[DaveLDaveL]

Pete Waterman's team breaks model railway record



Model railway enthusiast Pete Waterman and the Railnuts created a one-kilometre version of the West Coast Main Line


Pop producer Pete Waterman and a team of fellow rail enthusiasts have broken a record after building the world's biggest mobile model railway.

Coventry-born Waterman and the Railnuts team built a model with nearly 1km (3,280ft) of track, at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday.

The railway, which depicts the West Coast Main Line in detail between Rugby and Watford Junction, was displayed at the Model World Live event.

"At 999.9 metres of track we are the longest portable model railway in the world," said Waterman, adding the response to the record had been "beyond our wildest dreams".


The completed layout was assembled in 8ft (1.82m) sections at the NEC

"I'm proud for the lads who built it, we're a team, it's not just me. And we set out to do it and we've done it, it's fantastic," he said.

The 208ft x 14ft (63.4m x 4.3m) scale layout incorporates tracks they built over recent years for display at Chester Cathedral.

It also features a four-track main line and the option to pass trains at Milton Keynes Central.

Waterman, 77, said Guinness Book of Record adjudicators had spent seven and half hours checking it.

'Cheering and shouting'
"That was stressful, I promise you," he said.

"The rules are very strict and it has to be measured to within 500 millimetres.

"So it has to be professionally built, it has to run and all the tracks that are counted have to carry trains."

People at the NEC had been behind the record attempt.

"When Guinness Book of Records announced that they had certified it - the place went crazy, people where cheering and shouting it was fantastic," Waterman said.

He added they had received an enthusiastic response afterwards, both nationally and around the world, including receiving "calls at midnight" from the US.


The model, pictured previously at Chester Cathedral, features detailed replicas of buildings and stations between Rugby and London

He added the model railway would return to Chester Cathedral in August. And the team intended to return to the NEC next year and had its sights set on what it could achieve in 2025.

"There are more records to be set," he said, adding "but we can't go any bigger."


The model includes detailed replicas of real buildings as well as working signals

[ozswede]

Australian teen Keegan Payne goes fishing, becomes a millionaire

There’s fishing yarns, and then there’s Keegan Payne’s fishing yarn.

The 19-year-old is one of Australia’s latest millionaires after hooking a barramundi worth $1 million on Sunday morning.

The teen, from Katherine in the Northern Territory, caught the 67cm barra which had been tagged as part of a nine-year-long Million Dollar Fish angling competition, in the Katherine River, 317km south of Darwin, while on a fishing trip with his family.


Keegan Payne caught a barramundi worth $1 million on Sunday morning

The youngster detailed his plans for the major cash injection, including helping his family out with their mortgages.

“This is crazy for us, we’re a big family, there’s eight of us. This is more money than we could ever ask for. This is just great,” Mr Payne said.

“It means so much. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I’m happy, really happy.

“I can buy what I want, maybe help dad and mum out with the home loans.”

Mr Payne called the competition’s hotline in the early hours of Sunday morning and was invited, along with his family, to collect a prize.


He called the competition’s hotline and was invited, along with his family, to collect the prize.

The competition had been running since 2015, but no one had caught the million-dollar barramundi until now.

Every season, more than a hundred fish are tagged with unique markings before being released into various waterways throughout the Northern Territory.

Organisers revealed on Tuesday they had indeed released the prize in the Katherine River, though barramundi, which can live for more than 20 years, have been known to travel 622km between research tags.


The barramundi was tagged as part of a nine-year-long competition.

During ‘season 9’ of the competition, 80 million-dollar fish were released though organisers say the remainders will now be worth $10,000.

Additionally, 103 ‘$10,000 Red-Tagged Fish’ were released with just eight caught so far.

Keegan selected Cancer Council NT as the recipient of an additional $10,000 donation from competition sponsor Sportsbet.

And Mr Payne landed the bountiful barra just in time with season 9 ending at midnight tonight.

[Alessa9]

Lincoln's Civil War order to block Confederate ports donated to Illinois by governor and first lady

Illinois' governor and first lady have donated a key Civil War document signed by Abraham Lincoln to the presidential library and museum that bears his name


Lincoln's Civil War order to block Confederate ports donated to Illinois by governor and first lady.

The document in which Abraham Lincoln set the Union's military response to the launch of the U.S. Civil War in motion is now among Illinois' prized papers of the 16th president, thanks to a donation by the state's governor and first lady.

