CZECH MUSHROOM HUNTER STUMBLES ACROSS RARE 3,300-YEAR-OLD BRONZE AGE SWORD



The wonders of the past are sometimes just under our feet as one fortunate mushroom forager in the Czech Republic recently found out while out gathering some of Mother Nature's edible bounty.

According to news first revealed by Radio Prague International (RPI), Roman Novák was on a mushrooming expedition this past spring on a green, forested hillside near his house in the eastern Jesenicko region of the Czech Republic after a soaking shower drenched the forest. During his hunt, Novák made the remarkable discovery of an ancient sword and bronze axe which have been tested and date back to the Bronze Age 3,300 years ago.

In rural regions of the Eastern European country, mushroom picking is an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, especially after a fresh rain that causes the heads of the plant to swell with moisture and making them more apparent to the trained eye.



"I saw a piece of metal sticking out of some stones," Novák told RPI. "I kicked it and found that it was a blade, part of a sword. I then dug some more to find a bronze axe."

Realizing he might have unearthed a rare historic treasure, Novák immediately reported his findings to archaeologists stationed at the Silesian Museum in the nearby town of Opava, and an official excavation of the entire site is now underway by a trained museum research team.



This impressive sword's octagonal grip and pommel are highly decorated with intricate, engraved circles and rows of crescent-shaped marks. Its steel blade was uncovered broken near the hilt, but the rest of the artifact seems complete.

Both sword and axe date back approximately to 1,300 BC and are similar to weapons used primarily in the area of what is known today as Northern Germany, as explained by Dr. Jiří Juchelka, who runs the archaeology department at the Silesian Museum.

"At the moment, we are thoroughly traversing the site and looking for other possible finds," Dr. Juchelka told Live Science. "The site was well away from contemporary towns and known prehistoric settlements in an archaeologically marginal area where no other finds had been reported."



Juchelka and his museum colleagues have recently finished a series of careful analyses and investigations of the antiquities, tests which included studying their chemical composition and X-rays to lift the veil of the internal structures.

Their conclusions are that the eye-catching sword was cast during the Bronze Age in northern Europe, and bears a resemblance to "Vasby" swords, classified as such after a Swedish location where another ceremonial sword of this sort was discovered.

It would have been a pricey weapon for folks of the time period, made during a point in time when the region's Urnfield culture was just rising in importance in central Europe. The bronze axe appears to have been made locally and heralds from the same time period.



“They were obviously trying their best, but the quality of the casting was actually pretty low," Juchelka added. "X-ray tests show that there are many small bubbles inside the weapon. This suggests that the sword was not used in combat, but was instead of symbolic value. The finds may be related to a religious theme, or they may be part of a bronze treasure. It is not easy to say, based on what we know."

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/mushroom- ... -age-sword

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 28
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You may post One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can enter only once a day
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[FRKJ]

His Invention For Renewable Energy Inspired by the Physics of Northern Lights Just Won the 2020 Dyson Prize

While renewable energy uptake and solutions continue to grow, many can only generate electricity in the right environmental conditions. For example, solar panels can only capture and convert visible light into renewable energy and must be facing the sun to do so. What is more, solar farms are only built horizontally, never vertically and are often placed on prime arable farmland.

The solution? Invented by 27-year-old Carvey Ehren Maigue from Mapua University in the Philippines, AuREUS System Technology is a material that can be attached to a pre-existing structure or surface. Utilizing the natural scientific principles behind the northern and southern lights, it harvests UV light and convert this into visible light to generate electricity.



Using ultraviolet rays, the sun could be shining, or it could be cloudy: Carvey’s material will still generate electricity.

The particles in his material absorb UV light causing them to glow. As the particles “rest” they remove excess energy. This excess energy bleeds out of the material as visible light, which can then be transformed into electricity. Current prototypes successfully achieve this on windows and external building structures.

Not only has Carvey invented an efficient process to generate renewable energy, but the materials he uses to do so create a closed-loop design process, so nothing is wasted. This is because Carvey uses a substrate extracted from waste crops—such as rotting fruits and vegetables—to create a durable, translucent and moldable material as the basis for AuREUS.

