[lush]

Belarussian Man Builds and Sails in Boat Made Exclusively of Ice
012924*

A Belarussian self-taught artist single-handedly built a functional ice boat that can hold at least one person and can be sailed.

Minsk-based Ivan Karpitsky’s passion for ice and snow sculpting is well-known in his home country. His name first appeared in Belarussian newspapers in 2020, when photos of his ice violin first went viral on social media. He has since kept busy every winter, coming up with ever more impressive projects, but this year he really outdid himself with a beautiful and functional boat made entirely of ice. Photos and videos posted on his Instagram page show the Belarusian man painstakingly carving blocks of ice and chiseling at them to create his impressive masterpiece.


Photo: Ivan Karpitsky/Instagram

Not much technical information is known about Ivan’s boat, apart from the visible information in the photos and clips posted on social media. According to geolocation data, the boat was built somewhere along the banks of Tsnyanskoe reservoir, a lake north of Minsk, near the former village of Tsna-Yodkovo. The self-taught artist can be seen cutting rectangular blocks of ice and then gluing them together using water, and then chiseling away at the frozen lake to carve out the base of the boat.


Photo: Ivan Karpitsky/Instagram

Karpitsky used a variety of power tools to create delicate ice panels that he carefully slides through blocks of ice, as well as a spinnable ice rudder that doesn’t actually control the direction of the vessel, but scores points for aesthetics. The artist also created two detachable paddle wheels that can be installed at the back of the boat and hooked up to a power source on shore to at least give the illusion of propulsion. bringing a generator onboard would have probably made the boat unsafe for passengers.


Photo: Ivan Karpitsky/Instagram

It’s impossible to guess the size of Ivan Karpitsky’s ice boat from the photos and videos available, but it’s safe to say that it’s big enough for one passenger, maybe even two.



The Belarussian man’s boat has gone viral on social media, and the self-taught artist has already been inundated with orders for custom ephemeral wonders similar to the ice boat, but he has so far refused them all.

[goldie0608]

2 More Endangered Ferrets Have Been Cloned from Critter Frozen in the 1980s

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced the births of Noreen and Antonia



Over three years after a black-footed ferret became the first-ever endangered U.S. species to be cloned, two new black-footed ferret clones have been born.

On April 17, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the births of Noreen and Antonia, two ferrets from the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado and at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia, respectively.

CBS News reports that Noreen and Antonia were born in May, citing a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman, who said via email that "science takes time and does not happen instantaneously."

The ferrets, who "continue to reach expected developmental and behavioral milestones," were born using the same genetic material as the first clone, Elizabeth Ann, who was born on Dec. 10, 2020. As previously reported, Elizabeth Ann was born from the frozen cells of Willa, a black-footed ferret who died over 30 years ago.

Willa's cell samples were sent from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department to the San Diego Zoo Global's Frozen Zoo in 1988.

The service notes that, alongside research partners, it will "proceed with breeding efforts for Noreen and Antonia once they reach reproductive maturity later this year." As for Elizabeth Ann, the first-born clone is healthy and has been "exhibiting typical adult ferret behavior," per the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Noreen and Antonia's births come after efforts to breed Elizabeth Ann failed, due to a condition called hydrometra, in which her uterine horn fills with fluid.

Eventually breeding the two youngest members of the bunch in Noreen and Antonia may "significantly increase the species’ genetic diversity," per the service, and potentially develop resistance to diseases.

Critical species recovery partners and scientists at Revive & Restore, ViaGen Pets & Equine, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums — along with the Fish & Wildlife Service itself — helped bring together the latest scientific advancement of cloning the endangered species, per a release.

One of the rarest land mammals in North America who were once thought to be extinct, a small population of black-footed ferrets was discovered in 1981 in Wyoming.

Now, as the service notes, all living black-footed ferrets (not including the three clones) are descendants of the last seven wild black-footed ferrets. Willa was part of the population of seven.

Genetic studies found that the 1988 tissue samples later collected from Willa "possessed three times more unique variations than the living population," as previously noted.

The largest marine reptile ever could match blue whales in size

Bones from the head of a reptile suggest a body that was well over 20 meters long.


