[Misstee]

New Orleans student accepted to 125 schools, receives $9M in scholarship offers
By Ben Hooper
Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter




April 25 (UPI) -- A New Orleans high school senior is believed to have broken a record by receiving more than $9 million in scholarship offers after receiving acceptance letters from 125 colleges and universities.

Dennis Barnes, a senior at International High School of New Orleans, said he applied to about 200 colleges and universities and received acceptance letters from 125 schools.

"I submitted college applications in August, with an eye on raising the bar high for college admissions. Decision letters were an overflow in my mailbox and hundreds of scholarship offers," Barnes told WWL-TV.

Barnes said he has now been offered more than $9 million in scholarships. Normadie Cormier of Lafayette, La., was believed to have set a world record in 2019 when she received $8.7 million in scholarship offers.

Barnes said he is hoping to total $10 million in scholarship offers by the end of the month. The student, who has a cumulative grade point average of 4.98, said he plans to pursue a dual undergraduate degree in computer science and criminal justice.

Barnes said he will announce his college decision May 2.

What is Arcturus? New COVID ‘variant of interest’ may ‘spread globally’: experts



A new subvariant of COVID-19 is proliferating in the US and is now responsible for nearly 10% of all new cases, according to alerts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

The CDC estimates that Omicron strain XBB.1.16 — more commonly known as Arcturus — was the cause of 9.6% of new infections this week. That represents an increase from nearly 6% last week and about 3% the week prior.

Because of the spike in infections, the World Health Organization is warning the public of the possibility that the new strain could become the dominant strain in the US in the near future.

“Due to its estimated growth advantage and immune escape characteristics, XBB.1.16 may spread globally and contribute to an increase in case incidence,” WHO announced in a new report. “However, at present, there is no early signal of an increase in severity.”

WHO has now upgraded Arcturus to a “variant of interest.”

The Arcturus strain — one of more than 600 Omicron subvariants — was first detected in January and since then has been discovered in 31 countries.

It was reported earlier this month that Arcturus was causing special concern in India, and that it could be 1.2 times more infectious than the Kraken variant.

Arcturus has surpassed the other variants in India, causing India’s health ministry to launch mock drills in order to see if hospitals are properly prepared to handle a potential influx of COVID patients.

“It’s been in circulation for a few months. We haven’t seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations, but that’s why we have these systems in place,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 technical lead, said during a press conference.

“Systems to track the virus variants, global collaborations to assess transmissibility, immune escape, severity and the impact of any of our interventions including diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.”

Van Kerkhove added, “It has one additional mutation in the spike protein which in lab studies shows increased infectivity as well as potential increased pathogenicity.”

A study from the University of Tokyo published on the biology research website bioRxiv suggested that Arcturus is 1.2 times more infectious than the Kraken variant, writing that it will “spread worldwide in the near future.”

Mutations of the new variant could potentially make it more difficult for the immune system to take on, increasing the growth rate, scientists suggested.

posting.php?mode=edit&f=2&p=10280321

Pensioner killed by a flying cow that was hit by a train and flung 100ft while urinating on tracks



A pensioner who was caught short and urinated on train tracks was killed in a freak accident as he was hit by a flying cow.

82-year-old Shivdayal Sharma died instantly on Wednesday after an express train hit the cows, launching one 100ft into the air before parts of it landed on him 30 metres away.

A second person standing near the pensioner as he relieved himself narrowly escaped being struck by the projectile animal, reports say.

Sharma retired from his post as an electrician in the Indian Railways 23-years-ago.

The bizarre incident happened in Alwar, Rajasthan, India, where cows had wandered onto nearby train tracks in an area where trains can reach speeds of up to 100mph.



Cows being hit on the tracks is apparently not a rare event with 26,180 incidents reported from 2022-2023.

The accident has triggered many to call for better safety regulations along the route.

A number of preventive measures have been taken by Zonal Railways to reduce animal fatalities on the Railway tracks.

Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, announced that measures such as 'cleaning of garbage and removal of wild vegetation' had begun to keep the the pesky cows away, as well as 'frequent whistling at locations prone for cattle/animal run over'.

Elsewhere metal fences had been erected along the length of the tracks to physically prevent cattle from straying into the danger zone.

When tweeted about by India News on Thursday, the post gained over 309k views with commenters largely commenting about the lack of safety.



One said: "How about putting a fence around high speed train tracks?"

Another seemed to think the fences weren't the only amenity missing: "Developing trains and tracks a good decision but provide toilets to the public is also a necessity."

Others tried to see the funny side with one saying: "Be safe, don’t pee on tracks."

Animal lovers seemed more worried about the cow, with another user saying: "Just one question : is the cow ok? It says it fell on man and killed him but nothing about the life status of the cow."

PSA: the cow was not okay.

In happier bovine news from Australia, a cow has been adopted as a family pet after farmers discovered it has a smiling face on the side of its body.

Farmers Megan and Barry Coster were surprised to find that their Holstein calf, born in March, had an unusual, smie-raising marking on its body.

ABC News reported that while the couple breeds around 700 cows a year at their farm in Ripplebrook in West Gippsland, Australia, but they've never seen anything like this before.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/pensioner ... 6-20230422

[lush]

Christian Ouija Board Actually a Demonic Trap, Exorcist Claims
April 24th, 2023*

A new board game marketed as a ‘Christian’ version of the Ouija board has sparked quite a controversy among clerics, with one priest describing it as a ‘trap from the devil’.

It sounds like a clever April Fools prank for Christians, but it turns out that the Holy Spirit Board is an actual game that anyone can find on sites like Amazon. It’s basically a Ouija board, only instead of demons, ghosts and other unholy beings, ‘this is a one-way ticket straight to heaven’ that relies on the classic planchette system to allow users to communicate directly with “our lord and savior Jesus Christ!” The layout of the planchette is similar to that of a Ouija board, only it is decorated with Christian symbols like Jesus crucified on the cross, three angels, and a dove. Oh, and instead of the triangular pendant moved on the Ouija board, the Holy Spirit Board uses a golden cross.



“GET THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!” the board game’s description reads. “The Holy Spirit Board can answer all of life’s most important questions, straight from the man himself! “Unlike other spirit boards, this one will NEVER contact evil ghosts or demons, so you can ask your questions with an assured sense of safety.”

You can see how the above can be viewed as blasphemy by conservative Christians, so it’s no wonder that a known exorcist has come out and publically warned people not to play around with the board game, going as far as to call it a “trap from the devil”.

“The devil is always looking for different ways he can trap all the victims that he can take for him. And this is one,” Roman Catholic Father Ernesto Caro of the Diocese of Monterey, Mexico, said in an interview with EWTN’s ‘News Nightly’. “Ouija games and all this are forbidden in the Bible.”



“If the triangle is moving by itself, be careful, it’s not God who is moving, it’s the devil,” Caro, who is known to perform exorcisms, warned.

Asked what people who bought the controversial board game should do, the exorcist said that they should get rid of the board as quickly as possible, go to confession, and ‘repent and ask God for liberation’. They should also ask a priest to give an extra blessing for protection, just to be safe.

Here at Oddity Central, we don’t take things like the Holy Spirit Board seriously, and we suspect the motivation of its creators was little more than tongue-in-cheek humor, but going over the product’s Amazon reviews, it’s easy to see many people see it as an actual threat.



“Shame on Amazon for allowing these products to be marketed and sold on its platform. I did not nor would I ever recommend that anyone buy this product!” one person wrote.

“Pure evil,” another commented.

The Holy Spirit Board first started making waves online at the end of last year, but it really went viral last month after Father Ernesto Caro’s comments were picked up by Christian news media.



While you’re here, may we interest you in a video game where you play as Jesus Christ and perform biblical miracles?

