[Zbignieww]

Archaeologists Discovered an ‘Unprecedented’ Ancient Monument That Could Rewrite History

An archaeological find revealed in eastern France offers a never-seen-before mix of enclosures.
The site was in use across at least three distinct time periods.
Linked in part to burials, researchers hope further study reveals more about the site’s dating and purpose.

As if one ancient circular enclosure wasn’t enough to evoke intrigue at an archaeological find in Eastern France, three interconnected enclosures raised the bar.

In what the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) is calling an “unprecedented” discovery in Marliens, France, near Dijon, excavations revealed a series of occupations on one site spanning from the Neolithic period to the First Iron Age.

The oldest occupation features a monument with three interlocking enclosures. The center section offers a circular enclosure 36 feet in diameter, the largest in the bunch. To the north a smaller 26-foot-long horseshoe-shaped enclosure connects directly to the main center piece. To the south, a circular design remains open on one side, but still ties to the main circle. The team believes all three structures are linked together in both positioning and dating and that a gravel layer found on the two side enclosures suggests a fence was also present.

“This type of monument seems unprecedented and currently no comparison has been possible,” the research team says in a statement. A bundle of artifacts—including seven flint arrowheads, two archer’s bracers, a flint lighter, and a copper alloy dagger—discovered in the site’s ditches correspond to cut flints, suggesting attribution to the Neolithic period, potentially as far back as 10,000 BC to 2,200 BC. Radiocarbon analytics is planned to help determine exact dating.

The team located an armband with traces of iron oxide tied to pyrite, indicating it could have been used to light fires. These objects often accompany a burial, but the team couldn’t make that conclusion just yet in this case.

“Analyses of the composition of the copper alloy of the dagger should make it possible to establish its origin and provide us with information on commercial exchanges at that time,” the team writes.

In another location on the site, the team dates five circular enclosures—four open and one closed across a 64,000 square foot plain—between 1500 BC and 1300 BC. The remains of burials and a funeral pyre were found in the ditches of the largest enclosure, although the acidity of the soil didn’t allow the preservation of unburned bones, so the team was not able to find a complete burial. Dating based on five copper alloy pins, a necklace with 40 amber beads, and rare ceramic shards confirms the timing.

A First Iron Age occupation is also nearby, about 1,300 feet from the plain, this with urns and burial ornaments. Early Bronze Age wells sit nearby. An analysis of the clay layers at the bottom of the wells may provide information on the natural environment and landscape of the valley during the Bronze Age.

The team believes that with the analytics underway on the objects found at the site, combined with paleo-environmental studies, they will be able to “propose a scenario of the evolution of this territory over the ages.”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/scienc ... -monument/

[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 APRIL 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)
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

[ozswede]

‘Stormtrooper’ grilled by armed police as Dundee train diverted

British Transport Police and Police Scotland officers quizzed a Star Wars fan after 'firearm' report. A train travelling to Dundee was diverted back to Aberdeen after a man dressed as a Stormtrooper from Star Wars was reported to police for “carrying a firearm”.

Armed cops were alerted after the movie fan from the Granite City was seen entering Aberdeen train station on Saturday morning.


A train travelling to Dundee was diverted back to Aberdeen over 'Stormtrooper'.

The Courier understands the man, travelling to a comic convention in Dundee, boarded a train which was then forced to return to Aberdeen after setting off for the City of Discovery.

He was then grilled by British Transport Police and Police Scotland officers over his Stormtrooper blaster.

They later determined it was a false alarm.

A British Transport Police spokesperson for said: “Officers received reports of a man with a firearm entering Aberdeen station just before 9am on Saturday.

“Officers attended alongside colleagues from Police Scotland and it was determined it was a false alarm.”

British Transport Police insists individuals are not banned from travelling while wearing fancy dress, including Stormtrooper outfits.

Police Scotland declined to comment, as did the individual quizzed by officers.

DeeCon, an anime, gaming and art convention, was held on Saturday at Dundee University.

(So the force wasn’t so much with him as after him )

[Alessa9]

Japanese town blocks panoramic Mount Fuji views to tackle crowding by unruly foreign tourists


Daredevil flies glider around Mount Fuji.

https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/6HD3vMWA

A Japanese town is blocking off its panoramic views of Mount Fuji to tackle unruly behaviour by tourists who have been flocking to take pictures of the iconic mountain peak.

