Boy, 4, dials 111, invites police to see his toys



When a 4-year-old boy in the lower South Island dialled 111 by mistake then went on to invite police to visit him to see his toys, police took him up on the offer.

Southern District Police posted audio of the call on their Facebook page. The post ends with a picture of the happy boy sitting on the bonnet of a police car, a police cap on his head.

“While we don’t encourage children to call 111 to show us their toys, this was too cute not to share,” the post says.

The call started with a police operator asking where the emergency was. Then there was a pause before the boy says “hi” and then “police lady”.

“Can I tell you something,” he says. “I’ve got some toys for you.”

“You’ve got some toys for me?” Says the operator. “Yep. Come over and see them,” the boy says.

A man at the boy’s house then takes the phone from the boy, and confirms when asked by the operator that the boy made a mistake calling the emergency number.

The man says he was focusing on another child in the house, while the boy’s mother was sick, and the boy snuck out.

After the call, police communications asks if there’s any unit available to visit the boy, saying a 4-year-old at the house wants to show police his toys.

An officer identified as Constable Kurt visited the house, and confirmed the boy did indeed have cool toys.

During the visit, the officer put his car lights on for the boy to see.

The Facebook post noted he also had “a good educational chat with the child and his parents about only using 111 for emergencies”.

[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 OCTOBER 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:
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So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
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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.
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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
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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

[ozswede]

The moment Vietnam's 'real-life Tarzan' saw the modern world for the first time after 40 years living in the jungle is shown in new video released after his death from cancer aged 52

Previously unseen footage shows the 'real-life Tarzan' experiencing civilisation for the first time after surviving in the Vietnamese wilderness for four decades.

Ho Van Lang died aged 52 in September following his reintegration into mainstream society after surviving 41 years in the jungle with his father who fled in 1972 when US carpet bombing during the Vietnam War killed half his family.

The pair re-established contact with Vietnamese society in 2013 and believed the Vietnam War was still raging on when they entered a village and sought medical help for Lang's father Ho Van Thanh.

After 2013, Lang began living a relatively modern lifestyle, but some friends and observers believe the stresses and poor diet of the 'civilised' world had a detrimental effect on his health.

Now, remarkable footage has emerged showing a shocked Lang's first impression of the ocean and his puzzled reaction when taking to the skies for the first ever time. Video of Ho Van Lang's first encounters with everyday interactions have gone viral on social media after it was shared by his friend and filmmaker Alvaro Cerezo.



In the clips, a visibly stunned Lang is seen with glazed eyes as he stares out of the window of the aircraft for the first time. In later footage, he beams with joy as he walks along a beach and watches the ocean waves gently roll back and forth, pointing with amazement as he creeps closer to the water.

Lang had lived a remarkable life and made headlines across the globe - but Alvaro Cerezo, an explorer who returned to the jungle with Lang to live there for a week together, believes discovering 'modern life' probably had fatal consequences for the real life Tarzan.


Ho Van Lang was discovered in 2013 after living in the jungle of Vietnam since he was two years old

Cerezo said: 'I'm so sad to see him go, but for me his passing is also a liberation because I know he was suffering in the last months.

'He was a beautiful human being, to forget him will be impossible, I will miss him everyday. But I didn't like seeing him living in civilisation. I was always concerned that he and his body wouldn't be able to handle such a drastic change. He had spent all his life living in the jungle and then came to live in the "civilised world" where he started eating processed foods and sometimes even drinking alcohol.'

Cerezo met Lang two years later through his work with Docastaway - an organisation which helps people who want to escape from civilisation and spend a few days or weeks completely alone on a desert island.

During their friendship, Cerezo recorded on camera some of Lang's most vulnerable, emotional and beautiful moments, including his time in the jungle, adapting to civilised life and returning to the wild. Cerezo also wrote a book about Lang's life, and has now compiled a montage of footage he took when the pair lived together deep in the jungle.


