[goldie0608]

Gone For a Century, Plant Finally Shows Itself After Work on a Pond Stirs Up Hidden Seeds



A rare plant ‘rose from the dead,’ and was found recently in a Norfolk ‘ghost pond’, becoming the first one spotted in a century.

Happened upon by a rambling geography professor, its existence could potentially lead to the rediscovery of other hidden plants lost in England’s recent history, and gives hope to conservation botanists.

The plant, known as grass-poly and sporting pinkish-white petals, was found growing on an old farmland pond in the English countryside in Norfolk. When Professor Carl Sayer found it, he took a picture and sent it to his friend—a local botanist called Dr. Jo Parmenter, who confirmed its rarity.

“I never ever expected to see it in Norfolk; it was quite extraordinary,” said Dr. Jo, according to the BBC. “I saw a photo and straight away I thought, I know what you are.”

Found only in ponds on muddy ground in isolated parts of the UK, this was the first sighting of the plant in the county of Norfolk in more than 100 years, and the scientists concluded that the seeds must have lain dormant for over a century before restoration work on the pond created the soil conditions that allowed the seed to finally germinate.

Effectively “coming back from the dead,” nearby willows were uprooted to help restore the pond before the sunlight was able to penetrate deep enough to reach the seed.

Conservation botany

When people think of an endangered species, they often picture flagship animals like the tiger, panda, or rhino. However, plants can also be endangered, and the grass-poly certainly ranks among those.

Professor Sayer, part of the University College London’s Pond Restoration Research Group, imagines that if Norfolk’s thousands of wild ponds can be restored, more “missing, presumed dead” species may emerge once again.

“There’s no oxygen, it’s very dark, and it’s perfect for preserving seeds,” says Sayer, referring to the muddy banks of the average pond.

While often appearing as nothing more than mudhole, ponds can act as hubs in a local ecosystem. In Norfolk, many of the ponds are known as “ghost ponds,” harboring little environmental value in their current, degraded state.

Yet in both the United States and in England, river and pond restoration is becoming a more actively undertaken form of conservation, due to the keystone aspect of ponds and rivers for local wildlife.

[HogwartsExpress]

Fireball 'as bright as full moon' spotted in night sky over Japan

Social media was abuzz Sunday after reports that an object emitting an intense light had been spotted falling from the skies above Japan in the early hours of the morning.



The fireball, believed to be a bolide -- a type of shooting star often compared to a full moon for its brightness -- could be seen clearly from parts of western and central Japan.

A man in his 20s living in Gifu Prefecture was able to capture the shooting star on camera as it momentarily lit up the sky at around 1:35 a.m. Sunday morning.

"It made a rumbling noise," one Twitter user wrote, while another said, "The sky went totally bright."

Takeshi Inoue, director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium in Hyogo Prefecture, said that while shooting stars brighter than Venus are generally known as bolides, it is rare for them to be so bright.

"We believe the last burst of light was as bright as the full moon," he said.

In July, a similarly bright shooting star was observed moving from southwest to northeast in the sky above Tokyo. It was later identified as a meteor after fragments were found in neighboring Chiba Prefecture.

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has said several fireballs are observed every month on average, but it is rare for people to hear anything.

Source: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020 ... japan.html

[johngriffen]

IN BREAKING NEWS

NOTE: I CAN NOT WIN ANYTHING IF I POST SOMETHING


Tequila bar applies to become church to skirt COVID-19 lock down rules
A tequila bar owner is trying to get around the UK’s strict coronavirus restrictions by adding some holy to his spirits — and registering as a church.
James Aspell, 34, posted photos of his formal application to make his shuttered “400 Rabbits Tequila and Mezcal Cocktail Bar” in Nottingham an official place of meeting for religious worship.
He was also shown smiling and giving the thumbs-up while mailing the form for the now-reverentially named Church of the Four Hundred Rabbits.

To get approved, he needs people to sign up and say they are part of his congregation — telling Nottinghamshire Live that they can register as a “bunny believer” or “reverend of the righteous rabbits.”
“With places of worship allowed to open in all tiers we thought f–k it let’s start a religion!” he explained on Facebook to his new congregation, who would otherwise be barred under the UK’s strict lockdown rules, which would only allow him to serve takeout if he sold food.
“Can’t be that hard can it!” he added, promising “Congregation daily till late.”
He admits that even if his house-of-worship application gets approved, he would likely not be allowed to serve booze. Instead, Aspell hopes “to adapt in a different way and have some fun with it.”
“We’re not doing this to offend anybody or break any rules,” he stressed.
Judging by social media for his bar — sorry, church — he has an eager congregation waiting to sip his holy water.

