[hija]

Funding was secured for a refugee cookery school in London



A charity that helps refugee chefs integrate into UK society by getting them to share their cuisine with the public is set to open a cookery school in London. It follows a crowdfunding campaign, which this week surpassed its £126,000 target.

Before the pandemic, Migrateful ran in-person cookery classes led by refugee and migrant chefs to help them integrate and improve their English, boosting their chances of employment. Now, the charity is preparing to transform a vacant space in Clerkenwell into a cookery school for chefs who have come to the UK to seek a better life.

The Crowdfunder was nudged over the line thanks to a £45,000 pledge from City Hall. Jules Pipe, deputy mayor for planning, regeneration and skills, said: “Our communities have some fantastic ideas on how to emerge from the pandemic and bring our city together. We’re proud to support this project and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on the local community.”

[PennySerenade]

Scientists grow tear glands and make them cry



Many researchers will admit that their work has made them cry at some point, but it’s not often that the reverse is true. Scientists from the Hubrecht Institute at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences have successfully grown tear glands – also called lacrimal glands – that are capable of producing tears.

This development has the potential to help understand conditions that contribute to dysfunctional tear production and chronic dry eyes, such as Sjögren’s syndrome, which is thought to affect 2 to 5 individuals per 1,000 people in Canada.

“The biggest promise is the fact that we are now in a position to start thinking about treatment of dry eyes with cells,” Hans Clevers, one of the lead authors on the study, toldInverse.

Dr Rachel Kalmann, ophthalmologist and another researcher on this study, also weighed in on the importance of understanding how the tear glands work.

“Dysfunction of the tear gland, for example in Sjögren’s syndrome, can have serious consequences including dryness of the eye or even ulceration of the cornea. This can, in severe cases, lead to blindness.”

The glands were formed when the researchers put human stem cells in a very specific solution of growth factors (proteins that signal cells to develop certain characteristics or stimulate growth). When the cells were exposed to the right cocktail of these factors in the right sequence, they began to form miniature version of the tear glands, called tear organoids.

This isn’t the first time this lab has developed miniature models of human organs. Over the past decade these researchers, and others around the world, have grown a litany of organoids, including livers, sections of the gut, cervical cancers and snake venom glands.

But tear glands aren’t useful unless they develop tears – a surprisingly complex substance that lubricates and protects the eye, as well as contributes antibacterial properties.

By exposing these glands to a variety of different signalling chemicals found in the body, the researchers found that norepinephrine was effective in making these glands develop tears. More research has shown that different cells within the glands are responsible for developing different aspects of human tears.

“Further experiments revealed that different cells in the tear gland make different components of tears. And these cells respond differently to tear-inducing stimuli,” explains Yorick Post, a researcher on the study.

In the petri dishes, the organoids had not developed tear ducts so there was nowhere for the developing liquid to go. Instead, the spheres swelled up, some literally bursting with the tears.

When the cells were implanted into mouse models, however, the organoids did develop tear ducts – a promising development for possible dry-eye treatments down the line.

Why do we need tears?
Tears are important not just to help us cope with the latest drama on the Bachelor, but also to keep our eyes from drying out. Tears have three distinct layers, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology: an outer layer with properties similar to oil, which prevents the inner layers from evaporating; a middle layer which works to keep the eye hydrated and protect it from bacteria; and an inner mucous layer, which keeps the entire substance on the eye itself.

Tears are developed in the lacrimal glands (tear glands) and secreted onto the eye through the tear duct.

There are three different kinds of tears – each with their own slightly different chemical makeup.

Maintenance tears – also known as basal tears. These tears are constantly present and what keeps our eyes moist and functioning.
Emotional Tears – What happens when you really get going. There’s not a lot of consensus on to why we cry, although it is believed that it may be more of a social signal – a way to let others know when we feel overwhelmed.
Reflex Tears – made up of mostly water, these tears are useful for washing irritants out of your eyes, like dust and allergens.

Developing organoids like these tear glands will be helpful to individuals who currently rely on artificial tears to keep they eyes functioning. The Clever lab is reportedly already planning to run clinical trials for patients who have chronic dry mouth for their previously developed salivary gland organoids.

[Fatima99]

Island Overrun With Rats Completely Recovers in Only 11 Years After Ecosystem Had Been Decimated

Formerly known as ‘Rat Island’, this beautiful spot in the Aleutian islands has become a new example of how ecosystems can fully recover to their natural state in little more than a decade.



