[lush]

Watch this amazing machine transform plastic bags into fuel
08/07/2015 under Art, Environment, News, Renewable Energy*


Photo credit: Blest Corporation

Plastic bags have become the bane of our existence. They pollute our waterways, get tangled in trees and bushes, and take hundreds of years to break down into smaller pieces. But Japanese inventor Akinori Ito has created a household appliance that converts the ubiquitous plastic annoyance into fuel. A video shows Ito placing plastic bags, styrofoam containers, and other random bits of trash into a tabletop machine that melts them and condenses the gas released to produce usable oil. The highly efficient, non-polluting machine can process polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene (but not PET bottles), and it can convert 2 lbs. of plastic into a quart of oil using just 1 kilowatt of power.


Photo credit: Blest Corporation

Ito’s inspiration for the method came from the simple realization that plastic bags are created from oil, thus they should be able to be converted back to their original form. The machine heats the plastic with electricity, then traps the vapors, which it then cools and condenses into crude oil. The crude oil can be used to heat generators and some stoves, and when refined, it can be used for gasoline.

When he first created the process, Ito explained that by converting plastic into oil, we eliminate CO2 pollution and raise the awareness of plastic’s fuel potential. When plastic is burned — a common way to recover potential energy sources — it generates a large amount of toxins and CO2.

While the end product is still a fuel that will be burned and give off CO2, the innovative recycling method could revolutionize the way certain plastics are treated. Because the system is made for households, it could create an energy independence among consumers, and lessen the need to extract more oil from the earth.


Photo credit: Blest Corporation

The carbon negative system is now being sold by Ito’s Blest Corporation. Unfortunately, the machine currently retails for about $10,000. But Ito hopes to bring that price down by increased production once the product becomes more widespread.

[johngriffen]

(Image courtesy of goldie0608)

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
TUESDAY MARCH 16
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

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

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You may post One Story in any 24 hour period
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Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
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2:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
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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

[Fivetide]

Baby bottle craze sweeps Gulf Arab states, sparks backlash


A waiter poses with a tray of baby bottles that he brought out from storage, at Einstein Cafe in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 14, 2021. Cafes across several Gulf Arab states have begun selling coffee and other cold drinks in baby bottles, kicking off a new trend that has prompted excitement, confusion and backlash. The fad started at Einstein Cafe, a slick dessert chain with branches across the region. Soon, authorities from Kuwait to Dubai cracked down claiming the trend violates local traditions. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Cafes across several Gulf Arab states started selling coffee and other cold drinks in baby bottles this month, kicking off a new trend that has elicited excitement, confusion — and backlash.

The fad began at Einstein Cafe, a slick dessert chain with branches across the region, from Dubai to Kuwait to Bahrain. Instead of ordinary paper cups, the cafe, inspired by pictures of trendy-looking bottles shared on social media, decided to serve its thick milky drinks in plastic baby bottles.

Although the franchise was no newcomer to baby-themed products — a milkshake with cerelac, the rice cereal for infants, is a long-standing bestseller — the unprecedented fervor over the feeding bottles came as a bit of a shock. All the stress and anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic appears to have spurred some to find an outlet in the strange new craze.

“Everyone wanted to buy it, people called all day, telling us they’re coming with their friends, they’re coming with their father and mother,” Younes Molla, CEO of the Einstein franchise in the United Arab Emirates, told The Associated Press this week. “After so many months with the pandemic, with all the difficulties, people took photos, they had fun, they remembered their childhood.”

Lines clogged Einstein stores across the Gulf. People of all ages streamed onto sidewalks, waiting for their chance to suck coffee and juice from a plastic bottle. Some patrons even brought their own baby bottles to other cafes, pleading with bewildered baristas to fill them up.

Pictures of baby bottles filled with colorful kaleidoscopes of drinks drew thousands of likes on Instagram and ricocheted across the popular social media app TikTok. A cure for the world’s uncertainty? A response to some primal instinct? Either way, a trend was born.