The decision by officials in Fujikawaguchiko to install a mesh net, 2.5m high and 20m long, is meant to contain a growing influx of badly behaved foreign tourists crowding popular photo spots, particularly one offering a view of Mount Fuji behind a Lawson convenience store in Yamanashi prefecture.

The construction of the mesh net will start next week, a local official said.

“It’s regrettable we have to do this because of some tourists who can’t respect rules,” a Fujikawaguchiko official was quoted as saying by The Japan Times.

The official complained that the tourists leave litter behind and ignore traffic regulations despite warnings.

The decision to install the net will protect the town’s infrastructure and preserve the tranquillity of the area, the official added.

This comes after officials in Japan’s popular Geisha district in Kyoto announced that they will shut off access to “paparazzi” tourists who harass and trouble the globally recognised Japanese women artists, starting April this year.

It was reported last month that the historic Gion district’s local council said it was banning sightseers and tourists into the alleys and streets housing geisha and maiko (teenage trainee geisha) after facing years of complaints over the growing buzz of photography.


Visitor climb the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest peak, on 31 August 2023.

A growing influx of foreign tourists has put strain on popular destinations in Japan, leading to concerns about sustainability and visitor behaviour.

In March this year, it was reported that the East Asian nation will start collecting an entry fee of ¥2,000 (£10) per person to limit the number of trekkers to Mount Fuji.

A gate is set to be installed at the entrance to the Yoshida Trail, known as the fifth station, on the Yamanashi side of Mount Fuji, standing at 3,776m.

The gate will begin collecting fees from climbers starting 1 July, when this year’s climbing season starts.


Mount Fuji rises behind industrial facilities at Tagonoura Port in Fuji city, Shizuoka prefecture.

Meanwhile, local officials said the Lawson store in Yamanashi had become the preferred spot for pictures because it offers views of Mount Fuji majestically standing behind one of Japan’s ubiquitous convenience stores.

Due to this visual juxtaposition, the unidentified official noted, “a reputation has spread on social media that this spot is very Japanese, making it a popular photo location”.

This has caused a problem as mostly foreign tourists crowd that stretch of pavement next to the Lawson store.

[Fatima99]

Beloved Birds Return to Islands for First Time in 40 Years After Damming Damage Reversed



What’s secretive, pretends to be a stick, and is sometimes confused with a mythical creature?

The figure in focus of this question is a beloved bird that’s returning in numbers to Tasmania for the first time in 40 years.

The Australasian bittern disappeared from Tasmania’s northern reaches for decades following a hydropower project in 1964 that disrupted a unique local wetland ecosystem called the Lagoon of Islands.

Raising the water level, flooding the islands, and eliminating the prime habitat of the bird, its return is a watershed moment in the area’s recovery following the elimination of the dams in 2012.

Wielding an “eerie deep hoot” that’s supposed to be similar to a mythical creature called a Bunyip, a man-eating swamp creature, the few Aborigines who will try and describe it say it looks like a seal or swimming dog, while others describe it as having a long neck and small head. Both forms are accused of preying on humans.

The bittern is not a myth, but like the Bunyip, it is nocturnal and elusive. In fact, it has a cool camouflage trick. This large heron stands stock still with its bill pointed at the clouds, while a stripe of feathers on its neck, combined with its rough brown plumage, makes it look perfectly like a group of reeds.

ABC News Australia spoke with one of the birders in Tasmania’s community of Longford, around 40 kilometers north of the large town of Bothwell, who made up citizen science programs that recorded the bittern’s call for the first time in 40 years.

“It’s probably one of the memories of my life in terms of birding, and I’ve done a lot of birding,” said bird expert Geoff Shannon, who additionally spotted a pair of bittern chicks through his binoculars.

The Lagoon of Islands was a rich wetland ecosystem of floating reed mats and small islands where the bitterns could nest, hide, and hunt.

The bitterns’ return is the restoration of a top member of the food chain, showing how well the lagoon as a whole has recovered, from the smallest fish or amphibian up to the largest bird.

[goldie0608]

Utah Cat Accidentally Shipped 650 Miles in Amazon Return Reunites with Family After a Week in Transit

The cat, named Galena, was hiding in a box filled with shoes, when her family returned to Amazon



A Utah cat is back with her family after traveling to California in an Amazon return box.

