[PennySerenade]

Toronto Raptors superfan honoured at Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame



TORONTO -- Toronto Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia has become one of the first fans to ever be honoured at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bhatia was honoured Sunday at the unveiling of the James Goldstein Superfan Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. His display includes the first turban in the hall of fame, as well as a replica of his championship ring, a superfan bobble head, custom superfan shoes, his courtside seat and the original Raptors jersey he was presented in 1998 that declared Bhatia a “superfan.”

“I’m feeling good, but I’m still pinching myself,” Bhatia told CTV News on Monday morning. “This is crazy but God has been good to me. I’m humbled.”

While at the ceremony, Bhatia was presented with a Hall of Fame class of 2020 ring, which he says now balances out the weight of the 2019 championship ring he received after the Raptors clinched the title.



Bhatia attended his first Raptors game in 1995 after the team joined the NBA. He “got addicted the very first day,” he previously told CTV News Toronto.

In over 25 years, Bhatia has never missed a home game.

Bhatia is also known for sharing his love of the sport—and the Raptors—with others. Every year for the last 20 years, Bhatia has purchased about 3,000 tickets to home games and gifted them to members of the Sikh community, including a large number of children, to celebrate Vaisakhi, the Sikh new year, courtside.

“They are the most inclusive organization in the world and they have given this immigrant guy, who came here in 1984 and faced so many speed bumps and they gave me the opportunity to bring my community 20 years ago in the centre court of the Raptors and to display our culture,” he said.

“Thanks to Raptors for working with me. Thanks to NBA, thanks to all of them and all the great people who are in the Hall of Fame to give me the opportunity to bring the world together through this beautiful game of basketball.”



Speaking to CTV News, Bhatia didn’t seem bothered by the fact that the Raptors will not be going to the playoffs this year, saying that the team playing thousands of miles away from their home and fans put them at a disadvantage.

“Our team feeds off the fans and I think next season, when it starts, we are going to come very strong,” he said.

“I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in the last 25 years with the Raptors—as everyone knows I have never missed a minute of the game at home—so continue cheering on them and we are going to, again be a top team in the next season."

Moose rescued from backyard pool in Ontario


May 18 Firefighters and wildlife officers responded to a home in Ontario where a moose had jumped over a backyard fence and ended up in the swimming pool.

Kelsey Heikkila said she and her two children were inside their Garson home when they heard a loud crashing noise followed by a splash.

"My immediate thought was, OK, both my kids are inside, so who's in my pool?" Heikkila told the North Bay Nugget.

She said it took her a few moments to identify the animal standing in her swimming pool.

"I'm like, is that a horse? No, it's a donkey. And then I realized, holy crap, it's a moose," she said.

A neighbor reported seeing the moose fleeing from a pursuing truck before vaulting over Heikkila's fence.

Personnel from Greater Sudbury Fire Services and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry responded to the home and used pumps to remove the stagnant water from the pool.

"We brought in our volume pumps to get the water out of there; it was a bit difficult because there was a lot of debris so our pumps and the ministry's pumps kept getting clogged up," GSFS Deputy Chief Jesse Oshell told Sudbury.com.

"We needed to remove the water because the concern the MNR had was that if they were going to sedate the moose they didn't want it falling into the water," he said.

Oshell posted photos from the rescue to Twitter.

Conservation officers tranquilized the moose.

"A couple of guys jumped in once she was knocked out and then it took about 10 or 12 of them to carry her out," Heikkila said.

Oshell said the moose will be released back into the wild once it has recovered from the sedative and receives a clean bill of health from the MNR.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/05/18/moose-rescued-from-pool-Garson-Ontario/3751621353399/

There's A Professional Tag Tournament And It Looks Amazing



In news which is likely to take most of us by surprise, it turns out there's such a thing as a professional tag tournament, and it looks like something we'd all like to try.

World Chase Tag isn't just like playing in the school playground when you were younger, of course. It's actually an international championship for competitive parkour and it was created by two brothers in 2011.

Christian and Damien Devaux came up with the idea, following a game of tag between Christian and his son Orlando.

The pair wanted to work out a way of nailing on who was better, so they came up with a plan that meant using two iPhones to time how long each of them would be 'it' during a game. Whoever was on for the shortest time was declared the winner.

