[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 29
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to find 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



NOTE: THE RECAP AND REWARDS WILL BE DONE LATER

[ozswede]

US Man hit with insane $34 billion tax bill

A US man was in for the shock of a lifetime when he opened a bill from the state of Pennsylvania for $34 billion.

“I knew it was an obvious blunder. I don’t even make over $100,000 a year, so there’s no way I could owe anywhere near that,” Barry Tangert told News 8.

The Lancaster County resident said the mystifying letter was one of two items that arrived in the mail last weekend.

He opened the first to find a refund check from the federal government for over $900.

Tangert’s high was quickly shattered when he opened the income billing notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue claiming that he owed a jaw-dropping $US34,576,826,561.47.


Barry Tangert said he was billed more than $34 billion by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.


The astounding total didn’t even fit on a single line of the document.

The total was so large it didn’t even fit on a single line on the document.

Tangert immediately knew it was a mistake — the astonishing number is more than triple the $11 billion America’s richest man Elon Musk says he owed the government in 2022.

How the error made it all the way to his doorstep is still a mystery to Tangert.

“I don’t know if it was a computer glitch in the transmission or if it was an input error from my tax preparer,” Tangert said, noting that his tax preparer filed an amendment after noticing an error on his 2022 return.


The Lanchester County resident said the mystifying letter was one of two items that arrived in the mail last weekend.

He reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s customer service line, which also provided little help to the baffled man.

“The first thing he said was, ‘You had a good year.’ And I said, ‘I wish,’” Tangert said.

Fortunately, the state department has since resolved the issue, which it chalked up to wrong numbers simply being put into the system.

Tangert’s case was an isolated incident, the revenue department told News 8.

(Lucky it didn't happen over here, where they insist you pay the wrong bill and they will refund it after they've double checked it)

[DaveLDaveL]

This is why dozens of men decided to tie their moustaches together




The Guinness World Record Beard Chain is a sight to behold (Picture: Beard Team USA)


Mustache lovers from across America came together to tie their facial hair together – breaking world records.
In a very hairy sight, Beard Team USA came together for the National Beard and Moustache Championships in Florida to set two new world records, and broke their own previous record for the world’s longest beard chain.

89 people tied their impressive chin whiskers together at the annual meeting in November, with the facial hair entanglement reaching 60 metres, which is roughly the same length as a 20-storey building – or two blue whales.

Creative director for Beard Team USA, Bryan Nelson said the record break was ‘really amazing’.
‘With the new chains there were a lot of unknowns, so that was fairly nerve-racking’, he told Guinness World Records.

The meeting took place on Florida’s world-famous Main Street Pier, with flocks of families and spectators witnessing the beard bonanza.

‘My favourite thing is definitely meeting the new “beardos” and reuniting with old friends,’ Bryan continued.
The Championship takes place in a different part of the US every year, travelling across the nation.

‘Because of that, we have the opportunity to discover amazing facial hair on people who have been growing them for who-knows-how-long, but had never yet considered competing,’ Bryan added.

‘Usually, when new competitors show up and meet the community, they are hooked!’

The ‘beardos’ beat their previous record of 150ft 10.75in (45.99m) with a new hairy result of 195ft 3in (over 59 metres).

Once the beards had been connected, the participants had to stay connected for at least 30 seconds for the record to be valid, as well as be a proud owner for a beard over 7.8in (20cm) in length.

[Fatima99]

First High-Speed Rail Line in US Breaks Ground: Brightline Vegas to LA at 200 mph to Save Thousands in Emissions



Last week, Dept. of Transportation officials celebrated the groundbreaking of America’s first high-speed rail line between LA and Las Vegas.

The Brightline West will travel at 320 kilometers per hour or around 200 mph, which for American readers is standard for high-speed rail around the world.

Expected to be finished in four years, Brightline is envisioned as being a crucial piece of tourist infrastructure for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics.

Fortress Investment Group has gathered $9 billion in financing for the project, but is being helped with a $3 billion grant from the Biden Administration’s infrastructure funding bill.

