Pat Don

Russian Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko And Nikolai Chub Set A Record-Breaking 374-Day Stay Aboard The ISS, Landing In Kazakhstan With American Astronaut Tracy Dyson. Kononenko Set A New Record For Longest Cumulative Space-Time At 1,111 Days. However, Valeri Polyakov Holds The Record For The Longest Unbroken Space Stay At 438 Days On Mir In 1994-95.

Iwao Hakamata, The World’s Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate, Was Exonerated After Over 50 Years In Prison. He Was Arrested In 1966 At Age 30 For The Murder Of His Boss & Family. A Japanese Court Acquitted The Now 88-Year-Old, Citing Planted Bloodstains, Sparking Calls To Reform Japan’s Justice System, Including Abolishing The Death Penalty.

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US Cyclist Lael Wilcox Claimed The Record For Fastest Woman To Circumnavigate The Globe By Bike In ~108 Days, Pending Guinness Verification. She Cycled 29,169 Km Across 21 Countries & 4 Continents, Starting And Ending In Chicago, Beating Scotland’s Jenny Graham’s 2018 Record Of ~124 Days. Indian Cyclist Vedangi Kulkarni Is Also Attempting The Record.

Scientists In Tokyo Have Attached A Lab-Grown Living Skin Tissue To A Robotic Face, And Manipulated A Living Skin For The First Time To ,E.G., “Smile.” This Breakthrough Could Lead To More Life-Like Robots And Safer Cosmetic Testing. Despite Progress, Overcoming The Unnerving Feeling Evoked By The Nearly Human-Like Robots Remains Challenging.

Archaeologists Have Discovered The World’s Oldest Calendar At Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, Dating Back 12kyrs. The Site Features 365 “V” Symbols On A Pillar, Representing A 12-Month Lunar Calendar With 11 Extra Days. The Carvings May Depict A Comet Strike 13kyrs Ago That Influenced Early Agriculture, Religion, And Possibly Led To Writing.

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Katie Ledecky Won Her 9th Gold And 14th Olympic Medal In The 800m Freestyle, Tying Gymnast Larisa Latynina For Most Golds By A Female Swimmer And American Female Athlete. She Also Became The Most Decorated Female Swimmer With Her 13th Medal, A Silver In The 4×200 Freestyle Relay. In Paris, She Earned 2 Golds, A Silver, And A Bronze, Aiming For LA 2028.

The 40m Stampfli 24 Express, The World’s Longest Rowing Boat, Joined The Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay On July 21 On The River Marne. Starting In Greece, The Relay Crossed France And Ended In Paris, Where The July 26 Opening Ceremony Began As A 6km Floating Parade On The Seine, Instead Of In The Stadium, For The First Time In The Olympics.

In A World-First, Astronomers Have Witnessed A Supermassive Black Hole “Waking Up” And Brightening In Real-Time. Located 360 Million Light-Years Away In Galaxy SDSS1335+0728, The Black Hole Has Shown Increased Luminosity Since 2019, But Its Activation Cause Remains Unknown. Similar Activation Could Occur With Sagittarius A* In Our Galaxy.

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Scientists Uncovered A 1,400-Year-Old Seagrass Clone, Zostera Marina (Eelgrass), In The Baltic Sea, Making It The World’s Oldest Known Marine Plant. Using A Genetic Clock Calibrated With A 17-Yr-Old Seagrass Clone, The Team Determined The Age By Comparing Genetic Variations. This Method May Reveal Older Organisms In Other Seagrass Species.

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Astronomers Discovered WASP-193b, An Exoplanet 50% Larger Than Jupiter But Only 14% Of Its Mass, Making It The 2nd Lightest Known Planet After Kepler 51d. Located 1,200 LY Away, The “Puffy Jupiter” Is Likely Comprised Mainly Hydrogen & Helium, And Its Extended Atmosphere Is Ideal For Studying Its Planetary Formation With Tools Like JWST.