Along the western edge of the Alaskan archipelago, the land had inadvertently become populated with rodents, leading to the ignominious name Rat Islands. The non-native invaders were accidentally introduced to these islands following shipwrecks dating back to the 1700s and World War II occupation.

Known to be among the most damaging invasive animals, the resilient rodents adapted and thrived in the new setting, overwhelming the island ecosystems, disrupting the natural ecological order and driving out native species.

But a coordinated conservation effort removed the rats on the renamed Hawadax Island and a new study led by a University of California San Diego researcher has documented the remarkable recovery.

“We were surprised that the level of recovery unfolded so quickly—we thought it could be longer,” said Carolyn Kurle, an associate professor in the UC San Diego Division of Biological Sciences Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution and lead author of the study in published in Scientific Reports.

Kurle, along with researchers from UC Santa Cruz, conducted surveys on Hawadax in 2008 when the invasive rodents dominated the island ecosystem, finding that the rats unleashed a cascade of disruption for the island’s food chain.

Rats preyed upon shore bird eggs and chicks, nearly wiping out the island’s breeding shorebird population. Without birds consuming herbivorous seashore invertebrates such as snails and limpets, the island’s intertidal plant-eaters flourished, significantly driving down the abundance of the marine kelp.



To reverse these effects, a coordinated conservation strategy to save the native species on Hawadax removed the rats in 2008, and presented a rare case in which researchers were able to compare the ecosystem after five years and, later found a fully recovered system after 11 years.

“Sometimes it’s hard to say that a conservation action had any sort of impact, but in this particular case we took a conservation action that was expensive and difficult, and we actually demonstrated that it worked,” wrote Kurle. “But we didn’t expect it to be so fast.”

After the rat eradication effort conducted by Island Conservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy, the seabirds returned and are again consuming the seashore invertebrates, which has allowed the recovery and rebound of the kelp community.

“When the birds returned it led to an entirely different structure in the marine community on this island.”

[Fivetide]

This Soft Robot Stingray Just Explored the Deepest Point in the Ocean


Image Credit: Li et al./NPG Press

While all eyes were on the dramatic descent of NASA’s Perseverance rover last month, a team sent a robot into another alien world, one closer to home: the deep sea.

With its towering undersea mountains, dramatic geological features, and unique creatures—many of which remain mysterious—the deep sea is the last uncharted environment on Earth. The inaccessibility isn’t surprising. Sinking any intrepid explorer into blackened waters means facing freezing temperatures and crushing pressure. Ever listened to the sound of metal creaking under pressure? It’s absolutely terrifying. Without protection, puny electronic components in a robot don’t have a chance.

Yet despite these hostile conditions, biology’s found a way to thrive. And scientists have taken note. Inspired by a deep sea fish, a team from China engineered a soft autonomous robot that can withstand the punishing conditions of the lowest low—the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The robot’s body roughly resembles a stingray, with two large flapping fins and a tail that allows it to easily maneuver through the surrounding waters.

Video: Soft Robot Free Swimming in Deep Lake

Rather than having a single “brain,” the robot’s delicate electronics are spread out through its silicon body, similar to the nervous system of worms. This design removes the need for heavy and clunky pressure-resistant cases, explained Drs. Cecilia Laschi and Marcello Calisti at the National University of Singapore and the University of Lincoln, respectively, who were not involved in the work.

It’s not just theoretical talk. The team put their robot to the test, actually sinking it to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. The robot thrived, flapping around in its surroundings and perhaps intriguing or bewildering native marine animals.

The bot “pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved,” said Laschi and Calisti. The deep sea is a gold mine of unique biology, enormous geological features, and mineral resources. With a soft but tough-as-nails robot, we may finally have a way to explore uncharted ocean depths.

Under Pressure

Maneuvering down the Mariana Trench is harder than scaling Mount Everest without oxygen.

The Challenger Deep, at over 35,000 feet below sea level, represents the lowest point of the trench. The pressure there is hard to wrap your head around: roughly a thousand times the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level, or more colorfully described as “an elephant standing on your thumb.”

These crazy pressures are why deep sea exploration equipment is normally heavily enforced. “Rigid robots and machines require pressure vessels” to encapsulate them, the authors explained, which are often made of bulky and cumbersome metallic material. Navigating these depths ends up as a game of playing catch-up, in which the thickness and dimensions of these enclosures need to scale up to cope with increasing pressure. Even so, the extreme conditions of the deep sea make structural failure easy.