The order to prevent the Confederacy from shipping economically vital cotton or importing critical needs was signed April 19, 1861 — one week after secessionist forces fired on Fort Sumter at the entrance to Charleston harbor in South Carolina.



An anonymous collector who owned the document put it up for auction, where Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his wife, M.K. Pritzker, bought it. The Pritzkers were scheduled to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, which will house the artifact, later Tuesday.

“This document — and the museum as a whole — serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come," the multibillionaire Democratic governor said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press in advance. “Despite our divisions and challenges, more than 150 years later, our nation perseveres.”

M.K. Pritzker said the paper is a testament to Lincoln's “unwavering pursuit of justice” and encouraged visiting the museum to examine Illinois' history "and the ways it’s intertwined with the history of our nation.”

The purchase price was undisclosed, but the document is listed online as sold for $471,000 in July 2023 by Heritage Auctions.



Calling on the Union to flex its naval muscle by shutting off shipping at ports in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, the “Proclamation of a Blockade” set up the eastern part of Gen. Winfield Scott's scheme to hem in the Confederacy. The western portion had Union troops steaming down the Mississippi River to cut the secession in half. Critics who sought a more aggressive push derisively dubbed it the ”Anaconda Plan," conjuring images of a snake slowly suffocating its victim. The name stuck.

Virginia had seceded on April 17, but the state, along with North Carolina after it split from the Union on May 20, were added to the blockade order later.

“The horrible violence of the Civil War started with attacks on U.S. forces. President Lincoln had to respond or accept that the nation had been torn in half, condemning millions of people to continued enslavement,” Christina Shutt, executive director of the presidential library and museum, said in a statement. “This incredible document represents Lincoln saying America was worth fighting to save.”

Lincoln had to step gingerly, for a declaration of war would mean taking up arms against his own people, but also would have legitimized the Confederacy as a nation able to establish diplomatic ties internationally. A blockade, he averred, was merely a necessary step to put down an internal insurrection.

The blockade proclamation will go on display in the museum's light- and climate-controlled Treasures Gallery beginning Wednesday. It will be on display until February 2025.

[Fatima99]

Sighting of Many Blue Whales Around the Seychelles is First in Decades – ‘Phenomenal’



The Seychelles has become a major tourist destination for beachgoing and scuba diving, but it’s not only humans that are beginning to flock to this island.

In what marine biologists have described as a “phenomenal finding,” a survey of whales around the territorial waters of this archipelagic nation revealed the presence of blue whales—over a dozen.

It’s the first time they’ve been seen in these warm seas since 1966, and it’s a wonderful milestone in a long and increasingly successful recovery for the world’s largest animal.

The Seychelles are located in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, and they were historically a stopover point for Soviet whalers en route to Antarctica. The years 1963 to 1966 were particularly difficult for whales here, and many were taken before the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling put an end to the practice of hunting baleen whales in 1973.

Since 1966, no dedicated investigation of whales in the Seychelles had been made until 2020, when a partnership of four universities conducted an acoustic survey over the period of two years.

They made five different sightings of groups of up to 10 animals.

“This was a phenomenal finding,” Jeremy Kiszka, a co-author of the paper from Florida International University, wrote in The Conversation. “We were prepared to not see any blue whales due to the high level of hunting that occurred fairly recently and absolutely no information was available since the last blue whale was killed in the region in 1964.”

These creatures are as long as a basketball court, and can easily weigh 200 tons. They are quite simply the largest animal ever known to have existed. While certain primitive whales or ichthyosaurs are estimated, based on extrapolations from fossilized remains to be as large or larger, it’s difficult to know for sure.

The team behind the survey sent images taken of the whales’ dorsal sides to a database to see if any of them had been recorded before, and amid the reel, not a single one was a match with any other photographed whale.

This, the team suggests, means they have probably never been seen before, which for a species that big might seem strange, but along with there being only 5,000 to 15,000 on Earth, they migrate vast distances while diving deep, making recording their movements incredibly challenging.

The survey identified 23 whale species in total using hydroponic mics over 2 years with peak activity coming between December and April. This is a fascinating finding that suggests something about the seas around the Seychelles makes for excellent whale habitat.

[rflash8]

18 ancient Egyptian human skulls are being auctioned for $250 each, in a grim sale of colonial spoils


A stock image, used for illustration purposes only, of six human skulls. IvancoVlad/Getty Images

A British auction house is facing criticism for selling 18 ancient Egyptian human skulls.