“This is a historic project and a proud moment where we break ground on America’s first high-speed rail system and lay the foundation for a new industry,” said Wes Edens, Brightline founder at the groundbreaking ceremony where in place of a ribbon, project leaders pounded miniature nails into miniature railroad track.

“Today is long overdue, but the blueprint we’ve created with Brightline will allow us to repeat this model in other city pairs around the country.”

Brightline is expected to serve 11 million passengers every year running alongside US Interstate 15, which can be hindered by weekend traffic jams. In a typical year, 50 million passenger vehicles make the trip between these two iconic cities, and estimates place the number of total vehicle miles that will be saved at around 700 million.

Fortress Investment claims that 400,000 tonnes of CO2 will be eliminated for every year that Brightline West is in operation.

The state-of-the-art, all-electric trains enriched with amenities will offer Americans what Asians and Europeans have enjoyed for decades.

This high-speed railway line is the second that Brightline as a firm will operate, having opened a modern luxury connection between Orlando and Miami in 2018.

[Alessa9]

Heart, the band that proved women could rock hard, reunite for a world tour and a new song



Heart — the pioneering band that melds Nancy Wilson’s shredding guitar with her sister Ann’s powerhouse vocals — is hitting the road this spring and fall for a world tour that Nancy Wilson describes as “the full-on rocker size.”

“I’ve been strengthening. I’ve got my trainer,” she says. “You go one day at a time and you strengthen one workout session at a time. It’s a lot of work, but it’s the only job I know how to do.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers who gave us classic tracks like “Magic Man,” “Crazy on You” and “Alone” will be playing all the hits, some tracks from of their solo albums — like Ann Wilson's “Miss One and Only” and Nancy Wilson's “Love Mistake” — and a new song called “Roll the Dice.”

“I like to say we have really good problems because the problem we have is to choose between a bunch of different, really cool songs that people love already,” says Nancy Wilson.



Like “Barracuda,” a sonic burst which first appeared on the band’s second album, “Little Queen” and is one of the band’s most memorable songs.

“You can’t mess with ‘Barracuda.’ It’s just the way it is. It is great. You get on the horse and you ride. It’s a galloping steed of a ride to go on. And for everybody, including the band."

The tour kicks off Saturday at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, and will hit cities including Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit, as well as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. International dates include stops in London, Oslo, Berlin, Stockholm, Montreal and Glasgow.

The band's Royal Flush Tour will have Cheap Trick as the opening act for many stops, but Def Leppard and Journey will join for three stadium dates in Cleveland, Toronto and Boston this summer.



Ann and Nancy Wilson will be filled out by Ryan Wariner (lead and rhythm guitar), Ryan Waters (guitars), Paul Moak (guitars, keyboards and backing vocals), Tony Lucido (bass and backing vocals) and Sean T. Lane (drums).

The tour is the first in several years for Heart, which was rocked by a body blow in 2016 when Ann Wilson’s husband was arrested for assaulting Nancy’s 16-year-old twin sons. Nancy Wilson says that's all in the past.

“We can take any kind of turbulence, me and Ann, and we’ve always been OK together,” she says. “We’re still steering the ship and happy to do it together. So we’re tight.”

The new tour will take them to Canada, which was warm to the band when they were starting out as what Nancy Wilson calls “a couple of chicks from Seattle.” She recalls Vancouver embracing Heart, and touring in one van across Canada in the dead of winter on two lane highways.

The Wilson sisters broke rock's glass ceiling in the '70s and Nancy Wilson says they only had male influences to look to, like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Moody Blues.

Now she says she looks out and loves seeing generations of female rockers. “You have boygenius and you have Billie Eilish and you have Olivia Rodrigo and so many amazing women — Maggie Rogers and Sheryl Crow, who calls us her big influence. And then Billie Eilish might have Sheryl Crow as her influence. So it’s a really nice legacy to pass along. I like to say we’re the OG — the original gangsters — of women and rock.”

