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Dinosaurs may have suffered from respiratory diseases like pneumonia, fossil neck bones show

As if dodging carnivorous predators in the Jurassic swamp was not stressful enough, life would have been miserable for “Dolly” the dinosaur. Key points: Paleontologists scanned the neck bones of a large plant-eating dinosaur that lived around 150 million years ago Lesions suggest the dinosaur had a respiratory illness that caused a secondary infection in its bones These types of infections are common in birds today but have not been seen in fossils of non-avian dinosaurs before The large plant-eater probably suffered from a respiratory illness that triggered a bone infection, a new study of its neck bones suggests. If the diagnosis is correct, Dolly would have been plagued by pneumonia-like symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, headaches, weight loss, and fever. Cary Woodruff of the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Montana said Dolly would have looked visibly sick. “If you could get in a time machine and go back to when Dolly was alive, you would have very easily been able to tell that something was not right,” Dr. Woodruff said. This kind of infection, known as airsacculitis, is very common today in dinosaur descendants — birds. But this is the first evidence of respiratory infection in a non-avian dinosaur, Dr. Woodruff and his colleagues report today in the journal Scientific Reports. Well, hello Dolly Dolly — officially known as MOR 7029 — was a hefty long-necked type of dinosaur known as a diplodocid. When it roamed Montana about 150 million years ago, the area was a warm, humid coastal river system packed with plant-eating and carnivorous dinosaurs large and small. About 18 meters long, Dolly still had a lot of growing to do and half its life to live when it died at around 15 years of age. In 1990, a team of paleontologists dug up the front half of its fossilized skeleton, including its skull, some of its neck, shoulder, and rib bones. Thinking it was diplodocus, the classic long-necked dinosaur, they nicknamed it “Dolly the diplodocus”. This is a type of sauropod, a creature that belonged to the branch of the dino family tree that eventually evolved into birds. “From an evolutionary perspective, Dolly is more closely related to a pigeon than it is to triceratops,” Dr. Woodruff said. Given this lineage, paleontologists have long believed that sauropods and birds share anatomical traits including a complex respiratory system. Just like birds, sauropods had a series of air sacs near and in their bones, said Stephen Poropat, an Australian sauropod expert not involved in the study. “Sauropod dinosaurs are generally huge as adults. They have long necks, they have long tails,” Dr. Poropat of the Swinburne University of Technology and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum said. “If all of their bones were solid, their skeletons would have been immensely heavy.” ‘This has got to be a respiratory infection’ In 2014, Dr. Woodruff decided to dust off the fossil, which had been stashed away in a museum storeroom. After scraping away the hard rock encasing the skull, he realized that Dolly was actually a different species related to diplodocus. Then he decided to look at its neck bones. Strangely, the CT scans revealed the edges of the bone that would have been attached to air sacs were lumpy and bumpy. “But I don’t work on injuries and traumas in the fossil record, it was out of my wheelhouse, so I literally just posted a picture on social media and just asked my colleagues, ‘What is this?'” He immediately got responses from other paleontologists as well as anatomists and vets around the world. “The group answer was basically, ‘Holy cow, this has got to be a respiratory infection.'” There’s lots of evidence in the fossil record of dinosaurs suffering from injuries and bone diseases such as cancer, arthritis and infections like osteomyelitis, Dr. Poropat said. But, he said, finding evidence of a soft tissue disease such as a respiratory disease was “pretty amazing”. “A lot of the times when any disease or trauma is found in a dinosaur skeleton, it’s often in limb bones where you expect it to happen,” Dr Poropat said. “Seeing it where the air sacs penetrate the vertebrae in a sauropod is quite unusual.” And something was definitely amiss with the dinosaur’s neck bones, he said. Instead of having a thin plate of solid bone running through the center of each vertebra, the middle of the bones was infiltrated by air sacs and telltale signs of disease. “That’s abnormal; that’s not what we’d expect to see in a healthy sauropod.” So what did Dolly in? Looking closely at Dolly’s scans. Dr. Woodruff and the team quickly ruled out volcanoes as a culprit. Inhalation of volcanic ash can cause a disease similar to mesothelioma. “When these animals breathe in ash, the internal aspect of the bone is perfectly fine, they just develop weird growths on the outside,” Dr. Woodruff said. They also found no evidence of volcanic ash in the sediment from where Dolly was extracted all those years ago. The pattern of lesions also didn’t fit with lung cancer. Instead, Dr. Woodruff and his colleagues think bacterial or fungal infections such as chlamydiosis and aspergillosis are prime suspects. These respiratory infections are common in birds today. “We didn’t find anything that was 100 percent perfect match,” Dr. Woodruff said. “[But] if living dinosaurs get these symptoms when they have respiratory infections, evolutionarily a dinosaur in the past with a respiratory infection very likely could have had the same types of symptoms.” We don’t know for sure if the infection was bad enough to ultimately do Dolly in. “In the entire dinosaur record, there really maybe only just a few fossils that we can say what killed the animal,” Dr. Woodruff said. The Jurassic swamp would have been a very lonely place for a sick sauropod. If Dolly was anything like herd animals today, it may have tried to isolate to recover, or just simply fallen behind the pack, Dr. Woodruff said. “We don’t know whether Dolly could’ve just tipped over dead one day or was on its own and so visibly sick, making an easy target for a predator. “But either >>Read more
