[PennySerenade]

Teen needs size 23 shoes. Under Armour steps up to make its largest-ever pair



Being a teenager is hard enough — imagine trying to get through when you can’t find any shoes that fit. At only 14 years old, Eric Kilburn Jr. of Michigan stands six-foot-10 in height. For years, he’s experienced massive difficulty finding shoes to fit his equally massive size 23 feet.

Kilburn told the Washington Post he would squeeze his feet into a pair of size 22 Nike sneakers to go to school or participate in his football practices. The too-small shoes weren’t just uncomfortable, they gave him blisters and ingrown toenails. Kilburn told the outlet he’s even had two of his toenails permanently removed.

For a while, Kilburn was forced to wear Crocs (yes, in the winter too) because they were the only shoe that would come close to fitting his wide, flat feet. The teen hasn’t owned winter boots in five years.

Size 23 shoes are not sold commercially. The average men’s shoe size in the U.S. is 10.5 (and between sizes 9 and 12 worldwide).

Kilburn’s shoe size is even bigger than former American basketball player Shaquille O’Neal, who wears size 22.

For a while, Kilburn’s only option was to buy shoes created by an orthopedic specialist, but at US$1,500 a pair, the option was too pricey to accommodate Kilburn’s still-growing feet. His mother, Rebecca Kilburn, started a GoFundMe page in an attempt to raise money for a few pairs of shoes. As of this writing, more than $23,700 has been donated.

Rebecca’s call for help didn’t just bring in generous donations. In fact, it gained legs and ran to executives at the sportswear company Under Armour, who offered to custom-make shoes for Kilburn. The size 23 shoes will be the largest custom pair Under Armour has ever created.

On Sunday, Kilburn and his family met with an Under Armour representative to get a 3-D rendering of his feet. According to Michigan news station MLive, Kilburn asked for the company’s Lockdown 6 basketball shoe in red.

“I’ve been worried for so long what would happen when I grow out of 22s, but Under Armour’s come up with the solution,” Kilburn told MLive. “It means everything to me.”

Under Armour also offered to design a pair of size 23 football cleats so Kilburn can play in the upcoming season.



Though he’ll have to wait six to eight weeks for the custom shoes to be ready, Kilburn is excited.

“I just feel like a huge weight has been dropped off of my shoulders,” he said.

Under Armour, however, wasn’t alone in their offer to make the teen shoes. Puma also offered to make Kilburn a pair of basketball shoes and will meet him in the coming days to take his measurements. Moreover, the construction company CAT asked to design Kilburn a pair of boots and the Italian company Mauri Shoes offered to make a mold of his feet for dress shoes so that he can attend school dances.

Rebecca told USA Today the support for her son has been heartwarming.

“It’s been overwhelming. I have been this puddle of emotions, all of them good,” she said. “It’s the coolest thing to be able to say we did it!”

Rebecca wants to spread the good news even further and help other folks with large feet. She started a Facebook group called Big Shoe Network, a “community for connecting big shoes, with big feet.” Eleven days after its launch, the group already has 2,000 members.

Kilburn does not have any health issues contributing to his unusual height and shoe size. The Washington Post claimed Rebecca herself is six-foot-two while Kilburn’s father, Eric Kilburn Sr., is six-foot-five.

“Tall is just normal for us,” Rebecca told the outlet.

[lush]

The Filipino islanders who weave their dreams
29th March 2023*

(Image credit: lisyl/Alamy)


For more than 300 years, women residing around a turquoise lake have woven textiles from visions they say were bestowed to them by a goddess in their dreams.

"In Mindanao, some women weave their dreams into textiles. They are dream-weavers," said the volunteer at the Museum of Philippine Economic History in the Filipino city of Iloilo. He pointed to a picture of white-and-red linear patterns woven on a black background. Intrigued, I asked for more details, but all the man told me was these women live by Lake Sebu.

The Philippines' second-largest island, Mindanao, was once a daunting destination. Years of armed conflict in the last decade kept the nation's southernmost island off most tourists' radars. But since the end of martial law in 2020, the island has cautiously opened its doors, allowing tourists willing to brave government warnings to come face to face with one of Asia's most beguiling traditions: dream-weaving.