From there, Christian and Damien came up with more developments. Competition formats were created and a specially designed court evolved. They then went on to put on events.
The rules for the most played game format, Team Chase-Off, involve two teams with up to four players each.

A 'chase' lasts 20 seconds, consisting of one person from each team: a Chaser and an Evader. The Chaser then has to try to tag the Evader, meaning the Evader - unsurprisingly - has to try to not get caught.

Whoever stays on as the Evader in the team gets one point for each Evasion. The team with the most Evasions wins.

Seems simple enough.

As you can see from the video above, it's not a game where you can take it easy and many Chasers are experienced in other sports.

Damien told The Sweat Experience: "At the moment most of the Chasers come from a parkour, free running or gymnastics background but occasionally we get people with no parkour experience doing really well.

"For example, we know someone that comes from a tennis/kite-surfing background and he does really well against the Parkour athletes.

"Chasing is actually a pretty good test of all-round athletic ability so it potentially could cater to quite a wide range of athletes."

The official website for the sport reads: "The organisation was responsible for creating a standardised competitive playing arena and set of rules formats which has allowed athletes from around the world to train and compete in international competitions.

"The most recent of these competitions was WCT USA October 2020, and previous to that, WCT held WCT4 (the World Championships) in August 2019 in London featuring teams from Japan, Spain, France, USA and the UK."

Currently, both male and female athletes compete together in a single unified league.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/weird-the ... g-20210519

[hija]

‘An oasis of movement’: how dance sessions are helping some women confront cancer



Each of the women pictured has been affected by cancer, but they’ve come together here not as patients but as dancers.

This is a session by Move Dance Feel, a community-interest company that offers dance to women living with and beyond cancer, as well as those who care for someone with cancer.

“When dancing with the women, I see an immediate shift in mood – moving the body moves the mind,” said Emily Jenkins, who founded the organisation five years ago. She works in partnership with cancer support organisations, integrating dance into their activity programmes.

When facing a cancer diagnosis, or undergoing gruelling treatment, the feelings of joy and release that dancing can give rise to are much needed.

“Participants grow in confidence, physically standing taller and expanding to take up more space and show appreciation towards their body,” Jenkins explained.

The women often talk of feeling more energised after dancing, a significant benefit as severe fatigue is a common side effect of cancer treatment.

There are the non-stop hospital visits; the impact on confidence and self-esteem; the loneliness of knowing that others just can’t quite understand how you’re feeling.

So it’s apt that a strong sense of belonging often emerges during sessions “Attuning through synchronised movement can be quite an intimate and connecting experience,” Jenkins added.

Impacts expand beyond the dance space too. One participant, Merran Barber, said: “Moving the body in these new ways has opened up pathways in the brain, making me feel there are so many more creative ways to explore and live my life.”

In March 2020, when Covid-19 forced Move Dance Feel’s partner centres to close, Jenkins quickly set up Move Dance Feel Online.

No longer restricted by geography, she is now helping hundreds of women digitally across the UK, as well as in other areas of Europe.

One described it as “an oasis of creativity, movement, mindfulness, connection and calm”. Another said, simply: “This is the first time I have felt in control of my body since my surgery.”

[stanley123]

Chicago Cat jumps from fifth floor of burning building, bounces and strolls away

How cats land on their feet:
These 12 frames showing a cat falling were taken by Étienne-Jules Marey in 1894.
The age-old adage that cats always land on their feet perplexed scientists for centuries, and the exact mechanics of the animal's righting reflex are still not completely understood. But a series of photographs taken by French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey in 1894 helped explain how cats twist their bodies in the air to land upright.


Video of Chicago cat leaping, landing and walking away
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/14/us/cat-fire-jump-scli-intl/index.html

What happened:
(CNN)A Chicago cat leaped from the fifth story of a burning building, bounced off the ground and casually walked away. Fire crews were attending a small blaze in the city's Englewood neighborhood and were filming the building's exterior when the feline made its great escape.

Fire Department Report:
— Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) May 13, 2021
The video showed a black cat launch itself out of the building, and picked up its remarkably smooth landing.
Crowds can be heard gasping during the jump, and reacting with relief when the cat walked away.
"Nine lives for a cat that jumped from fire at 65th and Lowe. Cat hit grass bounced and walked away!" the city's fire department wrote on Twitter, alongside a video of the incident.
https://twitter.com/CFDMedia/status/1392939570380029953?s=20

[lush]

Ukrainian Authorities Seize 1,500 Bottles of Booze Made in Chernobyl
Posted on May 10, 2021*

• Is this a case of governmental overreach or protecting the public from radioactive alcohol?