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The Closest Transiting, Temperate, And Potentially Habitable Earth-Size Exoplanet, Gliese 12b, Has Been Discovered. It’s 40 LY Away In Pisces, Orbits A Red Dwarf In 12.8 Days, And Has A Surface Temperature Of 107°f. Found By NASA’s TESS, Its Atmosphere Will Be Analyzed By The James Webb Telescope, But Human Visitation Is Impractical.

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Astronomers Observed, For The First Time, The ‘Glory Effect’ (GE) On An Exoplanet, WASP-76b, Similar To Earth’s & Venus‘s. It Features Concentric, Colorful Rings Of Light Caused By Light Reflecting Off Clouds Made Of A Uniform Substance. Extreme Conditions—Scorching Dayside, Nightside Iron Rain—Permit GE, Offering Insights Into Alien Atm.

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Scientists Discovered A Huge Water Reservoir, 3x Earth’s Oceans, 700 Km Deep Within The Mantle In The Rock Ringwoodite. This Find Challenges Theories On Earth’s Water Origin, Suggesting Possibly Internal Rather Than From Comets. Seismic Data Reveals This Underground Ocean, Potentially Reshaping Our Understanding Of The Planet’s Water Cycle.

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The Carrington Event (CE) Of 1859, The Largest Solar Storm (SS) On Record, Was Stronger Than Believed. Historical Magnetograms Show It Reached >500 NT/Minute. SSs, Like CE, Have Occurred Throughout History, But Accurate Data To Measure Their Sizes Spans < 200 Yrs, Highlighting Our Vulnerability To Such Events And The Need For Preparation.

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Saudi Arabia, With Rumy Alqahtani, Will Make History By Entering The Miss Universe Pageant (MUP) For The First Time. Alqahtani, A 27-Year-Old Seasoned Pageant Contender & Influencer, Has Competed Globally In, E.G., Miss And Mrs Global Asian. The 2023 MUP Was Historic As A Nicaraguan Contestant, Sheynnis Palacios, Won The Pageant For The First Time.

Miassite, RH17S15, Is The World’s First Unconventional Superconductor (USC) Found In Nature And Also Synthesized In Labs, Which Does Not Conform To The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer Theory (BCS), Joining A Group That Only Includes Lab-Conceived USC. This Discovery Holds Promise For Economically Advancing Industrial Superconductor Technologies.

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A Farm In Australia Breaks World Record, Certified By Guinness World Records, For Growing The Largest Blueberry Which Is ~4cm-Wide And Weighs 20.4g. The Fruit Breed, An Eterna Breed, Developed By Costa Group, Yields Consistently Large Fruits That Maintain Flavor And Firmness. The Farmers May Preserve The Giant Berry Via A Resin Cast.

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Elizabeth Francis, Aged 114, Is America’s Oldest Resident And 5th Oldest Person On Earth. Francis, A Houstonian, Took The Title After 116-Year-Old Californian Edie Ceccarelli Passed Away. Francis Has 3 Grandchildren, 4 Great-Grandchildren, And 2 Great-Great-Grandchildren. She Lives With Her Daughter Dorothy Williams, 94, And Granddaughter.

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A 14-Foot (4.3 Meters) Odysseus Lander, Built By Intuitive Machines And Sponsored By NASA For $118 Million, Successfully Touched Down Near The South Pole Of The Moon, Marking The First U.S. Landing In Over 50 Years Since NASA’s Famed Apollo Moonwalkers. This Achievement Also Made Intuitive Machines The First Private Company To Achieve A Lunar Landing.

Beyoncé‘s “Texas Hold ‘EM” Not Only Made Her The First Black Woman And 2nd Solo Female Artist, After Taylor Swift, To Top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs But Also The First Woman To Lead Both Hot Country Songs And Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Charts Since The Charts Began In 1958. Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus, ETC., Have Also Led Both Charts.