For at least three centuries, the Indigenous T'boli people have passed down the practice of dream-weaving, or T'nalak, in rural villages around Lake Sebu, a turquoise lake nestled in the lush mountains of southern Mindanao. These textiles are made from natural fibres stripped from the stems of the banana-like abacá plant. Villagers believe that the goddess, Fu Dalu (the spirit of abacá), communicates with women by appearing in their dreams as an animal or human figure. Master dream-weavers then interpret these visions into patterns that usually take three to four months to weave. The process is done entirely by hand with all-natural ingredients, and while it's led by the master weaver, it is a collective effort by the community that is considered a sacred tribute to the goddess.


Dream-weaving only takes place in the Philippines' southernmost island, Mindanao (Credit: Kan Zhang)

The Lang Dulay T'nalak Weaving Centre, situated in a wooden T'boli longhouse (Gono Bong) 3km east of the lake in T'Bong village, is one of the main hubs of T'nalak. The centre's name honours the late master weaver Lang Dulay, the princess of T'boli and one of the most renowned dream-weavers. Today, the incumbent master weaver is Sebulan Dulay, Lang's daughter-in-law, who has been weaving for more than 60 years.

When I walked in, Sebulan stood up and greeted me by playing a melody on a row of gongs, while her son, Charlie, accompanied her on the drum. "It's our way of welcoming guests," she smiled. As Sebulan resumed weaving, Charlie, who runs the centre, explained how dream-weaving works.

The ability to transform dreams into patterns is considered a mysterious and specialised skill, so while everyone dreams, only a few select women can become dream-weavers. According to Charlie, this skill is always acquired under the guidance of Fu Dalu and takes years of practice.

Most young weavers only learn and weave the designs "seen" by master dream-weavers – especially Lang Dulay. The late master weaver left behind approximately 100 distinctive T'nalak patterns, each with its own name and story, from Gemayaw Logi, the legendary prince of T'boli, to the Sobobun, a small frog in Lake Sebu.


Inside the Lang Dulay T'nalak Weaving Centre, master weaver Sebulan interprets visions from the goddess Fu Dalu (Credit: Kan Zhang)

Only senior weavers, like Sebulan, can weave their own dreams. When I arrived, her latest creation had just been ordered by a Japanese customer. It featured a white bird (called the Hafak Bull Blila) encased in a red diamond-shaped border, with two symmetrical rectangular heads and a pair of outstretched wings, as if it were flying. In addition to overseas buyers, Sebulan's works are also acquired by wholesalers from Manila. The textiles can fetch up to 1,500 Philippine pesos (£22.83) per metre.

While the design process is full of mystery, the weaving process is easier to apprehend. Transforming the rough stems of abacá into woven threads is hard work. First, the fleshy material inside the stems is separated, dried, rubbed and combed to produce soft, resilient fibres. Charlie showed me a bundle of these fibres, each measuring about 2m long and resembling an elderly person's white hair. The bundle contained roughly 1,400 strands, which produces approximately 6m metres of T'nalak.

After the fibres are collected, they're woven and dyed. I watched as Sebulan wrapped black threads around bundles of straightened abacá fibre with machine-like speed and precision. T'nalak contains three colours: white symbolises purity, red represents blood and black signifies the soil. In addition to white abacá, the other two colours also derive from native plants. The red comes from the brownish-red roots of the loko tree, while the black is obtained by boiling the green leaves of the knalum tree for seven days, which turn them dark as ink.

As Sebulan worked, a teenage girl combed through the tangled bundles of abacá fibre to enhance their softness and durability and prepare them for weaving. Next to her, another lady was inserting weft threads into dyed warp threads on a loom that revealed the textile's intricate pattern.


Dream-weavers use the fibre of the banana-like abacá plant (Credit: lisyl/Alamy)

The practice of T'nalak includes some stringent taboos. For instance, as a show of respect to Fu Dalu, the female weavers and their husbands are banned from having sex during the extensive weaving process. But while only women can be dream-weavers, men are involved, too.

Men are often responsible for planting and stripping the abacá and flattening the newly woven fabric. To do so, they fix a cowrie shell to one end of an abacá stem pole and link the other end to the roof as a hinge, pushing on the pole to apply pressure on the fibre with the shell.

There are roughly 70 households in T'Bong village, and Charlie told me there are approximately 25 skilled weavers and around a dozen apprentices. According to the Museum of Philippine Economic History, dream-weaving used to be widespread around Lake Sebu. But after exploring several other villages around the lake, I didn't meet a single family still weaving, which suggests this time-honoured tradition may be fading.