By the time classic bots reach the Challenger Deep, they’re basically rigid bots wearing heavy metal gloves—clunky and hardly natural. They don’t fit in with their surrounding environment, with heavy arms and propellers that can potentially damage any marine, coral, or other samples they pick up.

A Lightning Bulb

That’s when marine engineers turned to soft robots. Taking inspiration from marine animals that gracefully maneuver through their surroundings—the octopus is a favorite—scientists tapped silicone and other pliable materials to build soft structures that can stretch and move with ease.

“Soft robots are intrinsically safer than their conventional rigid counterparts,” with a bunch of boosted capacities, said Laschi and Calisti. For example, they can squeeze into tight spaces, scale across uneven surfaces, and interact with wildlife in a more natural way.

The team’s spark of inspiration came with the discovery of a deep sea squishy fish back in 2014, the Mariana hadal snailfish. The worm-like, transparent creature has the snout of a puppy and fins extending from its head. Its favorite habitat? Over 26,000 feet deep in the Mariana Trench. Its discoverer, Dr. Mackenzie Gerringer of the State University of New York, soon reconstructed the strange animal using 3D printing to better understand how it propels itself to swim.

The new study took notes from the snailfish, engineering a similar robot with the ability to withstand tremendous pressure while swimming autonomously. The body of the robot is a fish-like shape with two flapping fins. The fins are attached to the soft core of the bot with “muscles,” or a soft, stretchy material that converts electrical energy into movement. The bot has a battery to store the “juice” needed for its movement. When the battery shoots off an electrical current, it stimulates the “muscles” to contract. Because the “muscles” are hooked to the fins with a few tiny solid connectors, the muscle movement translates into the entire fin flapping, propelling the robot to swim forward.

The fish-like bot isn’t quite the speed runner. When tested in a lab where it swam around a pole, it managed a little less than half a body length per second, which is in line with but slightly slower than other soft robots.

Where it stands out, however, is its ability to deal with crushing pressure. Vetoing the idea of rigid metal protectors, the team instead spaced out the electrical components inside the silicon body—similar to how the hadal snailfish organizes its skull. The snailfish’s skull isn’t completely fused, providing it with a degree of malleability so that the pressure on the skull can equalize to outside pressure.

This stark departure from the usual—packing all electronics together into a single “brain”—paid off. Lab tests and simulations found that a spread-out configuration reduced pressure on any single interface between component, meaning that the robot’s “brain” acted more as a flexible slinky than a rigidly-tethered nervous system.

Out In the Real World

The team didn’t stop at lab testing. They went for the real thing: field testing in the real world. In all, they put their bot into three different environments: around 230 feet in a lake, over 10,000 feet in the South China Sea, and finally the ultimate challenge, the Challenger Deep.

In the first two trials, the robot was allowed to swim free, going about two inches per second at the fastest. For the Mariana Trench test, the bot was connected to a conventional underwater robot for support and photo ops while it flapped its wings. Under extreme pressure, the bot worked like a charm.

Video: Free Swimming of Soft Robot in Deep See at the depth of 3,224 m

The bot could be a game-changer in how we explore the deep sea—especially its teeming, bizarre marine life. Compared to traditional metallic robotic grippers, the soft bot can gently handle living specimens without scaring them off or damaging them.

It “paves the way to a new generation of deep-sea explorers,” said Laschi and Calisti.

There’s much to improve on. One thing is speed. While self-powered and controlled, the trench bot nevertheless swims slower than previously reported underwater bots. It’s more sensitive, in that it can be easily swept away by underwater currents. Looking ahead, it’ll also need to be equipped with cameras and intelligent sensors to capture its environment. Even so, the bot “lays the foundations for future generations of resilient and reliable deep-sea explorers,” said Laschi and Calisti.

In the long term, swarms of trench bots could unveil the mysteries of the deep sea while monitoring its health. Soft robots could safely navigate coral forests or underwater caves, picking up specimens without damaging the environment. They could also spread across the seabed to monitor for pollution, microplastics, or changes in marine life. But more fundamentally, like armies of Mars rovers, we may finally have a way to explore the mysteries hiding at the depths of our great oceans. Who knows what we’ll find?

China’s newest attraction, a hotel with live polar bears, is already fully booked



“TWO OF THE FUNNIEST POLAR BEARS IN THE WORLD CHASE HAPPILY EVERY DAY,” promises the website for Harbin Polarland, a Chinese theme park that claims to be home to the world’s first polar bear hotel. “AN UNPARALLELED SHOW OF POLAR BEARS WILL BE PRESENTED FOR YOU.”