The skulls come from the collections of Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, a 19th-century British general.

The sale has sparked a debate around the sale of human remains, which is legal in some instances.

A British auction house has been criticized after listing 18 human skulls from ancient Egypt.

The skulls — of 10 men, five women, and three people of uncertain sex — are for sale at a guide price of £200-£300, or about $250-$380.

Several of the skulls are listed as coming from Thebes and dating back to 1550-1292 BC, making them more than 3,000 years old.

But experts have raised objections, and have asked for a review of laws around the sale of human remains.

Dan Hicks, author of "The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution," told BI that "it's quite a shocker" to see the skulls for sale.

Hicks, an archaeologist who works as a curator with the Pitt Rivers Museum, has pushed for a review of the law, pointing out that the UK has already clamped down on the sale of elephant ivory.

"Every generation or so, surely we need to check in on our ethical compass on these questions and just ask, is this really right?" he said.

According to the auction listing, the skulls come from a collection amassed by 19th-century British army officer Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers.

Pitt Rivers collected an extraordinarily wide range of artifacts, from weaponry to ceremonial items to jewelry — as well as human remains.

Unlike his first collection, which is held by Oxford University and is on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum, the second collection was sold off throughout the 20th Century.

Items from that collection continue to emerge on the open market.

The UK has strict regulations on the storage, treatment, and display of human remains. But their sale for decorative purposes remains completely legal.

A representative at the auction house, Semley Auctioneers, was contacted by phone and told BI that the auctioneer was unavailable for immediate comment.

This latest episode offers a window into the strange trade in human remains, which is legal in many places worldwide.

In 2020, an Indonesian fashion designer received viral outrage over a handbag he said was made from a human spine.

Laura Van Broekhoven, the director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, told BI that she was "really surprised that auction houses are still doing this," but added that "obviously, there is a market for human remains."

"If there's one community that has really gone out of their way to be buried and stay buried, that was especially the Egyptians," Van Broekhoven said.

She added: "I would hope that we would stop selling and commodifying human remains of communities that really have tried to have dignified ways of, and usually ritual ways, of dealing with their ancestors."

The shrunken head problem

Van Broekhoven has had to grapple with the issue of handling human remains in museum collections.

The Pitt Rivers Museum has a collection of shrunken heads — some human — along with other human remains, which were taken off display in 2020.

"The way people were talking about the human remains, or making selfies with them" created an ethical problem, she told BI.

The museum is still working through questions of how to handle and potentially return the human remains in its collection, guided by the wishes of the communities they came from, she added.

The skulls now on sale for a few hundred dollars also offer a glimpse into the mindset of the 19th-century Brits who took them.

Hicks said that Pitt Rivers acquired the skulls during a trip to Egypt in 1881, and that it's quite possible he dug them up himself.

"The idea of cultural supremacy and the role of anthropology in terms of its relationship to empire, and the justifications for empire, were things that interested him a lot," Hicks told BI.

Potential skull-buyers today may not have that mindset. But, Van Broekhoven said, there's still a risk that "people forget the humanity of what is being collected."

[PennySerenade]

Justice Rosalie Abella has led an extraordinary life, but it's her sense of joy that stands out



Rosalie Abella has led an extraordinary life of firsts: the youngest judge appointed in Canadian history, the first judge to preside in court while pregnant, the first Jewish female Supreme Court judge and the first refugee to sit on the bench of the country's highest court.

Abella is also behind iconic and historic rulings on equality, immigration and same-sex marriage — trendsetting and landmark decisions that have since been adopted by countries around the world.

There's never been a film made about a Supreme Court judge in Canada — and there may never be again, because there will never be another Rosalie Abella. This isn't a film about the law. It's a tribute to an incredible person.

We are living in difficult and divisive times. I was inspired to make the documentary Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella because Rosie — as she's commonly known — is a lighthouse in a storm. She'll inspire you to see through the darkness, find compromise and be a better person. Law above war, compassion over division.

Rosie is fun, she is vivacious, she is gregarious. Her career has been filled with purpose, and I cherish being able to tell the story of her rich life.



In Without Precedent, Justice Abella and I looked at some of the Supreme Court cases she had heard over the course of her 17 years on the bench (she retired from the Federal Court in 2021).

