[goldie0608]

Man Rescued After Getting Trapped Inside Public Art Installation in Canada: 'Definitely a First'

A 26-year-old man "climbed on top" of the Talus Dome on Sunday and "became trapped inside soon after," police tell PEOPLE



A man was rescued after getting stuck inside a public art installation in Canada.

On Sunday night, a 26-year-old man "climbed on top" of the Talus Dome and "became trapped inside soon after," a spokesperson for the Edmonton Police Department tells PEOPLE.

"He dropped himself in there and was unable to get out," Edmonton Fire Rescue Services district chief Troy Brady said in an interview, according to CTV News.

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said that they first received a call around 8:28 p.m. from a person who happened to be walking by and noticed that somebody was stuck inside, the outlet reported.

"Out for a run, saw a dude stuck in the Talus Balls. Like, WHAT!?" one bystander wrote on social media alongside footage from the rescue operation.

A pair of visitors even noticed the man in the background of a selfie, which they took before he fell inside, reported CityNews.



Ultimately, it took multiple crews about an hour and half to rescue the man, who has not been publicly named.

"Definitely a first for me," said Brady, according to CTV News.

In order to free him, firefighters even used the jaws of life to clear a path through the structure. "Not what we would typically use [it] for," Brady remarked, per CityNews.

Ultimately, firefighters only had to remove one of the steel balls, an EFRS spokesperson told CBC News.

After being rescued, the man was assessed by EMS crews and released at the scene. He was then charged by police.

"Further investigation by police revealed that the male caused damage to several of the balls while climbing on top of the structure," a police spokesperson tells PEOPLE.

He was charged with one count of Mischief over $5,000 and then released, police say.

[Fatima99]

'Uncooperative’ squirrel freed from manhole cover four years after identical incident

An “uncooperative” squirrel stuck in a manhole cover has been rescued by firefighters in an incident almost identical to one four years ago.

Rescuers in western Germany say they can’t be sure if it’s the same rodent that found itself in a similarly hapless predicament in 2019.

A spokesperson from the Dortmund fire department said it had received a report of a distressed red squirrel from a woman who had been walking in the city on Monday afternoon.

She said she had seen the little rodent’s head sticking out of a hole in the road.



The kindly woman draped a scarf over the animal’s head to stop it from panicking until the firefighters arrived.

When the rescue team arrived at the scene, they carefully removed the manhole cover and tried to free the trapped animal.

“This turned out to be quite complicated as the squirrel was uncooperative,” the fire department said.

After a few attempts the crew was eventually able to extract the animal unharmed and it quickly scampered up a nearby tree.



Dortmund firefighters have some experience of saving stuck squirrels. In 2019, a similar squirrel rescue drew international attention.

“It could not be determined if it was the same squirrel that had to be rescued from the same situation four years ago,” the fire department said in a statement.

The squirrel caught in a similar situation in Dortmund in 2019 was stuck so completely that the fire department had to take the manhole cover to a local vet’s practice, where it was sedated before being prised free.

Another squirrel had to be freed from a manhole cover in Munich in 2016. That lucky animal was given the name Olivio in commemoration of the large amount of olive oil his rescuers used to grease him up in order to release him.

[prokroustis]

Scientists break record for fish filmed in deepest waters to date



“What is significant is that it shows how far a particular type of fish will descend in the ocean”

Scientists have broken the record for the deepest fish filmed after capturing the so-called “snailfish” on camera at over 27,000 feet underwater, CNN reports.

“What is significant is that it shows how far a particular type of fish will descend in the ocean,” said Alan Jamieson, the marine biologist who led the expedition. The footage was captured in the north Pacific Ocean in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, just south of Japan.

The snailfish was reported to be a juvenile, meaning it can live in much deeper areas compared to its adult counterparts, and was said to be nearing the limit of depth for a fish to feasibly survive in the ocean, according to BBC. “There is so much more to them than simply the depth, but the maximum depth they can survive is truly astonishing,” Jamieson remarked. He added: “If this record is broken, it would only be by minute increments, potentially by just a few meters.”

