Two-headed GOAT that eats with both mouths is born on a Wisconsin farm - and named Janus after a Roman god with two faces

• The rare goat was born on the Nueske family farm in Wittenberg, Wisconsin
• Scans show the goat has two 'fully-formed' craniums which fuse at the spine
• Two-heads occur when an embryo partially splits, known as polycephaly



A farmer has been left amazed after one of her goats birthed a two-headed kid able to eat with both heads.
The incredible creature was born on the Nueske family farm in Wittenberg, Wisconsin, after its mother was found struggling to deliver her baby.
Jocelyn Nueske, who manages and milks the goats, has named the animal Janus after the Roman god usually depicted with two faces.
The family were hoping to keep Janus as a pet, however were fearful that it would not survive and put its chances on a knife-edge.
But they have been buoyed following a trip to a clinic where scans showed that Janus was a 'normal baby goat'.



Posting on the farm's Facebook page, the family revealed that it is thought the animal has two brains which are fused together at the back of his skulls.
He has two 'fully-formed' craniums which are also fused to the spinal cord, while his heart, lungs and limbs are all functioning properly.
But while the animal seems to have a pair of nearly everything, vets confirmed he only has one stomach.
It adds: 'Baby Janus continues to amaze us and we are happy to have Wisconsin Valley Veterinary Service on board to help us look after his well being.'
Two-headed creatures can occur when an embryo splits, as if to form twins, but it does not split completely, in a process known as polycephaly.
It can also occur the other way around, with two separate embryos incompletely fusing to form a two-headed creature.
Recalling Janus's birth last week, Jocelyn said: 'I noticed that the mother was having troubles having her second baby, which was completely normal.
'I started to assist her and I was very confused at first but then I realized the heads were attached and I was very shocked. It had four legs, two ears, four eyes and two noses.
'We have been milking goats for six years and never had anything like this. We usually have around 700 babies born each year and nothing like this has ever happened until now.'
She added: 'We're just doing the best we can to keep him strong and healthy, and hoping for the best.
'We are a very caring family farm, we try our best to help any animal we can.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -farm.html

[Governor3]

3-Year-Old Clinging to Unicorn Float Is Rescued From Sea in Greece



The dramatic rescue of a child who drifted out to sea on a toy flotation device, captured on video, earned the praise of the Greek prime minister.

ATHENS — The unicorn had wings.

And when a 3-year-old girl climbed aboard the inflatable toy at a beach in the town of Antirrio in southern Greece on Monday, the wind grabbed hold of both her and the flotation device before her parents could react. Within moments, she was carried out to sea, adrift and alone, clinging to the unicorn’s neck.

That was when Grigoris Karnesis, a veteran Greek ferryboat captain, spotted the child.

At first, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. She was so small, and the toy she was floating on moving so fast, that he barely had time to think.

Mr. Karnesis, the 50-year-old captain of the Salaminomachos, raced to bring his 331-foot-long ferry alongside the toy and rescue the girl. As he drew closer, the ferry’s crew could hear her screams.

He had to steer the hulking vessel — which can hold more than 300 cars and 500 passengers — close enough to the child for someone to grab her without risking toppling the inflatable unicorn. The captain also had to keep the unicorn from getting caught up in the backwash of the ship’s engine. He cut the front engine and worked to “create a lake,” as he described it, around the ferry.

As he steered, the ramp used to load cars onto the ferry was lowered and his brother Vasilis Karnesis, the ship mechanic, scooted to the edge of the platform and snatched the girl from the sea.
“There was nothing this child could do,” he said when reached by telephone.

The rescue was captured on video by a passenger, Petros Kritsonis, 45, who posted it online on Monday. It quickly caused a sensation, and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the captain to thank him and his crew.

While Mr. Kritsonis said he had posted the video “to show the danger of the sea toys we all use extensively,” social media quickly filled with comments from people casting blame on the parents. The family has declined requests for interviews and could not be reached on Friday, and Mr. Karnesis said the criticisms were unfair.

“We don’t know what can happen from one moment to the next,” he said. “The sea is a deceitful thing.”

While some media accounts said the girl was 4 years old, Mr. Karnesis said that she was just 3 and that he had been shocked to see the small child clinging to the inflatable toy as it sailed hundreds of yards out to sea. A father of two children himself, he said that if he had not returned the girl safely to her parents, he would not have been able to face his own family.