Image credit: Sergey Krasovskiy

Blue whales have been considered the largest creatures to ever live on Earth. With a maximum length of nearly 30 meters and weighing nearly 200 tons, they are the all-time undisputed heavyweight champions of the animal kingdom.

Now, digging on a beach in Somerset, UK, a team of British paleontologists found the remains of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that could give the whales some competition. “It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue-whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period,” said Dean Lomax, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester who led the study.

Giant jawbones

Ichthyosaurs were found in the seas through much of the Mesozoic era, appearing as early as 250 million years ago. They had four limbs that looked like paddles, vertical tail fins that extended downward in most species, and generally looked like large, reptilian dolphins with elongated narrow jaws lined with teeth. And some of them were really huge. The largest ichthyosaur skeleton so far was found in British Columbia, Canada, measured 21 meters, and belonged to a particularly massive ichthyosaur called Shonisaurus sikanniensis. But it seems they could get even larger than that.

What Lomax’s team found in Somerset was a surangular, a long, curved bone that all reptiles have at the top of the lower jaw, behind the teeth. The bone measured 2.3 meters—compared to the surangular found in the Shonisaurus sikanniensis skeleton, it was 25 percent larger. Using simple scaling and assuming the same body proportions, Lomax’s team estimated the size of this newly found ichthyosaur at somewhere between 22 and 26 meters, which would make it the largest marine reptile ever. But there was one more thing.

Examining the surangular, the team did not find signs of the external fundamental system (EFS), which is a band of tissue present in the outermost cortex of the bone. Its formation marks a slowdown in bone growth, indicating skeletal maturity. In other words, the giant ichthyosaur was most likely young and still growing when it died.

Correcting the past

In 1846, five large bones were found at the Aust Cliff near Bristol in southwestern England. Dug out from the upper Triassic rock formation, they were dubbed “dinosaurian limb bone shafts” and were exhibited in the Bristol Museum, where one of them was destroyed by bombing during World War II.

But in 2005, Peter M. Galton, a British paleontologist then working at the University of Bridgeport, noticed something strange in one of the remaining Aust Cliff bones. He described it as an “unusual foramen” and suggested it was a nutrient passage. Later studies generally kept attributing those bones to dinosaurs but pointed out things like an unusual microstructure that was difficult to explain.

According to Lomax, all this confusion was because the Aust Cliff bones did not belong to dinosaurs and were not parts of limbs. He pointed out that the nutrient foramen morphology, shape, and microstructure matched with the ichthyosaur’s bone found in Somerset. The difference was that the EFS—the mark of mature bones—was present on the Aust Cliff bones. If Lomax is correct and they really were parts of ichthyosaurs’ surangular, they belonged to a grown individual.

And using the same scaling technique applied to the Somerset surangular, Lomax estimated this grown individual to be over 30 meters long—slightly larger than the biggest confirmed blue whale.

Looming extinction

“Late Triassic ichthyosaurs likely reached the known biological limits of vertebrates in terms of size. So much about these giants is still shrouded by mystery, but one fossil at a time, we will be able to unravel their secrets,” said Marcello Perillo, a member of the Lomax team responsible for examining the internal structure of the bones.

This mystery beast didn’t last long, though. The surangular bone found in Somerset was buried just beneath a layer full of seismite and tsunamite rocks that indicate the onset of the end-Triassic mass extinction event, one of the five mass extinctions in Earth’s history. The Ichthyotian severnensis, as Lomax and his team named the species, probably managed to reach an unbelievable size but was wiped out soon after.

The end-Triassic mass extinction was not the end of all ichthyosaurs, though. They survived but never reached similar sizes again. They faced competition from plesiosaurs and sharks that were more agile and swam much faster, and they likely competed for the same habitats and food sources. The last known ichthyosaurs went extinct roughly 90 million years ago.

PLOS ONE, 2024. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300289 (open access)

[Zbignieww]

Iceberg That Sank The Titanic May Be Shown In Unearthed Photo From 1912
An undertaker took the photo during a voyage to recover the bodies.



A rediscovered photo captured two days after the Titanic sank is going on auction this month. The photo, taken by undertaker John Snow Jr, may show the iceberg that sank the ship on its maiden voyage 112 years ago on April 14.

