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<br /><ul><li>Ancient tools discovered in northern India provide new evidence that humans were able to survive one of the largest volcanic events in human history — the <keyword id="8833232" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="toba-supervolcano">Toba supervolcano</keyword> eruption.<br /></li><li>The <keyword id="8833230" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="toba-catastrophe-theory">Toba catastrophe theory</keyword> states that the eruption covered South Asia in ash and blackened out the skies triggering an ice age, leaving only a dwindling human population in its wake.<br /></li><li>However, mounting archaeological evidence suggests that humans may have persevered.<br /></li></ul>When the Toba supervolcano erupted 74,000 years ago, it was one of the most devastating events to ever hit the planet, thought to have brought humanity on the brink of extinction — or so we thought. <br /><br />Ancient tools discovered in Dhaba northern India punch another hole Toba catastrophe theory and add to the piling evidence that the event wasn’t as extreme as scientists previously assumed.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="tools2" msid="74313943" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Stone tools found at the Dhaba site corresponding with the Toba volcanic super-eruption levels. Pictured here are diagnostic Middle Palaeolithic core types.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />The Toba catastrophe theory states that the massive eruption — 100 times greater than the biggest explosion in recent history, the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora — only left a few thousand survivors in its wake. The fall-out triggered a decade of volcanic winter and an ice-age that lasted a millennium.<br /><br />However, the study of stone tools published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14668-4">Nature Communications</a> suggests that humans were present in the Middle Son Valley 80,000 years before and after the volcano erupted.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="tools3" msid="74313987" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Key artefact types at Dhaba&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />"Although Toba ash was first identified in the Son Valley back in the 1980s until now we did not have associated archaeological evidence, so the Dhaba site fills in a major chronological gap," said principal investigator <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/mpif-hps022020.php">J.N. Pal</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Ashes to ashes, dust to dust — the Toba catastrophe theory<br /></strong>The Toba catastrophe theory is one of correlation. Around the same time as the eruption in present-day Indonesia, humanity was in a bit of rut with respect to evolution.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="tools4" msid="74314035" hostid="261"></div>

<br />The sky was blacked out, most of South Asia and the Indian Ocean was covered in 15 centimetres-thick layer of ash, and humanity was dying out.<br /><br />Since both events seem to coincide, scientists theorised that the supervolcano was a plausible reason for the sudden drop in diversity. However, with new data coming into the picture, the pieces are no longer adding up.<br /><br /><b>Reasonable doubt<br /></b>The first evidence to refute the theory came to light in 2007. Evidence of stone tools in southern India suggested that humans existed during the time period. However, according to the Toba catastrophe theory the only surviving humans were in Africa — who later populated Asia 60,000 years ago.<br /><br />A fossil found in South Africa cast further doubt. Discovered in 2018, the archaeological evidence suggested that the global human not only survived the eruption but thrived.<br /><br /><strong>Human resilience<br /></strong>Scientists still agree that there was a drop in diversity around 70,000 years ago. However, some no longer believe it was due to the supervolcano triggering climate change. <br /><br />A few theorise that it’s simply the founder effect — the loss of genetic variation when small groups break off from a large population, but they’re not genetically representative. As a result, the population is vulnerable to genetic drift and inbreeding.<br /><br />More data is needed to fill the gaps of Earth’s timeline, but these new ancient tools suggest that humans were able to survive one of the largest volcanic events in human history.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-weathering-himalayas-might-not-be-behind-earths-cooling-over-the-past-15-million-years/articleshow/71271248.cms">The weathering Himalayas might not be behind Earth's cooling over the past 15 million years</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-has-a-3-5-billion-idea-to-save-earth-from-a-supervolcano-apocalypse/articleshow/67649185.cms"><strong>NASA has a $3.5 billion idea to save Earth from a supervolcano apocalypse</strong></a><br />

Ancient tools found in India suggest the Toba supervolcano eruption didn't leave humanity on the brink of extinction