Most fish under the snailfish umbrella actually tend to reside in shallow water, but their gelatinous bodies have helped some successfully adapt to the high pressures in trenches, per BBC. At the depth the snailfish was filmed, the water pressure is 800 times higher than the surface of the ocean. Snailfish are also more likely to traverse the Izu-Ogasawara trench because its waters are slightly warmer.

Scientists would like to explore deeper, but “technology has been expensive and scientists don’t have a lot of money,” Jamieson said. “I get frustrated when people tell me we know nothing about the deep sea. We do. Things are changing really fast,” he told BBC.

[Misstee]

Fed up by LA pothole, Arnold Schwarzenegger fills it himself







LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fed up by an enormous pothole in his Los Angeles neighborhood, Arnold Schwarzenegger picked up a shovel and filled it himself.

The actor and former California governor tweeted a video Tuesday of him and a helper using packaged concrete to repair the road in the Brentwood area.

“Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it,” he wrote on Twitter. “I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.”

A neighbor rolled down her car window and shouted her thanks at the action movie star.

“You’re welcome,” said Schwarzenegger, decked out in work boots, a leather jacket and shades reminiscent of his role in “Terminator.”

“You have to do it yourself. This is crazy. For three weeks I’ve been waiting for this hole to be closed,” he said.

Daniel Ketchell, a spokesperson for Schwarzenegger, said Brentwood residents made repeated requests for repairs since winter storms opened up potholes and cracks on local roads.

Mayor Karen Bass last week announced a plan to address what she called an unprecedented number of damaged streets across the city. Since Dec. 30, Los Angeles has received 19,692 service requests for repairs, and as of April 6, crews had filled at least 17,549 potholes, officials said.

The Department of Public Works did not immediately respond to an email asking whether the pothole Schwarzenegger filled had been scheduled to be repaired.

[PennySerenade]

This Canadian city was just named the friendliest in the WORLD



Around the world, Canada is colloquially known as a friendly, welcoming place, but now there is research to back that up. New data shows Toronto is the friendliest city in the world. Well, tied for first with Sydney, Australia.

Preply — an online language learning platform — has developed the Community Spirit Index, a comprehensive ranking of 53 cities worldwide based on their friendliness to non-natives.



Six factors were considered when it comes to determining the world’s friendliest cities:

- Friendly staff: The percentage of accommodation reviews mentioning “friendly,” giving us an idea of how welcoming local staff are.

- Visitor return rate: The percentage of visitors who return to each city after travelling there, telling us if the location left a good impression.

- Community respect: The city’s safety index score, which indicates if it’s a safe environment for both natives and newcomers.

- Acceptance of diversity: The LGBTQ+ equality score in each city, which indicates if this is an accepting and supportive community.

- Happiness: The city’s overall happiness and well-being score, according to inhabitants.

- Ease of communicating through a common language.

According to Preply, “Toronto boasts a very decent visitor return rate of 15%, which means that people who come to Toronto tend to love it so much that they come back again and again.”

The city is called an “inclusive and welcoming place for everyone” and received a happiness score of 7.03 out of 10, as well as a very high LGBTQ+ equality score of 90 out of 100.

The only other Canadian city to make the top 20 was Montreal.

Sorry, Vancouver.

Do you agree Toronto is a friendly, inclusive city?

Celeb-loved intermittent fasting diet linked to fertility problems: study



Intermittent fasting is a popular diet trend that many celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz and Mark Wahlberg practice.

But research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences suggests that the dieting technique can cause fertility issues.

A new study suggests that intermittent fasting could possibly be beneficial for weight loss — but it could negatively impact reproduction.

Intermittent fasting is a diet that involves only eating during a specific time frame, switching between fasting and eating on a regular schedule, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, tested how the fasting trend affected zebrafish reproduction and measured both production of sperm and eggs as well as the quality of offspring.