When you think of Chernobyl – the site of the infamous 1986 nuclear disaster – you’re probably picturing something from Stalker. You know, gas masks, radiation, strange mutants, that sort of stuff.

Whatever your mental picture, though, you probably wouldn’t be too thrilled about consuming anything grown in the seclusion zone. Ukrainian authorities seem to agree with you. They just confiscated more than 1,500 bottles of moonshine made out of apples from Chernobyl.

While that sounds like a reasonable response, it’s actually pretty questionable. You see, as far as the manufacturer is concerned, they’re doing everything by the book.

The Chernobyl Spirit Company, run by Ukrainian and British scientists, has been producing alcohol in Chernobyl for several years. Under the Atomik brand, they started with a vodka and recently branched into a traditional Ukrainian apple moonshine.

The company claims that it has no idea why the bottles have been confiscated.

“It seems that they are accusing us of using forged Ukrainian excise stamps,” Professor Jon Smith, one of the scientists running the booze company, told the BBC.

However, he says that he sees reason for the Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office to seize the UK-bound shipment.

“This doesn’t make sense since the bottles are for the UK market and are clearly labelled with valid UK excise stamps,” Smith said.

Dr. Gennady Laptev is a co-owner of the company and a Chernobyl “liquidator” who has worked at the site since the nuclear meltdown. He agreed with Smith.

“We hope this issue can be resolved so that we can continue our work trying to help people affected by the devastating social and economic impacts Chernobyl had on communities,” said Laptev.


Prime apple country, right here.

Decades of Economic Fallout

Could it be that the Ukrainian authorities are concerned about the apple booze being potentially radioactive? Maybe, but according to the scientists, there is no concern for that.

Like their previous Atomik vodka, the new apple moonshine “is no more radioactive” than any other booze on the market, they say.

“Any chemist will tell you, when you distil something, impurities stay in the waste product,” Smith said in a separate interview.

As Dr. Laptev said, the Chernobyl Spirit Company isn’t attempting to spread nuclear waste around the world. Instead, they’re trying to kickstart new economic activity in the abandoned Chernobyl exclusion zone.

For years, the scientists running the company have been researching whether grains and other agricultural products grown in Chernobyl could safely be used as food. They hope that their work could allow local communities to start farming again.

At the moment, all agricultural activity in the exclusion zone is strictly forbidden. The only exceptions are for scientific research. That’s despite the fact that good portions of the exclusion zone actually have lower radiation levels than many farming hotspots all around the world.

The apples used in Atomik Apple Spirit come from Narodichi, some 45 miles from Chernobyl nuclear complex. Although it lies just outside the exclusion zone, agriculture is nonetheless restricted.

As a result, the community is struggling economically, even decades after the accident. Chernobyl Spirit Company’s work could help Narodichi and other similarly struggling communities.

“We don’t have to just abandon the land. We can use it in diverse ways and we can produce something that will be totally clean from the radioactivity,” Laptev said.

No Activity At All

The scientists’ work has already had some positive results. As we mentioned, before the apple booze, they released a vodka brand in 2019.

The Atomik vodka is distilled from rye grown in the exclusion zone. Even though it comes from Chernobyl, the distillation process removes all traces of radioactivity from it, Smith said.

“We took rye that was slightly contaminated and water from the Chernobyl aquifer and we distilled it,” he said.

“We asked our friends at Southampton University, who have an amazing radio-analytical laboratory, to see if they could find any radioactivity. They couldn’t find anything – everything was below their limit of detection.”

The Atomik vodka was produced in limited quantities, but met with approval from those who tasted it.

“It’s more of a grain spirit than a vodka, so it has much more fruity notes – you can still taste the rye,” described Sam Armeye, a bartender at Bar Swift in London.

“Definitely [good for] a classic martini but I’d also mix it with champagne,” he added.

The scientists refined the previous vodka recipe to produce the now-confiscated batch of apple moonshine. If they ever get the booze to the market, at least 75% of the profits will go to supporting local economy.

Would you want to taste an apple spirit straight from the reactor?

