[Misstee]

Pearl found in clam at Maine restaurant becomes engagement ring

By Ben Hooper





July 27 (UPI) -- A Rhode Island woman found a pearl in a clam she was served at a restaurant, and it ended up becoming her engagement ring.

Sandy Sikorski and Ken Steinkamp said they were dining at The Bridge Restaurant and Raw Bar in downtown Westerly with Sikorski's brother and his wife in December 2021 when Sikorski ate the last of the quahog clams.

"That's when I tasted this big round thing in my mouth. I'm thinking, 'What the heck is this?' So, I take it and spit it down on the table, in my hand, and my sister-in-law says, 'Is that a tooth?'" Sikorski told WJAR-TV.

Sikorski's sister-in-law, a jewelry enthusiast, soon surmised the object was a 9.8 millimeter pearl.

Marc Fishbone of Black Orchid Jewelers examined the object and confirmed the suspicions.

"He said it is called a Mercenaria pearl, which is a mollusk type of little animal, which makes what looks like a little pearl. It's made out of the same material, calcite, and another mineral in it and takes years and years to grow," Sikorski said. "He said the weight of this, and the size of this, is probably 50 years to make."

Sikorski and Steinkamp agreed that if they ever decided to get married, they would have the pearl made into an engagement ring.

That plan came to pass when Steinkamp proposed July 8, using a ring Fishbone had fashioned with the pearl as its stone.

The couple celebrated their engagement by returning to the restaurant, where they shared their story with hostess Myra Dioisio.

"It was nice to see them again and hear that story," Dioisio said. "It's a fairytale, it's magical, you hear about 'Oh I hope to find something in there' but you never do. It's always a piece of rock or sand."

The restaurant shared photos of the pearl and the ring on social media.

"Thank you to Sandy B. for sharing this delightful story, and congratulations!" the post said.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to Receive Significant Gift of 19th- and 20th-Century American Art

Local philanthropists and collectors Bernard A. and Barbro Osher have made a promised gift of 61 important works from their holdings of 19th- and 20th-century American art to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the de Young and Legion of Honor. The de Young will host an exhibition of the gift, accompanied by a catalogue, in summer 2024.

Consisting of 50 paintings, nine works on paper, and two sculptures, the donation represents the art of 39 artists. Among those included are well-known American artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Charles Sheeler, and Alexander Calder. They figure alongside lesser-known ones like Boston School painter William McGregor Paxton, the influential artist-teacher Frank Vincent DuMond, and the American Impressionists Edward Henry Potthast, Frederick Carl Frieseke, and Richard Edward Miller. Those in the latter group will see their work enter into the Fine Arts Museums’ collection for the first time.

“We are delighted that these works that we have relished collecting and displaying in our home will now be appreciated by visitors to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,” the Oshers said in a joint statement. “As the largest public arts institution in our city, with the finest survey collection of American art, it is fitting that these artworks will join the collection here.”

The Oshers have been long-time supporters of the Fine Arts Museums, having donated funds to the construction of the de Young’s Herzog & de Meuron–building, which opened in 2005. This led to a wing and the museum’s sculpture garden being named in their honor. Bernard Osher is also a past board president of the Fine Arts Museums Foundation.

In a statement about the Osher’s gift, Thomas P. Campbell, the Fine Arts Museums’s director and CEO, said, “Their generous donation of more than 60 works of such expansive historic scope is one of the most transformative contributions in the Museums’ history. The Oshers have enriched the Museums’ representation of American art—long considered to be one of the greatest survey collections in the United States—with a gift reflective of a dynamic period when the United States ascended to global prominence both culturally and artistically.”

Winslow Homer, The Angler (Casting in the Falls), ca. 1874



John Singer Sargent, Stringing Onions, 1878



Charles Sheeler, Cat-walk, 1947



Robert Frederick Blum, Venetian Gondoliers, ca. 1880–89



George Wesley Bellows, In Virginia (Garden Party), 1908

Hero Teen Saves Brother Being Swept Away: ‘Mom…I Might Not Be Back’


By Andy Corbley

July 27, 2023


The Gamage boys – supplied

In New Zealand, a young boy has become the world’s youngest recipient of the Mountbatten Award after saving his younger brother from a treacherous stretch of coastal water last year.

