[Fatima99]

Reforestation is Difficult: But Local Farmers of NGO Green Again Madagascar Are on Top of It



Out in the ultra-rural jungles of eastern Madagascar, something is happening that all climate-conscious philanthropists and investors should take note of.

A few intrepid locals have created a 6-year, work-for-knowledge program that’s turning jobless country folk into passionate, skilled, forest management agents and entrepreneurs, ready to show the world that they themselves have the power to restore the glory of Madagascar’s stunning biodiversity.

Organized by a Malagasy woman and her Wall Street ex-pat husband, Green Again Madagascar is unlike any other tree-planting nonprofit around.

“It’s really exemplary of bottom-up restoration,” Leighton Reid, assistant professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech, who conducted research for the group, told WaL.

Restoration success in Madagascar is simply different than in other countries. Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent around 90 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, it’s a biodiversity hotspot with over 90% of wildlife being endemic.

More than 80% of Madagascar’s 14,883 plant species are found nowhere else in the world, a number which includes five whole plant families.



Yet, none of this staggering biodiversity has been able to create enough urgency among conservation NGOs to develop a functional plan to stop forest loss in the country. A study published alongside Part 1 of this WaL exclusive showed that Madagascar had lost 4.85 million hectares of tree cover since 2000, equivalent to a 25% national loss.

Yet this isn’t always because of macro problems like a lack of funding, organization, or accountability. Assistant Professor Reid worked with Green Again Madagascar to gather data on how to germinate and grow various species.

“There are major technical challenges to reforestation in Madagascar, Madagascar has about 90% plant endemism, so if you’re trying to do reforestation in Madagascar, and nobody has studied how to propagate a given tree species, you can’t borrow that information from Mozambique or South Africa,” assistant professor Reid told WaL.

How to truly make a forest

Matt Hill, the CEO and Founder of Green Again Madagascar, explained that most organizations have the time and patience to plant an average of 5 species when reforesting elsewhere on the island. Green Again’s inventory, thanks in no small part to the near total staffing of the organization by Malagasy, consists of 65 species.

In order to gather data on how to ensure these trees can survive long enough so they don’t bring the whole reforested ecosystem down with them when they die, Reid, who had gotten to know Hill some years before, came out to work with Green Again in 2014-2015 to see if they could establish best practices for 17 different species.

They tried a variety of different techniques and strategies to see if they could get the trees to survive transplantation from the nursery which included additional watering, nutrient amendments, and placement around a host tree. Key among the successful strategies was the timing of planting—between October and January.

Trees planted during this 3-month window when the weather was perfect had about a 90% survival rate. Too late, and they would be drowned during the monsoon season, too early and they would fail to drought. This also means that fewer trees can be kept in nurseries since there’s nothing to do with those that aren’t planted during that 3-month window.

The only other consistently successful treatment was the construction of a small tee-pee of fronds that shaded the saplings during the hottest time of the day.

“We assumed almost that having some shade was going to be helpful, and that was based on the knowledge of local Malagasy farmers, they build these little tee-pees from fern leaves on top of their crops when they plant them, and it seems to help that,” Reid told WaL. “Trees that had those little fern tee-pees were 75% less likely to die”.

It all goes to show how difficult tree planting and reforestation—now so widely practiced as a climate mitigation strategy, can actually be, if any long-term thought of the quality of the forest and its trees is given.

Certain species fared better than others, and the data isn’t always clear why.

“Trema orientalis: it had a 94% survival after 1 year, and 0% after 6 years. That’s considered a success,” Reid explains, differentiating between ‘pioneer species’ and longer-lived ones. “If we were to see that in different species—Ficus species, 66% survival after 1 year, 0% after six years… in my mind that’s a failure”.

However, he’s confident that their data combined with Green Again’s intellectual capital on tree planting is enough to ensure replanted forests endure.

WaL asked Reid if he was able to communicate with any of the local landowners whereupon the restoration project and research were being done about why it was they were interested in restoring it.

“I think there’s some nostalgia, especially among older people, for the biodiversity that’s gone. You also hear people talk about how they used to go out and get medicines from the forest, and that they can’t do that anymore”.

Our cat was our wedding witness — it’s legal thanks to this law



She’s a paw-ty animal — fur real.

After watching her humans, Amanda and Steve, tie the knot, a cat named Momo made it official by signing the lovebirds’ marriage license — and it’s completely legal.

