[goldie0608]

Watermelons Squashed in Accident Donated to a Wildlife Rescue to Delight and Hydrate Animals

Yak's Produce donated dozens of busted melons to wildlife rehab specialist Leslie Green and the 42 animals living at her Louisiana rescue



In late July, when the Louisiana Watermelon Festival in Farmerville, Louisiana, was in full swing, a produce truck carrying over 100 watermelons and cantaloupes near the festival site was involved in an accident that left fruit scattered on the road.

It appeared that the melons crushed in the accident — which caused no injuries — would go waste until licensed wildlife rehab specialist Leslie Greene came upon the scene.

Once discovering everyone was okay, "I asked the owner of Yak's Produce, 'Well, hey, if y'all are not going to use all this watermelon that's already open, can I have it for the wildlife rehab?'" Greene recalls.

"And the owner is like, 'If it can go to another cause instead of being discarded, that would be wonderful,'" Greene tells PEOPLE.

Yak's delivered the fruits to Greene's 4-acre property, the home of River Bandit Rescue — which currently houses 42 animals, including beavers, raccoons, skunks, opossums, goats, and more. Greene passed the melons onto her furry residents.

"They all just went to town on it," says Greene, 46, who shared the adorable feast on her TikTok @ellegreene2018. "They absolutely love it. With it being so hot and humid, it's the perfect snack."



The beavers were the first to taste the juicy fruit. "I chucked it over the enclosure, and they started coming out," Greene says, "and they love watermelon."

The rescue, which is "out in the country," says the owner, bumps up along a wildlife refuge, where Greene releases the rescue's fully-healed, non-predatory animals.

She and her husband, a pilot for Southwest, also have over 100 acres of family-owned land in Homer, where the couple releases rehabbed predatory animals from their rescue.

"I love the animals. I love helping them," says Greene, a marketer for a nursing home, a job that pays for her rescue and rehabilitation work. "I've always been a nurturer. If something or someone needs me, it makes me feel good."

After Greene shared her melon truck encounter on social media, she says "a ton" of her TikTok followers went to Yak's Facebook page to praise the company for donating the crushed watermelons instead of trashing them. In turn, Yak's reached out to Greene and offered her and her animals any produce they could no longer sell or use.

"So it turned out to be a big win for us and the wildlife," Greene says. "I appreciate Yak's and appreciate all the animal lovers who did reach out to Yak's and tell them thank you."

Firefighters rescue escaped parrot from tree in Michigan



Firefighters in Michigan were called out to an unusual rescue when a pet parrot escaped from her home and perched on a high branch of a maple tree.

The City of Ludington Fire Department said in a Facebook post that firefighters responded to a call for assistance from Ludington police when the bird, named Molly, perched high up in a maple tree and showed no signs of coming down on her own.

The department said firefighters have rescued three cats from trees during the past couple years, but the parrot rescue was a first.

Firefighters used a ladder truck to reach Molly and bring her back down to the ground for a reunion with her owner.

"The hours of training that we put in every year is normally not for these types of calls. But when we get to respond to these types of calls we rise to the level of training and get the job done," the department said.

[Governor3]

Drink Up, Japan Tells Young People. I’ll Pass, Many Reply
The country’s tax agency, hoping to reverse the alcohol industry’s pandemic doldrums, is holding a contest to encourage more drinking among the young

An izakaya in Tokyo in June

Aug. 19, 2022
TOKYO — Among the casualties of the pandemic is one that many young people in Japan say they do not miss: the drinking culture.

Sobriety, they have decided after two years of less socializing and nightcrawling, has its advantages. And that’s why a new message from the Japanese government — drink up! — seems to be putting few in the spirit.

To bolster its ailing alcohol industry, Japan’s National Tax Agency has kicked off a contest inviting those ages 20 to 39 to submit ideas for encouraging people to consume more alcohol. It named the project after the national beverage: “Sake Viva!”