There are some obvious landmark cases, but as we ran through the highlights of her years on the Supreme Court, it wasn't the cases with the most headlines that stood out to me. It was the breadth of Abella's rulings.

Whether she was ruling about immigration or Uber drivers, as part of the majority or as a dissenting judge, it was important to me to show the types of cases that the Supreme Court of Canada hears.

But what amazed me most about making the film was Abella's sense of joy.

Abella was born to Holocaust survivors in a German displaced persons camp following the Second World War. We've all heard Holocaust stories about people who came through the worst atrocities imaginable and were changed for life, but credit goes to Abella's parents, who raised a joyful child in postwar Toronto who grew up to be the woman we see today, one who appreciates and embraces positivity and fills her life with music and love and family (Without Precedent is scored like a Broadway musical, one of the many things Abella is passionate about).

The film is also a portrait of a marriage. Rosie and Irving Abella were both successful, important people, and they raised a wonderful family together. Sadly, Irving passed away while the film was in post-production.

The core mission of my work as a filmmaker is to celebrate arts and culture and promote Canadian talent at home, but it's also to ensure people around the world see these stories. Heather Reisman, founder and CEO of Indigo, said it best when she proclaimed on her store's walls, "The world needs more Canada."



Rosie Abella is a prime example of a Canadian that the world could use more of. I hope that when you watch the film, you too feel a sense of Canadian pride and realize just how important Rosie Abella is to the fabric of who we are.

Undoubtedly, you will come away, like me, loving Rosie.

[Misstee]

Pest control ace clears Dodgers-Diamondbacks bee swarm, throws first pitch
By Alex Butler


May 1 (UPI) -- A pest control professional cleared a bee swarm of thousands while fans roared and later earned the nod for ceremonial first pitch before a delayed game Los Angeles Dodgers-Arizona Diamondbacks matchup in Phoenix.

The insect invasion occurred Tuesday at Chase Field. It caused a two-hour delay before the Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers 4-3.

Bees surrounded their queen in the cluster about 15 minutes before the game was set to begin. Umpires then met managers from both teams and Diamondbacks vice president of operations Mike Rock and opted to call in Matt Hilton to assess the situation.

They opted to call in Matt Hilton, branch manager at the local Blue Sky Pest Control office.

"It was a little nerve-racking, I'm not going to lie," Hilton told reporters. "A lot of pressure to get this game going. But I was happy to come and take care of it."



Hilton said that he left his son's tee ball game in Sunrise, Ariz., and drove about 30 miles to Chase Stadium. He put on a beekeeper outfit and used a scissor lift to ride under the bee swarm. The lift then elevated Hilton closer to danger before he used a non-pesticide spray on the swarm and vacuumed up the bees.

The crowd chanted "MVP" for the pest control ace as he was lowered back down to the field level. The Beatles' "Let it Bee" and Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" played through the stadium speakers during the sequence.

Hilton then took to the mound, while still in his beekeeper outfit, and buzzed in his ceremonial first pitch.

"I didn't feel very prepared," Hilton said. "I'm not the best thrower in the world. ... It definitely wasn't a strike."

Hilton said there was a high probability that the pests were Africanized honey bees, also known as killer bees. He also said the bees might have turned aggressive if agitated by the net moving. Instead, they were taken out of the stadium and set free off-site.

First baseman Christian Walker went 3 for 5 with two home runs and three RBIs in the Diamondbacks 4-3 victory. He also ended the extra-innings affair with a walk-off, two-run homer. The Diamondbacks used seven pitchers to secure the win. That group allowed five hits and two earned runs and issued six walks over 10 innings.

"It was a crazy situation, but I though the Diamondbacks and that exterminator did a nice job of taking care of the situation in a timely manner," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters.

The Diamondbacks will host the Dodgers in the series finale at 9:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday at Chase Field.

Mega Rare Blue Rock Thrush Spotted on Oregon Beach Is First Sighting in US History


Credit Michael Sanchez – fair use.

Owing to personal interest, GNN is partial to stories of rare bird sightings, and news from Oregon recently broke the story of a ‘mega-rare’ bird never seen before in either the state or the country.

It wasn’t made by a birder, but rather an ordinary talented photographer named Michael Sanchez, who was on the beach one morning near Hug Point Falls when he saw a blue and chestnut bird hopping along the rocks.