Soon, however, online haters took note — the baby bottle drinkers and providers faced a barrage of nasty comments.

“People were so angry, they said horrible things, that we were an ‘aeb,’ to Islam and the Muslim culture,” said Molla, using the Arabic term for shame or dishonor.

Last week, the anger reached the highest levels of government. Dubai authorities cracked down. Inspection teams burst into cafes where the trend had taken off and handed out fines.

“Such indiscriminate use of baby bottles is not only against local culture and traditions,” read the government statement, “but the mishandling of the bottle during the filling could also contribute to the spread of COVID-19,” an apparent reference to those bringing their used bottles to other cafes.

Authorities, the statement added, had been “alerted to the negative practice and its risks by social media users.”

Backlash also came from Kuwait, where the government temporarily shut down Einstein Cafe, and from Bahrain, where the Ministry of Commerce sent police armed with live cameras into cafes and warned all dining establishments that serving drinks in feeding bottles “violates Bahraini customs and traditions.”

Oman urged citizens to report baby bottle sightings to the Consumer Protection Authority hotline. Saudi Twitter users and media personalities condemned the trend in the harshest terms, with popular news website Mujaz al-Akhbar lamenting that the kingdom’s “daughters have suffered from a loss of modesty and religion.”

It’s not the first time that the guardians of local customs in Gulf Arab countries have focused their ire on social media phenomena. Vague laws across the region lend authorities broad power to stamp out public immorality and indecency. Emirati officers last spring, for instance, arrested a young expat for posting a video on TikTok in which he sneezed into a banknote, accusing him of “harming” the UAE’s reputation and its institutions.

[goldie0608]

This is What Happened When a California Town Gave Struggling Folks Free Money for a Year



In an encouraging flip of the narrative, an experiment demonstrated that basic income recipients in a California city showed intelligence and ambition, not lethargy.

The randomized, controlled trial in the city of Stockton is being viewed by sociologists as a good jumping-off point for further research into the effects of a no-strings-attached cash injection to alleviate the difficulties of living in the lower-income class.

The project was called SEED (Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration), and it took place from February 2018 to February 2020.

Distributing $500 every month for two years to 125 people living around or below the city’s median household income resulted in the participants’ acquisition of full-time jobs climbing up to 200% above a control group of participants who did not receive income. The jump was still less than what is seen on traditional unemployment benefits, though those receiving the $500 were not necessarily unemployed.

Unlike unemployment benefits though, participants were not told their reception of the money would hinge on their searching for a job. Instead they received their money on a debit card and were told to spend it on whatever they liked.

The vast majority of the spending was on things one might imagine it would go towards, such as food, utilities, rent, auto-maintenance, and so on.

Another significant finding was that it allowed participants a little more time in the day to enjoy life, spend time with their families, or study to potentially improve their skillsets.

“The $500 spilled into their extended networks in material and immaterial ways that alleviated financial strain across fragile networks and generated more time for relationships,” the authors wrote.

One man had spent an entire year being eligible to receive a real estate license, but he never actually had time to begin the process. The $500 allowed him to take time off work to get his certificate and switch careers, resulting in a “360-degree” turn around in his fortunes.

Lastly, despite the fact that every participant spent 100% of their monthly $500 boosts, 25% of the participants by trial’s end had managed to cover the $400 cost of an unexpected expense, suggesting that rather than going on spending sprees or committing the money immediately to rent, at least some were able to extend the life of the $500 and other sources of income much further, perhaps by saving more than normal—the most fundamentally important aspect of financial strength and growth.

It’s an encouraging sign that a randomized placebo-controlled trial was able to find so many benefits.

A basic income may be a more flexible and effective alternative than other existing welfare programs that limit the scope of the handout to particular requirements and circumstances, because it allows the individual to maintain their own agency and manage their own affairs—who as the economists of centuries past recognized—are the only ones who can do so.