Heart has made it into the Rock Hall, won Grammys, sold millions of albums and rocked hundreds of thousands of fans but Nancy Wilson has one place she'd still like to shine.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of their debut album, “Dreamboat Annie,” which was the same year that “Saturday Night Live” started. “So we’re actually kind of putting it out there — Heart never played on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ But what about the 50th birthday party with Heart?”

[PennySerenade]

Watch how these owls find their prey under deep snow. It's unlike anything you've ever seen



In a Manitoba forest, a great grey owl sits atop a spindly branch. Then, wings outstretched, it descends from its perch, gliding over the blanket of snow. Specially adapted feathers allow it to do so in dead silence. After all, it wouldn't be good to drown out the noise of your own food.

In this clip from Hunters and Hunted, the first episode of Secret World of Sound, a series from The Nature of Things, we follow the great grey owl as it hunts for food to sustain it through the winter.

The owl's prey, a field vole, is hiding under the deep snow. In burrows beneath the frosty expanse, these voles must feed night and day or else they will freeze to death. As they race through their snowy tunnels, the owl can sense their movement.

The great grey owl is an incredible listener — a large facial ruff of feathers creates a kind of satellite dish, directing sound toward its ears. Its wings and feathers have evolved for near-silent flight. According to experts, owl wings are specially built for low speed but high manoeuvrability when hunting. Large, boxy wings with a velvet-like surface and feather serrations that ensure smooth flight and reduce noise — these elements make the great grey owl a master of stealth.



Although unsuccessful in its first attempt to catch its dinner, the owl persists. The vole's twisting tunnels can make it difficult for this predator to accurately pinpoint its prey's location. To identify exactly where the vole is, the owl must position itself directly above it.

It coasts through the cold air, listening intently. The owl circles momentarily before dropping down. A sharp squeal signals that the owl has seized its meal.

Watch the video HERE for the full story.

[rflash8]

A room of her own: Louvre to give ‘disappointing’ Mona Lisa new digs



France’s Louvre could move the Mona Lisa to her own basement room. Here’s why.

She’s the world’s most famous and most visited work of art, with up to ten million admirers per year.

Her enigmatic smile has been idolised by art lovers, and even targeted by thieves, soup-loving protesters, and even a man disguised as an elderly woman in a wheelchair who threw cake in her face.

But now, a new project may prove the last queen of France Marie Antoinette right, as she found her “too small, too dark.”

Leonardo da Vinci’s painting "Mona Lisa" is about to be moved, in order to give La Gioconda more space. And appease visitors.

Indeed, with Louvre visitors getting an average of 50 seconds to admire the "Mona Lisa", which is displayed behind a barrier and bullet-proof glass in the centre of the Salle des Etats (glass installed in the 1950s to protect it after an acid attack), many have dubbed it the world's most disappointing masterpiece.

Understandable really, as the huge crowds and limited space in the gallery means it’s difficult to see Mona Lisa.



Faced with this problem, the Parisian museum’s director is now proposing to place da Vinci’s chef d’oeuvre in isolation to improve the experience.

“Moving Mona Lisa to a separate room could end the public’s disappointment,” said Laurence des Cars, the museum’s director. “Visitors are not being properly received in the current room so we feel that we’re not doing our job properly.”

A new dedicated space for "Mona Lisa", which currently hangs opposite Paolo Veronese’s overlooked "Wedding at Cana", makes sense - for both da Vinci’s painting and its attention-starved neighbours.

Vincent Delieuvin, chief curator of 16th-century Italian painting, told French newspaper Le Figaro: “We’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but this time everyone is in agreement.”

“It’s a large room, and the Mona Lisa is at the back, behind its security glass, so at first glance it looks like a postage stamp.

“Leonardo da Vinci wanted to establish a face-to-face relationship between the painting and the person contemplating it.”