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What is auto insurance?

Understand your car insurance and what it covers Understanding auto insurance: the basics Who is covered by my auto insurance and under what circumstances? Is auto insurance coverage mandatory? What other types of auto insurance coverage are typical? What is gap insurance and do I need it? Basic personal auto insurance is mandated by countries and provides drivers with some financial protection in case of an accident. But is it enough? What are the options? Learn how car insurance works and what types of coverage are available. Understanding auto insurance: the basics Auto insurance is a contract between you and the insurance company that protects you against financial loss in the event of an accident or theft. In exchange for your paying a premium, the insurance company agrees to pay your losses as outlined in your policy. Auto insurance provides coverage for: Property – such as damage to or theft of your car Liability – your legal responsibility to others for bodily injury or property damage Medical – the cost of treating injuries, rehabilitation, and sometimes lost wages and funeral expenses Basic personal auto insurance is mandated by most countries, though laws vary. Auto insurance coverages are priced individually (a la carte) to let you customize coverage amounts to suit your exact needs and budget. Policies are generally issued for six-month or one-year timeframes and are renewable. The insurance company sends a notice when it’s time to renew the policy and pay your premium. Who is covered by my auto insurance—and under what circumstances? Your auto policy will cover you and other family members on your policy, whether driving your car or someone else’s car (with their permission). Your policy also provides coverage if someone who is not on your policy is driving your car with your consent. Your personal auto policy only covers personal driving, whether you’re commuting to work, running errands, or taking a trip. It will not provide coverage if you use your car for commercial purposes—for instance, if you deliver pizzas. Personal auto insurance will also not provide coverage if you use your car to provide transportation to others through a ride-sharing service such as Uber or Lyft. Some auto insurers, however, are now offering supplemental insurance products (at additional cost) that extend coverage for vehicle owners providing ride-sharing services. Is auto insurance coverage mandatory? Auto insurance requirements vary from state to state. If you’re financing a car, your lender may also have its own requirements. Nearly every state requires car owners to carry: Bodily injury liability – which covers costs associated with injuries or death that you or another driver causes while driving your car. Property damage liability – which reimburses others for damage that you or another driver operating your car causes to another vehicle or other property, such as a fence, building, or utility pole. In addition, many states require that you carry: Medical payments or personal injury protection (PIP), which provides reimbursement for medical expenses for injuries to you or your passengers. It will also cover lost wages and other related expenses. Uninsured motorist coverage reimburses you when an accident is caused by a driver who does not have auto insurance—or in the case of a hit-and-run. You can also purchase underinsured motorist coverage, which will cover costs when another driver lacks adequate coverage to pay the costs of a serious accident. Even if PIP and uninsured motorist coverage are optional in your state, consider adding them to your policy for greater financial protection. What other types of auto insurance coverage are typical? While most basic, legally mandated auto insurance covers the damage your car causes, it does not cover damage to your own car. To cover your own car, you should consider these optional coverages: Collision reimburses you for damage to your car that occurs as a result of a collision with another vehicle or other object—e.g., a tree or guardrail—when you’re at fault. While collision coverage will not reimburse you for mechanical failure or normal wear-and-tear on your car, it will cover damage from potholes or from rolling your car. Comprehensive provides coverage against theft and damage caused by an incident other than a collision, such as fire, flood, vandalism, hail, falling rocks or trees, and other hazards—even getting hit by an asteroid! Glass Coverage provides coverage from windshield damage, which is common. Some auto policies include no-deductible glass coverage, which also includes side windows, rear windows, and glass sunroofs. Or you can buy supplemental glass coverage. What is gap insurance and do I need it? Collision and comprehensive only cover the market value of your car, not what you paid for it—and new cars depreciate quickly. If your car is totaled or stolen, there may be a “gap” between what you owe on the vehicle and your insurance coverage. To cover this, you may want to look into purchasing gap insurance to pay the difference. Note that for leased vehicles, gap coverage is usually rolled into your lease payments.