[BigGlen]

Naked woman removed from Treasury Building in Dublin
Sculpture taken down by owners following sale of former Nama building on Grand Canal Street



One of Dublin’s best known sculptures - the naked woman climbing up the Treasury Building - has been removed, though it may re-appear elsewhere. according to its owners.

The Aspiration sculpture - which was famously switched from a male to a female after property developer Johnny Ronan said “there was no way he wanted a naked man climbing up the wall to his window” - was taken down from the building on Grand Canal Street on Friday.

“She’s safe and well, and hopefully you’ll see her pop up in a new city centre location before too long,” a spokesman for Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) told The Irish Times.

Google completed the purchase of the Treasury Building from RGRE in February this year, and a condition of the sale was that the sculpture would be removed.

“Her removal today was carried out in accordance with that,” the spokesman said.



The building, which formerly housed the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), is expected to be used by Google’s expanded workforce once the pandemic is over.

Metaphor
The tech giant already owns offices buildings in the area, including its European headquarters on Barrow Street, and the nearby Montevetro building, both of which were developed by Treasury Holdings, the company formerly led by Mr Ronan and Richard Barrett.

The Treasury Building is on the site of the former Boland’s Bakery, a building that featured during the 1916 Rising, and the climbing figure, Aspiration, was meant to be a metaphor for Ireland.

An original maquette model of the sculpture, comprising a polished granite slab with bronze models of the original male figure and the subsequent female version, went up for auction in Dublin in November 2012, but stalled at €9,500 and failed to sell.

Artist Rowan Gillespie revealed at the time that the gender of the piece was changed after Mr Ronan objected to the original plan.

He said the property developer was delighted with the change of gender, given that his then personal office window overlooked the sculpture.

The sale of the Treasury Building is understood to have secured its owners a significant return.

It was sold by Mr Ronan, Paddy McKillen, and Percy Nominees. The original Boland’s Bakery building was acquired in 1984 for IR£400,000 (€508,000), and redeveloped.

[Fatima99]

Look for These Celestial Wonders in the Night Sky Through the Rest of March

We’re halfway through the month of March, and though the days are getting longer—these crisp, clear nights are still a perfect time for stargazing.

What can you expect to see if you look up at the darkness over the coming weeks? So much, it turns out. Let’s take a look at three celestial highlights that will bring us through till April.

Ursa Major ‘springs’ up
When: Through March


Identified more than 30,000 years ago, Ursa Major—or the Great Bear—has appeared low in the sky through winter.

Now that it’s springtime, that iconic asterism of seven bright stars has ‘sprung’ back up from its low position to appear high in the northeast sky. All this to say, the Big Dipper is back.

The Moon and Mars have a meet-up
When: March 19


Earth’s only natural satellite and the Red Planet will appear very closely together on Friday evening. Look up then and see a waxing crescent moon appear in conjunction with Mars, with both just above the Taurus star of Aldebaran.

The night of March 19 is a special one for one more reason: As the clock hands swipe past midnight, at 4:37am Central Daylight Time on March 20 it’ll become vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

Each night from then on, as the lengthening days move closer to the summer solstice, you’ll find the sun setting just that bit farther north.

The ‘Super Worm Moon’ glitters, full and bright
When: March 28


Also called the Crow Moon, the Sugar Moon, the Wind Strong Moon, and the Sap Moon, watch the full ‘Super Worm Moon’ rise on March 28.

When it’s low on the horizon it’ll appear a brilliant, rich orange—and very, very large.

As the super moon climbs farther and farther in the sky, it’ll lose its orange hue and outsized appearance. All that to say, make sure to look up around dusk. Enjoy the view.

Tasmanian Tigers Are Extinct. Why Do People Keep Seeing Them?
Quirks of the human mind and how we process information might explain the uncanny appearances of thylacines.



The Tasmanian tiger is still extinct. Reports of its enduring survival are greatly exaggerated.