Car delivery driver surprised by snake slithering out of dashboard



A driver on his way to deliver a car in England had to make an unplanned detour when he discovered a snake inside the vehicle.

The Linjoy Wildlife Sanctuary and Rescue said the driver was delivering a car from a Tipton, West Midlands, dealership to a customer in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, when he spotted a 5-foot snake slithering out of the dashboard.

Linjoy rescuers rushed to the scene, but discovered the snake had hidden itself inside the car.

The driver was convinced the drive the car another 15 minutes to Linjoy owner Lindsay Newell's house, where she and a colleague named Mark were able to remove the carpet, plastic trims and passenger seat to reach the elusive reptile.

The snake, identified as a nonvenomous corn snake, was removed from the vehicle, but Newell said Mark only narrowly avoided being bitten.

The car was reassembled and the driver was able to complete his delivery.

Newell said the snake is now recovering in the rescue's care.

[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
WEDNESDAY APRIL 26
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]

Moose wanders into Alaskan movie theater and leaves with a Happy Meal

Employees at a movie theater in Kenai, Alaska got a big surprise this week when a curious moose strolled into the lobby and rooted through the trash, then left after a few minutes with a McDonald’s Happy Meal box stuck to its snout.

The Kenai Cinemas in Kenai, Alaska is currently showing The Super Mario Brothers Movie, the Nic Cage-goes-full-Dracula flick Renfield, and The Pope’s Exorcist. Whether it was one of those films, some of the other movies in its rotation, or just a craving for buttery popcorn, something in the theater got the attention of a young moose.

The visit, which happened around 7 p.m., was captured on social media in a TikTok video and Facebook post that showed what appeared to be a yearling entering Kenai Cinemas while an employee looked on.


The animal was caught on CCTV entering the theater through the front door which was open

The animal headed around the corner, and sniffed the air, its tongue sticking out.

“No. No. No,” the employee said in the TikTok video. She called the manager.

“Ricky! Ricky!” she said, her voice rising.

The theater manager, Ricky Black, was upstairs working on employees’ schedules. He said his first reaction was to laugh.

“She was behind the counter. She wasn’t in immediate danger from the moose,” Black said. “And she’s like, ‘Stop laughing. This is serious.’”

Meanwhile, the moose had calmly begun eating out of the trash. Black banged on the wall and yelled. The moose ignored him.

“Shoo! Shoo!” Black yelled in the video. “He ain’t leavin’,” one of the other employees responded.

After a few minutes, the moose found the Happy Meal box, Black said.


The animal rooted through the trash before picking up a discarded McDonald's happy meal

All the yelling eventually helped direct the moose out. But as employees watched it wander away, it was clear the Happy Meal was still stuck on its snout, nose poking through the cardboard, Black said.

These kinds of close encounters with wildlife can be worrisome, said Nick Fowler, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Like other wildlife, moose can become habituated to humans and human food, which can make them more dangerous, he said. Human food also isn’t always good for moose, which typically eat plants, twigs and leaves.

“I do not know if a Happy Meal is good for a moose or not. However, I can confidently say that it’s not in its natural diet,” Fowler said.

In situations like this, “the best thing we can almost always do is make sure there’s plenty of distance, and we’re not approaching the animal,” Fowler said.

While the moose at the theater didn’t seem aggressive, Fowler said it’s not always easy to recognize the sign of an aggressive moose. And the fact that a moose is young doesn’t guarantee it won’t be aggressive, he said.

“You can get injured by by any wildlife. And it’s important not to assume that a younger animal that maybe is displaying what someone decides is not aggressive behavior isn’t going to be involved in a negative human wildlife interaction,” he said.

Fowler said this time of year is typically when moose are most “nutritionally limited.”

The front door at the theater had been propped open to let in some fresh air while the employee cleaned out the popcorn machine, which emits a lot of heat — and popcorn smell, Black said. He thinks that smell is what drew the moose in.