Sounds good, but the initiative would involve quite the renovation, including opening a new entrance to the Louvre palace (in the façade of the colonnade), and the creation of two new rooms in the basement under the square courtyard of the Louvre. One of the “underground chambers” would serve as a setting for "Mona Lisa". And while that may help with the queue situation and allow visitors direct access, all that would be to the tune of roughly €500 million - which is hardly music to the ears of the French government and its culture budget cuts.

The Ministry of Culture is reportedly in favour of the new Grand Louvre project, but finance minister Bruno Le Maire will have to be convinced. Le Maire has already said he hopes to claw back €25 billion in savings for the 2025 budget and has urged the cultural sector to do its fair share.

However, that does not deter the museum.

“The mood in the museum is now ripe,” said des Cars. “We have to embrace the painting’s status as a global icon, which is beyond our control.”

[Misstee]

CDC says 3 women diagnosed with HIV after receiving 'vampire facial'
April 29, 20241:35 AM ET

By

The Associated Press



This electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health shows a human T cell, in blue, under attack by HIV, in yellow, the virus that causes AIDS.
Seth Pincus, Elizabeth Fischer, Austin Athman/AP


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three women who were diagnosed with HIV after getting "vampire facial" procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa are believed to be the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles, federal health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its Morbidity and Mortality Report last week that an investigation into the clinic from 2018 through 2023 showed it apparently reused disposable equipment intended for one-time use.

Although HIV transmission from contaminated blood through unsterile injection is a well-known risk, the report said this is the first documentation of probable infections involving cosmetic services.

Many popular cosmetic treatments are delivered with needles, such as Botox to iron out wrinkles and fillers to plump lips. A "vampire facial," or platelet-rich plasma microneedling procedure, involves drawing a client's own blood, separating its components, then using tiny needles to inject plasma into the face to rejuvenate the skin. Tattoos also require needles.

The New Mexico Department of Health began investigating the spa in the summer of 2018 after it was notified that a woman in her 40s had tested positive for HIV even though she had no known risk factors. The woman reported exposure to needles through the procedure at the clinic that spring.

The spa closed in fall 2018 after the investigation was launched, and its owner was prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license.

The report said the investigation showed how important it is to require infection control practices at businesses that offer cosmetic procedures involving needles.

It also noted that the investigation was slowed by poor record keeping and said businesses providing such services should keep better records in case clients need to be contacted later.

[midgemental]

I’m a memory researcher — here’s how to never forget someone’s name



It’s time to forgive yourself for forgetting.

Two cognitive psychology researchers are debunking common misconceptions about human memory while sharing easy ways to recall different types of information.

Dr. Megan Sumeracki and Dr. Althea Need Kaminske say that some forgetfulness is natural because it allows the brain to remember more stuff. Memory is “more like a Wiki page” than a recording device because details can be edited, the pair write in their book “The Psychology of Memory,” out May 16.

“Because we are most aware of our memory when we have trouble remembering something, our intuitions about how memory works might be a little biased,” notes Kaminske, the senior director of student academic support and achievement at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

“For example, I spend an embarrassing amount of time looking for my phone, water bottle and keys,” Kaminske explained. “You may be unsurprised to learn that our memory systems are not necessarily designed to remember where we put our phones. Or keys. Or water bottles.”


Memory is "more like a Wiki page" than a recording device because details can be edited, the pair write in their new book, "The Psychology of Memory," due out on May 16.Memory is “more like a Wiki page” than a recording device because details can be edited, the researchers write in “The Psychology of Memory,” out May 16.

For soon-to-be parents or those who have small children, the psychologists recommend leaving a purse in the back seat of their car as a cue to remember to take your child out of their car seat. This technique is known as “event-based” recall.

Another strategy is “retrieval practice” — pulling facts from memory.

Kaminske and Sumeracki, an associate professor at Rhode Island College, suggest deliberately addressing a new colleague by their name every time you see them, which will help you remember the name.

“Anyone who has studied knows that regular practice is essential,” the authors added. “But to become an expert in a field of learning, people need to employ deliberate practice.”

