[PennySerenade]

Elizabeth II honored with basketball-sized gold coin worth ‘around $23 million’



Made from almost 8 pounds of gold and some 6,426 diamonds, a new coin honoring the life of Queen Elizabeth II may be “among the most valuable coins of all time.”

In fact, the creator of this one-off luxury object has valued it at “around $23 million.”

Unveiled on Monday, days before the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death, the commemorative coin as a whole is not considered legal tender in the UK (although the denominations of coins contained within the design are). It was produced by the East India Company, a luxury lifestyle brand with rights to the name of the corporation that once controlled large swathes of Britain’s empire.

Dubbed “The Crown”, in a press release, the company described its creation as an “objet d’art.” The current Guinness World Record for the most expensive coin ever to sell at auction is held by a rare 1933 US “Double Eagle” that fetched $18.9 million at Sotheby’s New York in June 2021.



The coin has a diameter of over 9.6 inches, making it wider than an NBA-regulation basketball and its design comprises almost a dozen 24-carat gold coins nestled in beds of diamonds.

The center coin weighs over 2 pounds, while the smaller ones around it each weigh 1 ounce and feature either portraits of the late monarch or depictions of virtues including truth, justice and courage.

On one side, thousands of diamonds have been arranged to resemble the UK’s flag, while the setting of the reverse was inspired by the late queen’s tiaras.

The East India Company said its multi-million-dollar valuation was partly due to the quality of the materials and crafting processes, which involved artisans and experts from the UK, India, Singapore, Germany and Sri Lanka.

The original East India Company operated for almost 300 years before its dissolution in 1874. Indian-born businessman Sanjiv Mehta acquired the rights to name — and the accompanying coat of arms — in 2005 before relaunching it as a lifestyle brand five years later.



His modern reincarnation sells luxury products including jewelry, homeware and commemorative coins that “capture moments in history for contemporary enthusiasts and future generations to treasure,” according to the company’s website.

“The Crown” took over a year to produce, meaning that it was underway before Queen Elizabeth died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland last September. Produced in partnership with the British Overseas Territory of St Helena, coin designs were fully approved by the territory’s Government as well as by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II prior to her passing in a process managed by the Royal Household and the Royal, Ceremonial and Honours Unit (RCHU) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Speaking to CNN ahead of the unveiling, Mehta said that no expense had been spared honoring Queen Elizabeth, whom he described as “the queen of the Earth.”

“An average diamond setter can set about four stones in an hour,” said Mehta, whose family business is in the diamond industry. “So, when you’re looking at (around) 6,500 stones on one piece, that’s a huge number of man hours.”

“The tribute that we’re making to the Queen was not about cutting corners, but celebrating a life,” he added.

Missing artifacts from WWII Nazi code breaker found with Colorado woman



Items belonging to an Englishman credited with cracking encrypted Nazi communications during World War II and who later earned accolades as one of the founding fathers of computer science were discovered in the possession of a Colorado woman in 2018, nearly four decades after they went missing.

In late August, Denver-based federal investigators flew across the Atlantic to return those items — which were enthusiastically received.

"We thought probably that was the last we were ever going to see of them," said Dominic Luckett, headmaster at Sherborne School, in BBC coverage of the repatriation ceremony. "So it was a rather pleasant surprise when we got wind that the American authorities knew they were in America and they were doing their best to track them down and get them back."

But that's not the end of the story: How those artifacts got to Colorado, and whether they were stolen or secretly given away — are mysteries that have not been solved.

The story took a dramatic turn in 2018 in Boulder when a woman from Conifer, Colo. presented the items to officials at the University of Colorado. She offered to lend the artifacts to the university for historical display.

The university's historians thanked the woman for the offer but turned her down. Evidently, they knew what they were looking at, or at least had a solid idea about the items' significance. They contacted local authorities, who then contacted federal authorities.

That's when Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Greg Wertsch stepped into the case.

"We did a search warrant on the property, we recovered the items, and then did subsequent investigations to authenticate the items that we had," Wertsch told CBS News Colorado.

The box of items had been donated in 1965 to the Sherborne School in Dorset, England, located three and a half hours southwest of London. It was given to the all-boys school by the mother of Alan Turing, one of the school's most renowned students.

The enigma of WWII codebreaker Alan Turing

Turing attended the school from 1926 to 1931. He went on earn degrees at Cambridge and Princeton, author groundbreaking articles on computing, artificial intelligence and mathematical biology and became a national hero by developing a device to decode the German military's secret communications.

The Nazis encrypted their messages with an Enigma machine. That ability to hide its communications was critical in building an advantage with its fleet of U-boats, a type of submarine.

Breaking the Nazi's Enigma codes at Bletchley Park

That is, until Turing decoded it and took away that advantage. HSI's Wertsch points out that it helped the Allies win World War II, saving millions of lives in the process.

"At the time, we had no computer technology to decipher codes. Alan Turing worked on this problem," Wertsch said. "Alan Turing was principle in that, in determining how to break the code. That changed the course of the world war."

