[Fatima99]

Man Buys $58k SUV With Stolen ID Then Poses For Instagram Pic



A man who bought a $58,000 SUV using a stolen identity was identified after later posing for an Instagram photo with his new car.

The shameless thief bought a Ford Explorer, before having the photo taken at the dealership, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Police were following up on an ID theft case, which took place last summer.

The Kansas City Police Department posted in the Stolen KC group on Facebook - which is used to track thefts in the community - to appeal to the public for any leads.



But thanks to the suspect posing for a photo with his new prized possession, it was made much easier to track him down than anyone had first thought.

The police department posted: "We're following up on an ID theft case. This suspect used a stolen identity to purchase a $58,000 Explorer from Thoroughbred Ford on July 23, 2020. Thankfully, he took a picture with his new purchase."

The Facebook post was followed by another on Twitter, and it soon became even easier than cops had expected to find the thief, with him being tracked him down within an hour.

And it turns out they are even better at their job than they had realised.

An update on the original post read: "Thank you so much, we have already identified the suspect! Turns out he is in custody already on the Kansas side on different charges."

The Twitter post added: "We'll submit this case for prosecution over here."

The suspect hasn't been named.

It's not the first time a thief has dropped themselves in it on social media.

A man who allegedly nicked an iPhone is now being sought by police after he shared a selfie to his victim's Instagram account.

Sharing his photo on Facebook in 2019, authorities wrote: "Please Like and Share! The Kearny Police Detective Bureau is turning to our Facebook community for assistance in identifying a person of interest in the attached photograph.

"On May 16th a victim reported to the Kearny Police Department that his iPhone had been stolen. Shortly after the theft, a suspect posted the attached photograph of himself on the victim's Instagram story using the stolen device.


"Anyone who can identify the person of interest in this photograph is asked to contact the Kearny Police Detective bureau by e-mailing us at tips@kearnynjpd.org or by calling 201-998-1313 (2833). All tips will remain confidential."

[HogwartsExpress]

Cat jumps from fifth-floor of burning Chicago building, bounces once and runs away



A Chicago cat has survived after jumping out of a fifth-floor window to escape an apartment fire.

Chicago Fire Department personnel were taking a video of the exterior of the building as firefighters were extinguishing the blaze when a black cat appeared through billowing smoke at a broken window. The feline briefly tested the side of the building with its front paws, and then jumped.

Onlookers gasped as the cat fell. But it missed a wall and instead landed on all four paws on a patch of grass, bounced once and ran away.

“It went under my car and hid until she felt better after a couple of minutes and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in,” said fire department spokesman Larry Langford.

The cat was not injured, Langford said, adding he was trying to track down its owner.

No injuries were reported after the fire, which was confined to one apartment. The cause of the fire hasn’t been reported by officials, nor how much damage resulted.

source: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... -runs-away

[BigGlen]

Man kicked 6-year-old girl over Chuck E. Cheese's tokens, police say



ATTLEBORO, Mass. — A Rhode Island man was arrested after he was accused of kicking a 6-year-old girl and knocking her out of his way when she tried to help him pick up tokens he dropped at a Chuck E. Cheese’s in Attleboro.

The little girl and her family spoke exclusively with Boston 25 News’ Malini Basu, but were too scared to show their faces when they told their story.

“I was trying to help him, then he kicked me,” the girl said.

She told Boston 25 News that she’s now too scared to sleep alone.

“It made me have bad dreams at night,” she said.

Police said 53-year-old Daniel Lafayette, of North Smithfield, knocked her out of his way as she was trying to help him pick up his coins after he dropped them. It appears that alcohol was involved!!!!

The girl’s mother said after kicking her out of the way, he then began to curse her out.

“I asked him what he was doing,” she said. “My daughter was trying to help. He said she wasn’t trying to help. She was trying to steal his coins.”

The girl’s father was also at the restaurant and tried to get the manager, who they said was aware of what took place.

He said that, in turn, the manager tipped off Lafayette about police being called.

The family shared exclusive video with Boston 25 News of Lafayette leaving the restaurant before officers arrived.

Boston 25 News went to his Rhode Island home to ask him about what took place, but he demanded the crew leave the scene before an unidentified woman began to scream from inside the home.

Neighbors said police are always being called to his home for various reasons.