Memory tends to decline as people age — and it can be affected by alcohol, medication, sleep deprivation, caffeine and head injuries.

The National Institute on Aging advises seeking medical attention if people find themselves asking the same question repeatedly, getting lost in places that were once familiar, having trouble following recipes or directions, or becoming confused about time, people and places.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/29/lifestyle ... ones-name/

There’s Now 1 Fast Charging Station for Every 5 Gas Stations in California





Here’s a stat most Californians have likely never heard: for every five gas stations in California, there’s now one electric vehicle fast charging station.

105,000 public or shared private electric vehicle chargers have been installed throughout California, which is on top of over 500,000 at-home chargers. The state also recently approved a $1.9 billion plan to build a bigger, better charging network.

Governor Gavin Newsom dropped by a Tesla supercharger on Earth Day to highlight the state’s progress in reaching the goal of a better charging network, as well as Tesla’s recent work to open its fast chargers to non-Tesla vehicles.

On April 12th, the California Energy Commission (CEC) approved a $1.9 billion investment plan that advances the state’s electric vehicle (EV) charging and hydrogen refueling goals. This funding builds on $1.8 billion already invested and will help deploy 40,000 new public EV chargers statewide and other zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure across California, creating the most extensive charging and hydrogen refueling network in the country.

Combined with funding from the federal government, utilities, and other programs, the state believes that these investments will help it achieve its goal of deploying 250,000 public EV chargers at sites throughout California, such as highway corridors and shopping centers. This is in addition to private installations and home chargers.

The need for chargers goes just beyond trying to encourage and incentivize people to buy an EV, that’s already happening on a wide scale.

25% of all new cars sold in California last year were ZEVs, according to the California Energy Commission (CEC), while the 1,846,874 total ZEV sales to date mean that of new ZEVs sold in the U.S., 34% are sold in California, according to data presented by the governor.

Jellyfish regenerate lost tentacles, and now we know how

Jellyfish regeneration looks a lot like that of amphibians and other animals.


Gerard Soury

The mythical Hydra may have been able to grow one of its many heads back every time it suffered a decapitation, but there are actual creatures capable of regenerating parts of their bodies bitten off by hungry predators. Jellyfish are one of them.

From salamanders to starfish to the actual hydra (a tiny hydrozoan named for the fearsome beast of legend), animals that are capable of regeneration all start the repair process by forming a blastema. This clump of proliferative cells, which are similar to stem cells, can repopulate body parts by dividing over and over again. While the cells are still undifferentiated in the beginning, they eventually form specific cell types like muscle and skin.

The process of blastema formation in some other animals has been studied, but how they form in jellyfish was still a mystery. Led by postdoctoral researcher Sosuke Fujita, the team at the University of Tokyo and Tohoku University in Japan wanted to establish a baseline for non-bilaterian regeneration by finding out how a blastema helps regrow tentacles in jellyfish. Would their blastema formation process be different from that in bilaterians?

“In particular, the current understanding of blastema formation largely relies on bilaterian models, and thus the mechanisms of blastema formation outside of bilaterians remain poorly understood,” the researchers said in a study recently published in PLOS Biology.

The regeneration process in jellyfish has been a mystery. The Japanese team finally gained new insight into this process in the jellyfish Cladonema pacificum. They found that the proliferative cells that create the blastema only appear where there is an injury—they aren’t the same as localized stem cells found at the tentacle base. But both types of cells work together to repair and regrow a severed tentacle.

An arm and a leg

Jellyfish are cnidarians, a phylum of soft-bodied invertebrates. Cnidaria also includes corals, hydras, and anemones, which all have stinging tentacles. Unlike bilaterians such as salamanders (and humans), which have bilateral symmetry (meaning a symmetrical right and left side), cnidarians have radial body symmetry, with body sections that extend out from the middle and are symmetrical all around. They have no right and left or front and back.