“As a farmer, I see great potential in Carvey’s technology to generate clean renewable energy,” said James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson in a statement. “AuREUS… conserves space using pre-existing structures, utilizes current resources and waste streams, and supports local agricultural communities. His bright idea to use upcycled crop waste develops a closed loop system. This element of his invention is particularly clever and shows the close link between farming and technology.”

Carvey said of receiving the first annual sustainability award out of a record 1,800 entries: “Winning the James Dyson Award is both a beginning and an end. It marked the end of years of doubting whether my idea would find global relevance… I want to create a better form of renewable energy that uses the world’s natural resources, is close to people’s lives, forging achievable paths and rallying towards a sustainable and regenerative future.”

The student plans to use his $40,000 prize money to further develop his invention.

[hija]

Green is the new black: how biotech is making fashion more sustainable



Earlier this year, as fashion brands released their summer collections, H&M brought out a dress that raised eyebrows. Not because the frock (pictured above) was particularly risqué, but because it was made from biodegradable pulp.

The material, Circulose, is the creation of Swedish startup Re:newcell, which is part of a new breed of biotech brands dedicated to making fashion more sustainable.

It works like this: Re:newcell takes worn-out clothes to its plant in Kristinehamn, Sweden, where they’re de-buttoned, shredded, stripped of dye and plastics and turned into a slurry, explains chief marketing officer, Harald Cavalli-Björkman.

What’s left is cellulose – “a biodegradable organic polymer that all green plants are made out of”. This slurry is dried to produce thin sheets of pulp, which are then turned into natural textile fibres. “The process is very efficient. One kilo of used cotton becomes one kilo of new Circulose textile fibres,” says Cavalli-Björkman.

For the H&M dress, Re:newcell’s first commercial product, the team blended the pulp with wood fibres sourced from sustainably managed forests. Cavalli-Björkman says there more partnerships with well-known fashion brands are in the pipeline for 2020, and it hopes to be producing large enough volumes of its pulp to make the entire garment.

[Fatima99]

Up to no gouda, Dutch cheese thieves caught trying to sell loot online



A man and woman have been caught selling black market cheese that was stolen from a farm in the Netherlands.

Dutch police pounced on the couple, who were flogging the 12-kilogram wheels online, after some 300 wheels worth $65,000 were stolen straight from a farm.

At more than $200 a pop, the wheels are known as “yellow gold” in the Netherlands.

They’re traditionally given to workers as a Yuletide thank-you gift.

Because of their bourjee status, these wheels were all individually stamped with identifying markers by the maker.

“By means of our cheese stamp and an individual number on each cheese, we were able to prove that the cheeses belonged to the stolen batch,” cheese manufacturer Johannes Weenink told the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad daily.

Only 10 of the wheels have been recovered – the remaining 290 remain at large.

It’s still unclear if the man, 21, and woman, 21, were responsible for the grand theft of dairy, or were just selling the byproduct of the crime.

[HogwartsExpress]

North Korean Former Gymnast Fled To South Korea By Jumping Fence

A North Korean man seeking to escape his homeland took a nearly 10-foot leap of faith earlier this month. The jump, which occurred under — or more accurately over — the noses of soldiers, brought him to safety in South Korea, where he told troops he wanted to defect.

It's no surprise that the man claims he is a former gymnast.

The unnamed man, who is described as being in his late 20s, crossed into South Korea through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at around 7 p.m. Nov. 3, evading capture for 14 hours. He was found by South Korean soldiers at around 10 a.m. the next day less than a mile away from the border, according to The Korean Herald and Yonhap News Agency.

South Korean officials questioned the man's story, as well as his motives for crossing the border. To prove he was capable of hopping the fence, officials had him jump twice in their presence, according to The Korea Herald. The man is still under investigation by South Korean officials, the newspaper said.