Galena's owners, Carrie and Matt Clark, told KSL News that the feline, like many cats, has an affinity for hiding in boxes.

"She loves to play in boxes; it's just part of her personality," Carrie told the local news site in a video interview. The curious cat's amusing habit of hiding in boxes led to a scary situation on Wednesday, April 10, when Galena's Lehi-based owners couldn't find their pet anywhere.

Unbeknownst to them, Galena had left the house in a large box of shoes that Matt had sent out as a return to Amazon. The cat was hiding in the box — which contained a pair of CAT Footwear shoes, among others — when it was closed up, causing her to get sent out with the returns.

Carrie and Matt thoroughly searched their house and put up missing cat flyers in their community, utterly unaware that their cat's favorite game of box hide-and-seek had gone awry.

"Galena is a huge emotional support to me and has helped me get through many health challenges over the past six years," Carrie told KSL. "The anxiety and stress of not knowing what happened to her was excruciating."



A week after realizing their beloved pet had gone missing, Matt and Carrie got a call from someone with a surprise — Galena's microchip had been scanned in Riverside, Calif., 650 miles away from Lehi, and the chip's information had led to the cat's owners.

More specifically, an employee at an Amazon distribution station had found the feline in an Amazon package filled with the shoes Matt had sent in his return shipment. The employee, identified as Brandy, took care of Galena until she reunited with her family.

As soon as Carrie and Matt got the "insane news" that Galena had been found in a box at the Amazon facility, the owners booked a flight to California.

"It was an amazing reunion! Galena instantly stopped shaking and relaxed in my arms when I got to hold her again," Carrie told KSL of the reunion at a California vet's office. "Despite being skinnier and some mild dehydration, her bloodwork was completely normal and she was completely unharmed!"

During the shipping process, Galena unfortunately went without food and water for six days.

"The weather temperatures were ideal and she didn't overheat or freeze. Galena survived because of her microchip, Brandy's kindness and generosity, and God's grace!" said Carrie.

After the ordeal, the Clark family is advocating for microchipping your pets and triple-checking your Amazon boxes.

[rflash8]

Chicago's 'rat hole' is removed after the city determined the sidewalk was damaged



CHICAGO — The "rat hole" is gone.

A Chicago sidewalk landmark some residents affectionately called the "rat hole" was removed Wednesday after city officials determined the section bearing the imprint of an animal was damaged and needed to be replaced, officials said.

The imprint has been a quirk of a residential block in Chicago's North Side neighborhood of Roscoe Village for years, but it found fresh fame in January after a Chicago comedian shared a photo on the social platform X.

The attention, however, quickly grew old for neighbors who complained about visitors at all hours, sometimes leaving coins and other items scattered across the sidewalk. Plus, many in the neighborhood argue that the imprint was actually caused by a squirrel.

Erica Schroeder, a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Transportation, said the square of sidewalk "containing the famous 'Chicago rat hole'" is now in temporary storage.

She said that where the slab of sidewalk, which has an impression resembling the outline of a rat — claws, tail and all — will eventually end up is expected to be a "collaborative decision between the city departments and the mayor's office."

Schroeder said the rat hole section, as well as other portions of sidewalk along Roscoe Street, were removed by Department of Transportation crews Wednesday morning after the agency inspected them and determined they needed to be replaced because of damage.

Georgina Ulrich, a neighbor, shot video of crews using a concrete saw, a forklift and finally a truck to remove the slab and drive it away.

"All this for a rat imprint," Ulrich said in one of the clips.

New concrete was poured later Wednesday, Schroeder said.

"The alderman's office has definitely received complaints from neighbors about people gathering and people placing a bunch of different objects in the public way there," she told The Associated Press.

Alderman Scott Waguespack's office had been receiving complaints for several months, both about that portion of sidewalk being uneven and people congregating there to look at and photograph the rat hole, Paul Sajovec, Waguespack's chief of staff, said Wednesday.

"It was just a combination of the fact that the sidewalk was uneven and also that people would show up at various times of the day and night and make a lot of noise and create other issues and problems," he said.

In January, someone filled in the rat hole with a material resembling white plaster, although the impression was quickly dug out by fans, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.