Known officially to science as a thylacine, the large marsupial predators, which looked more like wild dogs than tigers and ranged across Tasmania and the Australia mainland, were declared extinct in 1936. But on Feb. 23, Neil Waters, president of the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia, promised conclusive photographic proof of a surviving thylacine. The four photos, he claimed, showed a family of thylacines, including a juvenile, moving through dense brush. The announcement kicked off a flurry of excitement among wildlife aficionados.

video

But, analysis by thylacine specialists rapidly debunked the photos as a case of mistaken identity. The event is the latest in a tradition of extravagant claims about photographic or video evidence of lost or unknown species that don’t pan out. Why do these cycles occur so regularly, at times even convincing experts? The answer, psychologists say, may lie in quirks of the human mind and how we process information that is at once familiar and difficult to perceive.

While such footage occasionally turns out to be a hoax, many stills and videos genuinely show real animals — even if they aren’t what people say they are. In 2005, a WWF camera-trap caught footage of a “mystery carnivore” — likely a flying squirrel — in the jungle of Indonesian Borneo. In 2007, 2011 and 2014, clips of hairless dogs and raccoons in Texas were described as chupacabras.

The same year, a kayaker recorded footage that purported to show an extinct ivory-billed woodpecker in an Arkansas swamp, provoking heated coverage and broad scientific interest. Many experts eventually concluded that the bird was more likely a pileated woodpecker.

It’s not impossible for species presumed extinct to reappear. Last month, news of the rediscovery of the Black-Browed Babbler, missing since the 1840s, emerged after two Indonesian men caught and photographed a specimen. A day later, an entomologist, announced the discovery of a tiny population — just six specimens — of the Australian cloaked bee, last seen in 1923.

That’s part of why the prospect of thylacine footage was so compelling to hopeful researchers. Unlike Bigfoot or Nessie, such animals were unquestionably real, were well photographed while alive and went extinct almost within living memory. Catching a photo of one doesn’t necessarily seem like a stretch.



And in the age of smartphones, cameras are everywhere. In fact, footage snapped by camera traps or amateur naturalists can help establish the presence and activity patterns of animals in the environment, said Holly English, a doctoral student in wildlife ecology and behavior at University College Dublin.

“There are animals that visit my own garden that I only know about through camera trapping,” Ms. English said.

Photos can also help reveal animals living in unexpected places. Her research on breeding populations of exotic wallabies in Britain, for instance, relied partially on images shared over social media.

Susan Wardle, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health in the United States, says that cycles of expectant belief undone by deeper analysis may in part be explained by human psychological quirks.

Processing every individual sensory detail is impossible, she says, so our brain actively reconstructs our visual world based on the complex but ambiguous input received by our eyes. Research has shown that unclear sensory data — such as a blurry picture — causes the brain to rely more heavily on preconceived patterns to make sense of it.

“This means that there is an interesting interaction between perception and cognition — our beliefs and prior experience can influence what we see. Or more accurately, what we think we see,” Dr. Wardle said.

This tendency can lead people astray when studying photographic evidence of long unseen animals, sometimes called cryptids, especially if they already have an idea of what they’re looking for. Many people who go looking for such enigmatic creatures have an emotional investment in identifying them, “and are already convinced the creatures are already out there,” said Christopher French, who founded the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, and recently retired.

That pre-existing belief makes it easier to begin seeing quarry in every shadow and rustle of brush, Dr. French adds, or in photographs that don’t offer a clear look at the animal in question. It can also cause people to genuinely miss details that might contradict their preferred hypothesis.

In a YouTube video posted on February 23, Mr. Waters, formerly a professional horticulturist, claimed that he’d captured footage that proved the thylacine lived. Walking past a landscape of felled trees, he described setting camera traps in the Tasmanian bush, and catching four “not ambiguous” still images of a thylacine family.

Thylacine populations began declining soon after European settlers arrived on Tasmania, an island south of the Australian mainland, in 1803, winnowed by government-encouraged hunting, competition from wild dogs, habitat loss and disease. The last known individual, “Benjamin,” died in captivity in 1936, leaving behind only haunting bits of film footage.

