[BigGlen]

A zoo has been trying to get two pandas to mate for 10 years.
When coronavirus shut the zoo down, the pandas finally did



(CNN) — It seems all these giant pandas needed was a little privacy.

Parenthood might be around the corner for Ying Ying and Le Le, which are longtime residents of Ocean Park in Hong Kong. Zoo officials announced Monday that after 10 years of attempts at natural mating, and "through trial and learning," the two have finally succeeded.

"The successful natural mating process today is extremely exciting for all of us, as the chance of pregnancy via natural mating is higher than by artificial insemination," Michael Boos, executive director for zoological operations and conservation at Ocean Park, said in a press release.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the park has been closed to visitors since late January. Staff noticed certain behaviors in the two giant pandas that are common during breeding season, which occurs every year between March and May.

"Since late March, Ying Ying began spending more time playing in the water, while Le Le has been leaving scent-markings around his habitat and searching the area for Ying Ying's scent," reads the press release.
While it is still too early to tell whether a baby panda is on the way, Ying Ying's body and behavioral changes are being closely monitored.

"If successful, signs of pregnancy, including hormonal level fluctuations and behavioral changes may be observed as early as late June, though there is always a chance that Ying Ying could experience a pseudo-pregnancy," said Boos.

This is big news in conservation efforts for the species that is currently listed vulnerable, one category away from being endangered, according the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are only around 1,800 giant pandas that remain in their natural habitat, according to Ocean Park.

"We hope to bear wonderful pregnancy news to Hong Kongers this year and make further contributions to the conservation of this vulnerable species," said Boos.

If Ying Ying is pregnant, the gestation period for giant pandas ranges between 72 and 324 days. The zoo said it will be sharing updates on her journey to motherhood once more is known.

[Fatima99]

These sea slugs sever their own heads and regenerate new bodies



Starfish can regenerate their arms, salamanders are able to grow new tails, and axolotls re-form their spinal cords - but scientists have found sea slugs that can grow a whole new body.

Researchers discovered two species of sea slug that can grow bodies complete with a heart and other internal organs while observing them for other studies.

One of the creatures was seen moving around without its body on one occasion, and another was seen doing the same thing twice.

The head moved on its own immediately after being separated from the body - and within just days the wound at the back of the head had closed, according to the study published in peer-reviewed journal, Current Biology.

The report also found the heads of young sea slugs started to feed on algae within hours of detachment, and they started regenerating a heart within a week, while the heads of older individuals died in about 10 days.

Researchers at the Nara Women's University in Japan found a new body, complete with all organs, was formed by the severed head within three weeks.

The cast-off bodies did not regenerate the lost body part in either the young or old sea slugs, but they were seen to move around and react to being touched for several days or even months.

Growing up wild: This photographer captures the beauty of Mexico's mountains



(CNN) — Growing up in the remote mountains of Sierra Gorda, Mexico, Roberto Pedraza Ruiz developed a serious case of biophilia.
A term coined by biologist Edward O. Wilson, biophilia -- meaning "love of life" -- describes the human need to connect with nature.
Pedraza Ruiz -- now a conservationist and photographer -- moved from the bustling central Mexican city of Queretaro to Sierra Gorda, in 1984, when he was nine years old.
The mountain range covers more than 380,000 hectares -- more than twice the size of Greater London. Its landscapes span rugged mountains, arid deserts and misty cloud forests.
Pedraza Ruiz recalls spending his childhood there collecting mushrooms, looking for salamanders and jaguars and raising horses and cows. Sierra Gorda felt like the place he was meant to be.
"I'm a very endemic creature," he tells CNN. "I really think that I belong to these mountains and that's it."

Helping people, helping nature
Pedraza Ruiz's biophilia runs in the family.
His mother is the award-winning conservationist Martha "Pati" Ruiz Corzo -- considered the region's environmental sheriff.
In 1987, Corzo co-founded a grassroots organization, Sierra Gorda Ecological Group, with her husband, to help protect the forests from destruction. A decade later, the group successfully achieved Biosphere Reserve status for the region.
Appointed by the then-Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, Corzo served as the Reserve's director for 14 years.