<br /> The year 2013 is on its way out but are we really planning a blast to ring in the New Year? The good news is – Indians are still undeterred by the falling <keyword id="6355302" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rupee">rupee</keyword> and looking forward to outbound travel in the coming holidays, just like they did this summer. But the way they travel is definitely changing, according to a senior executive of a Delhi-based <keyword id="6607315" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="OTA">OTA</keyword>. Overseas travel no longer means the ritual rush through <keyword id="6357117" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="bangkok">Bangkok</keyword> or <keyword id="6356662" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Singapore">Singapore</keyword> – the global destinations closest to home and perhaps the least expensive. Of course, these places are not yet marked off the list, but the experienced and the well-heeled seem to have caught the travel bug of a different kind.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="1960912" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Offbeat-destinations">Offbeat destinations</keyword> are getting increasingly popular among Indians, says Saurabh Srivastava, vice-president (marketing &amp; product strategy) at ixigo.com, a travel planning site and search engine that aggregates and curates travel information to help consumers.<br />
<br /> “Of the 2.5 million visitors coming to our site month on month, we see some very clear and emerging trends. While the <keyword id="1960914" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Regular-overseas-travellers">regular overseas travellers</keyword> are increasingly looking at offbeat destinations to try out something different, first-timers or those who haven’t ventured outside the country too much, are still looking at <keyword id="1960915" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Popular-destinations">popular destinations</keyword> like Bangkok, Singapore, <keyword id="8695" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Malaysia">Malaysia</keyword> and <keyword id="6355478" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Australia">Australia</keyword> – the main attractions being <keyword id="6396451" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="beaches">beaches</keyword>, <keyword id="60543" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Water-sports">water sports</keyword> and <keyword id="6368952" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="shopping">shopping</keyword>,” he observes.<br />
<br /> We have talked to a number of <keyword id="722880" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="travel-agencies">travel agencies</keyword> and rounded up 12 out-of-the-ordinary (but up and coming) places that people are closely following (and booking) these holidays. Here is a quick look at each of them with a glimpse of the local flavour and the basic cost per person on a twin-sharing basis. However, costs are only indicative and are bound to change, depending on your <keyword id="472754" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tour-schedule">tour schedule</keyword>, quality of <keyword id="6358762" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Package">package</keyword>, customisation and service provider. Also, prices may fluctuate as dates get closer.<br />
<br /> Try planning a holiday if you love these destinations too. Just remember, sometimes, the best travel happens farthest from <keyword id="823132" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="home-and-away">home and away</keyword> from your everyday ambience. Catch the sun on a <keyword id="1553372" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="foreign-soil">foreign soil</keyword> this New Year and bon voyage!

<b>Want To Vacation Abroad? These 12 Places Are Creating The
Buzz These Holidays</b>

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Mexico's Volcano of Fire is seen in a time exposure during an explosion.</p></div><p></p></div></div>It's the end of the hedge fund world as we know it, or so it appears.</p><p>K.C. Nelson, lead portfolio manager at Driehaus Capital Management, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sohn-conference-was-grim-2016-5">laid out a grim assessment</a> of the industry <a href="http://driehauscapitalmanagement.com/pdf/funds/summaries/Driehaus-LCMAX-Summary-0416.pdf">in a commentary to clients</a> that perfectly summed up the many issues facing the industry.</p><p>From long-term structural trends to current market conditions, Nelson lays out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/everyone-at-the-salt-conference-was-miserable-2016-5">an ugly picture for hedge funds</a>, and in the end thinks that it will lead to a massive shrinking of the industry.</p><p>"So what's the bottom line of these changing industry dynamics?" wrote Nelson.</p><p><strong>"I believe there will be a culling of hedge funds like we've never seen before. I'd estimate the number of funds gets cut in half over the next couple of years."</strong></p><p>Thus, the title of Nelson's commentary: "The Hedge Fund Apocalypse."</p><h2><strong>It all comes down to performance</strong></h2><p>Nelson, whose fund manages $8.4 billion in assets, argues that hedge funds' biggest problem is performance, or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-fund-returns-for-the-first-quarter-2016-4">more accurately the lack thereof.</a> Nelson said that all of the issues "start and end here," noting that hedge funds have "gotten trounced by plain vanilla investments" since 2008.</p><p>In fact, the HFRX global hedge fund composite is down -1.19% over the past five years, while the S&amp;P 500 is up 11.02%, the Barclays US bond aggregate is up 3.60%, and a classic 60/40 mix of stocks and bonds is up 8.20%, according to Nelson.</p><p>This lackluster performance is an even bigger problem given investors' increasing impatience.</p><p>"Further, this underperformance is magnified in today's marketplace, where investors are irritated after a bad quarter… or month…or week," wrote Nelson. "The idea of investing over a market cycle is increasingly a foreign one."