There were reported sightings in the decades that followed, which lured multiple expeditions in Tasmania’s wilderness to search for survivors, said Darren Naish, a paleozoologist at the University of Southampton in England. None were successful. Yet reported sightings continued and even increased in the 1980s, and are still reported today.

“That suggested that sightings were a social phenomenon, not a zoological one,” Dr. Naish said.

Mr. Waters sent his photographs to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for analysis by Nick Mooney, a thylacine expert. He and his colleagues debunked Mr. Waters’ claims.

“TMAG regularly receives requests for verification from members of the public who hope that the thylacine is still with us,” the museum said in a statement. “Based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided by Mr. Waters, the animals are very unlikely to be thylacines.”

Instead it said they are most likely Tasmanian pademelons, a stout little marsupial resembling a wallaby.


A Tasmanian pademelon, a possible ringer in the photographs taken by Mr. Waters.Credit...

Many thylacine sightings are similar misidentifications, said Adam Pask, a thylacine researcher at the University of Melbourne. “There are quite a few wild dogs roaming around Tasmania,” Dr. Pask said. “So it’s very easy to spot a ‘thylacine’ looking animal in the bush if you look hard enough, and want to see one enough.”

These kinds of mistakes are common, Dr. Naish said, in part because even experienced outdoors people and researchers aren’t always adept at identifying animals from unfamiliar angles or in unfamiliar states. Size and distance can be hard to judge in photographs, causing domestic cats to resemble big cats. Subtract fur, as in the occasional rotting raccoon carcass or mangy fox, and even familiar mammals can look deeply uncanny — or like an extinct marsupial predator.

“We all make mistakes: even the most experienced naturalists make misidentifications, sometimes hilarious ones,” Dr. Naish said. However, those dedicated to hunting cryptic animals are often primed to accept more ambiguous footage, while dismissing critical opinions from qualified experts.

“The single most pervasive cognitive bias we all suffer from is confirmation bias,” Dr. French said. If you’re invested in finding the cryptid you’re searching for, you’re more likely to find the evidence convincing.

On March 1, Mr. Waters — who did not return multiple requests for comment — released the photos as part of a 19 minute video, urging viewers to “make up their own mind.” In a subsequent interview with News.com.au, he said that the response to his photos by expert analysts gave him “more fire in my belly to prove them wrong.”

“It won’t be much longer,” Waters said. “Because we’re very close to getting irrefutable proof the animal is still here.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/scie ... tings.html

[PennySerenade]

Grammy winning Toronto musician can play any song after hearing it one time



nominations, Larnell Lewis is anything but a one hit wonder. The Toronto-based drummer and composer is suddenly a viral video sensation thanks to his uncanny ability to replicate iconic rock songs in one take.

A YouTube video showcasing Lewis effortlessly performing Metallica’s 1991 hit “Enter Sandman” after listening to it just once has generated about four million views since being posted three weeks ago.



“ I work closely with an online drum education platform called Drumeo. They specialize in teaching drummers,” Lewis told CTV News Toronto.

“They started a segment with a few different drummers where they actually get them to listen to a song and see how many tries it will take for them to learn the song. They asked if I’d ever done 'Enter Sandman' before and I was like ‘no I’ve never even heard of that song before."

The ability to learn through listening was cultivated early on. Lewis’ father was a musician, and performed actively in the Pentecostal church. Lewis says he started drumming when he was two years old, banging on pots and pans when his drumsticks where longer than his arms. Dating back to his great grandfather, nearly every member of his family is a musician of some sort, including his brother Ricky, a touring drummer for the Weeknd, who appearing alongside the Grammy-winning rapper at this year’s Super Bowl.

“When you're at church you see a drummer playing and you want to do that too,” explained Lewis. “That environment was important, as far as maybe one of the intelligences that I have, being in scenarios where I've had to learn very quickly. You find ways of retaining information, or breaking it down, and then absorbing and executing it.”