Because jellyfish rely on their tentacles to capture and paralyze prey, they need a lost tentacle to grow back as fast as possible. When a tentacle from Cladonema was severed with the base, or bulb, left in place, the wound at the site of the cut completely healed in as little as 24 hours. A blastema formed right after healing; the new tentacle then began growing.

The longer it grew, the more nematocytes, or stinging cells, multiplied. This suggested to Fujita and his team that regeneration occurs regardless of whether the jellyfish has recently eaten because its body automatically prioritizes regrowing a tentacle to catch food.

They just keep growing

When the blastema forms, most cell proliferation happens toward the regenerating tip of the new tent
acle. Three types of differentiated cells were later found in the blastema. These are epithelial cells, which form the inner layers of the tentacle; i-cells, which help the jellyfish sense and handle food; and stinging nematocytes. Undifferentiated cells showed a tendency to turn into epithelial cells because those are the most common cells in a completely developed tentacle.

Most cells making up the blastema are not stem cells from the bulb that migrate to the tip. But there’s still something the bulb stem cells do. The team believes the cells help the newly forming tentacle grow outward from the base, adding some length while the proliferative cells elongate it from the tip. Elimination of the stem cells at the base would also delay blastema formation by a week or two.

Overall, blastema formation in jellyfish turned out to be very similar to that seen in bilaterians that are capable of regeneration. However, exactly how and where proliferative cells originate is still unclear. The researchers think it is possible that these cells are derived from already differentiated cells that dedifferentiate to form the blastema. Examples of dedifferentiated cells that form blastema have been seen in starfish and crickets.

Could humans ever be capable of regeneration? It might happen. Some experiments on animals that do not normally regenerate have successfully induced to regrow tissues. As mechanisms behind this phenomenon are better understood, human treatments using regenerative processes may someday be developed, but for now, this remains in the realm of science fiction.

PLOS Biology, 2023. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002435 (open access)

[lush]

Russian Man Uses ChatGPT to Find Love Online, Goes Viral
020524*

A 23-year-old Russian man recently revealed that he trained and used ChatGPT to filter through 5,239 girls’ dating profiles and then date the best matches until he found his soon-to-be wife.

Alexander Zhadan first made waves on RuNet – the online Russian-speaking community – a year ago, when he tweeted that he wrote an academic thesis using ChatGPT in just 23 hours. A few days ago, the young Russian IT professional once again made news headlines, this time for using the same AI tool to filter through thousands of online dating profiles and relying on its tips and advice to find the perfect partner and then make her his wife. Zhadan’s story, originally told through a series of posts on X/Twitter, has sparked a heated debate on the morality of using AI tools to find love online, and while the 23-year-old admits that his story could change how others see online dating, he did point out that ChatGPT has its limitations and that he needed to get involved personally to connect with his dates.

It all started with Alexander’s disappointing experience with popular dating apps like Tinder. He would swipe left, then right, then spark a conversation with a potential match and then that person would just disappear. It was a huge waste of time, but having become familiar with ChatGPT, he wondered if there was a way to use the AI tool to make his online dating experience more efficient.


Photo: Katy Anne/Unsplash

Zhadan began by having ChatGPT go through a whopping 5,239 women’s dating profiles to remove those he felt he wouldn’t click with based on a number of filters, like having fewer than two profile photos, astrology references, religious references, pro-war statements, as well as overly “revealing” photos. He felt like this was an important part of the process both for him and the girls, as they didn’t waste time interacting.

Then came the hard part – training ChatGPT to communicate with the remaining potential matches on his behalf. In an interview with Settlers Media, Alexander said that it took him about 120 hours of work to get the AI tool to a level he was satisfied with. To do this, he fed it his previous conversations with girls, set up response validation, and monitored the tool as much as possible. Still, the experience wasn’t perfect…

One time, ChatGPT set up a date with a girl without actually notifying him about it, which led to the girl having to wait for him for over an hour and a half (which he still deeply regrets), while another time the AI program scheduled a date in Moscow’s Bitsa Park, a forest in Moscow where an infamous serial killer dumped his victims’ bodies back in the 2000s.