Zebrafish are commonly used in studies like this one since they have all the main organs involved in metabolism, according to Oxford University Press.

A group of 12 male fish and 12 female fish were put on a fully fed diet, while a different group of 18 male fish and 18 female fish were on a fasting diet. The fish in the fasting group were allowed to eat normally after 15 days.

The combined 30 male and 30 female fish were randomly paired on Days 7, 15, 21, 28 and 35 of the study with fish of the opposite sex from the “general population” in order to test reproductive performance.

Fish were given no more than five hours to reproduce, and if they failed, they were given another partner to repeat the process with the following day.

On Days 7, 15, 21 and 35 of the study, sperm from each of the 30 male fish were collected, and the eggs were assessed after two and 24 hours.

Findings showed that female fish in the fasting diet group had “significantly lower” reproduction on days 7 and 15, on average — resulting in a lower number of offspring for females in total.

There were 163 offspring from the group who were fully fed compared to the 75 from the fasting group.

Even after the females in the fasting group were fed normally once again, there was still a reduction of offspring, and the first had an increased growth in their fins.

Scientists discovered that the quality of both egg and sperm was negatively impacted after returning to normal levels of eating.

“The way organisms respond to food shortages can affect the quality of eggs and sperm, and such effects could potentially continue after the end of the fasting period,” professor Alexei Maklakov, an expert in evolutionary biology and author of the study, said.

They suggested that these findings could be a result of female bodies prioritizing their own health and recovering from fasting at the expense of reproduction.

Male fish that fasted also had an increased decline in the speed of their sperm over time and a “significant decline in sperm quality.”

However, the study authors noted that the results “cannot be directly compared with a two-week period in a mammal” because of metabolism differences.

Experts hope the research will encourage people to understand the importance of the effect of fasting on fertility and not just on weight loss.

“These findings underscore the importance of considering not just the effect of fasting on body maintenance but also on the production of eggs and sperm,” study author Dr. Edward Ivimey-Cook, an expert in biological sciences, said. “Importantly, some of the negative effects on eggs and sperm quality can be seen after the animals returned to their normal levels of food consumption following time-restricted fasting.”

They noted that more research would need to be done in order to properly understand how long it takes the quality of sperm and eggs to get back to normal after fasting.
What do you think? Post a comment.

Meanwhile, a study earlier this year found that intermittent fasting does not help dieters lose weight, with calorie counting still the most effective way to drop any unwanted pounds.

Researchers also previously found that intermittent fasting did not actually lead to any more weight loss for obese people than daily calorie caps.

Another study from November 2022 determined that intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast are associated with a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Museum offers $25,000 reward for meteorite


Meteorite hunters, get ready to head into the woods.

A museum in Maine is offering $25,000 for the remains of a space rock that streaked across the sky last week before landing near the border between the United States and Canada.

The fireball, which was visible in broad daylight and created a sonic boom, was detected by radar, allowing NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Lab to calculate the “strewn field” — where fragments of the meteor might be found — near Calais, Maine.

Darryl Pitt, head of the meteorite division at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum, said he was keen to study any fragments of the meteorite, which could contain valuable information about the solar system. The $25,000 reward is for the first meteorite piece found that weighs 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) or more. However, he said the museum would be willing to pay for any specimen “irrespective of its size.”

“Finding meteorites in woods of Maine. It’s not the simplest of the environments,” Pitt said.

“It’s a sparsely populated area but not as sparsely populated as where most meteorites fall — the ocean,” he added.

Worldwide, only eight to 10 meteorites are recovered each year out of hundreds seen falling to Earth, Pitt said.

A meteorite that fell on a driveway in the United Kingdom in 2021 turned out to be an extremely rare type of space rock and is now part of the Natural History Museum in London.

