[hija]

A ‘forest’ has sprung up in an unlikely location in London



Traditionally, London’s Somerset House has operated a strict no trees policy. If it had leaves, it wasn’t allowed in – those were the rules, as laid out by the building’s founders.

However, in what amounts to a remarkable u-turn, the venue has become the unlikely location for a 400-tree forest, which has sprung up in the Neoclassical courtyard for the month of June.

The forest is the centrepiece for this year’s London Design Biennale. The event seeks to highlight the role that design can play in building a more resilient and inclusive future in a world impacted by climate change and inequality. It runs until 27 June.

Es Devlin, the biennale’s artistic director, came up with the idea for the forest after learning about Somerset House’s no trees policy.

“When I was first shown around Somerset House many years ago, I discovered that the Enlightenment principles on which the building was conceived, specifically forbade the introduction of trees into the courtyard,” she said.

“Of course, the first thing we wanted to do when considering this year’s biennale was to counter this attitude of human dominance over nature, by allowing a forest to overtake the entire courtyard.”

In literature, Devlin noted, forests are often depicted as places of transformation: the forest of Arden in Shakespeare, the enchanted forests of the Brothers Grimm. She had the same vision for the Forest of Change, which contains a clearing where visitors can learn about the UN’s sustainable development goals: global targets that seek to transform the world into a fairer, safer and more sustainable place.

However, it’s Design in An Age of Crisis that offers perhaps the greatest scope for inspiration. The exhibition showcases potential solutions to pressing global problems, as submitted by designers all over the world.

Sir John Sorrell CBE, president of the London Design Biennale, said: “Great design ideas can help change things for the better, inspire people and give them hope for the future – never more needed than now. The London Design Biennale will present inspired thinking from across the world in a unique exhibition designed to entertain, inform and spark action.”

[goldie0608]

Dog ejected from vehicle in Idaho crash found two days later herding sheep



Tilly the dog has had a chaotic few days.

At 11:55 a.m. Sunday, Linda Oswald’s family was driving along Idaho State Highway 41 with their dog in the back of their GMC Yukon when they collided with another car.

The crash shattered the Yukon’s rear window and flung Tilly through the opening. He survived the ejection unharmed but stunned, and took flight across the prairie south of Rathdrum instead of hanging around at the crash.

The story could have ended there, with a confused and lost Tilly roaming North Idaho. But late Tuesday morning, Tilly returned to the Oswald family home unharmed and spent most of the day curled up and asleep on his favorite couch.

Oswald is ecstatic to have found Tilly. She says if it weren’t for a locally viral Facebook post and the help of some farmers, he’d still be out there, alone.

A serious search party

The hunt for Tilly began before the dust settled after the crash. Oswald says a nurse came up to her family’s vehicle to see if everyone was alright and told Oswald to stay in the car. Oswald didn’t heed that advice. She said she had to look for Tilly.

A half-dozen complete strangers, who pulled over when they saw the crash, helped look for Tilly, too. They fanned out, scouring the area near the crash site.

“People just kept going out,” Oswald said, “2:30 in the morning some people were out looking for him.”

For about 10 hours on Sunday, the Oswalds searched before heading home.

“We were sore and exhausted,” Oswald said.

The first day of searching was fruitless, but the family also wrote a Facebook post that included a picture of Tilly.

More than 3,000 people shared that post. Thousands of people in Kootenai County had their eyes peeled for the 2 1/2-year-old border collie and red heeler mix.

Following his instincts

On Tuesday morning, at the Potter family’s farm south of Rathdrum, Tyler Potter told her brother Travis Potter something odd.

Hooey, one of the family’s Australian shepherds, looked funny today, Tyler Potter said. His red fur looked darker than usual.

At the time, Travis Potter didn’t think too much of it.

But a little while later, Travis’ brother Zane had another odd experience when he tried to call Hooey.

“Hooey really comes right away when you call him, and this dog put its ears back and started running off,” Travis Potter said.

Zane Potter knew something wasn’t right. He took a closer look at the dog and realized its coat wasn’t the same as Hooey’s.

It was Tilly.