When the Titanic sank 640 kilometers (400 miles) off Newfoundland, Canada, over 1,500 of the passengers, of which there were over 2,200, died – many by drowning or immersion hypothermia. John Snow Jr was chief embalmer of funeral directors John Snow & Co and was summoned to the wreck of the Titanic to help collect some, but not all, of the bodies for burial.

The two – along with 100 coffins to place bodies in and 100 tonnes of ice to preserve those and other bodies – were aboard the Cable Ship Mackay-Bennett, the first of four chartered vessels to reach the Titanic to search for bodies. Assessing the scene, the crew quickly realized that there were a lot more bodies than they had expected, and a second boat would be necessary to help recover the deceased.

All in all, the crew of CS Mackay-Bennett recovered 306 bodies from the water. The class system in place onboard the Titanic was used to decide which would be taken back for burial, and who would get buried at sea.

“Decisions about which bodies to bury at sea were made largely according to the perceived economic class of the recovered victims, and those with third-class tickets were far more likely to be returned to the water," assistant professor of urban sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam Jess Bier explained to JSTOR.

First-class passengers, including Isidor Straus, owner of Macy's department store, were embalmed onboard the ship and placed in coffins, second-class passengers were embalmed and wrapped in canvas, and 116 third-class passengers and crew were left at sea.

Life insurance, a fairly new concept, likely dictated part of the decision. First-class passengers were more likely to have a policy that would pay for their burial or cremation, and insurance companies required an identifiable body before any payout could be made to relatives.

It's not known when John Snow Jr took the photo, which can be viewed on the Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers website, during the voyage.

"Nobody can say for sure that this was THE iceberg that sank the Titanic. But what we can say is that after the rescue ship Carpathia, the Mackay-Bennett was one of the first ships to reach the wreck site and that the undertaker on board decided to take a photo of this iceberg," Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers told The Mirror.

"He must have had his reasons for taking a photo of this iceberg. He captioned it Titanic and mounted it for posterity. It hasn't been sold before and was acquired directly from Mr Snow's family by our vendor in the early 1990s. It is an extremely rare photograph and we are sure it will attract a lot of interest."

The photograph is being sold on April 27, and is expected to fetch around 4,000-7,000 GBP (5,000-8,700 USD).

https://www.iflscience.com/iceberg-that ... 1912-73865

[midgemental]

Dropping acid...
Hypochlorous acid: What to know about the trendy acne fighter being hyped on TikTok

Skincare-obsessed TikTok users — a lively community on the popular social media site, often referred to collectively as SkinTok — are always on the hunt for the latest and greatest acne treatment, and they’ve discovered a trendy new ingredient that actually isn’t new at all.

The acid has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties — two SkinTok buzzwords that helped skyrocket the sprays’ popularity.

Hypochlorous acid sprays are their most recent obsession, even though hypocholorous acid has been popping up in skincare products for years, often seen in facial sprays, creams, serums and cleansers.

And not only has the ingredient been around — it’s something our body makes on its own.

“Hypochlorous acid is a substance that our bodies naturally produce within our white blood cells,” Azadeh Shirazi, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and founder of AziMD, told Byrdie.

The acid has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties — two SkinTok buzzwords that helped skyrocket the sprays to newfound popularity.

Because hypochlorous acid is “gentle on the skin and non-irritating” — and because it’s a naturally produced acid — it’s “generally safe for routine use without causing side effects,” Marisa Garshick, MD, a board-certified dermatologist of MDCS Dermatology, told Byrdie.

There is one stipulation, though, according to Garshick: “High concentrations (500 ppm) of hypochlorous acid can cause skin irritation, presenting as a red itchy rash.”

There are many benefits to incorporating hypcholorous acid into your skincare routine — other than the fact that it can help with acne breakouts, just like SkinTok claimed.

Hypocholorous acid is “helpful for those dealing with breakouts, and the spray formulation makes it a great option for post-workout,” Garshick shared.

Shirazi echoed this, saying that “it’s also great after workouts if you can’t wash your face right away.”

It can also help calm redness and inflammation, even out your skin tone and promote overall skin health since it works to repair the skin, Garshick explained.

