Oscar Mayer is now selling frozen wiener pops
By Jordan Valinsky



New York (CNN Business)Two summer staples — hot dogs and popsicles — are coming together. For whatever reason.

Oscar Mayer is selling its first-ever "Cold Dog," a frozen pop that tastes like the brand's hot weiner that allegedly boasts "both refreshing and smokey, umami notes" of a hot dog and topped with a mustard swirl. The idea stems from an Instagram post on Oscar Mayer's account a few months ago, in which its followers originally deemed the idea "genius" in a poll.

"After the overwhelming fan excitement for our beloved Cold Dog, it was a no-brainer to make this hot dog-inspired frozen pop a reality," said Anne Field, an Oscar Mayer spokesperson, said in a press release.

It's not a nationwide release, however. The "Cold Dog" is now on at sale for $2 at select Popbar locations in Long Beach, New York City, New Orleans and Alpharetta, Georgia, while supplies last. Popbar is a chain of gelato shops that helped Oscar Meyer make this freakish flavor.

Oscar Mayer, owned by Kraft Heinz (KHC), is used to making people squirm to attract attention to its packaged products. Earlier this year it sold a bologna face mask that quickly sold out on Amazon.

In 2019, Kraft wrote down the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands by $15 billion because consumers have shifted their preferences away from processed foods.

The Odd History of Germany’s “Unicorn” Fossil

Dubbed “one of the worst fossil reconstructions in history,” the so-called “Magdeburg Unicorn” again making rounds on the internet.



Deep down inside, all of us have a place in our hearts for unicorns. This is not just a ’90s-kid phenomenon inspired by Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers; it has been a part of human nature for ages, from the turn of the 15th century to animated films of the 1980s that were definitely too traumatizing to show to children. But it seems that no one, truly no one, loved unicorns with quite the same dedication as the good people of 17th-century Germany, specifically the town of Magdeburg north of Leipzig, where a 350-year-old theoretical reconstruction of a unicorn fossil is having one of its perennial moments in the limelight.

The so-called “Magdeburg Unicorn” first appeared in 1663, with the discovery of the remains of a wooly rhinoceros — a prehistoric cold-climate megafauna that roamed throughout Asia and Europe as early as 500,000 years ago — unearthed at Seweckenberge, a German steppe known to contain ice age fossils. Since the wooly rhino was not yet described by science, Prussian naturalist Otto von Guericke (1602–1686) drew the most logical conclusion, based on the evidence: obviously a unicorn. Around 1668, von Geuricke allegedly created the bone assemblage that today stands on display at the Museum of Natural History Magdeburg.

Framed dramatically as “one of the worst fossil reconstructions in history,” it is slightly unclear whether the assemblage was an earnest reflection of von Guericke’s hypothesis or a kind of pre-internet meme perpetuated by philosopher and scientist Gottfried Leibniz. Sources conflict on whether Geuricke made the model that Leibniz sketched or the assemblage was created from a sketch by the philosopher based on Guericke’s theory. It is also unclear how seriously any of the scientists were about it really being a unicorn.

View: https://hyperallergic.com/754913/the-odd-history-of-germanys-unicorn-fossil/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn

https://www.snopes.com/articles/441423/magdeburg-unicorn/

[PennySerenade]

Seal breaks into New Zealand home, traumatises cat and hangs out on couch



A curious young seal has been returned to the sea after breaking into a New Zealand home, harassing the resident cat, hanging about in the hallway for a couple of hours while the children slept upstairs, and miraculously ruining nothing.

The Ross family of Mt Maunganui were more than a little surprised to find the New Zealand fur seal in their home, which is about 150m from the shore, on Wednesday morning.

Phil Ross, who happens to be a marine biologist, said it was unfortunate he was the only one not home at the time.



“The big joke is that this is really the only family emergency where it would be useful to have a marine biologist in the house,” he said. “I really missed my time to shine.”

Ross said his wife, Jenn, rose just before 6am on Wednesday to go to the gym.

“As she got in the car, something barked from underneath and shuffled away. She thought it was someone’s dog … and didn’t really think too much of it.”

She returned around 7am, opening the door to find “a cute little seal”.

“It got a bit of a fright and humped its way down the hallway into the spare room.”

Ross said the seal had managed to make its way through two catflaps to get into the home. He believes it had encountered the family’s territorial cat, Coco, outside, just after Jenn had left the property, and had likely been inside for an hour.