The Maine meteorite was visible for more than four minutes from around 11.57 a.m. ET on Saturday, April 8, according to NASA. Winds might have carried smaller meteorites across the border into Canada, the agency noted.

“For the light (of the fireball) to overwhelm the brightness of the day, it was a significant event,” Pitt said.

Pitt said a meteorite would look different from the surrounding rocks. The outside would likely be blackened — after being toasted by the heat as it plummeted through Earth’s atmosphere — while the inside would likely be a different color. It may also contain iron and therefore be attracted to a magnet.

The museum offered a reward for a meteorite once before. However, the search for fragments of a meteor that lit up the sky in the region in 2016 wasn’t fruitful, Pitt said.

This time, Pitt said he was “guardedly optimistic” because there is more detailed information available from radar data, and he expects a “robust response” from meteorite hunters.

[lush]

Utah Cookie Wars: Three Companies’ Legal Back-and-Forth Over Cookies
April 12, 2023*


• Cookies are serious business when you run a cookie business.

There’s a war raging in Utah. And it’s been fought over a bunch of cookies.

Three gourmet cookie companies have been engaged in a legal battle for almost a year. What started as a row over similar branding has expanded to involve recipes, lost profits, and generally hurt feelings.

The firms in the eye of the storm are Crumbl, Crave, and Dirty Dough. The former originally accused Crave and Dirty Dough of producing “confusingly similar” marketing materials, such as logos and websites.

Now, Dirty Dough (DD) has fired back. The company recently asked to file a counterclaim against Crumbl, claiming that the legal battle has caused DD undue financial harm.

But why would the three companies get into such a fight? Well, there might just be a good reason.

Crumbl claims that the founders of both Crave and DD used to be or applied to be employees at the company. Allegedly, they took Crumbl’s brand and recipes to set up a rival business.

But is that really true? Let’s check the story out in greater detail.




A Slew of Accusations

Crumbl filed its original lawsuit in May 2022. It laid similar, yet different, accusations against Crave and DD.

According to Crumbl, Crave’s founder Trent English applied to be a Crumbl franchisee back in 2019. He toured the company’s locations and allegedly made detailed notes of what he saw.

“The fact that Crave was founded by a former Crumbl applicant with knowledge of Crumbl’s business and brand identity shows that Crave was clearly aware of Crumbl and the Crumbl trade dress,” the company claims in its lawsuit, according to KSL.

For its part, Crave responded to the lawsuit by stating English never applied to be a Crumbl franchisee.

Similarly, Crumbl alleges that the DD founder, Bradley Maxwell, was a Crumbl process engineer for a few months in 2019. Through his position, he would’ve become familiar with the company’s recipes and other details.

In addition, Crumbl claims Maxwell’s brother Bennett applied to work at the company in 2019, but wasn’t hired. Soon after, the two brothers launched DD.

On top of recipes, Crumbl accuses both companies of stealing their brand identity. For instance, both Crave and DD use long boxes similar to Crumbl’s that fit a set number of cookies perfectly side by side.

The three companies’ websites and logos are also — according to Crumbl — so similar that they could confuse consumers. Finally, Crumbls claims is competitors have stolen its weekly rotating menu concept.


Comparing the Rivals

But is there any truth to Crumbl’s claims? We don’t live in Utah, so we can’t go check out the cookies — but we can look at the websites.

Let’s start with Crumbl. The home page features a zooming, rotating video of various cookies. The menu elements pop up on the left side of the page.

Now, we have to admit, DD’s website does look quite similar. There’s the same kind of video playing and the menu also comes out from the side — only, DD’s menu is on the right.

Crave’s website, on the other hand, doesn’t look similar at all. Sure, there’s a big cookie, but it’s a still image. Additionally, all the menu elements are on the top.

But what about the logos? Crumbl accuses the two other companies of stealing their logo idea of a cookie that has a bite taken out of it.

Here, we at least see a couple of issues. Crumbl’s current logo doesn’t have a cookie at all. Even its previous logo has incorporated the bitten cookie into a chef’s hat.