The agency says it hopes to “revitalize the industry” with the contest, whose winner is to be selected in a tournament later this year. But its entreaty is clashing with more than two years of actions by the government, which discouraged alcohol sales at restaurants and bars and put up signs forbidding drinking in parks and in the streets.

With Japan reaching new highs in coronavirus infections, including over 255,000 new cases on Thursday, many young people are wondering why the government is now saying it’s OK to go out and drink.

“The media is announcing record Covid cases, while restaurants are like, don’t talk while eating, wear a mask,” said Chika Kato, a 27-year-old consultant in Tokyo. “But the government is at the same time asking us to go all out and drink.”

“It’s an awkward situation,” she added. “Who do I listen to?”

To some, any official encouragement to drink — pandemic or not — is a bad idea.

“I don’t think it is a good thing to make people who don’t drink, drink,” said Mima Matsumaru, 25, who works in advertising. After using the pandemic as a chance to stop drinking, she said she didn’t miss it very much anyway.

None of the Japanese alcohol makers have signed on to the initiative. But bar owners praised it.

In Ginza, one of Tokyo’s popular nightlife districts, the pubs remained dimly lit and mostly quiet on Thursday night. “I hope this helps Ginza come alive again,” said Kenta Kobayashi, 34, a bartender who has seen a drastic drop in sales since the pandemic began.

On average, people in Japan drank about 20 gallons of alcohol in 2020, down from 26 gallons in 1995, according to government data. The decline has hurt lucrative tax revenues: Levies on alcohol accounted for 1.7 percent of Japan’s tax revenue (about $8 billion) in 2020, down from 3 percent in 2011 and 5 percent in 1980.

In the United States, state and local governments collected $7.7 billion in alcohol taxes, or 0.2 percent of general revenue, in 2019, according to the Urban Institute.

Under the Japan tax agency’s contest, participants may propose new products and designs targeting young people, even sales techniques involving artificial intelligence or the metaverse. As long as submissions are written in Japanese, they may come from anywhere. The winning entry will be commercialized.

The contest’s organizers said that overindulgence was not the goal, adding that people should drink only “the appropriate amount” and take “common sense” measures against contracting the virus. “We are in no way promoting excessive drinking among young people,” said Ryo Tsukamoto, a spokesman for the agency’s alcohol tax division.

But critics worried about unintended consequences. Hidetomi Tanaka, an economist, called the effort an “irresponsible and unorthodox drinking campaign.” About one million Japanese suffer from alcoholism, while about 9.8 million others are potentially addicted, according to research by the Japanese Health Ministry.

Worldwide, the pandemic has brought down alcohol consumption among younger adults. In South Korea, consumption of soju dropped by 14 percent from 2019 to 2020 and beer consumption by 23 percent, leading to the nation’s lowest revenue in alcohol taxes in 10 years. In the United States, the prevalence of binge drinking among young adults surveyed dropped to 26 percent in 2020, after remaining at about 30 percent from 2015 to 2019, a study showed.

Neither country’s government has gone as far as to promote drinking. In France, though, lawmakers once considered promoting wine consumption when wine exports and domestic sales fell off the table in 2004. Included in their recommendations was a program encouraging young people to “educate their tastes.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/world/asia/japan-alcohol-contest.html
--------------
Seems to tie in with the article I posted the other day about Gen Z being more sensible and sober (and potentially more depressed and repressed). I remember all the Public Service Announcements when I was a young'un advising us drinking was bad and not to do drugs. Now it seems some governments are attempting to get people to drink more and legalizing weed. If these PSA's work as well as the ones when I was growing up, the younger folk will definitely be drinking even less. On the upside - more elbow room at the bar for me! - Gov

[PennySerenade]

Toddler Was Chasing Bubbles When He Helped Find 82-Year-Old Woman Who Had Been Missing for Days



While playing in his backyard, a Georgia toddler saw something in the woods. It ended up leading his family to a missing woman.

Nina Lipscomb, an 82-year-old woman with early stage Alzheimer's Disease, was reported missing on Aug. 9, according to FOX station WAGA-TV.