A shocked Lang's first impression of the ocean, and his puzzled reaction when taking to the skies for the first ever time

He said: 'Two years after he was brought back to civilisation, I went to look for Ho Van Lang at his village to see if he would teach me some new survival techniques that I could apply on the desert islands. I always say that the best survival "teachers" are to be found among the tribes.'

Earlier this year, Lang's remarkable story went public as it emerged the father-son duo lived for decades in the forest of what is now known as the Tra Bong District before they were found by locals looking for firewood.

Authorities say Lang's older brother Ho Van Tri encouraged the pair to return to civilisation when Thanh's health began to deteriorate in 2013. He died of an unknown cause in 2017.

The family elder Thanh once lived a normal life with his family in the hamlet of Tra Kem before the Vietnam war. After fleeing, the pair survived in the wilderness by foraging fruit and cassava from the forest and planting corn. They wore loincloths made out of tree bark, and lived in a timber hut raised five metres above the ground.

When the foragers saw the two 'jungle men' from a distance acting abnormally, they alerted local authorities. Officials set up a team to track them down, and found them in August 2013 after a five-hour search.

The father could speak a little of the minority Cor language, but the son knew only a few words. The pair then underwent medical check-ups as a first step to being reintegrated into mainstream society.

Lang made an emotional return to his former home in July 2016.

Source

[Fivetide]

Fired Nurse Loses Lawsuit Claiming Hospital Hypnotized Her to Fart at Work

One nurse’s battle against the invisible enemy that forced her to break wind.


“Your eyelids are getting heavy… You’re feeling very gassy…”

The U.S. often gets bad rap when it comes to frivolous lawsuits. However, this case proves that suing people for ridiculous reasons isn’t an exclusively American phenomenon.

In the UK, a nurse lost the lawsuit she filed against the National Health Service (NHS) hospital that let her go in December 2019. Xanda Samson sued the Ealing Hospital in London, claiming the medical institution wrongfully dismissed her.


Samson complained to the Watford Employment Tribunal Center that the hospital had subjected her to ideomotor phenomenon, reported Daily Mail. That’s a supposed hypnotic concept that forces the subject to perform small, involuntary movements.

According to Samsons claims, the hospital used “low frequency soundwaves” to “possess” her. Supposedly, the evil people in charge of the institution attacked her private parts and forced her to fart publicly, among other things.

Ealing Hospital, on the other hand, said they fired Samson because her coworkers became concerned for her mental health. When she refused a psychiatric evaluation, her employment was terminated due to possibly dangerous behavior.

Go figure.

The Evil in the Ventilation Shaft

Samson, who worked at Ealing Hospital’s Acute Medical Unit (AMU), first caused raised eyebrow among her coworkers and bosses in April 2019. That’s when she sent an email to her supervisors claiming the hospital was trying to hypnotize her.

“I would like to report an observed pattern of likely inappropriate use of hypnosis/ideomotor phenomenon in my NHS workplace. In the last three months that I have worked in the department, I have experienced odd symptoms which I think is likely related to the above phenomenon,” she wrote in her complaint.

Samson claimed she was a “healthy individual” with no past medical issues. However, she said that she had begun experiencing odd symptoms, including headaches, trouble breathing, and gastrointestinal disturbance — including uncontrollable flatulence.

She further claimed that she experienced slurred speech and thought patterns, “similar to that of being possessed.” She’d also seen the phenomenon affect others, she claimed, and that it was becoming a “distraction.”

“It also involves a feeling of being attacked in various parts of the body including that of one’s private part, which I feel is very inappropriate,” Samson wrote.

Furthermore, Samson claimed she’d started experiencing similar episodes at home, on top of hearing “comments” from the TV and radio. She accused the hospital authorities of trying to subject her to “excessive scrutiny” and trying to control her through the heating and ventilation system.

“They are also using gaslighting through the use of low frequency soundwaves. Recently, I have seen a van in the parking lot near the area where I work that carries what appears to be audio equipment,” she claimed.

What Do You Mean I’m Psychotic?