</p><p>With increased scrutiny on returns, the dismal run of the past few years could not come at a worse time with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-letter-to-sp-500-ceos-2016-2">increasingly itchy trigger finger</a> of investors.</p><p>In addition, many hedge funds are beginning to crowd into the same trades, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-hedge-funds-milken-2016-5">as Point72's Steve Cohen noted</a> at the Milken conference, making it harder for hedge funds to even <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-too-concentrated-2016-5">differentiate performance among themselves.</a></p><h2>There are other places for investors to go</h2><p>In the past, a few years of underperformance would no doubt be a problem for hedge funds, but there was some sense that investors had no other place to go for the kinds of strategies the funds were providing.</p><p>Now, Nelson said, there are plenty of other avenues for investors that not only offer the same types of strategies, but also better returns in the current market and lower costs.</p><p>"There are a number of commodity, currency and credit funds to now choose from in ETF and mutual fund vehicles," said Nelson.</p><p>"Moreover, there are a number of daily liquidity funds that run the hedge strategies themselves. This gives investors the option to tactically move in and out of exposures that previously they often had to access through hedge funds."</p><p>This is similar to commentary <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/revolution-coming-to-investing-2016-5">we've heard from other funds</a>. Highland Capital Chief Investment Officer Mark Okada <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-fund-disrupted-like-uber-2016-5">said that liquid alternatives</a>, similar to hedge funds but with the ability to move money in and out on a daily basis, will be as disruptive to the industry as Uber has been to taxis.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZYVNS0L6&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1588&amp;RH=896#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZYVNS0L6&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1588&amp;RH=896&amp;POPUPPN=3&amp;POPUPIID=2C0408WMLTR2N">Sergio Perez/Reuters</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In fact, Nelson mentioned that many institutional investors such as pension funds and <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-05/metlife-to-cut-hedge-fund-allocation-after-weak-performance">insurance companies</a> are already re-allocating away from hedge funds rapidly.</p><p>"After years of inaction, the tide is now changing fast on this front," said Nelson. "Whether driven by their own decision making or their clients', <strong>the institutional consultant community is under severe pressure to justify the presence of hedge funds in client portfolios.</strong>"</p><p>To be fair, Nelson's firm provides liquid alternatives, putting him in competition with the hedge funds he is discussing, but he notes that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-on-liquid-alternatives-2016-3">even liquid alts are getting hurt</a> by the shift as many investors are moving to private equity or basic portfolios.</p><p>The issue for both hedge funds and Nelson's firm is that with so many options, it becomes easier for large investors to move money to the best performing investment type.</p><h2>It's going to get ugly</h2><p>Thus, you get the "culling" of the funds. But even those that survive, according to Nelson, are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-chanos-on-hedge-fund-fees-hard-pass-2016-5">going to get hit where it hurts the most</a>: fees.</p><p>"There will be a new push for lower fees, similar to the one that took average fees from 2 &amp; 20 to 1.5 &amp; 15 several years ago," he said in the commentary.</p><p>The move to investment vehicles with lower fees is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/etfs-are-disrupting-wall-street-2015-11">a more secular trend</a>, and is certainly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/etfs-making-mutual-funds-extinct-2016-4">not limited to hedge funds</a>. But the push for lower fees from the aforementioned alternatives will hit the income of funds already struggling to make gains in the market.</p><p>Add up the miserable performance, readily available alternatives, lower fees, and restless investors, and you've got a tough road for the hedge fund industry.</p><h3><strong><a href="http://driehauscapitalmanagement.com/pdf/funds/summaries/Driehaus-LCMAX-Summary-0416.pdf">Check out the full commentary from Nelson here»</a></strong> </h3>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-design-details-2016-4">7 incredibly tiny details you never noticed in your iPhone</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N4bmM3MzE6Hibcy_uubKaUG4zlRMWXbY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A 'hedge fund apocalypse' is coming

