[goldie0608]

Neighbors Rally to Help After Dad Accidentally Trashes Daughter’s Stuffed Dog: ‘An Adventure!’

An overzealous spring cleaning led to a near-disaster for one family, but the kindness of strangers prevailed



Jake McAlpin was really into his recent spring cleaning — so much so that he accidentally threw away his daughter’s beloved stuffed dog.

Charlotte, 16, had washed her well-loved stuffed animal, Cupcake, and then left him on the front porch to dry. When she couldn’t find him the next evening, her dad realized that he had accidentally bagged the dog and taken it to the Strafford, New Hampshire, dump.

“My husband confessed, ‘I think I threw out Cupcake,’ ” Meredith McAlpin, 43, tells PEOPLE. “[Charlotte] was very, very distraught. I've never heard her cry like that. My husband was so upset and mad at himself ... I mean he was devastated."

For Meredith — who gifted Cupcake to Charlotte, her stepdaughter, when she was just 4 years old — it was action time. "I was like, 'How can I fix this?' "

She posted on the town Facebook page asking if whoever ran the dump would be able to open it in the morning and look for Cupcake.

The next day, City Selectman Brian Monahan was drinking his coffee and scrolling Facebook when he saw the post — and immediately sprang into action. A father of a daughter, too, he knew he had to help. "One time, when [my daughter] was very young, she lost an animal. It was a big deal,” he tells PEOPLE.

Monahan, 61, spoke to the superintendent of the town’s transfer station, where residents take their trash to large commercial trash compactors, then headed to the site on the cold, stormy, day.

He started pulling trash bags out of the trash compactor with the help of another volunteer, ultimately recruiting Jake to help, too.

The group was “fully committed,” Monahan says. “It's like, 'We're so dirty and wet right now that we might as well find this darn thing.' "

As they started to lose hope, Monahan climbed waist-deep into the machine to have a better look.

“My wife was standing on the other side, looking up in from above, and she pointed [out a bag] that I couldn't see very well, and said, 'Hey, I think there's something brown in there.' "

He burrowed down, ripped open the bag, and about 15 seconds later had Cupcake in his arms.

The best part, Monahan says, was the look of “relief and happiness” on Jake's face when the dog was found. "We made a young girl very, very happy and a dad very relieved."

“It was just so amazing that they did that for us,” Meredith says, adding that Charlotte was "very, very happy" to have Cupcake back. “I just was so thankful. It's so nice to have a great community that genuinely cares about people.”

As for Monahan, "I'm a retired military guy," he says. "You see a mission, you got to go on and make it work. It was an adventure."

And Jake has definitely learned a lesson. “I think my husband learned not to throw anything out anymore without asking," adds Meredith.

[rflash8]

Chinese researchers use DNA to reconstruct Emperor Wu's face as study sheds light on his death

Emperor Wu's tomb was found in 1996 with his almost-complete skull, helping researchers to build a picture of his face.



Researchers have used DNA to reconstruct the face of a Chinese emperor and shed light on what might have caused his death.

Emperor Wu was a ruler of the Northern Zhou dynasty in ancient China, reigning from 560 AD until 578, defeating the Northern Qi dynasty and unifying the northern part of the country.

The emperor belonged to a rarely-studied nomadic group called the Xianbei that lived in modern-day Mongolia and northern and northeastern China.

Almost 30 years after his tomb was discovered in northwestern China, researchers at Shanghai's Fudan University used DNA and his nearly-complete skull to reconstruct his face in 3D.

It shows the emperor had brown eyes, black hair and "dark to intermediate" skin. Researchers said the emperor "possessed a typical East or Northeast Asian appearance".

Pianpian Wei, the paper's co-corresponding author at Fudan University, said: "Our work brought historical figures to life.

"Previously people had to rely on historical records or murals to picture what ancient people looked like.

"We are able to reveal the appearance of the Xianbei people directly."

Emperor Wu died aged 36 and his son also died young, both for no obvious reason.

Some archaeologists thought Wu died from illness, while others argued he was poisoned by his rivals.

The researchers at Fudan, however, found he was at increased risk for a stroke.

It's a finding that is backed up by historical records describing him as having aphasia (a language disorder often caused by stroke), drooping eyelids and an abnormal way of walking.

There was not enough evidence to confirm a stroke as the cause of his death, but it might have been a factor.

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.

[Fatima99]

Teaching Teens How to Understand Their Feelings is Key to Helping Them Grow and Mature



Parents who solely focus on ‘fixing behavior’ will leave their teenager feeling misunderstood, according to a new book, How Do You Hug a Cactus?, which advocates for ‘Reflective Parenting’ and understanding what goes on in the teenage brain.

Teaching teenagers how to understand their feelings is “key” to helping them mature into resilient and independent adults, says the author, Dr. Sheila Redfern, a London-based clinical child psychologist.

Gleaning insight from 30 years of work, she says: rather than focusing on stamping out difficult behaviors, parents should teach their kids to manage their feelings and relationships in safe ways.