Turing died a controversial death in 1954. He was posthumously awarded an Order of the British Empire medal for his war effort.

That medal, along with his Princeton Ph.D diploma, a personal note from the King George VI of England, a number of school reports and several school report cards were among the items in a box of artifacts that vanished from the Sherborne School in 1984.

School officials don't know how the items disappeared. But they did determine that they vanished during a visit by a young woman from America.

That woman told the school her name was Julie Schinghomes. She claimed to be doing a study on Turing. She received a tour of school's archives from a staff member.

Somehow, when she left, the items went with her.

"We don't know precisely if they were stolen or given," Wertsch said. "There is a claim that some of the items may have been given by one person at the school to someone here. However, that person would not have the authority to give them."

According to federal prosecutors, Schinghomes returned home to the United States and changed her name to Julia Turing. Investigators have not found her to be related to Alan Turing in any way.

The search warrant was issued in 2021. Investigators found the artifacts and took possession of them.

But it would be another year and a half before a settlement was reached between Julia Turing and federal investigators.

Wertsch said Julia Turing surrendered her interest in the items — after lengthy and "laborious discussions" — in exchange for prosecutors dropping their criminal case against her.

"Everybody in this case came together and agreed, the place for these items was back where they first were," Wertsch said.

However, Chris Larson, a spokesperson with the United States Attorney Office in the District of Colorado, declined to comment when asked if, in fact, Julia Turing faced no legal consequences stemming from her actions.

Regardless, the items are back where they belong, Wertsch said. "I'm very lucky to have had a small part in preserving that legacy for the world," he said.

[Misstee]

‘Men in Quilts’ take on kilted hunks with comedy show and calendar of their own

by Jamel Smith
Aug 24, 2023



The ‘Men in Quilts’ Graham Stewart, Kenny Sinclair and Ronnie Black (Ewan Pringle/PA)
Ewan Pringle - Ewan Pringle

Three Scottish middle-aged fathers dressed only in quilts are taking on their younger kilted rivals with a comedy show described as “warm-bodied quilted hilarity” and a calendar, donating the profits to charity.

Friends Graham Stewart, 57, a commercial programme manager, Kenny Sinclair, 60, a media contractor, and Ronnie Black, 56, a head of learning disability services, all from Glasgow, formed the trio in April to create a comedy show for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.



The ‘toy boys of old folk’s homes’ (Ewan Pringle/PA)

They came up with the idea to perform the stand-up show wearing only quilts after seeing Mr Sinclair’s son in the Scottish ‘Men in Kilts’ calendar, which features photos of topless young muscular men.

The three middle-aged men created a calendar titled Men in Quilts, parodying Men in Kilts, and then added the fashion choice to their show to “stand out a bit more”.

All proceeds from the calendar sales are going to the mental health charity, Men Matter Scotland.

Mr Sinclair told the PA news agency: “The three of us decided we wanted to do a show at the Edinburgh fringe, and we had to try and think of something that could help us stand out a little bit more.

“So one of my sons was photographed for a calendar regarding Men in Kilts.

“It’s good-looking young, hunky, Scottish guys, topless, wearing kilts with beautiful scenes and beautiful backdrops of Scotland.


Kenny Sinclair’s son featured on the Men in Kilts calendar (PA)

“For some reason, they didn’t want us, so rather than taking it lying down, we decided to produce our very own calendar and Graham came up with the genius idea to call it Men in Quilts.

“As opposed to hunky young Scottish guys all over Scotland, it’s middle-aged plump guys all over Scotland, modelling in their duvets.”

Mr Stewart stated that they could not copy the young model but they could “take them on”.



The Men in Quilts, Ronnie Black (right), Kenny Sinclair (middle) and Graham Stewart (left) take in the scenery (Ewan Pringle/PA)

He said: “It’s just a bit of fun, us old guys taking on the young guys, that’s the premise of the show.

“Over the course of the show, we try and convince the audience that ‘Men in Quilts’ are better than the young ‘Men in Kilts’.”

Mr Sinclair mentioned that Mr Stewart was initially “a bit hesitant” to create a calendar, but Mr Black was “right up for it”.

“Any chance to take his clothes off and be photographed, Ronnie’s front and centre,” Mr Sinclair said.



Ronnie Black posing in the woods (Ewan Pringle/PA)

Mr Stewart joked: “Some girls bought the calendar and said, that’s good, my Granny would love this.

“We’ve become the toy boys of old folk’s homes.”

After using the charity himself to cope with stress and anxiety, Mr Black decided that the proceeds from the Men in Quilts calendar should be donated to Men Matter Scotland.

“I was off work for four months with stress and anxiety, and I contacted Men Matter for support,” he said.

“But even at that time I didn’t feel as if I could go to one of the groups … but just knowing they were there was helpful for me.

“So when we were looking at doing something for charity I just thought this would be a great charity to give back to.”


Graham Stewart poses with some cows (Ewan Pringle/PA)

Mr Black’s two comedy partners regularly checked on his mental wellbeing.