Thanks to the social media post, the Potters knew Tilly. Even their grandmother, who lives in California, had seen the post and told them to look out for the dog. The Potters knew the crash had happened just 1.5 miles from their farm.

“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, where’d this dog come from, how did it get here?’” Travis Potter said.

Moments after Zane Potter found Tilly, a Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office deputy drove by. He was searching for the dog, too.

So the Potters didn’t even have to make a call after finding Tilly; they were able to simply hand him off to the deputy who had arrived right at the moment of discovery. Tilly’s story was an extraordinary one, but Travis Potter said his family is accustomed to strange happenings on the farm.

They’ve had two helicopters land in their pasture – one to LifeFlight someone seriously injured in a nearby crash and another that had to land after catching on fire.

“It’s not like we don’t see crazy things happening all the time,” Travis Potter said.

Both the Potters and Oswald think Tilly was drawn to the farm and their sheep.

Travis Potter said he got a call the morning his brother found Tilly. Some of the family’s sheep had gotten out of the fenced-in pasture and were near the road.

Tilly probably chased the sheep out.

“I think that dog was trying to herd,” Travis Potter said.

Oswald said she doesn’t just think Tilly was trying to herd; she’s sure of it.

“He’ll herd anything,” Oswald said. “When I go to the dog park, he tries to herd the people into one group.”

The reunion

Tilly’s adventure came to an end on Tuesday morning at around 11 a.m. Oswald ran out to see him as soon as her husband, Mike, drove up with him.

“(Tilly) was not having it,” Oswald said. “I think he was a little upset, like, ‘Hey, you guys left me out on that prairie for 48 hours.’”

And then Tilly did what any dog would do after a stressful two days on his own.

“The first thing is he ran in and drank out of the toilet, which he’s never done,” Oswald said. “He was so thirsty.”

The rest of Tilly’s Tuesday was uneventful. He ate and slept like a dog.

Oswald said she’s extremely grateful for all the people who helped find Tilly. It was a rough couple days for her and her family. They spent much of their time continuously searching.

“I just cried every day,” Oswald said. “It was ridiculous, but you get so emotional over your pets.”

She thinks the pandemic, and all the social isolation it has caused, is part of the reason so many people were willing to pitch in.

“All of a sudden, I think people saw a time to really jump out and help, even if it was just a small thing like finding a dog,” Oswald said. “There’s a lot of kind people out there.”

[lush]

World’s 5th Ocean Now Officially Recognized by National Geographic

The so-named Southern Ocean contains one of the world's most influential marine currents.
Published 9 June 2021*


Image via CIA World Factbook

Four oceans or five? It's #WorldOceansDay and National Geographic is making a change to recognize the Southern Ocean as a fifth official ocean in our atlases and maps! https://t.co/HSHRUAyWuE

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) June 8, 2021

National Geographic Society’s map policy committee noted that it had been considering the change for years and made the decision to move forward after observing scientists and the press increasingly use the term the Southern Ocean.

One global ocean makes up 97% of saltwater on the planet, but it is divided into regions geologically influenced by the terrestrial or marine characteristics that surround it. While National Geographic and several other U.S. institutions now recognize the Southern Ocean as the fifth, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) — which oversees all aspects of global activities that involve the sea — officially only recognizes four: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans.

Stretching slightly more than twice the size of the U.S. at more than 7.8 million square miles, the Southern Ocean directly surrounds Antarctica and stretches from the southern continent’s coastline to 60 miles south latitude. Its icy waters are influenced by currents and temperatures held within and couch three of the four other oceans, excluding the Arctic. Boundaries for the marine region were proposed to the IHO in 2000 but it has yet to be ratified at an international level.

“We oceanographers define the Southern Ocean by its physical characteristics but government entities define oceans differently,” wrote Lynne Talley, a physical oceanographer for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “In 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization, which oversees the charting of the world’s oceans, defined the Southern Ocean as all the ocean regions found south of 60 degrees South, which is more or less where sea ice is found, but has yet to endorse that definition because of disagreement whether that is the best way to define it.”