“If you're a drummer and you see somebody do something like this, it really should inspire you to practice,” said Allan Cross, a music historian, radio personality and former drum instructor. “Enter Sandman is a song that's five minutes and 25 seconds. That’s a lot to remember. There are a number of tempo changes. To do it in one take? That’s phenomenal.”

“I remember hearing about this kid coming out of the gospel scene, and people telling me he was going to knock my socks off,” said Mark Kelso, head of Humber College’s percussion department. Kelso taught Lewis in 2004, a year that would see him win the Oscar Peterson award as the school’s top music student.

“It was clear that he was sort of a head and shoulders above, a lot of the other students that I had been seeing,” recalled Kelso, who isn’t surprised by his star pupil’s ability to nail an iconic rock song so quickly.

“Coming out of the church, reading music charts is not a big thing. It's mostly based on your hearing abilities and listening skills. His were at a very high level, so I really kind of tried to talk to him about upping his reading to match his hearing skills because that would be a deadly combination for him. He took those words to heart, and now he's a vicious musician because he can read anything and he can hear anything. It’s like a double whammy.”

Life has come full circle in a number of ways for Lewis. He recently released his second solo album, Relive The Moment, a follow-up to 2018’s Juno-nominated In The Moment. He’s also back at Humber College, teaching aspiring drummers alongside Kelso as part of the school’s music program. His home life is just as busy, where his two children, ages one and three, have followed the family tradition as diaper-wearing drummers.

“I just want to maintain and carry on the tradition of that communal aspect of music making that's been with my family for so long.”

Lost dog travels 100 miles from Iowa to Nebraska in 23 days




Animal rescuers said a dog that went missing in Iowa was captured 100 miles away in Nebraska after the several failed attempts at apprehension caused the canine to flee.

The Nebraska Humane Society said the dog, named Ivy, escaped from her home in Sioux City on Feb. 12 and traveled 100 miles to the Omaha area during her 23 days on the loose.

The humane society said multiple reported sightings of Ivy occurred during that time, but the dog would flee when people tried to approach her.

"Every day that a dog is out, it gets more scared," Cathy Eaton, founder of Lost Pets of Omaha Area, told the Omaha World-Herald. "Each time another person calls out to it, it freaks her out a little bit more. ... When a dog is lost, everything is strange to it."

An Omaha resident who spotted Ivy wandering near their home contacted the Nebraska Humane Society and, with the help of an officer, was able to lure the dog into a garage with some food.

Rescuers said Ivy had lost 10 to 15 pounds while loose and ended up with one of her legs caught in her collar, causing it to become embedded in her armpit.

Ivy was treated for her injuries and is now recovering at home, the humane society said.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/03/15 ... 615842402/

[hija]

The holy grail of aviation: net-zero flights ‘on the horizon’, say scientists



Beachside pina coladas could soon taste that bit sweeter for climate-conscious holidaymakers thanks to a new jet fuel, which scientists say slashes aircraft emissions.

The kerosine alternative was developed by US researchers, who used a process known as ‘bio-refining’ to turn food waste into a kind of paraffin that works in aircraft engines.

The team behind the fuel claim it reduces greenhouse gas emissions from planes by 165 per cent. That figure comes from the reduction in carbon emitted from jets, plus the emissions that are saved when food waste is diverted from landfill, where it emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Aviation remains one of the biggest obstacles in the race to net zero. While the sector accounts for just three per cent of global emissions, the International Council on Clean Transportation expects air travel to triple by 2050, potentially undermining climate targets.

Though batteries have been successfully trialled in small aircraft, electric commercial jets remain a distant prospect. And while green hydrogen is being mooted by some in the industry as the future of aviation, the development of so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) is considered to be the most viable short-term solution when it comes to slashing the sector’s emissions.

In a report published on Monday, the scientists behind the new fuel claimed it could be commercially viable within two years, pending regulatory approval.

“That means net-zero-carbon flights are on the horizon earlier than some might have thought,” said Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the lead author on the study.
Vardon conceded that the fuel was not “a silver bullet”, but said “as a piece of the puzzle it could make a significant dent in an industry notoriously hard to decarbonise”.

