Simply Wearing a Fitness Tracker Makes You Walk 40 Extra Minutes a Day



Simply wearing a fitness tracker encourages you to walk up to 40 minutes more every day, which results in shedding 2.2 pounds in weight in just a few months, according to a large study.

The new analysis looked at studies involving 164,000 people across the world who used the devices—and the data shows the relatively low-cost intervention had many benefits.

The team from the University of South Australia reviewed almost 400 studies and demonstrated wearable activity trackers (WATs) could prevent a host of health conditions caused by lack of exercise.

The lead researcher of the study published in Lancet Digital Health said there is widespread skepticism about WATs’ efficacy, accuracy and whether they fuel obsessive behaviors and eating disorders. But the actual evidence for WATs is overwhelmingly positive.

“Wearable activity trackers are effective across all age groups and for long periods of time,” said doctoral candidate Ty Ferguson. “They encourage people to exercise on a regular basis, to make it part of their routine—and to set goals to lose weight.”

“The other reported benefit is that WATs improved depression and anxiety through an increase in physical activity.”

Professor Carol Maher, co-author of the paper, added, “Bearing in mind these were not weight loss studies, but lifestyle physical activity studies, so we wouldn’t expect dramatic weight loss.

“The average person gains about 0.5 kg a year in weight creep so losing 1kg (2.2 lb) over five months is significant, especially when you consider that two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese.”

Between 2014 and 2020, the number of wearable activity trackers shipped worldwide increased by almost 1500 percent, with purchases in 2020 alone worth $2.8 billion.

As well as weight loss, there is evidence fitness trackers help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, too.

[lush]

Bear scales barbed-wire fence at Air Force base in Florida
Aug. 12, 2022 / 4:11 PM*



Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A bear was caught on camera scaling the barbed-wire security fence at a Florida Air Force Base -- and the bruin's climb took only 34 seconds.

Kevin Dalrymple posted a video to Facebook showing the bear he spotted climbing the fence at Tyndall Air Force Base, located southeast of Panama City.

The bear climbs over the top of the barbed-wire fence in 24 seconds.

"He went over that fence like an Olympian," Dalrymple told WOFL-TV.

Dalrymple said the bruin is a member of a family of bears frequently spotted around the base.

[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 AUGUST 15
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

NOTE: THE RECAP AND REWARDS WILL BE DONE LATER

[Governor3]

Shark or Orca: Which Should You Fear More?
Swimmers often worry about attacks by certain marine predators.
But beware the bite of a more common animal.


In the wild, is a human more likely to survive an encounter with an orca or a great white shark?

— Kameryn F., Yardley, Pa.

By the numbers, white sharks are a lot more dangerous to humans than orcas are. Despite the name “killer whale,” there’s only one well-documented instance of a wild orca attacking someone — Hans Kretschmer, who was bitten on the leg while surfing in California in 1972. Attacks by white sharks, although still rare, happen quite a bit more often; there are several hundred on record.

So why are killer whale attacks so rare? Emma Luck, a marine-mammal researcher at the University of Alaska, told me that a big part of it is just that orcas don’t encounter humans as often. “Killer whales are found in all oceans, but they tend to be found in higher densities around cold, high-latitude regions,” she wrote in a message. “These are areas where the water is not particularly inviting for the average beachgoer!”

She said the 1972 orca attack was probably a case of mistaken identity, as is the case with many shark attacks. “In an open water context, where all parties can view each other clearly, I would wager that both the shark and the killer whale are going to leave you alone,” she said.

In fact, you don’t have to spend long browsing police blotters to confirm that not only are killer whale attacks rarer than shark attacks, they are also rarer than documented cases of swimmers being attacked and bitten by other humans. Granted, that’s because there are a lot more humans than orcas around, but that doesn’t change the conclusion: In the ocean, you’re more likely to be attacked and bitten by a person than by a killer whale.

Because sharks and orcas both spend most of their time hidden underwater, we often think of them in terms of their brief interactions with us — will they attack us or not? If the only two options are “Don’t attack the human” and “Attack the human,” it’s hard not to focus on the second one. After all, it’s the second most likely option!