The group works to conserve nature while also improving the lives of economically-deprived local communities. "Ninety-seven percent of the land is the private land of 637 communities," she explains. "You have to give them an opportunity because that's all they have."
Corzo believed the key was to empower local people to look after Sierra Gorda's natural resources and land, turning them away from unsustainable industries like logging by developing economic opportunities including reforestation, education, ecotourism, carbon footprint compensation and waste management.
Her efforts were a remarkable success.
Now, Sierra Gorda is thriving. According to Pedraza Ruiz, the region is home to 345 species of birds, 111 different mammals, 134 different reptiles and amphibians, and around 2,400 plant species.

The next generation
Pedraza Ruiz, now 45, works alongside his family to protect the ancient forests he grew up in.
"(My parents are) the biggest examples for me. It's hard to keep up with their pace, but I do my best," he says.
Pedraza Ruiz oversees Sierra Gorda Ecological Group's land conservation program, doing everything from building fences to keep cattle at bay, to patrolling the forests for illegal activities. He says his work makes a difference. Outside the reserve, "you can see illegal logging, cattle ranching, and forests fires," he says.
He's also an award-winning photographer, who showcases the wild beauty of his home to the world.

"Photography has become such an efficient tool for conservation" he says. In 2016, photographs he took in Sierra Gorda more than a decade ago prompted the discovery of two new magnolia species. One of them -- the Magnolia pedrazae -- was named after his family.
"Nobody (realizes that) in central Mexico we have all this diversity," he says. Photography is "a way to share why Sierra Gorda is so important."

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ ... index.html

Fossilized feeding frenzy: 47-million-year-old fly found with a full belly



An international team of scientists with Fridgeir Grímsson from the University of Vienna has found a previously unknown fossil fly species in old lake sediments of the Messel Pit, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Germany. In the stomach of the fossil insect, pollen from various plants could be detected, which allows rare insights into the feeding behavior, the ecology and the role of the fly as a pollinator. The study was published in Current Biology.

It was not the fly itself that caught the scientists' attention, but its bulging abdomen suggesting it was still full with the fly's last food intake. Surprisingly, analysis of the stomach content revealed it was full with pollen from different plants. The fossil pollen from the fly's stomach was used to reconstruct the ancient environment inhabited by the fly, the biotic interactions between plant and fly, and the fly's behavior during feeding.

Flies as pollinators

Today, bees, butterflies and bumblebees are the typical pollinators, which are also known to feed on pollen. That flies also play an important role in pollination is rarely addressed. "The rich pollen content we discovered in the fly's stomach suggests that flies were already feeding and transporting pollen 47 million years ago and shows it played an important role in the pollen dispersal of several plant taxa," says Fridgeir Grímsson from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research of the University of Vienna. "Flies were major pollinators in ancient (sub-)tropical equivalent ecosystems and might even have outshined the bees," the scientist concludes.



Short-distance flights for food

The extracted pollen was dominated by grains of Decodon (waterwillow) and Parthenocissus (virgin ivy). Today, the waterwillow is a sub-shrub growing in wetlands and the shallows of lakes, suggesting open low canopy habitat. The co-dominance of virgin ivy also suggests that the fly fed on plants growing at the forest margin surrounding the ancient Messel lake. "It is likely that the fly avoided long-distance flights between food sources and sought pollen from closely associated plants," says Grímsson.

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-fossilized-frenzy-million-year-old-full-belly.html

[goldie0608]

A woman, nicknamed 'book lady,' wants to give away one million books to her community



Jennifer Williams wants students to love reading the way she did as a child.

So, she decided to give away 1 million books to people in her small town of Danville, Virginia -- and she's earned the nickname "book lady" in the process.

Since Williams started in 2017, she's given away more than 63,000 books, mostly to students.

"Books are important to me," she said. "My mother was a librarian, and she would read to us until we went off to college -- not just off to kindergarten -- but to college."

Williams said she wants students and community members alike to access the possibilities that reading offers.

"(Reading) can take you anywhere," she said. "You can travel in time and space. If you can read, you can learn almost anything."

No child goes without a book

Williams had the idea to give away books after she noticed that the students she tutored would ask her to keep the books they were reading together.