DD and Crave do have partially eaten cookies in their logos. But that seems like the go-to logo for any cookie company.

It’s not exactly the peak of creativity, now is it?

So, what’s our verdict on this? Well, we can kinda-sorta see the similarities, but they don’t seem that drastic to us.

Then again, we’re not intellectual property lawyers.


Lost Money

With Crumbl’s lawsuit still unsettled, DD has taken a shot back at its rival. Earlier this month, DD asked to file a counterclaim, requesting financial compensation from Crumbl for lost revenues.

The countersuit states that DD and Crumbl actually used to have a “business relationship,” according to KSL. However, that relationship “soured and ended” after the original lawsuit.

DD claims that Crumbl’s lawsuit is nothing but an attempt at stifling competition. The company states that the concepts of long cookie boxes or rotating menus are hardly unique.

DD also alleges that the lawsuit has caused the company financial harm, including lost investors, loan refusals, and legal fees. It’s asking that the courts allow DD to recover those costs from Crumbl.

That’s a bit of a strange claim, since in late 2022, DD’s Bennet Maxwell claimed the lawsuit had actually increased sales at the company. DD had also leaned into the court case with its marketing, using slogans such as “Cookies so good we’re being sued!” and “We don’t file lawsuits; we just have better cookies!”

But who knows — maybe the mounting legal fees are getting too expensive. We’ll have to see which way the cookie crumbles once the courts finally make their decision.

[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
THURSDAY APRIL 13
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]

Michael Jordan 1998 NBA Finals sneakers fetch auction record at $3.3 million

A pair of sneakers worn by NBA superstar Michael Jordan sold for $US2.2 million, setting a record price at auction for game-worn sports footwear, Sotheby's announced.The basketball great wore the "Bred" Air Jordan 13s during Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals on the way to his sixth and last NBA championship title.

The online sale cements Jordan's position as the most valuable athlete at auctions for sportswear memorabilia.

It broke his own record of $2.25 million for sneakers, set in September 2021.

Last year, one of his jerseys sold for $15.1 million, the most ever paid at auction for any game-worm collectibles.

"Today's record-breaking result further proves that the demand for Michael Jordan sports memorabilia continues to outperform and transcend all expectations," Brahm Wachter, Sotheby's head of streetwear and modern collectables, said in a statement.


Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals Game 2 Air Jordan 13s from his 'Last Dance' season have become the most expensive sneaker ever sold at auction.

Jordan wore the sneakers for the second half of the Chicago Bulls 93-88 victory over Utah Jazz on June 5, 1998.

Jordan scored a game-high 37 points as his Bulls side tied the series 1-1.

The Finals featured in the hit 2020 ESPN/Netflix documentary The Last Dance, about Jordan's final season with the Chicago side.

Mr Wachter said nostalgia for a different era was driving the popularity of Jordan memorabilia.

"We have clients in all different areas, from real estate, to finance to private equity.
There are many people that are interested in this emerging market," he said.

The price, which includes fees and commission, came in just above Sotheby's low pre-sale estimate of $3 million but well below the predicted high of $6 million.

The auction house said Jordan had autographed the shoes and given them to a ball-boy after the game.

Sotheby's did not identify the seller but said it was not that original recipient. Nor did it name the buyer of the size 13 shoe.

The sneakers are known as "Bred" for their black and red colour, a style Jordan wore throughout most of his trophy-laden career.



Jordan, now 60, spent the bulk of his playing career with the Bulls, with whom he won all six of his titles, but came out of retirement in 2001 to play two seasons with the Washington Wizards.

The retired star now owns the Charlotte Hornets, located in his childhood home of North Carolina, and reportedly still earns millions in royalties each year from sales of Nike's Air Jordan brand of sneakers.

Tuesday's sale coincided with the release this month of the movie Air, about Nike's pursuit of Jordan.

