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PIA25760: Ius Chasma
Today’s VIS image shows a complete cross section of Ius Chasma. Ius Chasma is at the western end of Valles Marineris. Valles Marineris is over 4000 kilometers long, wider than the United States. Ius Chasma is almost 850 kilometers long (528 miles), 120 kilometers wide and over 8 kilometers deep. In comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is about 175 kilometers long, 30 kilometers wide, and only 2 kilometers deep. The canyons of Valles Marineris were formed by extensive fracturing and pulling apart of the crust during the uplift of the vast Tharsis plateau. Landslides have enlarged the canyon walls and created deposits on the canyon floor. Weathering of the surface and influx of dust and sand have modified the canyon floor, both creating and modifying layered materials. There are many features that indicate flowing and standing water played a part in the chasma formation. The rugged floor of Ius Chasma in this image is the result of many large landslides.
Orbit Number: 92413 Latitude: -6.89657 Longitude: 272.994 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-10-14 13:17
Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Animals: Cat-egorising play and genuine fighting in cats(Scientific Reports)
The behaviour of cat interactions has been categorised into playful, aggressive and intermediate groups that may help owners distinguish between play and genuine fighting. The study, published in Scientific Reports, suggests that cats may engage in a mixture of playful and aggressive behaviours, which could escalate into a fight if not managed by the owner.
Noema Gajdoš Kmecová and colleagues evaluated 105 video clips sourced from YouTube and directly from cat owners of interactions between 210 cats. Based on initial observations of the cats, the authors assembled six observable behaviour categories including wrestling, chasing and vocalisation, which they then used to assess the remaining cats. Cats were grouped based on the frequency and duration of the six behaviours. Separately, four of the authors reviewed the same videos and came up with three groups to define the interactions between cats: ‘playful’ (friendly interactions); ‘agonistic’ (aggressive interactions); or a third category, ‘intermediate’ (a mixture of both playful and aggressive behaviour).
More than a half of the cats (56.2% or 118 cats) were described by the authors as playful in their interaction, 28.6% (60 cats) were labelled as agonistic, and 15.2% (32 cats) were labelled as intermediate.
When comparing the cat behaviour groups with the three interaction groupings defined by the authors, they found that wrestling behaviour between cats was most closely associated with the playful group, while vocalization and chasing were associated with the agonistic group. The intermediate group, while observed as having characteristics of both, was more closely related to the playful group than the agonistic group. The intermediate group showed prolonged exchanges of behaviours such as laying on their back with their belly upwards, pouncing, stalking, and approaching and grooming each other.
The authors suggest that this combination of playful and aggressive behaviours may reflect a short-term disagreement in social behaviour between the cats, rather than a break-down in the relationship. The authors suggest that identifying potential tension between cats may help owners manage the relationship to avoid escalation and the need for separation.

PIA25759: Windstreak
The windstreak at the top of this VIS image is located on the Tharsis volcanic flows east of Arsia Mons. Windstreaks form downwind of craters and other topographic highs. Surface winds are deflected by the crater rim into chaotic flow over and around the crater, both removing and depositing dust and sand.
Orbit Number: 92626 Latitude: -12.0471 Longitude: 247.408 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-11-01 02:14
Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Kutumb Minar: The name is Bond. Jamshed Bond. Even if less than 00007% 😊
It’s strange, but I water my community roots not at the Mumbai font, but at a tiny stream a subcontinent’s breadth away. Maybe not so strange. After all, Calcutta was where I was born as a Parsi, and ‘navjoted’ as a Zoroastrian. The gongs of the fire temple adjoining our 100-year-old house were my subconscious metronome, and the fragrance of sandalwood intertwining with our mundane kitchen aromas the double helix of my DNA.
As important, we were part of the rainbow coalition of minorities which made Calcutta such a pot of cultural gold. This too wasn’t some academic ethnograph, but a lived experience. The Jewish synagogue and Armenian church were a chant away. China Town segued into our daily wet market, Tiretta Bazaar. Anglo-Indians gave us ball curry and ballroom dancing, our schoolteachers and the mounted police who scattered rival club supporters who ran amok every time Mohun Bagan or East Bengal lost.
Last Tuesday, a spirited session at The Kolkata Literary Meet tucked into this minorities stew, Jael Silliman representing the Jews and Barry O’Brien the Anglo Indians. Any or all of this ‘eentaallectual’ city’s three literature festivals facilitate my annual return to my dual home, that of city and community.
When I left in 1969, Calcutta Parsees numbered 1,200, today this has whittled down to 380, 200 of them seniors. But while the larger Mumbai base is fissioned with schisms, smaller qaums are an exemplary kutumb. Here, elders are never wanting in attention, a rush to the hospital – or a ride to the regular outings organised by the many binding institutions which still impressively thrive. The Calcutta Parsi Club, spawner of champs and romances; an Amateur Dramatic Club which puts up just one (free) show every Parsi new year; Scouts and Guides; the motherly Stree Mandal … There’s now even a dedicated venue for larger events: Olpadvala Memorial Hall, bequeathed by the ‘Byron Drinks’ baron who himself died in masked penury.
Yes, this shrinking patch remains the most vibrant of ‘Cal’s’ now-faded ethnic quilt. In spirit at least, Qaum rahega CroreParsi.
* * *
Alec Smart said: “Chest thumping day or ‘The Embattled Hymn of the Republic’?”
Disclaimer
This article is intended to bring a smile to your face. Any connection to events and characters in real life is coincidental.
END OF ARTICLE
Evolution: Oldest-known caecilian found(Nature)
The oldest-known fossil of a worm-like amphibian known as a caecilian is reported in this week’s Nature. The finding sheds light on the origins of caecilians and their position in the amphibian group.
Modern-day caecilians are limbless amphibians that look like worms or snakes. Their origins are poorly understood, due to a paucity of relevant fossils. In this study, Ben Kligman and colleagues analysed the fragmented, fossilized remains of at least 76 individual caecilians, found in the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, USA. Dated at 220 million years old, the findings extend the caecilian fossil record by 35 million years.
The creature combines features found in the common ancestor of living caecilians with those of an extinct group of four-legged amphibians called the dissorophoid temnospondyls. It is also missing certain features that are present in modern caecilians, such as the tenticular organ. As such, it bridges the gap between modern caecilians and extinct tetrapods and confirms the position of caecilians within Lissamphibia: the group that also contains frogs and salamanders.
PIA25758: Sirenum Fossae
Today’s VIS image shows a portion of Sirenum Fossae. The linear features are tectonic graben. Graben are formed by extension of the crust and faulting. When large amounts of pressure or tension are applied to rocks on timescales that are fast enough that the rock cannot respond by deforming, the rock breaks along faults. In the case of a graben, two parallel faults are formed by extension of the crust and the rock in between the faults drops downward into the space created by the extension. Numerous sets of graben are visible in this THEMIS image, trending from north-northeast to south-southwest. Because the faults defining the graben are formed perpendicular to the direction of the applied stress, we know that extensional forces were pulling the crust apart in the west-northwest/east-southeast direction. The Sirenum Fossae graben are 2735km (1700 miles) long and stretch from eastern Terra Sirenum into western Daedalia Planum.
Orbit Number: 92416 Latitude: -39.2691 Longitude: 181.857 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-10-14 19:23
Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.