Conservationists and animal rights groups aren’t quite so sure that the bears are happy. The unusual attraction, which opened Friday, features 21 guest rooms that look out over an indoor enclosure where the bears gambol across a floor painted to look like an ice floe. Fake rocks line the courtyard, and fake icicles dangle overhead.

“This hotel is akin to a 21st-century bear pit,” Simon Marsh, the acting director of Britain-based Wild Welfare, said in a statement. Polar bears need fresh air, space to roam around and the ability to seek out natural stimulation, unbothered by visitors, he said.



A video shared on social media by a Beijing-based conservationist Monday seemed to show a polar bear pacing back and forth in the enclosure, displaying what experts say are clear signs that the animal is distressed.

“Polar bears belong in the Arctic, not in zoos or glass boxes in aquariums — and certainly not in hotels,” Jason Baker, the senior vice president for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia, said in a statement. “Polar bears are active for up to 18 hours a day in nature, roaming home ranges that can span thousands of miles, where they enjoy a real life.”



The hotel has defended keeping the animals in captivity, saying that the polar bears aren’t exclusively housed in the small indoor courtyard. Yang Liu, a spokeswoman for Harbin Polarland, told Reuters that the polar bears spend time outside when the weather and air quality permits.

But the hotel’s main selling point is 24/7 access to polar bears. “Whether you’re eating, playing or sleeping, polar bears will keep you company,” a recent post on Harbin Polarland’s WeChat account said.

Located roughly five hours south of the Russian border in Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, Harbin Polarland is also home to beluga whales, arctic foxes and what the park claims is the “first Antarctic penguin born in an inland city.” Rooms at the polar bear hotel cost between 1,888 and 2,288 yuan, the equivalent to roughly $290 to $352 a night. Even at that high price point, bookings for the initial trial period have completely sold out, Reuters reported.



Aquariums and themed wildlife parks are a booming industry in China, but animal welfare advocates have raised concerns about what often are cramped, unnatural living conditions. In 2016, a mall in the southern city of Guangzhou drew international criticism for housing bears, beluga whales and walruses in small enclosures that were described as resembling a prison.

China has also faced criticism for allowing thousands of bears to be farmed for their bile, which some believe has medicinal properties.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/18/china-polar-bear-hotel/

[lush]

Instead of Discipline, Student Gets Haircut
Principal doubles as barber to get student back to class
Posted Feb 27, 2021 1:00 PM CST*



(Newser) – An eighth grader in Indiana was recently sent to the principal’s office for refusing to take off his hat at school. But rather than giving the boy a reprimand, the principal gave him a haircut WRTV reports. “I sat down with him and asked him why and what was going on. He said he just got his haircut and didn’t like the way it looked. He thought his hairline looked a little funny,” says Jason Smith, principal of Stonybrook Intermediate and Middle School in Warren Township. So Smith made a deal with the student: He would cut the boy’s hair if the boy agreed to go back to class. “I’ve been cutting hair most of my life,” Smith says. “I played college basketball cut my teammates’ hair before games, and I’ve been cutting my son’s hair for 17 years.” The student agreed, and Smith retrieved his barbering tools from home and cleaned up the boy’s hairline.

The boy’s mom, Tawanda Johnson tells CNN that Smith “handled it very well to keep him from getting in trouble at school.” In a Facebook post that first publicized the incident, school police Officer Lewis Speaks Sr. praised Smith as a “great leader,” writing, “The principal could have easily called the child’s parent and put him out of school for the day, but he took time out of his busy schedule to make sure the student was successful completing his first day of school.” Smith tells WRTV that the gesture fits right in with the learning environment he’s trying to create: “We’re not disciplining with a hard fist. You could call and have the parent pick the kid up for defiance, or you can sit and get to the root of the problem and see what can I do to help you? What do you need right now?”

[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
SUNDAY MARCH 21
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
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
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

[BigGlen]

Doing a good deed for mom leads Kansas couple to lottery jackpot


Thomas Jones and Courtney Farber said taking an extra trip to the store to buy groceries for Jones' mother
led them to a $75,000 lottery prize. Photo courtesy of the Kansas Lottery

March 19 (UPI) -- A Kansas man found doing a favor for his mother was a lucky undertaking when he and his wife won $75,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Thomas Jones and Courtney Farber, of Wichita, told Kansas Lottery officials they took a trip to their local Dillons supermarket to buy groceries for Jones' mother, and while checking out, they decided to buy a few lottery tickets.