The head of learning disability services said: “When I was off work, Graham and Kenny would say come and meet up with us, and Kenny said at one point, how are you? And he told me ‘you’re not fine’.

“Having your mates there and you’re able to be open and honest with them and know they are not judging you is really supportive.

“The guys have been brilliant for me.



Kenny Sinclair encounters a local cow (Ewan Pringle/PA)

“Laughter is such a great medicine for people. People can be really down and if you can make them laugh it just brightens their whole spirit.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why we love doing stand-up.”

Mr Black also addressed body positivity in relation to his calendar photos.



Ronnie Black says people ‘should not judge a book by its cover’ (Ewan Pringle/PA)

“I have battled with my weight my whole adult life but I refuse to let it hold me back from achieving things in life,” the comedian said.

“Even when people look at the calendar they may initially see my morbidly obese body, but so many people comment on my cheeky smile or pose.”

You can see the Men in Quilts perform at the Boteco do Brasil in Edinburgh up until August 27, and they will also be attending 2024’s Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

[lush]

Woman Miraculously Survives After Spending 90 Minutes in the Grip of a Crocodile
080323*

An Indonesian woman is lucky to be enough after surviving a crocodile attack for 90 minutes before finally being rescued and taken to a hospital.

On July 27, Falmira De Jesus, a 38-year-old palm oil plantation from Indonesia’s West Kalimantan Province, was collecting water from a shallow, greenery-covered stream in Ketapang Regency when she was suddenly attacked by a crocodile lying in wait. As the woman approached the body of water, the giant reptile leaped up from the foliage, grabbed her leg, and dragged her into the water. Somehow, Falmira managed to cry for help and fight the crocodile long enough for her plantation co-workers to arrive and help her. Viral footage shows the brave woman with only her head above water as she literally tries to hang on for her life to wooden poles extended in the water by her co-workers, while others prod the water with sticks to discourage the crocodile.


Photo: Thomas Couillard/Unsplash

“I was in pain from where the crocodile was holding me. I couldn’t break free,” Falmira recalled. “Then I started to feel like I was becoming weaker. I just thought I was going to die, because I was falling below the water.”

Eyewitnesses said that the crocodile gripped Falmira for 90 minutes and repeatedly tried to pull her down into the water. Luckily for her, the water wasn’t deep enough, and, over time, more people arrived to help. Eventually, the reptile decided to let go of its prey and retreat. The bravest of her co-workers ventured into the water to get her out, and she was rushed to the nearest hospital.



“I lie in the hospital and can still see the crocodile in my mind, and feel it on my body,” the 38-year-old survivor said. “I am very grateful for people that helped me to escape. They saved my life.”

Doctors told Indonesian reporters that the mother-of-two suffered deep puncture wounds on her right arm, thigh, and lower leg, but is scheduled to make a full recovery, which many consider nothing short of a miracle.



Local police praised both Falmira for bravely fighting the crocodile for over 90 minutes, as well as the people who helped her through the ordeal, but also warned workers and residents around the plantation to be more vigilant when approaching bodies of water. After all, Indonesia is home to 14 different species of crocodile.

[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 SEPTEMBER 6
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]

100-year-old African tortoise reunited with family after being rescued from canal

A 100-year-old African tortoise named Biscuit has been reunited with his family after being rescued from a canal, according to the Parish of Ascension in Louisiana.

A local animal control team rescued the tortoise on Wednesday after the sheriff’s office found it “in distress” in New River Canal, located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a Facebook post from the parish stated.


Biscuit was reunited with his family at Cara's House Animal Shelter in the Parish of Ascension in Louisiana.

Animal control officers Curt Trepagnier and Isreal Millet “humanely contained, loaded into the truck, and safely transported” Biscuit to Cara’s House-Ascension Parish Animal Shelter, the post detailed.

The tortoise was placed on a three-day stray hold at Cara’s House. If an owner didn’t claim it in three days, it would have been put up for adoption, but Biscuit’s reunion with its family didn’t take long.


Biscuit was rescued by Animal Control in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.

The shelter shared Facebook photos and video of the reunion with its owner, Lamoine Howard, Wednesday. “We are happy to report that Biscuit has been reunited with his family! This boy is 100 years old,” the post read.

Under the post, Howard thanked the animal shelter for helping to “return our Biscuit home.” The tortoise had escaped after “the wind and rain … blew my back gate open and broke the latch,” according to Howard.

A video on the shelter’s Facebook page showed the centenarian tortoise slowly walking in front of his owner toward Howard’s pickup truck.

“I told my wife this morning (Wednesday) that I would fix it Sunday, and it would be fine till then,” Howard wrote under the post, adding, “Biscuit had other plans.”

Still Life



Creepy’ photo of identically dressed group in apparent trance state at the beach has locals worried

A “strange” photo taken at a Sydney beach has Australians freaking out – but there’s a simple explanation behind the “scary” photo.

The picture shows a large number of people dressed in dark clothing who are dotted across Balmoral Beach while all looking out towards the ocean, seemingly in a trance.

A confused onlooker shared the image of the unusual scene, taking to a local Facebook page to ask if anyone knew what was happening.