He said the girl’s family had told him that when the unicorn first started to drift from the beach, the girl’s father had raced to catch her, as did others at the beach. People on the beach grabbed a nearby dinghy and tried to row out to her but were caught in the strong current.

When the Greek authorities were notified, they reached out to Mr. Karnesis’s vessel because it was the closest to the scene. The captain estimated that she had been floating for about 20 minutes.

When the girl was finally pulled to safety, she was overwhelmed by what had happened.

“She was in shock, she didn’t speak, she was frozen,” said Mr. Kritsonis, the passenger who filmed the rescue.

She was soon reunited with her distraught mother, who was also speechless.

“We just did what we had to do,” said Vasilis Karnesis, the ship mechanic. In his 22 years at sea, he said, this was the first time he had had to deal with the rescue of a child.

“The next day,” he said, “we felt proud.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/worl ... st-popular

[hija]

Swine stamp out crime



Wild boars have been credited with frustrating drug dealers’ schemes in Tuscany. Police say the gang’s €20,000 stash of cocaine was buried in woods near Montepulciano, Italy, but was trampled by a herd of the wild pigs, scattering the powder around the forest. The unusual drugs bust came to light after detectives tapped the phones of a suspected gang; four men now face trafficking charges. Some two million boar are thought to roam Italy.

[Fivetide]

Stressed elephants at Warsaw zoo to be given medical marijuana

Three African elephants to get liquid doses of the cannabinoid CBD through their trunks. Early trials suggest they like it ( )


Vets say the cannabinoid CBD neither causes euphoria nor harmful side effects on the liver and kidneys of the elephants.
Photograph: Agencja Gazeta/Reuters

The Warsaw zoo has said it will start giving its elephants medical marijuana as part of a ground-breaking pilot project to test how it reduces their stress levels.

Medical cannabis has been used worldwide to treat dogs and horses but “this is probably the first initiative of its kind for elephants,” Agnieszka Czujkowska, the veterinarian in charge of the project, said.

The zoo’s three African elephants will be given liquid doses of a high concentration of the relaxing cannabinoid CBD through their trunks.

The veterinarian said the CBD causes neither euphoria nor harmful side effects on the liver and kidneys.

“It’s an attempt to find a new natural alternative to the existing methods of combating stress, especially pharmaceutical drugs,” Czujkowska said.

The project, she said, comes at an opportune time because the zoo’s herd has recently had to cope with the death of its alpha female. The zoo monitors the elephants’ stress by checking their hormone levels and through behavioural observation.

Czujkowska said it will take around two years before her team has any conclusive results. If successful, the initiative could then be tried with other animals living in captivity.

“Contrary to what some would imagine, the elephants won’t be using cannabis pipes nor will they be getting huge barrels of it” to match their size, Czujkowska said with a laugh.

The initial doses will be comparable to those given to horses: a vial’s worth of a dozen drops of CBD oil, two or three times a day.

“The female Fryderyka has already had a chance to try it and she didn’t say no,” Czujkowska said.

Poaching has decimated the world elephant population, which slumped in Africa from several million at the turn of the 19th century to around 400,000 today.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -marijuana

[eradicator2]

Maryland woman's lottery mistake turns smaller prize into $103,182

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman's mistake while playing a lottery game turned what would have been a small prize into a total $103,182.

The 41-year-old Germantown resident told Maryland Lottery officials she was in the outdoor seating area at La Mexicana in Germantown when she decided to try out the Racetrax virtual horse racing game.

I had a bit of luck on the game, winning a few Win and Show bets for a couple hundred dollars and decided I should try my dad's numbers on a longshot bet," the woman said.

The player said she intended to use the numbers 2-9-5-10 -- her father's go-to numbers when betting on races like the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes -- for a series of five races, but she made a mistake while buying her tickets and ended up putting all $5 on the same race.

The woman used another $5 to place her intended bet -- which included another $1 bet on the first race -- and ended up winning.

The $1 bet earned the woman $17,197, while the accidental $5 bet scored her $85,985 -- a total prize of $103,182.

The winner said she plans to save most of the money for herself and her children, but some will be donated to her church's youth programs.

[Governor3]

IN OTHER NEWS
SATURDAY AUGUST 29TH

A new "news cycle" has begun.
Time for our Ace Reporters to file another story

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

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
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

[peaceableone]

This Man Learned Robotics on YouTube, Now He’s Creating Affordable 3D Prosthetics For Others


As a kid, Easton LaChappelle was always fascinated by robotics and how things worked, leading him to take his passion and learn more about prosthetics engineering.