Needless to say, Samson’s bizarre claims slightly concerned her supervisors at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. They thought she might be experiencing some mental health issues and referred her to three different occupational health doctors.

Out of the trio of doctors, two concluded that Samson was unfit to work at the hospital. Her bosses also repeatedly tried to get Samson to go see a licensed psychiatrist — but to no avail.

Each time, Samson would rebuff them, insisting that she was perfectly mentally sound. She also claimed that her bosses were trying to “experiment” on her.

According to Samson, she’s sensitive to “electro-magnetic radiation” which invalidated all mental evaluation results. Especially the one that found that she was suffering from psychosis.

Come December 2019, and the NHS Trust said they had no options left. At first, they suspended Samson, but later gave her the boot for refusing to cooperate with psychiatric help.

Samson promptly sued, claiming unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. The employment tribunal, however, ruled that the hospital had acted according to law.

Judge Oliver Hyams admitted that he, or anyone else in the tribunal, had “no idea what ideomotor phenomenon is.” Still, he added the NHS Trust “did what they did purely because of what they perceived to be impairments to her mental health exhibited by her various statements.”

‘Disturbing’ Claims

Edgar Swart, the divisional head of nursing at St. Mark’s Hospital, told Newsweek that Samson’s claims about hypnosis simply weren’t true. Not only that, he called them “disturbing.”

“It was difficult to understand what she was saying [in her original complaint] at some points, and she was expressing some very unusual beliefs within the correspondence, including that she was being subjected to ideomotor phenomenon on the AMU,” Swart said.

According to him, it was clear that “something was not quite right” with Samson.

“Given she was a nurse responsible for the care of critically ill and vulnerable patients on the AMU, there was a risk that if she was not well and was still working clinically, harm could come to the patients on the AMU, or that Ms. Samson’s own health could be negatively impacted,” added Swart.

He did admit, though, that Samson’s had “legitimate patient safety concerns.” That said, perhaps there’s no reason to suspect the hospital is trying to hypnotize patients through the AC.

Or is there?

[Fatima99]

Man builds Halloween pirate ship in Tamworth g-arr-den



It can be sea-n in front of the home of Andrew Carvel in Wilnecote Lane in Tamworth, and was built from scrap wood, fence panels and pallets.

Neighbours have been hooked by the creation, which measures 30ft (9m) long and 9ft (2m) wide, Mr Carvel said, and "just" fits in the garden.

The eye-catching creation is beloved by children in the area, Mr Carvel added, and follows a castle built last year.



He and his fiancée, Lisa Tarren, have been transforming their home for about three or four years, Mr Carvel said.

"She used to do it quite a bit and she builds all the models," he said.

Initially, the decorations were "just for fun", but now they also collect donations for Tamworth Pantry charity.

The ship, which took a few weeks to build was initially constructed in the back garden before being deconstructed and moved to the front, he said, adding, "the kids love it."

[BigGlen]

Carmen Mola was a popular Spanish novelist. Three male writers made her up

Truth is stranger than fiction so don't believe everything that you read!


The writer Carmen Mola, pseudonym of the writers Jorge Diaz, Agustin Martinez and Antonio Mercero,
winner of the 70th edition of the Planeta Novel Prize, gives a press conference after the award ceremony,
at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, on 15 October 2021, in Barcelona, Catalonia.
Europa Press News/Europa Press via Getty Images

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. It certainly was in Spain last week.

During an event to award the country's prestigious Planeta literary prize, the famed but reclusive crime novelist Carmen Mola was actually revealed to be the creation of three male writers.

Antonio Mercero, Agustín Martínez and Jorge Díaz not only created a series of highly successful novels in Mora's name, but also invented the author herself.

Mola — or rather the trio behind the pseudonym — won the prize for the novel The Beast, though the author is perhaps best known for the Inspector Elena Blanco series. The award for first prize was 1 million euros, or roughly $1.2 million.

Mola had been called the "Spanish Elena Ferrante," a reference to the pseudonymous and highly popular Italian author behind My Brilliant Friend and other novels. The publisher Penguin Random House described Mola as "crime literature's boldest and most enigmatic author."