Lafayette was charged with assault and battery and was released on $500 bail.

A representative from Chuck E. Cheese’s said they are still investigating.

[prokroustis]

Woman leaves doctor in stitches after self-diagnosing herself with prostate cancer

A woman was left red-faced after requesting a prostate exam from her doctor, as Google told her she might have prostate cancer, only to discover she doesn't actually have a prostate

If you're an anxious person, you might not be able to resist the urge to Google your symptoms when you're feeling a little bit under the weather.

One woman recently did this after having pain in her stomach.

She initially thought she was fine, but after turning to the internet for some advice on her stomach ache, she became concerned that she was suffering with something much more serious.

The woman, named Jenny Pearce, quickly made an appointment with her doctor to discuss her self-diagnosis.

She arrived at the surgery to request a prostate exam as she was worried she might have prostate cancer - but then, much to her surprise, the doctor just started laughing.


Jenny shared the amusing story on TikTok

Jenny recounted her blunder in a video on TikTok under the username @adventure_jenny.

She explained: "Jenny had a stomach ache, but she was fine...

"Jenny wasn't fine. Jenny Googled her symptoms and found she had prostate cancer.

"Jenny actually went to the doctors to ask for tests... The doctor laughed at her because she doesn't have a prostate."

She captioned the post, admitting: "This is actually a true story."

The video quickly went viral, being watched more than one million times and garnering over 89,000 likes.

One person commented: "The curse of what is known was 'Dr Google'."

Another wrote: "Jenny I did the same thing at 18. Doctor almost passed out laughing and then explained I didn't have a prostate."

A third replied: "Google always says we are done for lol."

Someone else proclaimed: "Oh gawd love ya! That made me laugh... but as someone who is on the anxious side, I get it!"

A different user added: "My dad had gas once but called the ambulance because he thought he was dying. He farted it out by the time the ambulance arrived."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-new ... r-24103091

Man Completes Six-Year Mission To Park In All 211 Spaces At Local Sainsbury's



Featured Image Credit: LADbible

Sure, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but did he ever park in every space at the Sainsbury's car park in Bromley? That's the sort of question you can expect Gareth Wild to be asking proudly and rhetorically down his local beer garden.

The 39-year-old embarked on his extremely niche mission to park in all 211 bays at the supermarket six years ago, and this week, at long last, he completed his conquest.

In order to ensure he tackled this unusual and frankly unnecessary challenge as efficiently as possible, the father-of-two used a satellite image to create a grid of the car park, ticking off each completed bay in a spreadsheet.

According to Gareth's calculations, he could have theoretically accomplished the bold feat within four years, given that he visits the supermarket at least 60 times a year. But alas, this flipping pandemic slowed things right down; and to think we've all been feeling sorry for ourselves missing football matches and festivals.

Having completed his magnum opus, Gareth - who is clearly wild by name and nature - went to the effort of grading the spaces for prospective Bromley Sainsbury's car park visitors.

Asked by LADbible if there was ever a point in the six-year challenge where he thought, 'What the f*** am I doing?', the production director at Explosive Alan Productions said: "Every single day, mate. It's just an attempt at making the mundane more entertaining, like a really s*** Panini sticker collection."

Gareth now feels both empty and satisfied, having passed the huge s*** that was this challenge.

He reflected: "I've got to admit I feel pretty empty now that it's completed, it's been a real thrill ride, how are you supposed to replace those levels of adrenaline?

"It was definitely satisfying to put this chapter of my life to bed, it's funny that it's been so well received on social media, I think it taps into something quite British. We love a challenge even if that challenge is spreadsheet-based.

"Radio Felixstowe interviewed me about it which could be the most Alan Partridge thing to ever happen in my life."

A Sainsbury's spokesperson told LADbible: "Gareth has shown some serious car-mmitment!"



https://www.ladbible.com/community/dail ... s-20210427

[Zbignieww]

US Customs Wants Indians To Stop Carrying Cow Dung in Their Luggage
Taking shit to a whole new level.



Cows are no strangers to praise, controversy, and bizarre news in India. The animal is considered sacred by Hindus, and many think cow urine and poop are loaded with benefits. Ministers too have backed these dubious claims by proclaiming that cow milk is yellow because it contains gold or that drinking cow urine cured their cancer.