“Understanding the neuroscience of the changing teenage brain can really help parents to empathize and connect with their teenage children,” said Redfern.

Although parenting teenagers is uniquely challenging—with concerns about social media use, self-harm, and risk-taking—this stage can be very fulfilling for all.

Reflective parenting allows parents to support teenagers in coming up with their own ideas about how they are going to meet challenges when these arise.

“The focus is on keeping a connection with your teenager and helping them to manage, sometimes overwhelming and unwanted, feelings. This is one of the most important skills for life you can teach your teenager.

“By drawing out from your teenager how they are planning to solve difficulties—without pointing out flaws but simply offering another perspective of any potential downsides—you will help them to gain independence and develop skills for life while staying connected to you.”

One key concept of reflective parenting is for parents to check in with themselves: if they are experiencing strong emotions they should take some time and reflect, before launching a conversation.

Then the parent can approach a teen’s emotional distress using validation and empathy, by describing how they are feeling and avoiding putting their own opinion across.

“You take this self-reflective step first, then you can give your full attention and curiosity to your teenager’s perspective, and they will experience you as somebody steady, consistent and trustworthy,” explained Redfern.

“This can be extremely hard for parents as we worry a lot about our teenagers and regulating emotions (of our own) is difficult sometimes.”

She notes that the teenage years are an extremely crucial time for mental development, and teens are much more at risk of mental illness.

“This is not just a time of physical and neurological change, but also of great vulnerability. It’s during this period of development that teenagers are much more likely to engage in risky behavior and develop a mental illness.”

Research suggests that there are three basic bio-behavioral systems that enable humans to adapt to a complex social environment: the reward system; the ‘mentalizing’, or ‘social cognition’ system, which is our capacity to understand ourselves and others in terms of our feelings, desires, and values; and finally the stress and threat system.

Redfern says that during adolescence, these three bio-behavioral systems are being reorganized in the brain and this reorganization of the systems leads to patterns of thinking, behavior and responses to others that may be difficult to understand, seem illogical, highly reactive, or self-destructive.

This is because teens process information with the amygdala—the emotional part of the brain, leading them to be preoccupied with their own emotions, and less able to tune into other people.

“When we look at brain development, it’s factually inaccurate to describe an 18-year-old as an adult. Our brains haven’t fully developed until we’re in our mid-twenties. From the age of 18 until around 25 years old, sometimes even later, our brains are still developing.”

She describes that this emotionally charged brain can make assumptions that feel like fact, and become a mindset—thoughts like ‘no one likes me, I am alone’.

When teens lose their ability to be reflective because of changes in their brains—resulting in frequent states of high emotional arousal—parents can step in and help guide the process.

While reflective parenting may bring about a greater connection between you and your teen, and hopefully even a calmness and enhanced understanding of your relationship – it is important to maintain strong boundaries.

“Reflecting on thoughts and feelings alone is not the type of parenting being advocated here. Boundaries still count, and so does parental authority,” concludes Redfern, whose website has many articles that explain more.

None of us can be a reflective parent all of the time, because our emotions rise and fall along with events, but we can try to do better next time by learning some of these best practices.

[PennySerenade]

Hamilton, Ontario pizzeria wins best cheese slice in the world, after race to get dough to Vegas from Canada



In search of the world's best cheese pizza? Look no further than Hamilton.

Local pizzeria Cowabunga won the best slice of cheese pizza at the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas last week — a prestigious prize for "passionate pizzamakers" co-owner Andy Huynh told CBC's Metro Morning on Tuesday.

"It's catapulting us into way more than we could've eve imagined," Huynh said. "I've always wanted to win an award like this."

Behind the perfect pie and sweet victory was a tumultuous team effort.

The key to Cowabunga's pizza is its dough, made from a sourdough starter, that needs to sit and chill for at least 72 hours, Huynh said.

That meant he and co-owner Justin Tanda prepared the dough in advance of flying to Las Vegas, said Huynh. They then packed some of the dough in a checked cooler and more in their carry-on luggage, kept cold alongside bags of frozen fruit.

When the landed in Las Vegas and went to collect their most prized possession, they discovered the dough was missing. So they turned to their carry-on back-up dough, which got them fourth place in the first round of competition — good enough to nab a spot in the final.



The next hurdle was figuring out how to get more of their properly rested dough in Hamilton across the continent in 24 hours, said Huynh.

One of their staffers booked a last-minute flight to transport the dough thousands of kilometres on Wednesday night for the Thursday competition.

"It was pretty much a buzzer beater moment," Huynh said.

They also relied on the same Canadian cheese and sauce for the final product.



In the days since, Huynh said customers have stopped by their locations on Vine Street and Upper Wellington Street to congratulate them and take a bite of the famous slice.

"We're waiting to see what happens in the next weeks and months with how well it's going to help our business," he said.

