Geologists at Rice University have uncovered evidence that suggests Earth’s spin axis was in a different spot millions of years ago, a phenomenon called “true polar wander.” The change, which occurred sometime in the past 12 million years, would have shifted Greenland further up into the Arctic Circle – which may have contributed to the onset of the last major Ice Age, 3.2 million years ago.

Now, scientists have cast doubt on yet another fundamental feature of the universe, its shape, in a new paper from Nature Astronomy that warns of a “cosmological crisis.”

Pretty sure that’s sciencespeak for “SEND MONEY”.

The remains of an ancient ape found in a Bavarian clay pit suggest that humans’ ancestors began standing upright millions of years earlier than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday.
 
An international team of researchers says the fossilized partial skeleton of a male ape that lived almost 12 million years ago in the humid forests of what is now southern Germany bears a striking resemblance to modern human bones. In a paper published by the journal Nature, they concluded that the previously unknown species — named Danuvius guggenmosi — could walk on two legs but also climb like an ape.
 
The findings “raise fundamental questions about our previous understanding of the evolution of the great apes and humans,” said Madelaine Boehme, of the University of Tübingen, Germany, who led the research.

WUWT;

We’re getting something wrong about the universe.
 
It might be something small: a measurement issue that makes certain stars looks closer or farther away than they are, something astrophysicists could fix with a few tweaks to how they measure distances across space. It might be something big: an error — or series of errors — in cosmology, or our understanding of the universe’s origin and evolution. If that’s the case, our entire history of space and time may be messed up. But whatever the issue is, it’s making key observations of the universe disagree with each other: Measured one way, the universe appears to be expanding at a certain rate; measured another way, the universe appears to be expanding at a different rate. And, as a new paper shows, those discrepancies have gotten larger in recent years, even as the measurements have gotten more precise.

Records Found in Dusty Basement Undermine Decades of Dietary Advice. (From 2017).

Abstract:
 
The reliability of general circulation climate model (GCM) global air
temperature projections is evaluated for the first time, by way of
propagation of model calibration error. An extensive series of
demonstrations show that GCM air temperature projections are just linear
extrapolations of fractional greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing. Linear
projections are subject to linear propagation of error. A directly relevant
GCM calibration metric is the annual average ±12.1% error in global annual
average cloud fraction produced within CMIP5 climate models. This error is
strongly pair-wise correlated across models, implying a source in deficient
theory. The resulting long-wave cloud forcing (LWCF) error introduces an
annual average ±4 Wm–2 uncertainty into the simulated tropospheric thermal
energy flux. This annual ±4 Wm–2 simulation uncertainty is ±114 × larger
than the annual average ∼0.035 Wm–2 change in tropospheric thermal energy
flux produced by increasing GHG forcing since 1979. Tropospheric thermal
energy flux is the determinant of global air temperature. Uncertainty in
simulated tropospheric thermal energy flux imposes uncertainty on projected
air temperature. Propagation of LWCF thermal energy flux error through the
historically relevant 1988 projections of GISS Model II scenarios A, B, and
C, the IPCC SRES scenarios CCC, B1, A1B, and A2, and the RCP scenarios of
the 2013 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, uncovers a ±15 C uncertainty in air
temperature at the end of a centennial-scale projection. Analogously large
but previously unrecognized uncertainties must therefore exist in all the
past and present air temperature projections and hindcasts of even advanced
climate models. The unavoidable conclusion is that an anthropogenic air
temperature signal cannot have been, nor presently can be, evidenced in
climate observables.

Full article is at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00223/full

(h/t to Dean)

Interesting discussion.

New pain organ discovered in the skin

It’s Alex Jones’ world and we’re just living in it.

Researchers in Canada found women who drank fluoridated tap water while pregnant had children with slightly lower IQ scores than women who lived in non-fluoridated cities.
 
The message from public health experts, however, is “don’t panic”.
 
While the authors of the study claim the research “raises possible concern”, other researchers say the findings don’t move the needle much — if at all — on the question of fluoride safety.
 
“The overwhelming body of evidence is still supporting water fluoridation,” said Matt Hopcraft, associate professor of dental public health at the University of Melbourne.
 
“Here’s a single study that points a little in the other direction. I think we just need to be cautious.”
 
Water fluoridation began in Australia in the 1960s as a way to help prevent dental decay. It’s been heralded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.

Now do birth control pills and testosterone.