The hero was Kalya Gamage, 14, who must have paralyzed his mother with fear when he saw his brother Kithmi being pulled out to sea by 3-meter waves and said to her ‘Ok Mum, I’m going out. I might not be back.’’

12-year-old Kithmi was a good swimmer in his own right, but couldn’t resist being ripped off his feet by several large waves that broke ashore on Chrystalls Beach in South Otago. Quickly tiring himself out trying to fight his way back to land, he was out around 60 meters (180 feet) treading water in a “notoriously-dangerous” patch of coastal ocean where the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) notes “no one survives.”

Kalya jumped into the frigid water and had little difficulty reaching his brother, but became nervous about whether he could reach the shore.

But he was relieved that they did, cold and tired, but alive.

“Undoubtedly, Kalya’s brave response saved his brother’s life that day,” said the RLSS.

Kalya wants to start a business or be an engineer when he grows up, but has spent time specifically improving his swimming skills. Those skills, and the rescue they afforded, won Kalya the 2022 Mountbatten Award, given to a single member of the whole British Commonwealth per year—over 2 billion people in 56 countries.

While his high school and even the Kiwi government expressed their pride at Kalya’s bravery and presence of mind, the greatest reward will of course be having his brother around for many decades to come.

[lush]

Newly Discovered Species of Palm Tree Flowers and Bears Fruit Underground
070523*

Pinanga subterranea, a new species of palm discovered by researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, is one of only two known plants that exclusively fruit and flower underground.

There are more than 2,500 species of palm known to science, but Pinanga subterranea, a new species discovered on the tropical island of Borneo, is the only one that flowers and fruits only underground. The plant and its sweet fruits are well-known to the island’s indigenous population, but it has somehow been overlooked by scientists until now. Dr Paul Chai, a Malaysian botanist and namesake of the palm species Pinanga chaiana was the first to spot the underground-flowering palm, and in 2018, Kew scientists Benedikt Kuhnhäuser, Peter Petoe and William Baker took some samples for research purposes and discovered the plant’s amazing abilities.


Photo: Forest and Kim Starr/Flickr

According to Kew Gardens scientists, at first glance, the species looks like a juvenile plant of other common palms in the Bornean rainforest. However, these apparent babies are in fact fully formed adults, with their reproductive parts concealed below the soil surface.

The ability to flower and fruit underground – processes known as geoflory and geocarpy – are rarely encountered in nature, especially both of them in the same species. The peanut, for example, flowers above ground, but its fruit then develop underground, but exclusively fruiting and flowering entirely underground is extremely rare. In fact, this has only been observed in the orchid family Rhizanthella.

Known as underground orchids, Rhizanthella are leafless flowers that live in symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi. They have no roots, no chlorophyll and new tubers form at the end of short stems. It’s a peculiar-looking flower that has little in common with most other orchid species. Pinanga subterranea, on the other hand, not only resembles other palms in the Pinanga genus, but also features a high number of underground seeds and fruit, suggesting a very successful polinating mechanism is at play. Scientists just don’t know what it could be…

“I have been studying palms for 30 years and am amazed at how they continue to surprise us,” Dr. William Baker, Senior Research Leader, said. This unexpected find poses many more questions than it answers. What is pollinating the palm? How does the pollinator find the flowers underground? How did this phenomenon evolve and what on Earth will palms surprise us with next?”

Palms in the Pinanga genus are usually pollinated by insects such as bees and beetles, which don’t usually operate underground. Researchers hope that the discovery of an underground flowering and fruiting palm will attract other researchers and hopefully help crack the mystery surrounding the pollination of Pinanga subterranea.

Subway will give free subs to one person for life if they change their name to Subway



How would you like a lifetime supply of Subway?

All that bready, meaty, salady goodness could be yours if you do one tiny, little thing: legally change your first name to Subway.