All in all, ChatGPT helped Zhadan go on 12 dates with the best matches it could find, including one with Katerina, his future bride. The AI tool was very involved in the dating process as well, advising the 23-year-old to talk about his childhood, parents, goals, and values during the dates, to best asses how suitable each candidate was for a long-term relationship. The Russian man claims that he even asked ChatGPT how to provide to Karina, and got a “yes” thanks to its suggestions.

Alexander clarified that he did play a part in the selection process, as he reviewed each interaction he had with the girls he dated and fed his experience to Ghat GPT for an objective assessment.

“We must not forget about emotional interaction,” Zhadan said. “I went to meetings, I was already involved myself – I assessed whether the girl was suitable for me or not. Based on the results of the date, I made a review (what I liked, what I didn’t) and added it to the database. Then it made a decision whether to continue communicating or not.”

Karina, Alexander’s future bride, has yet to comment on his use of ChatGPT during their dating period, but the IT professional claims that he told her about it a year ago, and she’s still with him, so… As for the reaction of the general public, Zhadan acknowledges the ethical concerns of using AI tools to find love online, but claims that it is up to the online community to determine its boundaries.

After spending 120 hours of his time and $1,432 in API cost, Alexander feels like ChatGPT saved him a lot of time and money.

Meet the Long Islander who won $100K playing Candy Crush on the LIRR — now he's gunning for $1M
Source: New York Post

New Yorkers suffer some of the longest commutes in the US, but Long Islander Jay Simunovich wishes his ride to work was longer.

"My commute was about 45 minutes, so as soon as I boarded the Hempstead Line from Floral Park to Penn Station, I was locked into the Candy Kingdom," he told The Post.

By day, Simunovich, 52, works in fiber optics, but before and after his shift ends, he trains as the reigning Candy Crush champion of the world after achieving sweet victory in the 2023 Candy Crush All-Stars tournament. And he's planning to do it again this year.

Since 2012, Simunovich has relied on his daily commute via the Long Island Rail Road to play his favorite game, Candy Crush Saga — a ritual that helped him score $100,000 last year. The Candy Crush Saga is a tile-matching game with a confectionary motif where players are awarded "sugar bonuses and tasty candy combos," per the app's description.


He won $100,000 last year in the competition.
Image: Amy Lombard

This year's global online contest, open to adults who reach Level 25 and above, began on March 28 and concludes April 28. The best player will take home the biggest prize to date, $1 million.

"The LIRR became a lot sweeter when I began to play Candy Crush Saga. From there, beating levels became a staple in my day," he said.

As a self-proclaimed "Candy Crush veteran," Simunovich chooses his seat on the train wisely to ensure he has minimal distractions: He sits at the "jump seat by the train doors" on the LIRR because "it's a bit more secluded and quiet, which are key to getting in the zone."


Simunovich chooses his seat on the train to ensure he has minimal distractions: He sits at the "jump seat by the train doors" on the LIRR because "it's a bit more secluded and quiet, which are key to getting in the zone."
Image: Stefano Giovannini/N.Y. Post

Sometimes, the father of four gets lost in the Candy Kingdom. "There have been a few instances where I was on a roll, looked up, and realized I had missed my stop," he chuckled.

There was a time when Simunovich thought his obsession with Candy Crush had gone off the rails, and he decided to quit "cold turkey" for three years after reaching a staggering level of 5,000 out of 16,000.

Fortunately, he gave in to his digital sweet tooth just in time to learn about the 2023 Candy Crush All-Stars. The decision to enter the competition "felt like a no-brainer," he told The Post.


The Candy Crush Saga is a tile-matching game with a confectionary motif where players are awarded "sugar bonuses and tasty candy combos," per the app's description.
Image: Stefano Giovannini/N.Y. Post

Simunovich joined the mobile gaming tournament to find 20 million other competitors from around the world, including the UK, US, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Poland, Romania, Czechia, Greece and Portugal.