Having to share the books with other students, Williams had to say no.

So, one summer, she made a goal to give away 300 books in the three sets of housing projects where she tutored. She would ask neighbors and people at her church for donations.

But even after she met her goal, she wasn't satisfied.

"My husband was like, 'Wow, congratulations,' and I was like 'Well, anybody can do that,'" she said. "I told him, 'I want to give away a million books."

So it began.

Williams started collecting donations and buying books out of her own pocket. Every year, she gives a book to each student at her local elementary school.

She also distributes books in other ways.

Scattered across Danville are 16 tiny, standalone libraries that Williams keeps stocked. She also leaves books on picnic tables and in laundromats.

She doesn't usually leave a note.

"By now, a lot of people know the 'book lady' has been there," she said.

Her community is supportive

Williams said her community has rallied to support her goal. She often comes home to boxes of donated books on her porch.

"I've lived in this town for 35 years," she said. "I went to all my friends' kids' ball games -- now, my community has come together and said, 'You've always helped us, now let us help you.'"

It's a local operation through and through. Williams said that of the 63,000 books she's given away, 99% first sat on her living room floor.

Williams also teaches creative writing and holds a book club at the local jail.

The club has gone through 28 books -- more than 400,000 pages -- since it started last year. Williams said it's a powerful connector.

"I had this mom come up to me and tell me that every time I gave (the club) a new book, her teenagers would download it at home," she said. "Now, when she calls them, they have something else to talk about."

She isn't the only one sharing her love for reading

Although lofty, Williams isn't alone in working toward such a big goal.

An 8-year-old in Atlanta launched a literacy project with her parents to give away 2 million books to underprivileged kids.

The Empowered Readers Literacy Project drew more than 2,400 children and parents for their very first event, a march for literacy in Atlanta, in 2018.

Since then, the project has donated at least 8,000 books to children.

Another non-profit group donating books is Young, Black & Lit, which gives away books featuring Black main characters to kids.

"When a child sees themselves reflected in the books that they read, when the books are a mirror to them, they feel valued," Krenice Roseman, co-founder of the non-profit with her husband, told CNN.

The organization has distributed more than 5,000 books in the Chicago metropolitan area as of September 2020.

As for Williams, she said she doesn't plan to slow down anytime soon.

"My goal is to keep doing what I do," she said. "The world is full of people who are just complaining. I'm just going to roll up my sleeves and try to do something to help."

[PennySerenade]

Pakistani teen who had to eat through a straw receives one-of-a-kind surgery in Toronto



TORONTO -- An operation at a Toronto hospital, believed to be the only one of its kind in the world, is helping a Pakistani teen to live a normal life.

Muneeb Shahzad was born with a condition called hemifacial microsomia, which means that one side of his face failed to develop normally.

A first effort to repair the left side of his jaw as a child failed.


The operation in Pakistan, when Shahzad was nine to ten years old, involved using a rib bone to try and fix his underdeveloped left jaw. But instead, the jaw fused, resulting in something called ankylosis.

His gums then grew over the area in what’s medically known as syngnathia, limiting the movement of his jaw completely. The combination of the two conditions -- ankylosis with syngnathia -- is extremely rare.



In fact, Shahzad’s jaw could not even open enough to let him eat. He had to take in food through a straw.

“Clench your teeth and that’s what it’s like,” says oral surgeon Dr. Marco Caminiti, who led the team of doctors at Humber River hospital who replaced the hinge of Shahzad’s jaw with a plastic and chrome cobalt prosthesis.

A contact through the Pakistani military put Shahzad’s family in touch with Toronto’s Humber River Hospital and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab hospital, which has been working with Shahzad since he came to Canada in 2018.

Planning for the surgery took about a year. OHIP does cover some costs for mandibular reconstruction but extra services such as sophisticated 3-D imaging and the prosthesis itself were donated by two U.S. companies. The Humber River Hospital Foundation also helped cover the costs.

Dr. Caminiti says the trickiest part of the surgery was breaking open the fused jaw as it’s an area very close to some major blood vessels. Fortunately, the procedure went very smoothly.

“It’s kind of like Lego,” says Caminiti. “If you plan it properly and the cuts are done properly, the guides and the pieces fit properly then they really snap into place.”