I don't know about you but I think Subway Donnelly kind of has a bit of a ring to it.

Anyone who is keen on being referred to as Subway for the rest of their goddamn life can sign up at SubwayNameChange.com between August 1 and August 4.

The sandwich gods will then choose someone to make the ultimate sacrifice for unlimited subs and drinks from the restaurant.

“Subway will select one lucky winner to earn free sandwiches and assume an iconic new identity,” the press release reads.

In order to enter, you need to be a legal resident of the United States and be at least 18 years old (19+ in Alabama and Nebraska, and 21+ in Mississippi).

The company is even going to cover the winner’s $750 legal fees in order to make it easy and 'effortless to become Subway and enjoy a lifetime of delicious subs'.

The person will have four months to show the company proof that they've officially changed their name before they can start living in sandwich heaven.

If you read the fine print, the actual prize is $50,000 in Subway vouchers. So, whoever wins will have to figure out how to ration out their sub vouchers so they don't spend them all in the first year. Like I would.

According to the Social Security Administration, Subway was not in the top 1,000 most popular baby names in the US over the past century but who knows, maybe this competition will start a trend?

Last year, Subway also gave James Kunz free subs for life after he got a foot-long baseball jersey-themed Subway Series logo tattoo.

Kunz told TODAY.com he was 'kind of chunky' as a teenager and eating subs helped him on his health journey.

“Because of that, I have kind of a brand loyalty," he said.

“I said, ‘No, no, I’m totally serious about this. I love Subway, and I’d be pumped to get this tattooed and get Subway for life', and so I went for it.

“And I’m super glad I went for it. It was a total blast.”

https://www.ladbible.com/lifestyle/food ... 1-20230728

[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 JULY 28
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.

[/quote]
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

[HogwartsExpress]

Hovercraft crew rescues sheep swept out by waves

Marine rescuers in England came to the rescue of a sheep that was chased into the water by a dog and got swept away by the current.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution said in a social media post that a crew from its Hoylake Lifeboat Station responded when a farmer called to report one of his sheep was stranded in the water off Leasowe Beach.

The sheep ended up on a sandbank across the tidal gutter, so the crew took the farmer and his sheepdog to round up the animal before the tide came in. The sheep was loaded on to the hovercraft and brought safely back to shore.

"It was a close shave for the sheep on what can be a dangerous area of beach, but we were glad we could help the farmer and his dog in bringing the animal to safety," crew member Emily Jones said.

src: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/07/27 ... 690488438/

[ozswede]

102-year-old makes waves for over 50 years by teaching generations to swim



Multiple times a week, you can find Peggy Konzack at the Roseburg YMCA in Oregon.

At 102 years old, she continues to teach a class where she helps babies six months to three years old get accustomed to being in the water.

It's just a joy in my life,” Konzack said. “I'm playing with them. I'm not working, I'm playing.

Her instruction has been especially helpful to Jennifer Reid, whose daughter Lyla is deaf.



"Peggy's really great because she integrates a lot of gestures and simple signs,” said Reid. Getting one-on-one support, just the three of us, learning to swim has made all the difference.”

It’s a teaching style that was formed in 1968.

I came here to the Y just to relax and swim, and friends said, 'How about taking my baby to the baby class?’” Konzack explained. “And I said, 'Sure, I'll be glad to.'

She has no plans of stopping.

"I'm inspired to get up in the morning, get ready,” Konzack said. “I still drive my car and come to the Y and spend the morning."

Peggy's been doing this for so long that she's even taught multiple generations of the same families.



"Sometimes, I say, 'Oh, it's time to retire,’” said Konzack. “And then someone will say, 'No Peggy, keep going, keep going.' So, here I am."

Add it all up, and you have one woman who’s impacted an entire town.

Getting those kids safe around water,” Steven Stanfield said. “That's our number one priority and Peggy has been a main person in being able to do that in our community.

So Peggy will keep showing up, making the babies laugh and closing each class with the hokey pokey.

And then, she’ll come back and do it again. "What else can I do that is more rewarding?” said Konzack.

