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Jan 29th, 2021, 1:47 pm
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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 JANUARY 29

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 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

EXAMPLE POST
Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag
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A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You may post One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can enter only once a day
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)

on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life :lol:
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories :lol: :lol: :lol:

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS


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Jan 29th, 2021, 1:47 pm

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Jan 29th, 2021, 3:07 pm
Japanese entrepreneur finds a niche offering scientific, "if brutal," body odor analysis

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Tokyo — In a country known for cleanliness — Japan, after all, gave the world fancy bidets, hot spring bathing spas, Biore cleansing pads and Marie Kondo — perhaps it's no surprise that a young entrepreneur has cornered the sweet smell of success. For about $150, "Odorate" offers clients a customized, industrial-grade analysis of that most uncomfortable of subjects: body odor.

Founder Shota Ishida, 30, estimates less than 1% of the population, or about 1 million Japanese, are anxious about whether they smell. But for this minority, the worry can be crippling, even life-defining.

"It's something they can't bring up with friends or family," he told CBS News from his tiny lab in Saitama, north of Tokyo. "Getting the facts is a huge relief for them."

The lightbulb went off when Ishida was a grad student. Often too busy to bathe or change clothes, he started to obsess over whether he was causing offense in the economics department. Working up the nerve to simply ask friends, he realized, could be futile because most people are too diplomatic to blurt out the noxious truth.

So he joined forces with a chemist friend and they bought a secondhand gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GC-MS) for about $50,000. In 2019, they began offering discreet yet fulsome BO analysis. Customers create a smell sample by wearing a plain white t-shirt enhanced with odor-absorbing activated charcoal for 24 hours, which they mail in for analysis.

GC-MS technology is perhaps best known from crime shows like CSI, where lab-coated cops process biological fragments from murder scenes into air-tight forensic evidence. Considered the gold standard for identifying unknown chemical substances, the tool is widely used in everything from pesticide analysis to the food, beverage and perfume industries.

Now it's analyzing personal body odor, too. Ishida's clients get a readout, in parts per million, that explains how much of a few key offenders they're emitting. Ishida hones in on the levels of 25 of the most pungent organic compounds that make up each individual's smell profile, including, for example, diacetyl (blamed for "back of the head" odor) and nonenal (associated with "old-age smell").

In addition to clinical data indicating whether a client's odor falls within the "normal" range, Ishida also carries out a more low-tech sniff test for the underarms, collar area and back, and offers helpful descriptors such as "oily," "like onions starting to rot," or "gamey," before rendering a final verdict on whether the client is, in fact, odiferous.

The unusual taxonomy, he said, "is meant to be easily understandable, if brutal."

It's not entirely pleasant work, and Ishida said he tries to stay focused by limiting himself to six shirts per shift. "People think it's disgusting, but it doesn't bother me."

If getting the cold hard facts about your BO sounds terrifying, the bad news is tempered somewhat with helpful hints about inexpensive and widely available deodorants, body soaps, and laundry detergents, in addition to suggested lifestyle changes that may help. Ishida said that about half of customers are given the all clear, told they have no particularly offensive smell.

Some clients pay extra for a face-to-face consultation, and at the end of one meeting, Ishida was startled to have his hand grabbed in gratitude.

"Japanese people don't normally shake hands," he recalled. "To see someone so happy — it was wonderful."

Women in their 30s and 40s are his main clientele, but parents often buy the kits for their teenagers. "For most of my adult clients, their anxiety begins in school, and dogs them throughout their lives, holding them back in their careers and even in romance. So if we can nip this in the bud early, it's great."

After a little more than a year in business, Ishida has sold more than 1,000 kits, and he supplements his revenue by consulting for makers of odor-treatment products. He's about to launch a new armpit-only analysis kit, and is weighing a halitosis rating service, too.

With a new trend in Japan of office workers raising a stink about pungent colleagues, an offense known as "smell harassment," Ishida's business prospects seem anything but putrid.
Jan 29th, 2021, 3:07 pm

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Believe me, you are someone's crush. Yes, you are!
Jan 29th, 2021, 3:15 pm
Meet the Makers of South African Elephant Dung Gin

Is there a word for it when you’re curious but also grossed out at the same time?