One of the tickets, a $10 Bonus Payout scratch-off ticket, turned out to be a $75,000 winner.

"I scratched one row and saw a star, so I knew I had won a prize," Farber said. "At first I thought it was just $75, but then zeros kept showing up and I realized it was the $75,000!"

Jones said it took time for the good news to set in.

"You never think you're going to get the top prize," Jones said. "And I still didn't believe it until we came to Topeka to claim it."

The couple said they learned that it pays to do good deeds.

"Doing good for mom, and we got good back," Farber said.

The couple said the winnings will allow them to add a garage to their home.

[hija]

Montana girl, 17, earns a doctorate in business administration



March 19 (UPI) -- A 17-year-old Montana girl who studied business administration at California Intercontinental University has become the youngest American in history to earn a doctorate.

Kimberly Strable, 17, of Great Falls, said she presented her dissertation virtually and was awarded a doctorate in business administration with an emphasis in global leadership.

"I'm the third youngest in world history to ever get a doctorate in any subject, the youngest in all world history to ever get a doctorate in business and the youngest in American history to get a doctorate in any field," Strable told KRTV.

Strable said she is looking forward to starting her career.

"Right now I'm actually working on some legal battles, discrimination I faced because of my age. So that's a really interesting part and I've actually applied some of my knowledge and I'm working on that. But after all that wraps up, I plan on trying to get into executive management," Strable said.

Strable said achieving runs in her family -- her older sister earned a master's degree just days after turning 18 and her three younger siblings have all expressed an interest in getting their degrees at a young age.

"I was just so happy and glowing. So relieved because it's been such a long journey and it's always been a next step and a next step. To finally recognize I am now officially a doctor, super amazing," she said.

Strable's graduation was celebrated on Twitter by Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobson.

"17-year-old *DOCTOR* Kimberly Strable -- that has a nice ring to it. Congratulations on hard work paying off!" Jacobson wrote.

Ohio man calls police after raccoon ‘ransacked’ kitchen, hid in dishwasher

'Resident absurd animal call officer' catches raccoon that broke into home, police say

Police in Ohio were surprised to discover a "masked bandit" in a local home on Monday, but it wasn’t a burglar – at least, not a human one. A North Ridgeville resident phoned authorities after discovering a raccoon hiding in his dishwasher.

Police sent their "resident absurd animal call officer," Patrolman John Metzo, to investigate, according to a department Facebook post.



Sure enough, Metzo found a raccoon sleeping in the dishwasher when he arrived. The animal had broken in through a bathroom light and "ransacked the kitchen" before settling in for a nap under some dirty dishes, according to police.

Metzo is known locally in the city west of Cleveland for responding to other odd calls involving animals like when a kangaroo got loose from its pen in 2015 and the time a cow fell off a trailer and wandered away in 2019.

Photos from the latest call show the critter crouched inside the dishwasher, and then led away on a leash by the officer.

It took about 17 minutes to coax the raccoon out from his impromptu bed, news agency South West News Service (SWNS) reported.

"All in a day’s work… for John," police wrote, adding that "No raccoons were harmed in the making of this Facebook post."

https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/ ... dishwasher

[goldie0608]

Foster child gets fairytale ending when teacher adopts him



It was summer 2019 in Aurora, Colorado, when CBS News first met middle school math teacher, Finn Lanning, and Damien, the student he just couldn't shake.

Damien says Lanning was definitely one of his better teachers. "When a teacher doesn't bother me over and over again, that's better," he said. "Like leave me alone, I'll leave you alone, I'll get my work done."

"He's smart and funny and he was always a student who stood out. And then one day he just came to me and said, 'I'm not coming back to school," Lanning said.

Lanning sat his student down. "And what I found out was his story."

He learned Damien had a kidney disease and was in foster care because social services couldn't find a foster family willing and able to meet his medical needs. Damien was forced to leave school and move into a hospital.

It was summer 2019 in Aurora, Colorado, when CBS News first met middle school math teacher, Finn Lanning, and Damien, the student he just couldn't shake.

Damien says Lanning was definitely one of his better teachers. "When a teacher doesn't bother me over and over again, that's better," he said. "Like leave me alone, I'll leave you alone, I'll get my work done."

"He's smart and funny and he was always a student who stood out. And then one day he just came to me and said, 'I'm not coming back to school," Lanning said.

Lanning sat his student down. "And what I found out was his story."

He learned Damien had a kidney disease and was in foster care because social services couldn't find a foster family willing and able to meet his medical needs. Damien was forced to leave school and move into a hospital.