Shahzad will be in hospital for a few days while swelling from the surgery goes down. He should be able to start talking after two days and then he will start rehab exercises to build up the muscles and the strength to chew. If all goes according to plan, he should be able to eat his first solid foods in three to four months.

A computer-generated image created by Dr. Caminiti shows what Muneeb Shahzad’s face should look like with the rebuilt jaw.



And the doctor says it’s not just the ability to eat and speak properly that he will gain; he says Shahzad’s self-confidence should also grow.


“The psychology of facial deformities is sometimes something we overlook,” says Caminiti. “Especially for teenagers and young kids, the impact is tremendous”.

It’s clearly something the 19-year old looks forward to.

“I want to become a police officer in the future,” he says.

[hija]

A report highlighted the importance of grassroots green groups



Local grassroots efforts and community-owned assets are crucial to tackling the climate crisis, a report released by the IPPR thinktank this week found.

A proposed community-owned wind turbine in Bristol and the Malls Mire woods on the south side of Glasgow (pictured left) are just two of the projects highlighted by the research.

The thinktank has urged the UK government to significantly increase the proportion of community owned green economy assets in England as a way to help achieve its net zero carbon emissions target.

Luke Murphy, the report’s lead author, wrote: “Under the radar there are already flourishing and transformative community initiatives to pool resources and create shared low-carbon energy, housing and natural assets. These groups have shown that they can increase community wealth and create thriving places while addressing the climate crisis.”

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
FRIDAY MARCH 12
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 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
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

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

[hija]

Keeping us in the dark: the movement to protect our sparkling night skies



You want it darker?”, growled the late Leonard Cohen on the title track of his final album. To which the only conceivable answer is surely: “Er, no, you’re all right, Len, thanks for asking”. In an uncertain winter, more darkness is surely the last thing we need. Bring on the light, eh?

Well, yes. Only, maybe not too literally. Our world is lit up as never before, and not in a good way. Where once the bustle of the day gave way to the softness of starlight and the spell of the moon, now everything’s illuminated. We banish the dark at every turn. And as it fades to grey, so do we.

Romantic whimsy? Far from it. Lighting up our planet, 24 hours a day, plays havoc with the natural rhythms on which so much of life depends. For millions of years, it’s evolved in sync with, and dependent upon, a daily shift from light to dark, light to dark, regular as clockwork, ages before we ever dreamed of a clock. Not any more. Scientists say that cloudy skies over cities at night are now up to 1,000 times brighter than two centuries ago – and the sky glow spills out way beyond city limits. Messing with that ancient circadian rhythm is disrupting everything from migratory patterns of birds to the hatching of sea turtles, and holds at least part of the blame for the decline in insect numbers and other species, as well.

Species like us. We may be daytime creatures, but we’re designed for the darkness, too. There’s mounting evidence that circadian disruption is leading to everything from attention deficits and depression, to suppressed immune systems and growing risks of cancer and heart disease.
Beyond biology, it’s surely not too woo to suggest we lose something of our souls, if we can’t drink in the sparkle of the Milky Way, stretched over the night like a silver sand drift, just by stepping outside our front door and looking up.

Or if we can’t witness that particular magic, when the moon is new and the sky is clear, of pure starlight, casting its own soft shadows – a sight I never saw until one night 20 years ago, deep in rural Devon. I’ve sought it ever since.

But what of safety, I hear you cry? Darkness may make life easier for wildlife, but also for criminals, yes?

Well, no, actually. A range of studies found no association between light levels and crime, except that more crime tends to occur in brightly lit areas. Bright lights create shadows, in which a criminal can hide, while still being able to operate. And so much is so unnecessary. We’ve all been dazzled by sports grounds floodlights that spill so much light into the night that they could be signalling to spaceships rather than just illuminating a pitch – not to mention billboards’ blinding glare.

This isn’t an argument for a round- the-world blackout. We still need light in our lives, but just in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount.