As Mindanao has begun to reopen, resorts have started popping up along the lake. Many are adorned with T'boli and T'nalak-related decorations, yet after asking staff members at three different resorts, no one knew the stories behind them. In a lakeside shop selling T'nalak to tourists, a local woman couldn't name any of the patterns she sold.


Dream-weaving contains three colours, which are all derived and dyed from natural fibres (Credit: Kan Zhang)

However, there are locals who are committed to keeping T'boli traditions alive. Since 1995, Maria Todi, a T'boli cultural ambassador, has been running the Lake Sebu School of Living Traditions in a lake-side longhouse. In addition to the weaving taught by another master weaver, she teaches T'boli music and dance to local children.

Maria Todi has also been documenting T'boli's various cultural traditions, including T'nalak. When we spoke at her school, she explained that these precious textiles were once used as currency, and could even replace cows or water buffalo as dowries at weddings. She said that as the T'boli rapidly assimilated into modern society, the T'nalak, like many of their other traditions, lost its practical value, receding into a purely cultural symbol that is in danger of being forgotten.

"The reason we established the School of Living Traditions [is] in order to revive, to educate children and to let them understand, when our culture dies, our existence dies," she said.


Maria Todi is documenting and attempting to save various T'boli traditions (Credit: Kan Zhang)

According to Maria Todi, T'boli culture shouldn't just be presented to tourists, but practised at home. "In the past, my students sometimes perform at the resorts for money, but I don't allow it anymore," she explained. "Tourists simply glance at the show while eating, they can learn nothing from that."

This concern also extends to T'nalak. To those who don't know its origin, it's nothing more than a piece of cloth. But for those aware of how centuries of T'boli women have sought to record their most fleeting visions, these time-honoured textiles stand as an enduring testament to a culture and people who see our world and the spirit world differently.

[goldie0608]

Newborn Calf with Smiley-Face Markings is Named ‘Happy’ and Will Graze on a Farm For Rest of His Life



Happy the cow was never destined for greatness, born as he was a bull on a dairy farm.

Yet despite his inability to produce milk, Happy had another valuable skill that began working the minute he dropped onto the grass of Barry Coster’s dairy—making people smile.

The Holstein calf was born with a smiley face on one side of his body, a result of the naturally random black and white markings typical of their breed.

“We’ve seen some number sevens or love hearts on the head, and a few strange markings, but we’ve never seen anything that resembles a smiley face before,” Mrs. Megan Coster told ABC Australia.

Upon finding Happy, Brian snapped a picture and sent it to Megan who even suspected he was a victim of graffiti.

“I couldn’t believe it—I actually zoomed in at first to make sure that none of our workers had added some extra lines or anything, ” she added.

Happy is what is known in the Australian dairy industry as a “bobby calf” meaning one that is surplus to requirements for replacing the existing stock.

Rather than joining the mating bull herd, Happy’s unique markings have landed him a role on the farm in perpetuity.

Mr. Coster said many of his workers were keen to have him around as a kind of mascot. He makes people smile, and he’s one heck of a natural lawnmower.

[Misstee]

Mobile phone inventor made first call 50 years ago




On 3 April 1973, Marty Cooper stood on a corner of Sixth Avenue in New York and took a phone book from his pocket.

He then punched a number into a large, cream-coloured device and put it to his ear while passers-by stared at him.

Mr Cooper, an engineer at Motorola, rang his counterpart at rival firm Bell Laboratories, to triumphantly tell him he was calling from "a personal, handheld, portable cell phone".

He recalls there being silence on the end of the line.

"I think he was gritting his teeth," says the 94-year-old, laughing.

Bell Laboratories had been focusing on developing a car-based phone instead, he says. "Could you believe that? So we had been trapped in our homes and offices by this copper wire for over 100 years - and now they were going to trap us in our cars!"

Needless to say, Mr Cooper and Motorola did not agree this was the way forward - and history has proved them right.

The basics of how that first call worked haven't changed much. The phone converts your voice into an electric signal, which modulates a radio wave. The radio wave goes to a mast; the mast sends your voice to the person you are calling, and by reversing the process, that person can then hear you speak.

Except there weren't really many masts back then... But you get the idea.