John Chetti, manager partner of Queen Margherita Pizza in Toronto, has been a judge for a competition closer to home — the Canadian Pizza Summit — where another Hamilton pizzeria, Maipai tiki and pizza bar, has previously won for best pizza recipe for the restaurant's Mala Honey Pie.

Chetti previously told CBC Hamilton that overall Canada has "great talent" when it comes to pizza chefs. He said Canada's two major cultural centres for pizza making are the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal, the latter having "authentic roots and very innovative chefs that are willing to take risks."

[lush]

Miraculous Pothole Allegedly Shakes ‘Dead’ Man Back to Life
011524*

An Indian man who had been pronounced dead by doctors allegedly came back to life when the ambulance transporting him home to his family hit a deep pothole.

India’s pothole problem is a well-documented one. It annoys and exasperates millions of people every day, and on occasion, it can cause serious injuries and even death, but according to the family of an 80-year-old man from Haryana, potholes can also be miracles in disguise. Darshan Singh Brar allegedly owes his life to a pothole. The man had not been feeling well for several days, so one of his grandsons decided to take him to a hospital near his home. He was diagnosed with a severe chest infection which also took a toll on his pre-existing heart condition, and despite doctors’ best efforts, he was pronounced dead after four days on a ventilator. But that’s only the beginning of our story…


Photo: Liam Riby/Unsplash

“My brother in Patiala informed us around 9 am on Thursday about our grandfather’s death, and he was getting him to Nising (roughly 100 km away) in an ambulance for his last rites,” Balwan Singh, one of Brar’s grandchildren, told NDTV. “We had informed our relatives and other local residents who knew him and they had already gathered to mourn his passing. A tent had been set up and food had also been arranged for the mourners. We had also got wood for the cremation.”

But then something strange allegedly happened while the ambulance was traveling to Nising. Near Dhand, a village in Haryana’s Kaithal district, the car hit a deep pothole and moments later, Balwan’s brother, who was watching over his grandfather’s body, saw the 80-year-old man move his hand. He quickly checked for a pulse and, sensing one, alerted the driver to take them to the nearest hospital.

Doctors confirmed that Darshan Singh Brar was very much alive and referred him to a hospital in Nising, from where he was taken to the NP Rawal Hospital in Karnal. His condition is still critical, but he is fighting for his life.

“It is a miracle, now we are hoping that my grandfather recovers soon,” Balwan said. “Everyone who had gathered to mourn his death congratulated us, and we requested them to have the food we had arranged. It is God’s grace that he is now breathing and we are hoping he will get better.”

Doctors treating Brar at the hospital in Karnal could not confirm that he had previously died, as he was alive when he arrived there. They di say that while his condition is still very serious, the octogenarian is now breathing on his own.

ressurrected this story (different article/source from this one) for today: happy easter!

[Misstee]

A Shape Called a 'Sphinx' Could Explain Handedness in Biology
Physics
31 March 2024
By Tessa Koumoundouros





From the helix of a strand of DNA to the arrangements of protein's building blocks, the twists and swirls of biochemistry often follow a surprisingly consistent orientation of left- and right-handedness known as chirality.

A recent study involving the tesselations of a simple shape based on triangles might help us better understand why biology holds preferences for one orientation over the other.

Conducted by a small team of researchers from the US and Germany, the investigation shows how a combination of geometry and basic physics might be behind some of life's most intriguing patterns.

"The Universe shouldn't favor one handedness over another, but at scale after scale, chiral preferences emerge," Chan Zuckerberg Biohub biophysicist Greg Huber says. "Chirality can be very mysterious."

Much like our two hands held palms up, the mirrored version of chiral molecules can't be aligned perfectly over each other no matter how they're rotated. So while left- and right-handed molecules look nearly identical, they can have radically different impacts on the real world. Using the flipped version of a molecule in a drug, for example, could do harm more than it helps.

It's not just organic molecules that can have an orientation, either. Minerals can be chiral when structured in biological systems. A snail's spiral-shaped calcium carbonate shell and the minerals in our bones are just two examples.

But how these minerals form atom by atom into crystalline chiral shapes is simply another curiosity of chirality.

To better understand the emergence of chirality, especially in the crowded space of a biological system, Huber and colleagues turned to the most basic 2D chiral shape derived from a series of triangles: an asymmetric shape nicknamed the sphinx.


The sphinx shape is the smallest chiral shape that can be formed by triangles. (Huber et al., Physical Review Research, 2024)

Huber and team used computer models to test the left-and right-handedness of sphinx tile alignments, tesselating them in different numbers and orientations. As the researchers explain in their paper, they wanted "to explore the statistical mechanics of, and to expose the chiral nature inherent in, ensembles of densely packed chiral tiles subject to finite spatial boundaries."

Being asymmetric, sphinx tiles can fit together in many different ways, compared with something as simple as a square. Just two sphinx tiles, for example, can be combined in more than 45 different ways to make a pair, whereas two squares can only go together one way.