But now, an Air India airlines passenger has taken shit to the next level. Quite literally.

On April 4, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials found a suitcase left behind with two cow dung cakes at Washington Dulles International Airport. The CBP officials were certainly not amused after finding the restricted items since they carry the risk of foot-and-mouth disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture views it as a “worldwide concern” since the disease can spread rapidly.

“Foot and Mouth Disease is one of the animal diseases that livestock owners dread most, has grave economic consequences, and it is a critical threat focus of Customs and Border Protection’s agriculture protection mission,” said Keith Fleming, acting director of field operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office in a press release. “CBP’s agriculture specialists are our nation’s frontline protectors of vital agricultural and natural resources that help keep our nation’s economy strong and robust.”

The CBP officials destroyed the “cake surprise” as they called it in their release. It is not clear why the passenger brought it abroad but there could be many reasons.

Surprisingly, cow dung is selling like hot cakes in the U.S.. Walmart too has listed cow manure on their website in the gardening section. In 2016, cow urine was being sold in the food aisle in the UK, which led to a backlash.

Cow dung cakes packaged as a product to be used for religious rituals were also sold on Amazon in the United States. Reviews for the product include, “This is NOT a food. Perhaps remove the word ‘Cake’ from the name,” and “This just made our day. It’s impossible to get cow dung/cow dung cake in USA.”

Cow dung is also used in cooking as a fuel in several regions of India. However, burning of cow dung can lead to emission of hazardous gases and the smoke could lead to arsenic poisoning.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in India, some people have taken to using cow dung and cow urine as a cure for the virus — a claim which is not just unverified but also highly irresponsible. Last week, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party encouraged people to drink cow urine to ward off the virus. Doctors, however, have strongly advised against this practice.



“There is no concrete scientific evidence that cow dung or urine work to boost immunity against COVID-19. It is based entirely on belief,” JA Jayalal, national president at the Indian Medical Association, told Reuters.

In 2020, the Indian government called for an initiative inviting research into the byproducts of “pure indigenous cows” like dung, milk, and urine. Over 100 scientists opposed the move and called it complete bullshit.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4avwdq/ ... ndia-covid

[Fivetide]

Free offices with a view: 4 lighthouses, courtesy of feds


In this July 7, 2006, file photograph, fishermen cast on the rocky shore at the Beavertail Lighthouse, the third-oldest lighthouse in America, at the tip of Beavertail State Park, on Narragansett Bay, in Jamestown, R.I. The federal government's General Services Administration announced the U.S. Coast Guard has decided it no longer needs four of the nation's most storied and picturesque lighthouses, including the Beavertail Lighthouse. The government says it'll make the historic lighthouses and their outbuildings available at no cost to federal, state and local agencies; nonprofit organizations; educational and community development agencies; or groups devoted to parks, recreation, culture, or historic preservation. (AP Photo/Stew Milne, File)

Dreading your eventual return to the office? The federal government is making available — for free — some waterfront workspaces with killer views that are sure to entice. But there’s a catch.

The General Services Administration says the U.S. Coast Guard has decided it no longer needs four of the nation’s most picturesque lighthouses, and it’s inviting certain types of organizations to take them over at no cost.

The GSA, which has been getting rid of its large inventory of obsolete lighthouses, said Thursday that Beavertail Lighthouse in Jamestown, Rhode Island — America’s third-oldest lighthouse, and a beacon that defeated British forces torched out of spite in 1779 as they withdrew from the new nation — is up for grabs.

So are Watch Hill Light in Westerly, Rhode Island, not far from Taylor Swift’s beachside mansion; Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light in Ohio; and Duluth Harbor North Pierhead Light in Minnesota.

Conditionally, that is: The government says it’ll make the historic lighthouses and their outbuildings available free of charge to federal, state and local agencies; nonprofit organizations; educational and community development agencies; or groups devoted to parks, recreation, culture, or historic preservation.

Beavertail Light “has been determined to be excess to the needs of the United States Coast Guard,” which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, GSA spokesperson Paul Hughes said in a statement.

Beavertail Light has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1977. The 64-foot (19.5-meter) granite lighthouse faces south where Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound meet, offering drop-dead-gorgeous ocean vistas.