“I happened to look behind me toward the ocean and saw this cute little bird standing on the sand,” Sanchez told KOIN 6. “The sun wasn’t fully up yet, so to my eyes, it looked like a little black bird. It posed for me for a minute or two, and then it flew up to the rocks. It stayed there for another moment or so, and then it flew away toward the east. I didn’t think much more of it than that.”

In the growing light, it seemed to Sanchez as if the bird was black, but going over the pictures at his house, he realized it was much more colorful.

Putting some pictures up on social media, they made their way via a friend to a local birding group, where one member shared it to rapturous applause.

“Spectacular find. A banger record even if nobody can relocate the bird,” said one commenter.

“I see they are year round in Japan but seem to leave SE Asia in the summer. Would this bird be a migrant from last year heading north from a wintering ground in southern North America? Seems like quite a haul to cross the entire Pacific,” said another.

KOIN 6 spoke with a member of the Oregon Birding Association who said that the only other time a blue rock thrush, native to Europe and Asia, has been seen in North America was in British Colombia in 1997. But this record was eventually written off.

With the clarity of Sanchez’ pictures, it’s hard to dispute the evidence that, as the commenter speculated, this bird may have come all the way across the Pacific.

Birders have flocked to Hug Point in recent days, reports KOIN, in an attempt to find Sanchez’s blue rock thrush. However, no other sightings have been reported.

Some association members are speculating that this tiny bird may have hitched a ride on a ship, but Hug Point Falls is an awfully long way from any large harbor.

As for Sanchez, he didn’t have any interest in birds, but upon witnessing the reaction to his photographs, he regretted not taking more.

“This really has opened my eyes”, he said. “I guess I’m a birder at this point,” Sanchez said. “I think I’m in the club.”

[goldie0608]

Mom Has 70 Million-to-1 Quadruplets—Two Sets of Identical Twins–And They Weren’t Even Trying to Get Pregnant



An Alabama woman broke the odds of 70-million-to-1 giving birth to quadruplets that are two sets of identical twins.

Hannah Carmack and her husband, Michael, found out they were expecting a year and a half ago—and were shocked when the sonogram revealed they were having quads.

The fact that they were two sets of twins gives it the 70 million odds.

In March last year, 27 weeks into her pregnancy, Hannah gave birth to Evelyn 2-lbs 11oz, David, 2 lbs 40z, Daniel 2 lbs 4oz, and Adeline 1lbs 10oz—all via a planned c-section.

Just 96 days later, they‘d all arrived home to Gadsden, and the parents now say they are “thriving”.

“It was chaotic when we brought them home for the first time,” said the 29-year-old veterinary technician. “Luckily I flew my step mom out for two and a half months to help me adjust.

“They all slept and ate at the same time. They thrived off each other: if one would scream, the other one would scream.

“The first time I saw them all home together I cried, I couldn’t believe it. They were a miracle.” (Watch an adorable video of their morning routine, below…)

Hannah and Michael were not even trying to have a baby, so when they found out they were expecting it came as a shock.

When the first scan revealed they were having quads, Hannah said she had a “panic attack”.



“I saw two placentas on the screen and I asked if they were twins. My husband put his hands on his head and started laughing while I was crying.”

But the technician wasn’t answering.

“I asked if it was triplets and she still didn’t reply, she put her hand on my knee and said there were four. I asked if she was sure and she said how there was definitely four babies there.”

From the outset, Hannah was warned that it would be a miracle to make it to 30 weeks—and at 27 weeks, she was hospitalized at the University of Alabama Hospital and monitored closely. Doctors told her the goal was to get her to 28 weeks, as the babies would be safer to deliver—but it wasn’t to be.

After the births, the doctors told her all the babies were “doing good” although they had been intubated. Three days later, Hannah was sent home.

Baby Evelyn followed after 69 days, Adeline and David after 80 and 82 days and the last one came home after 96 days.

“Oh man, a lot of people prayed over our babies. They all had a 50 percent chance of survival; they had odds against them from the beginning.

“They are all super sweet. The boys are obsessed with me and the girls are drifting towards their father.”

“They are all doing great now, Daniel is trying to walk, they are crawling and eating table food.”

The Carmacks share their life with quads on Youtube and TikTok at @carmackquads. Watch an adorable video of the kids’ morning routine at around one year old, and see what a great mom she is…

“Their personalities are very different: David is mysterious; Evelyn is our adventure baby; Adeline keeps to herself; and Daniel is on the go all the time.”

