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<ul><li>The canopy of tropical forests in <keyword id="6389278" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="munnar">Munnar</keyword> and the surrounding regions are rich with a plethora of mammals, reptiles, insects and birds.</li><li>Commonly known as the large-scaled pit viper, these beautiful snakes are listed as ‘Near Threatened’.</li><li>Gliding <keyword id="6536559" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="frogs">frogs</keyword> can jump and glide from one tree to another, if these are short distances.<br /></li></ul>The plantation-cloaked hills of Munnar in <keyword id="28504" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kerala">Kerala</keyword> nestle within itself a variety of critters that are impressive, but unfortunately have not received the airtime they deserve. Most visit the area for its rolling hills engulfed in a sea of green, but the true magic lies hidden amidst these very greens -- the reptiles and amphibians that thrive in the area.<br /><br />Situated at the eastern edge of Kerala, the canopy of tropical forests in Munnar and the surrounding regions are rich with a plethora of mammals, reptiles, insects and birds -- from the elusive tiger to deer to elephants to packs of wild hogs to a massive variety of birds. However, refreshingly enough, there is a new trend among wildlife enthusiasts who are now leaning towards spotting and learning about the smaller creatures in the forest that otherwise go unnoticed.<br /><br />Photographer Amit Rane is one such person. He excels in a wide range of photography fields, from landscapes to portraits, but he finds macro photography supremely intriguing. For his camera lens, size and hierarchy really do not matter.<br /> <br /><div type="image" title="Large-scaled pit viper" msid="82679367" hostid="261"></div><br /><strong>Reptiles<br />Trimeresurus macrolepis Beddome (Peltopelor macrolepis)</strong><br />Commonly known as the large-scaled pit viper, these beautiful snakes are listed as ‘Near Threatened’ in the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/172623/1354137">IUCN Red List</a>. Found at elevations between 610 and 2,400 metres above sea level, these snakes are endemic to India. They are found only in the <keyword id="6371307" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="western-ghats">Western Ghats</keyword> from the <keyword id="850963" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nilgiri-hills">Nilgiri Hills</keyword> to Ashambu and Agasthyamalai Hills in Kerala and <keyword id="20154" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="tamil-nadu">Tamil Nadu</keyword>. These nocturnal snakes are primarily found on trees and feed mainly on birds, rodents and frogs. The main threat to these species are people who kill them during encounters or get run over by vehicles while crossing roads.<br /><br /><strong>Amphibians</strong><br />Business Insider spoke to Ninad Gosavi, a member of faculty in biology at a private institute and one of the editors at <a href="https://www.indianamphibians.org/">Amphibians of India</a>, to share some insights on some of the magnificent frogs that inhabit the area.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="Raorchestes beddomii" msid="82679372" hostid="261"></div><br /><strong>Raorchestes beddomii</strong><br />Discovered by Günther in <a href="https://amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org/Amphibia/Anura/Rhacophoridae/Rhacophorinae/Raorchestes/Raorchestes-beddomii">1876</a>, these <keyword id="6434613" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="bush">bush</keyword> frogs belonging to the genus Raorchestes are small and dwell on trees and shrubs for calling during the breeding season. They originated in the Western Ghats and are distributed in Southern Western Ghats in Kerala (Athirimala and Munnar) and Tamil Nadu (Kannikatti) at elevations of 120-460 metres. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="Raorchestes beddomii" msid="82679378" hostid="261"></div><br />Males call during monsoon to attract females and to establish their territory. Females lay eggs on shrubs, trees, inside bamboo, or rock crevices on land (different species have different oviposition sites). <br /><br /><div type="image" title="Raorchestes beddomii" msid="82679381" hostid="261"></div><br />The amazing thing about bush frogs is, unlike other frogs, they complete their tadpole stage inside the egg, and froglets hatch after metamorphosis. Eggs are terrestrial, and they do not require water bodies for development but nice humid weather. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="Raorchestes chlorosomma" msid="82679388" hostid="261"></div><br /><strong>Raorchestes chlorosomma</strong><br />Biju and Bossuyt <a href="https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/279474">discovered</a> the Raorchestes chlorosomma in 2009. It is distributed in Munnar, Kerala in the southern Western Ghats. This is a critically endangered species because the habitat is degraded by tea and eucalyptus plantation. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="Rhacophorus malabaricus" msid="82679399" hostid="261"></div><br /><strong>Rhacophorus malabaricus</strong><br /> This is a froglet of Rhacophorus malabaricus (Malabar Gliding Frog). The gliding frogs have full webbing between fingers and toes. They can jump and glide from one tree to another (short distances). These frogs build foam nests over a water body, so when tadpoles hatch from eggs, they fall in the water. <br /><br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/after-ditching-bitcoin-elon-musk-is-now-working-on-making-dogecoin-efficient/articleshow/82628521.cms">After ditching Bitcoin, Elon Musk is now working on making Dogecoin efficient</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/four-reasons-why-cryptocurrency-ethereum-has-been-on-a-bull-run/articleshow/82606761.cms">Four reasons why cryptocurrency Ethereum has been on a bull run</a><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/covid-19-a-couple-from-chennai-has-come-up-with-this-innovation-of-a-surgical-mask-vending-machine-/articleshow/82605058.cms"><strong>Even small initiatives during a pandemic can help save a thousand lives, these people are doing their bit</strong></a><br />

Up-close and not so personal with Munnar’s pit vipers, gliding frogs and more

<ul class="summary-list"><li>North Carolina resident Chris Carnell was arrested in connection to the January 6 riots. </li><li>Accessories helped authorities to identify him, including a pair of Pit Viper sunglasses.</li></ul><p>A Capitol rioter from North Carolina was charged by federal authorities who identified him and a friend by the brightly colored — and sometimes painfully obvious — accessories they wore when storming the Capitol. </p><p>Christopher Carnell, who appeared in a Raleigh court on Thursday, was caught on CCTV cameras with a bright, red backpack with his last name stitched on the back. Other fashion statements that helped to identify him and his friend David Worth Bowman included a pair of Pit Viper sunglasses and a blue facemask.</p><p>Carnell faces five charges for his participation in the riots, including one count for obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, which carries a sentence of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1512" target="_blank" rel="noopener">up to 20 years.</a> Bowman is not currently facing charges, although it is unclear if any will be brought against him. </p><p>A spokesperson for the DOJ did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p><p>According to criminal complaint prepared by the FBI filed Wednesday, authorities were first alerted to Carnell and Bowman after they arrested another rioter, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-arrests-man-pepper-spray-officers-capitol-riot-january-6-2021-11">Aiden Henry Bilyard, in November 2021</a>. Bilyard, who admitted to pepper-spraying officers during the riots, is <a href="https://myfox8.com/news/investigations/capitol-riot/two-more-from-north-carolina-plead-guilty-for-attacks-at-u-s-capitol-on-jan-6-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently awaiting sentencing</a> and faces up to five years in prison.</p><p>After seizing Bilyard's phone, authorities found a group chat with three of Bilyard's friends, including Carnell and Bowman. </p><p>According to messages sent in the group chat, on November 14, 2020 — following the presidential election — the friends took photos at the "Million MAGA March" with white nationalist <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-west-paid-white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-nearly-15000-2023-1">Nick Fuentes</a> and Tim Gionet, a streamer better known as <a href="https://www.insider.com/washington-dc-protest-livestream-baked-alaska-us-capitol-riot-trump-2021-1#:~:text=Tim%20Gionet%2C%20better%20known%20as%20Baked%20Alaska%2C%20is,rioters%20from%20various%20rooms%20in%20the%20Capitol%20building.">Baked Alaska</a>, and shared them in the group chat. </p><p>Before January 6, 2021, the group texted about plans to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally, messages show. On the day of the rally, Bowman bragged to his friends via text that he gave Baked Alaska his Pit Viper sunglasses, signaling to authorities that he had worn the sunglasses at some point in the day.</p><p>Two days after the riot, the group also spoke in code about entering certain parts of the US Capitol Building. For example, they referred to the Capitol building as a "Minecraft building" and asked their friends to delete their chat history "for fun."</p><p>After reviewing video footage, officers found a man on the Senate floor with Pit Viper glasses and a blue mask speaking to a man with a red MAGA hat and a red backpack with the name "CARNELL" stitched in white thread.</p><p>On December 1, 2022, Bowman, in a voluntary interview with FBI agents, admitted he was the one in the sunglasses and identified his friend Carnell as the one in the MAGA hat.</p><p>"Bowman further stated that he was unaware of what was occurring within the Senate Chamber earlier in the day, but understood that Mike Pence needed to certify something in the House Chamber," the affidavit said.</p><p>"Bowman explained that once he and Carnell actually entered the Senate Floor, they had no clear purpose or agenda. He stated, 'like we are in here … like uh … we're a dog, we caught the car, we don't know what to do.'"</p><p>The affidavit stated there was "probable cause" that Carnell and Bowman violated multiple crimes.</p><p>Carnell is set to appear in a Washington, DC, federal court via Zoom on Tuesday at 1 p.m. </p><p>At least 1,000 people have been charged in the Capitol insurrection so far, according to an <a href="https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1">Insider database.</a></p><p>Recently, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-key-cases-civil-criminal-investigations-lawsuits-updates-2022-7">former President Donald Trump</a> mythologized the rioters in the form of a song titled "Justice for All," which features the voices of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-released-a-song-with-capitol-riot-prisoners-2023-3">multiple insurrectionists singing</a> the national anthem.</p><p>Bowman and Carnell did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p>