Today's mobile phones, however, are unrecognisable when compared with that early Motorola model.

The commercial version of Marty Cooper's prototype, the Motorola Dynatac 8000X, was released 11 years after that first call, in 1984. It would cost the equivalent of £9,500 ($11,700) if bought today, says Ben Wood, who runs the Mobile Phone Museum.

"Basically, it was just dial the number and make the call," Mr Wood explains.

"There was no messaging, no camera. Thirty minutes of talk-time, 10 hours to charge the battery, about 12 hours of stand-by time and a 6in (15cm) antenna on the top."

It also weighed 790g (1.7lb) - nearly four times the weight of the iPhone 14, at 172g.

However, Mr Cooper remains unimpressed with the design of the handsets of 2023 - although he concedes he never predicted phones would one day be handheld "supercomputers", with cameras and internet access.

"I think today's phone is suboptimal. It's really not a very good phone in many respects," he says.

"Just think about it. You take a piece of plastic and glass that's flat - and you put it against the curve of your head; you hold your hand in an uncomfortable position; when you want to do these wonderful things that it can do, you have to get an app [first]. "

He believes, in the future, artificial intelligence will either create, or select, phone owners' apps for them, depending on their individual needs.

He also believes one day the device will monitor our health, maximise our productivity and improve our lives immeasurably.

At one point he even suggests they might help eliminate wars.

"The cell phone is not going to do it by itself," he admits. "But it will be the central part of this great future."

Despite his complaints about its modern counterparts, it seems, secretly, Mr Cooper remains enthralled by the device he first held to his ear on that New York street corner 50 years ago.

"We are still at the very beginning of the cell phone revolution," he declares.

[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
TUESDAY APRIL 4
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 can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ 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 short, 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
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
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

[ozswede]

Dog wins tractor worth €100k ($110,000) in Laois draw!

A NEW John Deere tractor worth €100,000 has been won – by a dog!

The grand prize in the Clough Community Centre fundraiser is on its way to Limerick, after the winning ticket was pulled from a drum on St Patrick’s night.

The golden ticket was in the name of Toby Dalton, a dog owned by Patsy Dalton from Galbally (pictured below). While Toby does have a licence, it doesn’t appear to cover driving so his owner will have to sit in behind the wheel when the magnificent machine arrives.


Tractor winner Toby the dog with his owner and chauffeur Patsy Dalton

A video of the draw in Mary’s Bar, posted on the Clough Community Centre Facebook page, shows that everything was completely above board, with no suggestion of Father Ted-style chicanery.

After former pub proprietor Seán Hyland picked out the winner, it emerged that Patsy had put his dog Toby’s name on the ticket, never thinking that the canine would trot away with the prize.

Initially, there was some confusion as the scribbled ticket appeared to give the winner’s name as Tadgh Dalton and there was no address, only a mobile number for the dog.

However, ticket seller John Finlay stepped forward to reveal that he had sold the ticket just the previous day, when he met a group of 12 men coming out of Hennessy’s machinery auction in Portlaoise. They included Patsy Dalton from Galbally, who decided to put his dog Toby’s name on the ticket.

John joked: “We have probably made a record – the first dog in Ireland that has won a tractor!”

Mary’s Bar posted later on social media: “We were delighted to host this wonderful event. Huge congrats, Patsy and be sure to call in for refreshments – we’ll have the doggie bowl ready for Toby.”


Members of the Clough Community Vision Committee pictured with the tractor

After months of ticket-selling, the Clough Community Vision Committee’s biggest fundraiser to date has brought the village a giant step closer towards achieving its goal of building a new community hall, which will host a variety of local clubs, activities and organisations.

The group is working closely with the Tidy Towns committee, which has plans for a playground and community garden adjacent to the new centre, creating a wonderful focal point for the village.

This is how often you should really be washing your towels



How often should we be cleaning the first thing we reach for when we finish our shower?

The gross truth is we all probably need to be changing our bathroom towels to clean ones more often than we realize.

With long periods of drought sadly normal in many parts of the country most Australians pride themselves on conserving water, so it’s not uncommon for many of us to go a week using the same towel in the bathroom.

But according to Sydney-based dermatologist Shreya Andric it’s best to change your towel every three days to avoid irritating your skin or potentially cause infections.

“If you shower more than once a day, then you might want to wash it more frequently,” she said.