“Does anyone know why people stand individually on Balmoral Beach on Sunday mornings? I would love to know,” she wrote in the Mosman Living group.

Her post quickly garnered attention, with many offering an explanation while others left hilarious musings about how “creepy” and “scary” the snap appeared.

“Could it be a cult?” one speculated.

“They’re waiting for the mothership,” a user wrote, as another joked: “I’m just waiting for Jesus to walk out of the water now.”

“Why do I hear a choir of angels singing? So many questions…” someone else added.

“Looks like a zombie movie,” one guy suggested.

Another stated they’d “never seen this” before, as one labelled the scene “weird.”

In truth, the reason so many people were standing – while spaced so far apart – looking out to the ocean at the same time is because they were engaging in a mental health exercise.

“It is a meditation group doing what’s called a ‘walking meditation’ – where instead of sitting down to meditate you walk along, stand still at different times and then lie down at the end,” one woman explained.

Despite partaking in a very popular act of meditation, there were plenty who pointed out: “It does look strange though doesn’t it?”

“As a resident of Mosman I believe this phenomena is referred to as Hunds Rule,” another teased.

Mostly though, people made jokes about what the beachgoers could be doing, including “pondering on the existential threat of the next rate rise.”

“Look it could be meditation, it could be a cult, it could be aliens,” another teased.

The weekly event is hosted every Sunday and uses a technique developed by Dr. Joe Dispenza, an American scientist and registered chiropractor, who runs meditation sessions around the world.

According to Dr. Zac, news.com.au’s in-house medical expert, meditation puts the body into a relaxation response, which is the opposite bodily reaction to the one that causes cortisol production.

Studies show this can be beneficial for reducing stress-related inflammation, decreasing levels of stress and lowering depression levels as well as alleviating anxiety and panic attacks and the promotion of workplace productivity.

“Meditation is a beloved practice by the health and wellness community. Others may say it’s just hippies and greenies, but the use of meditation is more widespread in society than you’d think – and it definitely doesn’t need to be as arduous as it is often perceived to be,” he said.

“Meditation rewires your brain, building new roads and destroying others.

“It decreases the neurological connections to the media prefrontal cortex – which is the part of the brain responsible for fear, stress and anxiety.

“Alongside this, it builds new pathways to the parts of your brain responsible for focus and decision making.”

https://nypost.com/2023/09/05/creepy-ph ... s-worried/

Troopers rescue kitten from engine compartment of patrol vehicle



Indiana State Police troopers said a "real CATastrophie" was averted when they were able to rescue a kitten that climbed into the engine compartment of a patrol vehicle.

The ISP's Sellersburg post said in a Facebook post that a pair of troopers heard meowing coming from underneath the hood of a parked patrol vehicle.

The troopers elicited the help of the district's mechanic to raise the vehicle and extract the kitten from below.

"Thankfully, we avoided a real CATastrophie today," the post said.

[Fatima99]

After Taking Vitamin B2 Baby Becomes Solitary Case of Recovery from Rare Genetic Disease



Vitamin B2, or riboflavin, is a key compound in energy metabolism, cellular respiration, antibody production, and in the case of a 1-year-old baby from California, perhaps the reason he was able to recover from Mitchell Syndrome.

If that disease sounds unfamiliar to you, that’s because it’s one of the rarest diseases known to medicine. There have been just 20 recorded cases of this genetic disease, and it was only named back in 2019.

Augustine was born a perfectly healthy boy on May 27th, 2022, but at three-months he had to be hospitalized with hypoglycemia, and his health afterwards began to deteriorate.

He began to lose his hearing and he also had difficulty moving. At six months, the tot stopped eating altogether. At first doctors said it was just down to teethin, but an MRI scan showed deterioration of the protective covering of nerve fibres in his brain known as demyelination.

Augustine’s mother Kristen and his father Moses, “begged” for further genetic testing, which revealed a genetic mutation of a gene called ACOX1, leading to the diagnoses of Mitchell syndrome aged seven months.

The newly diagnosed neurological illness is caused by a rare genetic mutation which attacks the nerves which control hearing, movement and vision.

“At the time, the hospital were only aware of three patients with the disorder, who had all passed away, that was incredibly hard to hear,” said Kristen. “It wasn’t until weeks later that I started asking more questions.”

In the course of that asking she found the Mitchell and Friends Foundation, set up after the death of Mitchell Herndon, the first recorded death by this disease in 2019.

The foundation had detailed records of all 20 known patients, some of whom were still alive, and they shared with Kristen that vitamin B2 seemd to have some positive affect for ameliorating the worst of the disease.

“He can sit up, eat and crawl which doctors never expected him to do,” said Kristen. “But there’s no research so we don’t know what will happen—we have nobody to guide us because the condition is so rare.”

“Normally when people lose a skill like movement, it’s gone forever; nerve function goes, then eventually brain function,” she explains. “But that hasn’t happened for Augustine.”

Augustine is starting to babble, and even crawling and trying to walk. In May this year, he turned 1 and all of his family celebrated by singing Happy Birthday to him using sign language.