Authorities identified a Capitol rioter because he wore a bright red backpack with his last name embroidered on it

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> is going back to the <keyword id="42440" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="moon" source="Orion">moon</keyword>, and this time it means business. </li><li>Private companies are helping it build lunar transport, GPS, Wi-Fi, and more.</li></ul>If NASA has its way, it will send astronauts back to the moon by the end of the decade, making them the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">first humans to walk</a> on the lunar surface in over half a century.<br /><br />But this isn't just another scientific mission. This time around, NASA means business.<br /><br />With its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-artemis-1-rocket-sending-quirky-cargo-moon-and-back-2022-8">Artemis missions</a>, the US space agency aims to lay the foundations for the first human settlements beyond Earth and pave the way for extraplanetary colonization. And business is at the core of its strategy. <br /><br />"It's not theoretical at this point — it's happening," Brendan Rosseau, a teaching fellow at Harvard Business School who focuses on the space economy, told Insider.<br /><br />The agency is tagging private companies <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-is-planning-starship-launch-moon-artemis-2023-2">like SpaceX</a>, Blue Origin, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, and General Motors, to develop solutions for its lunar missions such as space-worthy rides, moon streaming, lunar GPS, and more.<br /><br />This new market — worth <a href="https://www.nsr.com/?research=lunar-markets-3rd-edition" target="_blank">over $100 billion</a>— could be game-changing for humanity.<br /><br />"Definitely the moon is going to be a big business," said Prachi Kawade, a senior analyst at NSR, a research-and-consulting company focused on the space market.<br /><br /><h2>Artemis is not Apollo 2</h2>What NASA is aiming to achieve on the moon is "something that's never been done before," Rosseau said.<br /><br />While the Apollo missions of the 60s and 70s wanted to see if humans could reach the moon, the Artemis missions want humans to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-humans-to-live-moon-by-2030-says-official-2022-11">live there, work there</a>, and build there. <br /><br />At first, lunar missions could be limited to a couple of weeks or months in a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-details-of-artemis-missions-astronauts-return-to-moon-2020-9">lunar base camp</a>. But down the line, the ambition is for the moon to become a hub of human and robotic activity as it develops into a pit stop on the way to Mars. <br /><br />  <div type="image" title="An illustration shows what a lunar base could look like, with astronauts walking around in suits doing tasks and the earth on the horizon." height="1500" width="2000" msid="102476589" hostid="261"></div>This creates a lot of opportunities for commercial development along the way, and NASA is aware of that. <br /><br />"We want to leave behind a wake of commercial activity and commerce and more routine living and working in space," Steve Creech, acting deputy associate administrator for the Artemis campaign, told Insider.<br /><br /><h2>There could be big bucks in moon mining</h2>Ultimately, the moon's main commercial draw is its potential for "in-situ resource utilization," Creech said. This means finding ways to mine and exploit lunar resources on the moon or on Earth. <br /><br />  <div type="image" title="A footstep left behind by an astronaut's boot on the regolith on the moon." height="1000" width="2000" msid="102476591" hostid="261"></div>One commercially-interesting <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-lunar-rover-found-thick-dust-on-moon-far-side-2020-2">resource is regolith</a>, the scientific name for moon dust. This could be <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Preparing_for_the_Future/Space_for_Earth/Energy/Helium-3_mining_on_the_lunar_surface" target="_blank">mined for helium-3</a> — a rare nonradioactive particle that could be used in fusion reactors to create clean energy on Earth — or could also be used for construction on the moon. <keyword id="1334" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="china" source="Orion">China</keyword>, for instance, said it wants to build <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-build-moon-station-five-years-lunar-soil-bricks-2023-4">its lunar station</a> out of regolith.<br /><br />Another lead for moon mining is <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/rare-earth-elements-what-they-are-and-why-they-matter-1032148341">the rare-earth elements</a> that millennia of meteorites crashing into the moon may have left behind. These could be mined for electronics, Kawade said.<br /><br />But the moon's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-telescope-captures-enceladus-water-plume-thousands-miles-long-2023-5">most attractive resource by far is water</a>. Scientists discovered <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientists-discover-moons-hidden-water-stores-2020-10">caches of water</a> near the moon's poles that could be extracted and turned into fuel to extend lunar missions or to fill up rockets on their way to Mars, per Kawade.<br /><br />"So the moon becomes a pit stop to Mars," Kawade said. <br /><br />  <div type="image" title="ice water moon poles" height="485" width="970" msid="102476594" hostid="261"></div>We're probably at least a decade away from sending people or robots to mine the surface of the moon, but that doesn't mean people aren't already making money as they lay the groundwork for this business, Kawade said.<br /><br />"We are talking somewhere about $137 billion in opportunities in the next 10 years, and we estimate about 400-plus missions to be launched during this timeline," said Kawade. <br /><br /><h2>NASA wants to bring business with it to the moon </h2>Artemis is part of a grander scheme to empower the commercial sector to take charge of space exploration, a move initiated by then-President George W. Bush in the 2000s. He asked NASA to put the private sector at the center of its strategy after retiring the space shuttle program.<br /><br />Since then, NASA developed a "real commercial-first mindset," Rousseau said. The agency now awards <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-to-bed-nasa-lunar-lander-spacex-2022-3">contracts</a> to private actors to deliver products — such as rockets, landers, or services — against set amounts of money.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="The space shuttle is seen lifting off in the 90s." height="2069" width="4139" msid="102476597" hostid="261"></div>This means the agency limits its own research and development costs, while companies can take risks in developing ambitious technology because they have NASA as a built-in customer. <br /><br />"It is baking in the commercial sector as part of their plans," said Rosseau.<br /><br />"It created competition. It created incentives for companies to do things as reliably and also as cheaply as possible," he said. <br /><br />Per Rosseau, this model has started to bear fruit. Companies like Blue Origin and <keyword id="6360701" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="spacex" source="Orion">SpaceX</keyword> likely wouldn't exist without NASA's ambition to go to the moon, he argued.<br /><br /><h2>There's money in making future moon settlers comfortable</h2>You can't have mining on the moon without the proper infrastructure. And those looking to build it are starting to see money coming in. <br /><br />One way to support long-term missions is to find ways to do cheap Earth-to-moon deliveries. NASA has been investing heavily in the development of uncrewed robotic landers that can deliver goods and services to the moon through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-moon-rover-rocket-company-commercial-lunar-payload-services-clps-2020-6">CLPS</a> program.<br /><br />Pittsburg aerospace and robotics company Astrobotic Technology is one of the main players in the CLPS program. It landed a contract worth $320 million to deliver several payloads for NASA.<br /><br />One such payload, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER, is set to be delivered to the south pole <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-replans-clps-delivery-of-viper-to-2024-to-reduce-risk" target="_blank">in 2024.</a> The robot will seek out traces of water ice on the moon.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="viper moon rover nasa" height="937" width="1874" msid="102476599" hostid="261"></div><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/intuitive-machines-adds-7-on-successful-test-run-of-nova-c-lunar-lander-1032447922">Intuitive Machines</a>, a space-exploration company based in Texas, also won also a $77 million contract from NASA for three payload missions, two of which are set to be delivered this year.<br /><br />One of these is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) drill, which is due to test for ice below the moon's surface. This, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/game_changing_development/projects/PRIME-1" target="_blank">per NASA</a>, will be the first in-situ resource utilization demonstration on the moon.<br /><br />Astronauts will also need electricity. One plan is to build local power grids by bringing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-plans-mini-nuclear-reactors-moon-power-lunar-colony-2022-7#:~:text=NASA%20is%20developing%20plans%20to,Mars%2C%20an%20expert%20told%20Insider.">nuclear power reactors</a> to the moon. Lockheed Martin is one of the companies working on a concept proposal.