The reason? Well, water isn’t the only thing that’s transferred onto your towel after lathering yourself in shampoo and soap. “Dead skin cells, bacteria and sweat” are also VIPs on the guest list.

“Towels absorb a lot of water and remain damp for hours, which can be an excellent breeding ground for bacteria,” Andric said.

And if you want to, ahem, ask for a friend how long you can use the same towel in the bathroom before it does more harm than good, Andric said two weeks is probably the longest you can use a towel before the germ party gets out of hand.

Is it bad to use the same towel for your face and body?

Andric suggested using a different towel for your face and body, “especially if you are prone to acne to minimize transfer of bacteria”.

Otherwise, you will end up spreading the oils, fungi and bacteria from your hair, butt and other areas onto your face (and vice versa). Gross.
What is the best way to wash towels?

While it may leave your towels feeling soft and smelling great, keeping your laundry conditioner stowed away is one of the best things you can do for your towels (and your skin).

“Use hot water to kill off any bacteria (preferably 60 degrees Celsius)” and “avoid fabric softener as this will reduce the absorbency of the towels”, Andric said.

Two weeks is probably the longest you can use a towel before the germ party gets out of hand.

So, when should you throw in the towel for good and buy a new set?

“Bath towels can last years, especially if you have multiple that you rotate through. They should be replaced if they have a smell that won’t go with washing (ew!) or if they are no longer absorbent,” Andric said.

For anyone who needs to stock up, here are a few absorbent and fast-drying towels to add to your shopping list.

Keep it classic with this lightweight bath towel from Sheridan. It’s made using fine cotton yarns in a high-density weave, which is said to help the fabric absorb and dry fast. So, you and your towel won’t be left feeling damp.

“I was pessimistic about these because they seemed quite thin compared to other Sheridan towels but these are actually great. They dry quickly and they maintain their softness. Would recommend these,” a customer posted on the Myer website, giving it a five-star review.

This Quick Dry Luxury Towel range also offers bath sheets, face washers, hand towels and bath mats.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/03/this-is-h ... ur-towels/

Toddler Develops Strange Illness After A Cake-Stealing Iguana Bit Her Finger
Apparently iguanas can have your cake and eat it.



Never get between an iguana and a cake are wise words to live by according to an infectious diseases conference in Copenhagen. There, researchers warned of a cautionary tale in which a girl who was bitten by a cake-stealing iguana developed a strange bacterial infection months after it happened.

The Great Cake Heist occurred when a 3-year-old girl was enjoying a snack on the beach when an iguana ran over, bit her, and stole the food. She was treated for a bite to her left hand by a local clinic with a five-day course of antibiotics in case of salmonella, a common bacteria among reptiles.

The wound healed well but five months later developed a small bump that got larger, red, and progressively more painful for a further three months. Ultrasound imaging revealed a ganglion-like cyst, but it didn’t fit her bill of symptoms.

An orthopaedic surgeon opted to remove the lump and noticed that it was leaking puss during the operation, pointing towards some kind of infection. They conducted histological tests on the tissue that revealed tissue death, inflammation, and the presence of an unusual bacteria: Mycobacterium marinum.

The bacteria is rarely found in humans and is more commonly found in fish. It’s a non-tuberculosis mycobacterium that causes tuberculosis-like illness, but it doesn’t normally infect human hosts unless somebody goes paddling in contaminated water with a cut.

Wild and pet reptiles are known to carry harmful things like Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella enterica, but M. marinum is an unexpected consequence of an iguana bite. However, it could be that these reptiles’ bodies are a good hangout for the bacteria.

“M. marinum prefers lower temperatures (30°C [86°F]) for optimal growth, and it’s highly likely that the cold-blooded iguana, with body temperatures ranging from 22-37°C [71.6-98.6°F], may sustain these microbes as reservoirs,” explained lead author Dr Jordan Mah from Stanford University School of Medicine, California, USA, in a statement.

“The bite resulted in colonisation by a bacterium rarely found in humans, and demonstrates that iguanas may be carriers of harmful bacteria capable of producing severe infections. This may help inform health care professionals of less commonly known bacterial infections following unusual zoonotic exposures."

Once M. marinum was detected, the young girl could be given a more effective course of treatment. The bacteria is known to be resistant to common antibiotics like the amoxicillin she was initially given, but a course of rifampin and clarithromycin did the job.