Chicago resident Winslow Dumaine told the newspaper that people living nearby said the imprint had been there for nearly two decades.

[PennySerenade]

Unable To Migrate To Mexico, A Monarch Butterfly Found A New Home With A Loving Family In Canada

Each fall, monarchs set out on one of the world’s longest insect migrations by flying 4,000 to 5,000 kilometers from southern Canada to their wintering sites in the mountain forests of Mexico, yet one of them couldn’t make it last year.

Luckily enough, the poor thing was found and saved by Debbie Tonner and her loving family.


Debbie Tonner spotted a struggling butterfly outside her home in Canada and brought her inside to escape the harsh weather

It all started in August last year, when Debbie’s family spotted a struggling butterfly outside their home in Canada: “We noticed her fluttering around in the grass. She seemed unable to fly. I put her on a flower in the garden. She fluttered around and flew a few feet. Then she would fall to the ground. She would climb back up the flower stem and repeat this fluttering.” Debbie knew there was something wrong there, so she decided to bring the butterfly home.

“The next day, I put her on the flower and she repeated this pattern (of not being able to fly). We continued to put her out every fair weather day. Always with the same result,” the woman said.

Debbie understood that the current condition wouldn’t allow the butterfly to join her kind on the long journey south, so she named her Terra and welcomed her to the family with lots of love and care: “Eventually, it got too cold for her to go outside anymore. We brought her inside for good at this point. She is part of our family.”

Day by day, Debbie and Terra became really close to each other. The butterfly would start fluttering her wings in excitement each time when she would see the woman nearby.


Thanks to unconditional love and gentle care, this monarch butterfly was able to see spring

Thanks to the kindness, constant effort and gentle care of the loving family, Terra was able to survive the harsh winter and feel the warmth of the sunshine on her wings again.

“It was very special to see her feel the sun outside. She stretched her wings and soaked up the warmth. It touched my heart!” Debbie shared her joy.

Seven months after adoption, Terra passed away from old age, yet will forever stay in the family’s heart: “We buried her in our butterfly garden with a painted stone for a marker. My family and I shed a few tears for our beautiful girl, who has been with us so long.”


Without a proper ability to fly, Terra would not have survived more than a few days in the wild, but thanks to Debbie, she defied the odds

The monarch butterfly, with its remarkable orange wings laced with black lines, is one of the most recognizable and well-studied butterflies on our planet. A special gene for highly efficient muscles gives these mesmerizing butterflies an advantage for long-distance flight. They use the sun to stay on course and a magnetic compass that helps them navigate on cloudy days.

Monarchs are concentrated in North, Central, and South America but can also be found in Australia, Hawaii, India, and some other locations. To scientists, the monarch butterfly is better known as Danaus plexippus, which in Greek means “sleepy transformation”.



New scientistic data of the eastern monarch butterfly colonies wintering in central Mexico’s forests showed a decrease by 59% in 2024. “Fewer monarchs hibernating in their traditional forest habitat in Mexico greatly concerns all of us. It’s critical that all communities, governments, non-governmental organizations, scientists, and others continue to strengthen our conservation and protection efforts to support the monarch’s unique migration,” explained Jorge Rickards, who is the general director of WWF Mexico. “This is not the first time we’ve observed changes in the locations of the largest monarch colonies. It’s telling us that we need to intensify conservation and restoration measures not only in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, but also outside of it,” he added.

Monarchs are very sensitive to temperature and weather changes. Therefore, the climate change may affect biological processes, such as knowing when to reproduce and to migrate. Yet as a major reason behind their population decline, scientists are pointing to the disappearance of milkweed, which is the only place monarchs will lay their eggs and the only food caterpillars will eat. Interestingly enough, they can eat 200 times their weight!


Monarchs are ranked as “endangered” under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA)

Monarchs are ranked as an endangered species in Canada, yet thanks to such caring and loving people as Debbie Tonner, we have a very beautiful example of how each of us can make a difference in their fragile yet truly magnificent life.

It may seem that alone, we can do so little, yet the right example can spread and inspire so many people and then all together we can definitely do a lot!

[lush]

Truck Fleet Owner Installs GPS Devices on Police Cars to Track and Avoid Them
020124*

The owner of a trucking company in China landed in hot water with law enforcement after she admitted to installing GPS tracking devices on police cars in her area to help her trucks avoid them.