So it’s heartening that the ‘dark sky’ movement, once very much a fringe affair, is now fast gaining ground, with a growing network of dark sky parks and sanctuaries. Some, such as the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park, make a virtue of their remoteness. Others, like the growing numbers of designated ‘dark sky communities’, take deliberate policy decisions to encourage sensitive lighting – on to the ground where it’s needed, not up into the sky where it’s not.

These range from the very first, Flagstaff, Arizona – a city whose 70,000 residents can still see the Milky Way – to ones such as the Scottish community that proudly declares: ‘Welcome to the Dark Sky Town of Moffat’ on a roadsign.

Backed by groups such as the International Dark-Sky Association and the The Commission for Dark Skies, such influence is spreading. In the UK, where light pollution is now recognised as a statutory nuisance, the Institute of Lighting Professionals has published detailed guidance for avoiding light ‘leakage’, and simple steps such as shielding the tops of streetlights are starting to take effect. The Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks were, in November, named international dark sky reserves. Seven European nations are promoting good practice with the Night Light initiative.

Elsewhere, others are celebrating the night with Dark Sky Festivals, such as one held recently on Exmoor, combining night safaris, talks, walks, feasts under the stars, reading events for children – and, of course, stargazing.

There’s a long way to go. As satellites show, we’re living in an ever more illuminated world. But we’re learning to dim the lights. And discovering that, when we do, we can see so much more.

So, “You want it darker?” Yes, within reason. Yes, please.

[goldie0608]

Grandmother gets prescription for hug



It's been a lonely year for Evelyn Shaw, who hasn't been able to hug — or even see — her family members because of the pandemic. The grandmother from Bronx, New York, has finally been vaccinated, but was still wary about seeing her grandkids.

"We were together all the time," her daughter, Laura Shaw Frank, told Inside Edition. "She would come for dinner. She would sit on the couch with one grandchild on each side and the other two hovering over her and loving her and just spending so much time with her."

That all ended when social distancing measures were put in place. Seniors like Evelyn Shaw were advised to be especially careful since they are at higher risk of serious infection from coronavirus.

Her oldest grandchild, Ataret Shaw, worried about her. "It was very hard knowing that she was all alone in her apartment, day in and day out, never seeing anyone, never hugging anyone, never touching anyone," Ataret said.

Ataret has now been fully vaccinated, and so has her grandmother, meaning they should be able to see each other. But Evelyn was still wary about the virus.

So, Ataret went to her doctor. "I said, 'She's never going to hug me. She's too nervous. She's never going to hug me.' And she says, 'Well, I am going to write her a prescription that says that she can hug you.' And I said, 'Literally, that might be the only thing that makes her do it,'" Ataret said.

The doctor actually wrote that prescription, knowing a hug was the medicine Evelyn needed. It says, "You are allowed to hug your granddaughter."

With prescription in hand, Laura and Ataret headed to grandma's house in the Bronx. Laura has only received one dose of her vaccine, but with Ataret and Evelyn fully vaccinated – plus the bonus prescription – they knew they were safe to hug. As they embraced, Evelyn was in tears.

"It was, as Ataret said, a permission slip, yes, that I can finally, finally do this without fear," Evelyn said after hugging her granddaughter for the first time in about a year.

Now, Evelyn can't wait to hug her six other grandkids. "When I wrote on my calendar, 'Free at last. Free at last,' I didn't feel free," she said.

"But I've got this now," she said, holding up the prescription for a hug. "You are allowed to hug your granddaughter. What a statement. What a statement."

[PennySerenade]

A retired teacher tracks down dozens of students across Canada to return their childhood diaries



(CNN)A retired Canadian teacher is giving some of his former students a look back at their childhoods by returning long-forgotten diaries they wrote decades ago in his class.

In the late 1970s and the 1980s, Hugh Brittain would have his Grade 6 students at Havelock Elementary School in Saint John, New Brunswick, keep a diary for a week as a creative writing exercise.
"They would seal them up and I gave them free rein to write whatever they wanted to -- what was bothering them, or what was important in their lives at that time," Brittain told CNN.