As the number of sphinxes in a pattern increases, they combine in super-exponential ways, giving the researchers access to a large, theoretically random system to work with.

Huber and colleagues modeled the interactions between chiral sphinxes under high and low energy conditions, akin to temperature. In high-temperature systems, chiral sphinxes hardly had a chance to interact as they jostled into place and ended up making a jumbled pattern.


In low-energy conditions (left) sphinx tiles show a clustering of right (red) and left (blue) chiral forms that are all jumbled up under high-energy conditions (right). (Huber et al., Physical Review Research, 2024)

As temperatures lowered, the interactions became more orderly and sphinxes of the same chirality flocked together to form clusters you can see in the diagram above.

Surprisingly, however, in high-temperature systems constrained by a symmetrical outer boundary – like being in a crowded room – sphinxes of the same chirality tended to cluster together as well, as shown in the diagram below.


Even in symmetrical systems the right (red) and left (blue) chiralities cluster. (Huber et al., Physical Review Research, 2024)

Even in such a basic, stripped-down model of chirality, the modeling shows patterns can arise out of the chaos, and that like molecules seem to gravitate towards like.

Discovering any rules behind these geometric patterns could help researchers across many fields of science, possibly understand the structure of viruses' outer coats or how magnetism might have set off a chain reaction that ultimately gave life its molecular asymmetry.

This research was published in Physical Review Research.

New Research into Beethoven’s DNA Reveals He Didn’t Inherit his Musical Talent


Beethoven in 1803 and 1820

The famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven did not inherit much musical talent from his ancestors, according to a new study that shows his genes revealed quite a low predisposition for beat synchronization or musicality.

Researchers say the findings are a good example of how our DNA doesn’t determine what talents will be developed in life.

The team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, worked with colleagues from the Max Planck Institutes for Empirical Aesthetics in Germany and Holland.

They analyzed Beethoven’s DNA from a hair sample that was extracted for a different study last year.

They set out to investigate his genetic musical predisposition, an ability closely related to musicality—comparing his DNA to nearly 14,500 other people in databanks.

They used his recently sequenced DNA to calculate a polygenic score as an indicator for his genetic predisposition for beat synchronization.

“Interestingly, Beethoven, one of the most celebrated musicians in history, had an unremarkable polygenic score for general musicality—ranking between the 9th and 11th percentile based on modern samples,” said Vanderbilt doctoral candidate Tara Henechowicz.

His genetics were compared to population samples from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Vanderbilt’s BioVU Repository.

The authors who published the study this week in the journal Current Biology said it would be wrong to conclude that the maestro had little talent, but it does highlight the problems in making predictions based purely on DNA.

“The mismatch between the DNA-based prediction and Beethoven’s musical genius provides a valuable teaching moment because it demonstrates that DNA tests cannot give us a definitive answer about whether a given child will end up being musically gifted,” said Ms. Henechowicz.

Prior studies have found an average heritability, which is the proportion of individual differences explained by all genetic factors, of 42 percent for musicality.

“The current study and other recent work also suggest that environment plays a key role in musical ability and engagement as well,” added co-author Dr. Reyna Gordon.

“In the current era of ‘big data’, such as Vanderbilt’s BioVU repository, we have had the opportunity to look in fine detail at large groups of people to uncover the genetic underpinnings of traits such as rhythm ability or being musically active.”

New 'Silicon Spikes' Can Destroy Almost All Virus Particles

The spikes rip apart some viruses while preventing others from replicating. Both could help prevent the spread of disease.


Credit: Mah et al, ACS Nano/10.1021/acsnano.3c07099
When it comes to killing viruses, we typically default to the chemical route. But what about stabbing them? That's the approach researchers in Australia took when they created a spiked silicon material that physically disables viruses. With a 96% success rate, their approach could find a place in hospitals, laboratories, and other disease-averse environments.

From homes to intensive care units, antiviral chemicals—like sanitizing wipes, sprays, and gels—tend to be our go-to disinfectant strategies. But while the occasional wipe-down might be sufficient for low-risk, low-traffic spaces, places like intensive care units and hospital isolation rooms are left to play virus Whac-A-Mole. Most of these spaces are cleaned once or twice daily; though that sounds like a lot, germs are free to propagate on surfaces between wipe-downs. Robots that use ultraviolet light to sanitize hospital rooms are limited to occasional cleaning.

Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) wanted to create a surface that passively keeps disease at bay. To do so, they took inspiration from nature. The wings of some species of dragonflies, cicadas, and other insects feature tiny spikes that fight germs by disabling bacteria and fungi. These spikes are so small that they're invisible to the unaided eye; they exist only on the nanoscale.

Viruses are far smaller than bacteria, so antiviral spikes would have to be smaller than antibacterial spikes. Taking mother nature's lead, the team at RMIT created a silicon surface chock-full of spikes just 290 nanometers tall and 2 nanometers wide. (That's 30,000 times thinner than a human hair, according to RMIT.) The idea was that these spikes would be small enough to pierce viruses, rendering them incapable of replicating and infecting mammals.