All that remains of the original lighthouse is its foundation; it was constructed in 1749 and burned down by British soldiers leaving the Newport area in 1779. The current lighthouse was built in 1856 along with six additional structures totaling 5,171 square feet (480 square meters.)

Hughes said the government is asking interested groups to formally express their interest in the next 60 days, and the National Park Service will review the applications.

Perched on a peninsula, Watch Hill Light is a three-story granite block tower with a cast iron and glass lantern on top. It’s attached to a two-story brick keepers dwelling built in 1935. Outbuildings on the 4.5-acre complex include an oil house built in 1855-1856.

Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light, built in 1911 to guide ships in Lake Erie approaching the Port of Cleveland, housed a Coast Guard Station until 1976. It’s best known for its annual transformation into a majestic ice castle when winter temperatures freeze the surf that sprays its facade. A sister lighthouse, Cleveland Harbor East Pierhead Light, was sold a few years ago for $10,000.

Duluth Harbor North Pierhead Light, built in 1910 and perched at the westernmost tip of Lake Superior, also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Australian woman finds fish with wedding ring around neck



An Australian woman is hoping to reel in some gold, while also doing something good for the environment.

The woman said in a blog post this week that she was snorkeling in Emily Bay on Norfolk Island, off the eastern coast of Australia, when she came across a fish — a sand mullet — swimming with a gold wedding band lodged around its neck, according to PEOPLE.

Susan Prior had previously seen sand mullets with plastic collars around them, but this was a new development.

“Yesterday, I saw another mullet with a ring collar, but this one looked a shiny metallic gold, with a lot less algal growth compared to the plastic ones,” she said on her blog, according to PEOPLE.

Newsweek reported the ring belonged to a man named Nathan Reeves. He lost the ring last winter.

Prior and others are going to try to capture the fish and get the ring off it soon.

“We all need to remain extra vigilant. And be aware of the consequences of our actions,” Prior wrote on her blog. “Snip those plastic rings, try to keep hair ties in your hair and not let them float away, and don’t drive golf balls into beautiful Emily. She doesn’t need them.”

https://torontosun.com/news/weird/austr ... round-neck

[goldie0608]

After researchers implanted microchips into his brain, a paralyzed man was able to write with his mind



A man who lost all movement below the neck after a spinal cord injury in 2007 was finally able to write again – with his mind.

Stanford University researchers used artificial intelligence software and a brain-computer interface to help the man with immobilized limbs to communicate by text, according to a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

Dr. Jaimie Henderson, professor of neurosurgery at Stanford, implanted two microchips the size of baby aspirin about 1 millimeter into the man’s brain in 2017. The chips have electrodes that record neurons in the motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls hand movement.

When the man imagined he was using his hand to write on a notepad, the computer converted his thoughts into text on a computer screen.

“This approach allowed a person with paralysis to compose sentences at speeds nearly comparable to those of able-bodied adults of the same age typing on a smartphone,” Henderson said. “The goal is to restore the ability to communicate by text.”

The man – referred to in the study only as T5 – texted at a rate of about 18 words per minute. A person of the same age with full use of their hands can text an average of 23 words per minute on a smartphone.

His error rate was about one mistake every 18 or 19 attempted characters. When researchers used an autocorrect function, similar to most smartphones, error rates plummeted below 1% when he was asked to copy text and slightly more than 2% when he was asked to write something original.

“It’s exciting to improve the speed of these kinds of devices to approach a level where I think it could be very useful for someone who’s severely paralyzed,” said Dr. Frank Willett, study author and neuroscientist at Stanford. “It’s comparable to writing on a notepad or typing on a smartphone.”

Study authors are excited not only about the breakthrough technology but about what their discovery means for future research.

Until now, scientists weren’t sure how long a person could retain motor skills without putting them into practice.

“We had no idea someone who had never moved his hands for 10 years, if you asked him to write, what his brain would do,” Willett said. “It shows these fine dexterous (movements) still evoke rich patterns of brain activity that we can use.”

Researchers hope the technology could be adapted to allow people who can't talk to simulate conversation through writing.

“While handwriting can approach 20 words per minute, we tend to speak around 125 words per minute, and this is another exciting direction that complements handwriting,” said Krishna Shenoy, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.

More work needs to be done before the study’s results can be successfully transferred into real-world applications such as a tablet, smartphone or computer.