<ul class="summary-list"><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/yellowstone-national-park">Yellowstone National Park</a> sits atop a massive <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/supervolcano">supervolcano</a> that's considered one of the greatest <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/volcano">volcano</a> threats in the county.  </strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>While experts estimate that a super-eruption might not happen for another few million years, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa">NASA</a> scientists <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-is-looking-at-how-to-contain-a-volcano-that-may-wipe-out-humanity-2018-10">performed a thought experiment</a> to determine how we could prevent Yellowstone from erupting. </strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Their hypothetical idea involves cooling the volcano down by pumping cold water into a series of wells around its perimeter. </strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>If implemented, the scenario could potentially save Earth from a supervolcano <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/apocalypse">apocalypse</a>. </strong></li></ul><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There's a volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park. But it's not your average volcano. It's hundreds of meters deep, larger than the state of Rhode Island and capable of eruptions thousands of times more violent than anything we've ever witnessed. This is a supervolcano. It's one of three in the US and it's considered to be the greatest volcano threat in the country. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If Yellowstone's volcano erupted, it would be catastrophic. The eruption would shoot a tower of ash into the air, taller than Mount Everest, covering nearby cities in over a meter of ash and creating giant clouds that would block the sun for decades. Ultimately, global temperatures would drop, plants would die, and agriculture would fail. In fact, the UN estimates that the entire world would run out of food in just over two months. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, Yellowstone has a history of eruptions like this. It's erupted three times in the past 2.1 million years. That's roughly once every 600,000 years. And the last time it erupted? Oh, around 600,000 years ago. But despite what these sensational headlines might have you think, Yellowstone is not going to erupt tomorrow or even 1,000 years from now. In fact, scientists estimate that another supereruption might not happen for another few million years or so. Or with some scientific ingenuity, we could make it so that Yellowstone never erupted again. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That was the idea behind a thought experiment that several scientists at NASA JPL put together in 2015. The idea? Cool the volcano down. After all, heat is what often causes volcanic eruptions in the first place. It rises from Earth's core and builds up within the volcanic chamber until one day the pressure is so great it explodes. And Yellowstone is no different. Each year, it produces enough heat to power six industrial power plants. About 60 to 70% of that heat escapes through hot springs and geysers, like Old Faithful. But the rest stays underground, inside the supervolcano's magma chambers. And it's here that the scientists staged the attack. In the scenario, they propose to drill a series of wells around the perimeter of the supervolcano. The wells would be some of the deepest in the world, reaching up to 10 km below the surface. They'd pump cold water down into the wells, which over time, would cool a ring of rock around the magma chamber. Sort of like how coolant in your car carries heat away from its engine. And bonus, the water's heated to around 340 degrees Celsius as it moves through the chamber. So the plan is to loop it back through the wells and use it to drive an electric generator, which could power the surrounding area for tens of thousands of years, essentially transforming Yellowstone into a giant geothermal power station. And ultimately, paying for itself in the end. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The scientists concluded that yes, in theory, this could work. But would we ever actually try it? Probably not. For one thing, you'd have to extract 20 gigawatts of energy to cool the volcano down to a safe temperature, which would take an estimated 16,000 years from start to finish. Not to mention, the plan would cost $3.46 billion. That's about 20% of NASA's annual budget. Even worse, cooling the rock could create fractures near the magma chamber, which might trigger a supereruption, the very thing we're trying to avoid in the first place. But lucky for us, the volcano is still sleeping. And probably will be for a while.</span></p>

NASA has a $3.5 billion idea to save Earth from a supervolcano apocalypse

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">FILE PHOTO: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Elon Musk is currently fighting a defamation case against cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who he referred to as "pedo guy" on Twitter.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>Musk's lawyers have repeatedly argued that reasonable people would not take Musk's insult seriously, partly because he broadcast it on Twitter.</strong></li><li><strong>But Unsworth's lawyers say that Musk's account can be taken seriously, giving his infamous "funding secured" tweet - </strong><strong>which resulted in $40 million in fines SEC - as an example.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>Musk's lawyers say that the Tesla CEO's Twitter account is filled with frivolous jokes, including tweets about being a Martian and arming people against the zombie apocalypse.</strong></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Elon Musk is trying to use his most flippant tweets as evidence he didn't defame cave diver Vernon Unsworth when he called him "pedo guy" last year.</p><p>Musk's lawyers have repeatedly argued that reasonable people would not interpret Musk's insult as a factual statement about Unsworth. Last year they unsuccessfully <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-diver-vern-unsworths-defamation-lawsuit-dismissed-2018-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">tried to have the case dismissed</a> on the grounds the Tesla CEO's comments could not be considered defamation because his insults were "over-the-top" and made on the "rough-and-tumble" platform of Twitter.