Credit: Mah et al, ACS Nano/10.1021/acsnano.3c07099

In a paper for ACS Nano, the researchers describe an experiment comparing the antiviral properties of their spiked surface with that of a smooth silicon plane. On top of both surfaces, they placed human parainfluenza virus type 3 (hPIV-3), the virus behind respiratory illnesses like bronchitis and croup. After just one hour, 74% of the viruses atop the spiked surface had been punctured to the point of incapacitation; at six hours, that figure bumped to 96%. While the viruses atop the smooth control surface gradually lost viability—viruses need living cells to survive long-term and reproduce—they largely retained their physical integrity and took far longer to die.

Because viruses are tougher to kill mechanically than bacteria, the experimental spiked surface was also fairly effective at disabling bacterial cells. RMIT tested the surface's antibacterial properties with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause meningitis and pneumonia, and Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria behind staph infections. While the cells on the spiked surface were disrupted at a rate of about 20% and 30%, respectively, the cells on the smooth surface adhered to the material and retained their viability.

In their paper, the team at RMIT says using virus-killing surfaces like their own with common disinfectants should ensure a consistent and near-total (99.99% or more) eradication of infectious viruses on common surfaces. In other words, swapping in a surface with invisible spikes for conventional hospital and lab surfaces could fill the gaps left by occasional disinfectant wipe-downs.

Full paper in ACS Nano (open access)

[Zbignieww]

Unusual coloured seagull spotted in supermarket carpark keeps people guessing



An unusual-looking gull spotted at Whangārei’s Pak’nSave supermarket carpark has shoppers wondering whether the bird is a freak of nature or a victim of pollution.

Bird lover John Ecuyer snapped this close-up picture of the unusually coloured seagull, which has otherwise been identified as a red-billed gull/ tarāpunga or akiaki. He noticed it among a group of more conventionally coloured grey and white ones this year.

Ecuyer posted the photo to a Facebook page called Leucistic Birds New Zealand, sparking debate even among that group of keen birders, as to why the gull looked the way it did.

Many people insisted it had been a victim of oil pollution; another person wondered if it had been dyed.

However, Ecuyer is convinced the bird is an “amazing example” of an oddity of nature affected by a rare genetic trait that affects feather colouration - in this case producing a smooth transition of yellowy-brown hues.

There are four such traits: Albinism, which causes creatures to lose all pigment and appear completely white - think white tui and fantails; leucism that doesn’t completely eliminate pigment but causes white patches and partial loss of colour; and xanthochroism, where normally red feathers are replaced by yellow or orange ones.

It’s the fourth trait - melanism - that Ecuyer believes the gull he photographed seemed to display. Most animals—including humans—produce melanin, which pigments hair, skin and more. In birds, it’s responsible for black, brown and tan feathers. When a bird is melanistic, it will appear much darker than the typical colouration for their species.



The Advocate sent a copy of the photo to Northland bird conservationist and Whangārei Native Bird Recovery Centre manager Robert Webb, who identified the bird as a red-billed gull and suggested it might have been one of a group of three he cleaned this year after their misadventure with a pot of old cooking oil.

The Department of Conservation lists the status of red-billed gulls as “at risk - declining”. Although the birds are commonly seen in coastal areas, there are fewer than 100,000 of them remaining. Their numbers are expected to fall by 50 to 70 per cent in the next 30 years.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-adv ... JDY3A2PSI/

[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 APRIL 1
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 -6)
3:00 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

[ozswede]

Muhammad Ali’s ‘Thrilla in Manila’ Shorts Could Fetch $6M at Auction

Amid growth in the sports memorabilia market, Sotheby's is introducing a Sports Week series. An iconic piece of memorabilia from legendary boxer Muhammad Ali is up for auction and is expected to be sold for an eye-popping number.

Ali's renowned fight-worn Everlast boxing trunks from the "Thrilla in Manila" are being auctioned by Sotheby's with an estimated price of $4-6 million. The current high bid stands at $3.8 million, and the auction will close on April 12.

The pair, which remain spotless despite the gruelling 14-round fight, are up for auction.

The silk Everlast shorts, pure white except for a black belt line and black racing stripes on each leg, are signed by Ali.

Sotheby's in New York expects the item to sell for up to $6million (£4.8million).

The fight, which took place in the Philippines in 1975, was the third time the legendary boxer faced 'Smokin' Joe Frazier. The "Thrilla in Manila" was the culmination of Ali's longstanding rivalry with Joe Frazier. Their first meeting in 1971 was dubbed the "Fight of the Century," with Frazier emerging victorious. In 1974, they met in the "Rumble in the Jungle," with Ali winning the second time around.


Muhammad Ali's shorts from his Thrilla in Manila fight.

It is believed a billion people worldwide tuned in to watch the Thrilla in Manilla, still regarded as the greatest and most brutal boxing match of all time. Ali relentlessly threw verbal jabs at Frazier while promoting the matchup, causing an undeniable amount of animosity between the two.