Son Thomas Lipscomb told the outlet that she was in town for an annual visit with her family, and that the family didn't realize she had left her niece's home until she had wandered too far for them to see.

Following a multi-day search by authorities and concerned community members, Nina was finally found.



Brittany Moore and her son Ethan, 1½, were playing with bubbles on Friday when some drifted towards their fence, the mom told CBS affiliate WGCL-TV. As he chased them, Moore said that she noticed something in the nearby woods catching her son's eyes.

"Feet," she recalled her son telling her.

When first responders arrived, they were able to determine that the person in the woods was Nina, who was alive but disoriented, WGCL-TV reported.

The following day, the Coweta County Sheriff's Office announced that the 82-year-old, who was "conscious and alert," had been "transported to the hospital for evaluation."



After being released from the hospital, Nina got a chance to meet Ethan, whom her family has credited with saving her life.

"We pulled out every resource we thought we needed," Nina's daughter, Karen Lipscomb, told WGLC-TV, adding that at the end of the day, "it was a little boy" who saved the day.



In a social media post, Karen also praised the little boy for helping bring her mother back home.

"Angels come in all shapes and sizes," Karen wrote.

[lush]

Hawaii Is Battling Hordes of Feral Chickens (and the Chickens Are Winning)
August 22, 2022*

• It’s like the plot of a zombie disaster movie — but with chickens.

Ah, Hawaii! Sunshine, sandy beaches, tropical warmth — and thousands of aggressive feral chickens.

That’s probably not what you’d want from your Hawaii vacation. But if you head over to the island of Oahu right now, it’s what you’ll get.

For months, Hawaiians have been dealing with an overabundance of feral chickens running amok. The loud clucking pests are not only aggressive — but they also poop everywhere.

The situation has gotten so unbearable that the Hawaii State Legislature has all but declared war on the chickens. Unfortunately for them, the chickens seem to be winning.

They’ve (mostly) managed to successfully avoid any attempts to trap or catch them. Meanwhile, local authorities seem unable to push through any meaningful efforts to curb the chicken population.




Half-Hearted Attempts

Earlier this year, Hawaii State Legislature tried to establish a state-funded program to “address” the feral chickens. Senate Bill 2195 proposed a five-year pilot program to eradicate the cluckers.

Unfortunately, the authorities couldn’t really agree on what it meant by “eradicating” the chickens.

“We want to be humane, you know, we were very mindful about that. But at the same time, this is really, you know, a road hazard, a health hazard, and we need to take care of all of our communities,” State Senator Bennette Misalucha told KHON2 in February.

However, by May, the measure had failed to pass the State legislature. For the lack of statewide effort, the City of Honolulu decided to take matters into its own hands.

In March 2022, Honolulu installed traps in five locations around the city. They remained in place for two months until city officials evaluated their effectiveness.

The results weren’t good. Over the two-month period, the traps caught only 67 chickens while costing around $7,000 —totaling $104 per bird.

Hardly cost-effective.

In July, authorities on Oahu resorted to one last desperate measure. They put up signs reminding locals not to feed the chickens.

“This is part of a larger effort to try and mitigate the feral chicken population. I think what happens is a lot of people, it’s a novelty to them. They’ll feed birds, they’ll feed chickens, they’ll feed various animals in the parks and they don’t understand the broader causes and consequences,” Nathan Serota, the spokesman for the City and County of Honolulu Department of Parks & Recreation told SFGate.



Local Opinion

Many of the locals are understandably frustrated with the government’s inaction in dealing with the chickens. We can read their feeling in the request for opinions the state government put out when planning Senate Bill 2195.

“We have an over-population on every street, roaming, foraging, creating serious property damage. … Many of us work long hours, even double shifts, and to not be able to sleep in due to the cacking [sic] and crowing of the feral roosters and chickens has really been an unfair burden and hardship,” said resident Majid Joneidi.

Another local, Desiree S. Garner, also had complaints about the constant noise from the chickens.