“Momo is the first cat that we got together, so she’s very special,” Amanda Terry, 32, a newlywed from Denver, told The Post. “Having her as our witness made the wedding fun and lighthearted.”

On TikTok, viral visuals of the silvery kitty getting a paw dipped in pet-safe ink and stamping it onto the legal document lapped up over 4.4 million views.

Amanda, a human resources specialist, and Steve, 29, a professional musician, who are the proud owners of three cats, got hitched by a minister in front of friends and family in Georgia last September.

However, upon returning home to Colorado after honeymooning in Iceland, the couple realized they’d lost their marriage license before filing it with the government, rendering their union unofficial in the eyes of the law.

Amanda Terry and Steve Terry assisting Momo in inking her paw before signing their marriage license on June 3. Newlyweds Amanda and Steve Terry elected their cat Momo to be the official witness at their wedding.

So the sweeties, who rescued Momo in 2021 after the puss had been abandoned while pregnant with a litter of five, opted to re-do their “I do’s” with the critter June 3. (Amanda tells The Post that because she and Steve found the forsaken cat on the streets, they are unclear of her breed or age.)

And trending footage of the fête has kitty crusaders going wild.

“BRB getting divorced so we can get re-married in Colorado with our cat as our witness,” joked a fan of the fur balls in Amanda’s TikTok comments section.

“I will now be having my wedding in Colorado thank you,” another chimed.

“In Colorado, the cat could also be the Wedding Officiant, but technically not both a witness and officiant,” a commenter said, followed by a supporting remark from a separate viewer who wrote, “This goes for ANY PET in Colorado btw. My coworker had her dog and bearded dragon as her witnesses.”

Amanda Terry and Steve Terry with pet Momo after the cat signed their wedding license. Thanks to Colorado’s self-solemnization law, the Terrys were able to legally incorporate Momo into their big day.

Amanda Terry and Steve Terry with Momo after the cat signed their marriage license on June 3.
While many online viewers loved Momo’s involvement in Amanda and Steve’s big day, some critics felt having a cat witness a wedding was too weird.

And, technically, they’re right.

Colorado’s self-solemnization marriage law allows couples to conduct their wedding ceremonies sans an ordained officiant.

According to the state’s Department of Public Health & Environment, sweethearts who choose to marry without a minister or government official are simply, “responsible for acquiring, completing and returning the license to marry to the appropriate county office of the clerk and recorder.”

Other states such as California, Pennsylvania and Illinois, too, allow pairs to take the plunge on their own.

And Amanda, tells The Post that self-solemnizing was the best way to seal her big day.
Amanda Terry and Steve Terry kissing Momo after the cat signed their marriage license on June 3. Amanda tells

The Post that Momo is special to her and Steve because the cat is the first one they’ve owned together as a couple.

“We were each other’s officiant,” she said of her and Steve’s wedlock, adding that the legal documentation for their DIY wedding do-over only cost $35. “And having Momo’s paw on the paperwork is something that we wanted to do to solidify our love.”

She went on to reveal that Momo’s purr-fectly penned signature wasn’t a fluke.

“We practiced so much before we actually put her paw print on the marriage license,” she said. “The first time it was just a big smear.”

Momo now joins a menagerie of mammals who’ve stolen a couple’s thunder amid their holy matrimony.

In May, a Labrador named Rosy made hearts sing when she performed a “father-dogter” dance to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” with the groom during his nuptials in Philadelphia.

And all eyes were on Michigan pair Shane and Amanda Hudson’s mastiff-Staffordshire bull terrier mix, Weller, when the mutt trotted down the aisle in a tuxedo as the “best boy” at their January 2022 vow exchange.

“The day was absolutely perfect, we have some nontraditional tastes,” said Shane. “Weller is our world.”

And Amanda feels the same about her big day bundle of fur.

“We love Momo so much.”

https://nypost.com/2023/06/14/our-cat-w ... -loophole/

California speedcuber solves 3x3x3 Rubik's cube in 3.13 seconds



A 21-year-old speedcubing champion broke a world record in the highly competitive sport by solving a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube in 3.13 seconds.

Guinness World Records announced Max Park took on the record at Pride in Long Beach, Calif., and shaved 0.34 seconds off the record set by Chinese speedcuber Yusheng Du in 2018.

Park formerly held the No. 2 spot in the sport with a fastest time of 3.63 seconds.

The champion puzzle cube solver already held the Guinness World Records titles for single solve and average solve for the 4x4x4 cube, 5x5x5 cube, 6x6x6 cube and 7x7x7 cube.

