usually not that bad because most are like the black tip shark bite in the link.* - as opposed to Australia, S. Africa, et al., where one gets to have fun with Great Whites rather than spinner sharks.)
So, like your link's bite victim, most of our bites, like my friend’s, are exactly that: "nibble and explore”, decide it's not 'fishy'** enough, and likely conclude that their nibble victim is apparently too big also - so they hit the road- the ocean - whatever.
BUT, If you research the year 1975 and sharks, you will see ‘Jaws’ hysteria, PLUS the National Geographic shark specials. Moreover, in Jaws, the day that the kids in the sailboat get chomped by the Great White, is July 4th.
Thus, (P.R. value being hooked between media and news, even back then), his timing resulted in my friend having his "15 minutes" being on the front page of most newspapers in the USA. (Now if one can't find who I am describing - and he still surfs, I talked to him last night - well, that 'one' would be best off NOT becoming an internet researcher.)
THAT is a very short version of a classic July 4th.
R.C.
*I do question the Medical Malpractice issue, as HOW THE HELL COULD THE SURGEONS HAVE MISSED A SPARE SHARK TOOTH IN HIS FOOT? AND FOR DECADES????
** It’s been my experience that one SMELLS sharks before one sees them. I do not know if it’s because sharks ‘sweat’ fishiness, OR, because all of the fish guts floating to the surface, but it is true.
R.C.
R.C.
You re a savvy storyteller.
.... little fox, big message