</p><p>But Unsworth's lawyers have used Musk's infamous "funding secured" tweet as an example of a case where Musk's tweets have been taken seriously. Musk tweeted he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private in August 2018. He didn't, and his market-moving comment resulted in $40 million in fines from the Securities and Exchange Commission.</p><p>Musk's lawyers responded that his "funding secured" tweet is irrelevant to the case and doesn't say much about how he uses Twitter more generally.</p><p>"Picking one tweet from Mr. Musk's over 9,000 and arguing that it demonstrates his use of Twitter to disseminate facts is highly misleading," the filing states. They then give several examples of other topics Musk has tweeted about:</p><ul><li>"An impending zombie apocalypse and a money-back guarantee on flamethrowers to fight them."</li><li>"Rumors that he is a Martian."</li><li>"Building a volcano lair like Dr. Evil, the villain in the 'Austin Powers' movies."</li><li>"Launching SpaceX rockets at night because they are easier to fake in the dark."</li></ul><p>Musk has also claimed that when he tweeted Unsworth was a "pedo guy" <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-didnt-mean-call-british-diver-pedophile-2019-9?r=US&amp;IR=T">he was not literally calling him a pedophile</a>, as "pedo guy" was a common insult used to describe a "creepy old man" when he was growing up in South Africa.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/we-used-the-motorola-droid-on-its-10th-anniversary-2019-11">I used the 10-year-old original Motorola Droid for a week</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Elon Musk argues in court documents that his Twitter can't be taken as factual because he tweets about zombie apocalypses and being a Martian

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The afternoon after Trump won the presidential election, <span>Colin Waugh, a 31-year-old resident of Independence, Missouri, logged into Facebook. He then created<span> a group called </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1206158592808501">the Liberal Prepper</a> and <span>invited 38 of his friends.</span></span></p><p><span><span>The goal of the Facebook group, Waugh wrote, is to "<span>combine minds and hearts, with an emphasis on preparedness, in a time where a progressive way of life has never been more at risk of becoming taboo or altogether ostracized."</span></span></span></p><p>Three weeks later, The Liberal Prepper climbed to 1,000 members. As of now, it has amassed nearly 2,000.</p><p>The group is for liberals who, following Trump's election, started prepping for<span> a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other unforeseen catastrophe.</span></p><p>"There was less of a threat of a nuclear holocaust brought out by Obama," Waugh tells Business Insider. "There's a leap into fear now that Trump is in power."</p><p>In October 2016, <span>Waugh and his wife started stockpiling protein bars, rice, peanut butter, first-aid supplies, batteries, toilet paper, cat food, trash bags, medical handbooks, and as many canned goods as they could fit in the pantry of their one-bedroom apartment.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The Liberal Prepper page is active, with <span>members posting and commenting multiple times per day</span>. There are photos of vegetables stored in mason jars; tutorials for homemade gardens, canoes, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/viralthread/videos/687153871457299/">bunkers</a>; information about medical kits; a few liberal memes; numerous news articles; and links to off-grid gadgets like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/561475323872771/videos/1406586016028360/">pedal-powered laundry machines</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A member named Seth posted that he has canned over a gallon of carrots and has bought ten 3.5-gallon water storage containers, while another woman posted that she will use $500 worth of her tax return to buy gear.</p><p>One man, named Mannie, posted a photo of his new kerosene heater, and asked others what they thought of the brand. A few members liked a recent photo of a liberal prepper's sink, full of mangoes she plans to store.</p><p>Stacy, an Idaho-based woman who serves as a co-administrator of The Liberal Prepper group, became interested in prepping in the months leading up to Election Day. As a single mom of a kindergartner, she says she now worries about her son's education (especially with Betsy DeVos as education secretary) and the possibility of him learning hate rhetoric from some of Trump's followers.</p><p>"I don't know if there are going to be changes to the curriculum<span style="font-weight: 400;">, school funding, like if they're not going to be able to hire quality people to teach our kids or if they would teach them propaganda," </span>Stacy, who who declined to give her last name, tells BI.</p><p>She has bought just a handful of supplies so far: seeds, c<span style="font-weight: 400;">anned goods, rice, pre-made to-go bags, a tent, and extra water.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"After I was added to the [Liberal Prepper] group, I saw it started blowing up," Stacey says, "It's a</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">mazing to see how it has blossomed. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">It makes me feel like I've got people to turn to, if anything should happen."