Park, who was diagnosed with autism as a child, found speedcubing to be "a good therapy," his parents, Schwan and Miki, said in a statement to Guinness World Records.

"There was a time when Max couldn't even open water bottles, but he showed interest in solving Rubik's cubes," they said.

Park was featured alongside friend and fellow speedcubing champion Feliks Zemdegs in the 2020 Netflix documentary The Speed Cubers.

[PennySerenade]

On Task Studio is a nonprofit community space for Toronto creatives, owned and operated by self-proclaimed neurodivergent Alexandra Howell.

Howell's honest expression of her identity is noteworthy, because her priority is creating a safe space for any creative who has ever felt marginalized or unaccepted.

The studio name actually derives from Howell's experience as a child growing up with ADHD, but not yet knowing it. Many of her report cards from grade school referred to her as a bright kid who struggled to stay "on task."

If you're an animal lover as well, you'll be happy to know that Howell's two cats, Dennis the menace and Skittles, as well as her two small dogs, Charlotte and George, all happily trek through the studio.



Howell hosts all kinds of events in the On Task Studio in order to cultivate inspiration, including vision board parties, support groups, tarot readings, art shows, writing workshops, book and clothing swaps, and artisanal markets.

There's even a tucked-away stage for hosting various performances, including comedy and open mic nights.

The list of events and activities seems to go on infinitely, especially since Howell is always consulting the community about what they want to see in the space.



As for her own inspirations, Howell has a long history of working in the arts. At only 15, she founded an arts magazine called FreezePeach, and at 18 she paid her way onto the North American travelling rock tour, Warped Tour, to distribute the publication.



She spent three weeks touring with Billy Talent, Alexisonfire, and Death from Above 1979, and sold the zine in their merch section.

When Howell stopped producing the magazine in the mid 2000s, she pivoted to band management, then stand-up comedy. In her mid-twenties, she lived in Toronto and spent most of her week in Comedy Bar.

The idea for On Task took shape when she moved to Los Angeles. After being involved in the local arts community for several years and meeting her husband, Howell came across a shop that was in the process of liquidating its inventory.

In exchange for helping the owner sell her remaining stock, Howell was told she could use the newly-vacant space however she liked. So in February of 2020, she opened the first iteration of On Task.

"It's that question, if you had a space, what could you do?" says Howell. "I just started pulling in all of the [creative] people I knew who ever needed a venue. There's an abundance of creatives that are constantly looking for a space to create in. And that was just where it grew."

Unfortunately, the initial On Task Studio didn't survive the pandemic, and Howell and her loved ones trekked back to her hometown of Ottawa.



When restrictions finally lifted, Howell felt it was the right time to reconnect with her Toronto community.

She opened the Canadian iteration of On Task Studio on College Street last July. As it happened, there was a reassuring karmic aspect of the studio space she decided to occupy.



"The last issue [of FreezePeach] was released in 2005 [and] had an illustration on the back by a Toronto artist with the initials EGR," Howell explains. The same artists' initials can now be found on a large mural painted on the side of the new On Task building.

"I'm so grateful to be able to really appreciate and come back [to Toronto] again," she says. She's even more grateful that the community has a large appetite for creative programming.



As On Task approaches its one-year anniversary in Toronto, Howell's hope is to continue facilitating diverse arts programs while giving the floor to anyone who wants to bring their creative ideas to life in her space. While she hopes to expand into as many spaces as possible, her next step is to re-open the LA studio once the Toronto location is self sustaining.

[Misstee]

Lucy, our ancient human ancestor, was super buff

The unique hominid 'likely walked and moved in a way that we do not see in any living species today.'

By Sara Kiley Watson | Published Jun 14, 2023 9:30 AM EDT



The calves and thighs of the Australopithecus afarensis were more than twice the size of those of modern humans.

In late November 1974, the world of archeology changed when scientists discovered Lucy (a nod to a famous Beatles track played over and over at the dig site), a 40-percent complete fossil of a young female Australopithecus afarensis in Ethiopia. This species of ancient hominid was living and walking around on two feet in East Africa 3.7 to 3 million years ago, long before the earliest stone tools were made. While Lucy and her relatives were shorter, more ape-like, and had smaller brains than Homo sapiens, they showed just how long human-like creatures were evolving and strolling about on Earth.