But the three writers decided it was time to come clean that Mola was a fiction herself.

"Carmen Mola is not, like all the lies we've been telling, a university professor," Díaz said, according to a report in the Financial Times. "We are three friends who one day four years ago decided to combine our talent to tell a story."

Tiny crab preserved in 100-million-year-old amber lived among dinosaurs



Fossils trapped in amber have been among paleontology's most fascinating finds in recent years -- globs of hardened ancient tree resin have captured tantalizing details about spiders, lizards, microscopic animals, insects, birds and even a tiny dinosaur that are often missing from fossils found in rock.

However, all these creatures were land lubbers that you might expect to encounter on a tree trunk or branch. Now, scientists have found the oldest aquatic animal preserved in amber -- and it's the most complete crab fossil ever discovered.

"The specimen is spectacular, it is one of a kind. It's absolutely complete and is not missing a single hair on the body, which is remarkable," said Javier Luque, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, in a news release. He was the lead author of the study that published Thursday in the journal Science Advances.

The Chinese, US and Canadian scientists working on the amber specimen, which originated from northern Myanmar, named the tiny crab Cretapsara athanata. The name references the Cretaceous, the dinosaur-era period during which this crab lived, and Apsara, a spirit of the clouds and waters in South and Southeast Asian mythology. The species name is based on "athanatos," which means immortal in Greek, referring to its lifelike preservation in amber.
In looks, the 100-million-year-old creature superficially resembles crabs that scuttle around shores today. Computerized tomography scans revealed delicate body parts like antennae, gills and fine hairs on the mouth parts. The creature was only 5 millimeters long and likely a baby crab.

The researchers think that Cretapsara was neither a marine crab nor completely land dwelling. They think it would have lived in fresh water, or perhaps brackish water, on the forest floor. It was also possible, they said, that it was migrating onto land like the famous red Christmas Island crabs that release their babies into the ocean and later swarm back onto land.
While the oldest crab fossils date back to the Jurassic period more than 200 million years ago, fossils of non-marine crabs are sparse and largely incomplete.
The researchers said that Cretapsara proves that crabs made the leap from the sea to land and fresh water during the dinosaur era, not during the mammal era, as previously thought, pushing the evolution of non-marine crabs much farther back in time.

"In the fossil record, non-marine crabs evolved 50 million years ago, but this animal is twice that age," said Luque.
Dinosaur-era amber fossils are only found in deposits from Kachin State in northern Myanmar, and ethical concerns about the provenance of amber from the region have emerged in recent years.
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology called for a moratorium on research on amber sourced from Myanmar after 2017 when the country's military took control of some amber mining areas.
The authors of this study said the amber specimen was acquired by the Longyin Amber Museum from a vendor in the city of Tengchong near the border with Myanmar in southern China in August 2015.
They hoped by "conducting research on specimens collected before the conflict and acknowledging the situation in the Kachin State will serve to raise awareness of the current conflict in Myanmar and the human cost behind it."

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/20/asia/amber-crab-fossil-scn/index.html

LA councilman will sleep overnight in Tiny Home Village



Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon will have a sleepover Wednesday night with other public officials at the Arroyo Seco Tiny Home Village in Highland Park.

The now completed 6.8-acre site within Arroyo Seco Park is the largest tiny home village in the United States, providing 117 housing units and 224 non-congregate beds as transitional residences for people experiencing homelessness in the Highland Park community.

The village, operated by Hope of The Valley Rescue Mission, was funded and built by the city of Los Angeles.

“This is a part of Councilman De Leon’s commitment to do his part in developing 25,000 new homeless housing units by 2025,” the 14th District Office wrote in a statement issued Tuesday.

Each tiny home comes at an estimated cost of $65,000 per unit, making it the least expensive source of homeless housing available in Los Angeles County, and every home in the village has been hand-painted by renowned YouTube artist Zach Hsieh, alongside a crew of other artists he recruited to beautify the village.