When they finally met in the ring, Frazier's anger was apparent as he threw power punches early and often. However, Ali was able to withstand the barrage and go on the offensive. Frazier's corner threw in the towel after the 14th round, ending one of the best fights of all time.

The pair fought for 42 minutes, despite temperatures hitting 49C (120F).

After his victory, Ali said of the fight: 'It was like death. Closest thing to dying that I know of.

'We went to Manila as champions, Joe and me, and we came back as old men.'


Heavyweight boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier are seen during their championship bout in Quezon City

Frazier, then 31, fought just twice more before retiring. Ali boxed for six more years. He died at the age of 74, after a three-decades long battle against Parkinson's, in 2016.

The shorts willl headline Sotheby's Sports Week, an inaugural sale series with more than 350 sports collectibles ranging from iconic milestones in sports history to items fresh off the court.

The auctioneer’s new initiative will take advantage of a burgeoning market for sports memorabilia that is expected to reach $227 billion by 2032, according to consulting group Market Decipher. “The market for unique sports artifacts has been enjoying unprecedented growth as collectors continue to chase the best-of-the-best objects, with a particular desire to acquire those that are ‘fresh to market,'” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, in a statement.



The shorts were Ali’s calling card. A symbol in satin. Because if you strip away the context, the stakes and everything else: Who wears white shorts to a fight?

The answer, of course, is someone who thinks they’re going to win, and to walk away looking pretty.

Whoever lands the bid for Ali's famed trunks will be acquiring one of the most illustrious pieces of boxing history.

[Alessa9]

Pandas aren’t all black and white. Some come in a different shade, and scientists now understand why


Qizai, a brown giant panda in captivity who was at the center of the scientific study, is seen on May 28, 2021.

With its striking coloration, the giant panda is an instantly recognizable species.

A handful of giant pandas that aren’t black-and-white, however, do exist. These majestic creatures with brown-and-white fur inhabit a single mountain range in China. And now, scientists may have unraveled the mystery of the extremely rare pandas’ unusual coats, according to new research.

The work, which involved studying the genetics of multiple pandas in the wild and in captivity, has suggested that pandas with brown-and-white coats are the result of natural variation, rather than a sign of inbreeding in a dwindling population.

The first brown panda known to science was a female named Dandan. A local ranger found the ailing bear in Foping County in Shaanxi province’s Qinling Mountains in March 1985. The panda was held in captivity until her death in 2000.

Since Dandan’s discovery decades ago, there have been 11 reported sightings documented through official news sources or personal accounts shared with the authors of this latest study that appeared in the journal PNAS on March 4.

“The recurring instances of brown pandas imply that this trait may be inheritable. However, to date, the genetic basis underlying the brown-and-white coat color remains unclear,” the authors wrote.

Gaining a better understanding of the distinctive coloration could help inform efforts to breed brown-and-white pandas in captivity, said senior author Dr. Fuwen Wei, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology in Beijing. The status of the giant panda as a species is vulnerable, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.


A wild giant panda in China's Qinling Mountains stares at the camera in March 2016.

A panda family tree
To understand what lies behind the trait, the researchers studied Qizai, a male brown panda rescued as a cub in 2009 from Foping National Nature Reserve in Hanzhong. He is currently the only brown panda in captivity.

When compared under a microscope with hair samples from three black-and-white pandas, Qizai’s brownish fur had fewer and smaller melanosomes, tiny structures found in cells that are responsible for skin and hair pigment in mammals. What’s more, the melanosomes were more likely to be irregularly shaped, the study team found.

The researchers then gathered genetic information about Qizai and pieced together his family tree. Fresh scat, or bear poop, gathered at the nature reserve revealed the identity of his wild mother, a black-and-white female panda that wears a tracking collar and is known as Niuniu.

The researchers also identified Qizai’s son, a black-and-white panda born in captivity in 2020. (The study team later identified Qizai’s father, Xiyue, a wild but tracked black-and-white panda, by studying the genetics of a wider population of pandas.)

The scientists studied the genetic information from Qizai’s family members and compared it with the genetic information from 12 black-and-white pandas from the Qinling Mountains and 17 black-and-white pandas from other regions in China using information taken from scat and blood samples.

While none of Qizai’s immediate family members had brown fur, the researchers were able to show that his parents and son all had one copy of the recessive trait on a gene known as Bace2, while Qizai had two copies.

An individual’s genes can carry recessive traits, such as blue eyes or red hair in humans, without appearing as a physical characteristic. Each parent must possess a copy of the genetic variant and pass it on in order for the trait to appear in the offspring, as is the case with Qizai.

Genetic analysis solves an enigma
Thanks to an analysis of a tissue sample stored for more than two decades in ethanol, the scientists also were able to sequence the genome of Dandan, the first known brown panda. Dandan had the same recessive trait, the researchers found.