But that definition does not include the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), a vital marine system that scientists at the University of Florida describe as the most important current in the Southern Ocean and the only current that flows completely around the globe. Nor does the above definition include a narrow space between South America and Antarctica known as the Drake Passage, which the ACC circulates through. ACC flows west to east around the icy continent, where waters are colder and less salty than ocean waters to the north, and transports more water than any other ocean current, according to the University of Florida.


Southern Ocean map showing the extent of the Ocean — up to 60 degrees south latitude — surrounding Antarctica. CIA World Factbook

But some countries, including the U.S., and institutions like the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, have officially adopted the Southern, or Antarctic, as the fifth ocean, according to National Ocean Service. And though IHO has not officially agreed on a name or the boundaries of the proposed Southern Ocean, the recognition by National Geographic may change that.

“National Geographic is an important global source for the latest geographic knowledge, so without an official determination from IHO, we are updating our oceans list based on the science and conventional acceptance of the Southern Ocean,” wrote Alex Tait, a geographer for National Geographic, in a Twitter thread.

Just as its waters are vital in the transport of nutrients, the World Wildlife Foundation described the Southern Ocean as an environmentally valuable region and one of the geologically youngest oceans having formed just 30 million years ago. Average depths reach between 13,000 and 16,000 feet.

The ecological boundary follows a “sinuous line” around Antarctica called the “Antarctic Convergence,” or polar front. The ACC is described by the U.S. Department of State as a “biological and geographical boundary where cold northerly moving waters meet warmer subtropical, southerly moving waters” to create an “effective barrier” to some marine species like toothfish and krill.
“Both ACC and Drake Passage are crucial to the dynamics of the Southern Ocean,” added Talley. “There is also an agreement called the International Antarctic Treaty that sets aside all of the Southern Ocean south of 60 degrees South and Antarctica itself for cooperative scientific investigation.”

Woman finds rare, 19th century porcelain doll on Scottish beach

The doll is a Frozen Charlotte, based on a 19th-century folk tale



A woman in Scotland recently found a treasure at least 100 years old on her local beach.

Nikki Halkerston, 45, from Dundee, Scotland, was looking for sea glass, pottery and shells on Broughty Ferry Beach on Thursday when she saw a small, one-inch porcelain doll.

"I was just looking for a certain type of shell and it caught my eye and I just thought 'oh wow'!" Halkerston told SWNS.

"There wasn't a mark on it, it wasn't even dirty or chipped and it's probably been in the sea for years and years," she added. "I was really shocked and surprised. My husband was with me and helps me with glass and shells but I told him I'd found a Frozen Charlotte and he was like 'what?'"

According to SWNS, the doll is called a Frozen Charlotte, which is based on a 19th-century American folk tale about a woman who refuses to dress warmly on her trip to a New Year’s Eve ball -- despite her mother’s wishes -- and freezes to death on the 20-mile journey.

According to The Washington Post, the dolls were originally just supposed to be bath toys imported from Germany, but because they "resembled small, white corpses," Americans called them Frozen Charlottes after the folk story.

SWNS reported that the dolls were made between 1850 and 1920.

Halkerston said that though she knew the dolls were called Frozen Charlottes, she didn’t realize at first how special her find was until she posted a picture online.

"I got about 450 people saying 'wow that's amazing' and it's really rare to find them in one piece like that, usually they're broken and you find a head or an arm," Halkerston told SWNS. "You find all sorts of things but this is my favorite and probably the rarest find from what I can see of the reaction for people who do it all the time."

According to SWNS, other people said the Frozen Charlotte was a "bucket list" find and someone else told Halkerston that they would trade their sea glass collection for the doll.

SWNS reported that today, Frozen Charlotte dolls sell for between about $21.23 USD (£15) and $141.54 USD (£100), though Halkerston thinks her find is on the higher end, since it’s in such good condition.
However, her daughter Melissa likes the doll, so Halkerston said she planned to keep it.

"I was thinking at first I was going to sell it but now I know it's so unique I wouldn't, I think I would keep it," Halkerston said. "I think it's amazing it's lived through that amount of time in such good condition."