“The immediate next step would be refining and streamlining the algorithm, so it’s easier to get up and running quickly,” Willett said. “Every brain is unique, and you get different neurons that do different things, so there’s always a calibration.”

[PennySerenade]

ActiveTO returns to Lake Shore Boulevard West this weekend


A group of runners run along Lake Shore Blvd. East as road closures come into effect
for the return of the ActiveTO program in Toronto

TORONTO -- Pedestrians and cyclists will be able to take over Lake Shore Boulevard West this weekend as ActiveTO returns to the major artery in the city.

ActiveTO launched last spring and closed major roads to allow pedestrians and cyclists more room to exercise while physically distancing outdoors.

The program returned to Toronto on May 1 but this weekend will be the first where Lake Shore Boulevard West is shut down.

This weekend, road closures will also be in place along Lake Shore Boulevard East, Bayview Avenue and in High Park.

The following closures will be in place from Saturday, May 15 at 6 a.m. until Sunday, May 16 at 9 p.m:

Lake Shore Boulevard West (eastbound lanes only), between Windermere Avenue and Stadium Road
Lake Shore Boulevard East (eastbound lanes only), between Leslie Street and Woodbine Avenue
Bayview Avenue, between Front Street East and Rosedale Valley Road, as well as River Street between Bayview Avenue and Spruce Street, Roads through High Park remain closed to vehicle traffic each weekend to allow people to explore the park while practising physical distancing from Friday at approximately 11 p.m. until Monday at 7 a.m.

“By opening Lake Shore Boulevard West this weekend for people to be active, the City is taking advantage of lower than usual traffic volumes while the provincial Stay-at-Home order is in effect,” city officials said in a press release on Wednesday.

The provincewide stay-at-home order went into effect on Apr. 8 and is set to expire on May 20 June 2.

Residents are urged to stay home unless they have to leave for essential reasons, including going to work, medical appointments, buying groceries and exercising.

City staff said they are planning an ActiveTO weekend road closure on Allen Road on June 5 and are reviewing possible weekend closures along Black Creek Drive and roads within the Exhibition Place.

Last summer, an average of 18,000 cyclists and 4,000 pedestrians participated in ActiveTO on Lake Shore Boulevard West on days without significant rainfall, according to city data.

I got my biked tuned up!

[lush]

Fans of ice cream inspired during stay-at-home, drive up demand – line up by the hundreds
Published: 9:20 PM CDT March 28, 2021 | Updated: 10:25 PM CDT March 28, 2021*

Zach Vraa experimented with flavors during stay-at-home, then launched A to Z Creamery

[click here to play video]


ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — It’s a good day for Katy Dow.

“I'm really early today,” Katy says, standing alone, occasionally checking her phone, on a sidewalk in St. Louis Park.

She won’t be by herself for long.

Heather Hancock walks up with her son Oliver. “I'm like ‘We won, Oliver!’ We got it!” Heather laughs, happily standing, like Katy, on the concrete.

Within minutes, the line extends up Excelsior Boulevard and around the corner.

One woman says she’d “stand in line for an hour” if she had to.

What enticement could possibly be prompting this expanding queue at 4:15 p.m. on a Thursday?

Free $100 bills? All-ages COVID vaccine?

“My mom getting me an ice cream machine for my birthday, honestly,” Zach Vraa laughs.



Zach was like a lot of other folks at the start of the pandemic, working his sales job from home.

But the 29-year-old was also experimenting with his birthday gift.

On a whim, Zach posted on Instagram a photo of one of his first creations – ice cream made with Lucky Charms breakfast cereal, complete with colored marshmallows and black cherry frosting swirl.

Other posts followed.

And when Zach’s followers started asking if they could buy creations like Funfetti with blondies and sprinkles, the ice cream hobbyist brushed off the inquires.

But not for long.

“I would post it on my page, say, 'I have 10 pints available,’" Zach recalls. “I would have 100 people messaging me. That's when I kind of figured out, ‘Wow, I need to start doing this full scale in a full commercial kitchen.’”

Now, Zach is doing exactly that – under the brand A to Z Creamery – making ice cream in rented commercial kitchen space, while still experimenting with frozen concoctions like Everything Bagel with garlic cream cheese swirl.