“The cat would have gone to defend its territory and obviously the seal wasn’t as intimidated as some dogs are, so Coco must have bolted around the side of the house, into the catflap, and the seal must have followed her.”



Jenn woke their two children, Noah, 12, and Ari, 10, to come and see “their new pet”.

“They thought it was cool and pretty exciting but were totally oblivious to the fact that … not many of their mates would have seals come to visit them in their houses.”

The seal spent time in the spare room and on the couch before Jenn managed to usher it out the front door and into the garden. A Department of Conservation ranger turned up at 10am to take the seal back to the sea, after a busy morning of seal-related call-outs.

The seal, which the family nicknamed “Oscar” in a long tradition of giving seals that name in the community, proved to be polite company, Ross said, and thankfully had not defecated inside. “I think that would have been pretty terminal for the furniture.”

Meanwhile, Coco the cat had scarpered to the neighbour’s house. On returning to its own home, it refused to go downstairs because it was “clearly pretty traumatised”.



Ross said it was not unusual to see young seals roaming about in the area at this time of year, because the young ones were beginning to wean and head out on their own.

“I guess, like all teenagers, they don’t necessarily make sensible decisions.”

The New Zealand fur seal population is making a comeback and recolonising much of their former range. As cute as they may be, seals can move quickly and can inflict serious injuries if they feel threatened. They also carry infectious diseases.

[Governor3]

Missouri school district reinstates spanking students as ‘last resort’
Cassville superintendent says a survey last year revealed that additional discipline measures was parents’ major concern


hey teacher, leave them kids alone

A Missouri school district has decided to reinstate corporal punishment in its classrooms, allowing students to be punished with a paddle under a new policy.

The school board approved the policy in June and notified parents that Missouri’s Cassville school district is bringing back spanking – a disciplinary measure abandoned by the district in 2001, according to the Springfield News Leader.

The change to reinstate spanking came after a survey sent to parents last year revealed they wanted additional discipline and it was one of their major concerns, said Merlyn Johnson, Cassville school superintendent.

“The complaints that we have heard from some of our parents is that they don’t want their students suspended. They want another option,” Johnson told the Hill. “And so, this was just another option that we could use before we get to that point of suspension.”

Administrators will implement corporal punishment as a “last resort” if other disciplinary measures do not work. The punishment will only be used in “reasonable form and upon the recommendation of the principal”, Johnson said.

Parents who want their children hit can sign an opt-in form provided by the school office. Johnson said that he is still unclear how many parents will allow their children to be hit. He said forms were sent out on Wednesday during open house and he should “have a number later in the week”, the Springfield News Leader reported.

According to Johnson, parents have asked him “Why can’t you paddle my student?” to which he responded that the school policy does not support such a measure. “There had been conversations with parents and there had been requests from parents for us to look into it,” he said.

Corporal punishment in the school district will only be administered by a principal and in the presence of a witness. It will never be inflicted in the presence of other students, Johnson said.

“When it becomes necessary to use corporal punishment, it shall be administered so that there can be no chance of bodily injury or harm. Striking a student on the head or face is not permitted,” according to the policy, which Springfield News-Leader reviewed. The only punishment allowed is “swatting the buttocks with a paddle”.

Johnson said “one or two” swings will be inflicted on to younger students and up to three swings for older students.

The US supreme court ruled that corporal punishment in schools was constitutional and left it up to states to decide to enforce it. Currently, there are 19 states across the US where corporal punishment is still allowed. The majority of the states that permit it are in the south.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... s-spanking
------------
All in all, it's just another brick in the wall - Gov

[lush]

Man Wins Lying Down Championship by Lying Down for 60 Hours Straight
August 25th, 2022*

In a competition where the goal is to do nothing but lie down for as long as possible, one man emerged victorious after spending 60 hours laying flat on the ground.

The village of Brezna, in Montenegro, recently held the 12th annual edition of its “Lying Down Championship”, an unusual competition where the end goal is to spend as much time lying down as possible. It sounds easy enough, but as time passes by, your bones and muscles start to ache, your limbs go numb, and you just feel the need to get up and stretch. This year, the champion managed to lie down for about 60 hours.



“It was not difficult. Believe me, I didn’t even warm up,” Žarko Pejanović, known as “Knele” told reporters.