He never read the diaries, but he held on to them so that he could return them at graduation and have his students look back at what they were like at 12-years-old. When he retired in 1995, he packed his papers -- including dozens of diaries that he wasn't able to deliver -- into a box of memorabilia from his 34-year teaching career. The school closed and was demolished in 2016, according to the CBC, which is a CNN partner.
Brittain, 78, was able to get some of the diaries back to their authors a few years ago after a school reunion, but he still had 26 left.
"I've kept them all these years, and I didn't know what to do with them, I didn't like to dispose of them and so I thought I'd give it one more try," he said. "After keeping some for 43 years, I figured it was time to be sure they got delivered." Last month, he posted a picture of the diaries -- still in their original sealed envelopes -- on a local Facebook group along with the names of the students he was trying to find from his classes in 1977-78, 1981-82, 1982-1983 and 1987-88.



"I don't know why I did it in certain years," Brittain said. "It just worked out that way." It turns out he didn't just save the diaries.
When Maria Yelle commented on his post, Brittain remembered her right away and posted five pictures of drawings she'd made for him when she was his student in 1986. "I was so surprised but very moved that he just really cared and that he kept that work," Yelle said. "He's just one of the good teachers. You really wanted to be your best and I just remember that he just encouraged us and he just really cared." Yelle now lives in Wisconsin and says her daughter, who is going into the sixth grade, is showing similar creativity. Brittain said it's been interesting to hear back from former students who now live all over Canada. Austin Hutton, 45, has moved across the country to Fort St. John, British Columbia, but he told CNN that his mom told him about the post. Hutton vaguely remembered keeping the diary back in 1988 but had no idea what was inside the envelope that he'd decorated with drawings of baseballs. He'd written "MY DIARY TOP Secret Keep Out" in green ink on the front cover. Inside, he talked about mowing lawns and saving money to buy a new bike, playing sports with his friends, driving a tractor, buying candy, and winning free bottles of pops. He signed each entry "Love Austin."



Much of the diary focused on his crush on "the prettiest girl in the class." Hutton was able to get her phone number but said he never asked her out.
He said his four kids, aged 12, 13, 19, and 20, have enjoyed reading the diary.
"They thought it was hilarious to see their dad all, kind of, gaga over girls, and they were impressed by how neat my handwriting was, my printing," he said. Hutton said his youngest son, A.J., is the same age that he was when he wrote the diary and it reminded them how different growing up is for kids today. "We didn't have all the video games and electronics, everything was books and outside," he said. Hutton described Brittain as a phenomenal teacher and said he was one of the handful he's remembered throughout his life. He said he got "emotional chills" when he received the diary, not only because it was a time capsule from his life, but because his teacher cared enough to save it for 33 years. "For somebody to have had the kindness, or the heart, to want to hold on to that to eventually share it, or find a way to share it no matter what, that just speaks volumes," Hutton said. Brittain told CNN he is still trying to return seven diaries.

[Fatima99]

Unique yellow penguin captured on camera for first time in incredible image

The professional snapper was leading a two-month expedition in the South Atlantic back in December 2019 when they stopped on an island in South Georgia to photograph a colony of over 120,000 king penguins.



A photographer has captured a once-in-a-lifetime image of what is thought to be a unique yellow penguin.

Wildlife photographer Yves Adams said he spotted the "never before seen" bird among his more ordinary contemporaries.

The Belgian professional snapper was leading a two-month expedition in the South Atlantic back in December 2019 when they stopped on an island in South Georgia to photograph a colony of over 120,000 king penguins.

Mr Adams was unloading equipment moments after the group arrived when he spotted the unusual creature - who stood out among the 120,000 king penguins due to its amazing bright plumage.

He said: “I’d never seen or heard of a yellow penguin before. There were 120,000 birds on that beach and this was the only yellow one there.

“We were so lucky the bird landed right where we were. Our view wasn’t blocked by a sea of massive animals. Normally it’s almost impossible to move on this beach because of them all.



“It was heaven that he landed by us. If it had been 50 metres away we wouldn’t have been able to get this show of a lifetime.”

The leucistic penguin's cells don't create melanin so its black feathers become yellow.

Scientists have found that the yellow pigment in penguin feathers is chemically distinct from all other molecules that are known to give colour to feathers.

Researcher Daniel Thomas told the Smithsonian Insider : “Penguins use the yellow pigment to attract mates and we strongly suspect that the yellow molecule is synthesised internally.