Extremely rare albino bird rescued in Christchurch



An extremely rare albino sparrow is recuperating in Christchurch after it was rescued by two residents.
The bird is considered to be one in a million. Research confirms that less than five have been reported, photographed and confirmed worldwide this century.
Brandon Watson came across the bird after it was caught by his cat.
He reached out for help on Facebook and was approached by Lisa Armstrong.
She told the Herald she has just completed vet nurse studies.
"Helping animals has always been in my nature, so when I saw he needed help I didn't think twice to offer help."
Armstrong took the bird straight to an after-hours vet.
"It was in quite a bit of shock, so they told me to take it home and keep it warm and possibly release it the next day if it went well.
"I took it home, placed it in a cardboard box and put the box in the warm spare room where I stayed up with it all night."
Armstrong made a mock-up nest out of a warm clean towel and placed it in the box along with a wheat bag for warmth.



"Every two hours I reheated the bag just to a warm temperature and checked it I would say hourly throughout the night. It was a long night.
"I kept in contact with Brandon throughout it all as I felt two heads were better than one with the poor bird."
Armstrong then drove to the Animal and Bird Hospital in Christchurch this morning who agreed to care for the bird.
A spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed the bird is an Albino Sparrow and said it would be going home with them to live in their aviary.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/extremely ... 3INJPHLPU/

[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 DECEMBER 1
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]

Dog reunited with family after 11 months on the loose in Chicago



A dog that ran away from her owner's home was reunited with the family after spending nearly a year on the streets of Chicago.

Kelly Shade said Gracie, her family's black and white pit bull, went missing in December 2019, when a visitor to their Jackson Park Highlands home left a door open.

Shade said the family put up posters, contacted shelters and put photos of Gracie on website Lost Dogs Illinois, but there was no word of their missing pet.

Polly Ellison, who lives about 2 miles from Shade's home, said she noticed a black pit bull wandering loose in the neighborhood over the summer, but the canine was skittish and would flee from humans who attempted to approach it.

Ellison, with the help of dog rescuer Katie Campbell, spent months leaving food for Gracie and slowly gaining her trust.

The pair were eventually able to capture the dog and scan her for a microchip, which brought up Shade's contact information.

Shade and Gracie were reunited 11 months after the canine first went missing.

[Fivetide]

Hawaii offers free round trips for remote workers


The State of Hawaii is offering free round-trips to the state for remote workers seeking to do
their business from the tropical state while giving back to the community. Photo courtesy of
Hawaii Movers and Shakas

The State of Hawaii announced it is offering free round-trip tickets to Honolulu to people who work remotely and are willing to dedicate some of their time toward contributing to the community.

The temporary residency program, dubbed "Movers and Shakas" in reference to the Hawaiian hand gesture often interpreted as "hang loose," offers people who work remotely online the chance to do their jobs from the comforts of the tropical state.

Applications for the first group of temporary residents are being accepted through Dec. 15, and 50 people will be chosen for the first group of Movers and Shakas.

"Subsequent applicants will be accepted to the program on a rolling basis," officials said in a news release. "Hawaii currently has the lowest rate per capita of COVID infections in the country, also making it one of the safest places to live and work."

Applicants for the program are being asked to promise to respect the state's culture and natural resources. Officials said the accepted applicants will be asked to dedicate some of their time to local businesses and nonprofits.

"We wanted to help fill the gap from the decrease we've experienced in the 7-day visitors to our state," said Jason Higa, CEO of FCH Enterprises, one of the program's sponsors.

"Now that many people have the choice to work remotely, there's an opportunity for former local residents to return home and for out-of-state individuals and families to live and work from Hawaii for a longer period of time. We believe this program will attract many former Hawaii residents and professionals seeking a safe, warm environment to continue living their normal lives while contributing to the Hawaii community," Higa said.