Pejanovic competed against nine other people, lying down on the ground in a local park. Everyone was allowed to bring things like phones and books to keep themselves occupied as they lay on the ground, but one by one they started getting up, until only two people were left – Žarko Pejanović from Zabjela and Vuk Koljenšić from Danilovgrad.

At one point, the two competitors started joking about splitting the title of champion, but Pejanovic was determined to bring home the title of 12th Lying Down Champion, and after about 60 hours, he remained the last one lying down.



60 hours sounds like a long time, but you should know that a few years back a new rule was implemented which allows competitors to visit the toilet every eight hours. That definitely makes things a lot easier, and was one of the key factors that allowed a woman named Dubravka Aksic to set the world record by spending four days and 21 hours lying flat on her back. Before the toilet break rule was adopted, the world record for lying down continuously was 52 hours.

The Lying Down Championship was reportedly created by a man named Radoje Blagojevic to poke fun at the stereotype that Montenegrins are lazy. For winning this year’s edition, Žarko Pejanović takes home a cash prize of 350 euros ($350), a lunch for two at a restaurant, a weekend stay in the ‘Montenegro’ ethnic village, and a rafting experience. But most importantly, he gets bragging rights for the rest of his life.



Bizarrely enough, Montenegrin media recently reported that shortly after being declared the winner of this unusual competition, Žarko Pejanović was taken into custody by police for allegedly physically attacking journalists and damaging the headquarters of a newspaper that called him “the biggest swindler in all of Montenegro”. Now, what could that have been about?

[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
FRIDAY AUGUST 26
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]

T-minus 10: Statistician writes formula to predict kids’ backseat tantrums

Long traffic jams, bickering siblings, extreme boredom – most parents will know the signs to look out for when trying to prevent a full-blown backseat temper tantrum on a family holiday.

Now a statistician has calculated the exact formula for predicting the chances, and timing, of children throwing a tantrum in the back of a car during a long journey.

According to Dr James Hind, from Nottingham Trent University, T = 70 + 0.5E + 15F - 10S is the code parents can use to crack the probability of backseat breakdowns.

Dr Hind’s research, based on responses from 2,000 parents, found that the time (T) the average child will typically take to throw a tantrum during a long car journey is 70 minutes.

The chances of a tantrum are reduced by every minute a child is entertained (E), while food (F) will allow parents to delay the tantrum by 15 minutes. But having siblings (S) in the car was found to increase the chances of backseat breakdowns by 10 minutes.

The research, developed alongside LV= Britannia Rescue, found the average child will ask “are we nearly there?” 32 minutes into a car journey and four times during the ride.



As families prepare for long drives ahead of the bank holiday weekend, the survey found that boredom is the primary cause of backseat tantrums – cited by 68% of parents – followed by the journey being too long (62%) and kids being hungry (57%).

Dr Hind said: “If you have only one child, and you can keep them entertained and occasionally bribe them with food, you could manage two hours of tantrum-free driving.

“Unfortunately, two children with no entertainment and no snacks can brew up a tantrum in just 40 minutes.

“Snacks are important but there is a limit to how much they can help, so keep them to two an hour max. Entertainment is key, but even that fails with really long journey times.

“Taking breaks to ‘reset the clock’ is important for preventing tantrums, as well as making sure you are not tired while driving.”

Henry Topham, managing director of LV= Britannia Rescue, added: “Travelling with young kids in the backseat is never easy, and the research and formula highlights the considerations parents will no doubt experience all over the UK this weekend.”

Good luck…

[Governor3]

Ozzy Osbourne vowed to never take acid again after talking to a horse for one hour
He was just horsing around.

Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne revealed he once promised himself to never take acid again after finding himself in an hour-long conversation with a horse in the middle of a field.

The former Black Sabbath frontman, 73, said he was left astonished when the horse apparently talked back to him — telling the rocker to “f–k off” at the end of their apparent exchange.

“At that time in America, people were very fond of lacing your drinks with acid,” the “War Pigs” singer told the Daily Star. “I didn’t care.”

“I used to swallow handfuls of tabs at a time. The end of it came when we got back to England. I took 10 tabs of acid and then went for a walk in a field.”

“I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour,” Osbourne, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019, remembered.

“In the end, the horse turned round and told me to f–k off. That was it for me,” added the rocker, who battled alcohol and drug abuse in the past.

