[FRKJ]

Kidnapped Lemur is Rescued and Returned to Safety Thanks to Eagle-Eyed Young Boy

An elderly ring-tailed lemur has been returned safely to his home at the San Francisco Zoo thanks to the quick actions of an eagle-eyed young boy.

Maki the lemur was believed to have been stolen out of his enclosure earlier this week after police discovered signs of forced entry following his disappearance.

Zookeepers were particularly worried about the endangered critter not only because he requires specialized care, but also because the average life expectancy of lemurs is 16 years. Maki, who is an impressive 21 years old, is considered a senior resident of the zoo.

After staffers alerted city police forces to the break-in, the zoo’s Twitter page offered a $2,100 reward—$100 for each year of Maki’s life—for any information leading to his recovery.

Luckily, the lemur was spotted by a 5-year-old boy named James Trinh just two days after his kidnapping.

James, who is a student at the Hope Lutheran Church Day School, had been waiting outside for his mother when he saw Maki playing on the church’s playground equipment. When his mother finally arrived, he immediately told her to “Call the zookeeper!”

Although it took some wrangling for animal control and Daly City Police officers to safely remove Maki from his hiding place inside the plastic playhouse, the senior lemur was returned to the zoo and found to be in good health.



Police have not yet been able to identify the lemur’s kidnappers—but in a show of gratitude for Maki’s return, his relieved caretakers made a donation to the Hope Lutheran Church Day School and rewarded James with a lifetime membership to the zoo.

“Following the abduction of our beloved senior ring-tailed lemur, Maki, we received an outpouring of concern, which led to his return late Thursday evening!” wrote the zoo’s Twitter page. “Somewhat anxious and hungry, Maki appears to be in good health!”

“We appreciate and thank SFPD and [Daly City Police] for their diligence and especially thank the Hope Lutheran Church for the information that led to his safe reunion. The San Francisco Zoological Society will be making a donation to the church in Maki’s honor. Thank you, all!”

[angellove0810]

Hong Kong : Rare pink dolphins enjoy comeback as pandemic slows marine traffic

Because ferry service between Macau and Hong Kong is suspended, people have been seeing the pink dolphins in the water.

A positive side effect of the coronavirus pandemic is an increase in sightings of pink dolphins in the waters around Hong Kong.

Ferries between Hong Kong and Macau have been suspended since February, providing local marine scientists an opportunity to study how the mammals have adapted to the "unprecedented quiet".

"We're seeing much larger group sizes as well as much more socialising, mating behaviour, which we hadn't really been seeing for the last five years or so," said Dr. Lindsay Porter, a Hong Kong-based marine scientist.

According to Porter's research team, the number of pink dolphins has increased by roughly a third in those waters since March.

"These areas seem to be important for feeding and socialising. So it's great that there's this refuge for them," added Brennan, a member of Porter's team.

Dog Stolen and Dumped in a Recycling Bin is Reunited With Owner


Dognapping is a cruel crime. It takes a family member away from their home and loved ones causing suffering for the dog and their humans. But it is always great to hear about people who are reunited with their furry loved ones, such as the young girl who was reunited with her stolen dog after 16 months and the veteran who was reunited with his stolen pit bull after 10 long days.

Recently, a poor little terrier was stolen from his family’s garden. His owner had CCTV footage of someone taking the dog. The family was putting up posters and posting to lost dog websites in hopes of getting their dog back. Fortunately, an inspector for the RSPCA rescued the dog. The poor dog was found dumped in a clothing recycling bin.
Thankfully, the dog was reunited with his family!

Dog-napping is sadly quite common. To keep your pets safe, the RSPCA advises that you avoid leaving your dog on its own outside, have your pets microchipped, and make sure they have an updated tag on their collar.

[Governor3]

Meet ‘NYC’s Banksy,’ who turns signs and subways into artistic tributes



British street artist Banksy still operates anonymously around the world.

But New York City’s version of the mysterious artist is a Brit named Adrian Wilson, who has just begun attaching his name to his pieces, cheeky alterations to subway signs that pay homage to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Bowie and more.

Wilson has spent the last week working on his latest public project: a 10 by 12-foot mural to honor rock ‘n’ roll icon Eddie Van Halen, who died last week at age 65 following a lengthy battle with cancer. This display at 246 Bowery, commissioned by the arts nonprofit Little Italy Street Art (LISA) Project NYC, shows the outline of a van blended into the image of an electric guitar over “HALEN” painted in bold letters.