[Morgan2498]

'Cinema under the stars' offers Indonesians safe entertainment amid pandemic

Perched on a hilltop overlooking the Indonesian city of Bandung neat lines of teepee-style tents are set up each evening on a patch of lawn in front of a large screen.


People watch movies from tents placed for social distancing at the campsites in Bandung, West Java Province, Indonesia

Known as ‘Cinema Under the Stars’, the outdoor camp-style movie space opened two months ago in the capital of Indonesia’s most populous province of West Java with the aim of keeping people both entertained and socially distanced.

“Movies are usually watched indoors... but now we have this outdoor cinema with the view of Bandung,” said 20-year-old local resident Lidia Utari.

“And what’s more interesting is that they use tents here, so I wanted to give it a try,” she added.

Supplied with pillows, blankets and snacks, each tent is also equipped with hand sanitiser and disinfectant in line with health protocols, organisers say.

Moviegoers sit at the entrance to the tents with small tables in front with food and drink, all lit up by candlelight.

No more than three people are allowed to use each of the 28 tents, which are spaced about 1.5 metres to 2 metres apart (5 to 6.6 ft).

The cost for each tent is 215,000 rupiah ($15.25) per movie.

“We started this business during the pandemic, that’s why we were brainstorming about how to attract visitors as people have a thirst for entertainment in times like these,” said Ilham Fahri Suhada, one of the organisers.

With more than 530,000 infections and 16,000 deaths, Indonesia has the highest number of coronavirus cases and fatalities in Southeast Asia.

Some health experts say limited testing and contact tracing, as well as a high positivity rate - the infection rate per person tested - indicate actual rates may be far higher.

Unlike many neighbours, the world’s fourth most populous country with 270 million people has not had national lockdowns but has instead imposed localised social restrictions.

While tents may not provide much additional protection from the virus, film-goers seem content with the setup.

“I don’t have to worry (about COVID-19) here because they carry out proper health protocols,” said Juliatun Hasanah, 21.

Source: https://in.reuters.com/article/us-healt ... NKBN28B3LW

[HogwartsExpress]

Unilever is testing a four-day work week in New Zealand

Unilever (UL) has become the latest major company to hop on the four-day work week bandwagon, lending credence to the idea that flexible working is here to stay.

On Tuesday, the distributor of Lipton's tea, Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream announced it would test shorter working hours for all its employees in New Zealand, letting them decide which four days they'd prefer to work each week.
The trial starts this month, and runs for a year. The consumer giant has 81 staff members in the country, who will be allowed to work compressed schedules with full pay as the University of Technology Sydney in Australia helps track their progress.
Unilever said that if all goes well, the company will consider whether to shake up its workflow on a wider scale.

"We hope the trial will result in Unilever being the first global company to embrace ways of working that provide tangible benefits for staff and for business," Nick Bangs, managing director of Unilever New Zealand, said in a statement.
"This is an exciting moment for our team and a validation of the catalytic role Covid-19 has played in shaking up standard working practices."
Unilever isn't the first firm to adopt the practice in New Zealand. In 2018, local company Perpetual Guardian, which helps customers manage their wills and estates, also held a widely cited two-month trial of the concept. The firm said it was so successful, it later decided to make it permanent.
Bangs said that his team was inspired by the findings from that case study, and had started to "believe the old ways of working are outdated."
Even New Zealand's leader, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, has raised the idea as one that might help the economy recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
In May, Ardern shared the suggestion while discussing ways to revive domestic tourism in her country. She said that while businesses had their own discretion to make such decisions, the idea had merit in that it might give domestic travelers "flexibility in terms of their travel and their leave."
Big companies elsewhere are also starting to join the trend. Last year, Microsoft (MSFT)'s team in Japan experimented by shutting down its offices every Friday in August, and giving all employees an extra day off each week.

The results were promising: While the amount of time spent at work was cut dramatically, productivity — measured by sales per employee — went up by almost 40% compared to the same period the previous year, the company said.
As a result, Microsoft announced that it would follow up with another experiment in Japan, and also asked other companies to join the initiative.
Four-day work weeks have been touted as a way to improve work-life balance. Some businesses recently started trying it out to help fight burnout caused by the challenges of working during the pandemic.
Other companies are leaning into remote working for similar reasons. On Tuesday, Japanese firm Nomura Holdings said that it was considering introducing a new arrangement, which would allow workers to spend up to 60% of their time away from the office each month.

source: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/01/busi ... index.html

I wonder how many news is one person allowed to post within a day
It feels good to stay away from typical bad news and read only the good ones

[HogwartsExpress]

'Sistine Chapel of the ancients' rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest



One of the world’s largest collections of prehistoric rock art has been discovered in the Amazonian rainforest.

