A 130-foot stone monolith has been discovered in the sea off of the Italian coast, that researchers say is at least 9,500 years old. The find was made during a high-resolution mapping survey of the seafloor off the coast of Sicily. The stone is in 40m (131 feet) of water, at a spot 60km (37 miles) south of the Italian island.

The regularly-shaped stone is 12m (39 feet) long and is estimated to weigh 15 tons. It has three 24-inch holes, two in it’s sides, and a third one at one end that passes completely through from one side to the other. While the monolith’s original function remains a mystery, one guess made by the researchers is that it may have been used as a lighthouse, with the hole in the end holding a torch as a beacon.
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In recent years, space probes have found hints that various celestial bodies in our solar system have conditions where life could develop, but as of yet, no direct evidence has been uncovered by these missions. The European Space Agency has announced plans to send a new space probe to Jupiter, in an effort to determine whether there is indeed life there or not.
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While the effects of climate change have been felt in different ways around the globe, the polar regions have been subject to outright changes to their respective topographies, as ice acts as a major feature of their landscapes. Scientists are concerned about the impact of these changes on Arctic wildlife, particularly ones that have adapted to depend on ice formations for survival, such as the polar bear.

One effect of the southward push of the habitat of the polar bear is that they are cross-breeding with grizzly bears, producing a hybrid called "pizzly bears". While encounters with the hybrid pizzly have been documented in the past, there are increasing reports of sightings of these odd ursids.
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Unknowncountry’s Climate Watch is predicting a wet winter in 2015-2016 for the Northern Hemisphere, with warmer temperatures and significant snowfall above the 39th Parallel. Below that parallel, flooding is probable in the US and Mexico as a strong el Nino moves eastward and northward. Assuming that trade winds decline normally, flooding will also extend across the drought-stricken US west coast. Drought conditions will intensify in South and Central America, however, and a hot Austral summer is likely. If the trade winds remain strong, the drought will continue in the western US, and el Nino will affect the central and eastern portions of the continental land mass more strongly.
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