“It definitely could smell that popcorn,” he said. “It’s just a very common reaction for anybody or anything that comes into the theaters.”

[Fatima99]

Woman dressed cat up as a baby in attempt to smuggle drugs into resort



Authorities in the city of Nizhny Tagil, central Russia, brought the woman in for questioning after she roused suspicions strolling through a holiday resort with her young daughter in a pram.

Snug inside the buggy was actually a cat wrapped in a baby’s jacket, MailOnline reports.

Retrieving the pet, officers found several small packages containing more than 170g of powdered methylephedrine, a stimulant that can also be used in the manufacture of other narcotics.

In a further bizarre turn, authorities found the cat was wearing a full baby’s wardrobe – including a hat, baby grow, tiny baby boots and even a nappy.

Local reports do not suggest what it was that first alerted police to the woman.

Photos show her after she was detained by officers, sitting and wearing handcuffs in a police cell.



She is understood to still be in custody and awaiting sentencing.

It’s not the first time cats have been used as part of an apparent narco-smuggling operation.

Back in 2021, a feline felon was stopped outside the Nueva Esperanza jail in Panama, which houses more than 1,700 prisoners, north of the capital of Panama City.

Around the cat’s neck was a cloth containing wrapped packages of white powder and dried leaves.

Officials said at the time they suspected these substances were cocaine, crack and marijuana.

It is apparently common practice for animals outside the prison to be loaded up with drugs, for inmates to then use food to lure them to the windows of their cells.

Raccoon caught on camera browsing the aisles at Toronto store



A Toronto man shopping at his local grocery store captured video of an unusual fellow shopper browsing the aisles -- a raccoon.

Alex Chow said he was at the Loblaws store near the intersection of Dupont and Christie Streets when he heard a commotion that turned out to be onlookers watching a raccoon wander through the store.

Chow recorded a short video of the raccoon as it investigated the store's check-out area.

"This is so Toronto," Chow told the Toronto Star. "Hogtown is such an outdated archaic nickname. [Toronto] should be 'Raccoon City.'"

Chow said he and his fellow onlookers kept a safe distance from the raccoon in case it carried any diseases.

A Loblaws representative confirmed the incident, saying the raccoon "was safely ushered out with the help of staff and customers."

Toronto Animal Services warned residents not to approach raccoons, even in unusual places, due to a distemper outbreak in the city's raccoon population. Officials said the distemper outbreak is partially a result of the mild winter and stems from distemper cases noted by TAS in the fall.

[HogwartsExpress]

Twitter appears to give blue tick verification to dead users including celebrities Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Boseman and Chester Bennington

Elon Musk's revamp of Twitter's blue tick service has hit another hurdle after it emerged that several dead celebrities and other high-profile users appeared to have been signed up to the verification service.

One of Mr Musk's first moves when he bought Twitter last year was to announce that the platform's blue ticks — which verify a high-profile user's identity — would no longer be free.

Instead he has created a subscription service, charging users US$8 a month ($11.90) for the blue tick.

While some high-profile users declined to pay and had their ticks removed, others, including some who have been dead for years, appeared to still have their checks.

Verified Twitter profiles which appeared to belong to dead celebrities included Marvel actor Chadwick Boseman, basketballer Kobe Bryant and Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington.

There was also a blue tick on a profile appearing to belong to Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist killed by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018.

When someone hovers over the blue tick next to the user's name a statement pops up which says: "This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number."

It was unclear if the dead Twitter users' agents or other third parties had paid the subscription fee.

Upset fans tweeted their disappointment and confusion.

One wrote: "Okay Twitter, what's going on now??? Anthony Bourdain, Michael Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, and a lot of other DEAD celebrities now have little blue checkmarks. AND ARE VERIFIED!!??? Exactly what's up with that?? Did they submit certification from the other side?"

Another tweeted: "There's now an entire subgenre of Verified dead people on Twitter, including Anthony Bourdain, Chadwick Boseman, and Kobe Bryant. Great job, @elonmusk."