A woman in Xiangyang, Hubei province can consider herself lucky to have been slapped with eight days of administrative detention and a 500 yuan ($70) fine for a very serious crime – tracking the movements of police cars with the help of hidden GPS devices. Her scheme was accidentally discovered during a routine checkup when the traffic law enforcement brigade in Xiangyang found a mysterious black box attached to the chassis of one of their patrol cars. Further inspection revealed that the box contained a GPS tracker, which was subsequently found on six of the brigade’s 11 vehicles. By following the trail of the SIM cards associated with the tracking devices, authorities were able to find the culprit, a local woman named Zhu who admitted to tracking the movements of the police cars.


Photo: Matt Popovich/Unsplash

As the owner of a trucking fleet, Zhu came up with the idea of tracking local traffic patrol vehicles in order to increase her drivers’ chances of avoiding being pulled over and potentially fined. She admitted to carrying out the installation of the GPS trackers herself, by taking advantage of the police vehicles’ late-night parking at a Xiangzhou station.

Zhu bought six magnetic GPS trackers online for 350 yuan in June of last year and used them to track the cars via an app on her phone until late last month. She was thus able to pinpoint the locations of traffic police cars and alert her drivers to avoid them.

Such bold actions would be considered serious crimes in the Western world, but according to China Daily, Zhu only received an eith-day administrative detention and a 500 yuan fine, which sounds disproportionately trivial…

Solar Balconies Are Booming in Germany and You Can Plug in and Install Them Yourself



A solar balcony from Ertex Solar Austria.

Solar panels are finding their way onto all sorts of surprising surfaces, and now Central Europeans are beginning to line their balcony rails with them; because why not?

To mark the 70th anniversary of the solar cell’s mainstream entry into society, data acquired by Euronews claims that 400,000 German households have already connected their verandas and balconies to solar panels.

New data shows at least 50,000 of the PV devices were added in the first quarter of 2024 alone.

Easy to install—such that many do it themselves, the technology makes every bit of sense as rooftop PV solar panels. In the Northern Hemisphere, during the winter months especially, the sun comes at such a shallow angle that panels on a balcony may even exceed the power generation of those mounted on a roof.

They won’t generate more power, because they’re plugged into smaller sockets, but they present less of a hazard than rooftop solar, and may not even require installation fees. They can also be installed where people may not have the requisite sunlight, the property access, or the structural strength to install rooftop panels.

Jan Osenberg, a policy advisor at the SolarPower Europe association, told Euronews that 200 megawatts is a rough estimate of how much electricity is generated by solar balconies, compared to 22 gigawatts from all of Germany’s rooftop solar panels.

The technology has been a boom in Germany’s strong solar culture. More power is generated by solar in Germany than any other country in Europe.



“Rooftop solar really has this empowering momentum that people who start to have a solar system, they start to track their electricity consumption, they start to feel themselves as being someone who is a frontrunner in the energy transition, someone who supports the energy transition and is already a part of it,” says Osenberg.

Some German states offer subsidies for a solar balcony kit, which pays for itself in electricity savings after around 3-5 years of its 20-year lifespan. However, at 24 kilograms—over 50 pounds—installation needs to be taken deadly seriously, as a panel falling three or four stories onto someone might be lights out.

Europe has been getting progressively more inventive with the placement of its solar panels. GNN has reported on solar power installations above a cemetery in France, between railway tracks in Switzerland, inside terracotta roof tiles in Italy, and on the roof of an SUV in the Netherlands.

[midgemental]

6 expert tips to do tonight for a happier tomorrow

Rise and shine!

Turns out the secret to having a great morning starts the night before, according to experts. In fact, just a few nighttime tweaks can make all the difference for the next day ahead.

Even better: all of the tips below are completely free and easy to try tonight. Here’s what experts think you should be doing to start your day off on the right foot.

Go for an after-dinner stroll

An evening stroll isn’t just nice for taking in the weather, it can also legitimately help your health.

“I go for a walk every evening, which allows me to process the day’s information as my blood flow increases to my brain,” Lee Chambers, a psychologist based in the UK, told HuffPost. “This mental tidying up gives my busy mind a level of peace, meaning I go to bed with a quiet environment and a quiet internal dialogue.”