That’s when he turned to YouTube to experiment and master everything from the core fundamentals of electronics to software interfaces and reading sensors.

Eventually, 25-year-old Easton used his newfound skills and created a working device, making it all the way to the White House Science Fair with then-President Obama.

During his science fair days, Colorado’s Easton encountered a young girl with a prosthetic arm that looked “archaic” and cost about $80,000. He remembers thinking, is “this really her best available option?”

He tells GNN, “That’s when I decided to dedicate my life to solving the affordability of prosthetic devices and creating technology that can impact someone’s life on a deep level.

There are over 40 million amputees worldwide, and only about 5% of them have access to prosthetic devices. It was just not acceptable to me and I wanted to do something about it.”

After developing a working prototype, Easton founded a company, Unlimited Tomorrow, which makes low-cost, machine-printed prosthetic limbs.

In under 30 days, the company was able to raise $1.568M to release its first product and provide millions of prosthetic devices to people worldwide at an affordable cost.

“We make a product called TrueLimb,” says Easton, “an affordable, 3D-printed prosthetic limb that uses a special remote-fitting process that is personalized to your skin tone, shape, and size for the perfect fit.”

“Because of YouTube,” he tells GNN, “I was able to turn my passion into a business that is having a positive impact on people’s lives.”

[FRKJ]

Girl's PowerPoint Asking For A Cat Is So Good, Even Microsoft Is Convinced
The slides include gems like "All of my fellow siblings, though their opinions are less important, would love to have a cat."


A girl's PowerPoint presentation asking for a cat has gone viral online.

When a Power Point presentation includes subtitles like "A Cat Oh Yeah Yeah", you can be sure it will be a brilliant one. Twitter user Christopher Doyle recently took to social media to share the presentation his daughter made in an attempt to convince her parents to adopt a cat - and the arguments were so compelling that the Internet is now rooting for her. In fact, so good was the presentation that even Microsoft is convinced and wants her to get a feline friend.

"Our daughter made a PowerPoint," wrote Mr Doyle, sharing four slides from the presentation. The slides include gems like "All of my fellow siblings, though their opinions are less important, would love to have a cat," and "You wouldn't have to listen to me ask for a cat again."

It also includes the irrefutable argument: "It would be so cute pls." Take a look:



Since being posted three days ago, the tweet has collected over 18,000 'likes' and hundreds of comments from people requesting Mr Doyle to let his daughter adopt a cat.

The PowerPoint presentation convinced Microsoft.



And many others...

The flood of tweets supporting his daughter seem to have convinced Mr Doyle. He has since updated his Twitter bio to read: "Looking for a cat for my daughter..."

[hija]

Dutch City Takes Bike Storage to New Heights



The Netherlands has more bicycles than people—22 million for a population of 17 million—and finding a space to park can be a challenge. To address the problem, the city of Utrecht has opened the world’s largest multi-storey parking area for bicycles at its railway station.

The concrete-and-glass structure has space for 12,500 bikes over three floors, including bikes for rent. It is part of an ongoing drive to enhance cycling infrastructure across the Netherlands.

“There’s still much to be done,” says Stientje van Veldhoven, a junior infrastructure minister. “I’d like us to make better use of what I call this secret weapon against congestion, poor air quality in cities and climate change.”

[Fatima99]

Police arrest goat accused of armed robbery



Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes seized the black and white goat, saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into an animal to escape after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

'The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them.

'However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,' Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said.

'We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody.

'We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,' he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

[PennySerenade]

Couple reunited at seniors' residence after three months apart



TORONTO -- After almost three months apart from each other, Ida and Steven Staryk had a sweet reunion on Tuesday night.

“I couldn't believe it,” Ida tells CTV News Toronto. “It was so fantastic. Missed him so much!”

The couple, who’ve been married for 57 years, had been preparing to move into a North York retirement residence in March when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Their plans were put on hold until summer, but then Ida had a fall that left her in hospital. She then had to spend two weeks in isolation prior to moving into their new home together.

Ida and Steven [had] not seen each other since May 12,” says Carolina Gonzaga, sales and marketing coordinator at Advent Forestview Retirement Residence, which is managed by Verve Senior Living. “The fact that they’ve managed to stay together for this long, and then the hardship of being apart for three months during a time when they’re both facing challenges with their health, makes this reunion particularly sweet.”

The staff at Forestview wanted to make reuniting Ida and Steven an occasion to remember, so they planned out a few special touches, including flowers and dinner for two. They also invited a violinist along to serenade them through their meal.