If the man's story is accurate, it's all the more remarkable because he managed to avoid detection by North Korean troops, evade landmines that litter the DMZ and not trigger sensors on the surrounding fences.

Authorities believe his light weight and gymnastics experience lend credibility to his story and likely aided in his escape. The military previously said the fences the man crossed appeared pressed down but had no evidence of being cut or otherwise modified, the newspaper said.

source: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/93873787 ... ping-fence

[goldie0608]

New Zealand Couple Says No to Lucrative Offers from Developers and Gives Land to Nation



A married couple from New Zealand has donated their heritage farming property to the state to ensure the beautiful natural scenery it contains can be enjoyed by the people for all time.

Owners Dick and Jillian Jardine handed their 2,200-acre (900 hectare) property to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (QEII) “for the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders,” practically parroting the words of Teddy Roosevelt when he spoke at the completion of the Yellowstone National Park’s welcome archway.

“This land has been in the family for nearly a century and we have endeavoured to improve and enhance it over this time,” said Dick Jardine. “Having QEII as the caretaker of this property gives us the comfort and assurance to proudly pass over this gift for all New Zealand to enjoy and appreciate.”

Shirking development offers for the protection of the area as working pastureland, Dick and Jillian gave the local government of the Wakatipu, on New Zealand’s South Island, something that is becoming increasingly scarce: a wide-open landscape.

Situated at the base of a mountain range aptly called the Remarkables, the Wakatipu landscape is part of the Central Lakes Region. It boasts extraordinarily expensive real estate and contains the nests of several of the more wealthier people on the planet, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and jewelry juggernaut Michael Hill.

According to the QEII, Jillian Jardine didn’t want to consign the entire area to become something akin to Malibu on South Island.

“We thought about this idea and it just stuck, so it feels like the right thing to do,” she said. “We want to keep it as it is forever, we don’t want buildings all over it or housing, there’s so much housing going in… we want to be part of saving something.”

The ground will be open to anyone in 2022, which will be the 100th anniversary of the Jardine family acquisition—gorgeously squished between the Remarkables Range and a great big lake.

The plan for the property is to create a multi-functional wild area that can be used for “pastoral farming, conservation, public access, and landscape protection.”

“The gift of this property also comes at a time when protecting biodiversity and promoting a connection to nature is more relevant than ever,” reads a statement on the QEII website, while the trust’s CEO Bruce Wills called it “an extraordinarily generous gift to New Zealand and one that will endure long after we are all gone.”

[Morgan2498]

New Wind Turbine Blades Could be Recycled Instead of Landfilled

If the blades can hold up to outdoor conditions, they could help accelerate onshore and offshore wind power


Researcher Robynne Murray works on a thermoplastic composite turbine blade at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Researchers have developed a wind turbine blade that costs less and appears to be recyclable, two attributes that could accelerate the rapid growth of both onshore and offshore wind around the world.

The innovation may also reduce rising transportation costs because blades for taller turbines can now be as long as 262 feet, almost the length of a football field.

It may take years of further testing to make certain the recyclable blades can endure the outdoor elements for 30 years, which is the standard goal for the wind power industry, according to researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Cutting the cost of future blades will be a “big step” in accelerating growth of wind power, said Daniel Laird, the director of NREL’s wind technology center, which has spent four years working on the new blade.

He noted that over the last three decades, research has helped drive down the costs of electricity made from wind turbines by 90%. But he added that wind power must still compete with coal, natural gas and nuclear power to keep its niche growing in the energy business.

“I think that a lot of progress is going to be made on the recyclability of blades in the next year or two,” Laird said.

Not everyone is that optimistic. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently released a paper suggesting that “repurposing” giant used blades might be a simpler alternative to recycling. The industry group says that “local communities” might use them for pedestrian bridges, playground equipment and public benches. Roofing materials is another potential use.

The AWEA report quoted Cindie Langston, manager of the solid waste division for Casper, Wyo., who was recently thrilled to receive $600,000 for dumping used wind turbine blades in the local landfill.