“I’m trying to give people a more quirky way of remembering somebody that’s not so solemn,” said Wilson, 56, who grew up in Manchester, England, but now lives in New Jersey. “It’s more playful, but visually has an impact.”

Onlookers will never see his name, a promotional hashtag or his Instagram handle (@Plannedalism) written beneath his work. And that’s why the hundreds of folks who shared his underground homages never knew the identify of the artist, an architectural photographer by trade.

He managed to remain anonymous for years even as he outfitted subway stations, and even street signs, with subtle designs that memorialize beloved celebrities who have passed away, including Prince and Bowie. But in September, Wilson started coming clean — feeling emboldened to identify himself because he’s now an American citizen and, he said, no longer fears criminal charges.

“When I did these all anonymously, it was way easier, it was way better,” he said. “I had personal satisfaction … People in my community knew it was me.”

This subway and street sign work is all technically vandalism, and therefore illegal, although he’s never been apprehended for these specific stunts. (He told The Post he’s been arrested twice for trespassing and graffiti. Both cases have since been dismissed.)

In September, Wilson worked with artist Matt Duncan to alter the mosaic tile signs at the 50th Street C/E subway station with stickers to read “RUTH ST.” in honor of Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, who died several days earlier at age 87 of pancreatic cancer. It was the first time he ever took credit for one of these stunts, posting a few snaps and videos on Instagram.

“It didn’t cause any major disruption,” he said of the Ginsburg work, which stayed up around six hours before being removed. “Maybe [it was] about time to say, ‘Yeah, it was me.’ ”

Earlier this year, for the fourth anniversary of Bowie’s death, Wilson affixed stickers to the Broadway-Lafayette Street subway station sign so that the B/D/F/M signs read “BDWIE.” In 2018, when news broke that Aretha Franklin had entered hospice, Wilson — in the span of five hours — decked out the Franklin Street 1 train stop with stickers spelling out her hits “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” and “I KNEW YOU WERE WAITING,” as well as stairway stickers that read “ARETHA MAKES ME FEEL LIKE A NATURAL WOMAN.”

“Absolutely everything came together and I even surprised myself,” he said of the Franklin tribute, which was removed the next day but replaced with more permanent, MTA-sanctioned “Respect” stickers.

And following the death of Prince in 2016, Wilson headed to the Prince Street N/R station to sticker over the “ST.” tilework to have the signs read “PRINCE RIP,” although the decals didn’t cover it entirely.

“If it’s too perfect, people don’t even see it,” said Wilson.

Wilson said his favorite tribute was his first, several weeks after Bowie died in 2016, scrawling “David” onto an overhead Bowery sign at the corner of Bowery and Houston Street. Overnight, and in the middle of a blizzard, Wilson and several others dragged a flimsy ladder to the intersection to make it happen. The idea, Wilson said, came from his brother, who mentioned that the city should rename the Bowery as David Bowery, as the street runs near Bowie’s former Soho home.

“New York is about taking risks and showing people it’s OK … whatever that risk is,” said Wilson, a single father of two children in their 20s.

But Wilson’s repertoire is more than “plannedalism.” In 2019, he painted three tanks and the Chinese characters for “remember” on the facade of 188 Allen St. to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. He’s even made MTA-style stairway stickers to put in subway stations that read “CREATE SOMETHING” in place of “IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.” He’s spray-painted discarded chairs (one pair says “SONNY” and “CHAIR,” a riff on Sonny and Cher) and even writes on freshly cut tree stumps — one example says, “THE FIRST CUT WAS THE DEEPEST.”

Wilson also completed those works anonymously, since his goal is to create art in an effort to inspire others to do the same. A proud moment for him: Following the January death of Kobe Bryant, someone, in Wilson’s own style, affixed stickers to Bryant Park subway station signs to read “Kobe Bryant Park.”

“I’d rather do something that doesn’t tell people how to think … but encourages them to think,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2020/10/16/meet-nycs ... -tributes/

Nobody knows why this mother bear is so aggressive, but her fans online love it


You looking at me? Grazer, an aggressive female bear, has won a devoted following at Katmai national park in Alaska.