A leisurely stroll after dinner can also help to bring down blood sugar levels, according to studies. Numerous studies have also shown that spending time in nature daily — even if you live in a concrete jungle — can help keep your blood pressure under control.

Although it’s tempting to have your phone right next to your bed, experts say you’re better off putting it in another room.

Charge your phone in another room

If you use your phone as your alarm clock, you’re not alone. But experts say that you could do yourself some serious sleep favors by taking your phone out of your bedroom.

“Turn off your screens about 30 minutes before bed, and consider keeping your devices away from your bed so you’re not tempted to check them out at night,” Laurie Santos, a Yale University psychology professor, told HuffPost. “I also recommend getting one of those old-school alarm clocks that don’t talk to social media or your email.”

You’re likely already familiar with the fact that all that screen time late at night isn’t good for your circadian rhythm. We live in a “hyperstimulating” world that can put us into overdrive, Chambers said. Putting down our phones — and really keeping them out of reach until the morning can help.

Take a warm shower or bath

Showers are good, but what might really help is an evening bath, experts say.

“Totally immersing yourself in water, as opposed to showering, has been shown to lift mood in people with depression,” Justine Grosso, a mind-body psychologist, explained to HuffPost. The psychologist went on to say that it has also been shown to improve sleep for people with insomnia and boost the cardiovascular system.

But if baths just aren’t your thing (or you only have standing showers in your home), that’s OK. An evening shower can do the same trick. Showering in the evening may help you sleep more soundly because showers help to lower your core body temperature — one of the many cues your body uses to know it’s time for shut-eye, according to HuffPost.

Check in with yourself

Body scans are one way that you can check in with yourself in the evening. Here’s how to do one:

“Bring attention to each part of your body, starting with your head and moving slowly down until you reach your toes,” Cortlandt Dahl, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, told HuffPost. “Pay attention to the sensations you notice in your body with a sense of warmth and nonjudgmental curiosity.”

Dahl said that this technique can help you de-stress and let go of the tension from your day, as well as helping you to achieve “inner balance.”

You can also try deep breathing or gentle stretching, both of which can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and prepare you for more rest.

Think about everything that you’ve accomplished

Several experts emphasized that reflecting on your day can be a great way to ease your body into slumber and go to sleep happily.

“Whether written or reflected upon, note the steps taken toward a goal, the challenges overcome or tasks completed, no matter how small,” Chambers said.

Noting how much you’ve accomplished in a single day can help set the stage for a positive wake-up the following morning, Chambers added.

“See if you can reframe stressful events as opportunities for self-discovery or to align with your most cherished values or guiding principles,” Dahl noted.

Write down what you’re grateful for

The experts suggested writing down three things you’re grateful for at the end of each day. Those items can be big or small, but either way, counting your blessings has been shown to lead to “significant improvements in your well-being,” according to Robert Emmons, a professor at the University of California, Davis.

Dahl added that if you spend a few minutes reflecting on what you’re grateful for each evening, as you drift off to sleep, you’ll naturally feel less stressed and more connected.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/lifestyle ... -tomorrow/

Starless Rogue Planet As Heavy As 10 Earths Found By NASA Telescope

It takes a chance alignment with a distant star to spot these worlds.


We are not seeing rogue planets quite as clearly as this impression might suggest!
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

NASA’s planet-hunting telescope Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first free-floating, or rogue, planet. It is a terrestrial object, likely bigger than Earth but not by too much. This candidate object was discovered within the analysis of 1.3 million light curves collected by the space observatories over its years in orbit.

Rogue planets have one of the coolest names in astronomy. Beyond that, they are cool because they are expected to outnumber regular star-bound planets – but where are they all? Only a relatively small number of candidates have been found. The reason for that is because they are extremely difficult to find.

These worlds are cold and small, and for that reason, they disappear in the background. Given they are very difficult to see directly, the best approach is to use a technique called microlensing. Astronomers wait for a planet to pass in front of a background star. The gravity of the planet will warp space-time a bit like a lens, so the light of the star will be slightly magnified. And that’s what happened in this case, documented in a pre-print paper that has not yet undergone peer review.