<br /><br />NASA is also looking to develop appropriate moon-worthy rides. General Motors is teaming up with Lockheed Martin to develop a battery-powered lunar rover that could travel much further than those used in the Apollo days. <br /><br />Another prerequisite for long-term settlement is navigation and communications. There's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/no-gps-on-moon-nasa-esa-artemis-plans-to-fix-2023-1">no GPS or Wi-Fi </a>around or on the moon. That means missions rely on constant supervision from engineers on Earth, which will quickly become unsustainable as hundreds of missions are planned to be launched over the next decade.<br /><br />To fill that void, NASA awarded a $14 million contract to Nokia to deliver internet to the moon. <a href="https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/02/27/nokia-bell-labs-showcases-cutting-edge-research-on-lunar-networks-and-6g-at-mwc23/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/28/nokia-set-to-launch-4g-internet-on-the-moon-later-this-year.html#:~:text=Nokia%20is%20planning%20to%20launch,needs%20of%20future%20space%20missions.https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-nokia-4g-network-moon-2020-10" target="_blank">The firm aims to send a 4G network to the moon</a> by 2024.<a href="https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/02/27/nokia-bell-labs-showcases-cutting-edge-research-on-lunar-networks-and-6g-at-mwc23/" target="_blank"></a> <br /><br />  <div type="image" title="An artist's impression shows an astronaut sitting back while taking a picture of the Earth rising behind the surface of the moon with a smartphone." height="1000" width="2000" msid="102476602" hostid="261"></div><h2>Fly me to the moon</h2>However, the most lucrative part of the moon market by far is rocket development, said Kawade, who leads NSR's lunar-market report.<br /><br />NASA built its own system for its upcoming Artemis moon missions, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-how-nasa-built-sls-mega-rocket-artemis-moon-missions-2022-8">the Space Launch System</a> (SLS) mega-rocket with its Orion spacecraft. But the agency has put the development of the mission's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-nasa-lunar-landing-astronauts-2021-4">human landing system</a> (HLS), which will bring astronauts from the moon's orbit to the lunar surface, in the hands of private companies.<br /><br /><keyword id="6355315" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Elon-Musk" source="Orion">Elon Musk</keyword>'s SpaceX has been the frontrunner in the race to land this bid, gaining billion-dollar contracts to develop the HLS for NASA's Artemis III and IV missions.<br /><br />Along the way, Musk has promised to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-rocket-update-flight-cost-million-2022-2">reduce the cost of launch</a> and to make <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-sn15-starship-rocket-fly-again-soon-2021-5">its rockets reusable</a>, which could lower the cost of future missions. NASA's contracts also boosted the development of the company's flagship high-capacity <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-spacex-elon-musk-reusable-rocket-mars-moon-launch-2023-2">mega-rocket Starship</a>, SpaceX's most ambitious project yet. <br /><br />  <div type="image" title="Starship rocket on its launchpad, minutes before its launch" height="1080" width="1440" msid="102476604" hostid="261"></div>There is one drawback: though Starship is crucial for NASA's upcoming missions, the rocket hasn't yet successfully flown to orbit. In fact, it <a href="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-first-space-launch" target="_blank">exploded</a> on its first integrated launch in April.<br /><br />Still, NASA isn't putting all its stock in SpaceX. Blue Origin recently won a $3.4 billion contract for NASA's Artemis V human lunar launcher, a win for a company that had lost its previous bids to SpaceX. The contract should boost the development of the company's own mega-rocket, New Glenn.<br /><br />Even NASA's SLS spacecraft — which was built and developed in-house, a relic of NASA's old approach to rocket development — has been big money for the private sector.<br /><br />Lockheed Martin was awarded a $2.7 billion contract and a $1.9 billion extension to deliver six Orion spacecraft for the Artemis missions III to VIII.<br /><br /><h2>The market may not be self-sustaining before mid-2030, but that may not matter</h2>At this point, NASA remains the most prominent client in the lunar market. If the US government decided tomorrow to pull its backing from private investment, it's possible the market wouldn't survive off its own back.<br /><br />Private investment in extraplanetary exploration and exploitation has only just started to trickle in, which is encouraging, Kawade said. For instance, AstroForge, an asteroid-mining startup in California, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/26/astroforge-raises-13m-seed-round-for-asteroid-mining-ambitions/" target="_blank">has raised $13 million</a> in private capital for two upcoming missions. Lunar Outpost, a space-tech firm from Colorado, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220524005399/en/Lunar-Outpost-Announces-12-Million-Seed-Investment-to-Scale-Mobility-Technology-Enabling-Commercial-Lunar-Advancement" target="_blank">raised $12 million in seed investment</a> to develop lunar rovers and technologies.<br /><br />Still, if the market is to be self-sustaining, companies will need to find other clients to buy what they are selling on the moon, and it's not clear whether anyone has cracked this business model, Rosseau said. Still, Rosseau anticipates, this flash point could be coming in the mid-2030s.<br /><br />"I think what really gets investors and businesses excited is seeing these huge tailwinds when it comes to lunar activity," he said.<br /><br />Whether the lunar market can survive without NASA might be missing the point anyway, Kawade said. On the way to the moon, companies are likely to discover technologies that can have lucrative applications here on Earth, she said.<br /><br />Following NASA's lead, others have also started looping in the private sector to their space exploration programs, including <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/industry/space-industry/lunar-market-assessment-2021.pdf" target="_blank">Japan, China, and Russia</a>'s space agencies.<br /><br /><h2>Welcome to the space race of the 2020s</h2>Money isn't the only drive pushing the US and its allies to bring businesses to the moon. There are strong political incentives to get there before China, Rosseau said.<br /><br />"It is a fact: We're in a space race," NASA's current administrator <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-bill-nelson-warns-china-claim-moon-territory-lunar-resources-2023-1">Bill Nelson</a> told Politico in January.<br /><br />"It is true that we better watch out that they don't get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research," he added. "And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, 'Keep out, we're here, this is our territory.'"<br /><br />More than 24 space-faring nations have signed the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-accords/index.html" target="_blank">US's Artemis Accords,</a> a set of rules drawn up by NASA for international cooperation on the moon.<br /><br />China was not one of them. The nation has set its own independent path to the moon, for which it is seeking <a href="https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/china-space-latin/" target="_blank">closer relations</a> with space agencies in Russia, Latin America, and Central Asia. <br /><br />The US still dominates space. It has more satellites in orbit — 3,433 US satellites in orbit versus 541 for China — and has more budget — about $60 billion in 2021 versus about $16 billion for China, Svetla Ben-Itzhak, then an assistant professor at Air University in Alabama, recently<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-us-in-a-space-race-against-china-203473" target="_blank"> told </a>The Conversation.<br /><br />Still, China is moving toward the moon on a competitive timeline. It attempted 55 launches in 2021, four more than the US, per Ben-Itzhak. It was also the first nation to put a spacecraft on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/far-side-of-the-moon-china-rover-explores-tracks-2019-1">far side</a> of the moon in 2019 and has launched its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-launch-first-people-to-new-space-station-2021-6">own crewed space station</a> into orbit, just as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-pull-iss-2024-build-own-space-station-roscosmos-putin-2022-7">International Space Station is nearing the end</a> of its life. <br /><br />Both the US and China are signatories of the <a href="https://treaties.unoda.org/a/outer_space/china/ACC/washington#:~:text=The%20Republic%20of%20China%20signed,sole%20legal%20government%20of%20China%20." target="_blank">Outer Space Treaty</a>, which means they've agreed that no country can militarize or claim the moon. But there is still considerable "first-mover advantage" to whichever business gets there first, said Rousseau said.<br /><br />One issue, for instance, is interoperability between infrastructures. While NASA has been working with collaborators to develop a language that could be used across all lunar devices, China has not been participating. If it gets there first, it could set a different standard, foiling the US allies' efforts.<br /><br />"There's a real incentive for liberal democracies to get there — whoever gets there writes the rules essentially," Rousseau said.<br /><br /><em>Correction: August 8, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the affiliation of then assistant professor Svetla Ben-Itzhak. She was writing from the Air University in Alabama, not Pakistan. </em><br /><br />