Hundreds in California line up for blooming ‘corpse flower’
May 19, 2021, 3:56 PM


ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Residents of a San Francisco Bay Area city flocked to an abandoned gas station to get a whiff of a corpse flower — so-called because of the stench it emits when it blooms — after its owner decided to share the rare plant with his neighbors.

Solomon Leyva, a nursery owner in Alameda who deals in exceptionally rare plants, had been posting on social media about his amorphophallus titanum. When he saw a lot of interest in the giant blooming flower, he decided to wheel it Monday to the abandoned building, where a line of people stretched down the block for most of the day, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“I grabbed my wagon, went down to my greenhouse, put it in with the help of a friend of mine, dragged it down here to this abandoned building and people just started showing up,” Leyva said.

Leyva relaxed in a camping chair at the old Art Deco gas station and patiently answered the same questions again and again. He estimated that by 4 p.m., at least 1,200 residents had visited the flower.

“Everyone is commenting to me that the last time they’ve seen this was in San Francisco, and there was a barrier, and they had to wait for hours, and they weren’t allowed to get near it,” Leyva said. “I think everyone’s tripping out that they can walk up and wiggle it and smell it.”

Himanshu and Sayali Jain brought their 3-year-old son after following the flower on social media.

“I just wanted to thank him, because I thought we’d never get to see it,” Sayali Jain said.
https://wtop.com/trending-now/2021/05/h ... se-flower/

[johngriffen]

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

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
THURSDAY MAY 20
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 can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ 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 short, 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

[prokroustis]

‘Zombie Angelina Jolie’ Monument Sold At Auction After Being Torn Down




A bizarre silver monument compared to the infamous 'Zombie Angelina Jolie' which was torn down in Russia has been sold for 2.6 million rubles (£25,000 / $35,000).

RT reports that the monument is of Alenka, a girl who - according to local legend - founded the village that became the basis of the Russian city of Novovoronezh, where the statue was erected.

Locals were left terrified by the effigy - those eyes just stare into your soul, don't they?

One social media user wrote that it was 'more like a monument dedicated to the victims of Covid-19', adding: "It's a pity that they didn't put it at the entrance to the city."



Others compared it to Marilyn Manson and, of course, Zombie Angelina Jolie, and soon enough the fixture became a meme on Russian social media sites.

Alexey Pushkov, senator for the region, even got involved as he said: "Yes, it's creepy.

"The eyes are like those of an extra-terrestrial."

The media storm was so overwhelming that just a few days after its unveiling ceremony, the statue was taken down by authorities, with fears it could scare children.

But it certainly didn't frighten a group of bidders, who battled it out when the sculpture went up for sale at the Russian Auction House.

The auction, which went down earlier this month, started off with an asking price of 1m rubles (£9,600 / $13,500), with four bidders battling it out and driving up the price to around 2.6m.



What the lucky winner plans to do with the statue is anyone's guess, but we do know that the seller plans to donate the earnings to charity.

That's a lot of money for something that resembles a horror film villain, although it seems like the media attention helped.

Pavel Zhirunov, the deputy director general of the Russian Auction House, told local media: "The sale showed, firstly, that thanks to the attention of society and the media, the status of the subject of the auction has risen to unprecedented heights."

'Zombie Angelina Jolie' is the nickname by which 19-year-old Iranian Instagrammer Fatemeh Khishvand is better known, along with her online handle of Sahar Tabar.

She rose to fame after strange photos of her looking like an undead version of the Hollywood A-lister went viral.

Khishvand was rumoured to have undergone numerous surgeries to look like Jolie, but it was later revealed that she hadn't actually gone to any extreme measures and her creepy images were a combo of editing and make up tricks.

She was even arrested at one stage for 'promoting public corruption', and faced 10 years in prison.

So when the creepy statue appeared in Novovoronezh, people were quick to notice the similarities between the two.

[ozswede]

Leonardo DiCaprio leads $43m pledge to restore the Galápagos Islands

Actor partners with conservation groups in aim to rewild archipelago and other Pacific islands in Latin America.


A marine iguana on Floreanna Island, which is home to 54 threatened species and forms part of the Galápagos national park.

Leonardo DiCaprio has announced a $43m (£30.4m) pledge to enact sweeping conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands, with his social media accounts taken over by a wildlife veterinarian and island restoration specialist.