Councilman de Leon — who is running for office to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti — will be sleeping at the tiny home village, he said, to prove that housing can be made comfortably and economically for the unhoused community.

To get a perspective on how individuals will be accommodated in the tiny homes, the councilman will have dinner, shower and sleep there just as future residents will do when they start moving into the now completed village within the next few days, he said.

The Arroyo Seco site at 5950 Arroyo Drive is the seventh village to open in the city and the sixth to be operated by Hope of The Valley.

Cyclist Dies After Driver ‘Accidentally’ Ran Over Him Three Times



A cyclist in the US has died after a driver says they 'accidentally' ran him over three times.

Warren Yoshio Watanabe was cycling in Utah when he was hit by a vehicle that was pulling out of a car park.

The driver admitted to realising that she had hit something when doing this manoeuvre.

However, instead of getting out to see what the problem was, a search warrant affidavit explained the motorist then drove 'forward and at this time, she runs over Warren who is lying on the ground directly in front of the vehicle'.



Aware of what was causing the kerfuffle, the woman then reversed back out again, making it a third time that she drove over Mr Watanabe, before realising she was hitting a human being.

She got out of her vehicle and immediately called 911 to get an ambulance.

A search warrant affidavit said Warren suffered 14 broken ribs, kidney and liver damage in the accident and was left being unable to breathe on his own.

He died five days after the September 20 incident.

Utah news site KSL reports the 77-year-old driver told police that she didn't intentionally drive over the victim once, let alone three times.

Roy police spokesman Stuart Hackworth told The Standard-Examiner: "There is no indication or any belief that this was anything other than an accident. She was not aware of what she had hit."

The incident was captured on CCTV by a security camera attached to a nearby restaurant.

The restaurant's general manager explained that the footage looks like the driver didn't realise what was happening underneath her car.

An online obituary for Warren reads: "He was an avid fisherman and he loved to watch his war and western movies. He also loved spending time with his family.

"Warren is survived by his sister, Wendi Watanabe Martinez and brother, Todd (Kami) Watanabe.

"The family would like to express their heartfelt thanks to McKay Dee Hospital ER and ICU personnel. We would also like to thank the Maverik staff and customers for their loyalty and friendship to Warren."

[Mintydreams00]

Labrador kisses massive whale shark on the nose during adorable meeting

Proud dog owner Jade Pursell captured the adorable moment her Labrador Sailor gave a curious whale shark a kiss on the nose as the pair made friends


The 22-foot-long whale shark poke its head out of the water to say hello (Image: @jadepursell_/Kennedy News)

A dog owner has captured the adorable moment her smitten Labrador gives a curious whale shark a big kiss on the nose.

Excited Sailor was so determined to say hello to the huge 22ft-long creature from a small boat that he made sure he got as close as possible.

Jade Pursell, 28, was diving with a friend off Ningaloo Reef, Australia, when they came across the inquisitive fish ,who swam right up to their boat.

Cute footage shows the whale shark poke its head out of the water, within feet of her investigative pet who goes in for a closer look.



Clearly intrigued by the huge beast in the water below, eight-year-old Sailor moved around the motor and leaned overboard to get a closer look.

The whale shark then poked its head out of the water again and Sailor touched its nose with its own nose, like the pair were enjoying a tender kiss.

Dive instructor Jade said: "Sailor had never met a whale shark before. I always hoped she would but that was by far better than I had ever imagined.

"I was telling her not to touch it but neither of them listened to me. Sailor sniffed and kissed the shark.

"I was so happy. To see Sailor meet a whale shark, I honestly just felt overjoyed. Animals are incredible and it couldn't have gone any better. I wondered if she knew or could smell that this was the animal I swim with everyday.


Friendly Labrador Sailor gives the curious whale shark a kiss on the nose (Image: @jadepursell_/Kennedy News)

"My initial worry was that she might take a leap of faith onto the shark or that she would touch it. Once the shark was so close to her I knew I had nothing to worry about.