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A few months back we brought you the story of the Swedish Disgusting Food Museum and their exhibition of revolting alcohols. Among those drinks was a delightful Korean wine made out of rice and human feces called Tsongsul, which translates as "feces wine.". But if people poop does not quite suite your delicate palate, you’re in luck. You now have an alternative, although this drink probably should’ve been featured in the same museum exhibit.

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Allow us to present to you Indlovu Gin, produced by the South African company Ibhu. The drink is still produced from a bunch of crap, but at least it didn’t come from a human being. Oh no, the poop in question was excreted by a much larger animal. In fact, the largest of all living land mammals – the African elephant.

Granted, Indlovu is not exactly a new product. It has been on the market since November 2019, and is available in many African countries and some places in Europe.

According to Ibhu’s website, Indlovu is the only gin “designed by the African elephant from foraged botanicals.” The company says that the drink uncovers “the true taste of Africa in every glass.” Really? That’s the marketing slogan you want to go for with a poop gin? Oh well. Whatever works, we suppose.

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“Well crack my tusks, the humans were right. My poop IS delicious.”

Completely Normal Ideas

As far as exotic drinks go, we’re ready to rank Indlovu Gin pretty high on the list. But how on earth did someone come up with an idea to make gin out of elephant droppings?

Like so many other strange ideas, Indlovu was born with one question: “Could it be done?” And like with so many other strange ideas, perhaps that question should’ve been: “Should it be done?”

Well, at least according to the drink’s inventors – Paula and Les Ansley – it should. The Ansleys moved from the UK to South Africa after retiring. At that point, the thought of making poop gin had never crossed their minds.

It all changed when the couple visited an animal reserve. During their visit, a game ranger told them about elephants’ particular eating habits.

Apparently, the huge creatures are picky eaters, but their digestive systems absorb only roughly half of whatever they eat. The rest of the consumed remains in their dung and comes out of the other end.

At this point, a perfectly normal idea popped into the head of the gin-loving Les. What if he was to allow the elephants to gather only the choicest botanical ingredients and then use their dung to flavor a gin?

Like we said, a perfectly normal idea. Paula thought so too, because after her husband consulted her, the two decided to give the elephant crap gin a shot.

“We contacted the Botlierskop Game Reserve in the Western Cape and we said, do you think you could send us some elephant dung?” Les told the CNN.

Again, a perfectly normal request.

“They said, yeah sure, no problem, and they mailed us some elephant dung and we started looking at how to prepare it,” he added.

Perfecting the Poop Process
Neither Les nor Paula had any experience in distilling alcoholic drinks. But this story just goes to show that anything is possible if you put your mind into it. Even making elephant dung booze.

After what we assume was a lot of trial and more or less disgusting error, the couple perfected their process. It all begins with high-quality artisanal dung, excreted in batches by dedicated elephant buttholes.

First, the dung goes through a drying and sanitization process. Then, the poop is rinsed and dried again, resulting in what Les describes as a perfectly safe and edible product.

Finally, the sterilized dung is infused into the gin. That’s a fancy way for saying that it’s plopped into a batch of booze until the flavors come off.

Yummy.

After bottling, each bottle of Indlovu is marked with the GPS of coordinates of where the dung used to make it came from, and the date when it was collected.

“You can see that it’s the winter in Kruger or summer in Botlierskop. It’s an additional story,” Les said.

It Tastes… Brown?
The manufacturing process sounds all fine and good, but no booze is worth its price if it tastes like… Well, crap. And the question about Indlovu is, does it?

Apparently not.

“It’s got an earthy, grassy-type flavor. Depending on where we collect the botanicals or which elephants we collect botanicals from, the gin flavor is going to change slightly,” Les explained.

Should you taste the gin, you would detect hints of the usual gin flavorings, such as juniper berries and coriander. But you’ll also taste whatever it was that the elephant chose to eat, which could include aloe, acacia, or any number of other grasses, fruits, or bark.

“We were very aware that if we are making a gin from dung, we have to make a good gin. Otherwise it’s only ever going to be gimmicky,” Les said.

If you want to test the gin yourself, it retails for around $34 per bottle. That might seem steep, but you’ll also be contributing to a good cause – Ibhu donates 15% of the gin’s profits to the Africa Foundation to support wildlife conservation at the Phinda Game Reserve.

It only makes sense. Without the elephants, the Ansleys would lose their gin’s primary ingredient.