The initiative, in partnership with Re:wild, an organisation founded this year by a group of renowned conservation scientists and DiCaprio, the Galápagos National Park Directorate, Island Conservation and local communities, aims to rewild the entire Galápagos Islands, as well as all of Latin America’s Pacific archipelagos.

It has a large number of supporting and implementing partners from a range of philanthropic and environmental organisations, including Galápagos National Park Directorate, Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment and Water, and Charles Darwin Foundation.

The $43m pledge will fund Galápagos projects including efforts to restore Floreana Island, home to 54 threatened species, and reintroduce 13 locally extinct species, including the Floreana mockingbird – the first mockingbird described by Charles Darwin.


A Floreana mockingbird, one of the island’s locally extinct species and the first mockingbird described by Charles Darwin.

The money will also pay for a captive breeding programme and other activities to prevent the extinction of the pink iguana, and strengthen measures to protect the Galápagos’s marine resources from the human impact of ecotourism.

DiCaprio said: “When I travelled to the Galápagos Islands, I met with Paula Castaño and other environmental heroes in Ecuador working day in and day out to save one of the most irreplaceable places on the planet.

“Around the world, the wild is declining. We have degraded three-quarters of the wild places and pushed more than 1 million species to the brink of extinction. More than half of Earth’s remaining wild areas could disappear in the next few decades if we don’t decisively act.

“The environmental heroes that the planet needs are already here. Now we all must rise to the challenge and join them.”

Paula A Castaño, who will take over DiCaprio’s Instagram and Twitter accounts to promote critical interventions needed to rewild the Galápagos, said: “Time is running out for so many species, especially on islands where their small populations are vulnerable and threatened.

“We need catalytic investments like the one announced today to replicate our successes in the Galápagos and elsewhere.”

Castaño, who has been working as an island restoration specialist for eight years, believes that if humans can coexist with nature, ecosystems can be rewilded successfully.

“Up to 97% of the land area of the Galápagos Islands comes under national park status. We are not trying to remove humans from the picture. We are trying to all work together to rewild these ecosystems, and support the community as well. They want to be able to continue to thrive together with nature.

“For example, in Floreana, you can see a Darwin finch right next to you. If you go to the beach, you can see sea lions somewhere in the corners basking in the sun right next to you. They don’t have that fear of humans because we work together. They don’t have the threats in other locations when they are completely afraid of humans.”

Castaño recalled successful rewilding restorations in the past. In 2012, invasive rodents were removed from the island of Pinzón by the Galápagos national park, assisted by Island Conservation to benefit the Pinzón giant tortoise. As a result, new hatchlings were discovered in 2014.

“We have seen rewilding in our lifetime, so we don’t really have to wait five years or 20 or 50 years. These are immediate results. We will see the payoff for all of these efforts, and not across only the Galápagos, but farther beyond archipelagos in Latin America.”

Marcelo Mata Guerrero, Ecuador’s minister of environment and water, said: “These kinds of partnerships that leverage technical, social and financial innovations, are exactly what we need around the world to restore the health of our planet.

“With Ecuador, as one of the 17 most biodiverse countries on the planet, we have an opportunity here to demonstrate what a truly effective model looks like for the protection and restoration of our shared wildlife and wild lands – the immune system of our planet, protecting all life on Earth, including people, from the effects of climate change and emerging disease.”

DiCaprio, a longtime champion of global environmental issues, has provided more than $100m in grants to a variety of programs and projects. He has also praised the teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg as a “leader of our time”, and addressed the United Nations about the dangers of climate change in 2014.

[BigGlen]

MAN DRAWS PENISES AROUND POTHOLES TO GET COUNCIL’S ATTENTION



Well, that’s one large and wide way to get someone’s attention.

A New Zealand man was so fed up at his local council’s lack of attention to fixing potholes in his hometown of Auckland that he decided to get a firm grip on the matter.

According to The Guardian, road safety advocate Geoff Upson was so “sick of calling Auckland transport” to fix potholes that he decided to get the attention of city council by drawing green and pink penises in spray paint around them.



Apparently, Auckland Transport wasn’t amused by Upson’s phallic road drawings and called the cops on the man last week, according to the New Zealand Herald. The graffiti work and got the attention of Auckland council, who stated the penis graffiti posed a “safety risk and distraction” to drivers.