“From dawn to setting sun, there is a constant crowing daily, and I work from home so it is hard and sometimes embarrassing if I have to make a call to the mainland and it sounds like I am in a barnyard,” Garner wrote.

Not only are the chickens loud. According to resident Murdoch Ortiz, they also create a terrible mess.

“The feral fowl are dirty and drop their waste, with strong smells, all over the walkways, driveways, and street area. I’ve seen them on top of the garbage cans of adjacent properties creating havoc and damage as they tear open trash bags and scatter the trash all over,” Ortiz complained.

But not everyone was for the bill at the time. Some residents thought it was too unclear and worried the word “eradicate” simply meant killing the chickens.

“This bill is very broad in its definition of ‘eradicate’ and there should be a more defined way of explain what that means. … It would be in the best interest to install a humane treatment plan, and not ‘eradicate,’ or kill or capture,” wrote Heather Chapman.


A Home-Made Problem

But where did the thousands of chickens come from? Nobody’s really sure, but they didn’t pop up overnight.

“It’s a bit of a complicated matter because, legally, people in residentially zoned areas can own chickens, they can have two chickens on their property. More than likely, it was the domesticated chickens that got loose and just started procreating,” explained Serota.

Some have pointed their fingers at the hurricanes Iwa and Iniki, which struck Hawaii in 1982 and 1992, respectively. At the time, the storms wrecked many of the locals’ chicken coops, releasing the birds into the wild.

Over the 40 years since, the chickens have enjoyed a Hawaiian vacation. There’s plenty of food in the trash, the weather is good, and nobody seems to be trying very hard to get rid of them.

Is it any wonder, then, that the chickens are now overrunning Hawaii?

[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 23
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

[ozswede]

Ethiopian Airlines Pilots Miss Landing After Reportedly Falling Asleep

Ethiopian Airlines has suspended two passenger jet pilots following reports they fell asleep midway through a flight on Monday, causing them to overshoot their runway and miss their landing window.

The sleeping pilots were unable to be reached by air traffic control, but were eventually woken by an alarm when the autopilot system disconnected, according to aviation news site The Aviation Herald.

They were able to circle back and safely complete their landing at Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, 25 minutes later.



Flight tracking data confirmed the plane, a Boeing 737-800 flying out of Khartoum in nearby Sudan, was following the correct route as it approached Addis Ababa for landing but didn't descend, instead remaining at its cruising altitude of 37,000 feet (11.2 kilometres).

(All’s well that ends well, but the snoozy duo have been suspended pending an investigation.)

Ethiopian Airlines said on Saturday that the pilots had been "removed from operation pending further investigation".

"Appropriate corrective action will be taken based on the outcome of the investigation," the airline said on social media.

"Safety has always been and will continue to be our first priority."



Keith Tonkin, managing director of Australian aviation consultancy firm Aviation Projects, said airlines generally have protocols in place to ensure someone at the controls is awake at all times.

However, he said they would rarely need to be enacted for a two-hour flight such as the trip from Khartoum to Addis Ababa.

"It's important [the pilots] be given a chance to explain themselves, but if there was some reason they couldn't stay alert or awake for such a short trip, if they did violate some sort of rule or procedure, then there may be some action taken against them," he said.

Cambridge's medieval friars were 'riddled with parasites' - and it's easy to see why



Medieval friars living in Cambridge were "riddled with parasites" because of questionable gardening practices, a study suggests.

Despite living at the well regarded Augustinian friary - where clergy would travel from far and wide to read manuscripts - they had a not insignificant problem with intestinal worms.

The Augustinian friars were twice as likely to be infected with worms than the city's general population, according to a study from the University of Cambridge.

While their monastery homes had latrine blocks and hand-washing facilities, unlike the houses of ordinary working people, researchers revealed the friars were partial to manuring garden crops with their own faeces - and purchasing fertiliser containing human or pig excrement.

The Augustinian friary was founded in the 1280s and lasted until 1538 before suffering the fate of most English monasteries: closed or destroyed as part of King Henry VIII's break with Rome.