And that’d be a crappy end to one weird drink.
Jan 29th, 2021, 3:15 pm

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Jan 29th, 2021, 4:01 pm
Snowy owl visits New York's Central Park for first time since 1890

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Bird watching experts said a snowy owl that drew crowds of onlookers to New York's Central Park is the first member of its species to be spotted in the area since 1890.

The snowy owl, a species typically found much further north in Arctic regions, drew crowds of onlookers to Central Park on Wednesday when photos of the avian started appearing on social media.

Experts said Wednesday marked the first time a snowy owl had been seen in Central Park since 1890. They said the owls sometimes venture south in search of prey and are occasionally seen in the Long Island area.

The NYC Audubon conservation group celebrated the bird's arrival in the park and urged onlookers to make sure not to disturb the owl.

"Owls are especially prone to disturbance in urban areas, from dogs, joggers, and fans. Please exercise caution, keep your distance, and model best birding behavior in their presence," the group tweeted.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/01/28 ... 611867557/
Jan 29th, 2021, 4:01 pm
Jan 29th, 2021, 4:35 pm
Community Pulls Together to Restore House so 94-Year-old WWII Vet Can Go Home

Alfred Guerra is 94 years old. The decorated World War II veteran, who was awarded both the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for acts of bravery, never faltered when it came to doing his duty for his country. When Guerra recently found himself in times of need, his San Antonio community stepped up to do their duty by him.

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While his family tried to keep a handle on various repair and maintenance projects for Guerra, after his son passed away the home he shared with his late wife became uninhabitable.

Hoping to harness the power of social media, his daughter, Maria, reached out via Facebook to ask for help. It wasn’t long in coming.

First to answer the call was the Military Order of the Purple Heart, followed soon after by Broken Warriors’ Angels San Antonio-based grassroots non-profit organization for veterans and their families, and VFW Post 76. The City of Antonio’s Department of Human Services and Department of Military Affairs got involved as well.

“As combat warriors, we leave nobody behind. And as veterans, we leave no veteran behind,” Tony Roman, former commander of the Alamo Chapter 1836 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart told KSAT-News.

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With repairs underway, Guerra moved in with Maria until the renovations could be completed—but then the COVID-19 lockdown put the project on hold.

Thankfully, this month, the hammers, saws, and nail guns were singing once again. Veterans from three foreign conflicts—Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam—worked as a team to gut the home’s interior and prep it for the next phase of the home makeover.

Soon, a new roof, donated by the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation was in place. The electrical and plumbing systems are on their way to being updated.

One thing lacking is an HVAC system. The family is hoping for another guardian angel to come through there as well. In the meantime, they’ve set up a GoFundMe page with a modest $5,000 goal to help finance further much-needed fixes.

t may take another month or so to complete the project but more than anything else, Guerra yearns to move back into his home. He longs to tend the roses he named in honor of his wife, Emma, in their garden. He’s so eager in fact, he told his family he’d live there in a tent.

While she appreciates his determination, Maria’s not letting him go anywhere just yet, but that’s all right, too.

“As long as I’m with my family,” Guerra added. “I’m always happy.”
Jan 29th, 2021, 4:35 pm

Twitter: Fatima99@fatima99_mobi
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Jan 29th, 2021, 4:53 pm
Man Finds Dad’s Missing Wedding Ring After 20 Years


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Twenty years ago, Glenn’s father lost his wedding ring in a field in central Virginia, just west of Richmond. Glenn’s parents, Dennis and Eleanor, who have been married since 1967, were sure they’d never see the wedding ring again.

Earlier this month, Glenn — who had never swung a detector before — called us to ask for advice on finding the ring. After working with Shelby, a member of Kellyco’s customer experience team, Glenn ordered a Minelab Equinox 600 metal detector and Minelab Pro-Find 35 pinpointer and set out to find the ring.

“I recommended the Equinox 600 because of the multi-frequency technology,” Shelby remembers. “I told him how it works and told him I would say a prayer in hopes that he would find the ring before Christmas.”

Well, Glenn wrote us earlier this week to let us know that he found his dad’s ring!

“With only two weeks experience searching a large field, it seemed like a long shot for retrieving a gold ring that had been lost for 20 years,” Glenn said. “I had almost given up, as it was cold and almost dark.”

Glenn said the field, which is next to an 1800s farmhouse, is full of old metal objects. He spent more than 20 hours searching for the ring over a four day period.

“On the very last sweep of the evening, I heard a signal that was verified by the Pro-Find 35,” Glenn told us. “After a short dig, I found the ring, and was almost in disbelief.”