The moon is open for business, and entrepreneurs are racing to make billions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Insider's work-advice column concerns a manager whose colleague lied and his boss doesn't care.</li><li>Experts say he's experiencing moral injury: when an event or behavior violates your values.</li></ul><p><em>I'm a bank procurement manager who's dealing with a difficult situation with one of my colleagues, "Melanie." A few months ago, Melanie told several of my team members a vicious lie about one of my direct report's performance and insinuated that this person would be let go. Melanie told people not to say anything and threatened that if they did, it would affect their career, as she has "friends" in high places. (Of course, my team is very loyal and told me about it right away.)</em></p><p><em>My direct report is devastated. I tried twice to meet with Melanie to ask her why she lied, but she canceled at the last minute both times. We work a hybrid schedule, so she's able to avoid me.</em></p><p><em>Instead, I went to my manager, who's also Melanie's manager. He brushed me off and made a joke, saying that Melanie didn't mean anything by it. I pressed, and he eventually recognized that I maybe had a point if Melanie had, in fact, lied but also hinted that Melanie would be moving on soon, so the whole thing was moot. I've since learned through the grapevine that while Melanie was going to take a different job, she'd been asked to stay on with us because we're short-staffed.</em></p><p><em>Since this whole thing started, I've felt anxious and stressed, and I'm not sleeping. My team is also feeling the strain of not understanding why Melanie, who blatantly lied and gossiped about one of their close colleagues, still has a job. I'm frustrated with my boss and the company for tolerating and even enabling this kind of behavior. Is there anything I can do?</em></p><p>Can I just say, wow. Your organization has more intrigue and drama than <a href="https://www.insider.com/succession-character-guide-roy-family-hbo-2021-10">Waystar Royco</a>. I don't mean to make light of what's happened, but I will point out that even at a time when the <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/workplace-mental-health-well-being.pdf">US surgeon general is sounding alarm bells</a> about the growing toll that toxic workplaces take on our mental health, yours — complete with a conniving colleague, apathetic boss, and ever-churning rumor mill — sounds like a particularly prickly place. </p><p>The distress you describe is understandable and even has a name: moral injury, <a href="https://moralinjuryproject.syr.edu/about-moral-injury/">the technical term</a> for when you see, participate in, or fail to prevent behavior or situations that go against your beliefs about what's right. Most research related to <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/cooccurring/moral_injury.asp#:~:text=Moral%20injury%20is%20the%20distressing,individual's%20values%20and%20moral%20beliefs.">moral injury</a> concerns members of the military, as combat and war create situations that might conflict with people's moral and ethical values. But, of course, you can feel morally injured in all sorts of settings — including at work.</p><p>Cara de Lange, an author and workplace-well-being consultant in the UK, told me she believed moral stress and injury could contribute to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/christina-maslach-burnout-inventory-how-to-reduce-workplace-stress-2021-4">burnout</a>, which the World Health Organization defines as a <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases#:~:text=%E2%80%9CBurn%2Dout%20is%20a%20syndrome,related%20to%20one's%20job%3B%20and">syndrome</a> "resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed."</p><p>That it's especially likely to occur when a moral transgression — be it a colleague's betrayal, an unfair firing, or failure to act on a whistleblowing complaint — is compounded by a lack of validation and support from managers and colleagues. Symptoms include exhaustion, increased cynicism about work, and reduced productivity.</p><p>Your anguish, for instance, is due to not only Melanie's initial lie but also your boss' apparent indifference.</p><p>"There's a value misalignment," de Lange said. "You've spoken up about an injustice, and your concerns weren't addressed."</p><p>It's natural to be worried about your team members, she added.</p><p>"But you need to make a special effort to balance your urge to protect them with a need to protect yourself," she said.</p><p>There's no easy remedy for moral injury. But Chuck Wisner, a leadership coach and the author of "<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?amazonTrackingID=biauto-58592-20&amp;postID=6357016c722a68643c208480&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FArt-Conscious-Conversations-Transforming-Interact%2Fdp%2F152300326X">The Art of Conscious Conversations</a>," told me that there are several actions you can take to start healing.</p><p>First, gather your thoughts. "Write down what you're thinking and experiencing — get it out of your mushy head and onto paper so you can take a hard look at your emotions instead of letting them have a hold on you," he said.</p><p>Reflect on your desires, concerns, standards, and the power dynamics at play. For example, you want to be a good leader and take care of your team, and your standards of decency dictate that colleagues shouldn't lie and that bosses should be engaged and supportive. </p><p>The goal of the exercise is to get clarity. You can't control other people and their behavior. You can control only how you respond. You also don't know the full story. It might take weeks or months to see where Melanie ends up. Her fate is out of your hands, and you need to accept that.</p><p>Next, talk to your team. A little distance on the matter will help you be more dispassionate, Wisner said. Ask your team how they feel — not to vent but rather to encourage honest and open communication. Wisner also recommends saying something like, "While we can't change what happened, it doesn't affect the great work we're doing and it doesn't change the fact that I will go to bat for us."</p><p>"Make sure they know you have their back."</p><p>Finally, revisit the issue with your boss when you're in the right headspace. Lay out your position in a calm, level-headed way and then ask for his latest thinking. He might say he was in the wrong for dismissing your concerns and apologize. Or he might brush you off again and reveal himself to be a political animal, out for only himself. </p><p>In that case, it might be time to look for opportunities within your organization — assuming it's not a viper pit all around — or elsewhere.</p><p>"Exploring your options is mentally healthy because you start to think about what's possible," Wisner said. </p><p>Don't needlessly tough it out at your company. Remember, you're not stuck with a bad boss or rotten colleagues. There's a big world out there.</p><p><em>This story originally appeared on October 29, 2022.</em></p>

What to do when something at work goes against your moral code

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Rep. <keyword id="11985132" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="madison-cawthorn" source="Orion">Madison Cawthorn</keyword> said he was invited to an orgy by people he "looked up to" in Washington.</li><li>He said the Netflix drama "<keyword id="12592242" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="house-of-cards" source="Orion">House of Cards</keyword>" wasn't too far off the mark in depicting life in DC.</li></ul><p>North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn said in an interview this week that he thought sexual perversion was rife in Washington, DC, revealing that he had been invited to an orgy by people he "looked up to" and witnessed prominent figures consuming <keyword id="11915064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drugs" source="Orion">drugs</keyword> right in front of him.</p><p>Cawthorn made these claims on a Friday episode of the <a href="https://youtu.be/xEEpnrZgoJU">"Warrior Poet Society" podcast,</a> during which he was asked by host John Lovell how closely life in DC mirrored the Netflix political drama "House of Cards." The hit show follows the story of Frank Underwood, a fictional and deeply corrupt House Majority Whip, and his rise to become President at all costs. </p><p>Lovell asked Cawthorn about how much of the show's presentation of a "secret life of corruption, and power, and money, and perversion" was representative of the real goings-on in DC. </p><p>"I heard a former president that we had in the 90s was asked a question about this. And he gave an answer that I thought was so true. He said that the only thing not accurate in that show — that you could never get a piece of legislation about education passed that quickly," Cawthorn told Lovell, referring to a major plotline in the show's first season. </p><p>Cawthorn was also likely referring to an interview that the show's lead actor, Kevin Spacey, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/kevin-spacey-reveals-bill-clinton-thinks-house-cards/story?id=30027947">did with Gotham magazine</a> in 2015. During that interview, Spacey cited former President Bill Clinton as being the one who made the comparison between life in Washington and the Netflix show.</p><p>On Friday, Cawthorn also said that he had also witnessed "sexual perversion" in Washington. </p><p>Noting how he is significantly younger than his peers in the Capitol — whose "average age is probably 60 or 70" — Cawthorn said: "I look at a lot of these people, a lot of them that I've looked up to through my life — I've always paid attention to <keyword id="11893346" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics" source="Orion">politics</keyword> — guys, that, then all of a sudden you get invited to, 'Oh hey we're going to have a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come." </p><p>"'What did you just ask me to come to?' And then you realize they're asking you to come to an orgy," Cawthorn added the 26-year-old.</p><p>The first-term congressman added that he had also witnessed some prominent figures who were "on the movement to try and remove addiction in our county" doing "a key bump of cocaine" in front of him.</p><p>Cawthorn did not name the individuals involved in these incidents, nor did he give further details as to when they took place. </p><p>The lawmaker also told Lovell that a lot of people in DC were trading in the "currency of secrets" and that journalists kept nasty stories "on the shelf" to "bully people." He then added that he thought DC was a "pit of vipers." </p><p>"Aside from the honor of serving my constituents, working in Washington is like, the worst job in the world," he said.</p><p>In December, Cawthorn <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/madison-cawthorn-divorce-lifestyle-changed-married-young-2021-12">announced his split from his wife after less than a year of marriage</a>, citing a "hectic and difficult" lifestyle change following his election to Congress. He recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-ukraine-republican-putin-supporters-lonely-voices-2022-3">drew criticism from senior members of the party</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senators-reject-madison-cawthorn-zelenskyy-thug-ernst-graham-wicker-2022-3">was called an "outlier"</a> after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/madison-cawthorn-ukraine-government-is-well-known-for-corruption-2022-3">saying he thought Ukraine's government was "very vile" and 'well known for corruption."</a></p>