“They’re actually life-long professional violinists, very involved in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,” Gonzaga says of the Staryks. “They met in Amsterdam working for the orchestra there, and as Steven says he stole Ida away from Amsterdam and brought her to Canada. Violin is a part of their love story and a part of the tapestry of their life.”

“It was such a marvelous surprise,” Ida says of the musical performance.

“Very, very nice,” agrees Steven. “Very touching.”

The Staryks admit that there was some loneliness during their time apart, and say that they had never been without each other for that length of time before.

"Never. Very awful, very lonely,” Ida says of the experience.

“Well, the one thing we did continue, we phoned,” Steven says.

“Yes, every day he phoned me or I phoned him,” Ida agrees.

Gonzaga says it’s been difficult to watch seniors face isolation over the last few months.

“These are people that are facing all of the challenges we face with COVID-19, but they’re a lot older,” she tells CTV News Toronto. “And so the fear of not being able to see life return back to normal is more intense for them.”



Steven and Ida say they have spent the last day or so getting reacquainted at their new retirement residence. When asked by CTV News what keeps their marriage strong, Steven says it’s a "mutual outlook on life."

[eradicator2]

Penguin feeling under the weather binge-watches Pingu to cheer himself up



Pierre, an endangered Northern Rockhopper penguin hasn't been feeling tip top lately.

The brave little guy swam across oceans and was found washed up on a beach in Western Australia.

He's since been experiencing some feather moulting problems, meaning he's not waterproof and can't return to the wild yet, so has been spending some time in Perth Zoo's vet department.

Staff at the zoo soon realised that being away from other penguins during this time was proving difficult for Pierre and he was rather lonely.

So they came up with a brilliant way to lift his spirits while he was feeling under the weather - and it's a lot like how we would spend a sick day at home to be honest.

Pierre has been watching documentaries about rockhopper penguins as well as episodes of Pingu.

Yes, really!

Granny ‘Monkey Busters’ are battling apes with airguns

They mean business — monkey business.


A group of grandmothers have taken it upon themselves to protect their Japanese village from a recent onslaught of feral apes.

Masako Ishimura, 74, Tatsuko Kinoshita, 68, and Miyuki Ii, 67, have joined together in defense of their local farmers’ vegetables and produce, which are currently under siege by the hungry monkeys.

Calling themselves the “Monkey Busters,” the women have taken to patrolling their neighborhood in Fukui, armed with airguns and dressed in aprons, Newsweek wrote in an account based on reporting by a Japanese news site.

Fukui’s Miyama area has long had an issue with pesky primates thieving local agriculture. A spokesperson for the Japanese prefecture told the local news site that the animals were first spotted in the area in 2015.

In a recent effort to keep the apes at bay, area officials began teaching villagers how to rid themselves of the pests. The Monkey Busters were among the first to take the monkey-ridding course in March, and have since fearlessly spearheaded the effort.



“There are many elderly people in the Miyama area, and the cultivation of fields is indispensable for health and vitality. It is necessary for the area to continue working together in the future,” Ishimura’s husband told the local outlet.

A period of calm reigned in early summer before the monkeys made a reappearance in July, Ishimura’s husband said. A gang of some 20 monkeys are believed to be behind the most recent property damage — the same group that’s caused trouble at an area temple and historic ruins.

“Whenever anyone from the community reports a monkey sighting, it’s usually during the day, when the women are in the middle of housework or farming. However, as soon as a sighting is reported, the Monkey Busters are immediately notified and drop everything to rush to the scene with their airguns, often arriving in their aprons as they don’t want to waste a minute in responding,” site SoraNews24 described.

The Monkey Busters have sparked much joy on social media.

https://nypost.com/2020/08/28/granny-mo ... h-airguns/

[Fivetide]

Transparent Public Toilets Unveiled In Tokyo Parks — But They Also Offer Privacy


A woman enters a public restroom with transparent walls in Tokyo's Shibuya ward.
Architect Shigeru Ban designed the bathroom in a way to reassure anyone entering the toilet.
Satoshi Nagare/The Nippon Foundation

The idea of using a public bathroom with see-through walls may sound like the stuff of nightmares. But a famous Japanese architect is hoping to change that view, using vibrant colors and new technology to make restrooms in Tokyo parks more inviting.

"There are two things we worry about when entering a public restroom, especially those located at a park," according to architect Shigeru Ban's firm. "The first is cleanliness, and the second is whether anyone is inside."