The ring was buried about 1.5 inches deep in the Virginia soil.

“Thanks again for help choosing the right product and the prayer,” Glenn wrote Shelby. “I remember you telling me you thought I was going to find it.”

When word of the find made it back to the Kellyco showroom, there was a lot of excitement.

“I’m so happy,” Shelby said. “I had tears reading the message.”

As for Glenn? He said he’s hooked on metal detecting now.

source
https://www.kellycodetectors.com/pages/ ... -20-years/
Jan 29th, 2021, 4:53 pm

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Jan 29th, 2021, 5:04 pm
Oregon health-care workers were stuck in a snowstorm with expiring vaccines. So, they gave shots to strangers caught in traffic.
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After a day of giving coronavirus vaccinations, Michael Weber and his team were headed back to Grants Pass, Ore., to administer their last doses on Tuesday when traffic suddenly came to a halt. Authorities had closed the snow-covered highway because of a car accident, and it would be hours before traffic could resume.
But Weber and his team of 20 staff members and volunteers didn’t have that much time to use the six Moderna doses they had left before the vaccines expired.
That’s when Weber had an idea: If he couldn’t make it to the clinic on time, he could bring the clinic to six other drivers stranded on the highway.
“I decided to start going door-to-door, car-to-car, offering” the vaccine, Weber, who is Josephine County’s public health director, told The Washington Post on Wednesday night.
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The impromptu vaccination session amid a snowstorm is the latest example of health-care workers scrambling to make use of leftover doses during a sometimes chaotic rollout that’s seen around 21.1 million people receive one or both doses of the vaccine in the United States.

Weber’s six leftover Moderna doses, which already had been transferred to syringes earlier on Tuesday, needed to be used quickly or discarded. Like the Pfizer version, the Moderna vaccine must be used within six hours after being removed from subzero storage and reaching room temperature.

“We knew the vaccine would not make it back to Grants Pass,” said Weber, 40. “In all likelihood, it was going to expire.”
After consulting with his team, Weber and four staff members trekked through the snow, knocking on car windows in search of six lucky arms.
One team member carried a bin with the vaccine doses, alcohol, gauze and other medical supplies. Weber, who was in charge of the vaccination paperwork, carried the forms inside his coat. Others carried a container for used needles and an umbrella for the heavy snow.
An ambulance that had accompanied them during a vaccination session at a high school earlier that day was also present and ready to treat anyone in the rare case of an allergic reaction, Weber added.

But finding six people who wanted the shots wasn’t that easy, David Candelaria, a health officer with Josephine County Public Health, told The Post.

“We were a little nervous because not a lot of people in this part of the state are eager to get the vaccine at this point in time,” said Candelaria, 61.
The team went car-to-car and introduced themselves as county health officials stuck in the snowstorm, who, incidentally, had vaccine doses for a virus that has killed more than 427,000 Americans, including close to 2,000 in Oregon.
It took Weber and his team about 45 minutes to administer the six vaccine doses.
“We went through a lot of cars before we found six yeses,” Weber said.
While most people politely declined, Weber said, those who said yes could hardly contain their excitement.
“I can’t imagine a better way to spend four hours stuck in a snowstorm,” Weber said.
One man, Candelaria recalled, was so ecstatic that he got out of his car and took his shirt off in the middle of the snowstorm so the team could inoculate him. Another woman was so taken aback by the surprise vaccine that she could hardly sign the paperwork because her hands were trembling so much from excitement. The last person to get a leftover vaccination was a woman who didn’t make it on time to her appointment earlier that day.
“It was meant to be for her,” Candelaria said.

source
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... fic-covid/
Jan 29th, 2021, 5:04 pm

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Jan 29th, 2021, 6:02 pm
Toronto woman credits encounter with judge for turning her life around

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TORONTO -- Paulette Walker’s life could have gone in either direction. She could have ended up in jail, but instead she found treatment – and a whole new life thanks to the Toronto Drug Treatment Court.

Walker says she didn’t realize it at the time, but childhood trauma set her on a self-destructive path.

She had family who loved her, but she says there was also “sexual and physical abuse, verbal abuse, a sense of loss, abandonment.”

She became a successful makeup artist in her 20s but things fell apart for her one night in 1985. She went partying after wrapping up work on a televised awards show and on the eve of starting a new job with a major Canadian women’s magazine.