Osbourne has been very open about his long history with substance abuse, with the self-described “Prince of Darkness” previously saying he’s been addicted to most drugs throughout his glittering music career.

The musician has been facing some major health woes over the last few months.

The “Crazy Train” hitmaker was discharged from a Los Angeles hospital in June after undergoing what his wife, Sharon Osbourne, described as “a major operation” that would “determine the rest of his life.”

Along with Parkinson’s and a bout with COVID-19, the musician has been dealing with the ramifications of a 2003 quad biking accident.

The rocker’s “life-altering” surgery in June involved removing and realigning pins in his neck and back.
https://pagesix.com/2022/08/25/ozzy-osb ... o-a-horse/
--------------
I mean, hey, we'll all been there... - Gov

British firefighters rescue man with hand stuck in sofa



Firefighters in Britain conducted an unusual rescue when a caller reported a man who needed help extracting his hand from the back of a sofa.

The Stapleford Fire Station in England said in a Facebook post that a crew responded Tuesday night "to a report of a male with his hand trapped down the back of a sofa."

The post said firefighters were able to help the man extract his hand. He was not seriously injured, but sustained "slight reddening to his hand," the post said.

"It really isn't just fires, I am pleased we were able to help the male without hurting him further or damaging his sofa," firefighter Gavin Wilson said in the Facebook post.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/08/25 ... 661453852/

[Fatima99]

A Startup Is Using Recycled Plastic to 3D Print Tiny $25,000 Prefabricated Homes in LA



There’re 3D-printed homes, and there’re prefabricated homes. Take the best of both technologies, throw in a groundbreaking use for discarded plastic, and you have a genius idea.

Born in Culver City, the startup Azure is mostly using recycled plastic water and drink bottles to create homes that are 90% complete by the time they leave the factory.

By blending the manufacturing speed of 3D-printing with the assembly speed and modular possibilities given by prefabrication, Azure’s houses are a game changer for sustainability in the housing industry.

The startup says it can build homes 70% faster and 30% cheaper than “traditional home construction methods” by 3D printing the floor, roof, and walls of its models inside its factory.

Practically all that’s left to be done at the build site is to connect the prefab panels to each other, and to the foundation, and connect the utilities.



In April, Azure unveiled what it called the world’s first 3D-printed building with recycled plastic materials. It was a small addition, meant to be marketed as a gym or outdoor office, and priced at $25,000, while the larger “accessory dwelling unit” (ADU) or what is essentially a one-bed one-bath comes in at $40,000.

A rush of pre-orders for the ADU has left Azure’s Culver City factory backed up for 3-months as it waits for the rest of the equipment it needs to begin mass producing the houses.

At the moment the company has a number of partners who provide plastic waste recycled from industry, but it hopes to shift more towards plastic waste generated by consumers.

By December Azure hopes to have 14 of their print-prefab houses arranged in a community in partnership with an LA real estate company, and by 2024 be able to manufacture bigger ADUs.

Once the concept is firmly established and revenue is stable, they also want to turn their technology towards helping to end the homelessness epidemic of California.

“3D printing is a more efficient way of building and it should only get better as we develop the processes, technology, and materials further,” Co-founder Ross Maguire told Business Insider. “I can only see it becoming more and more prominent in [construction] as we move forward.”

[goldie0608]

3 Sisters Who Were Born on the Same Day 3 Years Apart Celebrate Their Birthday: 'So Excited'

Sisters Sophia, Giuliana and Mia all celebrated their birthdays on Aug. 25



Birthdays are three times the fun for one Florida family.

On Aug. 25, the Lammert family celebrated the birthday of three sisters — Sophia 7, Giuliana, 4, and Mia, 1 — who were incredibly all born on the same day three years apart.

Mom Kristin Lammert told PEOPLE that Sophia and Giuliana spent much of the day at school, but planned to celebrate with them during a special dinner Thursday night.

"We are going to Chef Mickey's restaurant at Disney, where they get to see their favorite characters," Kristin said. "We have a huge celebration that will be a Barbie Mermaid pool party at our house on Saturday. We can't wait!"

She added: "We have multiple family members coming in town for their huge celebration. I've been making decorations and planning the food and activities for a couple of months now. The girls are so excited to be celebrating their birthday today!"