“This is the least problematic waste in terms of environmental concerns that we’ve ever gotten,” she explained to AWEA. “We get tires, asbestos, contaminated soil, pretty nasty stuff.”

AWEA’s report also noted that Vestas Wind Systems A/S, one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers, has set a goal for eliminating conventional turbine blades by 2040.

It’s not easy to make a wind turbine blade. Conventional blades require a lot of labor. They are a sandwich composed of fiberglass, sheets of balsa wood and a chemical called an epoxy thermoset resin. A heat oven is required to give blades the proper shape, strength, smoothness and flexibility to catch the wind and turn the turbine.

That minimizes the waste problem, which became more difficult in Europe after the European Union banned old blades from being dumped in landfills. The new resin is called Elium, and it’s made by Arkema Inc., a French company with offices in King of Prussia, Pa. Arkema is working with NREL to develop the recyclable blade.

Robynne Murray, a research engineer who has been making the new blades at NREL’s laboratory, says they are stress-tested in the lab against conventional blades. Among other things, the tests show that the newer blades have what is called a greater “damping effect,” which means they reduce wind-caused vibrations, a nuisance to people that can reduce the life of turbine structures.

“This is still early days on the research,” Murray noted. “A lot of the cost modeling will come later.”

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... andfilled/

[PennySerenade]

Ontario cashier saves senior 'a whole lot of money' by stopping gift card scam



TORONTO -- An Ontario cashier says she felt something wasn’t right when a senior tried to purchase about $3,000 worth of Google gift cards.

Cathy Lumia, who works at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Uxbridge, Ont., said she immediately noticed red flags with the purchase.

“It sounded very fishy an elderly person coming in to buy $3,000 worth of Google gifts cards,” Lumia said.

Cashiers are trained to ask questions if something doesn't seem right and Lumia said she felt the senior seemed scared and also didn’t want to answer questions about the large purchase.

“I asked her, did they tell you not to speak with anyone about this situation and she said yes that's correct. ‘I’m not to talk about it with anyone,’” Lumia recalled.



Lumia says she spoke with her manager and they both agreed the woman should not go ahead with the purchase. Lumia explained to the woman she had likely been targeted by criminals involved in the CRA tax scam.

Police say gift cards are often used by fraudsters as payment because they can't be easily traced.

Det. Doris Carriere with the Financial Crimes Unit at Durham Regional Police said unfortunately many people get duped by scammers this way.

“The scenario is typical of what we see. There are different ways to get money and the gift card is one we see quite often,” Carriere said.

To avoid becoming a victim of fraud be cautious if someone you don’t know contacts you by phone, email or texts and makes demands. Especially if they tell you not to discuss what they told you with anyone.



Don’t give out personal information and remember the Canada Revenue Agency does not accept gift cards as a form of payment. Also, be cautious if you are asked to send funds using Bitcoin or wire transfers.

Lumia says she was glad she stepped in to prevent the fraud from happening and says other cashiers who notice red flags in the checkout lane should also ask questions.

“I feel fantastic because these scammers didn't get the Google cards and I saved her (the senior) a whole lot of money," said Lumia.

It’s important to know scammers can "spoof" phone numbers so it may appear they are calling from the tax or police department.

It’s also a good time to warn seniors and others to be aware of this scam so it doesn’t happen to them.

[Fivetide]

Rough rescue: Storms, broken plane force layover for turtles


Rescued Kemp’s ridley sea turtles receive care at Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020.
Thirty endangered sea turtles rescued from the beaches of Cape Cod are now safe in New Orleans after their Thanksgiving
travel plans went awry. They were being taken to a Louisiana rehabilitation center when bad weather and damage to a propeller
grounded their plane in Chattanooga. Wildlife experts scrambled to find overnight homes for the turtles. They were then driven
to New Orleans on Thanksgiving.

They might have gotten there faster by walking, but at any rate, these endangered turtles had a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Bad weather, a damaged propeller and an unscheduled stop in Tennessee complicated the rescue of 30 critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles that were among hundreds recently found on the beaches of Cape Cod, stunned and almost killed by falling ocean temperatures.