Grazer, a 15-year-old sow, will maul, swat or bite any bear that even thinks about getting too close to her cubs

More than 2,000 bears live within Katmai national park in Alaska, where they spend the precious few warm-weather months fishing for salmon, swimming and strolling over the park’s nearly 4.1m acres. But in recent years, one bear has cultivated an internet following for demonstrating uncommonly aggressive behavior with others.

Meet Grazer, a 15-year-old sow, and arguably one of the most easily recognizable animals on the park’s Bear Cam, which live-streams footage of the park’s brown bears from early summer to just before hibernation. With a light blond coat, a long, straight muzzle and large, conspicuous ears not unlike pom-poms, she’s easy to pick out, and something of a celebrity; a clip of her chasing after her cubs after they rode the current over a waterfall garnered 1.8m views and nearly 28,000 shares on Facebook, and loyalists have gone as far documenting her life history on a fandom wiki.

Grazer is a particularly defensive mother – something that’s mystified park rangers over the years. She had cubs earlier this year – but her behavior goes back to 2016, according to park rangers who worked there at the time, when she reared her first litter of three. While other mother bears will be more discreet about removing their cubs from potentially dangerous situations, Grazer is quick to go on the offensive, pre-emptively attacking other bears, even the largest adult males.

“It really seems like almost any bear that looks at her the wrong way, she will charge,” said Mike Fitz, a former ranger at Katmai who now works for explore.org, monitoring the animal-viewing webcams. Fitz worked closely with the bears at Katmai from 2007 – when Grazer was a two-year-old and still hanging out with her mother – through 2016, when Grazer’s first litter was born.

Amber Kraft, the interpretation and education program manager for Katmai national park, echoed Fitz, saying, “Grazer proved to be remarkably protective of her first litter” and that she was displaying the same temperament with this batch.


Grazer’s aggressive behaviour dates back to her first litter of three cubs in 2016.

While Grazer’s behavior may sound unnaturally hostile or potentially hazardous, Kraft says it is not so unheard of that it is cause for concern. Mother bears are known for being defensive, Kraft says, but “as a more dominant female, Grazer displays a more offensive nature”.

This often manifests in Grazer charging and roaring at bears she thinks are intruding on her family’s space. If the offender doesn’t move away quickly enough, she’ll attempt to maul them, swatting and biting at their faces.

Cubs, particularly first-year cubs, are vulnerable to a variety of threats, not the least of which is other bears. Fitz said a high level of defensiveness may have evolved in mother bears to reduce cub mortality, which could explain Grazer’s behavior. It could also be a case of immediate gratification – every time she’s successful at defending her space it gives her the confidence to do it again.

“Her behaviors aren’t things that we don’t see in other bears, but she seems to exemplify defensiveness more than other female bears at Brooks River,” said Fitz. “Exhibiting those behaviors allows Grazer to occupy these fishing spots that other females can’t access.”

Grazer’s apparently fearless attitude can be seen at one of the park’s waterfalls – a densely packed fishing spot on the Brooks River. In peak summer, hundreds of salmon are airborne every minute, causing a feeding frenzy. Because tensions can run high there, not all females will take their cubs near the falls and will instead opt to fish in less competitive spots downriver or will scavenge.

Grazer, however, likes to fish directly on the lip of the falls (sometimes with her cubs, sometimes without), where the concentration of salmon is highest. While not unheard of, this behavior does set her apart from other female bears.


Despite her aggressiveness, Grazer is very tender with her cubs.

Officially, Grazer is known by her identification number #128 – she’s one of few bears at Katmai national park to have received a nickname.

Grazer earned her moniker years ago, according to Fitz, after a co-worker noticed she was frequently grazing on vegetation as a sub-adult. But now her nickname is more a verb, at least among hardcore fans of the park’s bear cam, who refer to her physical encounters with other bears as getting “Grazered”.

“You can almost predict that some bears are going to get charged by her,” Fitz said.

Contrary to popular belief, bears don’t want to fight. They’d rather prepare for hibernation and a successful winter. Bears recognize each other and their varying places in the hierarchy help them avoid conflict. And size can become shorthand for bears’ reputation: often when two of the largest bears at Katmai, known as #856 and #747 approach the waterfall, the other bears will instinctively move out of their way.

Still, disposition plays a big role in the hierarchy, as well. Bears with more aggressive and assertive demeanours (and the fighting skills to back it up) are sometimes able to leapfrog over larger bears in the ranking system. Because Grazer is so reactive, she’s on a level other females and many males will probably never reach.