The $15.1 million sale of Jordan's jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals in September 2022 beat a record held by Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" Argentina jersey.

(The buyer won't even have to deal with much of an "Eau de Sneaker" scent, given Jordan only wore them for half of a 1998 finals game…)

Welsh beach covered in 'weird white brains' leaves people baffled
There are a few theories as to what they might be



We're forever getting weird and wonderful things washing up on our beaches in Wales, many of which wouldn't look out of place in a sci-fi movie. Take the large clumps of rare goose neck barnacles that turned up on the shores of Pembrokeshire last year, for example.

Considered a delicacy in some European countries, their long, pink, worm-like tentacles probably still seemed more extra-terrestrial than tasty to most of us here. Now another bizarre bounty has been swept up onto our sands.

Described by witnesses as resembling a "long line of brains," the strange sighting took place on Anglesey last week. Spotted at Traeth Mawr in Aberffraw by a couple from Beaumaris, who were out walking their dogs, the lumps of unidentified white matter had both of them scratching their heads. You can get more local news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.

However, after posting a pic of their find on social media, people soon started weighing in with the opinions about what the 'brains' could be. Posting their theories on Facebook, some speculated that it was just shapes formed by sea foam.

But, according to NorthWalesLive, the most popular suggestion was that the mass could be whelk egg capsules. The common whelk is the largest sea snail found in UK seas and the dry balls of empty whelk capsules are often found washed up in line-like formations.

According to The Wildlife Trust, whelk live on sandy seabeds below the low tide mark and lay their eggs in a spongy mass of up to 2,000 egg capsules on the seabed. Once hatched, these balls of empty egg capsules often wash up on shore.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... e-26665110

[prokroustis]

UNDERWATER SURVEY REVEALS NEW DISCOVERIES IN SUNKEN TOWN OF BAIA



Underwater archaeologists have been conducting ongoing research at the sunken Roman town of Baia, revealing new discoveries in the Terme del Lacus area.
Baiae is an archaeological park consisting of a partially sunken town from the Roman period, located on the shore of the Gulf of Naples in the present-day comune of Bacoli in Italy.

Baiae developed into a popular Roman resort which was visited frequently by many notable Roman figures, such as Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (also known as Pompey the Great), Julius Caesar, Gaius Marius, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Hadrian, and Septimius Severus.

The town would never attain a municipal status, but instead gained a reputation for a hedonistic lifestyle. This is supported by an account by Sextus Propertius, a poet of the Augustan age during the 1st century BC, who wrote that Baiae was a “vortex of luxury” and a “harbour of vice”.

Due to the position of the town on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields, an active and volatile volcanic region (which the Romans believed was the home of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan), local volcanic bradyseismic activity raised and lowered the geology on the peninsula that resulted in the lower parts of the town being submerged.

Underwater archaeologists from the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park and Naumacos, have been conducting a survey of the Terme del Lacus area, revealing a block of structures covering 60 metres in length. The team also found stone colonnades, marble columns, and a portasanta marble column, which was imported during antiquity from the island of Chios in Greece.

A large piece of marble opus sectile flooring has also been identified, still rendered with portasanta and white marble in a chromatic alternating pattern. This currently appears as the most indicative dating element, being the typology and implementation referable to the Late Antiquity age.

Previous surveys of the area in 2013 uncovered an ornate statue representing Apollo, the Greek/Roman god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more.

Black bear raids candy from Connecticut family's Easter eggs



A Connecticut resident captured video when the Easter egg hunt in their yard was ruined by a candy-craving black bear.

Jennifer Lopez said Easter eggs filled with candy had been spread around her Windsor yard before she and her husband spotted the bruin on their property.

"All of a sudden, I hear shuffling or leaves, assuming it was the squirrels or chipmunks. However, I was in for an awakening when I looked up and saw a mother bear with her cub. She worked her way to the eggs and started eating the chocolate," Lopez told WFSB-TV.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said black bears in the state typically begin to emerge from their winter dens in mid-March. Officials recently released a report revealing that bears were spotted in 158 of the state's 169 cities and towns during the year 2022.