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Moment the Ever Given crashed into the Suez Canal is caught on video

Human error may have caused the Ever Given cargo carrier to crash into the banks of the Suez Canal rather than strong winds, authorities revealed today. Osama Rabie, Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority chief, confirmed that ‘strong winds and weather factors were not the main reasons’ for the ship’s grounding in the busy waterway five days ago. Instead, he said there may have been ‘technical or human errors’ which led to the crash. Maritime tracking technology has simulated the moment the Ever Given cargo carrier lurched into the banks of the Suez Canal when it ran aground on March 23. Two attempts to dislodge the 1,300ft-long container ship – and reopen the critical global trade route – will be made today after efforts yesterday failed. The Panama-flagged vessel, which is as long as the Empire State building, has been wedged since Tuesday and caused tailbacks of around 280 ships floating in and outside the single-lane Egyptian waterway. High winds were understood to have blown the ship across the narrow canal, that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula and facilitates 12 per cent of international shipping, but Mr Rabie today confirmed this was not the main reason for the crash. A video from Vessel Finder recreating the crash by using the ship’s onboard tracker shows the moment it veered to port before suddenly going hard to starboard and hitting the banks. It ran aground about 3.7 miles north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez, and forced boats astern to grind to a halt. Captains appear to be banking on the ship being freed soon and are anchoring outside the Suez rather than going around the Cape of Good Hope, which could add days onto their journeys and even expose them to piracy. The Panama-flagged vessel, which is as long as the Empire State building, has been wedged since Tuesday and caused tailbacks of around 280 ships floating in and outside the single-lane waterway in Egypt Workers were dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel’s bow to try to get it afloat again as the high tide starts to go out Plans were being drawn up to pump water from interior spaces of the vessel to lighten the load, and two more tugs should arrive by Sunday to join others already trying to move the massive ship. An official at the Suez Canal Authority said they were planning to make at least two attempts today to free the vessel when the tide drops. He said the timing hinges on the tide. At least 10 tugboats have already been deployed to assist in refloating the vessel, according to Japanese firm Shoei Kisen KK, which owns the container ship. Shoei Kisen President Yukito Higaki told a news conference at company headquarters in Imabari in western Japan that workers were also dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel’s bow to try to get it afloat again. He said in a statement today that the company was considering removing containers to lighten the vessel if refloating efforts fail, but that this would be tricky. An approach was made by President Joe Biden, who said yesterday: ‘We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have and we’re seeing what we can do and what help we can be.’ That the White House stands ready to assist stresses how essential the Suez Canal is to the smooth functioning of global trade, and companies and governments are already warning of delays to goods arriving from Asia. Analysts say an estimated £290million worth of trade is being held up every hour the ship remains wedged across the canal. The backlog of vessels could stress European ports and the international supply of containers, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, according to IHS Markit, a business research group. It said 49 container ships were scheduled to pass through the canal in the week since the Ever Given became lodged. Ikea has warned of delays to supplies, which will mainly affect goods from Asia such as electricals and furniture. The canal provides the shortest possible route for ships travelling between Asia and Europe, with the only alternative being to sail around the Cape of Good Hope – adding 14 days and 5,000 nautical miles to the journey A huge container ship blocking the Suez Canal is threatening to delay shipments to the UK, with electronics, clothes, furniture and toys all likely to be affected Some vessels began changing course and dozens of ships were still en route to the waterway, according to the data firm Refinitiv. A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipment chain. It is is particularly crucial for transporting oil. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East. Apparently anticipating long delays, the owners of the stuck vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, on a course around Africa instead. Others also are being diverted. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which operates in the Red Sea, say a number of shipping companies have reached out to them in the last two days about security in the region amid fears they could be attacked. Zhao Qing-feng, office manager of the China Shipowners’ Association in Shanghai, told the Financial Times that vessels choosing to go the African route will have to take on additional security staff to ensure they are safe. Meanwhile Willy Lin, chair of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council, said an international coalition of naval warships might have to be brought in to protect cargo vessels if the crisis drags out. The Ever Given was involved in an accident in northern Germany in 2019, when it ran into a small ferry moored on the Elbe River in Hamburg. No passengers were on the ferry at the time and there were no injuries, but it was seriously damaged. >>Read more