Evidently, just one reptile can be a threat if you're trying to enjoy some cake, but do you know what a group of iguanas are called?

https://www.iflscience.com/toddler-deve ... nger-68268

[Fatima99]

Astronomers detect 'coherent' radio signal from alien planet sparking new life hopes



Astronomers have detected a 'coherent' radio signal from an alien planet sparking fresh hope that extraterrestrial life is out there.

The signal is believed to have derived from a distant, Earth-sized planet which could point to it having a similar magnetic field to Earth.

American astronomers have named the rocky exoplanet 'YZ Ceti b' - claiming it is a prime candidate for having an Earth-like magnetic field which could provide vital answers in man's search for alien life.

The astronomers lauded the discovery as important not only in finding a planet that likely has a magnetic field - but also in providing a future method of finding more such planets.

Using a radio telescope, the scientists found exoplanet YZ Ceti b - which is around 70.5 trillion miles away from Earth - to be giving out a repetitive radio signal.

They theorise that these waves may be generated by interactions between the magnetic field of the exoplanet and the small red dwarf star it orbits, called YZ Ceti.

The astronomers lauded the discovery as important not only in finding a planet that likely has a magnetic field - but also in providing a future method of finding more such planets.

The researchers added it could also mean it would be possible to witness the Northern Lights phenomenon - an interaction between magnetic fields and solar weather - on distant planets and stars.

Earth's magnetic field, as well as keeping our compass needles pointing in the same direction, helps preserve our life-sustaining atmosphere by shielding us from and deflecting high-energy particles and plasma blasted from the sun.

A planet's magnetic field can prevent its atmosphere from being worn away over time by particles spewed from its star.

Now, researchers Dr Sebastian Pineda and Assistant Professor Jackie Villadsen have discovered a repeat radio signal given off by the red dwarf star known as YC Ceti, using a radio telescope to observe it in action.

The faraway star is around 12 light years away from Earth. One light year is equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles.

The pair used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, a radio telescope operated by the US National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory, to better understand the magnetic field interactions between distant stars and their orbiting planets.

The research, published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, was also supported by the independent US federal agency the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Joe Pesce, NSF's programme director for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, said the findings are essential in our search for life on other planets.



He said: "The search for potentially habitable or life-bearing worlds in other solar systems depends in part on being able to determine if rocky, Earth-like exoplanets actually have magnetic fields.

"This research shows not only that this particular rocky exoplanet likely has a magnetic field, but also provides a promising method to find more."

Dr Pineda, from the University of Colorado on the western coast of the United States, explained the team's excitement at discovering a planet giving off radio waves similar to Earth's.

"We saw the initial burst and it looked beautiful," he said.

"When we saw it again, it was very indicative that, OK - maybe we really have something here.

"Whether a planet survives with an atmosphere or not can depend on whether the planet has a strong magnetic field or not."

Asst Prof Villadsen, an astronomer at Bucknell University on the US east coast, added: "I was seeing this thing that no one has seen happen before."

The researchers believe the radio waves are generated by interactions between the magnetic field of the rocky exoplanet, YC Ceti b, and the star it orbits - YC Ceti.

But for such signals to be detectable over such a distance, they must be very strong.

Whilst magnetic fields have been detected in the past on exoplanets the size of Jupiter, finding those a similar size to Earth requires different techniques.

Because magnetic fields are invisible, it can be a challenge to assert that a faraway planet has one.

But Asst Prof Villadsen explains she and her colleagues are searching for a way to detect them.

She said: "We're looking for planets that are really close to their stars and are a similar size to Earth.

"These planets are way too close to their stars to be somewhere you could live, but because they are so close the planet is kind of ploughing through a bunch of stuff coming off the star.

"If the planet has a magnetic field and it ploughs through enough star stuff, it will cause the star to emit bright radio waves."

Book checked out in 1986 finally returned to Canadian library



A Manitoba, Canada, library said a book was recently returned by a patron who checked the tome out 36 years earlier.

The Winnipeg Public Library said a patron came into the Louis Riel Library to return an overdue copy of The Horizon Book of Ancient Rome, which had been checked out Oct. 14, 1986.

The patron said the book had come along with him on 28 different moves over the years.