Additionally, “Hypochlorous acid is a potent microorganism killer as its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties make it a great option for wounds and compromised skin,” Shirazi said, suggesting the product can be used on any skin abrasions, cuts or scratches.

In general, the low risk of side effects of hypocholorous acid makes it ideal for anyone with sensitive skin dealing with acne but deals with irritation from stronger acne-fighting ingredients.

While it’s great for sensitive skin, it can also work to address skin sensitivity as it repairs the skin as a whole.
Hypocholorous acid is "helpful for those dealing with breakouts, and the spray formulation makes it a great option for post-workout," Garshick shared.

Shirazi recommends introrducing hypocholorous acid into your routine by using it after cleanser but before your moisturizer, similar to a toner.

“Hypochlorous acid can be used one to two times per day, often after cleansing or throughout the day as needed,” Garshick advised.

However, it’s not recommended as a total replacement for salicylic or glycolic acid acne treatments.

“Generally those dealing with breakouts can still benefit from the use of other acne-fighting ingredients such as retinoids, salicylic acid, and benzoyl peroxide,” Garshick explained. “Acne is related to oil production, [so] the use of retinoids and salicylic acid to help address clogged pores can be important.”

Hypochlorous acid is “not an exfoliant like glycolic or salicylic acid, and it’s more gentle than other antibacterial ingredients like benzoyl peroxide,” Shirazi said.

But it’s still a great option for “someone who has sensitive skin and may be experiencing irritation from other acne treatments,” Garshick added.

The product “disinfects your skin to reduce inflammation and speed up the natural healing process, as bacterial colonization impedes healing,” Shirazi explained. “It’s also safe for use around the eyes.”

https://nypost.com/2024/04/18/lifestyle ... on-tiktok/

[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 19
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]

Escaped hippo goes walkabout in Grassy Park

In the early hours of Saturday morning 13 April, residents of Grassy Park got quite a surprise at the sight of “Scar”, the Hippopotamus, strolling down Perth Road after escaping from Rondevlei Nature Reserve.

In a statement, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA indicated that police notified their wildlife department after reports poured in of a hippo sighted walking the streets of Grassy Park.

“Quemic Rangers were on the scene within minutes, at about 01:00, and the hippo was herded back into the reserve in Perth Road using their vehicles.”


Scar the hippo escaped from his enclosure in the early hours of Saturday 13 April.

It was discovered that the Hippopotamus reportedly escaped through the fence of Rondevlei Nature Reserve. According to the SPCA, hippos are territorial and aggressive with poor eyesight. (Ha, ha ... sounds like me! )

“They are also very protective of their young, which can trigger aggressive behaviour if they perceive potential threats.

“Additionally, hippos have poor eyesight, so they may attack simply out of confusion or in response to sudden movements.”

The SPCA urges residents to immediately call authorities when spotting a hippo, as the animal could run fast and outrun people.



Meanwhile, Sidney Jacobs, chair of the Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei, said the escape was an exceptional case.

“Is this the norm for hippos to escape from the reserve? No,” he commented.“Our False Bay Nature Reserve staff meticulously ensure that they are managing the area proactively as far as humanly possible.

They were on the scene within minutes and remedied the situation effectively.”

[Alessa9]

Bitcoin's next 'halving' is right around the corner. Here's what you need to know



Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the “miners” who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency in half.

That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict.

Here’s what you need to know.

WHAT IS BITCOIN HALVING AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Bitcoin “halving,” a preprogrammed event that occurs roughly every four years, impacts the production of bitcoin. Miners use farms of noisy, specialized computers to solve convoluted math puzzles; and when they complete one, they get a fixed number of bitcoins as a reward.

Halving does exactly what it sounds like — it cuts that fixed income in half. And when the mining reward falls, so does the number of new bitcoins entering the market. That means the supply of coins available to satisfy demand grows more slowly.

Limited supply is one of bitcoin’s key features. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, and more than 19.5 million of them have already been mined, leaving fewer than 1.5 million left to pull from.

So long as demand remains the same or climbs faster than supply, bitcoin prices should rise as halving limits output. Because of this, some argue that bitcoin can counteract inflation — still, experts stress that future gains are never guaranteed.

HOW OFTEN DOES HALVING OCCUR?