It’s too early to say if any of Grazer’s cubs will exhibit similar defensive behaviors to their mother or if they’ll be mellower. For now, Grazer’s biggest concern is raising healthy cubs – by any means necessary.

“We’ve been able to witness that maternal connection, that bond between mother and cub,” Fitz said. “Cubs make this reverberating noise when they’re feeling contentment and when they’re nursing. It’s kind of like purring, but sounds more like a car engine that won’t start. That stands out in my mind. Not just her defensiveness, but also her tenderness with her cubs.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ans-online

[johngriffen]

IN OTHER NEWS...
CURRENTLY OFFLINE

Hold off posting your news stories
The editors and accountant department are reviewing last weeks reports to insure that all our reporters get their proper paycheck

[johngriffen]

FOR STORIES POSTED THE W/O OCTOBER 12
Our news editors at IN OTHER NEWS have carefully reviewed all the stories submitted by our reporters
Following is last weeks Reporter Log

LEGEND:
X = Acceptable Story
X = PULITZER PRIZE
NA = Not Acceptable Story
DS = Duplicate Story
NOTE: If you feel the editors made a mistake, please feel free to PM me so that we can review your claim

A SPECIAL THANKS TO 8 ACE REPORTERS WHO FILED A NEW STORY EVERY DAY
Fatima99
FRKJ
goldie0608
Governor3
hija
HogwartsExpress
PennySerenade
Zbignieww



Every week the editors will review all the stories and pick the one story that we feels deserves a
MOBI PULITZER PRIZE
There are many different categories for submissions. Last week, the category was "FAMILY"
But this week, the category was "GOOD NEIGHBOR"
For those interested in how the category is decided, it's simple. When the week begins, before ANY story is posted, I randomly select a category and record it on my spread sheet. And the reason why I don't post up front the category, is also simple. I'm sure we would all like to see many different diverse types of stories each week, and I don't want people to focus on past categories. Yeah, as time passes, some of the old categories will appear again, but it will remain pretty much random to keep our reporters on their toes

W/O OCTOBER 12 CATEGORY = GOOD NEIGHBOR
REPORTER = PENNYSERENADE
DAY = WEDNESDAY - OCTOBER 12
STORY = "Black female chefs cook 2,000 Thanksgiving meals for Toronto area shelters'"

This story shows the true spirit of Thanksgiving

CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS WEEKS MOBI PULITZER PRIZE WINNER = 100 WRZ

THE NEXT NEWS CYCLE WILL BEGIN SHORTLY

[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
MONDAY OCTOBER 19
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
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[Fivetide]

'Breathable Bacon' face mask gives wearers the aroma of bacon



A U.S. company is offering fans of breakfast meats the chance to enjoy the scent of sizzling pork anytime they want with a bacon-scented face mask.

Hormel said the Black Label Breathable Bacon mask uses the "the latest in bacon-smell technology" to give the wearer the experience of smelling bacon anytime they don the COVID-19 protection accessory.

Bacon fans can register to win a bacon-scented mask until Oct. 28 at breathablebacon.com.

"Hormel Black Label Breathable Bacon is bacon-scented for an irresistibly breathable, heavenly aroma that you can keep all to yourself," the website states.

Hormel said the company will donate one meal to Feeding America for every contest entry, up to 10,000.

See video here:
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/10/16 ... 602867568/

(I know people love bacon, but seriously, this is taking it way too far! )

[goldie0608]

Monster Pumpkin Weighing 2,350-lbs is Crowned Largest Grown in North America



A Minnesota grower drove his gigantic gourd all the way to California to capture first prize at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off with a whopping beauty weighing 2,350-pounds.

And it’s so befitting that Travis Gienger hails from Anoka, a town that has for years dubbed itself the Halloween Capital of the World.

Gienger, a horticulture teacher at the Anoka Technical College, won the grand prize of the Safeway-sponsored annual event which pays $7 for every pound, taking home $16,450.

Seeds from a giant pumpkin are the size of a peach pit and after being planted in April, giant pumpkins can gain as much as 50 pounds a day, on their best day. Gienger has been growing pumpkins in his backyard for 20 years and, according to the Star-Tribune, recently perfected soil conditions for the Atlantic Giant seed variety and at its peak his champion gourd was growing 53 pounds per day in the sandy soil of Anoka.