But here's the real kicker: Damien needed a transplant desperately. A lot of times it's hard to get a transplant if someone doesn't have a stable home to return to after surgery.

"It hit me like a ton of bricks. I mean, you just can't sit across from somebody you care about and hear them say something like that and know that you have room to help," Lanning said.

That's how Lanning became a foster parent. He took in Damien — dialysis needs and all — even though prior to that hallway meeting, he'd been a confirmed bachelor who delighted in his childlessness.

"I never thought that I could leave school and take one of them with me and still survive," he said.

Damien said: "I was like, 'Yes! I get out of the hospital.' But I was like, 'My math teacher? Out of all the people?'"

They got along famously, although Damien refused to get too excited. He'd seen fairytales fall apart before.

"It's kind of bad thinking about that, but some people actually do that. Like, they'll be happy with you one day and then just kick you out the next," Damien said.

Lanning said he's not going anywhere, whether Damien believes it or not.

In the nearly two years since CBS News shared their story, Damien was able to get a transplant and he's a much healthier 15-year-old. A few months ago, Lanning adopted Damien.

"It's like a dream come true," Damien said,

It's proof that sometimes fairytales do end happily ever after.

[Fivetide]

Eruption of Iceland volcano easing, not affecting flights


This photo provided by the Icelandic Met Office shows an eruption, center right, on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Friday, March 19, 2021. The long dormant volcano flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years. (Icelandic Met Office via AP)

The eruption of a long-dormant volcano that sent streams of lava flowing across a small valley in southwestern Iceland is easing and shouldn’t interfere with air travel, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Saturday.

The fissure eruption began at around 8:45 p.m. Friday in the Geldinga Valley, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, the Met Office said. The eruption is “minor” and there were no signs of ash or dust that could disrupt aviation, the agency said.

“The more we see, the smaller this eruption gets,” geophysicist Pall Einarsson told The Associated Press on Saturday after monitoring the volcano throughout the night.


This image provided by the Icelandic Coast Guard shows a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Saturday March 20, 2021. A long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years. Initial aerial footage, posted on the Facebook page of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, showed a relatively small eruption so far, with two streams of lava running in opposite directions. (Icelandic Coast Guard via AP)

This southwestern corner of Iceland is the most heavily populated part of the country. The Department of Emergency Management said it doesn’t anticipate evacuations, unless levels of volcanic gases rise significantly.

Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s international air traffic hub, said flights have remained on schedule since the eruption began.

“There is no indication of production of ash and tephra, and there is no imminent hazard for aviation,” the Met Office said on its website.


This image provided by the Icelandic Coast Guard shows a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Saturday March 20, 2021. A long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years. Initial aerial footage, posted on the Facebook page of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, showed a relatively small eruption so far, with two streams of lava running in opposite directions. (Icelandic Coast Guard via AP)

In 2010, an eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland sent clouds of ash and dust into the atmosphere, interrupting air travel between Europe and North America because of concerns the material could damage jet engines. More than 100,000 flights were grounded, stranding millions of passengers.

The Geldinga Valley eruption is the first on the Reykjanes Peninsula in almost 800 years.

The area began rumbling with increased seismic activity 15 months ago, and the tremors increased dramatically last month.


The night sky glows following the eruption of a volcano on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula not far from the capital Reykjavik, late Friday March 19, 2021. The long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years. (Hildur Hlín Jónsdóttir via AP)

Over the past three weeks, the area has been rattled by about 50,000 small earthquakes, dozens of them magnitude 4 or stronger, the Met Office said.

Iceland, located above a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The last one was at Holuhraun in 2014, when a fissure eruption spread lava the size of Manhattan over the interior highland region.

Scientists flew over the Geldinga Valley eruption on Saturday morning and estimated the eruptive fissure was about 500 meters long (1,640 feet.) The two streams of lava were about 2.5 kilometers from the nearest road.


This image provided by the Icelandic Coast Guard shows a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Saturday March 20, 2021. A long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years. Initial aerial footage, posted on the Facebook page of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, showed a relatively small eruption so far, with two streams of lava running in opposite directions. (Icelandic Coast Guard via AP)

Solny Palsdottir’s house is the closest to the site of the eruption, just four kilometers (2.5 miles) away in the coastal town of Grindavik. She and her husband were watching TV on Friday night when her teenage son pointed out a red glow in the distance.

“Today, I see a white-blue cloud of steam coming from the mountains,” Palsdottir, 50, told The Associated Press. “Not something I expected to have in my backyard.”