The gamer battled it out online for a month before making it to the Final 10. "I couldn't really believe it was happening to me, until I stood on the stage in London and played Candy Crush to a live audience!" he added.

His decade's worth of experience in Candy Crush helped him rise to the top, ahead of second and third-place finishers from Eugene, Oregon, and Madrid, Spain, respectively. Simunovich scored $100,000 while the other two opponents won $50,000 each. Simunovich was also awarded a limited-edition championship ring — a rainbow of semiprecious gemstones cast in gold — designed by Icebox and worth $75,000.


Simunovich is now back to crushing candy in anticipation of the 2024 showdown and taking home the whopping million-dollar prize.
Image: Amy Lombard

Simunovich wasn't precious with his share of the winning pot.

"I bought a ticket for Power Trip. It's a three-day festival in California. AC/DC, Guns' N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Tool," he gushed. "Bought the plane ticket, played Candy Crush on the way there and then rented a Chevy Suburban to camp out in. It was super fun! My wife also got a kitchen renovation out of it, so win, win!"

His vacation was brief, as Simunovich is now back to crushing candy in anticipation of the 2024 showdown and taking home the whopping million-dollar prize.


"I couldn't really believe it was happening to me, until I stood on the stage in London and played Candy Crush to a live audience!" he added.

"If I win this year, I am sending my kids to college," he promised. "I hope they can tell the story to their friends, that their dad is so good at Candy Crush, he gets to send them to college!"

Simunovich's daughter Sami, 19, has been her dad's "biggest fan" during his Candy Crush competition.

"I was actually on FaceTime when they announced the winners [in 2023], so I got to watch it live. I was jumping up and down like crazy when they announced his name," Sami told The Post. "I couldn't be more proud of him."

"He truly is the best father ever," she added. "It's just a bonus that he's the Candy Crush World Champion, too."

[Zbignieww]

Sun flashes green for a few seconds in incredibly rare optical illusion


A natural phenomenon, the setting sun casts a green light as it dips below the horizon (Picture: Craig Hayslip)

A man has shared the moment the sun appeared to flash green moments after it had set.

Craig Hayslip, a research assistant at Oregon State University, caught the moment on camera in Bandon, Oregon, a few days ago.

He was just 15 miles west of Coos Bay when he not only spotted the incredibly rare optical illusion, but managed to take pictures of it as well.

The green flash is another example of an optical phenomenon that sometimes occurs around the moment of sunset or sunrise. It lasts for no longer than two seconds.

So, what is it exactly, and how can you spot it yourself?

What is the sun’s green flash?
The flash occurs when the Earth’s atmosphere causes light from the Sun to separate, or refract.

As the sun’s light, which appears pure white, passes through a prism, the light refracts and creates a stunning flash that is visible to the human eye.

However, the flashes only happen at certain temperatures when air at high altitude becomes warmer, meaning the flash is more likely to be spotted over water than on land.


This picture shows the phenomenon occurring off the coast of Blackpool several years ago (Picture: Rex Shutterstock)

The green colour is produced by the atmospheric refraction of light, which causes objects near the horizon to appear slightly higher in the sky than they actually are.

Refraction is stronger for blue and green light than it is for yellow and red light, which leads to a bluish or greenish hue on the upper side of the sun.

How can you spot the green flash?
The flash lasts for around two seconds and is extremely rare to see.

Space.com’s skywatching columnist, Joe Rao, said he has been ‘an avid skywatcher for over half a century’ – but despite looking for the green aura on many different occasions, he has definitively spotted it just twice.

For those hoping to catch a glimpse of green flash, a few tips and tricks can help.

Generally speaking, the flash appears more on the coast than on land, so getting to a low horizon level will increase your chances.

Cooler weather and the absence of red tints in the sky will help, with reports citing that when the horizon seemed to have a bright white or yellowish glow.

It should be noted that you should avoid the sun’s gaze until the last moment to minimise your risk of eye damage.

https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/29/a-green-flash-sunset-can-spot-20737603/

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

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A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
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