But sharks and orcas aren’t just hanging out down there deciding whether to attack us. Like the humans you pass on the street, they are mostly busy doing their own thing.

And in the case of orcas, one of the things they’re busy doing is worrying about humpback whales.

For reasons that are unclear to scientists, humpback whales almost seem to have a vendetta against killer whales, as a 2016 paper in the journal Marine Mammal Science noted. All over the world, orcas trying to chase down food are routinely interrupted by out-of-the-blue humpback whale attacks. Humpbacks will band together and travel great distances to intervene in killer whale hunts, regardless of what the prey species is.

The paper even documents cases of humpback whales seemingly lifting seals up out of the water and holding them out of reach of the orcas. The humpbacks stayed and protected the prey for hours, until the orcas were forced to go away hungry.

Why do humpbacks do this? Is this altruism? Game theory? Cross-mammal solidarity? A side-effect of their instinct to protect calves? Or do they just really hate orcas, for reasons known only to them?

“It’s hard to understand why it happens,” Ms. Luck said. “Especially because it’s not limited to just one population of humpbacks. It happens all over the world.”

So if you do encounter a killer whale in the ocean, don’t worry, it’s unlikely to attack you. And if you’re still worried … perhaps consider befriending a humpback.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/science/sharks-killer-whales-swimming.html
--------------
So the takeaway here is to always leave the house with several tons of krill in your pocket in case you need to befriend a humpback whale to avoid being eaten by a human being in the water - Gov

[Fatima99]

'Clever' dog leaves people in stitches as it's spotted surfing along a beach

We've all been soaking up the sunshine this weekend after another heatwave sent UK temperatures into the 30s once again. It wasn't just us Brits who flocked to beaches and swimming pools to cool down either, as our furry friends have been making the most of the waters too, as Cornwall Live reports.

And one dog, in particular, has gone viral on Facebook for his water-based antics after he was spotted by gobsmacked beachgoers at Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall, on Saturday sitting on a surfboard and making his way gracefully over a gentle wave. The black Labrador rode the surfboard all the way to the shore before standing up and getting off the board like it was nothing - where he was then greeted by his very impressed owner.



A video of the dog's watersporting abilities was posted to the Newquay group on Facebook, where it already has already amassed almost 500 shares and 200 comments - with many stunned by the pooch's surfing prowess.

Kerryn Groves, who shared the video, wrote: "Just a dog surfing like a pro on Fistral today. He was absolutely loving surfing with his dad."

According to Cornwall Live, temperatures at Fistral beach hit 29 degrees Celsius this weekend, and the warm weather combined with the nearby Boardmasters festival brought hundreds more to the area than normal.

And according to one commenter on Facebook, the dog's stellar surfing performance should have been enough to see him walk away with the top surfing prize.

Hawk rescued from front grille of truck in Connecticut



Animal control officials in Connecticut said a hawk was rescued after a "very traumatic morning" that saw the bird of prey become stuck in the front grille of a truck.

Waterford-East Lyme Animal Control said in a Facebook post that an officer was dispatched to rescue a hawk that "had a very traumatic morning."

The hawk "was swooping after some tasty breakfast and crossed paths with a truck," the post said.

The post included photos of the hawk embedded in the front grille of the vehicle.

Animal control said the officer was able to extricate the bird of prey, which was then taken to a wildlife rehabilitation facility.

View: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/08/11 ... 660241045/

[prokroustis]

RESEARCHERS FIND PREHISTORIC GRAVE CONTAINING 169 GOLD RINGS



Archaeologists have uncovered a prehistoric grave containing 169 gold rings near the Biharia commune in Bihor County, Crișana, Romania.
The discovery was made during construction works for a new road that connects the city of Oradea with the A3 highway.

Excavations were conducted from march till the end of June by a multi-national team representing institutions from across Romania and Hungary, revealing three sites from the Neolithic Period, two from the middle to late Bronze Age, two from the Roman Period, and two sites from the Middle Ages.