“I ended up in a crack house for two weeks,” she said.

She says crack cocaine crept into her life gradually. Once in a while turned into once a month, once a week and then more. She lost her job, lost her home and eventually, after years of struggling, she was arrested in a drug bust and brought before Judge Paul Bentley.

“He says “Do you want to stop using drugs?” she recalled. “And in that moment, I said ‘Yeah I do but I don’t know how.’”

In 1998, Bentley had introduced the Toronto Drug Treatment Court, which diverts non-violent people from the criminal justice system and puts them into treatment for problematic substance abuse. It’s a model that’s since been adopted in several Canadian cities.

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“In those days we called it addiction,” said Justice Mary Hogan, who took over the program after Judge Bentley passed away.

“I think our court has tried to evolve with what we know now about problematic substance abuse as opposed to what we knew in 1998” says Hogan. “I would say we’ve become more harm-reduction focused.”

She calls the program a unique collaboration between the criminal justice system and the health-care system. Clients spend a minimum of a year in the program with counselling and treatment, working with CAMH therapists, and the legal team at Old City Hall courts tries to build a supportive and friendly relationship with clients.

Success viewed in many ways, but reduction in substance use or dependence is typical.

“They’ve achieved a sense of dignity, self-worth and they’ve been able to reintegrate into the community. And they often have re-established their ties with family,” Hogan said.

Hogan says the program has been hit hard by the pandemic. It’s not at the top of the list for funding to convert to online services. Restrictions on the number of people allowed to congregate have hampered the way treatment decisions are made and many clients lack access to things like Zoom.

Walker successfully completed the program years ago and went on to become a chef, and later a peer counsellor for CAMH. She was invited by Bentley to speak at the United Nations and now she works at CAMH as a counsellor for the Toronto Drug Treatment Court.

“I never thought in a million years that my life would change as much as it has,” she said, while thanking Bentley, who she keeps a photo of on her wall as a reminder and an inspiration.

“He saved my life and gave me a fresh start and a sense of community.”
Jan 29th, 2021, 6:02 pm

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Jan 29th, 2021, 8:54 pm
UK set to become a giant art gallery

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Galleries may be closed, but that isn’t stopping creative curators from putting on what they hope will be the UK’s largest ever art exhibition. And the best bit? Anyone can take part.

Launched by sculptor Antony Gormley, the Great Big Art Exhibition wants people to display homemade art in windows or on walls to cheer people up. It was inspired by the images people made to celebrate the NHS during the first lockdown (main image).

“The doors to our collections and galleries might be shut but our imaginations are forever open,” said Sally Shaw, director of Firstsite, the arts venue in Colchester, which came up with the idea. The theme for the first fortnight is animals.
Jan 29th, 2021, 8:54 pm

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Jan 30th, 2021, 11:13 am
Berlin man caught directing flight traffic with radio

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File picture taken May 11, 2017 shows a police helicopter flying over the A12 motorway near Briesen, Germany, Police say a 32-year-old Berlin man has been arrested on
allegations he had been making radio contact with air traffic, including police helicopters, and given fake flight orders while impersonating an aviation official. (Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)


A man has been arrested in Berlin on allegations he made radio contact with air traffic, including police helicopters, and gave fake flight orders while impersonating an aviation official, German police said Friday.

The 32-year-old, whose identity wasn’t released in line with German privacy laws, was arrested Thursday night in the capital’s eastern Koepenick district, police said.

Police were able to swoop in on his apartment after he made contact with a police helicopter that was dispatched to the neighborhood in the hope of flushing him out.

During a search of his home, police found two radios that transmitted on the frequencies needed to make contact with aircraft.

“For everyone who has been asking about our police helicopter operations in Koepenick, an unusual arrest,” Berlin police tweeted, with a link to more details.

The man is alleged to have made contact with pilots of passenger and transport aircraft, as well as state and federal police helicopters, over the past six months, giving “potentially dangerous” instructions and becoming increasingly professional with his communications.

No accidents or other incidents are known to have been caused by his actions, police said.
Jan 30th, 2021, 11:13 am
Jan 30th, 2021, 11:22 am
Billionaire Mark Cuban’s New Drug Company is Producing Low-Cost Generic Drugs Cutting 90% of the Markup

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When Dr. Alex Oshymansky started a public-benefit company to combat the exploding prices of certain prescription drugs, he attracted the interest of Shark Tank billionaire investor, Mark Cuban.