Kristen and the family are learning sign language, which they’re teaching Augustine, but he’ll also have cochlear implants as he gets older.

“He is so sweet, he is interested in everything he loves to explore and is very affectionate, he loves us to wrestle with him and he loves his sisters,” she adds. “He puts his hands on my throat to feel the vibrations when I talk.”

“We can’t predict the future but we have all the hope in the world he will do well and we have to have faith.”

[goldie0608]

Wild Flamingos Spotted in Landlocked States and Other Surprising Places After Hurricane Idalia

Parts of the country have witnessed rare sightings of the bird following last week's storm



In the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, it wasn’t phoenixes who rose above the ashes but rather wild flamingos.

Various parts of the country, including the East Coast, have experienced rare flamingo sightings attributed to last week’s major storm that hit Florida.

Per USA Today, the iconic birds first appeared all over Florida as the storm crossed over. Jeff Bouton of Kowa Sporting Optics told the outlet that over 70 flamingos were reported in the Sunshine State.

Vinnie Fugett told WFTS Tampa Bay that he saw flamingos on Treasure Island Beach for the first time. “I was completely shocked after living here for 35 years, my entire life, and being a Florida native. I've never seen flamingos in the area," Fugett said.

Fugett added, “You think of flamingos when you think of Florida, but traditionally, you don't actually see them walking up and down the beach unless you go to Busch Gardens or Sunken Gardens."

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, about 95 percent of flamingo sightings in Florida occur in the Everglades, Biscayne Bay, and the Florida Keys.

Flamingos are distinguished by their pink-colored plumage and black flight feathers on their wings, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Common in the Caribbean Islands and South America’s northern coast, some flamingo flocks can total in the thousands. The life span of the American flamingo, the largest of the species, is approximately 40-60 years.

Experts say Idalia was responsible for redirecting the flamingos’ normal flight patterns. “These birds are most likely just blown off course, while they were traveling maybe from the Yucatan to Cuba or the Bahamas,” Hannah McDougall of the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station told WAVY.

Keith Laakkonen, director of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples, shared a theory similar to that of McDougall’s about how this happened, per News-Press. “They’ve been seen at three different places today, the Sanibel Causeway, in Punta Gorda and Tarpon Springs," he said.

Jerry Lorenz, state director of research for Audubon Florida, told USA Today that the flamingos “came in on the storm, whether they wanted to or not."

And it’s just not Florida: flamingos have also been reportedly seen recently in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, per WAVY.

Jeff Lewis spotted several flamingos from an observation tower in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina this past Saturday. The rare sighting left him excited. “There were some pink birds way out there and I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ my heart started thumping,” he told Audubon North Carolina, adding: “It was heart-stopping. My fingers were hitting all the wrong keys on my phone.”

In Ohio, officers said that people have been visiting Caesar Creek Lake to take pictures following news of flamingos arriving there, per WLWT.

As for the flamingos' future, Lorenz told USA Today that they could return to their original destinations while adding that he hopes they stay in Florida to restart a new breeding population.

Nathan Dias, an ornithologist and resident of Charleston, South Carolina, told the Post and Courier that he is not concerned about flamingos’ ability to survive in the Palmetto State amid reports that they were spotted on Bulls Island. He expressed hope that the flamingos would find refuge in salt marshes prior to them heading over to Florida, per the newspaper.

Oprah And Dwayne Johnson Giving $1,200 Per Month To Maui Wildfire Survivors



Oprah Winfrey, (left) and Dwayne Johnson (right) consulted Maui community leaders including Hokulani Holt-Padilla (center) – credit The People’s Fund of Maui

In the aftermath of the most destructive fires in the island state’s recent memory, donations have poured in to help the thousands of affected residents on Maui.

Now, celebrity duo Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have created a special welfare fund that will provide those directly injured or whose property was damaged by the fires with $1,200 per month out of their own pockets.

Together they created The People’s Fund of Maui, which armed with $10 million in aid money donated by the two celebrities, will ensure those in need are reached directly.

“I have been meeting with people throughout the community that were impacted by the fires over the last few weeks, asking what they most needed and how I could be of service,” Ms. Winfrey said in a press release.

“The main thing I’ve been hearing is their concern about how to move forward under the immense financial burden. The community has come together in so many wonderful ways, and my intention is to support those impacted as they determine what rebuilding looks like for them.”

A variety of Maui residents and community leaders were consulted by Winfrey and Johnson who both hoped to ensure that neither time nor money was wasted in getting aid directly to those who need it.

“As people around the world watched the catastrophic loss and devastation caused by the Maui wildfires, they also witnessed the great spirit and resilience of our Polynesian culture and the tremendous strength of the people of Maui,” Mr. Johnson added in the same release.

Both state and federal government assistance was lagging, according to reports, in the aftermath of the fires, and multiple GoFundMe efforts and other private charities and non-profits managed to raise tens of millions of dollars for the victims of the Upcounty and Lahaina fires.

Civil Beats Honolulu has all the information on how readers can support the recovery and assistance efforts.