Per bitcoin’s code, halving occurs after the creation of every 210,000 “blocks” — where transactions are recorded — during the mining process.

No calendar dates are set in stone, but that divvies out to roughly once every four years. The latest estimates expect the next halving to occur sometime late Friday or early Saturday.

WILL HALVING IMPACT BITCOIN’S PRICE?

Only time will tell. Following each of the three previous halvings, the price of bitcoin was mixed in the first few months and wound up significantly higher one year later. But as investors well know, past performance is not an indicator of future results.

“I don’t know how significant we can say halving is just yet,” said Adam Morgan McCarthy, a research analyst at Kaiko. “The sample size of three (previous halvings) isn’t big enough to say ‘It’s going to go up 500% again,’ or something.”

At the time of the last halving in May 2020, for example, bitcoin’s price stood at around $8,602, according to CoinMarketCap — and climbed almost seven-fold to nearly $56,705 by May 2021. Bitcoin prices nearly quadrupled a year after July 2016’s halving and shot up by almost 80 times one year out from bitcoin’s first halving in November 2012. Experts like McCarthy stress that other bullish market conditions contributed to those returns.

This next halving also arrives after a year of steep increases for bitcoin. As of Thursday afternoon, bitcoin stood at just over $63,500 per CoinMarketCap. That's down from the all-time-high of about $73,750 hit last month, but still double the asset's price from a year ago.

Much of the credit for bitcoin's recent rally is given to the early success of a new way to invest in the asset — spot bitcoin ETFs, which were only approved by U.S. regulators in January. A research report from crypto fund manager Bitwise found that these spot ETFs saw $12.1 billion in inflows during the first quarter.

Bitwise senior crypto research analyst Ryan Rasmussen said persistent or growing ETF demand, when paired with the “supply shock” resulting from the coming halving, could help propel bitcoin’s price further.

“We would expect the price of Bitcoin to have a strong performance over the next 12 months,” he said. Rasmussen notes that he’s seen some predict gains reaching as high as $400,000, but the more “consensus estimate” is closer to the $100,000-$175,000 range.

Other experts stress caution, pointing to the possibility the gains have already been realized.

In a Wednesday research note, JPMorgan analysts maintained that they don’t expect to see post-halving price increases because the event “has already been already priced in” — noting that the market is still in overbought conditions per their analysis of bitcoin futures.

WHAT ABOUT MINERS?

Miners, meanwhile, will be challenged with compensating for the reduction in rewards while also keeping operating costs down.

“Even if there’s a slight increase in bitcoin price, (halving) can really impact a miner’s ability to pay bills,” Andrew W. Balthazor, a Miami-based attorney who specializes in digital assets at Holland & Knight, said. “You can’t assume that bitcoin is just going to go to the moon. As your business model, you have to plan for extreme volatility.”

Better-prepared miners have likely laid the groundwork ahead of time, perhaps by increasing energy efficiency or raising new capital. But cracks may arise for less-efficient, struggling firms.

One likely outcome: Consolidation. That’s become increasingly common in the bitcoin mining industry, particularly following a major crypto crash in 2022.

In its recent research report, Bitwise found that total miner revenue slumped one month after each of the three previous halvings. But those figures had rebounded significantly after a full year — thanks to spikes in the price of bitcoin as well as larger miners expanding their operations.

Time will tell how mining companies fare following this next looming halving. But Rasmussen is betting that big players will continue to expand and utilize the industry's technology advances to make operations more efficient.

WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT?

Pinpointing definitive data on the environmental impacts directly tied to bitcoin halving is still a bit of a question mark. But it's no secret that crypto mining consumes a lot of energy — and operations relying on pollutive sources have drawn particular concern over the years.

Recent research published by the United Nations University and Earth’s Future journal found that the carbon footprint of 2020-2021 bitcoin mining across 76 nations was equivalent to emissions of burning 84 billion pounds of coal or running 190 natural gas-fired power plants. Coal satisfied the bulk of bitcoin's electricity demands (45%), followed by natural gas (21%) and hydropower (16%).

Environmental impacts of bitcoin mining boil largely down to the energy source used. Industry analysts have maintained that pushes towards the use of more clean energy have increased in recent years, coinciding with rising calls for climate protections from regulators around the world.