Hailed as “the Sistine Chapel of the ancients”, archaeologists have found tens of thousands of paintings of animals and humans created up to 12,500 years ago across cliff faces that stretch across nearly eight miles in Colombia.

Their date is based partly on their depictions of now-extinct ice age animals, such as the mastodon, a prehistoric relative of the elephant that hasn’t roamed South America for at least 12,000 years. There are also images of the palaeolama, an extinct camelid, as well as giant sloths and ice age horses.

These animals were all seen and painted by some of the very first humans ever to reach the Amazon. Their pictures give a glimpse into a lost, ancient civilisation. Such is the sheer scale of paintings that they will take generations to study.

The discovery was made last year, but has been kept secret until now as it was filmed for a major Channel 4 series to be screened in December: Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon.

The site is in the Serranía de la Lindosa where, along with the Chiribiquete national park, other rock art had been found. The documentary’s presenter, Ella Al-Shamahi, an archaeologist and explorer, told the Observer: “The new site is so new, they haven’t even given it a name yet.”



She spoke of the excitement of seeing “breathtaking” images that were created thousands of years ago.

The discovery was made by a British-Colombian team, funded by the European Research Council. Its leader is José Iriarte, professor of archaeology at Exeter University and a leading expert on the Amazon and pre-Columbian history.

He said: “When you’re there, your emotions flow … We’re talking about several tens of thousands of paintings. It’s going to take generations to record them … Every turn you do, it’s a new wall of paintings.

“We started seeing animals that are now extinct. The pictures are so natural and so well made that we have few doubts that you’re looking at a horse, for example. The ice-age horse had a wild, heavy face. It’s so detailed, we can even see the horse hair. It’s fascinating.”

The images include fish, turtles, lizards and birds, as well as people dancing and holding hands, among other scenes. One figure wears a mask resembling a bird with a beak.



The site is so remote that, after a two-hour drive from San José del Guaviare, a team of archaeologists and film-makers trekked on foot for around four hours.

They somehow avoided the region’s most dangerous inhabitants. “Caimans are everywhere, and we did keep our wits about us with snakes,” Al-Shamahi said, recalling an enormous bushmaster – “the deadliest snake in the Americas with an 80% mortality rate” – that blocked their jungle path. They had been delayed getting back, and it was already pitch black.

They had no choice but to walk past it, knowing that, if they were attacked, there was little chance of getting to a hospital. “You’re in the middle of nowhere,” she said. But it was “100%” worth it to see the paintings, she added.

As the documentary notes, Colombia is a land torn apart after 50 years of civil war that raged between Farc guerrillas and the Colombian government, now with an uneasy truce in place. The territory where the paintings have been discovered was completely off limits until recently and still involves careful negotiation to enter safely.

Al-Shamahi said: “When we entered Farc territory, it was exactly as a few of us have been screaming about for a long time. Exploration is not over. Scientific discovery is not over but the big discoveries now are going to be found in places that are disputed or hostile.”

The paintings vary in size. There are numerous handprints and many of the images are on that scale, be they geometric shapes, animals or humans. Others are much larger.



Al-Shamahi was struck by how high up many of them are: “I’m 5ft 10in and I would be breaking my neck looking up. How were they scaling those walls?”

Some of the paintings are so high they can only be viewed with drones.

Iriarte believes that the answer lies in depictions of wooden towers among the paintings, including figures appearing to bungee jump from them.

He added: “These paintings have a reddish terracotta colour. We also found pieces of ochre that they scraped to make them.”

Speculating on whether the paintings had a sacred or other purpose, he said: “It’s interesting to see that many of these large animals appear surrounded by small men with their arms raised, almost worshipping these animals.”

Observing that the imagery includes trees and hallucinogenic plants, he added: “For Amazonian people, non-humans like animals and plants have souls, and they communicate and engage with people in cooperative or hostile ways through the rituals and shamanic practices that we see depicted in the rock art.”