Kristin said since welcoming Mia last year, the family has been "adjusting to life with a very busy schedule" between things like school and dance lessons.

She also says she and her husband Nick have their hands full with Mia, who "seemed to turn into a busy toddler overnight. "

Kristin previously told PEOPLE that she never expected to give birth to her three girls on the same day.

"We were not 'aiming' for this, but we find it to be incredibly special, unique, and like it was fate," she said in October of last year.

According to University of Minnesota sociology professor Rob Warren, the likelihood of three daughters sharing birthdays in different years is about an 8 in 1 million chance.

"We always knew that we wanted to have three children three years apart, but we certainly did not plan for them to share the exact same birthday," Kristin said. "You never know how fertility will work itself out, but we specifically 'chose' to not try for our third until it would possibly cause us to have a September due date. But, clearly, baby Mia had a plan of her own."

She continued: "The girls absolutely love sharing birthdays."

The three sisters are already incredibly close, Kristin told PEOPLE.

In an interview with Good Morning America, Nick said the couple hopes they recognize the significance of the special coincidence.

"It's definitely on us as parents to instill in them that it is very special," he said. "And they have never uttered or even thought about not sharing a birthday. ... I think it's a special bond between all of them."

British stunt driver breaks parallel parking world record



A stunt driver at the British Motor Show broke two Guinness World Records -- one for parallel parking, and another for doing donuts around a motorcycle.

Paul Swift took on the Guinness World Record for the tightest parallel park in an electric car twice during the British Motor Show in Farnborough, England.

Swift's first attempt, on the first day of the show, successfully set the record with 13.8 inches to spare. He broke his own record on the fourth day of the show, parking with 11.8 inches to spare.

"I'm shaking like a leaf," Swift said after breaking the record for a second time.

Swift also took on the record for most donuts (spins) around a motorcycle performing a wheelie in one minute. Swift drove a Ford Mustang in tight circles around motorcycle stuntman JD Stunts. He successfully broke the record on his first attempt by driving in 8 tight circles around the motorcycle, and bettered his total with 10 donuts on his second attempt.

Spreading his wings to fly: Clark the bald eagle 'shows off a bit' as he goes through airport security in Charlotte after deciding to give his 'wings a break and go commercial'

Clark, a bald eagle with the World Bird Sanctuary, got in line like everyone else to go through a checkpoint in North Carolina, as seen via Twitter
The TSA's official account for airports in the region even remarked on his appearance
'Our special guest was Clark the Eagle with the World Bird Sanctuary, who decided to give his wings a break and fly commercial,' they wrote
Clark was hatched with deformities on his feet, so he joined the World Bird Sanctuary's Eagle Flight Team and is one of WBS' flying ambassadors
A spokesman for TSA says he's also witnessed baby cougars, penguins and even a 'service chicken' with dyed feathers go through their checkpoints

By Stephen M. Lepore



A bald eagle decided to give its wings a rest to fly the friendly skies like the rest of us, as it surprised TSA agents at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Clark, a 19-year-old bald eagle with the World Bird Sanctuary, got in line with his handlers on Monday to go through a checkpoint in North Carolina, as seen via Twitter.

The TSA's official account for airports in the region even remarked on his appearance.

They wrote: 'TSA officers are used to seeing an eagle on their uniform as they look over their shoulder, but I’m sure the team at @CLTAirport Checkpoint A did a double take when they saw a real one earlier this week.

'Our special guest was Clark the Eagle with the World Bird Sanctuary, who decided to give his wings a break and fly commercial. His airline notified us and we screened him and his handler. Clark is trained to spread his wings, and even showed off a bit during screening.'

It wasn't a total surprise, as Clark's handlers called in advance to prepare the agents for his flight.

Clark's story is a unique one, according to the WBS website: 'While all of Clark’s siblings were successfully released into the wild, Clark was hatched with scale deformities on his feet. The deformities meant that Clark’s feet would not be properly protected from the cold during the winter, and he would suffer from things like frostbite and loss of toes.'

Because of his disabilities, he joined the World Bird Sanctuary's Eagle Flight Team and is one of the organization's flying ambassadors.

In a video that has gotten thousands of views on Twitter, one person can be heard celebrating the bald eagle's presence by mentioning a cleaned-up version of a song from the film Team America: World Police, muttering 'America, heck yeah'.