"It was such an innocent interaction, I felt so lucky to see it. To think Sailor is probably the only dog in the world to have kissed a whale shark is pretty special."

Initially Jade thought the bubbles being made by friend Jorja were what had attracted the whale shark to their boat but thinks it knew Sailor was on board.

Jade said: "Jorja made a big leap into the water and the whale shark became intrigued by her bubbles.


Jade, 28, was diving off Ningaloo Reef, Australia (Image: @jadepursell_/Kennedy News)

"At first I thought the whale shark liked the bubbles coming from the movement of the boat in the swell but then it raised its head out of the water to look into the boat.

"I don't know whether it was the squeaking noise Sailor was making in excitement or whether it could sense her, but they were face to face and then came the kiss."

Jade's video has been viewed more than 35,000 times since being uploaded online with commenters describing the pair's interaction as 'adorable' and 'beautiful'.

One commenter wrote: "This is so adorable it nearly made me cry."

Another person joked: "OMG that is so amazing. I thought Sailor was going to jump in."

One commenter said: "Wow what an amazing video. They are massive, I'm surprised Sailor wasn't scared."

Another person simply said: "That's so awesome."

Conservative host Candace Owens calls for US to invade Australia to free people from ‘tyranny’

A US commentator has gone on a tirade against Australia’s “tyrannical” Covid restrictions and suggested the US should send in the troops.

A conservative US commentator has suggested America should “invade” to liberate Australians from “tyrannical” Covid-19 restrictions, likening the country to the early stages of a dictatorship under Hitler or Stalin.

Daily Wire host Candace Owens made the provocative comments in her Tuesday show, saying that her husband has family members in Australia, one of whom recently shared that “the mental state of everyone around her was in steep decline”.

“She shared with him a message that she had received from a friend of hers, a woman who lives in Queensland, and the message is genuinely shocking,” Owens said.

“I was shocked reading this message and I decided that for this episode I’m just going to read it for verbatim. It’s a list of the Covid rules that Australian citizens are being made to follow. As I read this I want you to close your eyes and imagine that this was your life, and what your mental state would be like if you were being made to abide by these rules.”

Owens then read off a long list of Covid-19 restrictions that have been in place at various times during the pandemic, including household visitor limits, funeral caps, QR code check-ins “literally everywhere, including toilets”, curfews and travel restrictions.

“There are helicopters patrolling the skies to ensure that everybody is abiding by the curfews,” she said, apparently referring to viral footage from Sydney’s eastern suburbs earlier this year.

“You’re not allowed to sit down at parks, beaches and public spaces. You’re not allowed to drink or eat while standing up anywhere. No dancing anywhere. Only one person per household is allowed to go shopping for essentials. Only essential shopping is allowed and at times, the Defence Force and police have checked what people are shopping for. Dog parks, playgrounds, bike parks, beaches are closed and barricaded. Mask wearing is required when outside and even if you are alone.”

Owens said the thing that shocked her the most was people being locked out of their own states.

“Thousands of them are not allowed to return unless they get a vaccine, only after they go through a slow and restrictive exemption request process,” she said. “This is what is going on right now in Australia.”

Owens then questioned why America shouldn’t invade Australia like Afghanistan.

“For the last 20 years, the United States has spent trillions of dollars overseas in Afghanistan fighting a war, which we lost by the way,” she said.

“We were told the war was necessary anyway, the slaughtering of American sons and daughters on foreign soil because we were fighting a noble cause – to spread democracy in a tyrannical land. To free an oppressed people.

“So I’m going to ask those same lecturing politicians and media members a question – when do we deploy troops to Australia? When do we invade Australia and free an oppressed people who are suffering under a totalitarian regime? When do we spend trillions of dollars to spread democracy in Australia?”


People at Albert Park Lake in Melbourne, Australia

Owens claimed Australia was currently “a tyrannical police state” that was stripping away “the most basic of individual freedoms”, with citizens “quite literally being imprisoned against their will” and unable to leave the country.

“What is happening in Australia under the guise of this virus is federal overreach,” she said.