Al-Shamahi added: “One of the most fascinating things was seeing ice age megafauna because that’s a marker of time. I don’t think people realise that the Amazon has shifted in the way it looks. It hasn’t always been this rainforest. When you look at a horse or mastodon in these paintings, of course they weren’t going to live in a forest. They’re too big. Not only are they giving clues about when they were painted by some of the earliest people – that in itself is just mind-boggling – but they are also giving clues about what this very spot might have looked like: more savannah-like.”

Iriarte suspects that there are many more paintings to be found: “We’re just scratching the surface.” The team will be back as soon as Covid-19 allows.

source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... dApp_Other

[Fatima99]

David Chang is the 1st celebrity to win $1 million for charity on 'Millionaire'
Chang was playing to raise money for the Southern Smoke Foundation, which has been helping people in need from the food and beverage industry.



This "Millionaire" moment just made history!

Celebrity chef David Chang, host of the Netflix series “Ugly Delicious” and founder of the Momofuku restaurant group, just became the first celebrity to take home the $1 million prize for charity on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”

Things were down to the wire for Chang during Sunday night’s episode when he reached the $500,000 mark on “Millionaire” and was confronted with a tough history question: Who was the first U.S. president to have electricity in the White House?

He used the phone-a-friend lifeline, calling ESPN anchor Mina Kimes for help. She guessed the answer was "probably" Benjamin Harrison, but she didn’t sound completely confident.

“This is the most painful, nervous … this is terrifying,” Chang said. “She’s so much smarter than I am, though, and she knows this stuff. Truthfully, I don’t even know if Benjamin Harrison was a president!”

Host Jimmy Kimmel reminded him of the odds: If he answered the question correctly, he would win $1 million, but if he answered wrong, he would drop all the way back to $32,000. Kimmel also reminded Chang that no celebrity had ever gone for the $1 million question in the show’s history.

“I’m a gambling man, and shame on me if this is wrong, but I’m doing this because having a million dollars right now in this moment is a game-changer for many, many families,” said Chang, who was playing to raise money for the Southern Smoke Foundation, which has been helping people in need from the food and beverage industry during the pandemic.

“And yes, half a million is as well and I want to say no, just take the money, but I’m not,” he said. “And Mina, if you’re wrong, it’s not your fault. This is all my fault because I didn’t do well enough in school and I was a terrible student. That’s why I became a chef!”

After a few more tense moments, he decided to take the plunge.

“I’m going to let my stupid confidence, bravado, win out,” he said.

Luckily, his gamble paid off. He locked in Benjamin Harrison as his final answer and to everyone’s relief, he was right.

“I can’t believe this!” Chang said, beaming from ear to ear as he held up his giant $1 million check. “What? What?!”

After his victory, they called back Mina Kimes to tell her the good news.

“Finally,” she joked, “My college education is justified!”

[PennySerenade]

Worker at Toronto construction site finds rescue dog that went missing 6 weeks earlier



TORONTO -- A three-year-old pup who went missing six weeks ago has been reunited with his family after being found by a Toronto worker at a transit construction site.

Oakville resident Simon Chadwick said that he got Boomer, a lab-mix rescue, in March and that the dog went missing while the family was visiting his partner in Toronto.

“We were just bringing stuff back and forth into the house and all of a sudden something spooked him and he just bolted straight past me and her and just off down the road as fast as he could,” Chadwick told CTV News Toronto.

“Honestly, I thought I’m never going to see this dog again.”

The family spent weeks searching the area, making posters and writing on Facebook groups trying to find the dog—but there was no trace of the animal.



That is, until a week ago when Crosslinx Site Superintendent Scott Shaw noticed a dog at a construction site for the new Cedarvale Subway Station around Eglinton Avenue, about three-and-a-half kilometres down the road from where Chadwick’s partner lived.

“He must’ve snuck through our fence in the middle of the night,” Shaw said. “There’s space, about six feet that’s under there and there’s a couple of insulated tarps we have under there and he found it nice and warm and quiet.”

“I saw they had a collar and tags and I figured this dog belongs to somebody.”

Shaw and his team went online and found a post about Boomer that matched the dog’s description. They then called animal control to help bring the dog home.

“Within 20 minutes, half an hour, we had Boomer back home in the safe hands of his owner,” Shaw said.



Chadwick said that Boomer was in relative good health when he got him back.