Volunteers and conservation experts initially took the turtles to the New England Aquarium in Boston and the National Marine Life Center on Buzzards Bay, where they began the long rehabilitation process before being moved to wildlife centers along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

A batch of 30 New Orleans-bound turtles had a harder trip than most.

Their plane left Wednesday but had to change course and refuel twice because of storms and strong winds. A rock kicked up during takeoff after the second refueling, in Chattanooga, damaged the propeller and grounded the plane.

Staff members of the Tennessee Aquarium collected the animals and cared for them overnight. On Thanksgiving, the turtles were loaded onto a shuttle bus borrowed from the airport and driven the rest of the way to New Orleans, arriving on Thanksgiving Day.

“When we learned the plane could not reach its final destination, a flurry of calls went out, and within an hour, we had safe, warm overnight housing secured for these turtles,” said Connie Merigo, manager of the New England Aquarium’s marine animal rescue department.

The turtles appear to be in good condition at their new home, operated by the Audubon Nature Institute’s Coastal Wildlife Network, but they will require significant care before they can be released back into the wild, according to the New England Aquarium.

Kemp’s ridley turtles are the smallest sea turtles in the world, growing to a little over 2 feet. They are found in the Atlantic as far north as Nova Scotia but are seen most often in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coin removed from man’s nose after being stuck for more than 50 years



A man has finally had a coin removed from his nose after it was stuck for more than half a century. The 59-year-old unnamed Russian man was aged just six when he wedged the money into his right nostril. He was ‘too scared’ to tell his ‘strict’ mother about it and then later ‘forgot,’ local media reported. The man apparently managed to live for the next fifty years unimpeded by the blockage until recently stared complaining he could not breath at all in his right nostril. He went to hospital and was given a scan which showed the unexpected object in the nasal passage.

Rhinoliths – stones in the nasal cavity – had formed around the coin, constricting his ability to breathe. Medics carried out endoscopic surgery under general anaesthetic removing the stones and retrieving the Soviet one kopek coin from his nose after 53 years. The money – officially worth around one penny at the time – ceased to be used in Russia after the USSR’s collapse in 1991 and the hammer and sickle emblem was no longer visible on the coin. Specialist otorhinolaryngologist Elena Nepryakhina said: ‘We operated on Friday and he was discharged on Monday. He has regained full nasal breathing.’


The coin was worth around a penny at the time it got stuck





The man’s not the first person to become re-acquainted with a foreign object lost up the nose many decades earlier. In 2015, Steve Easton, then 51, from Surrey, had a sneezing fit during which the tip of a toy dart shot out of his nose. He’d put it up there aged seven and his parents had taken him to hospital at the time but doctors were unable to remove it. Mr Easton had often suffered headaches and sniffles which he put down to hay fever. He said he was completely unaware the dart had been stuck in his nose for 44 years.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/28/coin-rem ... -13671360/

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 29
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You may post One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can enter only once a day
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[Fatima99]

The 'World's Loneliest Elephant' Is Moving To A Sanctuary With Other Elephants, With Help From Cher

A lonely elephant at a zoo in Pakistan is finally moving to an animal sanctuary where he will be able to socialize with other elephants.



Kaavan the elephant was just a year old when he came to Pakistan's Marghazar Zoo in 1985 as a gift from Sri Lanka.

Kaavan had a partner elephant, Saheli, who lived with him from 1990 to 2012. When Sahel died, Kaavan "was heartbroken" and has been alone ever since.

Activists around the world have been campaigning for years for Kaavan's release -- including Cher.

On Friday, Cher wrote on Twitter that she met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.



"The Prime Minister observed that it was indeed a happy moment for all of us that after giving joy and happiness to the people of Islamabad and Pakistan for about 35 years, Kaavan will now be able to retire with other elephants in a specialized sanctuary in Cambodia," Khan's office tweeted.

On Sunday, Kaavan will transfer to the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary where there are three female elephants to keep Kaavan company.