The Dallas radiologist started in 2015 with Osh’s Affordable Pharmaceuticals. Four years later, he was marketing under the name “Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co,” and donating medicine to those in need.

Prior to his business exploration, Oshymansky had been looking for ways of making prescription drugs less-expensive for years. A mixture of FDA demands for approval and lobbying famously causes occasional rocketing rates for drugs, and this had begun making Cuban “bleeping mad.”

After Osh’s first company generated over a million dollars in a first round of seed money, it caught the Shark’s eye. Now under Cuban’s brand name, the private-label arrangement allows Oshymansky to buy from third party suppliers, take care of the labeling and branding laws himself, and sell it at a serious discount while skimming merely 15% off the top for the business expenses.

This method allowed the pair to lower the cost of an anti-parasitic medication called albendazole from its normal price range of $225-$500, down to just fifty bucks.

This proved especially valuable for Baylor College of Medicine, who needed thousands of doses of albendazole to complete a study they were doing on hookworm infections.

The malaise of the South


“The Germ of the South,” was a catch-all term that characterized a curious lethargy and haziness of the brain, distended bellies, and emaciated shoulder blades, found across the Deep South during the 20th century.

It was all caused by infections from the American hookworm, which even today infects large numbers of people, particularly children, due to poor sanitation and poverty.

One study done in Lowndes County Alabama of 24 homes found that 34% of stool samples contained the parasite, killed rather quickly by albendazole.

Cuban and Oshymansky donated their first 10,000 doses of the company’s supply of albendazole to Baylor and the author of the study, Dr. Rojelio Mejia, so that volunteers from Alabama to New York who test positive for hookworm can immediately purge the parasite from their bodies.

Other drug companies estimated that the number of doses which the two entrepreneurs donated would have cost $2 million, removing the funding for potential epidemic-ending research from being conducted.

“We are thrilled to be able to support the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor in its work to study and help eliminate hookworm in the South,” said Dr. Oshmyansky.

“We found it deeply troubling that albendazole is extremely expensive in the United States, and we are happy to be able to manufacture it for free for this research and provide it at significantly decreased prices to the rest of the U.S. market.”

A Dallas buyers club

Currently Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs only offers albendazole, but Oshymansky is working to find suppliers for other pharmaceuticals, and the company’s website is aiming for 100 new offerings by the end of 2021.

“There are no hidden costs, no middlemen, no rebates only available to insurance companies,” the company website says, describing their model as “radically transparent.”

They are also in the process of constructing a facility in Dallas where they will fulfill labeling laws and offer drugs for rare diseases directly to patients or through outpatient facilities.

Finally, as helpful as this will all be for American consumers and patients, the effect could be a compounding one, as buying FDA-approved drugs from independent suppliers before giving them a makeover and selling them at an extreme discount means a dose of free market competition being delivered into a market which is nearly a government-run monopoly in which few competitors survive, even though millions of consumers are crying out for alternatives.
Jan 30th, 2021, 11:22 am

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Jan 30th, 2021, 12:14 pm
Berlin man caught directing flight traffic with radio

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BERLIN (AP) — A man has been arrested in Berlin on allegations he made radio contact with air traffic, including police helicopters, and gave fake flight orders while impersonating an aviation official, German police said Friday.

The 32-year-old, whose identity wasn’t released in line with German privacy laws, was arrested Thursday night in the capital’s eastern Koepenick district, police said.

Police were able to swoop in on his apartment after he made contact with a police helicopter that was dispatched to the neighborhood in the hope of flushing him out.

During a search of his home, police found two radios that transmitted on the frequencies needed to make contact with aircraft.

“For everyone who has been asking about our police helicopter operations in Koepenick, an unusual arrest,” Berlin police tweeted, with a link to more details.

The man is alleged to have made contact with pilots of passenger and transport aircraft, as well as state and federal police helicopters, over the past six months, giving “potentially dangerous” instructions and becoming increasingly professional with his communications.