[lush]

Woman Shatters World Record with 107-Decibel Burp
080423*

An American woman recently set a new world record for the world’s loudest burp by a woman after belching at a measured 107.3 decibels.

The previous Guinness record for the loudest burp by a woman dated back to 2009 when Elisa Cagnoni of Italy managed a 107-decibel belch. It was an impressive achievement, but now her record is history. Kimberly “Kimycola” Winter, a young woman from Maryland who has mastered the art of burping, recently visited a “dead room” at iHeartRadio where she managed to release a monstrously-loud burp that beat Cagnoni’s record by 0.3 decibels. Before her historic attempt, Kimycola prepared her body by eating breakfast and drinking coffee and beer. The tried and true combination apparently played a pretty big part in breaking the 14-year-old record.


Photo: Guinness Records

Kimberly told Guinness Records that she has possessed this gift of loud burping since she was a child, and has been terrorizing her family with loud belching ever since. They’ve gotten used to it over the years, but sometimes they still ask her to keep the belching down. Interestingly, Kimberly’s younger sister is a promising burper herself.

Before her successful attempt, Kimycola spent weeks experimenting with various foods and drinks to determine which helped her burp the loudest. Spicy foods, soda and alcohol appear to work wonders, but the world record holder admits that sometimes even “a little bit of water” works.



The young Maryland native said that she realized her burping was unusually loud a few years back, when he got kicked out of a bar for burping too loudly. She has been entertaining her friends with he bizarre talent for years, and, thanks to social media, she has been able to build a loyal following online. On TikTok, where she goes by Kimycola, she has thousands of fans who simply love her loud belching.

“Sometimes the burping just comes out of nowhere,” Kimberly explained.

@kimycola shout-out @Kassidy Strayer #burp #burps #burping #belch #belching #burpgirl #burpinggirl #burpqueen #burptok #burptoker #girlswhoburp #girlsthatburp ♬ original sound – Kimycola
A couple of years ago, an Australian man managed to break a decade-old Guinness record by burping at a recorded 112.7 decibels. That’s louder than a motorcycle at full throttle.

oh lawd, the hash tags

[PennySerenade]

One of Canada's most famous natural wonders is also one of the top bucket-list travel destinations in the world.

This is according to a new report from tourism company Kuoni.

To gather its results, Kuoni examined global search volumes for 115 travel bucket list items.

The top travel bucket list experience was visiting the Maldives, a destination popular for its "gorgeous white sandy beaches, tropical blue waters and dreamy sunsets," notes Kuoni.

It found that 121 countries were searching for Maldives as a travel experience.

In second place comes one of Canada's most famous destinations, Niagara Falls.

Kuoni says the group of waterfalls that border Canada and the US, offer "a breath-taking sight many dreams of visiting."

"Travellers can experience the vast waterscape up close, with boat trips taking passengers to the base of the waterfall, providing a truly immersive experience."

Niagara Falls was the only Canadian destination to make the list.

The third bucket list destination is seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, France. Visiting Bora Bora in French Polynesia and climbing the steps of the Statue of Liberty placed fourth and fifth, respectively.

The list was dominated by destinations in the US, as it looks like travellers are keen on other bucket list experiences in the country, such as visiting Times Square in New York City, going to the White House in the nation’s capital, as well as visiting the infamous Alcatraz prison in San Francisco and admiring the views at Yosemite National Park in California.

Travellers were also interested in visiting Stonehenge and the Big Ben in the UK.

There were also some Southeast Asian experiences on the list, including visiting the beautiful Taj Mahal in India and trekking through the Himalayas, which is a travel experience that encompasses Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, and Pakistan.

[Misstee]

A 40-ton organ sits under City Hall. San Francisco is trying to give it away

Peter Hartlaub



The Exposition Organ’s console in storage at Brooks Hall in San Francisco. The massive instrument once used for sold-out crowds during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is currently in pieces beneath City Hall. Preservationists want to find it a home — for no cost beyond the move and restoration — but it’s not as easy as it looks.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Justin Kielty was a high school student in the 1950s when he first heard the Exposition Organ, and he’ll never forget the experience.

“I’ll tell you every (internal) organ in my body rattled,” he said. “It was just an incredible feeling. The sound was incredible too. But it was a feeling.”

That’s because the instrument is massive. Custom built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the organ weighs 40 tons and needs 800 square feet to operate — with a 50-foot ceiling. When the World’s Fair opened, it was the seventh-largest musical instrument on the planet.

And yet despite being in very close to playable condition, the organ has sat in pieces in underground storage near San Francisco City Hall for most of the past three decades. The city is trying to find a forever home, essentially free to anyone with the space and several million dollars to move and install it.

As a preservation group scrambles to find a new home, their greatest enemy may be the organ itself — and time. It’s a priceless instrument that apparently can’t be given away, because of its size, booming sound that requires a huge room and fading notoriety due to the years since crowds have seen it played.

“I would be willing to bet you that not one person on the Board of Supervisors even knows the instrument exists,” said Kielty, a co-founder of Friends of the Exposition Organ.