"Unlike most highly overdue books where someone finds it in a box or closet that just suddenly appeared long after it was forgotten about years earlier, I have always known where this book was, on my shelf in full view. Haunting me. Taunting me. Invading my dreams," library officials quoted the man as saying in an Instagram post.

The man said he was inspired to return the book after hearing about another book returned in Winnipeg after 33 years.

"I never did read it. I suppose I didn't have it long enough to find the time to," he joked.

[goldie0608]

London Lonely Girls Club Gains Thousands of New Members for Picnics, Drinks, and Game Nights



A newcomer to big city life started a Facebook group to make new friends and it grew to 20,000 people in just a few years.

The London Lonely Girls Club was founded by 26-year-old Holly Cooke, who arrived from Stoke-on-Trent, a big city in itself, but provincial compared to London.

From 2018 to 2022, it attracted 10,000 young women who, like Cooke, found it hard to make new friends. Just in 2022, it grew to 31,000, and now there are 5 or 6 members organizing fun events like brunches, game nights, cocktail parties, and picnics.

“London is so big, it leaves a lot of space for loneliness, I Googled how to make friends in London,” Cooke told the BBC. “People feel it in so many different ways. London is so transient. Some just moved here; others have been here their whole life.”

She had originally tried platonic meet-up apps like Bumble BFF but found the process a bit dodgy. She wished she could get three or four of the people she would meet on it together at once, which gave her the idea of starting a group.

She now says the group events are getting fully booked in minutes.

Groups like these are becoming semi-common in English news media. In 2022 GNN reported on the “Proper Blokes Club,” a mental health walking club where men of all ages can go on a walk through the city and share their struggles.

Founder Scott Oughton-Johnson wasn’t lonely, rather he had gone through a long custody battle and painful separation and started the group after a video invitation to go for a walk-and-talk produced a really great evening with a friend of his.

Through the club, walk leaders organize walks to share in each other’s difficulties through talking and walking from Monday to Thursday all around England, not just in London.

The Men’s Shed movement isn’t found only in Britain, though a chapter was recently founded in Barnsley, but in the whole of the English-speaking world. The Barnsley chapter was launched by 67-year-old Phillip Jackson when moved back to England from Australia and immediately felt like a stranger.

The original concept was to get together and make things out of wood, but in reality, it’s about plugging into the social fabric of a community, whether that’s through meeting up for a coffee, building a park bench, or listening to the problems someone is going through in their marriage.

“It’s like the shed at the bottom of your garden,” Jackson told The Guardian. “but all your friends are there. It’s a break from people’s weekly routines. It gets them out and talking to similar people.”

The Australian Men’s Shed movement has 1,200 chapters across that country, and they’re springing up in the US (17), Britain, and Canada.

[PennySerenade]

When Twins Batboys Had to be Twins



The Minnesota Twins entered their inaugural season of 1961 with more motivation than most sports teams to emphasize their team name. Calling themselves the Twins was more than just a simple reference to the Twin Cities. It was a call to unity for the baseball fans of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Before the Twins (formerly the Washington Senators) moved to Minnesota in ’61, the local baseball scene was defined by the fierce rivalry between two Triple A teams, the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints. The Twins wanted to appeal to fans in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and so the team name was chosen with care. For one, the team was named for Minnesota, rather than either city (unlike the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA, who had moved to Los Angeles after the 1960 season).

To make no mistake about this, the logo on the cap was an interlocked T and C, rather than an M— which could be mistaken as standing for Minneapolis.

Also, the uniforms had a patch on the left arm which showed players in Millers and Saints gear smiling happily and reaching across the Mississippi river to shake hands.

To really hammer home the point, the team hired bat boys who were actual twins.





The bat boy auditions, which were held at Memorial Stadium and photographed for LIFE by Francis Miller, drew 74 sets of twins, and the young men were served hot dogs and milk as they waited to be interviewed for a chance to wear that beautiful new uniform.







Richard and Peter King, above, were chosen as the winning twins. The team also selected a pair of twin ball boys, Jerry and James Dempster (not pictured). LIFE’s story on the auditions never ran in the magazine, but the King twins had a moment of national fame when, in May of that 1961 season, they appeared on the game show To Tell the Truth. The boys’ fielded questions from celebrity panelists such as Don Ameche and Betty White. As was the case in the auditions, on the show they are alongside other sets of twins, waiting to see if they will be picked.