Madison Cawthorn says Washington is a lot like 'House of Cards,' claims members of DC's elite did cocaine in front of him and invited him to an orgy

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Matthijs Kuijpers</span></p><p class="caption">A white-lipped island pit viper, native to southeast Indonesia. The snake is usually green in color, not blue.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Our planet is in the middle of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">a mass extinction</a> - the sixth time in Earth's history that animal and plant species are disappearing in enormous numbers.</strong></li><li><strong>Amphibians, particularly frogs, are among the hardest hit by this extinction crisis, as are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">insects</a> and reptiles.</strong></li><li><strong>At least 2,000 species of amphibian are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1-million-species-could-go-extinct-un-report-2019-5">in danger of extinction</a>, according to a recent study. A report from the United Nations confirmed that 40% of amphibian species are threatened.</strong></li><li><strong>Here are photos of 15 endangered frogs, geckos, and snakes that might soon disappear.</strong></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Human activity has killed off 680 mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish species since the 1500s. As much as half of the total number of animal individuals that once shared the planet with us are already gone.</p><p>That death toll is likely to rise dramatically over the next decades.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1-million-species-could-go-extinct-un-report-2019-5">A recent report from the United Nations</a> found that <span>between 500,000 and 1 million plant and animals species face imminent extinction. At least 10% of insect species and more than 33% of all marine mammals and reef-forming coral are threatened, it found. </span></p><p><span><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/signs-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-3">17 signs we're in the middle of a 6th mass extinction</a></em></span></p><p><span>But one group is expected to suffer most of all: Amphibians. An estimated 40% of amphibian species face extinction, according to the UN report. <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30403-8">A study published in the journal Current Biology</a> estimated that at least 2,000 amphibian species are in danger of extinction.</span></p><p>This group includes frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts.</p><p>In the past 50 years, more than 500 amphibian species have experienced population declines worldwide, and 90 of them have gone extinct, due to a deadly fungal disease called chytridiomycosis (or chytrid fungus), which corrodes frog flesh.</p><p>According to a<span> </span><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6434/1459">recent study</a><span> </span>in the journal <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword>, chytridiomycosis has wreaked havoc on frog, toad, and salamander species around the world. Amphibian deaths associated with chytrid fungus represent the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to any one disease, the authors found. Humans enabled the disease to spread further than it otherwise could have in large part because of the global wildlife trade.</p><p><a href="https://thecoldinstinct.atellani.com">Dutch photographer </a><span><a href="https://thecoldinstinct.atellani.com">Matthijs Kuijpers</a> has made it a personal mission to capture images of many colorful and bizarre amphibians before they disappear. His work is published in his new book, called "Cold Instinct" - take a look.</span></p>

Frogs are dying off at record rates - an ominous sign the 6th mass extinction is hitting one group of creatures hardest

<ul><li><keyword id="277759" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gowri-Shankar">Gowri Shankar</keyword> and his wife Sharmila have set up and run two organisations - Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) and a non-profit organisation called <keyword id="2010968" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kalinga-Foundation">Kalinga Foundation</keyword> in <keyword id="839580" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Agumbe">Agumbe</keyword>, <keyword id="6354780" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Karnataka">Karnataka</keyword>.</li><li>Shankar has rescued close to 400 king cobras and trained around 800 civilians across the country on how to ethically rescue snakes under his brainchild STORM programme.</li><li>While tracking a female cobra, Shankar inadvertently ended up tracking the male who ate the female that had the transmitter in her stomach.</li></ul><br />The idea of coming face-to-face with a tiny garden snake is enough to make most tremble, but for Gowri Shankar, a wildlife biologist with a passionate love for the <keyword id="396734" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="King-Cobra">king cobra</keyword>, it was an incentive to quit his job at IFB, a washing machine company and make a beeline for the rainforests of Agumbe in Karnataka.<br /><br />Shankar’s career trajectory is quite remarkable, mainly because, at that time, very little was known about wildlife conservation 20-25 years back. He quit his cushy job and joined Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), now called Karuna, as an animal inspector to rescue snakes. He moved on to Madras Crocodile Bank as an education officer under the mentorship of the famous Indian herpetologist and wildlife conservationist <keyword id="350280" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Romulus-Whitaker">Romulus Whitaker</keyword>. The calling from Agumbe came when Whitaker wanted to set up a field station there and needed Shankar to help him set up the field station and work with wild king cobras. He is now pursuing a PhD on king cobras from North Orissa University.<br /> <br />Gowri Shankar and his wife Sharmila have now set up and run two organisations - Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) and a non-profit organisation called Kalinga Foundation. Anyone from a software engineer to a photographer or even an organic farmer can join the workshops held at KCRE and learn about and get up close and personal with the wildlife marvels of the rainforest. And the Kalinga Foundation has been set up as a research station primarily for science students where they can learn on-field techniques to make them better scientists.<br /><br />                                                  <div type="image" title="A STORM Chennai workshop" msid="81480037" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A STORM Chennai workshop&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br /><em>Edited excerpts of Business Insider’s conversation with Shankar follow:<br /></em><br /><strong>What is it that fascinates you about the king cobra?<br /></strong><br />When I was young, I used to drop my sister at her college and go straight to <keyword id="130929" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bannerghatta-Biological-Park">Bannerghatta Biological Park</keyword>, Bengaluru, just to see the snakes. And that’s where I saw the king cobra for the first time in the enclosure. I think they’re beautiful, really massive snakes. I was so surprised to see such an enormous snake because earlier, I had caught cobras, rat snakes, and checkered keelback, and they all looked so tiny in front of a king cobra. I just fell in love with the animal.<br /><br /><strong>Tell us about your first experience with rescuing cobras and your interaction with the villagers in Agumbe?<br /></strong><br />When we started working in Agumbe, the villagers were understandably surprised to see a stranger from the city with a ponytail riding a Royal Enfield  Bullet in the village. But I started interacting with them. I asked them to let me know when they spotted a king cobra around and to call me if they needed any help. That’s how it started, and to date, I have rescued close to 400 king cobras.<br /><br />Villagers, particularly in and around  Agumbe, are very, very patient towards king cobras. King cobras and common cobras, in general, are considered a god and are worshipped. They’ll never kill or try to disturb the snake. That is the most significant advantage we had. <br /><br /><strong>What have you learned from the villagers about snakes? <br /></strong><br />People in the Malenadu region of Karnataka, where Agumbe is situated, have a lot of knowledge, particularly on king cobras. So, when I started working there and started interacting with the people, they told me many interesting facts like king cobras feed on other snakes and are even cannibalistic and feed on other king cobras, which was quite surprising. We already knew that this happened in captivity, but it was the villagers who gave us first-hand information that cannibalism exists among king cobras in the wild too. <br /><br />Also, the king cobra is the only species that builds a nest out of over 3000 species of snakes across the world. The villagers told us how they build the nest. In 2005 or so, it was thanks to a villager that we spotted our first king cobra nest. <br /><br />                                                  <div type="Youtube" id="WbfLC0C23gM" title="STORM (Scientific Training on Reptile Management) Chennai Edition" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WbfLC0C23gM/mqdefault.jpg"></div><br /><strong>Why don’t you tell us a little more about STORM? <br /></strong><br />In the past decade or so, people have been following snake rescuers on television or YouTube. And without any training or practice, they started attempting to capture snakes, inevitably getting bitten and sometimes also dying. So that’s when I conceived Scientific Training on Reptile Management (STORM) -  a comprehensive training program to teach people the right way to capture and rescue snakes. Now close to 800 people across the country are trained under STORM, apart from the Forest Department, Coast Guard, Fire Department, and Police Department. <br /><br /><strong>How many times has a snake bitten you?<br /></strong><br />I've been bitten by numerous non-venomous snakes that don’t count; otherwise, I've been bitten by three venomous snakes - a pit viper, a cobra, but my worst bite was from a king cobra. I’m one of the few guys in the world who has been bitten by a king cobra and survived. <br /><br /><strong>Did you have the anti-venom?<br /></strong><br />No, that’s the thing. We don’t have anti-venom for the king cobra, so the chances of dying from a bite are relatively high. But I think I survived because king cobras are one of the best snakes, and they don’t intend to bite you. They give you enough warnings. They tell you, ‘look, I don’t want to bite you. I can kill you in 20 minutes, but that’s not my plan’, but they don’t know what I’m doing, right? I’m trying to rescue it, but it doesn’t understand that. So this was an accident. Luckily I didn’t give him a chance to inject or pump enough venom into my hand, and I reacted fast. There was swelling in 20 minutes. I was hospitalised for three days. I almost died, but luckily I survived thanks to that king cobra who didn’t mean to bite me and didn’t inject its entire venom — that’s like 5ml or 6ml of venom — into me. He was kind enough just to give me a little dose.<br /><br />                                                  <div type="image" title="Rescue operation underway" msid="81480056" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rescue operation underway&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br /><strong>Tell us a little bit about this radio telemetry study that you have conducted on king cobras.<br /></strong><br />Radio telemetry was initiated in 2008 by Mr.Whitaker and the team. This was the first time ever radio telemetry (a tool to track the movement and behaviour of animals) was done on a king cobra right here in the Western Ghats in Karnataka. So we were all very excited, but we didn’t know what to expect.<br /><br />Unfortunately, within 30 days, our female king cobra was eaten by a male king cobra, which is quite rare, and the locals helped me gather that information — we knew king cobras fed on other snakes, but this was a male feeding on the female after mating with her.<br /><br />Fascinatingly enough, though we were tracking the female, we ended up tracking the male instead, who had the female in his stomach because the transmitter was in her stomach.<br /><br />Another interesting thing about this male king cobra was that it was a translocated one that had moved 15 or 20 kilometres to see what happens if they are moved from their home. So this guy wanted to go back to his home. He travelled a lot, and we think we figured out for the first time that a king cobra can travel up to eight kilometres in one day.<br /><br /><strong>Are they territorial?<br /></strong><br />We are yet to figure that out, but we think they’re not territorial unless it’s a breeding season. If there’s a female, the male will guard her because he wants to mate with her. <br /><br /><strong>When you were facing off with the king cobra, have you quietly wished you were sitting safely in that washing machine company?<br /></strong><br />Not for a single second. You won’t believe it, I was in the hospital for three days after having survived that bite, and my hand was still swollen, and I said I want to go home. And while I was heading back to my field station, I received a rescue call. With my swollen hand, I went straight to rescue king cobra before. Till today, I will sit in front of a king cobra the whole day without getting bored. <br /><br />SEE ALSO: <br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/tata-tryst-with-e-grocery-starts-with-a-billion-dollar-acquisition-of-bigbasket-heres-why-it-could-be-a-sweet-deal-for-both/articleshow/81478849.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Tata’s tryst with e-grocery starts with a billion dollar acquisition of BigBasket – here’s why it could be a sweet deal for both</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/kalyan-jewellers-will-be-going-up-against-titan-but-remains-sceptical-jewellery-business-can-ever-fully-go-online/articleshow/81478749.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Kalyan Jewellers will be going up against Titan but remains sceptical jewellery business can ever fully go online</a><br />