“[It’s] distinct from any of the five known classes of avian plumage pigmentation and represents a new sixth class of feather pigment.

"As far as we are aware, the molecule is unlike any of the yellow pigments found in a penguin’s diet.”

[BigGlen]

Daylight Saving Time:
Blessing for farmers, burden to 9-5 workers—all around it’s a jolting experience for many.



Understanding human circadian biology can help reduce the unpleasant impact of the leap forward on our metabolism, mood, and neurology, as the mysterious, all-pervasive attunement of our cells to the day-night cycle cannot be ignored.

Cells that make up tissues and organs in our body have a perception to the movements of the sun through the sky. These perceptions trigger different effects, and are known as clocks. The suprachiasmatic nucleus is a part of the brain known as the master clock, to which the circadian cellular clocks are attuned. Their effects include producing hormones that trigger chemical reactions, altering cellular receptors to prefer certain chemicals in certain moments, and closing them down in others.

Daylight Saving Time doesn’t change the movements of our nearest star, only our human perception of scheduling as it relates to the placement of the sun in the sky.

Here are some simple bio-hacks for how to prepare this week for the coming time distortion.

1) Go to bed 15 minutes earlier every night
A good night’s sleep is a wonderful thing, but losing even just one hour of it over one single night can have undesirable consequences. To prepare for the upcoming time change, it’s the same as in the week leading up to a super early-morning flight—go to sleep 15 minutes earlier every day until you reach a point where during the days before Daylight Saving, you’re sleeping over the same period that you will be after the change.

2) The day before, get as much sunlight as you can, and eat tryptophan
Sunlight absorption during the day was shown in an often-cited Japanese study to have a direct correlation to higher increases of melatonin secretion at night. That same study found that people who consume more tryptophan for breakfast—an amino acid plentiful in meats, particularly turkey, had higher amounts of melatonin secretion after dark—that’s no surprise since tryptophan is directly used to produce melatonin.

3) Sunbathe if you can
First thing in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and spend as many minutes as you can bathing in the sun. Even if it’s cloudy, the UV light of a cloudy day is still many hundreds of times stronger than indoor lighting. The aforementioned suprachiasmatic nucleus uses the sun as a metric, and if you deprive it of the sun’s rays it will take longer to figure out your new schedule.

4) Exercise on the day the clocks change
Exercise is another strong measurement of day-night cycles. For hundreds of thousands of years our ancestors did most of their physical activity during the morning and afternoon, so fitting in an intense exercise session is a great way to speed up the clock change, as our circadian rhythms evolved to use exercise, timing of meals, and the sun to calculate what time of day it was.

5) After the clock changes, keep the room dark and cold.
Sleep science, known as polysomnography, has shown that cold temperatures inside a room will aid in sleep. Again we have to imagine evolution preceding us: when the sun goes down in most places on Earth, the temperature goes down with it. There were no artificial lights of any kind beyond fire and the stars or the moon for millions of years, so we are accustomed to become sleepy when it becomes dark and cold. Doing so will ensure you have a long refreshing sleep cycle the night after the time change.

The Galápagos Islands From Space



The Galápagos Islands hold an honored place in science history. I often wonder, if Charles Darwin could have seen this volcanic archipelago from this vantage point – a satellite view – how might have that aided or changed his research on evolution?

This picture is from ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which consists of two satellites which each carry a high-resolution camera, capable of taking pictures of Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. The mission is mainly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of the Earth’s vegetation.

The Galápagos Islands are best known for their diverse array of plant and animal species, many of which are endemic — meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world. These include species such as the giant Galapagos tortoise, the marine iguana, the flightless cormorant and the Galapagos penguin – the only species of penguin that lives north of the equator.

Darwin observed these species during the voyage of the HMS Beagle in 1835 and inspired his theory of evolution by natural selection. The entire archipelago of 13 major islands and several smaller islets were named as national park in 1959 by the government of Ecuador. The Galápagos Islands are located about 1,000 km (620 miles) west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.

In this image, captured on September 23, 2020, circular volcanic cones can be seen atop the islands. At the ESA website, you can zoom in to see this image at a high, full 10 m resolution.