"The friars of medieval Cambridge appear to have been riddled with parasites," said study lead author Dr Piers Mitchell.

"This is the first time anyone has attempted to work out how common parasites were in people following different lifestyles in the same medieval town."

View: https://news.sky.com/story/cambridges-m ... y-12676460

[Fatima99]

Men who do more chores have a better sex life



A new study conducted suggested that males have a greater sexual appeal to the fairer sex if they take more responsibility when it comes to housework.

Researchers in Australia surveyed almost 300 women in heterosexual relationships and who did the most household jobs and found that the more equally the chores were shared, the stronger the women's feelings of sexual desire.

The study authors at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne say "sexual sparks fly" when male partners take on their fair share of physical and mental tasks.

The researchers wrote for The Conversation: "Our research acknowledged the nuances of women's desire and its strong connection to relationship quality by exploring how fairness in relationships might affect desire.

"Findings suggest one response to low desire in women could be to address the amount of work women have to take on in relationships."

Kitten rescued from engine compartment of city bus in Virginia



Animal rescuers in Virginia came to the rescue of a kitten that ran under a city bus and climbed up into the engine compartment.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington posted a video to TikTok showing the kitten rescued from the engine compartment of an Arlington Transport -- or ART -- bus.

The rescued cat was dubbed Artie in honor of the ART bus rescue.

"The bus was stopped at N. Randolph and Wilson Boulevard," AWLA representative Chelsea Jones told ARLnow. "The bus driver spotted Artie running across the street and then up under the bus."

AWLA said Artie was given a bath and examined by a veterinarian.

"Artie is doing well and is loving all the attention he's getting from staff and volunteers," AWLA said in a Facebook post. "He will need surgery to repair a hernia, but because of your support, he's going to get all the care he needs!"

[PennySerenade]

Couple Finds Rare Purple Pearl In A Restaurant Clam



Picture this: You’re out for a nice seafood dinner with your spouse while on a relaxing beach vacation. You spring for a clam appetizer, bite into it after it arrives at your table, sense something hard and unyielding and — whoa! — spit it out only to discover … it’s a pearl! And not just any pearl — a rare purple pearl.

That scene actually unfolded last Tuesday for Phoenixville, Pennsylvania-resident Scott Overland. While on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the corporate communications executive and his wife went to an upscale local farm-to-table restaurant, Salt Air, and ordered the clam appetizer.

When the dish arrived at the table with a bell-pepper garnish, which the couple had asked the restaurant to leave off, they considered sending it back, but “ultimately decided not to,” Overland recalls. “It was a good lesson that sometimes it pays off to not be a pain at restaurants!”

Initially, after biting down on something hard, Overland thought was a piece of shell, then, after examining the unexpected item, noticed its purple hue, he tells Food Network.

“We initially thought it was something a chef had dropped in, like a bead or piece of candy,” he says. “My wife said it looked like one of those dots candies that you peel off of paper, because the back of it was flat and it was a very light shade of purple.”

Closer inspection of the shell revealed “an indentation in it that looked like something grew in there,” Overland says, which is when the couple realized the beadlike discovery was “probably … something that came from inside the clam.”



Neither Overland nor his wife knew that pearls could be found in clams. “We thought they only came from oysters,” he says. They’d also never seen a purple pearl before.

Pearls produced by quahog clams, are often button-shaped, like Overland’s, and can be white, brown or purple. They are “exceptionally rare” — occurring in about one in 5,000 shells — according to the International Gem Society.

Tim Parsons, a spokesman for Ballard Clams and Oysters, which supplied Salt Air with the northern quahog clam that produced Overland’s purple pearl, said the company generally learns of two or three pearl discoveries per year in the oysters and clams it supplies to restaurants.

“Usually, it’s over a dentist claim,” Parsons quipped to Delaware Online. “But you can definitely get it graded and they are worth money.”



Overland says his initial research has led him to believe the pearl he found could be valued at anywhere from $600 to $16,000. He and his wife plan to get their find appraised in the coming weeks. But even if it’s worth big bucks, the couple may not sell it.