Apparently Upson has drawn 100 penises to date on the New Zealand roads.

It’s not the first time someone has drawn penises on roads apparently. The BBC reported that it happened in the United Kingdom in 2019 in Middlesbrough and 2015 in Manchester in an effort to get potholes repaired in those towns respectively.

Needless to say, the tactics worked.

[Fatima99]

Hungover woman wakes up to find stranger's huge dog in her bed after walking home drunk

Mia Flynn, 28, was "petrified" to discover the Husky in her bed, which she initially mistook for a wolf in her hungover state after a drunk walk home around 2am

A hungover woman posted a hilarious video after discovering she accidentally brought a stranger's dog on the way home from a drunken night out.

Mia Flynn, 28, who had enjoyed multiple bottles of wine at her pal's house, was left 'petrified' after initially misidentifying the Husky as a wolf.

She admits her memory was hazy after drunkenly walking back to family home on May 16 after a boozy night out.

So he was left terrified to wake up to the dog 'staring' at her - leaving her fearing the 'wolf' would attack her.

In the video, Mia can be seen whispering to the camera 'I'm too scared to move in my own bed' as she pans over to reveal the hairy hound relaxing next to her, entirely unbothered.



The learning support worker pieced together her steps from the previous evening after finding footage on her phone.

One clip shows the husky wandering around Mia's kitchen as she says bewilderedly: "Of all the things I've come home with on a night out. What the f**k is that? He followed me home."

Mia, from Rhyl, Wales, said: "I went to my friend's help to her do a bit of DIY and painting...then we decided that three bottles of wine were a good idea.

"I was a little shocked when I woke up hungover, to a dog staring at me.

"I was petrified he was going to attack me - I find dogs cute but they're also a bit scary. Especially a b***** big one like that."

Despite being drunk, Mia had had the foresight to record her encounter with the dog, which she had named Toby, and how it had followed her home.



However, she did not remember coming in at 2.30 am with the mutt and telling her fuming mum that she had 'got a new mate'.

"I documented the whole thing on my Snapchat, and that's how I pieced together the story the next morning, said Mia.

"So I was walking home from her house after midnight when the dog started following me.

"He was just wandering the street - [I later found out] it was the street he lived on, so I assume he'd just gotten out.

"My mum was fuming. She was in bed when I apparently came in at 2:30 am and told her 'I've got a new mate.'

"She wasn't pleased, even though she was fine the next morning.

video here https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-new ... s-24147244

[HogwartsExpress]

Man charged with sending false message to NTU researcher that he had COVID-19
Researcher is working on project "investigating the cognitive neuroscience of deception"

A man was charged on Monday (May 17) with knowingly transmitting a false message to a researcher from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) that he could not attend a "session" as he had COVID-19 and was quarantined in hospital.

Paul Chan Kin Nang, 40, was given one charge of transmitting a false message under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act to NTU researcher Lau Zen Juen.

The charge sheet states that Chan sent an email to Ms Lau at 12.47pm on Sep 6, 2020, stating: "Hi, I am unable to attend the session tomorrow as I am tested positive for Covid19 and is now quarantine in hospital."

Chan allegedly knew this to be false, as he had not tested positive for COVID-19, the document continued.

Court documents at the early charging stage did not elaborate on what "session" Chan was supposed to attend, or how the allegations came to light.

According to online research websites, the researcher he allegedly lied to is studying the cognitive neuroscience of deception.

The email address that he allegedly sent the false message to was listed in a Facebook post aimed at NTU Psychology Majors in July 2020, calling for volunteers to participate in a decision-making study using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

A spokesperson for NTU told CNA after the hearing that Chan is a member of the public who is a volunteer participant in a social science study conducted at NTU.

"After he informed the researchers that he could not attend a research session as he had allegedly tested positive for COVID-19, the university promptly checked with the authorities to verify whether he is a confirmed COVID-19 case, due to the need for contact tracing," he said.

"When his claim was found to be false, a police report was made. He is no longer participating in the study. As the case is before the courts, we have no other comments at this time."

The offence Chan was charged with is relatively new - it was added to the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act in January last year.

source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/si ... 9-14825712

Extremely Rare Rock Dating Back to Ice Age Discovered in Oregon

While overseeing the construction of a new middle school in Lake Oswego, Oregon, Skanska USA Building superintendent Jacob Parker noticed that one of the rocks his crew had dredged up was not your average hunk of stone, according to the Tualatin Historical Society. In fact, he'd never seen anything like it before.