[goldie0608]

93-Year-Old Man Summits Yosemite's Half Dome with Help of Son and Granddaughter: 'Feeling Great'

"When he sets his mind to something, he’s going to do it,” said Everett Kalin's son



A 93-year-old California man just summited Yosemite’s Half Dome thanks in part to his son and granddaughter.

Everett Kalin, of Oakland, Calif., successfully completed the strenuous hike in three days last week, becoming one of the oldest, if not the oldest, person ever to climb the iconic piece of rock, according to SFGate.

“I didn't fully realize how tricky it would be, especially at my age,” Everett told the outlet about the effort, which starts out with a difficult subdome ascent — without cables — in which son Jon, 57, and granddaughter Sidney, 19, held on to him for support.

“He’s stubborn as a mule. When he sets his mind to something, he’s going to do it,” Jon told the newspaper. “He kept proving me wrong every step of the way."

“When you hit your 90s, you think, ‘What would be some things I’d like to do?’” added the nonagenarian. “I guess Half Dome was the thing that most popped into my mind.”

Hikers gain 4,800 feet of elevation, passing highlights including Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall before steel cable handrails and wooden planks help them across the mountain's granite domes, per the website.

For his part, Everett prepared by climbing stairs in his 17-story apartment building and taking daily walks around Lake Merritt, he told SFGate.

After setting out on the trek, the family was able to reach the summit and come back down to their campground on the second day after 13 hours of total hiking, according to ABC affiliate KFSN-TV.

"I was pleasantly surprised that when I got up there, I did not feel like I was huffing and puffing so much. As we went up, it felt pretty good," Everett told the outlet.

Added John, "It was spectacular for the three generations of us to be together enjoying it all at once."

“I just feel so very grateful to the people that made it possible,” the former theology professor, who has no idea what his next adventure will be, told SFGate. “I’m actually feeling great."

[Fatima99]

Auto-ban: German man drives himself alone to his driving test



A man in Germany has discovered the hard way that it’s best to get a driving license first before trying to use it.

The 37-year-old applicant drove himself alone to the driving test centre in Bergheim, near Cologne, on Monday afternoon.

Police said on Tuesday that the man parked an Opel Zafira vehicle outside the test centre in front of an astonished examiner.

He told officers that he had only driven there because he wanted to make sure he arrived on time, police said in a statement.

His practical test was immediately called off and the man now faces an investigation for driving without a license.

Police -- who were called to the scene -- have also opened an investigation into the car’s owner.

[PennySerenade]

Cat Goes Viral for Swimming Skills



The internet has been left in awe after a video showcasing a cat’s impressive swimming abilities went viral. The post, shared on TikTok under the username @azia_and_ryan, has garnered an overwhelming response from viewers worldwide.

The video captures a feline named Azia gracefully maneuvering through a beautiful, narrow stream, exhibiting the skills of an otter. Azia’s owner, Ryan, can be heard in the background cheering her on, expressing his amazement at her swimming prowess. He lovingly refers to her as a “good girl” and compares her to a “little sea otter”.

Click Here For Video

Since its upload, the video has captivated millions of viewers worldwide. Within a short period, the clip has amassed over 6 million views and garnered more than 900,000 likes. This overwhelming response underscores the widespread fascination with animals and their unique abilities, bringing joy and amazement to people’s lives through the power of social media.

We encourage everyone thinking of getting a pet to only adopt instead of shopping. Read more resources about adopting animals on One Green Planet, including 7 Reasons to Adopt Your Next Furry Best Friend, 5 Reasons Why Everyone Should Adopt a Pet, and These Heartwarming Before and After Pictures of Adopted Rescue Animals Will Make Your Day! Read tips for pet adoptions and what to consider before adopting an animal. We recommend using these apps to find shelter dogs near you!

[Misstee]

July 27, 2023 / 11:00 AM
Woman receives over 100 Amazon packages she never ordered
By Ben Hooper






July 27 (UPI) -- A Virginia woman received more than 100 Amazon packages she didn't order, including headlamps, glue guns and binoculars.