The scientists then conducted a wider analysis of 192 black-and-white giant pandas to verify the responsible gene as Bace2. The mutation causing the brown coats was only present in two pandas hailing from the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi, not Sichuan province, where the majority of China’s giant pandas live.

To confirm the findings, the scientists used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool to delete the genetic sequence they had identified as causing the mutation in the Bace2 gene in 78 lab mice. The change reduced the number and size of melanosomes in the mice.

“The coat color of knockout mice is light brown,” said Wei, who is also president at Jiangxi Agricultural University in Nanchang in China’s Jiangxi province.

“It proves that this deletion has the potential to alter the coat color of a mouse, as the pigmentation pathway is relatively conserved (shared) among mammals. Therefore, it is very likely that this mutation influences the coat color of a brown panda.”

Natural variation vs. inbreeding
It’s not clear what caused the genetic mutation. Wei said it must be linked to the specific environment of the Qinling Mountains, which has a different climate than Sichuan. The genetic mutation did not appear to be a result of inbreeding, as once suspected, he said.

“It is more likely to be a result of natural variation rather than inbreeding. Our kinship analysis indicates that Qizai’s parents are not closely related,” Wei added.

Tiejun Wang, an associate professor in the department of natural resources at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, said it was good news that the unique coloration did not appear to be the result of inbreeding. Wang, who has studied brown pandas, was not involved in the study.

“For those who are concerned about this species, this is a positive development,” said Wang, who said he worked as a field ranger in the mountains for 10 years.

Wang said he applauded the team “for their tremendous efforts in trying to shed light on this scientific question.”

[goldie0608]

Pet Snake Missing for a Year Was Reunited with Its Owner After Being Dropped into a Yard by a Crow

The reptile survived not only the crow attack but the cold winter temperatures outside



A pet snake that had been missing for a year has made it home — and in the most unlikely of ways.

The United Kingdom's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) received a call earlier this month about a corn snake that was spotted atop a garage roof in a resident's yard in Spennymoor, England, according to the BBC.

RSPCA inspector John Lawson told the outlet the three-foot-long snake had been picked up by a crow, but then dropped when the bird "realized it had bitten off more than it could chew."

As it turned out, the female reptile, named Agnus, was the missing pet of the resident's neighbor. Agnus had not been seen for a year after managing to escape from her home.

Small Pet Owners in California Neighborhood Warned After Family's 15-Foot Pet Python Escapes
"After I rescued the snake, a resident living nearby came over and was absolutely delighted as it was her missing pet from a year ago called Agnus," Lawson told the BBC.

He added that he was "gobsmacked" the animal managed to survive not only the crow attack, but the cold temperatures outside over the winter.

According to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, snakes are ecothermic, meaning they cannot generate their own body heat, so they rely on their environment to maintain their body temperature.

After her ordeal, Agnus was evaluated by a veterinarian and treated for a respiratory infection from being outside in the cold for so long.

"The vet believes Agnus had gone into brumation mode, similar to hibernation, and her body had shut down in order to survive," Lawson told the BBC. "It really is amazing that she survived for so long without heat — and also survived after a crow had decided to try to fly off with her."

According to the outlet, the RSPCA advises snake owners to keep their reptiles in a locked, secure enclosure when unattended, as snakes are "excellent escape artists."

[rflash8]

Gmail revolutionized email 20 years ago. People thought it was Google’s April Fools’ Day joke



SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fools’ Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research center on the moon. Another year, the company said it planned to roll out a “scratch and sniff” feature on its search engine.

The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why Page and Brin decided to unveil something no one would believe was possible 20 years ago on April Fools’ Day.

It was Gmail, a free service boasting 1 gigabyte of storage per account, an amount that sounds almost pedestrian in an age of one-terabyte iPhones. But it sounded like a preposterous amount of email capacity back then, enough to store about 13,500 emails before running out of space compared to just 30 to 60 emails in the then-leading webmail services run by Yahoo and Microsoft. That translated into 250 to 500 times more email storage space.

Besides the quantum leap in storage, Gmail also came equipped with Google’s search technology so users could quickly retrieve a tidbit from an old email, photo or other personal information stored on the service. It also automatically threaded together a string of communications about the same topic so everything flowed together as if it was a single conversation.

“The original pitch we put together was all about the three ‘S’s” — storage, search and speed,” said former Google executive Marissa Mayer, who helped design Gmail and other company products before later becoming Yahoo’s CEO.

It was such a mind-bending concept that shortly after The Associated Press published a story about Gmail late on the afternoon of April Fools’ 2004, readers began calling and emailing to inform the news agency it had been duped by Google’s pranksters.

“That was part of the charm, making a product that people won’t believe is real. It kind of changed people’s perceptions about the kinds of applications that were possible within a web browser,” former Google engineer Paul Buchheit recalled during a recent AP interview about his efforts to build Gmail.

