Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. It has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare – lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces. The central square, Piazza San Marco, contains St. Mark’s Basilica, which is tiled with Byzantine mosaics, and the Campanile bell tower offering views of the city’s red roofs.
Front Page View: Wall Street Journal – Aug 12
Morning News: America’s Infrastructure, Zambia Election, GErman Politics
The Senate has passed the first part of President Joe Biden’s mammoth plan, which is now tied to a far more ambitious part two. We examine their prospects for passage.
Zambia is undertaking a pivotal election—but it seems far from a fair fight to oust the incumbent. And our Germany-election tracker cuts through reams of data and tricky electoral politics.
City Views: Tubingen – Southwest Germany
Tübingen is a city in southwest Germany and home to one of Europe’s oldest universities. In the old town, Stiftskirche St. Georg is a late-Gothic church with stained-glass windows and city views from its tower. The ornately painted 15th-century City Hall is topped with a functioning astronomical clock. Hilltop Hohentübingen Castle is home to the Museum of Ancient Cultures, with Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts.
Aerial Views: Orlando – Central Florida (4K)
Orlando, a city in central Florida, is home to more than a dozen theme parks. Chief among its claims to fame is Walt Disney World, comprised of parks like the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, as well as water parks. Another major destination, Universal Orlando, offers Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter straddling both.
Previews: New Scientist Magazine – August 14
Classic Road Trips: Route 66 From Hackleberry To Seligman, Arizona (Video)
Historic US Route 66—the Mother Road, also known as the Main Street of America—used to take drivers all the way from Chicago, Ill. to Santa Monica, Calif. along one continuous route.
Though its heyday is gone, travelers still find their way to Route 66, drawn by the history, nostalgia and places that dot its roadside. Arizona contains one of the longest remaining stretches of the original Route 66, extending across the state from Holbrook (east) to Kingman (west).
Journey with us as we meet some of the more unusual and famous people and places along the route, starting in Hackberry, 20 miles northeast of Kingman, and ending in Seligman, home of Angel Delgadillo, who helped lead the preservation of Route 66.
Italian Racing Cars: The ‘1962 Ferrari 268 SP’ (Video)
This 286 SP claims extreme rarity in the Ferrari lineage as one of just six SP racers originally built and one of only two examples originally equipped with the developmental Maranello eight-cylinder engine. Boasting associations with legendary drivers like Lorenzo Bandini, Harry Heuer, Olivier Gendebien, and Ricardo Rodriguez, chassis 0798 was an integral part of Ferrari’s sports prototype development and racing campaign, and it laid the foundational groundwork for the famed Ferrari P cars. It is also no doubt a cornerstone of the 1964 SCCA D Modified Championship. As such, 0798 has been extensively chronicled and photographed in numerous books and articles, including significant coverage in John Godfrey’s authoritative 1990 volume Ferrari Dino SPs as well as a multi-part feature in Cavallino.
Voyages: ‘SeaLegacy’ Crew Films A Dolphin Pod In The Bahamas, Caribbean Sea
In the second episode of SeaLegacy: The Voyage, Sony Artisans of Imagery Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, along with the rest of the SeaLegacy crew, discover sometimes things don’t always go to plan. See how the crew manages the challenge and creates a new game plan when dealing with a sometimes uncooperative dolphin pod. Learn more: https://alphauniverse.com/stories/in-…
Science: Mapping A Bat’s Navigation Neurons In 3D, Poison Dart Frogs, Fabrics
Researchers uncover how grid cells fire in a 3D space to help bats navigate, and a fabric that switches between being stiff and flexible.
In this episode:
00:47 Mapping a bat’s navigation neurons in 3D
Grid cells are neurons that regularly fire as an animal moves through space, creating a pattern of activity that aids navigation. But much of our understanding of how grid cells work has involved rats moving in a 2D plane. To figure out how the system works in a 3D space, researchers have mapped the brain activity of bats flying freely around a room.
Research Article: Ginosar et al.
07:44 Research Highlights
How a ‘toxin sponge’ may protect poison dart frogs from themselves, and the world’s oldest known coin foundry has been found.
Research Highlight: An absorbing tale: poison dart frogs might have a ‘toxin sponge’
Research Highlight: Found: the world’s oldest known mint and its jumbo product
09:59 A flexible fabric that transforms from soft to rigid (and back again)
Researchers have created a ‘tunable’ fabric, inspired by medieval chainmail, that when compressed changes from flexible to rigid. The stiffened structure can hold 30 times its own weight, and the team behind it suggest this material could be used to build temporary shelters or have medical applications.
Research article: Wang et al.
16:33 Stark warning from the IPCC’s latest report
This week the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its long awaited report detailing compiling the latest climate science data. Nature’s Jeff Tollefson joins us to discuss the report and the warnings it contains for our warming world.
News: IPCC climate report: Earth is warmer than it’s been in 125,000 years
Boomers Daily 