Synthetic Diamonds Made In Minutes Not Days Could Upend Gemstone Economics

The new low-pressure method could drastically cut the cost of producing synthetic diamonds.


They're still tiny, but this film of diamonds has been produced using atmospheric pressures and temperatures hundreds of degrees lower than used previously.
Image Credit: Gong et al/Nature

A new method for making diamonds bypasses the high temperatures and pressures, opening the door to making them at a fraction of the existing cost. The world of fine crystal control called The Diamond Age in science fiction may be closer than we think.

Although we have known how to make synthetic diamonds since the 1950s, the dominant process requires temperatures of 1,300-1,600 °C (2,400-2,900 °F) and 50,000 atmospheres of pressure over 5-12 days. This has helped meet the industrial demand for diamonds as cutting instruments, as well as providing colors rare in nature for those whose tastes run that way. However, the cost of the process is close enough to that of finding natural diamonds, whether for industrial purposes or clear gemstones, that the mining industry survives.

That could be about to change with the announcement of a way to make diamonds at ordinary atmospheric pressure. The temperatures are still high – 1,025 °C (1,877 °F) – but even that means big savings compared to the heat currently required.

Low-pressure diamonds were thought to be a contradiction in terms. Natural diamonds are made in the Earth’s mantle with the force of kilometers of crust bearing down, and most predate multicellular life. The synthetic version uses liquid metal catalysts, but Gigapascal range pressures have still been considered essential.

However, researchers at Korea’s Institute for Basic Science have thrown that out, showing that a liquid metal alloy of gallium, iron, nickel, and silicon can grow diamonds without much pressure in a hydrogen/methane atmosphere. The methane provides the carbon from which the diamond grows.

“This pioneering breakthrough was the result of human ingenuity, unremitting efforts, and the concerted cooperation of many collaborators,” said Professor Rod Ruoff in a statement. He left out a lot of trial and error, which a team at the Institute used when adjusting the mix of metals and other parameters. Although making the diamond itself turns out to be a surprisingly quick process, it was only when the team shifted to a smaller chamber, which took less than one-twelfth the time to prepare, that real progress was made.

Eventually, it was found that when the liquid alloy is 77.75 percent gallium by atomic abundance, 0.25 percent silicon, and 11 percent each of iron and nickel, the diamonds grow near the bottom of the liquid. It’s not a ratio that immediately springs to mind. Moreover, unlike conventional synthetic diamonds, seed particles are not required.

“One day […] when I ran the experiment and then cooled down the graphite crucible to solidify the liquid metal, and removed the solidified liquid metal piece, I noticed a ‘rainbow pattern’ spread over a few millimeters on the bottom surface of this piece,” said graduate student Yan Gong. “We found out that the rainbow colors were due to diamonds!”


Diamond growth as seen at a variety of scales and using different instruments (a-g) and a schematic of the process.
Image Credit: Gong et al/Nature

The process takes between 10 and 15 minutes to start forming diamonds, and growth stops by 150 minutes, although the team hopes to find ways to overcome this.

The diamonds created so far are small enough - more a film than a gemstone - that diamond companies don’t need to panic quite yet. That could change, however, if methods are found to promote the supersaturated carbon layer that precedes diamond formation. The silicon-vacancy prized for producing colored diamonds, also produced by nitrogen impurities, could make the products ideal for experiments in quantum computing.

Why this combination of metals and gases gives the desired outcome, is still not fully understood. It is thought the similarity of silicon and carbon bonds may be key, with carbon clusters containing silicon atoms potentially serving as diamond precursors.

Mass production seldom ends up relying on the first version of a process demonstrated in a lab. Ruoff suggests a variety of lower melting point metals might prove useful, either to make the process cheaper still or to produce doped diamonds of particular shades or properties.

The study is published in the journal Nature. (paywalled)

Barbers hailed as heroes for rescuing toddler from oncoming traffic
"We’re incredibly grateful for these everyday heroes among us!"
Source: ABC News



Two barbers in East Hartford, Connecticut are being hailed as heroes after they ran to save a young child who was walking on a street toward traffic on a busy intersection.

According to local police, barbers Osvaldo Lugo and Rafael Santana of LookSharp Barbershop were cutting hair when they noticed the child and ran to the toddler's aid.