Zach makes his ice cream base from scratch. Same for his toppings. For a recent variety called “7 Minutes in Heaven," Zach baked 13 pans of seven-layer bars he cut up and generously mixed into a salted caramel ice cream.

“I did a flavor over the state fair that was pronto pup,” Zach says. “It was pancake batter ice cream with candied hotdogs and a mustard and ketchup swirl.”

Don’t scoff.

Those 10 pints Zach first offered for sale, have blossomed to 300 a week, with demand for Zach’s $12 pints often ten times his supply.

He offers one flavor a week – no repeats – teased in a video posted on the A to Z Creamery Instagram page. The flavor is formally announced with an artful photo the day it goes on sale.



Zach’s customers don’t stray far from their phones and laptops when a flavor is about to drop.

Some 300 pints of “7 Minutes in Heaven” sold out on his website in one minute – the norm these days when Zach posts a new flavor.

“Isn’t that insane?” Zach asks, as he watches the barrage of orders suddenly filling his laptop screen. “I still get butterflies in my stomach.”

Gastric butterflies are nothing new to Zach.

Before he made ice cream, Zack was setting football receiving records for North Dakota State University.

The former Rosemount High School standout and Minnesota’s 2009 “Mr. Football” possesses something few can claim: five NCAA national championship rings earned from 2011 through 2015 while playing with the NDSU Bison.

“If I can be part of a team that wins five national championships, I think I can be part of a successful ice cream business,” Zach says, smiling.



As in football, Zach runs his business with precision.

All successful buyers have a 15-minute window to pick up their ice cream, the reason for the block-long line up Excelsior Boulevard.

At 4:30, the door to the commercial kitchen swings open and Zach emerges with a large chest cooler packed with ice cream pints.

It’s doubtful anyone in line knows of his gridiron dominance. He’s just the guy that makes the ice cream they pursue.

Rachel Starkman gives Zach her order number, then collects six pints – more than $70 worth of ice cream – she’ll share with co-workers.



“Stoked, ready to try it,” she says. “He makes literally the best ice cream I've ever had.”

Zach keeps small talk to a minimum. The line is long, and people have been waiting.

“Every time I open the door and see the line wrapping around the corner, it's a feeling that never gets old,” he says.

Zach has expansion plans, bigger ice cream machine, new delivery channels – maybe even a run someday at nationwide distribution.

The former college football star is lining up a cool second half.

[hija]

Thinking outside the ring box: cutting waste



Repurposing is one thing, but what about waste within the industry itself? Offcuts, packaging and transport all add up. One solution comes from Aussie–NZ collaboration Luna & Rose, which says it has achieved an entirely closed-loop production process. All offcuts, as well as unsold items and samples, get melted down and reused – nothing goes to landfill.

In what Austrian firm Boltenstern claims to be a fine jewellery first, 3D printing provides the precision needed to use only the exact materials required and avoids overproduction, by printing pieces to order.

Packaging is also seeing a shake-up. Most jewellery boxes consist of multiple materials, making recycling near impossible. UK brand Yala uses only FSC-certified wood and undyed wool felt to protect its jewellery en route, while Finnish jewellers Ilonakoru have designed a made-to-last box using a biocomposite alternative to plastic. At Elements Jewellery in Australia even their postal packaging is fully compostable.

Talking of looking at the whole picture, Emma Aitchison in Bristol is creating an entirely zero waste jewellery business. “I have begun unpicking every aspect of my brand, from who we bank with to web hosting,” says Aitchison. The studio and all of its suppliers use renewable energy tariffs, and carbon-neutral shipping is being considered.

[JohnDoe0002]

Mind-boggling magnets could unlock plentiful power

"It's every engineer's dream really, to have a project that's technically challenging, which requires you to develop new technology and solutions to hard problems, but that are also simultaneously important for the world to have."

Since finishing his research at Oxford University five years ago, he has been working for Tokamak Energy, a UK start-up that has plans to build a fusion reactor.

Fusion is the reaction that powers the Sun and the stars. If that power could be harnessed on Earth it would provide a plentiful source of energy, from only a tiny amount of fuel and producing no carbon dioxide. What's not to love?

The principle is easy enough to understand. Take hydrogen atoms, add enough heat and pressure and they will fuse together to form helium. During that process some of the hydrogen mass is transformed into heat, which you can use to make electricity.