“Tyranny. Totalitarianism. The kind that gives birth to evil dictatorships and human atrocity. We are watching a replay of the early ambitions of Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez.”

Australia was one of the key US partners during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

More than 39,000 Australian soldiers deployed, 41 were killed and more than 260 wounded.

The US was widely criticised by its allies for an abrupt and botched withdrawal in August that saw the Afghan army collapse to a resurgent Taliban, which quickly retook control of the country.

“Can anybody explain to me why the Australian government is any better or any nobler than the Taliban?” Owens said.

“Both groups believe they have a right to oppress and a right to imprison people for their own good.”

Owens is the latest high-profile conservative commentator to criticise Australia’s Covid-19 measures.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham in August mocked Sydney’s lockdown despite a “case-to-population ratio of .004 per cent”, while fellow host Tucker Carlson last month slammed Australia’s “draconian” policies.

Earlier this month, Australia became the surprising focal point of a march against vaccine mandates for teachers in New York, with hundreds of demonstrators gathering outside the Australian consulate chanting “Save Australia” and some waving Aussie flags.

High-profile Republican politicians including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Senator Ted Cruz have also taken shots at Australia.

Australia has largely escaped the worst of the pandemic, with just 1448 deaths.

The official US death toll stands at more than 729,000.

[email protected]

[PennySerenade]

A deer was seen jumping into a lake in Scarborough on Monday and a nearby boat guided it back to shore.

Marilyn Louis was visiting the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant just after 5:30 p.m. when she witnessed a deer appear from the east side of the plant.

Louis says the deer became panicked by the crowds of people in the area, and that it jumped into Lake Ontario beside the water facility.

Luckily, there was a person in a small boat nearby who cautiously rode behind the deer to guide it back to shore.

Video Here:
https://twitter.com/blogTO/status/1450554087532027904



Although it happened pretty fast, Louis was able to capture the rescue on her phone and posted a video of it on The Beaches Toronto Facebook group.

"An angel on a boat," said Tracy Torrance, a community member who commented on the video.

Many others expressed gratitude towards Louis for capturing such a wholesome interaction.

"The deer is gorgeous, canoe to the rescue!!!" said Jessica Arseneau

Some people were concerned for the safety of the deer after it got out of the water.

"Hope could get to higher ground from where he ran on the beach," said Marie Middleton. "So glad he made it back to shore, must have been frightening for him," she added.

The deer was able to reach a mount of rocks, where it stumbled a few times, until reaching safety on shore and running away.

[prokroustis]

‘Missing link’ of Alphabet found in Israel dating 3,450 ago



An alphabetic inscription is written on a jar fragment found at the site of Tel Lachish in Israel

An alphabetic inscription written on a jar fragment found at the site of Tel Lachish in Israel and dating back around 3,450 years may provide a “missing link” in the history of the alphabet, a team of researchers said.

“Dating to the fifteenth century B.C., this inscription is currently the oldest securely dated alphabetic inscription from the Southern Levant,” wrote the researchers led by Felix Höflmayer, an archaeologist at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, in a paper published April 14 in the journal Antiquity.

The earliest evidence of writing that uses a system of letters to represent sounds — an alphabet — was found in Egypt and dates to the 12th dynasty (around 1981 B.C. to 1802 B.C.), with more examples being found from around 1300 B.C. in the Levant (an area that includes modern-day Israel), Höflmayer’s team wrote in their paper. In later times, the Greeks adopted the use of an alphabet system, followed by the Romans (with their Latin writing system) who also used one. The use of an alphabet system was gradually adopted by more and more cultures.

[Basia1971]

Dad Buys Ice-Cream Truck to Ensure His Two Adult Children With Down Syndrome Have Jobs.




A dad wanted to do something to help his grown children with Down syndrome have an employment opportunity. So he bought an ice cream truck, and now it’s become a hit in the community.