The star in question is called TIC-107150013. It is much bigger than the Sun, having a radius almost 13 times that of our star. It is located over 10,400 light-years away. They saw a microlensing event that lasted 107 minutes. If the free-floating planet is within 8,500 light-years from Earth, they estimate that the planet is smaller than 10 times the mass of the Earth. If it’s within 3,200 light-years then the object is about the same mass as our planet.

The work was led by Michelle Kunimoto and William DeRocco, respectively from MIT and the University of California, Santa Cruz. They argue that TESS has the ability to probe a mass range of free-floating planets that can’t be seen by other instruments – not even by the Nancy G. Roman telescope, which is expected to find hundreds of free-floating planets.

This candidate observation is also just the tip of the iceberg for TESS. They expect to be able to investigate 100 times more observations, which will be a massive help in better understanding how these starless worlds came to be. It is possible that some of them were kicked out of their original system by gravitational interactions. Some others, the more massive ones like the JUMBOs, might have simply formed among the stars.

The paper discussing this discovery is submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and while it awaits peer-review it can be read on the ArXiv.

[Misstee]

Hoofed hilarity: Five odd tales of GOATed goats
By Ben Hooper


Massey, the top goat at the Riverside Park Conservancy's first annual G.O.A.T awards ceremony in 2019, is only one of the many god-tier goats to grace the UPI Odd News headlines. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI


April 25 (UPI) -- The UPI Odd News headlines often play host to animals including bears, alligators, cows and snakes, but only one animal can truly be called the greatest of all time: the humble goat.

Whether they're climbing bridges, hitting the highway or overrunning an Italian island, we here at UPI can't get enough of these majestic creatures, and neither, we assume, can our readers.

With that bold assumption in mind, here are five examples of GOATed goats doing whatever it is that they do best.

Take my goats -- please, take them

The goats that have occupied the island of Alicudi, in Sicily's Aeolian archipelago, have become a tourist draw since the wild population was established about 20 years ago, but the island's mayor said the happy honeymoon has now become a horned horror.

Mayor Riccardo Gullo said the goat population is now six times the island's human population of about 100, leading the bleating blighters to invade residents' homes and gardens.

To reduce the over-population, Gullo introduced an adopt-a-goat program allowing any island visitor to take a goat home for free -- aside from a $17 processing fee.

"Anyone can make a request for a goat, it doesn't have to be a farmer, and there are no restrictions on numbers," Gullo said.

One mountain goat gruff

Firefighters and animal rescuers teamed up in Kansas City, Mo., when an escaped mountain goat made its way to the East 63rd Street and Lewis Road bridge to do what he does best -- climb.

The goat, initially identified as Jeffery, ended up stranded on a ledge located underneath the roadway, but about 80 feet above the ground.

A civilian rescuer managed to get a rope around Jeffrey, but when firefighters rappelled down to reach him he tried to jump to another ledge -- and missed.

Jeffrey was suspended from the rope for a short time before falling to the ground, where padding had been placed to ease his landing. The resilient goat was not injured.

The goat's saga took one more unexpected twist when it turned out his original name was Chug, and he had been stolen from a farm in February before ending up at the shelter where he was adopted and renamed Jeffrey. Officials said the dual-named goat would be returned to his original owner.



Unauthorized goat parade

An Arlington, Texas, neighborhood descended into horn-headed havoc when a herd of 200 escaped goats came marching down the street to feast on their gardens.

The Arlington Police Department said the goats were employed by the city to clear plants such as poison ivy and poison oak from the Crystal Canyon Natural Area, but they somehow managed to get out of their fenced enclosure.

Officers and animal wranglers responded to the scene to round up the hungry herd and return them to the natural area.

"I can't promise plants weren't eaten that weren't supposed to be eaten, but no goats were injured," said Michael Debrecht, the city's assistant director of Parks and Recreation.

Rooftop rodeo

Firefighters in Glendale, Ariz., said "goat on the roof" may not be the name of a hit new Broadway musical, but it is occasionally a part of their job.

The Glendale Fire Department said crews were called to "lend a helping hoof" when an "adventurous goat" ended up "a little too high up" on a home.

Photos from the "rooftop rodeo" show firefighters climbing up on the roof to bring the goat back down to earth.

The grateful goat was reunited with its owner.

The goat who cried 'Help!'

Police on British Columbia's Quadra Island said a witness called reporting hearing someone repeatedly shouting "help" and they feared someone had fallen off a cliff and was injured.