Cindy Smith said the boxes recently started showing up at her Prince William County home and soon she had received about 1,000 headlamps, 800 glue guns and dozens of pairs of binoculars.

"A lot of people told me I was weird," Smith told WUSA-TV. "I would drive around with headlamps and glue guns in the car. I gave them to everybody I met."

The boxes bore Smith's address, but the name Lixiao Zhang, a name Smith said she had never heard before.

"We initially thought it was a brushing scam," Smith said, referring to the process of an online vendor creating fake sales of their products in order to artificially inflate their number of 5-star reviews.

Liz Geltman of Washington, D.C., faced a similar situation in May, when her house was quickly filled with packages of children's sheets she hadn't ordered.

Amazon officials said they looked into both incidents, and discovered both Smith and Geltman's packages were the result of vendors having packages shipped to random addresses in order to remove unsold merchandise from Amazon fulfillment centers.

"It all boils down to money," New York-based attorney CJ Rosenbaum said of the scheme. "You have sellers located in China, who are just picking random addresses. And then when they need to get their products out of Amazon's warehouses, they're just having them sent there, because it's just cheaper for them to do so."

Amazon said the seller's account has been closed.

It was unclear whether a similar scam was responsible for Connie Mathews of Sacramento, Calif., receiving about 100 space heaters she never ordered from Amazon in December 2022.

A Digitized Collection of Art, Poetry, and Books Will Be Permanently Installed on the Moon

A multimedia creative arts archive will head to space as part of a permanent installation on a series of unmanned rockets that will land and remain stationed on the moon, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The Lunar Codex is a digitized collection of contemporary art, poetry, magazines, music, film, podcasts, and books. It contains the work of 30,000 artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers from 157 countries. The semiretired Canadian physicist and author Samuel Peralta started the project.

As executive chairman of the Toronto-based media and technology company Incandence, Peralta has been contacting creatives to acquire the works and archival permissions for free inclusion in the Codex. Submissions by individual artists have also been included, with the caveat that their work must have been included in an exhibition, catalogue, or anthology.

Divided into four time capsules, the Lunar Codex contains material copied onto digital memory cards. The lightweight analog media storage device can hold 150,000 laser-etched microscopic pages of text or photos on one 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheet.

“This is the largest, most global project to launch cultural works into space,” Peralta said in an interview. “There isn’t anything like this anywhere.”

The project is reminiscent, however, of NASA’s Golden Record, a time capsule containing audio and visual images on a metal disk, which was launched into space on the Voyager probes in 1977.

Other such endeavors include “The Moon Museum,” a tiny ceramic tile with line drawings by artists Forrest Myers, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, and John Chamberlain. The first work of art to travel to the moon, it was attached to the Apollo 12 spacecraft in 1969. Later, in 1971, an aluminum sculpture by Belgian artist Paul van Hoeydonck was left as part of the Apollo 15 mission.

More recently, contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons, Sacha Jafri, and Xu Bing have taken it upon themselves to try sending their works to space—some more successfully than others.

Unlike the Apollo missions, the Lunar Codex contains work by women. Highlights of the project include linocuts by Ukrainian printmaker Olesya Dzhurayeva, who evacuated Kyiv in April 2022; 2021 Bennett Prize winner Ayana Ross’s painting New American Gothic (2020); Alex Colville’s serigraph New Moon (1980); and archives from “The Poet and the Poem,” a poetry radio show/podcast including episodes with Rita Dove, Louise Glück, and other U.S. poets laureate.

One codex orbited the moon last year as part of NASA’s Orion mission. This fall, additional capsules are scheduled to be sent through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

Woman applauded for refusing to give up her first class seat to a child



Their inability to plan was totally not her emergency.

A traveler is being lauded online for her response to a mother who tried to take away her dream seat in first class — just so she could sit closer to her teen.

Sabra, a Seattle pharmacist and influencer who posts on TikTok as @lifewithdrsabra, posted a short clip from a recent Air France flight from the Pacific Northwest to Paris, detailing the situation and how she dealt with it.