“I am just relieved the earthquakes are over,” she added.


This image provided by the Icelandic Coast Guard shows a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Saturday March 20, 2021. A long dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula flared to life Friday night, spilling lava down two sides in that area's first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years. Initial aerial footage, posted on the Facebook page of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, showed a relatively small eruption so far, with two streams of lava running in opposite directions. (Icelandic Coast Guard via AP)

See video of the active volcano and lava flow here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6_6ZJajTew

[PennySerenade]

'It takes a village': How people are meeting their social needs during the COVID-19 pandemic



TORONTO -- It’s a crisp winter morning, but the cold isn’t keeping Anne Mirgalet-Kennedy indoors. Several times a week, the Toronto woman joins the Midtown Raviners Athletic Club (MRAC) for hikes.

“I like the physical challenge, and I like the social part,” says Mirgalet-Kennedy, who takes part in MRAC excursions several times a week.

Sanjay Coehlo, meanwhile, says before joining the group, he had no idea what natural “treasures” Toronto possessed, referring to the city’s ravines and the Beltline Trail.

“My partner and I, we’ve been at our apartment, every day working from home, and it’s a bit of an escape,” he said. “It’s just like, wow, at this moment in time, this isn’t happening, and that’s great.”

The free club — which now has more than 5,000 members — was founded by Ken Bower in April 2019. Originally, it was designed with fitness in mind, with Bower hoping to introduce Torontonians to the ravines and hiking trails in their midst.

During the pandemic, the club has evolved into something more.

“To have a group where people can come out, whatever the limits are, 10 people, five people, we try to make it work. It’s a big part of people’s weeks,” Bower said.

Fellow organizer, Lorrie Parrot, adds, “It’s definitely turned into, through the pandemic, a great thing for mental health. A way for people to release and get together now.”

A fall Angus Reid study found that those suffering from both loneliness and social isolation has increased to one in three people. Year over year, the number of what the research group calls “the desolate” has risen from 23 per cent of the population to 33 per cent.

“We are a lot less tolerant, we’re a lot more reactive,” psychotherapist Kristin Greco said.



The Newmarket-based psychotherapist said that in her practice she’s seeing more depression in people of all ages, and relationship breakdowns.

“You can’t get all of your needs met from, you know, your spouse, or just one family member, right? It takes a village.”

Greco says we expect too much from our partners, and stresses the importance of connecting with others — either outdoors or online. She suggests people join fitness or shared-interest clubs, or even just find the time to dine with a friend over Zoom.

“Even just on Facebook, right? There’s, you know, a lot of shared experiences happening,” Greco said.

In Markham, a large, diverse group of women is keeping connected through weekly Zoom calls. They used to meet in person at the Box Grove Community Centre, but moved online during Ontario’s second lockdown.

“It’s a group of women who have come together with different skill sets, who really try to empower and connect women in our community,” says organizer Tricia Ali.

The group has grown from three women to more than 40. Every Thursday evening at 7 p.m. they meet online, and are joined by a guest speaker.

“Women really get an opportunity to come out, to get some information, have a really good resource centre, and really get to communicate and share what’s going on in their lives, or just chat, have a tea, a coffee.”

Nitisha Patel is a regular attendee, who says she makes sure she attends, even if she’s already in her pyjamas.

“It makes me happy joining the Thursday meetings. People are empowering each other and motivating each other,” says Patel. “Even once the meetings are over, we’re texting each other on WhatsApp. Like, ‘Hey, did you go for your daily walk today?’”

Greco says while meeting online is not ideal, it is a very good option at a time people can’t physically be together.

[Fatima99]

Fun Facts and Strange Customs to Celebrate the Vernal Equinox

As the vernal equinox heralds the first day of spring, all across the world, unique phenomena can be seen on this day alone.



For thousands of years humans have known that around the day marked on the Gregorian calendar as March 20th (or 21st, but we’ll get into that later) the day and night were of equal measure, and the sun rose perfectly due east, and set perfectly due west.

This led to all manner of mythical belief systems, fascinating astronomical calculations, and grand construction projects. Especially for people living in the temperate zones, where seasonal climates are so impactful on daily life, the equinox has a kind of mystique, that can make people take up gardening, read an almanac, or keep an eye out for migratory birds.

The equinox is a fascinating event that has captured human minds for thousands of years, and so it’s no surprise there’s a lot to learn about it

Don’t Age Yourself
If you believe that the equinox is on the 21st of March, you may be showing your age. The last time the equinox was on the 21st of March, Barack Obama was gunning for the presidency.