The catch is that to make fusion happen here on Earth, you have to heat hydrogen isotopes to hundreds of millions of degrees, until they become so energetic they break apart into a whirling state of matter called plasma.

The challenge has always been to contain that plasma. Stars do it with gravity, but on Earth the most common method is to use powerful magnetic fields to keep the plasma confined.

Much of the engineering challenge has come down to building magnets. They have to be powerful enough to contain an insanely hot, whirling mass of matter, but not use so much electricity that your reactor uses more power than it generates.

Later this year Dr Bob Mumgaard and his team at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) will test a ground-breaking magnet that they say can make that leap forward.

Weighing 10 tonnes, the D-shaped magnet is big enough for a person to step through. Around 300km of a very special electromagnetic tape is wound into that D-shape.

The tape itself is a feat of engineering that has taken decades to develop. Thin layers of superconducting rare-earth barium copper oxide (ReBCO) are deposited on a metal tape. When cooled that bundle of tape can conduct electricity extremely efficiently, which is essential as 40,000 amps will pass through it, enough electricity to power a small town.

When the fusion industry says cooled it means the tape is chilled to minus 253C, which might sound absurdly cold to you, but in the world of superconducting materials is actually rather warm.

"It means the refrigerator that we're using is like a refrigerator that could fit in your kitchen," says Dr Mumgaard, who co-founded CFS and is the chief executive.

"The same thing with the previous generation of technology... would need a refrigerator that's the size of your house."

CFS is planning a reactor that will house 18 of those magnets, arranged in a ring - a set-up known as a tokamak - and has recently selected a site for the reactor in Massachusetts.

"We were the first to really get this magnet beyond just a tabletop, R&D [reseach and development] scale that people had done at some smaller companies and some national labs.

"We're all at the scale now where it's what you need to build fusion machines. You don't have to go up from something that is sort of a toy scale to something that is at fusion scale," Dr Mumgaard says.

The leap forward in magnet technology is also central to the fusion project at Tokamak Energy in the UK.

Dr Brittles has spent the last five years developing that technology and is currently helping to build a demonstrator that will have a series of powerful magnets working together.

"It will be an assembly of many, many coils generating forces that are all interacting and pulling on one another forming a balanced set. This has to be controlled or the forces could become imbalanced," he explains.

The forces that such magnetic fields can generate are mind-boggling. When operating at full power, Dr Brittles likens the force generated by his magnets to double the pressure at the bottom of the deepest ocean trench.

When those magnets are ready, they will go into a spherical tokamak - an apple-shaped fusion reactor.

Research suggests such a design will generate more energy for each unit of power it uses, than the more commonly used doughnut-shaped tokamak - the design that CFS and others are using.

"The real challenge is commercial fusion. And that's really what's driving us, why we're focusing on the spherical tokamak because of the long-term commercial advantages," says Dr David Kingham, one of the founders of Tokamak Energy and currently executive vice chairman.


Source

[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
SATURDAY MAY 15
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.

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IN OTHER NEWS

[goldie0608]

TV reporter covering kidnapped puppy story spots it and busts perpetrator herself



While a news anchor in Boston was reporting on a dog that was stolen from his owner inside of a parked car, last week, the reporter spotted the identical dog and the suspect.

Juliana Mazza of 7NEWS, an independent television station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, solved the case of the missing dog, Insider Edition reported.

The dog, Titus, a 13-month-old German shorthaired pointer, was being walked by the alleged dognapper as Mazza and her crew were standing in the parking lot where the alleged crime took place.

She decided to confront the masked suspect by pretending to be none the wiser, and then she checked the dog’s collar to confirm her suspicion, then she asked the dognapper a series of tough questions on camera to put him in hot water.

Her questions managed to back the suspect in a corner and gave Mazzo enough time to notify the authorities.

The suspect's name is Kyle Gariepy, whose profile on LinkedIn says his latest job is a researcher and developer for a company called Ginseng Up. According to Insider Edition the alleged dognapper is wearing the same clothes shown in the security footage.

“He said he was supposed to be walking a dog and he somehow grabbed the wrong,” Mazzo told Insider Edition. “Twenty-four hours have gone by and he never once tried to call the police or try to call the dog’s owner, whose number is on the back of the dog tag.”

Titus was also returned to his rightful owner, Greg Siesczkiewicz.