But after several near-misses — including a failed concert hall proposal near Justin Herman Plaza in the early 2000s — organizers remain optimistic that the instrument will rattle the bodies of future organ lovers, even if it means leaving San Francisco.

All hail the grand old organ: Here are the best Bay Area spots that still use the magical sound systems

The Festival Hall at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition seated 10,000 people and hosted concerts by organist Edwin Lemare.



The Festival Hall at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition seated 10,000 people and hosted concerts by organist Edwin Lemare.
Courtesy Friends of the Exposition Organ

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 was San Francisco’s invitation for the world to visit, to prove that the city had rebuilt stronger than ever after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra was supposed to be the big musical draw, attracting wealthier citizens. But exposition organizers wanted to supplement the entertainment with an organ, which would only require one salaried musician. Austin Organs Inc. in Connecticut was able to build the instrument at lightning speed and transport the massive pipes — some are 32 feet long and the width of a redwood tree — across the country by train in less than a year.

It immediately received stellar reviews.

“It is a brilliant organ, prompt as lightning to the touch, as elastic as a hand clasp and the action of the ‘swell’ is precision itself,” said organist Clarence Eddy, the first to play the Exposition Organ in February 1915.

(The swell on most organs works like Venetian blinds, which open and close with pedals, and help control the volume of the instrument.)



The 40-ton custom-built organ was installed in Festival Hall at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Famed organist Edwin Lemare, who played it for crowds at the fair, stands next to it in this photo.
Courtesy Friends of the Exposition Organ

Edwin Lemare, the most famous organ player in the world at the time, braved wartime waters filled with U-boats to travel from Liverpool, England, and make San Francisco his new permanent home. He played two concerts a day throughout the fair at the enormous Festival Hall, often improvising based on audience input, for packed crowds of 10,000.

And he played for everyone. The organ concerts were free to all who paid 50 cents to enter the fair. Chronicle columnist Walter Anthony described a scene of inclusiveness, where the working class and wealthy mixed freely, and dozens of local organ players would attend each show to learn from the master. It was truly music for the masses.

“The recital season of Lemare offers even more permanent musical advantage to this city, affecting more persons and thus reaching farther into the consciousness of our times than any other of the exposition’s activities,” Anthony wrote in November 1915.

The expo actually made money — a rarity for world’s fairs of the time — and fair leaders donated the organ to the city, then kicked in enough money to build it a new home in what is now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

Lemare settled in San Francisco and played at the auditorium for a few years. Concerts were common through the 1950s, with visits from famed organists Marcel Dupre and Virgil Fox.



Justin Kielty lights up one of the organ’s display pipes. Preservationists are struggling to find the 40-ton instrument a home — free aside from the move and restoration.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

The Exposition Organ had just undergone a 1980s restoration when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit, and falling plaster damaged the pipes.

From there it has been a comedy of errors and frustration.

Federal Emergency Management Agency funds paid to have part of the instrument sent back to Austin Organs in Connecticut for repairs — it traveled on three 40-foot flatbed trucks — but City Hall leaders sent a stop-work order when it was partially done, choosing to reroute the money to other rebuilding projects.

In 1994, the Exposition Organ was sent back to Brooks Hall, the convention center-turned-storage vault underneath the plaza in front of City Hall, where it has mostly lived under tarps ever since, taking up thousands of square feet. There have been leads for a new home — with the Palace of Fine Arts gallery building, the Armory building and the Oakland Civic Auditorium all considered — but nothing has panned out.



The organ’s console in storage at Brooks Hall in San Francisco. The historic instrument has been silent for decades, but preservationists hope it will play again.

The current stewards of the instrument, the Friends of the Exposition Organ, have come close to a deal a couple of times. In the early 2000s, the city had a plan to build a 55-foot structure on the south end of Justin Herman Plaza near the Ferry Building to house the organ for outdoor concerts, but voters killed a ballot measure that would have funded the project. More recent talks with St. Ignatius Church also failed.

In its latest effort, the group, with permission from City Hall, listed the instrument on the national Organ Clearing House, a sort of rescue shelter for organs that matches unused instruments with new homes for a small fee. Organs from the size of a refrigerator to instruments whose pipes fill the entire wall of a large church are listed, for the price of “free to a good home” to about $200,000. There are more than 50 organs on the site.

Organ Clearing House executive director John Bishop is optimistic about the chances of finding a home to showcase the Exposition Organ, pointing out that sales for new pipe organs are “really booming in the country right now,” with more than a dozen organ builders working off waiting lists.

But the size of the organ — it’s by far the largest on his site — is a massive hurdle. Even with the instrument in good shape, the light restoration, shipping and installation could cost a new owner $8.5 million, according to Kielty. (City leaders have final word whether the organ leaves San Francisco, and they set the price, but would likely give a long-term lease — up to 99 years — at no significant cost.)

“Something that we recognize about any organ, but especially one that big, is that it’s the biggest white elephant in the world to somebody who wants to support it,” Bishop said.

The Friends of the Exposition Organ are undeterred.