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How Much Money Do You Need to Live Off Investments?

Living off investments defines financial independence, but getting there can be challenging. How much money do you need to live off investments? Here’s the formula: Divide the desired annual income by the expected yield. If you want $10,000 monthly investment income, and expect a 5% yield, divide $120,000 by 5% for the amount of money you’ll need to live off investment income, or $2,400,000 in this example. This is the simple formula to show how much money it will take for you to live off investment income only since yield is a measure of the income an investment generates. In other words, you want to live off the income your investments generate, without spending your investment capital. This is the ideal way to live off investments, so you don’t have to deplete your investment capital. After we stumbled into early retirement in late midlife, we pondered how much money we needed to live off our investments. Knowing we didn’t want to begin depleting our savings, we began creating diversified income streams and did so over the next 15 years. I’ll share what I’ve learned about estimating how much money you need to live off investments, and what all you’ll want to consider before attempting to live off your money. There’s some super important risk related factors you don’t want to miss so be sure to read this entire post. Beyond Investment Income We all love simple formulas. However, there are several more factors you’ll want to keep in mind as you use the formula above to estimate how much money you need to live off investments. First, the reality is that traditional investment income alone doesn’t generate enough money for most people to live comfortably in retirement. You can see that for someone with $2,400,000, making $10,000 a year is achievable since a 5% annual yield is doable for proactive investors. Yet studies show that most people don’t have anywhere near $1,000,000 put aside for retirement, let alone over $2 million. Additionally, most people aren’t getting a 5% yield on their investments, particularly given the popularity of index funds, which usually have very low yields. Second, the norm in retirement planning is to withdraw and live on a set percent of your investment accounts. These withdrawals typically have to dip into more than just investment income for almost everyone, unless investors have chosen to invest in higher yielding investments, or they have a lot of investment capital earning income. As a result, capital gains and maybe even invested capital (aka, your hard earned savings) are needed to live in retirement for most people, in addition to only investment income. In order to make sense of all of this, let’s explore the layers of your nice, prosperous investment account, which I’ll equate to a chocolate layer cake. Investment Income, Capital Gains and Savings Investment income, capital gains, and invested capital can be thought of as different layers of your investment accounts. It’s very important to understand these layers in determining how much money you need if you’re planning to live off investments at any time in the future. That’s because steps can be taken to increase income from investments or elsewhere freeing you from the need to continuously dip into the capital gains and savings layers for large amounts. In this post, I’ll explain the difference between those three potential layers for living off investments so you can see what your options are and how you might go about being able to live off investments at the age you choose. Like you may do, I equate living off investments to financial independence and/or retirement without financial struggle or worry. Living Off Stocks and Bonds Only In this post, first I’ll focus mostly on living off investments in stocks and bonds since these are the most common investments. The reality is, however, there are a lot of ways you can live off investments when you consider real estate and small business investments in addition to stocks, bonds, and slightly alternative investments such as MLPs and REITs. I’ll disregard other potential income sources, such as social security in this post, especially since you may be younger than the common retirement age of 63 like we were when we began living off investments and alternative income streams. Potential Income From Living Off Investments Money Available Yield Investment Potential Assets $2,400,000 5% $120,000 