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/woman-finds-rare-doll-scottish-beach

[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 JUNE 10
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)
2:00 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

[prokroustis]

Dog owner treats pooches to paddling pool - but it doesn't go to plan

Some may say water is like marmite to dogs - they either love it or they hate it. Turns out, some dogs can change their mind depending on what vessel the water is in


Paddling pools aren't for all dogs...

A dog owner has revealed what happened when she bought a doggy paddling pool for her pooches to splash around in - and it didn't end well.

Some may say water is like marmite to dogs - they either love it or they hate it. But they can change their minds depending on what vessel the water comes in.

Writer Bethan decided to give a water pit a whirl with her American Bulldog/Staffy dogs Phoebe and Frank.

Usually, the sea is a big nope for them, but streams get a paws up. She even struggles to get them into the bath without peanut butter.

And dog Frank won’t drink his water from his bowl if it’s above 13 degrees celsius, but Bethan says the hose pipe and watering can both get tails wagging.

Nonetheless, Bethan decided to try a doggy paddling pool. She ordered the Chad Valley water and sand pit from Argos for £20.

She said: "It’s really two pools, because you get two halves which you can store on top of each other.

"They’re roughly a metre square, so the perfect size for our American Bulldog/Staffy crosses.


Frank enjoyed the treats Bethan threw in the pool to try and entice him in

"We filled the pool with the hosepipe, with both Phoebe and Frank watching very intently from the edge.

"They were keen to chase the water spurting from the hose, which has always been a favourite pastime."

But once the paddling pool was filled and left to warm up in the sun the dogs had absolutely no interest in taking a dip.

Bethan continued: "In a bid to tempt them, I threw a handful of treats into the pool, which Frank craned his neck to reach rather than placing a paw into the tepid water.

"Some of the treats sank to the bottom of the pool, and the pooch even went so far as to snorkel to get them - but still wouldn’t get into the paddling pool.

"I rolled up my trousers and hopped in myself, splashing the water to see if I could entice them, but to no avail. I had no other choice but to lift 25kg Frank into the pool where he stood frozen still unsure of what to do."

Once in the water, the dog didn’t seem to hate it and wasn’t in a rush to escape, but also wasn’t exactly the picture of a perfectly happy pooch enjoying a paddle.

Bethan says Phoebe still won’t even go near the pool for love nor money (nor treats or toys).

"We’ve tried launching her favourite toy across the garden and into the pool, we’ve tried throwing in treats - but there’s no hope of catching her to place her in.

"I guess I knew buying the dogs a paddling pool was a gamble, but I’m still hopeful that as the weather warms up, they’ll take refuge in the cool water and learn to love it. If not, I’m sure I will."

[Fatima99]

Solar eclipse 2021: ‘Ring of fire’ to sweep across the Earth



It's celestial showtime on Thursday as much of the Northern Hemisphere gets to witness a solar eclipse.

This particular event is what's termed an annular eclipse. It will see the Moon move across the face of our star but not completely block out the light coming from it.

Instead, there will be just a thin sliver of brilliance left to shine around the Sun's disc.

The best of the action will be in the Arctic.

Yes, not many people live there, but a good portion of the globe will still get treated to a partial eclipse where the Moon appears to take a big bite out of the Sun.

This will include the eastern United States and northern Alaska, along with much of Canada, Greenland, and parts of Europe and Asia.

In the UK, the most favourable place to watch, in terms of the percentage of the Sun's disc that gets covered up, will be in Scotland - somewhere like Lerwick in the Shetland Islands (11:27 BST), or Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis (11:18 BST)

These places will see about 40% of the Sun eclipsed.

But even down south, in London (11:13 BST) for example, 20% of the star will be covered over.



As ever, the advice is not to try to look at the Sun with the naked eye. This can do severe damage.

Anyone gazing skyward should only do so with the aid of protective viewing equipment, such as approved eclipse glasses or a pinhole projector.

Better still, attend an organised event. Local astronomy clubs will be out in force to show people how to view the eclipse safely.

There's some good advice here from BBC Sky At Night magazine and the Royal Astronomical Society and the Society for Popular Astronomy.

The so called "path of annularity" - the track across the Earth's surface where the Moon sits entirely within the Sun's disc to give the greatest spectacle - begins at sunrise in Ontario, Canada, at 09:49 GMT (10:49 BST).