It took three years to do as part of a project called “Caribou” — a reference to a running gag in the Dilbert comic strip. “There was something sort of absurd about the name Caribou, it just made make me laugh,” said Buchheit, the 23rd employee hired at a company that now employs more than 180,000 people.

The AP knew Google wasn’t joking about Gmail because an AP reporter had been abruptly asked to come down from San Francisco to the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters to see something that would make the trip worthwhile.

After arriving at a still-developing corporate campus that would soon blossom into what became known as the “Googleplex,” the AP reporter was ushered into a small office where Page was wearing an impish grin while sitting in front of his laptop computer.

Page, then just 31 years old, proceeded to show off Gmail’s sleekly designed inbox and demonstrated how quickly it operated within Microsoft’s now-retired Explorer web browser. And he pointed out there was no delete button featured in the main control window because it wouldn’t be necessary, given Gmail had so much storage and could be so easily searched. “I think people are really going to like this,” Page predicted.

As with so many other things, Page was right. Gmail now has an estimated 1.8 billion active accounts — each one now offering 15 gigabytes of free storage bundled with Google Photos and Google Drive. Even though that’s 15 times more storage than Gmail initially offered, it’s still not enough for many users who rarely see the need to purge their accounts, just as Google hoped.

The digital hoarding of email, photos and other content is why Google, Apple and other companies now make money from selling additional storage capacity in their data centers. (In Google’s case, it charges anywhere from $30 annually for 200 gigabytes of storage to $250 annually for 5 terabytes of storage). Gmail’s existence is also why other free email services and the internal email accounts that employees use on their jobs offer far more storage than was fathomed 20 years ago.

“We were trying to shift the way people had been thinking because people were working in this model of storage scarcity for so long that deleting became a default action,” Buchheit said.

Gmail was a game changer in several other ways while becoming the first building block in the expansion of Google’s internet empire beyond its still-dominant search engine.

After Gmail came Google Maps and Google Docs with word processing and spreadsheet applications. Then came the acquisition of video site YouTube, followed by the introduction of the the Chrome browser and the Android operating system that powers most of the world’s smartphones. With Gmail’s explicitly stated intention to scan the content of emails to get a better understanding of users’ interests, Google also left little doubt that digital surveillance in pursuit of selling more ads would be part of its expanding ambitions.

Although it immediately generated a buzz, Gmail started out with a limited scope because Google initially only had enough computing capacity to support a small audience of users.

“When we launched, we only had 300 machines and they were really old machines that no one else wanted,” Buchheit said, with a chuckle. “We only had enough capacity for 10,000 users, which is a little absurd.”

But that scarcity created an air of exclusivity around Gmail that drove feverish demand for an elusive invitations to sign up. At one point, invitations to open a Gmail account were selling for $250 apiece on eBay. “It became a bit like a social currency, where people would go, ‘Hey, I got a Gmail invite, you want one?’” Buchheit said.

Although signing up for Gmail became increasingly easier as more of Google’s network of massive data centers came online, the company didn’t begin accepting all comers to the email service until it opened the floodgates as a Valentine’s Day present to the world in 2007.

A few weeks later on April Fools’ Day in 2007, Google would announce a new feature called “Gmail Paper” offering users the chance to have Google print out their email archive on “94% post-consumer organic soybean sputum " and then have it sent to them through the Postal Service. Google really was joking around that time.

[PennySerenade]

In Ontario's Niagara Region, the historic Comfort Maple stands as a proud symbol of Canada's natural heritage.

This majestic sugar maple tree, towering at almost 25 meters tall with a trunk wider than most people can wrap their arms around, has earned its place as the country's oldest and most revered of its kind.

With sprawling branches and weathered bark, the Comfort Maple is a silent witness to centuries of history, resilience, and change.

The story of the Comfort Maple is one of survival against the odds. Once part of a lush hardwood forest, the land around it was cleared long ago for farming.



Yet, while other trees fell to the axe, the Comfort Maple stood strong, its roots firmly planted in the soil. It has seen generations come and go, weathering storms and seasons with unwavering grace.

The connection between the Comfort Maple and the Comfort family, who settled in the area in 1816, adds another layer to its rich history. Struck by the tree's magnificence, Earl Hampton set aside a piece of land to protect it.

His sister, Edna Hampton, took the preservation efforts even further by donating the tree and surrounding land to the Niagara Region Conservation Authority in 1961.

Thanks to their foresight, the Comfort Maple Conservation Area was born, creating a peaceful sanctuary where visitors can admire this ancient marvel up close.



Estimates suggest the Comfort Maple could be anywhere from 400 to 500 years old, making it an authentic living relic.

As one of the few remaining "old-growth" trees in the region, the Comfort Maple reminds us of the importance of preserving our natural heritage for future generations.

For those visiting the Niagara Region, a trip to see the Comfort Maple is a must. Just a short drive from beautiful St. Catharines and iconic Niagara Falls, the conservation area offers a tranquil escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.

The Comfort Maple Conservation Area is located in Pelham, Ontario.