In a press release announced by the Tarii Crisurilor Museum, archaeologists excavating near Biharia found the grave of a woman belonging to the Tiszapolgár culture.

The Tiszapolgár culture (4500–4000 BC), was an Eneolithic archaeological culture of the Great Hungarian Plain, the Banat, Crișana and Transylvania, Eastern Slovakia, and the Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast in Central Europe.

Dr Călin Ghemiş from the Tarii Crisurilor Museum who led the team described how the woman was buried with 169 gold rings that adorned her hair, along with a multi-spiral copper bracelet, two golden beads, and around 800 beads made from bone.

Based on an initial study of the teeth and stature of the deceased, it is believed that the burial was of a high-status woman. This is further supported by the lack of weapons normally associated with male burials from the Tiszapolgár culture.

Samples have been sent to labs in Romania and the Netherlands to obtain more accurate dating through a carbon-14 analysis, in addition to DNA sampling and further anthropological studies.

Within the project’s wider excavations, the team also found traces of two dwellings near the town of Sântandrei that contained ceramics from the 2nd century BC up to the 2nd century AD. The team also found a 3rd to 4th century Sarmatian settlement also near Biharia, and a female skeleton buried with several items of jewellery from the settlement’s necropolis.

Trio of Malayan tiger cubs born at Arkansas Zoo



A trio of endangered Malayan tigers was recently born at the Little Rock Zoo in Little Rock, Ark.

The three tiger cubs were born this past Saturday to mother Asmara, according to a social media post from Little Rock Zoo officials.

The zoo said that Asmara gave birth in a specially prepared indoor denning area, where she and her cubs will remain inside for a few months to get used to their surroundings.

The zoo said that both the mother and the cubs are doing well. The sexes of the babies have not yet been announced.

The cubs' father, Jaya, is currently on display in the tiger habitat and can be seen by guests.

The three cubs will likely come as welcome news to the Little Rock Zoo, which said that the births were recommended as a part of the Malayan Tiger Species Survival Plan.

"The birth of these cubs is significant toward the conservation of this beautiful animal," the zoo said.

While all tiger species remain threatened, the Malayan tiger -- native, as its name suggests, to the country of Malaysia -- faces significant threats from poaching, illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss.

Overhunting of the Malayan tiger's food supply has also been a significant contributor to the dying off of the breed.

The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN). Additionally, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that there are now only 150 Malayan tigers left in the wild, compared to a peak of 3,000 during the 1950s.

While captivity breeding programs like the one in Arkansas have been making progress, there are still only 52 Malayan tigers living in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).

Big cat conservation efforts have ramped up in recent years, particularly in the United States, where a push to outlaw the private ownership of big cats has been seen.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which would restrict the breeding and ownership of big cats to zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.

The bill, which passed in the House by a 278-124 margin, now goes to the Senate for debate. President Joe Biden has indicated that he would sign the bill into law if it were to pass.

[ozswede]

Brazilian architect’s shock find after buying $2600 coffee table

An architect who spent a whopping $2600 on a designer coffee table was horrified when it turned up sporting what looked like a giant penis.

Brazilian architect Ana Julieta Garcia had purchased the table for an interior design project she was working on for a client in Spain.

The 32-year-old paid $2619 for the handmade piece.

But at the time of paying, she had not seen the specific design she would get, as the tables are made from volcanic lava and are each individual.


Brazilian DJ Ana Julieta Garcia poses with the offending coffee table.

Ms Garcia, who also works as a DJ, was astonished when the delivery arrived with the likeness of a penis covering the tabletop.

“It’s a handmade table made from volcanic lava, which is enamelled by hand. You can’t know the final design until it comes out of the oven,” she said.

“That’s the beautiful part of the story, you never know how your product will turn out.

“I saw the example – but it really went wrong in the oven.”


She said working with this material usually turns out multidimensional.

“All the dark pigments clumped together in the middle. Normally, they’re separated,” she added.

“Usually, the final image looks like it is multidimensional. But my order turned out really – interesting – I’d say.”