</span></span></p><p>The group's members are not the only ones who began prepping in response to Trump's win. <span>At least a few American prepping supply companies have seen </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/doomsday-prepper-supply-companies-trump-election-2017-2">spikes in sales since the election</a><span>. The Idaho-based company </span><a href="http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/">My Patriot Supply</a><span> tells BI that its sales during the week of the inauguration doubled from the same week in 2016. And </span><a href="https://www.doomsdayprep.com/">Doomsday Prep</a><span>, which has a storefront in Georgia, has experienced more than 15% year-over-year growth since Election Day, according to owner David Sanders.</span></p><p>Waugh says he does not consider himself (and the liberal prepping community at large) a part of <a href="http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/">the American Preppers Network (APN)</a>, the largest organization of its kind in the US. This is because he says the majority of APN's members <a href="http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/about-the-american-preppers-network">lean</a> conservative (though the APN site states that it accepts people from all political affiliations). </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Unlike conservative preppers, liberals tend to focus more on skills and supplies that will provide comfort (e.g. in the form of stoves and blankets) rather than protection (e.g. firearms), Waugh says. However, a handful of Liberal Prepper members have bought guns and ammunition since the election.</p><p><span>Though Waugh and his wife never considered buying a gun before the 2016 campaign cycle, they purchased <span>a 12-gauge shotgun <span>and a 9mm handgun by the end of the year.</span></span></span></p><p>"With liberal preppers, we're thinking about things that transcend man-made cataclysm, every sort of disaster: tornado, natural volcano, earthquake, the power grid failing, or having dry storage goods on hand to prevent our family from starving," Waugh says.</p><p>He is preparing for all the above, but his <span>worst fears are a terrorist attack on American soil or a civil war incited by the white nationalist movement. He believes that the Trump administration's plans - from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-obamacare-promise-2017-1">repealing the Affordable Care Act</a> to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nuclear-weapons-expansion-risk-2017-1">increasing America's nuclear capability</a> - have increased the likelihood of either or both of those things happening.</span></p><p>"If you were to ask us what cataclysm is most likely now, we'd say some Trump-related accident that causes the dishevelment of society," he says.</p><p>This spring, Waugh plans t<span>o launch a Liberal Prepper website, which will feature a forum, marketplace, and news feed. So far, he has <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/the-liberal-prepper-needs-a-website">crowdfunded</a> <span>$1,530 (mostly from the Facebook group members) for it.</span></span></p><p><span><span></span></span>"My goal is to either prevent tyranny in America or be prepared for it if we can," he says.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-maps-tricks-tips-power-user-video-2017-2">7 Google Maps tricks only power users know about</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ZwOWdsOTE6VUVWxaQG5rZK7Zdtahf256" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Trump has caused a growing number of liberals to start prepping for an apocalypse

<p>Right now, six people are living inside a 1200 square foot dome on top of a volcano on the Island of Hawaii.</p><p>The spot is in the middle of nowhere, cut off from civilization:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Seriously:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>These people are not part of a cult and they don't believe the apocalypse is looming. They're part of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (<a href="http://hi-seas.org/" target="_parent">HI-SEAS</a>) research experiment. It's led by scientists at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and it's all part of the plan to get humans to Mars.</p><p>An important step in making humans on Mars a reality is figuring out how people will handle a long-term space mission, especially when they're stuck with the same people in close quarters for a long period of time. People on Mars will also experience a 20-minute communication delay with Earth.</p><p>"This research is gaining insights into psychological, social, and biological challenges of isolation and confinement," according to the <a href="http://hi-seas.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Media_Release_HISEAS_GoldenKnights.pdf" target="_parent">HI-SEAS website</a>.</p><p>Isolation and confinement will be unavoidable on the journey to Mars - a trip that will take at least six months.</p><p>So back in October 15, 2014, six volunteer "crew members" said goodbye to the outside world and started a simulated mission to Mars to find out how well they could cope. These six people were chosen from a pool of 700 applicants. Several are engineers, and all of them are aspiring astronauts.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Now they've spent almost eight months in isolation with the same 20-minute communication delay with the world outside the dome.<p>They're living on rationed food and water, with shower time limits and mandatory exercise programs. They're also each conducting their own mini research project while in the dome. Some are also <a href="https://domesoph.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/some-time-away-from-home/" target="_parent">blogging</a> and <a href="http://almostmars.com/2015/05/06/print-your-very-own-martian-habitat/" target="_parent">describing their experience</a>. But they themselves are the real experiment.