Just recently, scientists uncovered that Lucy, whose remains are housed in a specially constructed safe in the National Museum of Ethiopia, may have been even more like us than we thought—and considerably more muscular in the legs department. According to a new paper published on June 13 in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Lucy could walk around upright just as well as a person.

[Related: The ‘granddaddy’ of all early hominins walked on Earth a lot longer than we thought.]

Previously, paleoanthropologists disagreed on Lucy’s bipedal stance. Some thought she likely waddled around with her back hunched over, not unlike today’s chimpanzees. However, Ashleigh Wiseman, a paleoanthropology research associate at the University of Cambridge, created 3D models of the leg and pelvis muscles of the 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis. After recreating 36 muscles in each of the ancient hominids’ legs, she found that Lucy’s stance was quite similar to humans.



A 3D polygonal model, guided by imaging scan data and muscle scarring, reconstructing the lower limb muscles of the Australopithecus afarensis fossil AL 288-1, known as ‘Lucy’. Credit: Dr Ashleigh Wiseman

Not only could she walk like a Homo sapien, but she was considerably more muscular than us—her calves and thighs were more than twice the size of those of modern humans. Her thighs in particular were made up of 74 percent muscle, compared to the average 50 percent split between fat and muscle in our species today.

This shouldn’t be too surprising, however, given the world ancient hominids lived in. To manage life in East Africa 3 million years ago, Lucy and her cousins would’ve had to roam wooded grasslands, while swiftly switching to climbing forest canopies, Wiseman said in a statement.

“We are now the only animal that can stand upright with straight knees. Lucy’s muscles suggest that she was as proficient at bipedalism as we are, while possibly also being at home in the trees,” Wiseman added. “Lucy likely walked and moved in a way that we do not see in any living species today.”

[Related: 2.9 million-year-old tools found in Kenya stir up a ‘fascinating whodunnit’.]

3D models have previously been used to reconstruct the muscles of other lost species. In fact, Wiseman mentions that the method has helped paleontologists figure out the shockingly slow running speeds of T. rexes. But recreating the builds of our ancestors lets us see how far we’ve come—and how much muscle we’ve lost as our lifestyles have shifted.

“Of course, in the fossil record we are left looking at the bare bones,” Wiseman told CNN. “But muscles animate the body—they allow you to walk, run, jump and even dance. So, if we want to understand how our ancestors moved, we first need to reconstruct their soft tissues.”

[goldie0608]

Man Helps Daughter with One Arm Rescue Mom Who Was Dangling Off Oregon Trail: 'Very Scary'

Footage of the harrowing scene shows Taylor Root helping the distressed woman to safety after she fell off a trail at Oregon's Multnomah Falls



A man came to a woman’s rescue after she fell off a trail in Oregon — and it was all caught on camera.

Taylor Root was collecting footage for his YouTube channel when he passed a mother and daughter on a trail about a mile from Multnomah Falls, according to FOX affiliate KPTV.

Moments later, Root heard a call for help and he told the outlet he immediately raced over toward the sound.

In a video posted on his Facebook page, Root said that when he got to them, he found the woman had "slipped over the edge of a cliff."

Footage showed the woman's daughter holding on to her mother with all her might. “I’ve got her by the foot,” the daughter said in the clip.
At one point, Root asked the daughter to hold on to both of her mother’s feet, to which she responded, “I can’t, I only have one arm.”

The woman who fell off the trail was worried she would die, but luckily, Root was able to help bring her to safety.

“I was able to hoist her up, grabbed her arm and lifted her up on top of me,” he told KPTV.

Afterwards, the woman was shaken up, but okay, and the group could be heard remarking in the video that the entire ordeal was "very scary."

In a video posted on social media, Root said he felt fortunate to have been in the "right place" at the "right time."

He went on to share that he recently got what turned out to be a very spot-on fortune. "You will have an opportunity to shine this week," he said, reading the fortune. "They're right every time."

Located in Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah Falls is the most visited natural recreation site in the Pacific Northwest, with over two million visitors each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service.

The gorge spans 80 miles and is upwards of 4,000 feet deep in some spots, according to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Office.

Timed Use permits are required to access the Multnomah Falls area from May 26 to Sept. 4, 2023, the USDA Forest Service said.

86-year-old returns George Orwell's "1984" to library 65 years late, saying it needs to be read "more than ever"

BY LI COHEN

JUNE 15, 2023

A first-edition copy of George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" has finally been returned to the library from which it was borrowed – 65 years overdue. And the fine for doing so is even more surprising.