She joked: “Help! You work your whole life and now your reference is a huge blue d*ck.


‘My order turned out really – interesting.’

“When you put ‘Ana Julieta’ into Google, only this will appear. Nothing about an architect or a DJ.”

She added: “The company sent me the product advising that it hadn’t turned out like they’d hoped.

“It’s just that the table has a long production time. I left it with my client, and the new tabletop is already under production.

“When I handed it over, I said, ‘If you want to keep it, fine. If not, I understand.’”

[PennySerenade]

Ocean floor armchair delights underwater explorers



There are many places where you might expect to see an armchair: six metres underwater in Nova Scotia's St. Margarets Bay is not one of them.

And yet there it was: a miniature stone chair casually placed like an aquatic throne on the sandy ocean floor.

I was not alone in my confusion: a passing fish, a red sea raven, also paused to inspect the strange sight. I took a picture and shared it with friends. Everyone in the diving community wanted to know where the chair was and who had put it there.

I was one of the first scuba divers to find the chair, which turned out to be the work of artist Barbara Anne MacKintosh.

She created the sculpture as part of her coursework at NSCAD University in Halifax. It was carved from a single block of limestone, a project that took about 150 hours of labour. She modelled it on a doll's chair she found at Value Village. It weighs about 36 kilograms and stands about a metre high.

"I like the idea of making something that has such a specific purpose but was unable to fulfil that purpose because of its size," she said. "So just a redundant little item, but I thought it was quite comical."



MacKintosh didn't create the chair with the intention of sinking it. That idea came after she graduated in 2019. MacKintosh was moving back to Alberta, and taking the chair didn't seem practical.

"Because of the weight, I knew it was going to be very expensive," she said. "It was over 80 pounds for sure. I could barely carry it."

That's when MacKintosh thought about her friends in the Halifax Freediving Club. She was one of the original freedivers in Nova Scotia.

It's a sport that involves diving on a single breath. Experienced divers can stay underwater for several minutes.

The freedivers were thrilled at MacKintosh's suggestion they sink the chair as an underwater sculpture.



Club member Tara Lapointe remembers the first picture she saw of the chair, which arrived without any sense of scale.

"I was imagining this huge, life-size lounge chair. And then I just thought, how are we going to manage to get this out into the ocean? And then I found how tiny it was and I found that just hilarious."

While the chair is small — about a metre tall — it's heavy. It took four freedivers and a float filled with air to move the sculpture to its new home just off Paddy's Head in March.

"We wanted it to be in an area where divers would frequent," Lapointe said. "And when we felt like we had the right area and our hands were numb enough, we decided to implant it."

The chair sits not far from a collection of concrete reef balls installed almost 20 years ago in the hopes of encouraging lobsters to take up residence. It hasn't been a great success as a lobster habitat, but it's a popular underwater destination for divers.

The reef balls are covered in seaweed as the ocean slowly takes over. The chair has only been in the water a few months, but organisms are already beginning to grow on it.



MacKintosh hasn't seen her chair underwater yet, but she's thrilled it is already being claimed by nature.

"An armchair makes you think of home. I feel like it expresses that the ocean is our home too. We have such an effect on the ocean. And we have so much responsibility to maintain its health. And I just hope people see that."

Lapointe agrees. She thinks the chair will encourage people to explore the underwater world. "It's going to be a living piece of art. From something inert and just stone, it hopefully will come to life as the years go on."

Both MacKintosh and Lapointe hope the tiny chair will inspire the creation of something much larger: an underwater sculpture park modelled on similar parks around the world that have proved to be popular destinations for travelling divers. "That would be a wonderful asset for Nova Scotia," Lapointe said. "We are Canada's ocean playground."

Above all, MacKintosh wants her work to inspire joy — and to keep her connected to a place she loves.

"I really, really miss Halifax. So having the sculpture, it feels like a little piece of me is still in Halifax. So that makes me really happy."