“It was him. He was really, really smelly. He was really, really tired,” Chadwick said through tears. “We finally got our boy back. I just opened the crate and he just, we had some cuddles and that was a big relief.”

Chadwick’s partner is an artist and has said she will be painting a picture of Shaw’s dog as a thank you for finding Boomer.

As for Shaw, he said that he would be lost without his dog and it was a “good feeling” to be able to reunite Boomer with his family ahead of the holiday season.

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[hija]

The high street lettings agency for homeless people



A high street lettings agency for homeless people has opened in Surrey. Now others are keen to replicate the model

“It always interests me that people think this is original,” says Helen Watson, chief executive of Rentstart, a letting agency in Walton-on-Thames that is exclusively for people facing homelessness. “If you walk into any estate agent – whether you’re buying or renting – you’re somebody walking into somewhere saying, ‘I need somewhere to live. Can you help me?’”

The concept might not be original, but opening a lettings agency for homeless people almost certainly is. Around 450 people approach Rentstart, which is a charity, each year looking for emergency accommodation or suitable private rented housing. But until August, each of them would have been greeted by a buzzer entry system and an insalubrious shared office around the back of Walton-on-Thames high street.

Now all of Rentstart’s clients, landlords, staff and volunteers are welcomed into a large, airy space that has large windows and several consultation rooms. With crisp white walls, shiny laminate flooring, comfy green sofas and inky Rorschach-like prints on the walls, the former bank looks like any contemporary estate agents. The charity says the idea behind opening a prominent high street address was to create somewhere where clients felt valued, respected and part of the community.

“It’s such a nice place to walk into,” says Blair Darby, a Rentstart client, who was put in touch with the charity after becoming homeless. “You walk in there and you don’t have to hide. It just looks like an office and it’s done in a very nice modern way.”

Darby, an actor, found himself homeless in 2016 after returning to the UK from Austria, where he had been playing the dictator Idi Amin in a theatre production. “From having been lauded and applauded on a nice stage in Austria, I was sleeping on the streets in England,” said the 64-year-old.

For weeks, Darby pretended to be a tourist in Walton-on-Thames until a local homeless organisation put him in touch with a shelter some 35 miles away in Crawley, West Sussex, which then signposted him to Rentstart.

Darby appreciated the personal touch at Rentstart, which alongside sourcing accommodation can provide deposit guarantees for clients and supply one month’s rent in advance. It also hands out starter packs containing household goods, and supports people finding employment, navigating universal credit and accessing health services. “Rentstart just saves lives,” says Darby. “They certainly saved me.”

According to Watson, housing clients, some of who are dealing with complex personal issues, is the easy bit. “It’s keeping people housed in good quality housing, where they can start dealing with whatever it is they need to deal with next, [that’s hard],” she says.

A lack of available housing in the area makes it harder still, which is why Rentstart takes on tenancies so it can sublet to those in need rather than allowing homes to go on the private rental market. “We had to take on the risk to make sure that we could continue to house people,” says Watson.

Thirty private landlords now let directly through the charity, with Rentstart offering guaranteed rent, on-going tenancy support and grants for property improvements.

Since opening in Walton-on-Thames, a number of charities and councils have been in touch with Rentstart hoping to replicate the service. The charity declined to give names as it was not working directly with them yet.

Watson believes Rentstart’s model could be rolled out elsewhere, but says it would have to enhance existing homeless services, which vary region to region; a top down, centralised approach, she adds, would not work.

“We believe in small and local,” says Watson. “You have to know your area – that’s the only way we’ve been able to house people.”