The novel was first checked out from the Multnomah County Library in 1958. Then on May 16, the person who checked out the book returned it to the library along with a typed note.

The borrower, identified only as "WP" in their note, said they meant to return it when they graduated from Portland State University that year, "but somehow never got around to doing it."

"After re-reading, I realize that, more than ever, this book should be put back in circulation. Significant parts are as relevant today as they were 65 tears [sic] ago," they said. "...Sorry to be so tardy. At age 86, I wanted to finally clear my conscience."


Fine-free libraries for the win! A patron recently returned this first edition copy of 1984 by George Orwell. It’s 65 years overdue! This book was originally checked out in 1958. It even has the Library Association of Portland stamp on the pages.
Conscience cleared ✔️

They pointed specifically to the words at the top of page 207, saying that if you "add the words internet and social media," you will be "reading about 2023."
"1984" is a dystopian novel published in 1949 that serves as a warning against totalitarianism, using its main character Winston Smith to show how the always-watching "Big Brother" government manipulates individuals to achieve its end goals.

The book soared back to popularity in 2017 amid the Trump administration touting "alternative facts" and spewing misinformation about a range of topics. That same year the film version of the story was also screened in nearly 200 movie theaters in the U.S. after then-President Trump's budget proposed to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, among other agencies.

A photo of the book posted on Facebook by the library shows its exterior to still be in relatively good condition, with just a mild stain in its corner. And even though it's decades late, the fee for the delayed return is minor. In fact, it's non-existent.

"Fine-free library for the win," the library wrote on Facebook, saying the book has Library Association of Portland stamp on its pages. "Conscience cleared."

[lush]

Vietnamese Batman Fan Builds His Own Functional Batmobile and Batpod
04192023*

A Vietnamese architecture student and diehard fan of The Dark Knight spent six months building his very own Batpod with the help of a team of friends.

Born in 1998, Nguyen Dac Chung was just a child when Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight hit cinemas, but the movie made such a big impact on him that he grew up dreaming of one day driving his own Batmobile and Batpod on the streets of his native Hanoi. He fulfilled half of that dream in 2020, when he built a functional replica of the Tumbler, Batman’s impressive Batmobile from the Dark Knight series, and earlier this month he completed his goal by unveiling a cool DIY Batpod as well.



An alumnus of the Hanoi University of Architecture, Chung spent an entire year collecting images of Batman‘s iconic two-wheel vehicle and brainstorming ideas with a team of friends, and after deciding on how to go about building it, he spent over six months putting all the parts together at a factory in Cao Bang.

The DIY Batpod is 3m long, 80cm wide, 90cm high and weighs a hefty 250kg. It is made mostly of iron, with a steel chassis, and plastic armrests and guns. The real-life Batpod was designed with road safety in mind, so it is powered by an electric engine capable of propelling it to a top speed of 30km/h. That’s more than enough for Chung, as speed was never a priority for him.



“Overall, this vehicle is designed to be 95% similar to the model in the movie,” the young Batman fan told Dantri. “The unique feature of this Batpod is the ability to self-balance without a stand or support point. In addition, when driving the Batpod, the driver must be almost in a lying position parallel to the body of the vehicle.”

The team encountered a number of challenges while designing and building the Batpod, from sourcing several important parts from outside Vietnam to the implementing of the steering system and wiring in a way that prioritized aesthetics. Chung estimates that the entire project cost around 200 million dong ($8,500), which is rather cheap for such a cool-looking vehicle. Most of that came from the student’s cosplay costume business.



“I’ve been watching The Dark Knight since I was a kid, always dreaming of getting my hands on a superhero’s vehicle,” Nguyen Dac Chung said.

'One-in-a-billion' perfect round egg could sell for thousands

A perfectly spherical 'one-in-a-billion egg' could sell for thousands, after being found in a supermarket in Melbourne.

There are loads of items where you can understand why they would be worth a lot of money - a car is mechanically basically just magic, a beautiful piece of art takes a lot of skill to produce, or maybe the item is exceptionally rare.

However, some items seem frankly a bit more questionable in why they manage to command such high prices. One such thing is an egg which by a quirk of chance has come out perfectly spherical instead of, well, egg-shaped.

It's definitely interesting, something that would make you go 'huh, cool'. But paying hundreds or even thousands to have one seems like someone has more money than sense.

What would you even do with it? Wouldn't it go off?



Nonetheless, it seems that for some reason there is a demand for unusually shaped eggs. You learn something new every day!