The RCMP's report stated: "Further investigation revealed that the 'help' heard was actually a sad goat from neighboring goat farm."

The farmer explained to police that the goat was a mother and was calling for her babies.

"Officers did note on scene that the cries did sound similar to someone yelling for help," the RCMP said. "Thankfully, officers confirmed all was well and nobody, besides the mama goat, were in any kind of distress."

[Zbignieww]

A Simple Renovation Project Unearthed a Grave Filled With Flabbergasting Treasures
The 170 ancient trinkets were scattered on top of skeletal remains.

A Swedish church construction project revealed a grave full of medieval coins.
Archaeologists discovered roughly 170 silver coins scattered within the grave and on the skeletal remains.
Few coins from the 1150 to 1180 AD time period have been found in the region, making the find especially exciting.

The running of wire in an old Swedish church in Brahekyrkan on the island of Visingsö led to a medieval coin discovery that archaeologists were simply flabbergasted to see.

The discovery started with a church remodel project, and morphed into an archaeological excavation when two skeletons were found in the shaft where wires were to be laid for a geothermal heating project. The first day archaeologists arrived to clean the bones and inspect the graves, they were met with a shock.

“All of a sudden, three silver coins appeared,” Anna Ödéen, project manager and archaeologist from the Jönköping County Museum, said in a translated statement. “We soon realized that many more were lying close to the buried person’s left foot.”

And by many more, they meant 170 silver coins strewn in the grave. Known as silver bracteates—which are often thin and circular like coins, but used as jewelry—the metal discovery has been dated to around 1150 to 1180 AD.

“The find is very special,” Ödéen said, “partly because there are few similar finds from the time period, partly because some of the coins are completely unknown from before.”

Eeva Jonsson of the Royal Coin Cabinet was plenty enthused with the 12th century haul. “It is a completely sensational find that will change the early medieval coin history in Götaland and shed light on a period that is largely completely unknown,” Jonsson said in a statement.

The skeletal remains appear to have belonged to a man aged 20 to 25 years old. But what makes the find even more surprising is that the coins were found in a Christian grave, not one customarily taken to being filled with valuables. That is a custom that died out following prehistoric times.

The coins were seen on the first day after Ödéen and colleague Kristina Jansson started cleaning out the bones to gain a better picture of the graves.

The archaeologists will have the coins preserved while they continue to search for clues as to why 170 silver bracteates were buried with the young man. Ödéen said the team is “looking forward to putting together a puzzle around the bracteates from Brahekyrkan.”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a60605268/medieval-coins/

Dodgers star pitcher avoids serious injury after miraculously catching 105-mph frozen rope
Yamamoto signed for $325 million in the offseason
Source: Fox News

Add cat-like, and potentially life-saving, reflexes to Yoshinobu Yamamoto's resume.

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed the 25-year-old Japanese right hander for $325 million in the offseason, the most money ever given to a pitcher despite not throwing a pitch in the major leagues, over a dozen years.

His 1.16 ERA in Japan last season justifies that deal, but he proved to the world on Thursday he isn't just a pitcher, he's quite the athlete, as well.


Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches in the second inning during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on April 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Image: Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

In the bottom of the fifth against the Washington Nationals, he grooved a hanging change up right over the middle of the plate.

Eddie Rosario, obviously, liked what he saw, and lined it right back to where it came from, putting up an exit velocity of 104.8 miles per hour.

But in less than the time of the blink of an eye, Yamamoto got his glove in front of his face just in time, recording a miraculous out while also avoiding a serious situation.



Even Yamamoto couldn't believe he had made the play, and his face sure looked like he was pretty spooked.


Yoshinobu Yamamoto, #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers, looks on in the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on April 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Image: Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

But it didn't shake him up too much. He struck out the next two batters and recorded the win after six scoreless innings where he struck out seven, walked one and allowed four hits.

Last year, Anthony Misiewicz took a 100-mph liner off the head that left him bloodied. He was carted off the field and hospitalized.

It's been an up-and-down start for Yamamoto, who allowed five earned runs in just one inning in his MLB debut. He then posted back-to-back scoreless outings of 5.0 innings each before allowing three earned in each of his next two. Add it all up, and it's a 3.58 ERA (11 earned runs in 28.0 innings).