Mr Musk further confused users when he revealed he had been paying the subscription fee for some users.

Some of the accounts Mr Musk has paid for include author Stephen King and actor Sir Ian McKellen.

When King tweeted he had not paid for Twitter Blue, Mr Musk replied: "You're welcome namaste."

King also tweeted: "I think Mr. Musk should give my blue check to charity. I recommend the Prytula Foundation, which provides lifesaving services in Ukraine. It's only $8, so perhaps Mr. Musk could add a bit more".

src: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-24/ ... /102258586

[goldie0608]

Man Finds Dolls Cozied-Up in Back of His Mailbox–the Scene Changes but Mystery Remains



When a Michigan man went for a routine walk to his mailbox to collect unwanted supermarket papers and publicity, he discovered to his surprise he had some uninvited guests.

Two wooden dolls sitting on a miniature couch in the back of the box with a note between them that read “We’ve decided to live here. Mary and Shelley.”

Don Powell first thought, as he told news outlets, the dolls had been placed there by mistake, but a quick and befuddled interrogation of the neighbors in his cul-de-sac, including one named Shelly, turned up nothing.

A psychologist by training and president of a company that organizes corporate wellness retreats, Powell is all about a pick-me-up, and when he moved into his current home five years ago he and his wife Nancy ordered a custom mailbox that would mirror their house—with ample windows and solar-powered lightbulbs that would illuminate the mailbox after dark.

Evidently, some trickster believed it a perfect place for a doll to make their home. Powell at first disagreed, and ordered Mary and Shelly’s eviction—right into the garbage can. But a change of heart saw him put the dolls back to see what would happen next.

He was right to wait. The trickster returned bringing a dog, rug, and a four-poster bed for Mary and Shelly to sleep in.

By now, Powell was enamored with the game, and went on Nextdoor, a sort of Facebook exclusively for the people who live on one’s street.

“The response (on Nextdoor) was just incredible,” Powell told Hometown Life. “People were saying, ‘This is so much fun to read, I was ready to get off of Nextdoor, but this makes me want to stay.’”

Then Halloween rolled around, and Powell found that the dolls had been replaced with skeletons wearing black robes.

By Christmas time, Mary and Shelly’s Cousin Shirley with a broken leg had moved into the mailbox’s hall decked with presents and a tree. At that point, Powell was having just as much fun as the mysterious trickster.

“Then, after the ice storm, I did a post that said the family was locked in the mailbox and couldn’t get out,” Powell said. “Somebody asked if they lost power, I said ‘No, they don’t have power to begin with, but they do have a wood burning stove and were working from home.’”

He said the whole ordeal has awakened the desire to author a children’s book.

[prokroustis]

THE “GREAT TOWER OF LONDON” – LONDON’S FAILED EIFFEL TOWER



In 1891, construction began on the “Great Tower of London”, also known as Watkin’s Tower, at the site of present-day Wembley Stadium in what was the rural Middlesex hamlet called Wembley.
The tower was the brainchild of Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet, a railway entrepreneur who envisioned creating an attraction to rival that of the Eiffel Tower, but surpassing the latter in size to achieve the title of the world’s tallest building.

Watkin was an ambitious visionary, having undertaken many large-scale railway engineering projects, including the Great Central Main Line, and the failed 1881 Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company’s channel tunnel project to connect his railway empire to the French rail network.

The success of the Eiffel Tower, nicknamed “La dame de fer” (French for “Iron Lady”), which was constructed from 1887 to 1889 by engineer, Gustave Eiffel, led to Watkin proposing his own tower that would entice Londoners onto his trains to visit the attraction.

Watkin approached Gustave Eiffel to design his tower, but the Frenchman declined, so he launched an architectural competition in 1890 that received 68 designs for consideration.