Newsreader Jacqueline Felgate described finding the un-ovoid egg, explaining: "I thought I would share this eggcellent find - in our egg carton we found a round egg, and after a quick Google realised it was one in a billion."

And it turns out it could be worth a hefty amount, too.



"Literally one in a billion eggs are round and the last one that was found sold for over $1,400!"

While many people might be at a loss as to what you could even do with such an egg, it is possible to preserve eggs, or rather egg shells. Though, the practice is more commonly used by museums to preserve the eggs of wild birds.

For larger eggs, you need to make a small hole at each end of the egg and then scramble up the contents before blowing it out. For smaller eggs however this isn't necessary as if left in a dry enough environment, a smaller unfertilised egg can eventually dry out by itself.

One of the most expensive eggs money can buy is from the extinct Elephant Bird. These can be some 800 years old and are absolutely whopping, being 200 times the size of a chicken egg. That's a big omelette.

The Elephant Bird is thought to have been around 10ft tall and weighed over 440kg. Native to Madagascar, they were hunted to extinction some 400 years ago.

In 2013 an intact Elephant Bird egg sold at Christies for £66,675.

Meanwhile, dinosaur eggs typically fetch up to around £1,600 for a particularly good specimen.

What an eggstraordinary sum!

https://www.ladbible.com/news/perfect-round-egg-found-melbourne-223100-20230615

[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
FRIDAY JUNE 16
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]

Naked man arrested for 'trying to have sex with tree'

A man has been arrested for trying to have sex with a tree after shocked sunbathers saw him strip naked before kissing and rubbing the stump.

Police were called to the odd encounter in Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Tuesday as temperatures across the country soared.

Members of the public had been concerned about the man's behaviour when he suddenly exposed himself and began rubbing his body against the bark.

Video footage shows the man kicking off his blue shorts and pulling off his navy t-shirt before embracing the tree.

A man in his 40s was arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure being released on bail as enquires are ongoing.


Police were called to the odd encounter in Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire

One witness said: 'I was just walking in the park with one of my mates and we saw a man hugging a tree and thought it was interesting.

'We walked closer and as we did, we saw his trousers down and this is pure gold.

That's why I started recording and he just started taking off all his clothes and kissing the tree.

'After I stopped recording, the police turned up and started following the man around then arrested him.'

Roughly 25 people were cooling off in the park, located in Salisbury, South West England, during the unidentified man’s bizarre attempt to become one with mother nature.


The man was seen taking off his clothes before embracing the tree

A spokesperson for Wiltshire Police said: 'A man in his 40s was arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure yesterday after officers were called to Queen Elizabeth Gardens shortly after 4.30pm following several reports from members of the public regarding a naked man.

'He was taken to custody and has been released on bail while enquiries are ongoing.'

Understandably, social media has had a field day after footage from the incident was shared online.

“I’d be too worried about splinters...” one remarked.

“Man that is a shocker and disgusting,” another lashed.

As one baffled person asked: “What is wrong with people?! In the middle of the day as well,”

[HogwartsExpress]

No more rides to Hel on bus 666 in Poland


There will be no more going to Hel on bus 666.

The bus to the town of Hel on Poland’s Baltic coast has long been popular with tourists. But some Christian conservatives have protested the number signifying the devil on a bus leading to a place that sounds like the word “hell” in English.

The local bus operator, PKS Gdynia, announced this week that bus 666 will no longer run to Hel. It said it had flipped the last number and would now run the line under the number 669 starting on June 24.

Local media said the bus company acted under the pressure of Christian groups who had pushed for the change, but were already thinking of returning to the old number amid a public outcry over the change.

The local news portal Trojmiasto.pl said that the line operated under the number 666 since 2006, first as a local joke before attracting riders from across Poland and beyond. Some people rode the bus simply to say they had taken the 666 bus to Hel, Polish media reported.

Fronda, a Catholic publication, has for years called for the 666 bus to be renamed, arguing that it had Satanic overtones and that “to present the reality of eternal damnation as amusing in any way is just plain stupidity.”

It lamented that fact that many Polish journalists, even Catholic ones, took pleasure in the joke.

source: https://apnews.com/article/poland-bus-hel-666-e4443f1b245b4486b9180849f1317fc1

[Fatima99]

Isle of Wight fossilised remains identified as new dinosaur species



Isle of Wight fossilised remains identified as new dinosaur species

Creature has been named Vectipelta barretti after Prof Paul Barrett of London’s Natural History Museum
Matthew Weaver
Fri 16 Jun 2023 08.48 BST
Last modified on Fri 16 Jun 2023 09.30 BST

Fossilised remains from the Isle of Wight have been identified as a new dinosaur species that has been named after a palaeontologist at the London’s Natural History Museum.