My pandemic-era yearbook features Zoom images: ‘This is so sad’



It certainly was an unforgettable year.

A cringey pandemic-era New Jersey yearbook has gone viral on TikTok for its Zoom-captured images. At the time, classes were held online as students, teachers and the rest of the world holed up at home and waited for COVID-19 to wane.

“POV: you were class of ’21,” reads the text on the clip, which has collected 2.7 million views since it was posted this week.

On the juniors’ class page, the traditional headshots were replaced with selfies and, for some, the iconic circular Zoom icon with their first initial inside. Group photos of clubs were captured on video calls.

The most atrocious editing fail may be the screenshots of the administration and faculty.

While their images were clearly grabbed from a video call, there was no cropping — viewers could very clearly see the chat box flooded with comments and the tool bar options for sharing the screen and recording the call.

The Post has reached out to the TikToker, who goes by @milaabandzz, and Union County Vocational Technical Schools in Scotch Plains, NJ, for comment.

The 14-second clip — captioned “covid really changed everything” — garnered a raucous response in the comments.

Viewers couldn’t help but laugh at the hodgepodge of screenshots and selfies that fill the yearbook, while others urged the owner to keep the book safe and cherish it as a piece of nostalgia.

“Bro got a collection of screenshots,” joked one person.

“Zoom pictures are killing me,” agreed another.

“This is so sad omg,” wrote someone else.

“LOOOOL THE LETTERS FOR THE PHOTOS??????” exclaimed another viewer.

“Lmaoo honestly the very specific to the time and will be a legit relic in the future, don’t ever lose it!” advised one user.

Nearly 93% of people in households with school-age children reported their kids engaged in some form of “distance learning” in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic got underway, a Census survey found.

In NYC, schools reopened in September 2020 with in-person classes for some, but remote learning for most. It was difficult to find a fan of remote learning in NYC as the pandemic wore on.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/12/my-pandem ... is-so-sad/

[Fatima99]

Rough life: lost dog returned home after epic 150-mile Alaskan sea-ice journey



A one-year-old Australian shepherd took an epic trek across 150 miles (241km) of frozen Bering Sea ice that included being bitten by a seal or polar bear before he was safely returned to his home in Alaska.

Mandy Iworrigan, Nanuq’s owner who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoonga, another St Lawrence Island community in the Bering strait, last month when Nanuq disappeared with their other family dog, Starlight, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Starlight turned up a few weeks later, but Nanuq, which means polar bear in Siberian Yupik, was nowhere to be found.

About a month after Nanuq disappeared, people in the town of Wales, 150 miles (241km) north-east of Savoonga on Alaska’s western coast, began posting pictures online of what they described as a lost dog.

“My dad texted me and said, ‘There’s a dog that looks like Nanuq in Wales,’” Iworrigan said.

She reactivated her Facebook account to see if it might be her wandering hound.

“I was like, ‘No freakin’ way! That’s our dog! What is he doing in Wales?’” she said.

The events of Nanuq’s journey will likely always be a mystery.

“I have no idea why he ended up in Wales. Maybe the ice shifted while he was hunting,” Iworrigan said. “I’m pretty sure he ate leftovers of seal or caught a seal. Probably birds, too. He eats our Native foods. He’s smart.”

She used airline points to get her dog back to Gambell on a regional air carrier last week, on a charter flight that was transporting athletes for the Bering Strait school district’s Native youth Olympics tournament.

Iworrigan filmed the happy reunion when the plane landed at the airstrip in Savoonga, with both she and her daughter Brooklyn shrieking with joy.

Except for a swollen leg, with large bite marks from an unidentified animal, Nanuq was in pretty good health.

“Wolverine, seal, small nanuq, we don’t know, because it’s like a really big bite,” she said.