The pumpkin was a mere 274 pounds shy of smashing the world record of 2,624 pounds, set in 2016 by Mathias Willemijns of Belgium at the Giant Pumpkin European Championship in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

Keys to growing giant pumpkins include superior seed lineage, treating with fertilizer every other day, constant moisture, and burying the vine in the soil to promote rooting.

The Star-Tribune reports that a single crack in the pumpkin during the cross-country drive would have disqualified him from the contest, but “Gienger fitted a trailer with a pallet, tarps and soil to keep Tiger King from bouncing around, and he watered it every time they stopped for gas.”

Due to the COVID pandemic, the event was live-streamed, and normally the winning pumpkin is sent to a botanical garden. That, too, was cancelled, but in a happy coincidence for the Minnesota winner, this year happens to be the 100th anniversary of Anoka’s Halloween celebration, so it will make a perfect celebrity as the legitimate Great Pumpkin.

The first championship weigh-off in Half Moon Bay was held in 1974 when the mayor challenged the citizens in Circleville, Ohio, to a competition because they proclaimed themselves the “Pumpkin Capital of the World”, a title they lost that year.

The Northern California town grows about 3,500 tons of pumpkins annually with its dozen commercial growers shipping the golden gourds all across the United States.

[FRKJ]

Singapore’s Plan to Plant 1 Million Native Trees Will Protect Species And Put a Park 10 Minutes From Every Citizen

In an effort to restore Singapore’s once-rich mangrove forest ecosystems, the nation is embarking on a 1 million tree planting spree in hopes that they can save numerous bird, reptile, and tree species from extinction, and provide a ton of valuable ecosystem services.

The development of the small island into a world economic juggernaut which has brought billions in foreign investment currency to impoverished East Asian and Indo-Pacific communities has also replaced many of the island’s original mangrove forests with urban infrastructure.

However like most nations, the city-state of Singapore also has a national parks agency, and they have some plans in mind to help “green” the cities, and restore bird and tree populations in mangrove forests, as well as ensure that every Singaporean is “10 minutes from a park.”

The government is also sponsoring the creation of rooftop gardens, curbside foliage, and other green city projects like therapy garden parks, which will be designed to meet the physical, psychological and social needs of park-goers. Visitors will be able to experience a range of health benefits such as the relief of mental fatigue, reduced stress, and improved emotional well-being.

Trees play an important role in creating a livable environment, National Parks Conservation Group director Adrian Loo tells Mongabay. “They serve as natural air filters, they reflect radiant heat, and cool surfaces… and help to mitigate climate change.”

The planting of one million trees was assigned a target date intelligently set to conclude by 2030, as tree-planting operations tend to suffer from unrealistic deadlines.



In August, park authorities announced the creation of the Sungei Buloh Park Network, a 990 acre (400 hectare) park of wetlands and mangroves in the northern part of the island. Sungei Buloh encompasses several different existing wetland habitats, including mangroves and mudflats, and plays host to 279 different species of migratory birds.

Despite the relative size disparity between Singapore and its neighbor Malaysia, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is an important stop on the migration routes of dozens of species that travel every year from Australia and Russia to New Zealand and Alaska.

Also found in Sungei Buloh are large monitor lizards, saltwater crocodiles, and smooth-coated otters, presumed extinct up until the 1990s—and 20 new species discovered for the first time.

“Singapore’s mangroves punch way above their weight [in biodiversity,” Geography professor Dan Friess from the National University of Singapore told Mongabay. “We only have a small area of mangroves, but within that we have huge biodiversity. For instance, in the U.S. they only have three species of mangrove plant species, while in Singapore you can find 35 different species of plant species in its mangroves.”

Some of these mangroves are critically endangered, and tree nurseries on the island have so far produced 51,819 trees which have been transferred to its shoreline. Furthermore, to help speed the process up, Singapore’s government is hiring tree re-location services to move adult trees from areas that are up for development to mangrove and other reserve sites.

Mangroves are the ultimate custodians, and as GNN has detailed before, they provide as many benefits for civilization as any wild feature. They protect against soil erosion, which can deplete farmland and strangle coastal reefs, trap more CO2 than any other tree, and can house dozens of species in every order in Animalia.