This is because we use the Gregorian calendar, and the placement of the equinox changes every other century. For those growing up with the equinox on the 21st, you won’t see that again until the 22nd century.

These days the equinox arrives on the 20th of March, and there it will stay for all of our lives, and our children’s lives, and most of their children’s lives.

It highlights the brilliance of ancient astronomers, who were able to note the subtle differences in the placement of the sun in the sky not just year by year, but century by century; and in the case of the Mayan’s ‘long count’ cycle, millennia by millennia.

Demi-equi-nox
The word equinox comes from Latin words which together mean “equal night” and one would be forgiven for assuming this means that the day and night period of the equinox is perfectly 50-50.

However, Bob Berman, resident astronomer at the Old Farmers Almanac, notes this year that there is more sun than moon by a few minutes due to the earth’s atmosphere refracting the light, or bending it around the earth. Also, the fact that the sun gives off a wide circle of light rather than a single point means there’s always going to be variations.

The real date, as Berman points out, of equal light and dark is a few days before the equinox.

The Burning of the Socks
In Maryland, among the boating community, it is a tradition to wear socks only during the winter. Certainly for those who do their business with the sea, there is a tendency to adopt superstitions, but this also seems like a powerful ritual of optimism for warmer weather.



Every year on the vernal equinox Annapolis yacht clubs, the maritime museum, dockyard workers, and even rangers at the Virginia State Parks celebrate the Burning of the Socks festival, welcoming warm waters back the expansive Chesapeake Bay.

The annual sock-burning events have became family-friendly parties, and generally go with eating oysters and other seafood. Officially they take a vow not to wear socks until the next winter.

Ancient Architectural Alignments
The movement of the sun, moon, and stars were closely observed and tracked by ancient peoples. Maybe it’s because it had a lot of relevance with their agricultural success, but great civilizations across the ages have enshrined the passage of the equinox in their architectural designs—often aligning their buildings’ foundations with certain moments during the solstice, equinox, or both.

Chichen Itza is one of the most famous monuments of Mesoamerica, and the great step Pyramid of Kulkulcan in Mexico is constructed in such exquisite connection to the equinox that it draws thousands of tourists on this particular day every year.



The shadows of this structure, built in the 8th–12th century AD, formed by the equinoctial sun evoke the image of the “Sun Serpent” slithering down the north side of the pyramid.

Other monuments like Stonehenge, Newgrange, built by the ancient Irish, Machu Picchu, and the Pyramid of Khafre, are also aligned with the equinox in unique ways.

In connection with the rhythms of the land, sea, and heavens, we can find a deeper connection to nature and the world around us, as well as our ancestors who discovered this unique day in the cycle of the earthen year.

'I have to clean up human excrement from outside my premises'
“It was a woman who did it, one of my staff saw her"



A furious business owner fears he will be left counting the cost of clearing human poo from next to his firm on a daily basis.

Kei Ivett said people are using the area as a toilet as well as dumping their rubbish there but claimed street cleaners were giving the area a wide berth.

He said the problems in the lane, which runs between The Strand Bar and the Revolution building, have led to more serious issues including sexual assaults and drug dealing.

Kei, who owns Pinatas Burrito Bar in The Strand, who has been operating the premises as a takeaway during the coronavirus crisis, said his staff spotted a woman using the lane as a toilet.

He said: “The lane is getting neglected, it’s been like that for years - it’s a bit disheartening.

“While there’s food wrappers, it has been famously known as ‘p*** alley’ since I was young.

“We have put up a light on the alleyway and when we moved in the police asked for CCTV because there was an assault.

“It’s not caged off but it’s very secluded.



“Regularly you see shifty people because they know there is no one coming there and they do their drug deals.”

He added: “There is a human turd that I have been refusing to clean up myself but I will have to clean it up if it’s not.

“It was a woman who did it, one of my staff saw her.

“It was quite a big poo.

“This isn’t an isolated incident, this alley is constantly hanging.

“Yet again we have had to clean the alley ourselves because it’s forever ignored by street cleaners.



“The Strand isn’t the nicest street, it’s been neglected for years.

“It’s not a safe feeling space, there are plenty of places that people can hide off camera.”

He said tents had been blown down the lane onto one of his bikes.

The issues were so bad that he ended up contacting the Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart a number of times over the issue.

He said: “I have tried to contact (council leader) Rob Stewart but he hasn’t replied yet.”

Wales Online has asked Swansea Council for a comment.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... r-20188240