High Yield Assets $1,000,000 3% $30,000 Devident Stocks $500,000 3% $15,000 Devident Stocks $1,000,000 7% $70,000 Alternative Investment $1,000,000 10% $100,000 Covered Call Strategoies Using Account Size and Yield to Determine How Much Money You Need When you’re considering how to live off investments, first, you’re faced with the decision of whether to live off income from investments only, as in the example above, or spending your savings (investment capital) to live. Whether or not this is really an option depends on how much money you have, and how much yield you’ll earn on investments, so let’s start there. For example, if you have $1,000,000 earning 3% from dividend stocks, this will generate $30,000 income a year (before considering taxes or wealth management fees). If you have $500,000 earning 3% in dividends, the income generated will be $15,000 a year. A 3% income yield from traditional stock and bond portfolios is realistic if not overly optimistic these days. The yield can be improved, however, as I’ll explain more later in this post. This simple math is very telling. This is because, in this example, we’re focusing on investment income only vs capital gains from your investments. Capital gains are the increase in value your investments have had, not the income they generate. Most people who live off investments, however, don’t just rely on investment income for several reasons, as I’ll explain next in more detail. If you’re confused about this, click here to read my post How to Understand Your Investments. First, however, let’s dig into exactly what those layers of investment income, capital gains, and savings (or initial deposits) >>Read more
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Auto insurance for teen drivers

Is there a newly licensed driver in your home? Reduce the stress by understanding the implications for your car policy. For parents, the excitement of having a first-time driver in the house is usually tempered with worry. With little driving experience, immature drivers are at a higher risk for accidents. Of course, safety concern is uppermost in most parents’ minds but other stressors—like the high cost of insuring your new driver and the financial liability implications of a teen driving mishap—can be reduced with these steps. Before getting a learners permit, make a call to your insurance professional Your agent or rep can clearly explain the costs involved in insuring a teenage driver. The good news is, as your teenager gets older, insurance rates will drop—providing he or she has a good driving record. Therefore… Involve your teen in the car insurance discussion From the outset, it’s important to talk to your kid about the relationship between driving a car and the attendant responsibilities, including insurance costs. Explain and reinforce driving safety tips and the serious consequences of driving infractions or accidents, including increasing the cost of insurance. Encourage positive behaviors Auto insurers offer discounts or reduced premiums to: Students who maintain at least a “B” average in school Teens who take a recognized driver training course College students who attend school at least 100 miles away from home and don’t bring their car to campus Choose the right auto insurance company It’s generally less expensive for parents to add teenagers to their auto insurance policy than it is for teens to purchase one on their own. By insuring your teenager’s car with your insurer, you may also qualify for a multi-vehicle discount. That said, insurance companies differ in how they price policies for young drivers, so do some research into prices to be sure to find the best fit for you and your teen. Assign your teen to the right car Find out how your insurer assigns drivers to cars—some insurers will assign the driver who is the most expensive to insure (generally the teenager) to the car that is the most expensive to insure. If possible, assign your teen to the least valuable car. Note that with this kind of arrangement there can be no exceptions; your teen must use only the car to which he or she is assigned, even in an emergency. If your teenager is involved in an accident with an unassigned car, penalties could be imposed and your own premiums might increase. Increase your liability insurance for greater protection If your teen gets into an accident, state minimums for liability insurance will not be enough to fully protect you from lawsuits. Consider purchasing higher amounts of liability coverage—if your teenager is found negligent in an accident and the damages exceed your insurance limits, you will be held financially responsible and could be sued in court for those amounts not covered by your insurance. Depending on the value of your financial assets, you may even want to have the extra protection that a personal umbrella liability policy provides. Raise your deductible to save on your premium The higher your deductible, the more money you can save on your premium, so consider raising your deductible from the minimum amount required. You may want to use those savings to increase your liability insurance.
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