They are also the first line of defense for coastal property insurers during storms. For instance, in the U.S. where mangrove ecosystems have declined over the last hundred years, they prevent $100 million in property damage from floods every storm season due to their ability to dissipate the kinetic energy of waves by up to 66%.

[Fatima99]

"Woweee says world's Nobel prize-winning mascot as he reacts to win




From his humble beginnings as a homeless street pup to surviving near-fatal illness to becoming the official mascot for a globally-recognized humanitarian organization, Foxtrot is one lucky dog.

On top of that, his humans just won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

Foxtrot lives at a World Food Programme outpost in Bangladesh, one of the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camps. As GNN reported in August, the dog was just about a month old when WFP workers found him during a beach clean-up and took the hungry dog back to their camp after they couldn’t find his owners.

The pooch’s year just keeps getting better. Last week, the WFP was honored with the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for “its efforts to combat hunger and bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas…”

Reacting “in his own words” on his Instagram page, humanitarian_pup, Foxtrot was thrilled when the award was announced, greeting the news with a tail-wagging, “Woweee!”

The head of the WFP was similarly thrilled by the win. “This is the first time in my life I’ve been speechless,” David Beasley said in a video posted on Twitter.

“Wow. Wow. Wow,” he continued. The “WFP family… out there in the most difficult, complex places in the world… They deserve this award.”

[PennySerenade]

Toronto doctor using TikTok to deliver public health messaging to young people



TORONTO -- When he’s not busy working as a palliative care physician in Toronto and Peel Region, Dr. Naheed Dosani is connecting with young people and creating viral videos on social media.

“I realized that I wanted to get out there and reach large audiences to educate them,” Dosani tells CTV News Toronto. “So I started making videos using a platform called TikTok, and I quickly learned that TikTok was a very powerful medium.”

So powerful that Dosani’s videos, collectively, have around a million views. His most popular videos, which are generally 15 second clips, have well over 100,000 views each.

“I’ve posted videos that are focused on the importance of hand washing, infection prevention strategies, why we physically distance, updates from health Canada, and then even nuanced topics like COVID equity issues,” Dosani explains. “It’s positive, it’s engaging, it’s energetic. They’re relatable to people.”

“I think these videos are great. They’re perfect TikTok videos,” Aimee Morrison, social and digital media professor at the University of Waterloo, said. “[Dosani] is bringing that public health message to young people in a format that they are primed to engage with on a platform where they’re all already hanging out and he’s doing it in a way that’s really catchy and engaging.”

Dosani is hoping to engage people under the age of 40, who he says have recently been targeted by politicians in a way that is not engaging for their age group.

“The predominant way that messaging is getting out there from our government officials tends to be these press conferences that occur in the middle of the day when people are at school or at work,” he says. “When the messaging is coming out, it tends to be a tone of often frustration and a lot of blaming and even shaming people who are under the age of 40. And when I talk to my friends who are under the age of 40, they say this kind of messaging doesn’t resonate with them.”

Morrison says that young people are also not consuming traditional media, and that they are influenced when the information is coming from someone they trust. She used Taylor Swift as an example when it came to online voter registration in 2018.



Morrison adds that when healthcare professionals are believed by people on social media, they are likely to influence behaviours.

“We have to tailor the message to the group that’s going to receive it, and you have to have that message coming from someone that that group of people is inclined to trust and want to follow,” she tells CTV News Toronto.

Dosani says he hopes he’s building trust with the online community, and that he’ll continue to use social media platforms to connect.

“For people under 40, using these platforms is a must,” he adds. “My hope is that this content and my videos are providing a source of positive reinforcement and motivating support for people during this pandemic.”

[HogwartsExpress]

Birds in San Francisco Started Singing Differently in the Silence of the Pandemic Shutdown




When the roads emptied of traffic in March and April because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bay Area residents reported hearing more birds—and they were halfway right.

Jennifer Phillips, a researcher at Cal Poly, and Elizabeth Derryberry, a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, collaborated to evaluate whether and how songbirds responded to the quieter environment with much less traffic.

They compared the soundscapes and songs of the white-crowned sparrow recorded across the San Francisco area prior to and during the statewide shutdown.

“When I saw photos of an empty Golden Gate Bridge, it struck me just how little traffic there was,” said Derryberry, lead author of the study. “I realized we were in a unique position to look at how changes in human behavior might affect wildlife and what the noise reduction might mean for the songbird we study.”