Still, production pressures could result in miners turning to cheaper, less climate-friendly energy sources. And when looking towards the looming halving, JPMorgan cautioned that some bitcoin mining firms may also “look to diversify into low energy cost regions" to deploy inefficient mining rigs.

[rflash8]

British farmers using Axe body spray to keep rams from fighting


https://youtu.be/zlILLK9mVbo

April 18 (UPI) -- A British sheep farmer said she found a surprising solution for curbing the aggression of her rams -- Axe body spray.

Sam Bryce, who raises sheep on the Norfolk-Suffolk border in England, said it was other farmers on the Facebook group Ladies Who Lamb who told her the Africa variety of the body spray, known as Lynx in Britain and other countries where the Axe trademark was not available, masks the hormones that cause rams to become aggressive toward one another.

Bryce told The Wall Street Journal that since she started using the heavily-perfumed body spray on the animals, "There's no argy-bargy, no rowing."

She said using body spray to calm rams is a growing practice.

"There are several of us doing it right across the country and I think even the world now," Bryce told ITV News.

Some fellow sheep farmers said the body spray is good for more than just keeping rams calm -- Suffolk shepherdess Caitlin Jenkins said she uses the same variety to convince mother sheep to adopt abandoned lambs.

She said ewes identify their babies by smell, and using the body spray confuses them into thinking the lambs belong to them.

"I always go for Lynx Africa because it has a very distinctive strong smell," she said. "The ones that don't smell as strong have less chance of working."

[Fatima99]

Study Links Recreational Cannabis Use to Lower Risk of Cognitive Decline and Dementia-Related Diseases



Cannabis and its derivatives have already been shown to relieve short-term chronic pain, reduce inflammation 30x more robustly than aspirin, improve symptoms of Crohn’s disease, and show some efficacy in killing lung and pancreatic cancer cells, but a recent epidemiological look at cannabis use has linked it to dramatically lower rates of cognitive decline and dementia.

A new study published in the journal Current Alzheimer Research that looked at 4,744 American adults over 45 using self-reporting methods of calculating cognitive decline found those who used cannabis recreationally had a 96% lower chance of developing what they called ‘subjective cognitive decline.’

The researchers looked at all common methods of cannabis use, including smoking, vaping, dabbing, and consuming, as well as the frequency of use, which the scientists behind the study say has never been done before.

“The reason I think this study is so great is we looked at all the different dimensions of cannabis use. The fact that we included all three is a huge contribution to the research because I do not believe such a study has been done before,” Professor Wong told Neuroscience News.

“The main takeaway is that cannabis might be protective for our cognition,” Wong added. “We do not know if non-medical cannabis leads to better cognition or the other way around if those with better cognition are more likely to use non-medical cannabis.”

The study was interesting in that it looked at symptoms or degree of cognitive decline as determined by the patient. This is a common confounding factor in later diagnoses of clinical cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease, but also non-neurodegenerative disorders, including depression, anxiety, failing physical health, and, in some cases, certain personality traits.

Another interesting aspect of the study was that it controlled for the use of medical-use cannabis and recreational-use cannabis. Much of the drive in America to decriminalize cannabis has been around medical-use cannabis, which is richer in CBD, or cannabidiol, a powerful plant therapeutic.

However, it was recreational-use cannabis, that is to say, cannabis cultivated not to maximize the plant’s production of CBD, but to maximize THC—the psychoactive compound in cannabis—which showed the protective effect on cognition, indicating that the psychoactive part of cannabis may be more therapeutic than previously thought.

Wong admits however that many users of recreational cannabis engage in it specifically to improve things like sleep or stress, both of which are linked to cognitive decline later in life.

As with all things scientific, more research is needed, but the study should be a fascinating drive to explore further.

[PennySerenade]

Artist captures how strangers react to her body in public and it's fascinating



Artist Haley Morris-Cafiero describes herself on her website as "part performer, part artist, part provocateur, part spectator." Her recent project, titled "Wait Watchers" has elements of all her self-descriptors.

In an email to us, Morris-Cafiero explained that she set up a camera in the street and stood in front of it, doing mundane activities like looking at a map or eating gelato. While she's standing there she sets off her camera, taking hundreds of photos.