It belongs to a group of plant-eating dinosaurs known as ankylosaurs that was found in the 1980s on the island’s Wessex formation – a geological feature dating to between 145m and 66m years ago.

After analysis revealed it was a new species it was named Vectipelta barretti – after Prof Paul Barrett, the head of fossil vertebrates at the Natural History Museum (NHM).

It is the second armoured dinosaur to be found on the island, the first one being Polacanthus foxii, which was unearthed in 1865. V barretti differs from its predecessor P foxii in its neck and back bones.

Analysis also shows both species have different pelvic structures and V barretti has a more blade-like, spiked armour.

Barrett said: “I’m flattered and absolutely delighted to have been recognised in this way, not least as the first paper I ever wrote was also on an armoured dinosaur in the NHM collections. I’m sure that any physical resemblance is purely accidental.”

The findings are described in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

The co-author, Dr Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher at the NHM, said: “Paul has been a really important and significant mentor, supervisor, colleague and friend to myself and several of the other authors on the paper, and we wanted to thank him and recognise his huge contributions to dinosaur palaeontology.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Maidment said when the remains were discovered in the 1980s they were thought to be from the same species as the 19th-century find on the island. But, she added, “we’ve now discovered it’s rather different from the Polacanthus and it’s a new species. It’s got differences in its vertebrae, its pelvis and some of its armour is different as well. So we are quite confident it’s a completely different animal.”

Although both ankylosaurs originated from the same island, the researchers found they were not closely related.

In fact, they said, V barretti is most closely related to some Chinese ankylosaurs, suggesting these dinosaurs moved freely from Asia to Europe in the Early Cretaceous period, up to 145m years ago).

Stuart Pond, a researcher at the NHM department of Earth sciences, said: “This is an important specimen because it sheds light on ankylosaur diversity within the Wessex formation and early cretaceous England.”

The researchers said rocks from the Wessex formation and the Isle of Wight were “hugely important” to understanding more about how dinosaurs became extinct.

[lush]

Business Gets Robbed Twice in One Day, Once by Robbers, Then by Police
04202023*

A travel agency in Argentina recently had the misfortune of being robbed twice in one day, once by a couple of aggressive robbers and then by the police officers that were supposed to catch the criminals, not copy them.

Last Wednesday, two armed robbers entered the offices of a travel agency in Buenos Aires and brutalized the staff before running off with hundreds of thousands of pesos. The victims called the police as soon as the assailants left the premises, but that proved to be a big mistake. In about 10 minutes, three police officers arrived on the scene, and after a brief interrogation of the staff regarding the robbery, they stormed off after the criminals. That’s when one of the agency’s employees noticed that a black bag containing about 4 million pesos that the robbers had missed was nowhere to be found…


Photo: Maxim Hopman/Unsplash

One of the travel agency’s employees swore that the robbers had missed the bag and that it was still in the office when the police arrived. He wasn’t lying. CCTV footage showed one of the police officers casually walking out of the agency with the bag under their arm. At this point, the travel agency boss was convinced that there had been some mistake and that the officer had taken the bag as evidence. He was wrong!

After calling the police station to report the missing bag of money, the owner of the agency was told by the operator that the procedural record put together by the police officers didn’t mention any bag of money. That’s when the agency staff started considering the possibility that the policemen that came after the robbers just finished the job instead of helping them.



After reviewing the security camera footage, a prosecutor demanded the arrest of the three police officers and that they be brought before a judge. CCTV videos show the three officers taking the stairs down from the seventh-floor travel agency even though there was a more comfortable elevator. Investigators concluded that the three noticed security cameras inside the elevator, and preferred to avoid them, not accounting for the cameras in the lobby.

“They saw that there were cameras in the elevator and for that reason, they preferred to avoid them, but they did not take into account those in the corridors,” a source involved in the investigation told Infobae.



The three officers were detained this week, and the black bag full of dollars was found in one of the suspect’s homes. The other two people denied playing a part in the unexpected robbery, claiming that they never considered their colleague a criminal. The three police officers are currently detained in different facilities of the Federal police and will remain so until the investigation is concluded.