</p><h3>Passing the time</h3><p>What do you do for fun when you're locked inside a dome with the same other five people for months?</p><p>You play board games:</p><div><div></div></div><p>You do some experimental cooking:</p><div><div></div></div><p>You watch space-themed movies like Star Wars:</p><div><div></div></div><p>And do lots of P90X:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>If anyone leaves the dome, they must be dressed in a full spacesuit and helmet as if they were really on Mars.<p>The dormant volcano can almost pass as a Martian mountain.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="embed-spacer">While the "astronauts" don't get to feel the sun or the wind on their skin, they do find ways to have fun outside:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The mission is coming to a close soon, and the crew will emerge on June 13.</p><div><div></div></div><p>After that much time locked up with the same people, they'll probably come out the best of friends or the worst of enemies.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/utah-desert-used-simulate-mars-nasa-2015-5">This Utah desert looks so much like Mars that scientists use it for training</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5xM2s4dTqg8UV01XgF3Cb3lPree3GzO9" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why 6 people have spent nearly 8 months locked inside a dome on top of a volcano

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A city in China wants to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-launch-second-moon-save-money-street-lights-2018-10">launch an artificial moon</a> into orbit by 2020. </li><li>China's moon would be far less massive than our current moon, but their ambitious idea made us wonder what would happen if Earth had a second moon that was the same mass as our current moon.</li><li>If this happened, it would cause <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coastal-us-cities-underwater-climate-change-new-orleans-charleston-atlantic-city-miami-beach-cience-2017-7">sea levels to rise</a>, flooding coastal cities like New York and Singapore.</li><li>The extra pull of the moons would also slow down the Earth's rotation, causing the day to get longer.</li></ul><p>A city in China wants to launch an artificial moon into orbit by 2020 as a way to reduce energy needs by replacing street light with artificial moonlight. Regardless of whether or not they succeed, their ambitious idea really made us wonder…</p><p>What would happen if Earth had two moons?</p><p>Well, it wouldn't be pretty.</p><p>Imagine the Moon's identical twin comes hurtling by and is trapped by Earth's gravity. As it settles into orbit, halfway between Earth and our original moon, it yanks violently at the oceans. In the real world, this is how our original Moon helps generate tides. So, the second moon would amplify the effect. Causing peak tides that would be 6 times higher, eroding shorelines and flooding many of our world's greatest cities including: New York, Singapore, and London - gone.</p><p>But not all destruction would happen on Earth. The combined pull of the planet and the original moon would also yank on the second moon. The second moon would be caught in a tug of war between Earth and the original moon. The gravitational pull back and forth from both ends would warp the second moon's surface triggering tremendous volcanic activity. Flooding the second moon's surface with red-hot rivers of lava. Just like hundreds of the volcanoes you see today on Jupiter's hellish moon, Io.</p><p>But even that's not the end of the spectacle. Right now, our current moon is spiraling away from Earth at 3.8 cm a year. That's about how fast your fingernails grow. At the same time, it pulls on the Earth slowing down the planet's rotation. Which is actually lengthening our days by around 1 second every 40,000 years. It may not sound like much, but with two moons in place it would accelerate this process even more.</p><p>Millions of years from now, the day will have grown by 16%! Lasting longer than 28 hours! Now, a little extra time in the day may sound pretty nice, but here's the problem: the extra moon would drift towards the current Moon.</p><p>And that's where the real danger comes in.</p><p>After millions of years, the two moons would collide! The impact would be so massive it would rip the very core of the moons apart. Lava would erupt from their center - like a runny egg in space. Casting a vivid red light in the sky on Earth. Meanwhile, debris would go hurtling in all directions, where some of it would inevitably strike Earth, forming massive craters miles wide.</p><p>It would be an apocalypse for all life on Earth.</p><p>And what didn't hit the planet would instead be trapped by Earth's gravity. Forming a ring of debris around the equator. Similar to the rings around Saturn - but not for long. Within just a few years, those chunks would clump together, forming one large, single body.</p><p>Perhaps any life that survived will call it the Moon, or maybe something even better.</p>

A city in China wants to launch an artificial moon into orbit by 2020 - here's what would happen if Earth really did have two moons