Later, she looks through them and sees what is happening around her. Morris-Cafiero finds that people are often looking at her body, or commenting on it with their gaze or body language, at times even appearing to mock her.

"I then examine the images to see if any of the passersby had a critical or questioning element in their face or body language."

"I consider my photographs a social experiment and I reverse the gaze back on to the stranger and place the viewer in the position of being a witness to a moment in time. The project is a performative form of street photography," she writes. Her work has been exhibited across the U.S. and abroad.



She also published her book, The Watchers, which shows her photo collection and includes comments made to her about her body from passerby.



You can see that even people in positions of authority, like this police officer, feel comfortable mocking her just for being out in public.



Though she's not looking at the people around her, Morris-Cafiero's photographs capture a split second in time that really crystalizes how people relate to one another on the street and the judgment she receives from strangers.





In galleries, with the words beside them, the photos are even more pointed. She also includes the positive words she receives from people who have experienced discrimination for their size or any other aspect to their body that is consistently bothered by the dominant culture.

Though we all theoretically know that people, women in particular, are discriminated against for their size, seeing it captured in photographs is gut-wrenching:

The project has gone viral as people identify with Morris-Cafiero's experience, which means a lot of people relate to being stared at and commented on by folks who should mind their own business. Does that include you? You can check out more of her incredible work here.

Millions of Birds Now Migrating Safely Through Darkened Texas Cities After Successful Lights Out Campaign


The Houston skyline darkened – Tendenci CC 3.0.

Texas is in the middle of the most important migratory pathway for birds moving up and down the Americas—nearly 2 billion birds, or 1 out of 3 in the US, will pass over Texas during their spring and autumn migrations.

To safeguard the over 400 species of birds that migrate through Texas, the Houston chapter of the Audubon Society and their partners in the state have been running the Lights Out! Texas campaign for two years, and they’re seeing remarkable results.

With the prestige that owning and operating a skyscraper confers, maybe it’s surprising to note that dozens of building managers have been convinced since 2022 to turn off non-essential outdoor lights.

“We issued the proclamation and they… found out, ‘oh, wow, I can do these simple things and it actually helps the birds when they’re migrating,’” Houston city hall spokesperson Sarah Osborne told KHOU 11.

“We’re seeing communities all across the state join in on this effort,” adds Anna Vallery a Conservation Specialist with the Houston Audubon.

Researchers working in Chicago and studying the effects of Lights Out campaigns and other phenomena impacting migratory birds found that reducing the reflections from exterior lighting on tall buildings worked to prevent 60% of all bird collision deaths.

Since most birds migrate at night by the light of the stars and moon, the shining lights of a city in the distance can attract them. But once lost in the photo-soup of a shining skyline like Houston or Fort Worth, they can become extremely disoriented, smash headlong into buildings whose glass is reflecting light from the city, and die.

The Texas Audubon has all the information a resident might need to do their part, or organize municipal efforts, to help our winged brothers and sisters safely pass by.

A busy family of two working parents with kids going to school and after-school sports might scoff at the idea of spending time to ensure birds can navigate over their property safely, but at the end of the day it also saves money from reduced electricity usage.

Spring migrations last only about 70 days, from the start of March to the middle of June, with a slightly longer period during autumn migration of middle-August to the end of November.

[lush]

“Notorious Food Pirate” Eats at Restaurants Without Paying at Least 127 Times
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A 58-year-old man has become the bane of restauranteurs in the Dutch city of Delft after eating without paying at least 127 times in the last few years.

Earlier this month, police in Delft were called at a restaurant where a man was allegedly trying to skip out on the bill by faking a medical condition. According to Mike Hogeveen, the bartender at the unnamed restaurant, the man caught his attention when he started buying people rounds and offering to share his food with everyone, but he really became the center of attention when he started shaking his left arm uncontrollably as if he was having a stroke. Paramedics were summoned, but upon examining the man, they realized that he was faking and refused to take him to the hospital as he had requested.


Photo: Jay Wennington/Unsplash

Faced with the paramedics’ refusal to take the man in their ambulance, the restaurant owner approached the 58-year-old patron about the bill, but seeing as he had apparently just gone through a mild stroke, he proposed that they settle it at a later date. The patron agreed, but as he was giving the restauranteur his name and address, a paramedic intervened, claiming that he had given them a different name and address just moments earlier.