[prokroustis]

The First Ancient Greek Beauty Pageant



While beauty contests such as Miss Universe and Miss America may seem like thoroughly modern inventions, their roots can actually be found in ancient Greek mythology with the judgement of Paris.

The Judgement of Paris, which was likely the world’s first beauty pageant, set off one of the most important narratives in ancient Greek mythology.

The results of the contest, during which mortal Paris had to decide which goddess, Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite, was most beautiful, led to the Trojan War, the details of which are laid out in Homer’s epic poem the Iliad.

The story of the Judgement of Paris was a popular one in Ancient Greece, and ancient authors such as Homer, Xenophon, Euripides, and Aristotle wrote about the myth.

According to most sources, the beauty contest came about due to one simple act by Eris, the goddess of discord.

The trouble began when Zeus decided to organize a wedding banquet for Achilles’ parents, Peleus and Thetis. When contemplating the guest list, Zeus thought it would probably be best not to invite Eris, as she could ruin the party.

The golden apple sows discord amongst the goddesses
When she received news of this, Eris was enraged. She decided to enact her revenge and spoil the wedding banquet, but her actions ended up resulting in a ten-year-long war.

The goddess, looking to cause trouble due to her perceived slight, threw a golden apple into the crowd at the wedding. The act may seem insubstantial, except for the fact that the fruit had the word “καλλίστῃ” (kallistēi) emblazoned on it, which means “to the most beautiful woman.”

The Modern Greek term for a beauty pageant, “καλλιστεία” (kallisteia), also comes from the same word.

Upon seeing the golden apple, three goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, all claimed the prize as their own.

After a quarrel, the goddesses decided they needed an impartial judge to determine who really was the most beautiful, and they asked Zeus.

Zeus, however, was reluctant to get involved in the competition between his wife, Hera, and daughters Athena and Aphrodite.

Yet the king of the gods remembered that the mortal named Paris, who was from the famed city of Troy in Asia Minor, was a very fair judge.

In a contest regarding the beauty and quality of bulls, the young shepherd admitted that the god Ares’ entry was far better than his own without hesitation.

Paris to be the judge in the first beauty pageant
Notably, despite the fact that Paris was the son of Trojan King Priam and his wife, Hecuba, he was raised in the countryside. In fact, his birth was considered to be an evil omen, so Paris was exiled form his family home and raised by shepherds.

It only became known that Paris was the son of the Trojan king after the shepherd won a boxing match against one of Priam’s other sons. After seeing his son, the King welcomed him back to the city.

Hence, Zeus proposed that they consult with the mortal to determine which goddess was the fairest.

The three goddesses, accompanied by Hermes, made their way to Mount Ida, where they bathed in a spring before meeting with Paris.

As Paris began to judge the three beautiful goddesses, they each tried to win his favor by offering him bribes.

Hera offered to give Paris incredible power by making him the king of Asia and Europe, Athena proposed to give him wisdom, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world.

Faced with such tempting bribes, Paris eventually chose Aphrodite and awarded her with the golden apple. In doing so, he inspired both Hera’s and Athena’s wrath.

Judgement of Paris sets off Trojan War
Keeping her end of the bargain, Aphrodite told Paris that the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, was now his.

There was only one problem, however. Helen was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta.

In order to retrieve his “prize,” Paris traveled to Sparta under the guise of diplomacy between Troy and the city-state.

There, depending on the ancient source, Paris either kidnapped or seduced the Spartan queen and whisked her back with him to Troy.

After discovering that his wife had been taken by the Trojan, Menelaus assembled his troops and called on his brother, Agamemnon, king of the Mycenaeans, and all other kings in Greece to join him on a military mission to Troy to retrieve his wife.

The fateful beauty pageant brought about ten years of fighting, and the Greeks besieged the city of Troy for a decade before finally gaining access to the city by using the famous Trojan horse.

Although many scholars have debated whether or not the Trojan War as we know it from the works of the great poet Homer truly occurred, it is generally agreed upon that the Trojan War as described in the Iliad and the Odyssey can be considered a myth.

During the war, Menelaus nearly killed Paris in single combat, but the Trojan youth, a favorite of Aphrodite, was rescued at the last minute by the goddess.

Paris, some sources say with the help of Apollo, went on to kill the Greek hero Achilles by shooting an arrow in his only weak spot, the ankle.

The scene of the Judgement of Paris is quite a popular one in Western art history, partly because it allowed painters to depict three beautiful nude women. It was also frequently depicted on ancient Greek vases and in Roman art.