This king cobra researcher is happy to endure a lethal bite or two for the sake of his passion

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Though most snakes aren't venomous, the ones with a deadly bite are so scary that many researchers think humans <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/29/241370496/eeek-snake-your-brain-has-a-special-corner-just-for-them">evolved to naturally fear</a> the sinuous creatures.</p>
<p>With good reason.</p>
<p>In the video below, originally from a BBC production that's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002sk9t">no longer available online</a>, two men milk the venom of a Russell's viper and then show what happens when one drop of that venom mixes with a glassful of human blood.</p>
<p>It's terrifying.</p>
<p>Different types of snake venom have different effects, but a bite from the Russell's pit viper, a snake that <a href="http://www.umich.edu/~elements/web_mod/viper/introduction_2.htm">kills thousands of people every year</a> in Southeast Asia and is shown here, is particularly awful.</p>
<p>The first move has got to be a terrifying thing to learn how to do - one man grabs the snake right below the head so he can control the creature.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Next, we get to see the bite, when venom is released.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Even one drop has intense effects, as you'll see.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>A little venom is drawn into a syringe. Also, this snake was taken out of pot similar to those behind the man with the syringe. We are terrified that that means they all have snakes inside.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>The drop is swirled around. This mixes the venom in, but it does also expose the blood to oxygen, which means that what we see next isn't necessarily exactly how this would happen inside a bite victim.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>And there you have it - one solidified clump of blood, within seconds.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>The quick coagulation or blood clotting caused by the Russell's viper venom is of particular interest to scientists - there's a lot of research into how it <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2533418">might be used in medicine</a>.</p>
<p>But this effect is only present in healthy blood. A very dilute of the venom is even used to <a href="http://io9.com/watch-snake-venom-turns-a-dish-of-blood-to-jelly-in-sec-1578854240">test for certain diseases including lupus</a>, which will prevent blood from clotting even when exposed to the venom.</p>
<p>But there are some other terrifying effects of a bite too. About 30% of people who survive a Russell's viper bite suffer severe <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(87)92500-1/abstract">damage to the hormone-producing pituitary gland</a>, which causes victims to suffer what <a href="http://io9.com/5878200/the-snake-whose-bite-can-send-you-back-through-puberty">some refer to</a> as "reverse-puberty" - they lose their sex drive, fertility, body hair, and sometimes have cognitive problems as well.</p>
<p>Check out the full video below.</p>
<p></p>