Joel Wegener knew his two adult children, Josh and Mary Kate, could have difficulty finding a job as they both have Down syndrome. And when Mary Kate, 21, finished a program for people with disabilities, she said she “wanted to work with papa,” he told a local media outlet. And that’s how Special Neat Treats was born.

The dad said it started about ice cream, but it’s become so much more because every time they go out, they find a family with special needs or some connection. “It’s been an unbelievable journey,” he said.

The biggest seller is the SpongeBob popsicle, but they’ve sold more than 5,000 desserts this summer and that has them wanting to expand their business for next summer. The dad has been able to work with his two kids, teaching them about the financial side and managing money, and helping them build their social skills by interacting with customers.

It started out as a dad wanting to do something to help his kids be OK in this world, and it grew into something he hopes inspires other parents of kids with disabilities. He wants to change the entire conversation about how society views people like that.

“It’s much more than selling ice cream,” he said. “To give me kids something to do and show other parents maybe there is something creative, out of the box we can come up for our family and kids to do.”

“No matter what your abilities are, there’s something you can do and you can spread joy and interact with people.”

There may be no new business that lives up to its name more than the Special Neat Treats ice cream truck.

[goldie0608]

In a major scientific advance, a pig kidney is successfully transplanted into a human



US surgeons say they have successfully given a pig's kidney to a person in a transplant breakthrough they hope could ultimately solve donor organ shortages.

The recipient was brain-dead, meaning they were already on artificial life support with no prospect of recovering.

The kidney came from a pig that had been genetically modified to stop the organ being recognised by the body as "foreign" and being rejected.

The work is not yet peer-reviewed or published but there are plans for this.

Experts say it is the most advanced experiment in the field so far.

Similar tests have been done in non-human primates, but not people, until now.

Using pigs for transplants is not a new idea though. Pig heart valves are already widely used in humans.

And their organs are a good match for people when it comes to size.

During the two-hour operation at the New York University Langone Health medical centre, the surgeons connected the donor pig kidney to the blood vessels of the brain-dead recipient to see if it would function normally once plumbed in, or be rejected.

Over the next two-and-a-half days they closely monitored the kidney, running numerous checks and tests.

Lead investigator Dr Robert Montgomery told the BBC's World Tonight programme: "We observed a kidney that basically functioned like a human kidney transplant, that appeared to be compatible in as much as it did all the things that a normal human kidney would do.

"It functioned normally, and did not appear to be undergoing rejection."

The surgeons transplanted a bit of the pig's thymus gland too, along with the kidney. They think this organ might help stop the human body rejecting the kidney in the long term by mopping up any stray immune cells that might otherwise fight the pig tissue.

A heart transplant recipient himself, Dr Montgomery says there is an urgent need for finding more organs for people on waiting lists, although he acknowledges his work is controversial.

"The traditional paradigm that someone has to die for someone else to live is never going to keep up.

"I certainly understand the concern and what I would say is that currently about 40% of patients who are waiting for a transplant die before they receive one.

"We use pigs as a source of food, we use pigs for medicinal uses - for valves, for medication. I think it's not that different."

He said it was still early research and more studies were needed, but added: "It gives us, I think, new confidence that it's going to be all right to move this into the clinic."

The family of the recipient, who had wanted to be an organ donor, gave permission for the surgery to go ahead.

US regulator the FDA has approved the use of the genetically modified pig organs for this type of research use.

Dr Montgomery believes that within a decade, other pig organs - hearts, lung and livers - could be given to humans needing transplants.

Dr Maryam Khosravi, a kidney and intensive care doctor who works for the NHS in the UK, said: "Animal to human transplantation has been something that we have studied for decades now, and it's really interesting to see this group take that step forward."

On the ethics, she said: "Just because we can doesn't mean we should. I think the community at large needs to answer these questions."

A spokesperson for NHS Blood and Transplant, said matching more human donors remained the priority for now: "There is still some way to go before transplants of this kind become an everyday reality.

"While researchers and clinicians continue to do our best to improve the chances for transplant patients, we still need everyone to make their organ donation decision and let their family know what they want to happen if organ donation becomes a possibility."