Buffalo school board member curses, uses obscene gesture during Zoom meeting



Paulette Woods, a member of the Buffalo school board, is under fire for appearing to use an obscene gesture and using profanity during a virtual meeting earlier this month, as reported by Newsweek.
Woods would later apologize about the incident after being called out by The Buffalo News’ editorial board.
“I just want to start by publicly apologizing to parents, students, my constituents, my fellow elected officials, Buffalo school staff and the West New York community at large for displaying offensive body language and facial gestures during a very emotionally charged Board of Education meeting a couple of weeks ago,” Woods told WGRZ radio.
During a Zoom meeting on Nov. 18 with fellow members of the Buffalo school board and some local residents, Woods was seen drinking something out of a wine glass as other meeting attendees were speaking. She then began yelling, although her microphone was muted, and held up her middle finger.
One of the members on the call, fellow school board member Larry Scott, saw Woods’s actions and began to call attention to it to the others in the meeting. “We have a board member who is giving people the middle finger on her screen,” Scott said. After school board president Sharon Belton-Cottman asked Scott to repeat himself, he said, again, “There is a board member that was just swearing and giving the middle finger to everybody on the screen.”
Woods would continue the meeting with an apparent barrage of muted profanity. The video shows her lips saying, “shut the f**k up b***h, shut the f**k up,” before and after the obscene gesture.
Because the call was muted, it is uncertain to whom she was addressing.

Woods initially denied that she was cursing, drinking or showed her middle finger on the call. Prior to her apology on WGRZ, the editorial board of The Buffalo News published an Op-Ed, calling for her to acknowledge her actions:

“Her behavior is complicated by her position as a member of the Buffalo School Board, where she represents the Central District and chairs the Board’s Finance and Operations oversight. In that position, she may be a step removed from the students who interact with teachers and other actual grown-ups, but she is nonetheless a role model – a poor one, based on her behavior last week, but a role model, regardless.”

https://thegrio.com/2020/11/29/buffalo-school-board-member-zoom-meeting/

[goldie0608]

Hero Dog with Prosthetic Paws that Survived Gunfire to Save Others Given Highest Animal Honor



Belgian Malinois, Kuno, has proved beyond all doubt that dogs truly are humanity’s best friends.

The retired British Army Working Dog suffered life-changing injuries while supporting the British special forces fighting Al Qaeda and has now been awarded the Dickin Medal – the highest award any animal can receive within the British military – from the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA).

To put it into human perspective: that’s the animal equivalent of winning the Victoria Cross, the UK's version of the Medal of Honor.

"Kuno is a true hero," Jan McLoughlin from the PDSA veterinary charity said in a release about the award, which was given to Kuno for his incredible bravery during a 2019 operation in Afghanistan.

For the operation, the four-year-old military pooch was deployed to support British troops attacking a well-armed Al-Qaeda compound.

Unfortunately, the assault force became pinned down by a heavy barrage of grenades and machine-gun fire launched by an insurgent equipped with night vision goggles, who had concealed himself in the compound.

With the British and Afghan troops unable to move without sustaining casualties, it fell to Kuno to break the deadlock.

After being released by his handler, Kuno – who had already incapacitated one insurgent and discovered a stash of hidden explosives during the raid – sprinted through the compound's doorway to attack the insurgent.

Startled by Kuno's sudden arrival, the gunman fired wildly into the darkness, injuring the dog in both hind legs. Kuno continued to press forward and threw himself at the gunman, biting his arm and wrestling him to the ground.

Despite his serious leg wounds, the dog continued to attack the Al-Qaeda fighter until the assault force entered the courtyard and cleared the building. Only then did he finally take a rest.

"His actions that day undoubtedly changed the course of a vital mission, saving multiple lives in the process. And despite serious, life-changing injuries, he performed his duty without faltering," McLoughlin added in the release.

"For this bravery and devotion to duty, we are honored to welcome him as the latest recipient of the PDSA Dickin."

Unfortunately, the Al Qaeda fighter's bullets seriously damaged Kuno's back legs, with one only narrowly missing a main artery.

Despite receiving life-saving field treatment by medics in the back of a helicopter, Kuno still required several major operations before he was stable enough to return to the U.K.

This included amputating part of one of his rear paws to prevent life-threatening infection.

Happily, however, the hero dog has since made a full recovery from his surgery and has become the first U.K. Military Working Dog to be fitted with custom-made prosthetic limbs.

The PDSA describes him as being "in good spirits and health."

"I’m delighted that Kuno will receive the PDSA Dickin Medal," British defense secretary Ben Wallace said in the release. "It is a testament to his training, tireless bravery, and devotion to duty which undoubtedly saved lives that day."

"I am very proud of the role our military working dogs play on operations at home and abroad. Kuno’s story reminds us of the lengths these animals go to keep us all safe."

Kuno is the 72nd recipient of the Dickin Medal since it was created in December 1943, at the height of World War II.

To date, its recipients include 35 dogs, 32 WW2 messenger pigeons, four horses, and one cat.