“We are still deciding what to do with it, but we are leaning towards keeping it as a cool family heirloom and something to remember the trip by,” Overland says. “We may turn it into a nice piece of jewelry, but I am going to have to keep eating a lot of clams to find a second one if my wife wants earrings!”

[goldie0608]

Mass. Man Spends Days Searching Sea for Stranger's Missing Wedding Ring — and He Finds It!

Lou Asci, of Marshfield, successfully located Francesca Teal's ring on Aug. 14 during his third search of the water



A Massachusetts woman has been reunited with her precious wedding ring thanks to the determination of a man she met on social media, who searched the ocean for days.

Francesca Teal, 29, of Groveland, was tossing a football around with her husband Austin at North Beach in Hampton, New Hampshire on Aug. 6 when the ring slipped off her finger and into the waist-deep water below, according to The Boston Globe.

"In that moment, my heart dropped," she told the newspaper.

Despite their best efforts, Teal and her husband were unable to locate the beloved jewelry.

Made of white gold and diamonds, the ring first belonged to her great-grandmother, who soldered her engagement ring and wedding band together.

So, Teal took her story to a Hampton Beach Facebook group in hopes that her message would reach "anyone who might have a metal detector" and "frequently" visits North Beach.

"The post was shared thousands of times," Teal told the Globe. "It was just wild."

Enter Lou Asci, a metal detecting enthusiast.

The 60-year-old Marshfield man was one of many who responded to Teal's message and offered to help her search.

After studying the tides, Asci hit the water, per the Globe's report. The South Shore man's first search was unsuccessful, so he returned a few days later to give it another try — only to see the same results.

But Asci wasn't prepared to give up on the cause. "I don't take failure all too well," he told the newspaper.

On Aug. 14, he gave it "one last shot." And the third time was the charm.

During his third search, Asci "decided to go out deeper" than where he believed the ring was located. And sure enough, the ring was there, buried in 4 inches of sand.

Hoping to have accomplished his mission, Asci reached out to Teal with a photo of the jewelry, according to text messages obtained by the Globe.

"Please tell me this is the ring so I can finally get off this beach," Asci wrote. Indeed, it was.

"I didn't want to give up on it," Asci explained. "This was something very important to her."

Teal shared a special thank you message in a post on the Hampton Beach Residents & Friends Facebook group, and lauded Asci's persistence in the search for her family heirloom.

Now Asci has another chance to help reunite someone with their lost wedding ring.

While searching for Teal's ring, the man located another missing band hidden in the Atlantic Ocean. Asci shared his own post on Facebook in hopes of finding its way back home.

"If you or someone you know lost a men's wedding ring in the water off 18th St. please PM me with a description," he wrote the Hampton Beach Facebook group. "I would love to return it to the owner."

[Governor3]

Katz’s Deli Hosted a Diplo Show on Sunday Night
Sausage party at Katz's.

3:15 PM EDT on August 22, 2022

Late last night, should an innocent New Yorker have been passing by the intersection of East Houston and Ludlow Street, they might have found hundreds of people milling outside Katz's Deli hoping to gain entry into an exclusive guest-list-only party for which the only conceivable utility was a social media post of a blacklit Pastrami sandwich. The party—presented, naturally, by an energy drink company that also sponsors extreme sports teams—was headlined by a 43-year-old EDM artist who recently underwent one of the fastest reverse-cancellations in recent memory.

According to one party-goer, the energy was "okay."

Diplo presented by Red Bull at Katz's Delicatessen, branded as "Katz's After Dark" and capped at just over 300 people, was facilitated by the deli's third-generation millennial owner Jake Dell. In 2017, Forbes ran a profile of Dell praising the then-29-year-old for his "extensions of the Katz's brand." Under Dell's tenure, Katz opened up a location in Brooklyn and began shipping Katz products nationwide; as he told Hell Gate, the iconic deli has recently held, along with corporate events and Bar Mitzvahs, parties for Vogue and New York Magazine.