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asteroid-earth-elements-this-image-furnished-155504771">Shutterstock/NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of comets and asteroids striking planet Earth.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Scientists have long known that an asteroid slammed in Earth and created the Chicxulub Crater, which contributed to the dinosaurs' extinction 66 million years ago.</strong></li><li><strong>Scientists have struggled to determine whether the volcanic activity or the global cooling that resulted from the asteroid impact were more responsible for the extinction event.</strong></li><li><strong>Now a study has revealed that the crash also triggered massive volcanic activity in the world's oceans, further changing the picture of how the dinosaurs went extinct.</strong></li></ul><p><br />When <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-strike-cretaceous-paleogene-extinction-2017-11">an asteroid hit Earth some 66 million years ago</a>, it triggered devastation around the world.</p><p>There were at least three nearly simultaneous events involved in the global catastrophe that ended what we now call the Mesozoic era. An <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-more-sulfur-rapid-climate-cooling-2017-11">asteroid between 10 and 15 kilometers in diameter slammed</a> into Earth, creating the Chicxulub Crater near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The Deccan Traps, a massive volcanic province in what's now India, erupted, spewing lava and smoke that filled the skies. And 75% of Earth's plant and animal life went extinct, which scientists have linked to those other disasters that filled the skies with soot and smoke and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-strike-cretaceous-paleogene-extinction-2017-11">transformed the world's climate</a>.</p><p>But when it comes to world-shaking devastation, that wasn't all that was going on at the time, scientists report in a <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/2/eaao2994.full">study recently published</a> in the journal <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Advances.</p><p>The asteroid also appears to have sent ripples through Earth's tectonic plates, which spread out through the oceans and caused tens of thousands of miles of underwater volcanic ridges to spew magma. The authors <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-bad-news-for-dinosaurs-chicxulub-meteorite-impact-triggered-global-volcanic-eruptions-on-the-ocean-floor-91053">describe those eruptions as</a> "on par with the largest eruptive events in Earth's 4.5-billion-year history, including the Deccan Traps."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Shannon Stapleton/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Looking for past volcanic activity</h2><p>Part of the debate about what really killed the dinosaurs has to do with the interplay between the asteroid impact and the Deccan Traps eruptions. The most up-to-date understanding suggests the Deccan Traps eruptions began before the Chicxulub impact. But they also seem to have gotten much more active in the time after the asteroid hit.</p><p>Yet if the asteroid was able to influence volcanic activity on the other side of the globe, it should have affected volcanoes elsewhere, too. That's why the authors of this study decided to trace what was happening in the oceans.</p><p>To uncover evidence of underwater volcanic activity, the researchers used existing data to examine how the seafloor's structure changed over the past 100 million years.</p><p>They were able to find evidence of massive transformations in the amount of rock on the seafloor, a change caused by volcanic activity. Eruptions left 650-foot-high piles of rock in the Indian and Pacific oceans, the study authors <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-bad-news-for-dinosaurs-chicxulub-meteorite-impact-triggered-global-volcanic-eruptions-on-the-ocean-floor-91053">write in The Conversation</a>. They dated those eruptions to within a million years of the impact, close enough to link the events.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>iStock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>A better picture of the dinosaur apocalypse</h2><p>These new findings give us a better timeline of what happened to trigger the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.</p><p>Although the Deccan Traps were probably erupting for 250,000 years before the Chicxulub asteroid slammed into the planet, the impact transformed the world. The atmosphere filled with soot, causing global cooling that was strong and sudden enough to have played a strong role in the end of the dinosaurs.</p><p>At the same time, the asteroid shook the world and led to earthquakes that released even more magma. The already flowing Deccan Traps erupted in a whole new way, essentially covering the Indian subcontinent with lava and further filling the skies with particles that reflected the sun's heat back into space and cooled the planet. An eruption that was equally strong occurred underwater.</p><p>Small mammals and flying dinosaurs - which we now know as birds - survived, but the majority of plant and animal life did not.</p><p>We still don't know exactly which components of these global catastrophes were most responsible for the extinctions, or whether other volcanic systems elsewhere in the world were triggered, too.</p><p>"What is clear is that this new research points to global-scale connections between catastrophes, a good reminder that events happening on the other side of the planet can have effects felt everywhere," the <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-bad-news-for-dinosaurs-chicxulub-meteorite-impact-triggered-global-volcanic-eruptions-on-the-ocean-floor-91053">study authors write</a>.</p><p>What is very clear is that this was an unpleasant time to be anywhere on Earth.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-99-million-year-old-dinosaur-tail-feathers-2016-12">Scientists uncovered a bloody, feathered dinosaur tail that got stuck in tree sap 99 million years ago</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

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