"Heroic Barbers to the Rescue! Today, we want to give a massive shoutout to the quick-thinking and brave duo, Osvaldo Lugo and Rafael Santana of LookSharp Barbershop. Their swift action saved a little toddler who had escaped from his mother and started moving towards traffic on Main Street," the East Hartford Police Department wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. "Thanks to them, a potential tragedy was averted, and a family remains whole. We're incredibly grateful for these everyday heroes among us!"


Barbers from Look Sharp Barbershop in East Hartford, Connecticut ran outside to save a young child from oncoming traffic.
Image: Look Sharp Barbershop

Lugo shared security camera footage of the incident, which took place near the corner of Brown Street and Main Street, in an Instagram reel. In the post's caption, he wrote that he was "still a little shaken up" by the "scary experience."

Lugo later told ABC New Haven affiliate WTNH he had happened to glance out the window while in the middle of a haircut and didn't think twice about rushing outside when he noticed the child. He managed to pick up the child before anything happened and said he was able to track down the child's mother, who hadn't realized they had wandered away, at a nearby bus stop.

"The mom lost track for one quick second. It happens. It's happened to me before," Lugo said.

He added, "The structure of this building and the bus stop, you can hardly see, so she was shocked and embarrassed at the same time, but also thankful."

[lush]

Japanese Fashion Company Launches Sunfish-Shaped Sweater
021224*

Japanese clothing brand Felissimo recently took social media by storm with an unusual garment inspired by the unique shape of the giant sunfish.

“For those of you who want to become a sunfish, we have created room wear that allows you to wear a sunfish,” the Felissimo social media team posted last month. “Opportunities to wear a sunfish don’t come around very often in life, so I hope you will seize this chance.”

Shaped just like the massive marine creature – with its large fins acting as fins and its mouth designed as the collar – the sunfish sweater made quite an impression on X (Twitter), where it received over 15,000 likes.



Apparently, the wacky loungewear began as a funny discussion among Felissimo’s designers. Some of them didn’t think the shape of the sunfish could be faithfully recreated as a garment, but as they brainstormed ideas, they came up with a wearable version.



“We kept repeating that if we tried to recreate a sunfish, it wouldn’t work as clothing, and if we tried to make it easy to wear, it wouldn’t have the shape of a sunfish, but in the end, we were able to achieve the perfect shape,” the company tweeted on X.



The bizarre garment works well with both pants and skirts, but Felissimo admitted that it was surprised by the success of its sunfish garment and the overwhelming number of orders. The sweater can be ordered from the Felissimo website, for 7,920 yen ($53). It’s unclear if the company ships internationally.

[Zbignieww]

100-Year-Old Mystery Of Pharaoh's Curse Finally Solved, Experts Claim
A study published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration by Ross Fellowes suggests concerning levels of radiation within King Tutankhamun's tomb.



For decades, the curse surrounding King Tutankhamun's tomb has perplexed archaeologists. This fear arose from the unexplained deaths of several excavators involved in its groundbreaking discovery in 1922. However, a new theory challenges this supernatural narrative, the New York Post reported.
Scientist Ross Fellowes proposes a scientific explanation for the age-old mystery of the "Pharaoh's Curse" in a recent article published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration (JSE). Fellowes suggests that toxic materials, including radioactive elements like uranium and potentially hazardous waste, might be the culprit. These toxins could have remained potent within the sealed tomb for over 3,000 years, posing a significant health risk to those who entered.

A recent study published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration by Ross Fellowes suggests concerning levels of radiation within King Tutankhamun's tomb. The research indicates that exposure to this radiation could lead to serious health complications, including cancer.

Mr Fellowes further posits a correlation between these elevated radiation levels and the unusually high prevalence of blood, bone, and lymph cancers observed in both ancient and contemporary Egyptian populations. These specific cancers are known to be associated with radiation exposure. Additionally, the study highlights that this heightened radioactivity may not be confined solely to King Tut's tomb.

"Radiation has been detected by the Geiger counter at two sites at Giza adjacent to the pyramids," he wrote, adding that radon - a radioactive gas - has also been detected in "several underground tombs at Saqqara."

"Both contemporary and ancient Egypt populations are characterized by unusually high incidences of hematopoietic cancers, of bone/blood/lymph, for which a primary known cause is radiation exposure," Mr Fellowes wrote in his study.

These readings were all found to be "intensely radioactive."