[Misstee]

South Carolina man breaks mustache record at 2 feet, 1 inch long
By Ben Hooper



Paul Slosar of Summerville, S.C., grew his mustache to a length of 2 feet and 1 inch, earning the Guinness World Record for longest mustache on a living person. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records


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April 4 (UPI) -- A South Carolina man's 2-foot, 1-inch whiskers earned him the Guinness World Record for the longest mustache on a living person.

Paul Slosar of Summerville had the length of his mustache verified at the National Beard and Mustache Championships in Casper, Wyo., and the measurement was submitted to Guinness World Records for official verification.

Slosar sports an English-style mustache, defined by the World Beard and Mustache Championships as: "Slender, beginning from the middle of the upper lip with the hairs extremely long and pulled to the side. Tips may be lifted slightly."

The facial hair enthusiast said he's sported a mustache for about 30 years.

"I used to keep my mustache short. One day, after I trimmed the mustache, I went to kiss my wife and she pushed me away and complained," Slosar told GWR. "She stated, 'Don't kiss me after you have trimmed your mustache because it's just like kissing a wire brush!' So, from that day on I just let it go."

Slosar said he was visiting a motorcycle show in Tacoma, Wash., when he was approached and asked to participate in a facial hair competition. To his surprise, he won the titles for Best Mustache and Best of Show.

The event gave him the love of competition, and Slosar has been entering the World Beard and Mustache Championships since 2017.

Slosar said he believes his drinking habits promote growth for his mustache.

"What worked for me was Guinness beer for starters," he said. "Then when I could not drink the beer due to the carbonation, I switched to Jack Daniels Whiskey."

[lush]

Frozen Embryos Younger Than Mom By Only Three Years
April 3, 2023*

• These circumstances are weird but true.



Twins born from 30-year-old frozen embryos have a mom that’s only three years older than they are. It seems unlikely but in this case, it’s true. Rachel Ridgeway gave birth to twins who were originally frozen back in April 1992.

The two new babies were born into this world to already mom-of-six, and are the product of the longest-frozen embryos known to have resulted in live birth. The previous record holder was a little girl born in 2017, Molly Gibson, who had been stored as a frozen embryo for 24 years.

It’s admittedly a bit weird of a situation but this is how Rachel and her husband Philip explain it. The two had gotten pregnant a whole three decades after the embryos were first frozen at the National Embryo Donation Center.

The twins biological parents have remained anonymous but have donated their leftover embryos to the center after going through a round of in vitro fertilization (IVF.) These embryos were stored in liquid nitrogen with thousands of others and the two successful embryos have finally resulted in a live birth.

Rachel, who’s now 34, gave birth to Timothy (six pounds and seven ounces) and Lydia (five pounds and 11 ounces,) last year on October 31st, when she was 37 weeks and two days.

“I was five years old when God gave life to these embryos,” Philip said.

The father described it all as mind-blowing to think about and added, “Pretty much everybody we’ve talked to has trouble wrapping their brain around it.”

The couple had their forth child arrive in 2020 and shortly after adopted the frozen embryos to conceive another child.



Rachel stated: “We needed some fertility assistance to conceive our three oldest children.

“We decided to put the money that we would normally use for fertility care towards embryo adoption.”

“We wanted to follow that route.”

Philip then said that they would have more children if that was ‘God’s will’.

The 35-year-old explained: “We’ve always thought, ‘Let’s have as many kids that God wants to give us.'”

“We thought, ‘We’re not done yet if that’s God’s will.'”

The whole process started back in 2021 when Rachel and Philip selected their frozen embryos from the ‘special consideration’ part of the lab.

“These embryos are often overlooked because they were donated by parents who had a known history of certain genetic disorders,” Rachel said.

She added: “We found out that these kids are rarely looked at because many parents coming into the process are wondering what they could have.

“It didn’t really matter to us if they’re considered perfect or not.”

The parents were aware that the twins’ biological father passed from ALS and that it could possible be a leading factor in the twins having the genetic disorder but they said they ‘didn’t care.’

“Our plans for the twins is to make sure their adoption is a part of their story,” Rachel said. “We want to keep it as a normal part of their lives.”

She added: “They’ll always know that they are adopted.

“We want to make sure that they know that embryo adoption makes them special.”

Wow, the oldest frozen embryos yet are twins now. Congratulations to the whole family!

[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
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​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.
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