“He thought he could get out of the bill of more than a hundred euros ($108) by pretending to be a sick person,” Hogeveen said.

On the advice of the ambulance worker, the restaurant owner called the police. They checked his pockets for identification and upon checking his file at the station, they realized he was a “notorious food pirate” who had been terrorizing local restaurants for years. There were no less than 127 complaints against him for having eaten at restaurants without paying, but despite a civil suit against him, no one had been able to make him stop.


Photo: Kenny Eliason/Unsplash

It’s unclear whether the food pirate is still in custody, or if there is any way to make him pay the thousands of euros he owes to Delft restauranteurs. And because of personal privacy laws, other restaurant owners don’t even know the man’s name or what he looks like, so they can protect themselves against him.

We featured a similar story last year when a man faked a heart attack at about 20 restaurants in Spain’s Costa Blanca region so he could skip out on paying the bills. But with 127 offenses to his name, this Dutch food pirate has him beat!

[goldie0608]

2 Vultures Thought to be 'Actively Dying' Were Actually 'Too Drunk to Fly,' Says Rehabilitation Center

A pair of birds discovered in Connecticut apparently had too much to drink from a dumpster



A pair of vultures in Connecticut were found "unable to balance [or] stand" and "kept passing out" earlier this month, before an animal shelter determined the birds were actually drunk.

On April 9, A Place Called Hope of Killingworth, Conn., shared to Facebook that, along with Watertown Animal Control, it "suspected the worst" for the two vultures, who were found in the area "literally drunk" after apparently dumpster diving and drinking "something that was fermented enough to cause severe intoxication."

Those who tended to the animals didn't know the cause at first, and even considered that they were "actively dying."

"Watertown Animal Control and all of us at APCH suspected the worst... We were all very confused until the details of their story fell into place which eventually confirmed our suspicions after ruling everything else out," A Place Called Hope, which specializes in treating birds, noted.

"We ran every test and in the end, they were too drunk to fly. They only needed fluids and to be tucked in overnight... and fed a BIG breakfast the next day."

As the rehabilitation center noted, the vultures "returned home today before our Center could be labeled a 'detox' facility."

Photos of the birds, shared to Facebook, show them confused in crates before they returned back to the wild, where they "immediately joined up with their colony."

"Your cocktail fruit that ends up in a dumpster can end up intoxicating wildlife if the dumpster is not kept closed," A Place Called Hope added. "Birds don't let other birds fly drunk... this dynamic duo had each other's backs, but I don't know if any lessons were learned on their end."

"Quite the story! and drunk vultures are not easy patients, just sayin'."

The rehabilitation center later shared a clip of the birds returning to the woods — "now sober" — where they could be seen adorably flying off to sit on a branch together. "Thanks team for getting these two back out there! Enjoy watching the now sober Black Vultures go free."

This isn't the first time a bird has gotten too drunk to stand straight. The National Audubon Society has previously noted that intoxication in our flying friends can be caused by birds eating fermented fruit, with the non-profit encouraging readers to let a rehabilitator know if they spot a drunk bird — as the animals likely need to a place to sleep off the effects.

[Misstee]

Chess master aiming to play for 60 hours straight
By Ben Hooper



April 19 (UPI) -- A Nigerian chess master is more than 50 hours into his attempt to play chess for 60 consecutive hours and break a Guinness World Record in the process.

Tunde Onakoya started playing chess at a table in New York's Times Square on Wednesday, and he crossed the 50-hour mark in the early afternoon Friday.

The current Guinness World Record for longest continuous chess marathon is 56 hours and 9 minutes, but Onakoya is aiming to play for a full 60 hours.

Onakoya is the co-founder of nonprofit groups Chess in Slums Africa and The Gift of Chess.

"We have a vision to give the gift of chess to a million children across Africa," Onakoya told Fox 5 New York.

"Just setting up a chess center is a very practical way to involve them, and it's given them a beginning of an education, where they can learn to become thinkers," Onakoya said. "And that is the best way we can empower anyone -- by showing them their own potential."

The record attempt is being streamed live on Twitch.