Mascot at peanut festival forced to change after outfit deemed too ‘phallic’
A mascot clad in a peanut costume for an annual peanut festival had no choice but to change after their get-up was branded too ‘phallic’, leaving people in stitches



Organisers at a peanut festival felt they had no choice but to rethink their mascot’s costume after complaints rolled in likening the original design to a penis.

The original design for mascot Minduca was first unveiled back in 2019 in celebration of the International Peanut Fair, which is held in the municipality of Jaboticabal, São Paulo.

Journalist Regiane Alves was part of the organising committee behind the festival, and has since told local news sources how the issue arose after the cartoonish design was brought to life as a wearable costume.

Behind-the-scenes photos show bandana-clad Minduca hanging out at the fair, and the bottom-heavy costume has caused a fair bit of alarm and amusement among social media users.



A post showing the accidentally "phallic" costume has since clocked up more than 7,300 likes and counting on Facebook, with some people unable to contain their giggles at the sight of it.

One person claimed they were “crying laughing" at the sight of the costume, while another quipped, “Glad [the peanuts weren’t] tasting of what the doll looks like."

A third commented: "Is it just me seeing a d*** than a peanut", while a fourth remarked, "Ironic, right, peanuts are an aphrodisiac (and this one looks like a pistol hshshshs) omg [sic]."

Eventually, the various memes snowballed to such an extent, organisers knew they had to take action to avoid further ridicule.

President of the food fair, Pedro Luís Alves, gave a statement to local media confirming the costume would be altered to better resemble a peanut, with the new, more shell-like costume, designed with a more in-proportion shape plus hatch markings.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-new ... e-27747224

[goldie0608]

Maryland Hero Dog Saves Owners from House Fire By Barking Until Family Wakes Up

A house fire destroyed a Maryland home, however, no one was hurt thanks to a Cairn terrier, who barked to wake up his family before the blaze spread



A Maryland dog is being praised as a hero after helping save his family from a house fire.

A home in Frederick County, Maryland, caught fire early Monday, getting the attention of the family's dog. He barked until his sleeping family woke up, saving them from the blaze, officials said, according to ABC7 WJLA.

Members of Frederick County Fire & Rescue responded to calls about the fire around 4 a.m. local time. The home was ablaze when fire crews got to the scene, Battalion Chief Rusty Hahn said.

Nearly 60 firefighters were on hand to put out the flames, which took an hour.

Before the firefighters arrived, Bear, a Cairn terrier, barked to wake up his family, Hahn told the outlet. The two people in the home saw the flames after waking and immediately got out of the house with Bear before calling the authorities.

Unfortunately, the home was destroyed in the blaze, but, thanks to Bear, no one was hurt.

The cause of the fire has not been confirmed.

Frederick County Fire & Rescue did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

The pup's fast-acting instincts come just days after a North Carolina English Labrador helped a local sheriff's office find a missing child.

A scent was all Maverick, a K-9 with the Union County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina, needed to find the boy, who had been reported missing by his parents, according to WBTV.

"Being that there was a risk for the juvenile to be in a bad situation, we put Maverick on a scent article, the kid's blanket, and he was able to track based off that smell," Deputy Sheriff Joshua Dye told the outlet.

Dye, Maverick's handler, added, "We tracked down to a pretty busy highway, made one turn, went down another road. When the juvenile saw us coming down the road, he actually came out of the woods and came to us, and Maverick ran right up to him, and that's how we found him."

Dye said that without Maverick's keen nose and can-do attitude, the sheriff's office would've had a much harder time finding the missing boy.

"In that situation, we were out on, we tried to ping the juvenile's cell phone, and the cell phone was actually off, and we wouldn't have anywhere to start if we didn't have the dog with us," Dye shared.

He added successful rescues like this show why K-9s like Maverick are "very important" to law enforcement.

"We do a lot of training with him —every week with him — to make sure he stays sharp on what he's doing," Dye said, adding that Maverick is trained in narcotics detection, tracking, article searches, and basic obedience.

[lush]

‘Chaotic’ Family Fight at Funeral Knocks Over Coffin, Leads to Police Intervention
August 15, 2022*

• Here’s one funeral nobody in the family will soon forget.