The 6-second video, captioned “POV: Flight agent asks me if I want to give up my 1A seat so a child sits with their family,” shows her lounging on her first class seat, while a popular TikTok audio drop — “Girl, f – – k them kids and f – – k you too” — plays in the background.

“That’s a no from me dawg,” Sabra wrote in the caption with a laughing emoji, asking her followers: “Would you have given up your seat?”

The clip has been viewed over 9 million times, with many people — parents included — agreeing she shouldn’t have been expected to move. Many applauded her for standing her ground.

Sabra was applauded for standing her ground.Sabra was applauded for standing her ground.lifewithdrsabra/TikTok

“Why isn’t their first instinct is to just switch the child with one of her parents so they could be with a guardian… lmao,” one skeptic TikToker asked.

“Nope, cause, as a mom, it’s a parents responsibility to plan ahead,” added another. “Just traveled to Europe for 1.5 months with my toddler and no one had to move.”
Screenshot of woman in first class seat.A Seattle woman has gone viral for her response to a request to swap seats on a recent flight.lifewithdrsabra/TikTok

Some suggested people do it to wrangle their way into a free upgrade.

“Just know they booked two business and one eco thinking they’ll strong-arm someone into giving up their seat,” commented a user.

“I wonder if some families actually on purpose buy the cheapest tickets, to plan to ask someone for their seat. ‘I got kids, pls move,'” said another.

Sabra told BuzzFeed she was upgraded on her trip with Air France, and did consider switching but the seats she was offered were not as good as hers.

“It was still first class but all the way in the back,” she explained. “I kindly said that I’d rather keep the seat I selected and she didn’t insist. They went ahead and found another resolution pretty quickly.”

“So no, I am not a terrible human being,” she quipped. “Also the child was like 13.”

Requesting a seat change often results in airborne arguments — particularly when it involves kids.

In the past, weary travelers have claimed parents resorted to letting their kids crawl all over them in retaliation, when they have refused to swap seats.

https://nypost.com/2023/07/28/woman-goe ... at-to-kid/

Pre-Incan ‘Floor of Thunder’ Found Where Ritual Dances Atop Stone Platform Made Booming Footsteps Like Thunder

By Andy Corbley

July 28, 2023


The floor was 10 meters, or about 30 feet in diameter – ORP-PIACI Project

Dancers in a pre-Incan civilization of Peru built specially designed dance floors to honor a nearby god of mountains and lightning, a new study shows.

The floor could accommodate 26 dancers, and was hollow underneath with layers of resonant material on the underside of the cavity that would’ve aided in creating a booming noise like thunder.

It was discovered at a pre-Incan site of Viejo Sangayaico, about 120 miles south of Lima, after archaeologists walked over an open space and realized it was hollow underneath, which is exactly like something out of an Indiana Jones movie when you think about it.

It was quite near at hand to a temple dedicated to the Incan god of lightning, even though the construction of the dance floor took place around 1,000 CE, before the heyday of the Incas.

This, archaeologists believe, suggests that like their own footsteps tripping over it in our time, Incan people would have found it, realized the floor made a sound like thunder, and incorporated it into their rituals by building a temple nearby.

“We know that in pre-Hispanic Andean rituals dance was a big part of the proceedings. I believe that this specially constructed platform was built to enhance the natural sounds associated with dance,” Kevin Lane, an archaeologist with the Instituto de las Culturas (IDECU) of the Universidad de Buenos Aires who helped carry out the fieldwork, told Art News.

“I believe that these open platforms would have been used during the pre-Hispanic period as a stage on which to venerate the nearby mountain gods, in this case those of Huinchocruz,” Lane says. “This would likely have been accompanied by drums and possibly Andean wind instruments.”

The platform was made by carving out a cavity under the rock and layering it with the dung of an animal, possibly a guanaco, and silty clay. These materials gave resonance to the noise created within the hollow as the dancers above performed their rituals.

The study authors raise the question of whether this was a common feature of Incan and pre-Incan settlements, and perhaps that completed excavations should be reexamined for such thunder dancefloors.