Transparent walls can address both of those worries, Ban says, by showing people what awaits them inside. After users enter the restroom and lock the door, the powder room's walls turn a powdery pastel shade — and are no longer see-through.

"Using a new technology, we made the outer walls with glass that becomes opaque when the lock is closed, so that a person can check inside before entering," the Nippon Foundation says.

The group is behind the Tokyo Toilet project, enlisting world-famous architects to create toilets "like you've never seen."


The glass walls of Ban's new public bathrooms turn opaque when people enter and lock the door.
Satoshi Nagare/The Nippon Foundation

"At night, the facility lights up the park like a beautiful lantern," the architect's website says.

The project's eye-catching toilets are part of a plan to put people at ease when visiting a public bathroom – a prospect that can trigger a number of responses, from relief to trepidation.

The project may seem frivolous, but the 16 architects who are reimagining public toilets are some of the brightest names in Japanese architecture. The list includes four Pritzker Prize winners — Ban, Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando and Fumihiko Maki – along with international stars such as Kengo Kuma and Sou Fujimoto. The fashion designer Nigo is also contributing.


The restrooms recently opened at two parks in Tokyo. More architect-designed public bathrooms will be created in the coming months.
Satoshi Nagare/The Nippon Foundation

The Nippon Foundation is redesigning 17 public toilets in Shibuya, one of Tokyo's busiest shopping and entertainment districts. The foundation is working with the local government to deploy two of Japan's national strengths – devotion to cleanliness and design – to address a public necessity.

Well-known toilet company TOTO, famous for its toilets that coddle users with features such as heated seats, bidets and deodorizers, "will advise on toilet equipment and layout," the foundation says.

Ban's colorful public bathrooms opened to the public this month in two parks: Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park and Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park. Other bespoke commodes will be opening in coming months.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/90384057 ... er-privacy

[goldie0608]

Teacher donates a kidney to her student's mother. Now both women are hoping to find a kidney for a neighbor



When Missouri art teacher Misty Byrd learned that the mother of one of her students needed a new kidney, she said she didn't even think about it -- she picked up the phone and offered hers. After a successful transplant and developing a close friendship, both women are now working to find a kidney for a local father who is waiting on the transplant list.

Byrd, 41, is in her eighth year of teaching at Wilder Elementary in Mansfield, where she taught fifth grader Fisher Croney every year since he was in kindergarten. Fisher stood out by helping in Byrd's classroom whenever he had free time after recess.

Byrd said she knew Fisher's mother, Shannon Croney, as an acquaintance who would occasionally cut her son's hair, and they would sometimes chat at their boys' baseball games. She had heard that Croney was having some health problems but didn't know what the issue was until she saw a Facebook post around Christmas of 2019. It was from Croney's mother, trying to help her daughter find a kidney, and Byrd did not hesitate.

"She was O negative, and I'm O negative. I don't know; I didn't really think about it. I just called her kidney coordinator and went from there," Byrd said.

For Croney, 43, the journey started in January 2019 when a routine blood test found her kidneys were functioning only at a 20% level, and she was in stage five renal failure. After undergoing a biopsy and a string of tests, doctors could not figure what caused her kidneys to fail, and she began dialysis.

In March, she learned that Byrd was a match. Croney told CNN that the two were such a close match that her doctors were surprised they were not related.

It was around that time that Croney's transplant team at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital grew concerned about the spread of Covid-19 cases in the area. Byrd was undergoing extensive testing for the transplant, and the pandemic put the process into a holding pattern.

In June, doctors cleared Byrd for surgery. She said she was never nervous about the transplant.

"Actually, I had a strong sense of peace, like I was doing what I was supposed to do," she said. She compared the pain from the surgery to having a C-section.

Today, Croney said, she is feeling better than she has in years. Byrd said she is doing well, but still dealing with exhaustion and fatigue as her remaining kidney grows and adapts.

The women are now turning their attention to another member of their community in need of a kidney transplant. Jason Eagleston is a single father of three who lives half a mile away from the Croneys' home.

He told CNN that he is in end-stage renal disease and has been on the transplant list for more than two years. He is looking for a donor with type O blood, either positive or negative. Anyone who thinks they could be a match can get more information on his Facebook Group.

Croney said she wants anyone considering organ donation to know "you're giving up an organ, but people go on to live totally normal lives with just one. You're saving somebody's life. It's an amazing gift to give to somebody. ... There are hundreds of thousands of people out there waiting."