"Modern studies confirm very high levels of radiation in ancient Egyptian tombs, in the order of 10x accepted safety standards," the study shared.

Intriguingly, some theories suggest the ancient builders themselves may have been aware of the dangers lurking within the tombs. This speculation stems from the presence of cryptic warnings inscribed on the walls.

"The nature of the curse was explicitly inscribed on some tombs, with one translated presciently as 'they that break this tomb shall meet death by a disease that no doctor can diagnose,'" Mr Fellowes wrote.

Ambiguous inscriptions, potentially mistranslated as warnings of "evil spirits" and "forbidden" places, likely contributed to the persistent belief in a supernatural curse associated with the tombs. This perception was further amplified by sensationalized media reports surrounding the deaths of several individuals, including Lord Carnarvon, the excavation's primary financial backer, who died shortly after entering the tomb's treasure chamber.

"Carnarvon was dead within a few weeks of the uncertain diagnosis of blood poisoning and pneumonia," Fellowes wrote.

Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com
Egyptologist Arthur Weigall allegedly told colleagues that Carnarvon would "be dead within six weeks" upon entering, the study claimed.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/100-yea ... im-5541567

[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
THURSDAY MAY 2
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

[ozswede]

Harrods becomes latest designer brand to cash in on bizarre fast food inspired trend with glamorous bag of chips for an eye-watering £6,000

Harrods has become the latest to cash in on the bizarre fast food inspired fashion trend as the designer brand starts selling a chips bag for an eye-watering amount.

The green and black bag measures just seven inches high and five inches wide but despite its tiny size it comes with a hefty price tag of £5,775.

The Judith Leiber brass bag has a gold chain strap and is topped with shimmering crystals and is branded with the words 'Exclusively Harrods hot and salty' on one side and 'best fries prize' on the other.


The green and black bag measures just seven inches high and five inches wide but despite its diminutive size it comes with the hefty price tag of £5,775

The Hungarian-US designer company previously created the sought after Crystal Rainbow French Fries clutch bag which retailed at around the whopping £4,500 mark.

But the latest incarnation by the fashion brand has failed to impress shoppers who have been left baffled by its price tag.


Harrods has become the latest to cash in on the bizarre fast food inspired fashion trend

One shopper at its London store told The Mirror: 'How can a handbag which looks like a box of chips cost almost £6,000?'

Harrods advertises the bag on its website as: 'Salt, pepper, vinegar, ketchup, mayonnaise – everyone has their own specific tastes when seasoning their French Fries.

'For Judith Leiber, nothing beats a freshly cooked portion topped with shimmering crystals and served in a Harrods box. Dig in to find out what all the fuss is about.'

Karen Handley, PR for the designer brand, thinks the chip bag to be a big hit with shoppers as she expects it to sell out.

Judith Leiber isn't the first designer brand to jump onto the fast food trend with Balenciaga raising eyebrows in February with its luxury £1,350 handbag which looks like a giant packet of crisps.

The bag, made from wipe clean calfskin comes in three different varieties: salt and vinegar (blue), cheese and onion (yellow) and spicy chilli (red).

Kim Kardashian is a fan of the Spanish fashion house, which previously released a line of leather bags in partnership with Lays - the European version of Walkers crisps.

Meanwhile, Moschino was accused in 2014 by fast food workers of 'mocking' minimum wage earners with its line of McDonald's inspired clothing and bags.


Priced at £1,000, Moschino's red quilted leather bag is an ode to McDonald’s Happy Meal Box

The designer's creative director Jeremy Scott presented his fall/winter 2014 collection in Milan which paid homage to 90s American brand iconography: Cheetos, Hershey’s, Froot Loops, SpongeBob SquarePants, and McDonald’s - its trademark Golden Arches curved into a heart-shaped 'M for Moschino' motif - were all referenced.

Priced at £1,000, Moschino's red quilted leather bag - an ode to McDonald’s trademark Happy Meal Box - was presented on a tray on the runway.


Balenciaga raised eyebrows in February with its luxury £1,350 handbag which looks like a giant packet of chips

Anya Hindmarch is another designer known for making bags that look like food products.

KP peanuts, Pringles, and well-known cereals Frosties, Coco Pops, and Corn Flakes are among the famous brands that have been turned into tote bags selling for as much as £595.

For those with slimmer budget, New Look has also jumped on the bandwagon and is selling a chocolate bar clutch bag for £6.