The study comes as the UK government launches a competition to usher in a “new era of guilt-free flying”. Under plans announced today by the Department of Transport, companies will be able to bid for a share of a £15m pot to develop “first-of-a-kind production plants” that make fuel from waste.

Though dismissed by some climate campaigners as greenwashing, some big names in aviation have invested in projects to develop SAFs. British Airways recently announced that it was investing in a plant in Georgia, US, that will produce fuel made from agricultural and other waste.

Meanwhile, the Dutch airline KLM offered a simpler solution to slashing plane emissions, which it proposed to travellers before the pandemic: fly less.

[lush]

A Young Man With Autism's Heartfelt Cover Letter Is Going Viral
March 16, 2021*

A handwritten cover letter posted on LinkedIn has been viewed more than six million times.

Meet 20-year-old Ryan Lowry.

Ryan Lowry / LinkedIn

Lowry is a 2019 graduate of Heritage High School in Virginia. He is currently enrolled in the Community And Schools Together (CAST) program, a Loudoun County Public School post-graduate employment training program.

Seeking a job in animation or information technology, Lowry wrote a cover letter that's been viewed by millions of people on LinkedIn.

In the letter, he talks about having autism, but says he's determined to work hard for anyone who hires him.

"I realize that someone like you will have to take a chance on me," he says.


LinkedIn

Since Lowry posted the letter last month, he has been inundated with calls from potential employers.

He has several interviews scheduled with Fortune 500 companies.

Lowry's parents, Rob and Tracy, couldn't be more proud of their son.

"I lay in bed at night and I cry reading the messages," Tracy told TODAY. "This raw, vulnerable letter has opened up so many opportunities."

[johngriffen]

(Image courtesy of goldie0608)

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 MARCH 17
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 -5)
2:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
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IN OTHER NEWS

[Fivetide]

Minneapolis bowling alley drone video takes off online



A video taken by a camera-equipped drone buzzing through the nooks and crannies of a historic Minneapolis bowling alley has attracted hundreds of thousands of views online.

The drone in the 1 1/2-minute video at Bryant-Lake Bowl follows bowling balls down the alley and takes viewers behind the alley’s reset mechanism, back out onto the floor and into the bar.

The video is the work of 25-year-old cinematographer Jay Christensen, produced by Minneapolis-based Rally Studios and directed by Anthony Jaska, the Star Tribune reported.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” filmmaker James Gunn tweeted the clip to his 800,000-plus followers, saying he wanted the filmmakers “to come with us to London later this year when we shoot Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”

Christensen, who lives near the bowling alley, was struck by the destruction and rebuilding along Lake Street following last year’s rioting after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

“It made me think, what’s the future of Lake Street going to look like?” he asked. “Bryant-Lake Bowl is a staple in the community, and not having it be that way didn’t sit well with me.”

He approached the bowling alley’s owner, who let them shoot after-hours because of coronavirus restrictions. Christensen and Gunn said they were just having fun putting the film together this month and never expected all the attention.

See video here:
https://youtu.be/VgS54fqKxf0

Regent honeyeater: Endangered songbird in Australia is 'forgetting its love songs' (and the females of the species aren't impressed)

Young male birds have been mimicking the songs of other species - and female regent honeyeaters aren't impressed, say scientists.



A rare songbird's existence is under threat because it is failing to learn how to sing love songs, new research suggests.

The distinctive black and yellow regent honeyeater - once common across Australia - is now a critically endangered species with just a few hundred of the songbirds left in the wild - and many fly solo.

Scientists now believe they know why the population is dwindling: They are at risk of losing their "song culture" with few father figure birds around to teach them mating songs.

Instead, young and impressionable male birds have been mimicking friarbirds and cuckooshrikes - and female regent honeyeaters aren't impressed.

"Song learning in many birds is a process similar to humans learning languages - they learn by listening to other individuals," said Dr Ross Crates, an ecologist based at Australian National University, who for five years has been tracking the singing ability and breeding success of the endangered regent honeyeater.