The researchers found that the birds responded by producing softer songs that could travel over a larger distance, unimpeded by noise. The urban songs also became “sexier” in terms of vocal performance—meaning birds sang a wider range of notes in their song, in a wider bandwidth, during the shutdown.

As a graduate student from 2013-2017, Phillips studied the song of the white-crowned sparrow in the Bay Area. Now a postdoctoral researcher at Cal Poly, she returned to her former study sites in April and May 2020 to record noise and song samples from urban and rural sites surrounding San Francisco and Richmond, California. She measured how loud the sparrows were singing and how far away from her they were.

The team then compared those samples to the ones collected from 2012-2020 by Phillips, Derryberry and David Luther, a biologist at George Mason University. During the statewide shutdown, the team observed lower noise levels in the city, as a result of less traffic. In fact, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge returned to levels not seen since 1954.

The dramatic reduction of vehicular traffic had erased a half-century of urban noise pollution.

“The rush hour roar was more like a gentle, sporadic purr,” Phillips said. “Usually, the Presidio is full of visiting tourists coming to see the Golden Gate Bridge, often in large groups. This season, only a few local individuals or couples were out for morning walks or bike rides. It was quite peaceful.”

According to Phillips, prior to the shutdown, bird territories in San Francisco had nearly three times more human noise than in rural western Marin County—but during the shutdown, people could hear effectively four times more birds than usual.

“When the birds don’t have to compete with loud background noise, they can essentially sing more quietly but still communicate over greater distances — approximately twice as far,” Phillips said.

This helps explain media reports suggesting that bird songs sounded louder during the shutdown and that people were more aware of the birds around them. Birds were actually singing more softly, but it was so quiet, they sounded louder.

“Our findings illustrate that behavioral traits can change rapidly in response to newly favorable conditions, indicating an inherent resilience to long-standing anthropogenic pressures like noise pollution,” said Derryberry.

The study published in Science also found that during the shutdown male sparrows’ songs covered a wider range of pitches and so might convey more information for females to use in selecting an effective mate and for males to assess a competitor.

Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/birds-s ... -shutdown/

[WordDiva]

2,000-Year-Old Cat Etching Found at Nazca Lines Site in Peru


Archaeologists came across the faded feline outline while conducting maintenance work at the UNESCO heritage site.



The image, stretching for 40 yards on a hillside in Peru, shows a creature with pointy ears, orb-like eyes and a long striped tail. It appears to be a cat lounging, as cats often do.

Archaeologists stumbled across the faded etching while remodeling a section of a UNESCO heritage site known as the Nazca Lines, Peru’s Ministry of Culture announced last week.

The catlike geoglyph — which experts say dates to 200 B.C. to 100 B.C. — is the latest discovery among the carvings of larger-than-life animals and plants previously found between the towns of Nazca and Palpa, in a desert plain about 250 miles southeast of the capital, Lima.

“The discovery shows, once again, the rich and varied cultural legacy of this site,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Nazca Lines were first discovered by a Peruvian aerial surveyor in 1927. Images of a hummingbird, a monkey and an orca were unearthed at the site. UNESCO has designated the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa a World Heritage Site since 1994.

The cat etching is believed to be older than any of the prehistoric geoglyphs previously unearthed at Nazca.

“It’s quite striking that we’re still finding new figures, but we also know that there are more to be found,” Johny Isla, Peru’s chief archaeologist for the Nazca lines, told Efe, a Spanish news agency.

The designs were believed to have been created when ancient Peruvians scraped off a dark and rocky layer of earth, which contrasts with lighter-colored sand underneath. Researchers believe that the figures once served as travel markers.

Research and conservation work had continued at the site even during the coronavirus pandemic, when most tourist sites have been closed. Archaeologists and employees were working on the Mirador Natural, a lookout point in the protected site, when they began unearthing something intriguing. When they cleaned the mound, clear lines showing the sinuous body of a cat emerged.

“The figure was barely visible and was about to disappear because it is situated on quite a steep slope that’s prone to the effects of natural erosion,” the culture ministry said in a statement.

The authorities said that even a stray footprint could mar the fragile grounds, and have imposed strict rules against trespassing at the site. Before the pandemic shut down tours, visitors were permitted to view the lines and figures only from planes and lookout points.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/worl ... nasca.html