Watch Snake Venom's Instantaneous And Terrifying Effect On Human Blood

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Several Marines have told Insider that <keyword id="46492" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="helicopter">helicopter</keyword> door gunners have one of the Corps' best jobs, so we asked one about his job.</li><li>Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Fitzgerald's job involves handling heavy weaponry, including a minigun that can fire 50 rounds a second. But, there's more to it than just the big guns.</li><li>"We are kind of like a SWAT Team, a police force, firefighters, EMTs, and car mechanics all wrapped into one, and we are able to take that anywhere in the world," he told Insider.</li></ul><p>Daniel Fitzgerald was brushing his teeth before bed when small arms fire raked his building and explosions shook the ground at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan on September 14, 2012.</p><p>The North Carolina native rushed outside into what he describes as his most intense combat experience. It was chaos. Taliban insurgents disguised in Army fatigues had infiltrated the base. The fuel pits had erupted in flames, and the enemy was pouring fire of all kinds onto the base, everything from bullets to rocket-propelled grenades.</p><p>"My unit was under attack," Fitzgerald, who is assigned to helicopters, recalled. "We actually had to submit a request for air support on ourselves for ourselves."</p><p>While he fought with Marines on the ground, embracing the concept that every Marine is a rifleman, others from his unit took to the sky in a few helicopters. "When the helicopters started attacking enemy targets, or at least suppressing, we were all cheering," Fitzgerald said.</p><p>The Taliban attack on Camp Bastion in the fall of 2012 was stopped after a brutal four-hour firefight, but not before two Marines were killed, 17 British and US personnel were wounded, and nine aircraft were damaged or destroyed.</p><p>For Fitzgerald, a helicopter crew chief and <keyword id="9764079" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="door-gunner">door gunner</keyword> who normally wages war above the battlefield, the fighting that night forever changed his understanding of his service. "That was the first time I was ever actually on the ground seeing the impact that my unit has down range," he told Insider.</p><h3>'Don't shoot them. They will kill you'</h3><div type="image" title="Gunny Sgt. Daniel Fitzgerald" height="640" width="480" msid="77564085" hostid="261"></div><p>Gunnery Sgt. Fitzgerald is a seasoned crew chief with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing's "Gunrunners" (HMLA-269) who has served for 12 years, and he has what a number of Marines say, in part because of some of the perks, is "one of the best jobs" in the Corps.</p><p>Fighting from a <keyword id="5751748" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UH-1Y">UH-1Y</keyword> "Venom" helicopter (<keyword id="2326935" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Huey">Huey</keyword>) and flying alongside an AH-1Z "Viper" attack helicopter (Cobra), he is typically part of a team of six Marines — two Cobra pilots, two Huey pilots, and two door gunners — commanding tremendous firepower in battle.</p><p>"We have an entire buffet of offensive and defensive capabilities between the two aircraft," Fitzgerald said.</p><p>As a door gunner, Fitzgerald is trained to operate the GAU-21 .50-caliber weapon system and the M240D machine gun, but there's one weapon most closely associated with his job: a minigun that fires over 3,000 rounds a minute.</p><p>"We're the only users of that weapon system in an offensive capability," he told Insider of the GAU-17 <keyword id="3809995" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="gatling-gun">Gatling gun</keyword>, variants of which have been used since Vietnam. The helicopters are, as Fitzgerald explained, "armed to the teeth."</p><p>"There was a saying among the Taliban leadership that got back to us," Fitzgerald said. "They would say, 'Fight the Americans. Fight the infidels. Fight them hard, but if you ever see the tiny gray helicopters, don't shoot them. They will kill you.'"</p><p>For all of their power, the big guns do come with their share of challenges though.</p><p>For example, the Marines who wield them have to be able to take them apart — including the Gatling gun's more than 100 parts — in the rain, in the dark, under fire, and in other decidedly difficult situations, and they have to be able to do it while wearing 60 to 70 pounds of gear in the back of a moving helicopter.</p><p>"We train to deal with the most bizarre stuff in the aircraft," Fitzgerald said, explaining that the crew also has to be able to handle helicopter repair work and provide tactical combat casualty care, among other things.</p><h3>'They know they are going to sleep well'</h3><div type="image" title="Fitzgerald aboard a helicopter" height="1242" width="2092" msid="77564090" hostid="261"></div><p>The Marines in the helicopters carry out a wide variety of missions, everything from the delivery of beans, bullets, and band-aids to fire support to casualty evacuations.</p><p>"We are kind of like a SWAT Team, a police force, firefighters, EMTs, and car mechanics all wrapped into one," Fitzgerald said, "and we are able to take that anywhere in the world and do the nation's bidding."</p><p>"If [Marines] need to be pulled out or put in, if they need to be resupplied, or if they are in a bad part of town and getting shot at, they can call us anytime," Fitzgerald said. "We will be there in the overhead, providing offensive or defensive support by fire."</p><p>Helicopter crews often refer to ground troops as "customers," Fitzgerald said. "Out there, the guy that I'm working for, my customer, is often living in the hardest environment imaginable," living in the dirt, eating almost nothing, and going long stretches without a shower.</p><p>"They need us," he said. "Whenever Marines have Cobras and Hueys in the overhead, they know they are going to sleep well that night."</p><h3>'Not just one person with a cool job'</h3><div type="image" title="Helo" height="3622" width="3947" msid="77564098" hostid="261"></div><p>Fitzgerald emphasized that while he is trained to bring a lot of capabilities to the battlefield, it takes more than one person to execute missions effectively.</p><p>It's "not just one person with a cool job," he said. "When we're fighting, it's those six individuals in that [helicopter] element keeping their heads on a swivel and trying to look out for each other and cover each other's sixes."</p><p>"There's a beautiful cadence of communication that goes on as well," he continued. "I know that when I say, 'Tracers, tracers, break left, break left, RPG, two o'clock,' the pilots are going to maneuver the aircraft accordingly." Marines in the air also communicate regularly with troops on the ground.</p><p>He said that because you have people counting on you, it's critical that Marines avoid "going internal," letting other things outside of the moment weigh on you in a fight.</p><p>"The toughest part of the job is to not get inside your head," Fitzgerald, who has plenty to think about with a wife, a 2-year-old kid, and another child on the way, said, explaining that the last thing you want to do is "go internal when people's lives are on the line... We never want to let our brother or our sister down."</p><h3>'Would do it all over again'</h3><div type="image" title="A view from the cabin of a helicopter during a training exercise" height="685" width="1242" msid="77564104" hostid="261"></div><p>While Marines have told Insider that door gunners have one of the best jobs in the Corps, Fitzgerald actually planned on joining the infantry, but his brother, also a Marine, tricked him into this route when he joined.</p><p>"My brother knew that if I had gone through with my original plan to be an infantryman, my life would be much more at risk," he said. "He tricked me into this job. He told me that I would be a grunt, but I would be attached to helicopters."</p><p>He said his brother told him that he would "always have a hot meal at the end of the day, a bed off the ground, and air conditioning, for the most part."</p><p>Taking his brother's advice, he entered one of the longer non-special-operations training pipelines, attending everything from boot camp to a course on going down behind enemy lines to door gunner school.</p><p>Over the years, Fitzgerald has conducted operations all over the world, including the Pacific, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, among other places.</p><p>And, he told Insider that he "would do it all over again" if he could, "without a doubt."</p>

This Marine has one of the 'best jobs' in the Corps, and it sometimes involves firing 3,000 rounds a minute out of a helicopter

<p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">H.R. McMaster</p>President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-08/washington-loves-general-mcmaster-but-trump-doesn-t" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has repeatedly clashed</a> with his national security adviser H.R. McMaster in front of his staff, according to a new column by Eli Lake at Bloomberg.<p>The three-star Army general is being increasingly sidelined in favor of other advisers, as Trump has become "disillusioned" with him, according to Lake. Three White House officials told Lake the president was "livid" after McMaster called his South Korean counterpart to assure him a threat to make Seoul pay for the advanced THAAD missile defense system was not official policy.</p><p>Trump also complained in front of McMaster that he was "undermining my policy," according to two White House officials who spoke with Lake.</p><p>The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. However, Bloomberg received a statement from Trump that said: "<span>I couldn't be happier with H.R. He's doing a terrific job." </span></p><p><span>McMaster <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-national-security-adviser-hr-mcmaster-2017-2">received plenty of praise</a> when he was tapped to replace retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn at the White House. Many pundits noted his strategic expertise, Ph.D. education, heroism during Desert Storm, and respect among the rank-and-file as being good news for Trump's NSC. </span></p><p><span>But, as I noted in February, McMaster is also known not to be a "yes" man, which may be rubbing Trump the wrong way.</span></p><p><span>Here's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-national-security-adviser-hr-mcmaster-2017-2">what I wrote then</a>:</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">McMaster is the kind of guy who says what's on his mind and will call out a wrongheaded approach when he sees one. That tendency is something that junior officers love, but those maverick ways are not well-received by some of his fellow generals. Put simply: McMaster isn't a political guy, unlike other officers who are trying to jockey for position and move up in their careers.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">In 2003, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/george-packer/one-star-for-mcmaster-one-cheer-for-the-army" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">for example</a>, McMaster criticized then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Iraq War plan that placed too much of an emphasis on technology. McMaster also pushed back on his boss' refusal to admit an insurgency was starting to take hold in 2004.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">He has been held back in his career because of it - he was passed <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2008/08/annual_general_meeting.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over two times</a> for his first star - but it wasn't because of incompetence. Instead, his fight to be promoted from colonel to brigadier general was seen as pure politics, and McMaster doesn't like to play. He was eventually promoted in 2008, but that hasn't made him any less outspoken.</p><p>For now, it seems to be a he said, she said situation as far as McMaster's standing in the Trump White House. Though it's worth noting that the White House was publicly praising the performance of McMaster's predecessor Michael Flynn just hours before he was fired.</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marines-grab-drones-out-of-sky-innovative-skyhook-2017-4">Marines can grab drones right out of the sky with this innovative 'Skyhook'</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Insiders say Trump keeps clashing with his national security adviser