"If you can't listen to other individuals, you don't know what you should be learning."

Most male regent honeyeaters spend several months in their first year learning and refining the songs they'll recite for the rest of their lives.

Some learn from their fathers, but many leave the nest before they learn to sing so they need to find other mentors.

In research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists found a significant number are learning tunes exclusively from other species and producing mangled versions of those songs.
"We think the females are avoiding breeding and nesting with males that sing unusual songs," Dr Crates said.

"This research suggests that the loss of a song language once the population reaches a very small size could accelerate their decline," said Peter Marra, a conservation biologist at Georgetown University who was not involved in the study.

"When male birds sing, it's like putting out an ad saying, 'I'm over here, I'm species X, I'm Bob, and I'm really interested in finding a partner'," said Scott Ramsay, a behavioural ecologist at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, who was also not involved in the research.

It could be that female honeyeaters aren't even recognising these unconventional singers as potential partners, and so they're not approaching them, he said. Or it could be that they approach, "but then things go wrong if the males get courtship signals wrong".

Dr Crates's team has started playing male song recordings and also housed capable male singers next to learners to help young birds in captive breeding programmes learn their notes.

The hope is that these veteran vocalists will pass on their songs to the next generation.

news.sky.com/story/regent-honeyeater-endangered-songbird-in-australia-is-forgetting-its-love-songs-and-the-females-of-the-species-arent-impressed-12248417

[goldie0608]

Texas and Philly Join Movement to Dim Lights at Night – Making it Safer for Migrating Birds



Since 1990, cities around the U.S. have gradually been cutting or dimming outdoor lights in order to help one of their most vulnerable populations—migratory birds.

Lights Out programs, organized by conservation and civil society groups like the Audubon Society, have sprung up in 20 different states, plus D.C. and Toronto, and involve enlisting the help of landlords, their tenants, and business owners to make cities safe for migratory birds in the spring and fall.

Birds use celestial clues to navigate thousands of miles along migration routes. Some of these routes involve passing through some of the largest and brightest cities in North America. The light pollution blots out the stars and other navigation points the birds use, causing them to collide with buildings.

Climate change, feral cats, habitat loss, and more take their toll on bird populations all over the country already, and collisions with buildings and powerlines are also a major hazard.

The most recent Lights Out program has organized itself in Philadelphia, where a squadron of different advocates are trying to get multi-story apartments and businesses to dim or cut their outdoor lights between April 1 through May 31, and from August 15 to November 15.

The advocates include the Building Owners and Managers Association of Philadelphia, (BOMA) which includes 475 addresses, and has managed to get an “extremely robust” response.

“We have some early adopters and the list is approaching 20 buildings, many of which are iconic and very recognizable members of the Philadelphia skyline, such as One and Two Liberty Place, Comcast Technology Center and Comcast Center, Mellon Bank Building and all of Brandywine Realty Trust’s Center City and University City buildings,” said BOMA executive director Kristine Kiphorn, according to Associated Press.

“We get to do our part in the community to help preserve the bird population, and we get to conserve energy at the same time, saving money for our tenants and our assets.”

Gray catbirds, ovenbirds, common yellowthroats, and white-throated sparrows are among the most vulnerable species that pass through Philadelphia, falling prey not only to light pollution but reflective glass that may mirror the sky or trees.

Taking Conservation to Texas

Elsewhere, Laura Bush’s nonprofit, Texan By Nature, has helped bring about several Lights Out initiatives in Texas, as one out of every three migrating birds in the U.S—around one billion in total, pass through the Lone Star State.

“I know that you and all Texans care deeply about protecting wildlife and the ecosystems that will sustain us for generations to come,” Bush said in a letter, according to local news reports. “My vision is of a dark Texas sky, ensuring a safe flight for birds on their journey home.”

Lights Out Houston is organized solely by the local Audubon chapter, while Lights Out Dallas is supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Texas Conservation Alliance, and others.