Struck by its distinctiveness of color and texture, Parker contacted Scott Burns, a professor of geology at Portland State University and the president of the Tualatin Ice Age Foundation, according to a Skanska press release. Founded in 2018, the organization works to educate residents of the eponymous city about the impact of the Ice Age on the local landscape.

When he arrived at the site to examine the rock, Burns confirmed Parker's suspicions. The rock was indeed an extraordinary find, so much so that he'd "never seen" one "like [it], not at all," he said, according to the historical society. It was rhyolite, a type of igneous rock so rare in the area that only one other specimen has ever been discovered. That one was lost over the years.

"Basically, this is just a very, very rare rock," Burns told KATU, adding that he was "very excited" by the find.

Formed when the multiple layers of lava expelled during a volcanic eruption harden as they cool, rhyolite is rich in silica and often ((((((pink)))))) or gray in color, according to Geology.com. This specimen measures 3-feet long, 4-feet wide, and 2-feet high and weighs approximately 2,000 pounds, according to the Skanska press release. It was likely carried from Montana or Canada to the Pacific Northwest by the Missoula Floods, a large-scale lake overflow event that occurred more than 15,000 years ago.

"We believe it's an ice-rafted glacial erratic," Burns said, according to the Tualatin Historical Society. "That is, it fell onto the glaciers up in British Columbia, Alberta, Canada, or Montana," after which it became "part of the dam that blew apart in the Missoula Floods, and it floated down here and was then dropped."

He described the rock as "a major geological find."

Once the news of the discovery became widely known, the Tualatin Ice Age Foundation and the Lake Oswego School District came to an agreement that enabled the Foundation to take possession of the rock and the district to continue moving forward with construction. The rock is scheduled for transport to the Tualatin Ice Age Tourism Foundation at the Tualatin Heritage Center on May 17, where it will be put on display.

https://www.newsweek.com/extremely-rare ... on-1593055

Indian police gives dance punishment to teen covid rule breakers.


India is struggling with alarming number of corona cases. The country under Narendra Modi is facing covid second wave. Modi is doing all with local and international support to bend this covid curve. Many major Indian states have came into lockdown due to dangerous number of cases spiking in the state. Many hospitals running out of beds and the patients are forced to wait outside the hospital for oxygen.



Corona second wave in India.
States like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Preadesh, Uttar Prades have already saw the spike. The next on the list will be Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin have already ordered oxygen concentrators from international countries. The chief minister have already released the government tender for local vaccine manufacturing companies in Chennai.



India's covid will see it's spike on May end. Third wave will be coming after six months of time. The government under Narendra Modi is doing all the efforts to stop the spread of corona. People are asked to follow the rules. Even many states have already started supplying free basic foods and sanitizers to the public. Many ngo's have come to help the government with their free ambulance services, cremation services and free oxygen concentrators to the public.



Remdesivir shortage in India.
Major problem all the state governments is facing is the lack of remdesivir injections. The horrible videos are coming from India. While the real patients waiting for the magic drug to save the family. But on the other hand the large stocking and storage of remdesivir is happening. The real needy people are suffering because of the lack of regulation. The only remdesiver plant in located in Andra Pradesh. They have to supply to all the 29 Indian states and 7 union territories. They are giving around 30000 injections per day to each state.



Teen covid breakers.
One of the major problems in controlling the covid is the teen rule breakers. Especially in rural areas you see them roaming in nooks and corner. They come back home without sanitizers and proper protocols spreading it to elders. That's one of the major headache to the local police. You always can't blame teens completely as they are the one who are helping their families to buy groceries and medicine. But in many case it is largely misused by teens. It is always hard to keep them indoors.

Recently the district police have ordered if you found any teens roaming on streets unnecessary. Give them the dancing punishment. Which is the cop plays a song and the teens have to dance in front of the public. The videos going viral on social media and also giving big troubles to teen's family. In a video a teen was enjoying his dance steps with his favourite album song. The police asked the teens not to misuse the rules. They are asked to obey and help their loving family without breaking covid rules.

https://www.happylivingpro.com/2021/05/ ... o.html?m=1