Some of the proposals included a tower inspired by the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a tower with a spiral railway climbing its exterior, and a 1/12-scale model of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The winning entry was submitted by MacLaren, William Dunn and engineer AD Stewart, consisting of an eight-legged 366m tall metal tower – 45.8 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower.

The design had two observation decks containing restaurants, theatres, dancing rooms, exhibition halls, Turkish baths, and a hotel with a capacity of 90 rooms. The top of the tower was reached by a system of lifts, leading to viewing platforms, an astronomical observatory, and a fresh-air sanatorium.



The surrounding amusement park was laid out with boating lakes, a waterfall, lush ornamental gardens, cricket and football pitches, and numerous public attractions and restaurants.

Watkin formed the International Tower Construction Company to oversee construction, but after a public subscription failed to attract investors, the project commissioned a scaled back variation on the design that resembled the Eiffel Tower.

The foundations were laid in 1892 and construction work commenced in June 1893. By September 1895, the first stage of the tower was completed reaching a height of 47 metres and was opened to the public in 1896.

Over 100,000 people visited the park in the second quarter of 1894, though this declined to 120,000 for the whole of 1895 and only 100,000 for 1896. Despite an initial burst of popularity, the tower failed to draw large crowds. Of the 100,000 visitors to the park in 1896, less than a fifth paid to go up the Tower.

It was later discovered that the foundations of the tower were unsteady causing subsidence in the marshy soil. The project was further hampered after Watkin suffered a stroke and retired from the chairmanship of the Metropolitan, subsequently leading to the International Tower Construction Company filing for voluntary liquidation in 1899.

In 1902, the tower, now known as “Watkin’s Folly”, was declared unsafe and closed to the public. Over the next two years, the structure was dismantled, and the foundations were demolished using dynamite.

Although the tower was a failure, the development of Wembley Park as a recreation venue remained a popular attraction, and the Tower Construction Company recouped its losses re-incorporated as the Wembley Park Estate Company in 1906, laying out the Wembley suburb where the famous Wembley Stadium (originally known as the “British Empire Exhibition Stadium” or simply the “Empire Stadium”), would be constructed on the site of the former tower and opened in 1923.

The story of Watkin’s Tower was described by the then Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, who said: “Beyond Neasden there was an unimportant hamlet where for years the Metropolitan didn’t stop. Wembley. Slushy fields and grass farms. Then out of the mist arose Sir Edward Watkin’s dream: an Eiffel Tower for London.”

Humans Technically Can't Feel Wetness, And People Are Confused
Strictly speaking, humans cannot feel wetness.



Can humans feel wetness? It may sound like a strange question, given that you definitely feel like you can tell when an object is wet, but there is a bit of reasoning behind it.

Twitter user @HannahPosted recently informed her followers that humans do not have a direct way to detect wetness, relying instead on other senses.

The idea likely comes from a 2014 study, or a number of studies since, looking into human wetness perception.

"In contrast with insects, in which humidity receptors (i.e., hygroreceptors) sub-serving humidity detection (i.e. hygrosensation) have been identified and widely described," one team wrote in 2015. "Humans’ largest sensory organ, i.e., the skin, seems not to be provided with specific receptors for the sensation of humidity and skin wetness."

As explained, humans do not have specific hydroreceptors. Instead, we appear to rely on a mixture of inputs, as one team found out in 2014 by placing various stimulus onto volunteers' hands and arms. As the temperature of objects they were in contact with decreased, for example, their sense of wetness increased, indicating that temperature played a part in how we perceive it. They also found that hairy skin is more sensitive to wetness than non-hairy skin, and that wetness sensation was dulled when nerves were blocked using an inflatable blood pressure cuff.

"Wetness is one of the most common sensations we experience, so people don’t question it. You can trick your brain to feel wet when something is not wet, or trick it to feel dry when in fact something is wet," first author of the study, Dr Davide Filingeri, told Re:action magazine in 2021. “If you are sitting on a metal chair with bare skin, you might jump up feeling wet when really it’s just the cold of the metal that cools the skin very quickly. Or, if you wear a latex glove and put your hand into water and take it out again, you will probably feel wet on your hand even though there is no moisture in contact with your skin.”