Emotions can run wild at a funeral — there’s nothing wrong with that. You should still try to keep yourself somewhat in check, though, so you don’t end up with a massive family brawl.

That’s what happened at a recent funeral in Richmond, California. What started out as an argument between two family members quickly got out of hand.

By the time the police got to the scene, 20 funeral-goers were at each other’s throats. One of the original hotheads had also taken his car and tried to run over his sister.

Once the cops got everybody to calm down, the fighting family had tipped over the coffin, broken a water main, flooded a garden, and caused thousands of dollars in damage.

“We sometimes get family disputes at the cemetery or at the church. … This one went above and beyond,” Lt. Matt Stonebraker, a spokesman for the Richmond Police Department, told SFGate.




Bad Blood

Let’s go over the event moment by moment and see what happened. The funeral in question took place on August 6.

A family had gathered to lay a deceased grandmother in her final resting place. Unfortunately, there was some bad blood within the family.

According to Sgt. Aaron Pomeroy, a 36-year-old brother and his sister — grandchildren of the elderly woman to be buried — did not get along.

“It goes back many years,” said Pomeroy.

If their enmity was so long-lasting, perhaps it would’ve been best for the family to keep the siblings away from each other. But that clearly didn’t happen.

At some point, the brother and sister got to talking. And as was their habit, they soon got into a vocal argument.

Somebody did try to defuse the situation, though. Pomeroy said that as things started getting heated, the sister’s boyfriend came over and encouraged the sister to be the bigger person and just walk away.

That was a big mistake.


Going for a Drive

The brother wasn’t pleased that someone tried to interrupt his argument with his sister. So, he pounced on the boyfriend.

“The brother started beating on the boyfriend. That’s when it escalated and it became a brawl and we started to get calls,” Pomeroy said.

Fists started flying all around. Somebody also reportedly pulled out a gun they’d brought to the funeral.

According to Pomeroy, the person had the gun because they knew of the long-standing feuds within the family. Forgive us, but maybe at that point, you should just skip the funeral.

As the fight continued and police received reports of a potentially involved firearm, the brother decided he’d had enough. He dashed to his car, got in, and slammed the gas pedal down — aiming to run over his sister.

“He attempted to drive toward his sister in an aggressive way. Instead, he struck another [33-year-old] female and sent her to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” Pomeroy reported.

While rampaging through the scene in his car, the brother ripped up plenty of the cemetery’s grass. He knocked over several headstones and vases.

The brother also somehow managed to break the cemetery’s water main. As a result, he flooded the funeral director’s grandmother’s plot.

As a crowning achievement, the brother hit his own grandmother’s casket and sent it crashing to the ground. At least the body didn’t fly out of the coffin.




Thousands in Damages

After his little drive, the brother got out of his car. That’s when somebody decided to beat him over the head with a cane.

“They used the cane to try to get him under control. The suspect was hit a couple of times,” Pomeroy said.

“The cane came from someone who was at the funeral. I don’t know that they ever identified where the cane came from.”

At this point, the cops finally arrived to stop what they called a “chaotic altercation.” After receiving care for his injuries, the brother was arrested for felony assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism.

Altogether, the family brawl ended up causing an estimated $20,000 in damages. The Rolling Hills Cemetery said they would cover the cost of repairing any damaged grave plots.

The local District Attorney’s Office is currently reviewing the charges. They’ll decide later if they’ll hold the brother responsible and what charges he’ll face.

The family members might want to let the police know beforehand when they’re planning their next family get-together.

I bet poor ol' granny is rolling in her grave right about now over this mess.

[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
TUESDAY AUGUST 16
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.
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IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

‘These cows saved my life’: the Queensland farm offering healing cattle cuddles

Lawrence Fox acted quickly when he found out the cows on a friend’s farm were to be sold for beef.

The 34-year-old had sought refuge on the farm in Goldsborough, half an hour south of Cairns, after feeling burnt out from his job as a business strategist – and had taken to spendings his days in the company of the farm’s herd of cows.