No accidents or other incidents are known to have been caused by his actions, police said.

https://apnews.com/article/arrests-berlin-f56833f73c7ecfa34a5ed5e6461669bc
Jan 30th, 2021, 12:14 pm

Book request - The Mad Patagonian by Javier Pedro Zabala [25000 WRZ$] Reward!
https://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=5412023
Jan 30th, 2021, 2:53 pm
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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
SATURDAY JANUARY 30

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 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

EXAMPLE POST
Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag
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A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You may post One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can enter only once a day
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)

on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life :lol:
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories :lol: :lol: :lol:

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS


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Jan 30th, 2021, 2:53 pm

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Online
Jan 30th, 2021, 2:59 pm
Toddler Interrupts Mom's Weather Report In Adorable Viral Video

ABC7's Leslie Lopez was seen delivering a weather report when her toddler bounced up to her and wrapped his arms around her leg.

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A news anchor's weather report was recently made better by her 10-month-old son toddling over to hug her. Footage of the adorable interruption that has gone viral with over a million views on Twitter is the latest in a long line of 'work from home' blooper videos that have flooded social media since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
In this viral video, ABC7's Leslie Lopez was seen delivering a weather report when her toddler bounced up to her and wrapped his arms around her leg - making Ms Lopez as well as thousands of viewers across the world laugh out loud.

However, Ms Lopez continued her report without missing a beat and soon scooped her son up in her arms. "He walks now, guys. I've lost all control," she said, smiling.

The footage was shared on Twitter by ABC 7 news anchor Brandi Hitt. "There is no stopping adorable Nolan now that he can walk during Mommy's forecast," she wrote.

Toddler Interrupts Mom's Weather Report In Adorable Viral Video
10-month-old Nolan toddled up to his mom as she delivered a weather report.

A news anchor's weather report was recently made better by her 10-month-old son toddling over to hug her. Footage of the adorable interruption that has gone viral with over a million views on Twitter is the latest in a long line of 'work from home' blooper videos that have flooded social media since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
In this viral video, ABC7's Leslie Lopez was seen delivering a weather report when her toddler bounced up to her and wrapped his arms around her leg - making Ms Lopez as well as thousands of viewers across the world laugh out loud.

However, Ms Lopez continued her report without missing a beat and soon scooped her son up in her arms. "He walks now, guys. I've lost all control," she said, smiling.

The footage was shared on Twitter by ABC 7 news anchor Brandi Hitt. "There is no stopping adorable Nolan now that he can walk during Mommy's forecast," she wrote.


The video has received a lot of love on the microblogging platform, racking up more than 2,500 'retweets' and 28,000 'likes', along with 1.2 million views.

"This is absolutely hysterical and so, so sweet. If there's one thing this pandemic might do for all of us is prove we can incorporate our personal lives into our work lives and be all the better for it!" wrote one Twitter user.

"My favorite thing about global pandemic is seeing moms work from home and have their children join them in TV," said another.

https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/toddler-in ... eo-2360067
Jan 30th, 2021, 2:59 pm

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Believe me, you are someone's crush. Yes, you are!
Jan 30th, 2021, 3:22 pm
Passionate Teacher Virtually Educates Her Students During Chemo Appointments
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For many educators, teaching is more than just a job—it’s a passion. Positively impacting the lives of young people brings satisfaction that goes well beyond a paycheck. Kelly Klein, a kindergarten teacher in Minnesota, knows this all too well. In fact, she is continuing to teach virtual classes (due to COVID-19) from the hospital as she receives chemotherapy for stage-3 ovarian cancer.

Klein goes to the hospital once a month for her cancer treatments. During the five hours that she’s there, it becomes her temporary classroom. The 32-year teaching veteran brings her laptop and supplies to engage and inspire her class of 5 and 6-year-old students.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time that Klein has had to undergo treatment for ovarian cancer. She was first diagnosed with it five years ago and as a result, took off about six months due to aggressive treatments. When she learned that she’d need chemotherapy again, she was determined to continue teaching. For Klein, being with her students is a light in this dark time.

“Teaching 5-year-olds I always say is like going to Disney World. Everything is exciting and they're so excited about everything that it gets me excited,” Klein explained. “When you're at chemo and you're around a lot of sick people, it's kind of a depressing place to be. For me, to be around 5-year-olds during that time, it's like a slice of normalcy in an abnormal environment.”

In deciding to work in tandem with her illness, Klein is setting a powerful example for her young students that people with cancer can continue to live even if they're sick. “What she's doing is part of living in our world, just helping kids manage through lots of situational things that don't have to define us,” Beth Behnke, Klein’s school principal, said of her, “but are part of our lived experience.”

source
https://mymodernmet.com/kelly-klein-teaching-during-chemo/
Jan 30th, 2021, 3:22 pm

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