"Given noisy and ambiguous sensory inputs (such as thermal and mechanical stimuli on the skin), the brain is thought to estimate which events caused these inputs (e.g., the presence or absence of physical wetness on the skin), on the basis of prior knowledge that is acquired and shaped by sensory experience," the team wrote in their study.

"The outcomes of this study have indeed indicated that in order to sense cutaneous wetness a multimodal integration of thermal (i.e., cold) and mechanical sensory inputs had to take place," they explained. "From a functional point of view, this was confirmed by the fact that when the activity of A-nerve fibers was selectively reduced the extent of perceived wetness was also significantly reduced. From a central processing point of view, this was confirmed by the fact that, although all the stimuli had the same moisture levels, warm-wet and neutral-wet stimuli were sensed as significantly less wet than the cold-wet stimulus."

So that's settled, in the most pedantic sense possible, humans can't feel wetness, and can only infer wetness from other sensory inputs. We will never know true wetness, until we finally find a way to fuse our kind with insects.

https://www.iflscience.com/humans-techn ... used-68633

[Misstee]

German court: naked landlord doesn’t justify lower rent





BERLIN (AP) — A German court said Wednesday that a landlord sunbathing naked in the courtyard of his building wasn’t a reason for his tenants to reduce their rental payments.

The case involved a building in an upmarket residential district of Frankfurt, which included an office floor, rented by a human resources company. The company withheld rent because it objected, among other things, to the landlord’s naked sunbathing. In response, the landlord sued.

The Frankfurt state court rejected the company’s reasoning, finding that “the usability of the rented property was not impaired by the plaintiff sunning himself naked in the courtyard.”

It said in a statement that it couldn’t see an “inadmissible, deliberately improper effect on the property.”

Judges were ruling on an appeal against a lower court decision that went in the landlord’s favor, and the tenant had only limited success overall. They found that the tenant had been entitled to reduce rental payments for three months only because of noisy construction work in the neighborhood.

The court said that the spot where the landlord sunbathed could only be seen from the rented office by leaning far out of the window.

It also said the tenant failed to prove that he took the stairs to the courtyard unclothed. “On the contrary, the plaintiff stated credibly that he always wore a bathrobe which he only took off just before the sun lounger,” it said.

https://apnews.com/article/frankfurt-la ... 82ec040c65

[PennySerenade]

Zoe the Elephant Makes Herself the Matriarch of a Buffalo Herd After Losing Her Family to Poachers



Zoe the savanna elephant has found family again.

When the pachyderm was 2 years old, her entire family was killed by poachers for their ivory tusks, leaving Zoe an orphan – until she met her new herd.

Zoe's story is explored in National Geographic's Secrets of the Elephants, an upcoming docuseries directed by National Geographic explorer-at-large and filmmaker James Cameron.

In an exclusive clip from the show — narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman — Secrets of the Elephants introduces viewers to Zoe's current family.

After losing her herd to poachers, Zoe tried to join other elephants. Unfortunately, the young animal didn't fit in with any of the elephant herds rescuers introduced her to.

"Her need for a family never faded," Portman says in the clip of Zoe.



Eventually, after failing to connect with other elephants, Zoe "took matters into her own hands" and made herself the matriarch of "her very own herd of buffalos."

The clip from Secrets of the Elephants shows Zoe, now 50, communicating with her buffalo herd, using moans and headbutts to make her wishes known.

In the video, Portman explains that Zoe's buffalo family "has learned to understand her" and goes on long walks throughout the day to keep up with the elephant matriarch, who likes to eat on the move.

Zoe is just one of the extraordinary elephant stars in Secrets of the Elephants. The series travels from the deserts of Africa to the urban landscapes of Asia to show how elephants use emotions, strategy, and language to make their way through the world.