The 5-ton elephant will loaded into a specially built crate and onto a cargo plane.

"An elephant transfer by plane on this scale I think has never happened before, so we are writing history here," said Four Paws spokesperson Martin Bauer.

Bauer says the goal is to socialize Kaavan, which he believes will take time since he's been alone for many years.

"Ultimately the goal is to bring him together with other animals because that's what elephants want. They're herd animals, they always form families, and that's also what we plan for him," Bauer told NPR.

[HogwartsExpress]

Gran, 91, who impressed with her woollen Nightingale Hospital for NHS fundraiser strikes again with a replica of Sandringham's St Mary Magdalene Church

A great-great-grandmother has knitted a two-and-a-half foot tall model of St Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham as part of a bid to knit the whole royal estate.

Margaret Seaman, 91, from Caister-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, spent almost three months creating her woolly version of the Grade II* listed church, where members of the Royal Family typically attend Christmas services.

The intricate knitted building measures 45 inches long (1.15 metres), and 30 inches high (76cm) to the top of its steeple.

Margaret has even knitted in the stained glass windows along the front of the church, and a little clock face for each of the three sides of the steeple.

The great-great-grandmother-of-one said it was the hardest knit she has ever done. But the challenge of the church isn't putting her off - as it is just part of her project to knit the whole of the Sandringham Estate.



The handy grandmother had risen to fame this September with her woolen replica of the newly-built Nightingale Hospital for a NHS fundraiser, which had taken her three months to make.

Just like her 'Knittingale' effort, the St Mary Magdalene Church impressed with a level of detail that required painstaking work.

Margaret made the news last year for knitting Sandringham House and Gardens - but decided not to stop there, and continue on to do the whole estate.

She said: 'I've got plenty left to do. I've now done the lake and the ballroom, and have just finished the church.



'I'm moving on to the museum and the stables next.

'I've got to get a move on, as I am hoping to present the finished estate at the Norfolk Makers Festival in February next year.'

Margaret said the idea came when her grandson took her to Sandringham Estate last year for her 90th birthday.

She said: 'He took me as part of my birthday present, and when I came home that day I said to my daughter, "I think I might knit the estate".

'She looked at me and said, "You must be crazy'".'

Margaret has so far raised more than £5,000 for the NHS for her knitted Sandringham House and Gardens.

And, speaking about the church she has just completed, she said: 'I think it's the hardest thing I've done so far. I found it quite a challenge.'

As part of the church, Margaret knitted between 80 and 100 trees to stand out the back of it - each with hundreds of tiny leaves on them.



She said: 'The leaves take about a minute or 90 seconds each, so it's very time consuming.'

Thankfully, Margaret lives with daughter Tricia Wilson, 72 - who helps her out with the more fiddly parts.

And the pensioner says she never gets tired of the knitting. She said: 'I'm just as happy being indoors knitting as I am outdoors, so this has really given me a purpose during the lockdown this year.

'I knit from when I get up in the morning to when I go to bed. I'm quite happy just sitting and knitting all day.'

You can go here to donate to Margaret's Sandringham knitting project.

source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... hurch.html

[hija]

Synthetic spider silk



It’s just a fraction of a millimetre thick and five times stronger than steel, but until recently it’s been impossible to mass produce spider silk: the arachnids are fiercely territorial and cannibalistic.

After 10 years of painstaking research and development, Japanese biotech startup Spiber has worked out a way to make an equivalent material in a lab. The process begins by genetically modifying the DNA of microbes to create proteins, says Spiber’s Thomas Threlfo.

“We then feed these microbes with sugars and other nutrients in big vats, which results in a fermentation process similar to brewing beer.” The resulting substance is purified and dried into a powder, which is further processed to create sustainable fibres, gels, synthetic leathers and more.

According to Threlfo, synthetic silk has the potential to boost sustainability in fashion. And it’s already caught the eye of global brands; in 2019, Spiber collaborated with North Face to create the Moon Parker (inset).