Dell, who has run Katz's since he graduated from Tufts in 2009, said the energy drink company requested to rent the space, though he hadn't initially been aware which "talent" Red Bull booked. He stayed for the set-up but couldn't party, being an adult with a new child and a business to run, though he did say Diplo ate a sandwich prior to the set. "It's about fun partnerships to reinvigorate a 134-year-old brand," he said. "You can't stay in 1888 forever. You gotta find ways to connect with different people."

Diplo, who was briefly cancelled in 2021 following two since-abandoned legal claims of non-consensual sexual behavior, played behind Katz's salami sign. According to Dell, Katz's back counter functioned as a stage and someone hung a little disco ball. "There's all sorts of pictures online," he said.

The scene was "really annoying," according to one party-goer: "It felt like L.A."

"Line gremlins were in full effect outside trying to cut everyone, really drugged out Zara vibes," they said. "Some good outfits here and there but it was the type of crowd you'd see taking fit pics at Fanelli's."

According to Dell, the NYPD's 7th Precinct was alerted to the party ahead of time. It ended, mercifully, around 4 a.m.

https://hellgatenyc.com/diplo-goes-to-the-deli
--------------------------
I've met Jake a couple of times and he seems like a good guy - but I am beginning to question if he understands why Katz's is famous - Gov

[lush]

India teenager created special device to help reduce plastic waste in oceans
Aug. 22, 2022 / 6:34 AM*


The Ganges River, the largest river in India, carries about 3 billion microplastic particles into the Indian Ocean every day, according to a study led by National Geographic. File Photo by Rich Carey/Shutterstock

Aug. 22 -- When Varun Saikia, a young high school student from Gujarat, India, was 11 years old, he learned about a whale in Thailand that choked to death from eating plastic that had been discarded in the ocean.

"I had read that article and it disturbed me a lot, and that basically triggered me to look and explore into this problem that was a whole new world for me," Saikia told AccuWeather National Reporter Jillian Angeline. "I did not know that this problem existed in my life."

Saikia then got to work researching pollution around the world, paying special attention to where he grew up. The Ganges River, the largest river in India, carries about 3 billion microplastic particles into the Indian Ocean every day, according to a study led by National Geographic.

Saikia also learned about the garbage patches -- concentrations of marine debris -- across the Pacific Ocean that are created by ocean currents.

"Then I looked around and I was like, 'Wow, isn't this obvious? I see plastic everywhere,'" Saikia said.

"So I made a prototype out of plastic bottles and plastic boxes and I tested it in a mini pool, and then I iterated the model and got to a 5-foot-long device that could collect about 2.5-3 kg of plastic waste."

He called this first prototype Makara, Sanskrit for crocodile, due to it having a "mouth" and "tail" similar to a real croc. It took years of Saikia improving on Makara to create his newest design, Flipper, which can operate on its own or attach to a ship. He estimates it can hold anywhere from about 1,000 pounds to several hundred tons of plastic waste, depending on how it's deployed.

The design is still in the prototyping phase, but Saikia's website claims that 100 ships equipped with Flipper technology can clean up the Pacific garbage patches in about a year. In addition, Saikia said this new design will do more than just take out the trash.

"I am currently working towards making Flipper not only a plastic waste collection device, but also a device that can collect data simultaneously," he said.

The type of plastic it collects and the location where it was collected will be logged and analyzed to help make future collections more efficient, he added. To keep fish and ocean mammals from getting caught in the net, it will be outfitted with ultrasonic emitters that make critters avoid the area.

Saikia said he funded his first prototypes out of pocket, but has now received government grants from his home state of Gujarat, located on the coast of western India, and expanded his one-man operation to a handful of engineers. Once he finishes high school, the innovative student said he dreams of attending a prestigious program in the United States to take his project worldwide.

"There are a few schools on my mind," he said. "MIT is definitely my dream school. I'm going to apply to MIT, then Stanford. [The] University of Texas at Austin has an amazing environmental engineering program. So I'm keen on applying to these universities."

[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
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24
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
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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