Here’s another view of the islands, from the Envisat satellite. The image was obtained by combining three different images gathered on different dates across 2008 and 2009 by the satellite’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR).



The colors in the image result from variations in the surface that occurred between acquisitions. In addition to mapping changes on the land surface, radar data can also be used to determine sea surface parameters like wind speed, wind direction and wave height. Different wave types and wind speeds are visible in the image as ripples on the water surface.

The Galápagos Islands cover approximately 60,000 sq km (23,166 sq miles) of ocean. Repeated volcanic eruptions and ongoing seismic activity formed the rugged mountain landscape of the islands.

The largest island is named Isabela, and is shaped like a seahorse. It is about 132 km (82 miles) in length, and was created by multiple large volcanoes merging into a single land mass. The five volcanoes seen on the island are (from north to south): Wolf Volcano, Darwin Volcano, Alcedo Volcano, Sierra Negra Volcano and Cerro Azul Volcano. Two of the island’s volcanoes, Ecuador and Wolf, lie directly on the Equator. Wolf is the highest peak in the Galápagos Islands, at 1,707 m (5,600 ft), and the last time it erupted was in 2015.

https://www.universetoday.com/150495/the-galapagos-islands-from-space/

Airline worker reunites young passenger with left-behind Buzz Lightyear




The generosity of this act was infinity and beyond!
A Southwest Airline employee went to "infinity and beyond" in order to return a little boy's Buzz Lightyear toy that he left behind on a flight.

Hagen Davis has since been reunited with his beloved action figure all thanks to a ramp agent named Jason at Little Rock Airport in Arkansas, according to a post from Southwest.

Not only did Jason go out of his way to identify Buzz's owner and return it to him, but the Southwest employee also sent the toy back in "a hand-decorated box, complete with a letter describing his mission at Southwest Airlines," along with accompanying photos, Southwest said.

"There's definitely not enough good in this world," Hagen's mom, Ashley Davis, said in the post. "And for someone to take the time out of their day to do that for strangers means the world to us."

As Ashley explained in her own Facebook post, her family was traveling to Dallas, Texas after her husband's uncle suddenly died.

"It was a long flight with a two-year-old, and myself, 7 months pregnant," she wrote, noting that once they arrived at Dallas Love Field Airport, she collected all their things.

It wasn't until the family got to their rental car that Ashley said she realized Buzz was missing.

By that point, their Southwest Airlines plane was already on the way to its next destination in Little Rock, where it was scheduled to park for the night, according to the airline's post.

"My son was devastated," Ashley explained. "He loved his Buzz so much and even had his name written on the bottom of his boot just like the Buzz from the movie has Andy on his."

"I looked into how to claim lost items with SWA," she continued in her post. "The cost alone to submit a claim exceeded the cost of Buzz and chalked it up as a loss."

As the family carried on with their trip to Dallas for the funeral, the Toy Story character was soon discovered by Jason at Little Rock.

"Jason knew someone was missing their friend badly, so he began some investigating to discover who he belonged to," Southwest explained. "Soon, a name written on the bottom of the boot caught Jason's eye: 'Hagen.' With the help of Beth, his Coheart, Jason learned there was only one 'Hagen' who had traveled on that aircraft that day."

Once he determined Buzz's owner, Ashley said Jason reached out via email to let them know he found Hagen's toy.

Jason then carried out his creative idea to return Buzz, and the "sweet surprise" arrived at the Davis' home just a few days later, according to Southwest's post.

Ashley noted in her post that the amount of effort Jason put into the return meant so much to her.

"The box was decorated amazingly (you're really talented Jason!)" Ashley wrote in her post. "The letter was absolutely adorable, and he sent all the pictures he took with him too."

"The thought and care he put into getting Hagen his Buzz back when Hagen left him on the plane in Dallas was beyond thoughtful and sweet," she continued. "It will be a memory he has to cherish forever and an incredibly cool story to tell as he gets older."

"Thank you again so so much Jason and SWA [Southwest Airlines]!" Ashley added. "This morning the first thing Hagen did was grab his Buzz and cuddle up with him to watch morning cartoons, my heart is mush."
https://people.com/human-interest/south ... -surprise/