Their website is updated, and their enthusiasm seems indomitable. There’s a 12-minute professional documentary about the organ on the site, made by media producer and Friends co-founder Vic Ferrer.

Inside Brooks Hall, the organ occupies a large corner of the convention floor. Two black blowers, both the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, are ready to provide the air needed for the organ to play. The wooden pipes are so big — carved from old growth trees — that Kielty ends a tour by impishly crawling inside one of them.

Dozens of smaller pipes are stored in boxes, while the larger ones rest on wooden racks. Kielty tells the story of City Hall secretaries who came down for a tour a couple of decades ago, and reported back that Brooks Hall was storing intercontinental ballistic missiles.



The organ’s display pipes stored at Brooks Hall in San Francisco. Once used for sold-out crowds during the Pan-Pacific International Exposition, the instrument has been dismantled and in storage for decades.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Our visit answers two important questions: Yes, the organ is in remarkable shape. And you can see why its supporters continue to make the effort.

“It creates sound that is not reproducible anywhere else,” said Hollywood sound professional Michael Evje, a Friends of the Exposition Organ member. “… You’re not going to get that (cathedral) sound just anywhere. You’re not going to get it in your living room. You’re certainly not going to get it in your headphones. To really experience it, you need to be in the building.”“This is a heroic organ,” Kielty said, “designed to fill an auditorium with 10,000 people.”

Evje remembers when he first set eyes on the organ, and immediately yearned to hear it live.

“Outrage may be too strong of a word,” he said, “but I thought, ‘Why in the world isn’t this up and running in this great city?’ It’s a magnificent instrument, with an obviously fabulous history. It should at least be up and running somewhere.”

“Somewhere” is the key word — recognition that a home outside San Francisco would be better than no home at all. (A 1990s proposal to move the organ to Jacksonville, Fla., was reportedly killed to keep the instrument in the city.)

Bishop points out that many cities have maintained large organs or installed new ones. There are municipal organs in Balboa Park in San Diego, Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, the Cincinnati Museum and the City Hall in Portland, Maine.

Why not San Francisco? Or, if not San Francisco, at least somewhere in the world San Franciscans can visit.

“It would be lovely to hear it again,” Kielty said. “I believe it will happen. I don’t know if it will happen in my lifetime.”

How A New Brain Cell's Discovery Could Shake Up Neuroscience Research
What do you get if you cross a neuron with an astrocyte? A bunch more questions, apparently.



There’s a brand new brain cell in town, and it’s here to stir up the world of neuroscience. Up to now, we all thought the brain consisted of two major cell families: the neurons and the glia. Now, scientists have discovered a secret third cell type, a kind of hybrid cell that bridges the gap between these two families.

Neurons are the MVPs of the nervous system: the cells that build complex networks that transmit information within the brain and form the backbone – literally – of nerve conduction through the spine and out to the rest of the body.

Within the brain, the neurons are supported by glial cells, which come in a few different types. These form the brain’s bespoke immune system and generally help keep the environment optimal so the neurons can do their job.

One of these types of glia, the star-shaped astrocytes, are often found gathered around synapses – the junctions between neurons that nerve impulses must bridge with the help of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.

For a long time, scientists have hypothesized that astrocytes might play a role in synaptic transmission, but experimental results have been conflicting. A new study may have found the answer, and it lies in a cell type that we didn’t even know was there.

Using precision technology that allows scientists to map the gene expression profiles of individual cells, the team identified some astrocytes that had all the machinery necessary to perform a function that is usually only found at the synaptic junctions of neurons. They seemed to be able to release glutamate, the most abundant neurotransmitter in the brain.

The evidence was first found in mouse cells, but study co-director Ludovic Telley explained in a statement that the same function appears to be preserved in humans.

“We also identified other specialized proteins in these cells, which are essential for the function of glutamatergic vesicles and their capacity to communicate rapidly with other cells,” Telley added.

So the machinery was all there, but did it work? Advanced imaging techniques allowed the team to observe the cells releasing glutamate, both in tissue samples and in living mice. Co-director Andrea Volterra explained how the glutamate was released only from specific areas of these cells, much like the synapses in neurons.

Even more strikingly, the team found that the glutamate being released by the new hybrid cells does appear to have an impact on synaptic transmission and the regulation of neuronal circuitry.

“They are cells that modulate neuronal activity, they control the level of communication and excitation of the neurons,” said first author Roberta de Ceglia. The team highlighted the role of these newly discovered cells in supporting long-term potentiation, a process that plays a key role in memory.

This last discovery opens up the possibility that the hybrid cells could be playing a role in disorders that affect memory, such as dementia, but the team also observed potential links with epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Now that these cells have been brought out of hiding, it raises a whole new set of questions to explore.

“In between neurons and astrocytes, we now have a new kind of cell at hand. Its discovery opens up immense research prospects,” Volterra concluded. “Our next studies will explore the potential protective role of this type of cell against memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease, as well as its role in other regions and pathologies than those explored here.”

https://www.iflscience.com/how-a-new-br ... arch-70584