Elijah Burke was the man singing along and called it 'a sight to see' while coming home from attending a wedding with his girlfriend, according to the Charlotte Observer.

[PennySerenade]

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



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."

[lush]

Hundreds of Ancient Frogs Died from Exhaustion During Massive Orgy, Scientists Find
August 26, 2022 *

• There’s a “horny toad” joke to be made somewhere in here.

Did you know that frogs and toads have been around for more than 200 million years? It’s true — they shared the planet with dinosaurs once.

Since they’ve survived for so long, they must have thoroughly figured out procreation. A recent discovery has shed new light on the sex life of ancient amphibians.

Today we might try to forcefully marry two frogs to induce rain. But frogs, at least those of the ages past, are far from monogamous.

In fact, they liked orgies. And those orgies could get downright lethally intense.

In 1932, German paleontologists discovered a treasure trove of hundreds of 45-million-year-old frog and toad fossils. They all seemed to have died at the same time, but for decades, nobody knew how. But now, thanks to a fresh study we finally have the answer.

The frogs boned until they croaked.


“Oh yeah, I’ll be hopping on that until we both die.”


The Mystery of the Frogs

Let’s travel back to the past for a little bit. Some 45 million years ago, the North Sea covered half of what is now Germany.

The region we today call Geiseltal was also quite different back then. Situated on the shore of that primordial sea, the area was covered in wet, lush swamps.

And where there are swamps, there are frogs. They weren’t exactly like the frogs that hop around today, but they were frogs nonetheless.

Now, fast forward a few million years to 1932. A duo of German paleontologists — Johannes Weigelt and E. Voigt — discover hundreds of frog and toad fossils in Geiseltal.

All of the critters seemed to have died at the same time. Naturally, something horrible must’ve happened — but what?

For the longest time, we had no clue. Weigelt and Voigt suspected that the amphibians could’ve starved or dehydrated as a result of their home pond drying up or becoming too salty.

But these theories were just guesses. It seemed like we might never know what happened.


Old Theories Debunked

Do another hop forward in time and we get to the modern day. And now, a team of scientists from the University College Cork in Ireland — led by Daniel Falk — was determined to find out why the frogs died.

To get to the bottom of the mystery, Falk’s team started analyzing the bones the frogs left behind. Naturally, the skeletons had scattered over time, but there was something strange about them.

The bones didn’t show any signs of stress, disease, or damage.

“As far as we can tell, the fossil frogs were healthy when they died, and the bones don’t show any signs of predators or scavengers,” Falk said in a statement.

“There’s also no evidence that they were washed in during floods, or died because the swamp dried up,” he added.

Basically, all of the previous theories went out the window. But if Falk was right, what on earth could’ve happened to the frogs?


Employing Occam’s Razor

During their research, Falk and his team noticed one small but significant thing. They were able to identify the kind of frogs the bones had belonged to.

For the most part, frogs come in two flavors. Frogs of the first type spend their entire lives in or near water.

The second category, however, ventures out onto dry land. They only return to their birth ponds for one reason.

They came back to carry on their genes.

“By process of elimination, the only explanation that makes sense is that they died during mating,” determined Falk.




Deadly Passion

The habits of modern frogs and toads support Falk’s hypothesis. In case you didn’t know, getting to do the deed can be a death sentence for frogs.

The amphibians like to go at it so hard that they simply over-exhaust themselves and drop dead. And if they don’t die during mating, they’re so stressed and tired afterward that they quickly succumb to diseases.

But female frogs may meet a possibly more gruesome fate (depending on your perspective). They never get a chance to overexert themselves.

During mating, the male frog latches onto the female’s back for long periods. But when multiple males are around, they may all try to mount the female at once.

“Female frogs are at higher risk of drowning as they are often submerged by one or more males. This often happens in species that engage in mating congregations during the short explosive breeding season,” said Professor Maria McNamara, who worked on the study.

The female gets trampled underwater and can’t surface. Although frogs can breathe underwater to a degree, they can’t do so forever — and thus the female drowns.

Falk’s team shows that frogs’ mating habits have changed very little over the years. They had fatal orgies millions of years ago, and they continue to do so to this day.

“What’s really interesting is that fossil frogs from other sites also show these features, suggesting that the mating behaviors of modern frogs are really quite ancient and have been in place for at least 45 million years,” concluded McNamara.