“I came to realise how unhappy I was, and how happy I became when I spent time with the cows. I grew up with racehorses that are very aggressive and will bite your hand off. If you go near them they can kick you in the face. But the cows were really big, sweet animals that allowed me to hug them and lie down with them. That was a gamechanger.”


Lawrence Fox with Amy and Sophia on the Goldsborough farm.

Once he found out the cows were beef cattle, he says, and it was only “a matter of time” before they were going to be killed, he decided to buy them.

He was convinced that others would also benefit from the calming effect of the animals, and so he started Cow Cuddling Co, a cow therapy social enterprise in Far North Queensland designed to promote calmness and improvements in mental health and assist people to find employment.

“I wanted to make a point of employing people in need and people who, for whatever reason, aren’t able to work the kind of nine-to-five in an office setting, that’s a big part of the social enterprise model,” he says.

“The main thing that we focus on is employment opportunities for people living with mental illness, people who are neurodiverse, and people living with intellectual disabilities. As a member of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council we also donate a portion of our profits to COUCH, a cancer wellness centre in Cairns.”

Fox says that currently, “people are paying out of their own pocket” to visit the farm, but that four NDIS providers have plans to include it in their programs this year.

“The idea is that it is not only sustainable as a cow therapy business, but also a vehicle to educate people about broader social issues in the community like mental illness.”


Patrick, 10, from Brisbane, who lives with autism, visits the cows in Goldsborough.

Fox bought the cows with cryptocurrency, giving each of them a personal asset wealth that exceeded their traditional market value. The cows were now worth more alive than dead; after all, they were no longer just beef cattle, they were therapists. When the MBA course he was studying at Central Queensland University required the development of a viable business model for an assignment, he decided his cow therapy business was the perfect example.

“We were allowed to use a business that we already owned or ran to work with, or we were allowed to make one up. I was initially going to make something up but in the end, this idea was crazier than anything I could have made up.

“A lot of corporate planning, strategy work and marketing was necessary for the business. But they are also assignments that I can be graded on.” (It’s nice to know that no matter how cute the enterprise, the hustle remains the same…)


Sophia and Milkshake on the farm.

‘These cows saved my life’

Donna Astill is Cow Cuddling Co’s first employee. A self-described sufferer of multiple and complex mental health issues, Astill says her new role has been life-changing.

“I have PTSD, borderline personality disorder, social anxiety, depression and rejection sensitivity disorder. I’m just a mixed bag. I struggle in life with a lot of things, even just getting out of bed.

“These cows saved my life.”


‘I’m definitely an example of the benefits of cow therapy’ … Donna Astill feeds Amy and Milo.

With Astill’s children now both 17, and close to leaving home, she developed the courage to visit a local employment agency that advocates for opportunities for people with health issues and disabilities, which connected her with Fox. Now Astill starts work at six in morning, herding cows in the rolling hills of Goldsborough Valley, tucked away at the foot of the Gillies Range.

“Each cow has their own personality, they’re just amazing. If someone told me last year that cows could make this much of a change to someone with mental health issues, I’d say ‘don’t be silly, that’s ridiculous’, but I’m definitely an example of the benefits of cow therapy.

“I’ve been here six months and I can definitely see the improvement in myself. My anxiety levels have decreased in every aspect of my life. I enjoy getting out of bed. I actually smile, when I’m not even at work.

“My kids notice a huge difference. The impact these cows have had on my life, there are no words. It has definitely saved my life. Twelve months ago I wanted to drive my car into a tree. It’s been hard work trying to get to this point and without these beasts, I don’t think I would be in the position I am now.”

Fox is grateful that the cows have helped Astill get her life back on track. He is hopeful that they will help many more.

“The NDIS side of it has been a long road but it’s critical to have this option. We have parents who bring their young children with autism spectrum disorder. Without this farm, they would have to travel Innisfail to do equine therapy with those children, which is over an hour away from Cairns by car.

“We are in the early stages of proving that this model works, but I can already see that it’s helping people.”