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><em>Warning: This post includes graphic images of blood.</em><p>No sane person would want to be anywhere near snake venom, much less have it injected. But its ability to clot blood could potentially save lives on the operating table.</p><p>Rice University scientists created a new gel that contains an enzyme found in snake venom. It stopped bleeding in rats in six seconds, according to a&#xa0;new study published in the journal&#xa0;<a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.5b00356">American Chemical Society Biomaterials Science and Engineering.</a></p><p>"It's interesting that you can take something so deadly and turn it into something that has the potential to save lives," lead researcher Jeffrey Hartgerink <a href="http://news.rice.edu/2015/10/26/snake-venom-helps-hydrogels-stop-the-bleeding/">said in a press release</a>.</p><p><span>Hartgerink and his collaborators&#xa0;</span>used&#xa0;an enzyme&#xa0;that&#xa0;is found in the venom produced by South American pit vipers (the common lancehead and Brazilian lancehead) to create&#xa0;a highly-absorbent gel - called a hydrogel - that they hope will be useful for surgeries.</p><p>Hydrogels is a term used for a wide umbrella of gels for different uses: They can be used as "scaffolding" to repair tissue, as a culture to grow cells, or even in diapers to absorb liquids. (The researchers involved in this study <a href="http://news.rice.edu/2015/01/20/hydrogels-deliver-on-blood-vessel-growth-2/">have also worked on</a> hydrogels that can encourage blood-vessel growth, for example.)</p><p>To avoid contamination when creating the blood-clotting gel, the researchers didn't take the enzyme directly from snake venom, but instead created it in the lab using genetically modified bacteria, according to the release. Scientists have long been interested in the enzyme, called batroxobin, for its ability to coagulate blood.</p><p>The researchers tested their hydrogel's efficacy in comparison to other clotting agents in several trials on rats. In the first round of trials, the scientists sliced a rat's liver (the first image below) and then applied the gels (the second image). The hydrogel containing batroxobin, called SB50, adhered to the wound and stopped bleeding in about six seconds (third image), whereas the gel without batroxobin and batroxobin on its own didn't stem bloodflow.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The scientists also saw no bleeding after wiping away the clotted blood - even after they dug around with a scalpel to try to induce additional bleeding.<p>The second trial involved rats that had been injected with a blood-thinner called heparin, which blocks a&#xa0;blood-coagulant enzyme called thrombin. Patients who take heparin - a common blood thinner - can often run into problems during surgery.</p><p>The scientists found that in the tests in rats, SB50 was still effective at stopping bleeding because heparin didn't affect its active ingredient. When applied, SB50 stopped bloodflow in about 5 seconds, even faster than without the blood thinner. In comparison, the other substances administered - gel without batroxobin, batroxobin on its own, a surgical sponge that absorbs blood called GelFoam, and a hydrogel typically used in labs to culture cells called PuraMatrix - didn't stop bleeding at all.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>More research has to be done before SB50 can used in real-life medical settings, since this study only looked at its effect on rats. Batroxobin isn't yet approved for use clinical use in the United States, but has been used <a href="http://www.pentapharm.com/content.cfm?nav=21&amp;content=39">in other countries</a> and in <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16635411">research settings</a> to explore its ability to stem bleeding in humans.</p><p>The researchers expect that - even if further research proves its efficacy in humans - it will still take a few more years before SB50 would be available to doctors and surgeons, according to the press release.</p><p>In <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24487019">an earlier&#xa0;study</a>&#xa0;by a different team of scientists, they adapted batroxobin slightly differently, adding the substance to an adhesive bandage. Those scientists also&#xa0;concluded that it&#xa0;"effectively facilitate[d] blood coagulation, and could be developed for clinical use."</p><h2>Limitations</h2><p>Despite these promising findings, batroxobin has some limitations.</p><p>It's&#xa0;"a small, highly soluble molecule," the Rice University&#xa0;study notes. Administered on its own, "localization at the wound site is not possible." That's why using it with things like hydrogels and adhesives seems to be the most effective&#xa0;strategy.</p><p>But even working with batroxobin, and with snake venoms in general, can be difficult. Batroxobin is difficult to extract from snake venom because it can be easily contaminated, which is why the batroxobin the Rice scientists used had to be created in the lab. That's "similar to insulin, which was once only isolated from cow or pig pancreas and is now expressed in E. Coli or yeast," researcher Vivek A. Kumar told&#xa0;Tech Insider in an email.&#xa0;</p><p>Kumar also noted&#xa0;that while they have not yet&#xa0;seen "any adverse effect at the doses we have attempted," they need to do more research to better understand the risks.</p><p>There's some serious reason for caution, however. In 2009, researchers analyzed&#xa0;several studies where <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19786937">batroxobin was used on human surgical patients</a>&#xa0;and found that there&#xa0;was "not enough evidence supporting any benefit of batroxobin agents for hemorrhage."</p><p>Different&#xa0;kinds of snake venom can be&#xa0;frighteningly effective at&#xa0;clotting blood, which is why researchers&#xa0;continue to look for ways to use&#xa0;them. And the new hydrogel technique may be more effective than what was tested several years ago.</p><p>This <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snake-venom-coagulates-human-blood-2014-11">video of venom from a Russell pit viper</a> turning a vial of blood into a blobby gel&#xa0;is a chilling demonstration of the power of venom - a power that, harnessed correctly, might&#xa0;actually save lives.</p><p><div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vetigel-future-band-aid-joe-landolina-2015-8">A 17-year-old invented an ingenious way to instantly stop bleeding</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RxZG9ydjqgyK1IPZ_NkeN_yfKMvNeFQc" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Scientists invented an injection based on snake venom that stops bleeding in 6 seconds flat

<p>Camouflage is a wonderful thing. It helps animals hide from predators and catch prey. This built-in protection is key to surviving in the wild. Here are 15 animals who are masters of disguise.  </p>
<p><strong>A Mediterranean octopus camouflages on the seabed. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-82946p1.html">Dario Sabljak/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>A common brown looper moth rests on a lichen-covered sandstone.</strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-460555p1.html">Peter Waters/Shutterstcok</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div><strong>A leafy seadragon, also known as Glauert's seadragon, blends into a marine plant. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-55715p1.html">Krzysztof Wiktor/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div><strong>A Goldenrod crab spider on a dandelion. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-254068p1.html">Henrik Larsson/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A leopard conceals itself in the tall grass. </span></strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-24902896/stock-photo-male-leopard-panthera-pardus-hiding-among-tall-grass.html?src=Z-bqnSE4g1sgEpxqvhdjSg-1-86">EcoPrint/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>A tree lizard looks like the branch it's sitting on. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/camouflage+animal/search.html?page=2&amp;thumb_size=large">stanalex/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div><strong>A young copperhead snake is difficult to spot in the leaves. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-93310p1.html">Rusty Dodson/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>A gray tree frog hides on a stone. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-21106885/stock-photo-a-gray-tree-frog-hyla-versicolor-sits-hidden-on-a-stone.html?src=yT_bgXJS2jxjSz0IuD0xPg-1-52">Mark Carroll/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><strong>A spider disappears into tree bark. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1109348p1.html">Decha Thapanya/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div><strong>A venomous green tree pit viper camouflaged on a plant. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>worldswildlifewonders/Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>A western fence lizard blends into tree bark. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Elliotte Rusty Harold/Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">A Devil scorpionfish sitting on the reef. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Kristina Vackova/Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div><strong>A mountain hare with white fur blends into the snow. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-89942665/stock-photo-mountain-hare-lat-lepus-timidus-with-white-fur-sitting-in-snow-in-winter.html?src=pp-photo-65300566-yT_bgXJS2jxjSz0IuD0xPg-2">Peter Wey/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>A lizard in the background of green leaves in Sri Lanka. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-354772p1.html">vicspacewalker/Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>A well-hidden green frogfish opens its mouth to the camera. </strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>

You Searched For "Pit Viper" and got 12 results

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Authorities identified a Capitol rioter because he wore a bright red backpack with his last name embroidered on it

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The moon is open for business, and entrepreneurs are racing to make billions

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What to do when something at work goes against your moral code

Rebecca Knight

Madison Cawthorn says Washington is a lot like 'House of Cards,' claims members of DC's elite did cocaine in front of him and invited him to an orgy

Cheryl Teh

Frogs are dying off at record rates - an ominous sign the 6th mass extinction is hitting one group of creatures hardest

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This king cobra researcher is happy to endure a lethal bite or two for the sake of his passion

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Watch Snake Venom's Instantaneous And Terrifying Effect On Human Blood

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This Marine has one of the 'best jobs' in the Corps, and it sometimes involves firing 3,000 rounds a minute out of a helicopter

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Insiders say Trump keeps clashing with his national security adviser

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Scientists invented an injection based on snake venom that stops bleeding in 6 seconds flat

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