It then sweeps across the top of the globe, including over the North Pole, to eventually reach Russia's Far East and lift off the planet at sunset at 11:33 GMT (12:33 BST).
The place which enjoys the greatest duration eclipse - at almost four minutes in length - is in the middle of the Nares Strait, the narrow channel that divides the Canadian archipelago from Greenland.

There'll be few there, however, to see 90% of the Sun's disc being blocked out. Perhaps only the odd walrus or two on an ice floe.



Not every eclipse can be total. The Moon's orbit around the Earth is not perfectly round; the satellite's distance from the planet varies from about 356,500km to 406,700km (221,500 to 252,700 miles).

This difference makes the Moon's apparent size in the sky fluctuate by about 13%.

If the Moon happens to eclipse the Sun on the near side of its orbit, it totally blocks out the star (a total eclipse). But if the Moon eclipses the Sun on the far side of its orbit, as now, the satellite will not completely obscure the star's disc - and a "ring of fire" or annulus of sunlight is seen.

But no less wonderful.

"An eclipse gives us an opportunity to connect with the Sun," said Prof Lucie Green from the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

"Normally, our star is so dazzlingly bright we kind of don't pay it much attention. But during an eclipse of one form or another, we're able - if we look safely - to watch the Moon glide in front of the Sun and remind ourselves of this clockwork Solar System we live in," she told BBC News.

Colorado records first litter of gray wolf pups since 1940s

Wed 9 Jun 2021 20.26 BST

Colorado has its first litter of gray wolf pups since the 1940s, state wildlife officials said on Wednesday.

A state biologist and district wildlife manager both spotted the litter of at least three wolf pups over the weekend with their parents, two adult wolves known to live in the state. Most wolf litters have four to six pups, so there could be more.

The discovery comes after Colorado voters narrowly approved a ballot measure last year that requires the state to reintroduce the animal on public lands in the western part of the state by the end of 2023.

Gray wolves lost their federal protected status as an endangered species earlier this year. But they remain protected at the state level, and hunting the animals in Colorado is illegal. Penalties for violations include fines, jail time and a loss of hunting license privileges.

“These pups will have plenty of potential mates when they grow up to start their own families,” Polis said in a statement.

Wildlife advocates see reintroduction in Colorado as a vital step in restoring the wolf more quickly to habitat stretching from the Canada to the Mexico border. Wolves were reintroduced in the northern Rockies in the 1990s, and about 3,000 of the animals now roam portions of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and northern California.

A remnant population in the western Great Lakes region has expanded to about 4,400 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

[ozswede]

Stubborn Viking Leader Refuses to Wear a Helmet in an Amusing PSA for the Danish Road Safety Council

The Danish Road Safety Council worked with the Copenhagen creative ad company &Co to create a very amusing public service announcement about the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a bicycle. Or in this case, a horse. The short fun film titled “Helmets have always been a good idea”, pokes fun at the logic cyclists use for not wearing a helmet but takes place long before the invention of the bicycle.



The video starts with the setting: Denmark in the year 893, as a group of Vikings are corralling, getting ready to set sail. The ad hearkens back to the country’s Viking origins in which a stubborn hersir named Svend refuses to put on a helmet before he and his men go off to conquer England, despite the adamant suggestion of his second-in-command. Svend’s humble son then rushes over to give his father the headgear but the Viking still refuses, stating that it makes him feel foolish, makes his scalp itch, and ruins his braids.

So what do I do when I get there? Run around England wearing a silly helmet? It’s annoying, it makes my scalp itch. I’m not the type who wears a helmet. I’m a careful rider.

It’s only when his wife, with a baby in her arms, insists that he finally relents.

Svend, you can go looting and pillaging all you want, but you have to wear a helmet.

In Denmark, there are no laws requiring cyclists to wear a helmet. The Danish Cyclists’ Federation recommends that cyclists wear helmets but it is “against helmet compulsion.” The federation says that a helmet protects the individual cyclist in case of an accident, but “making the helmet mandatory could devastate the Danish bicycle culture. ”

“We think it is common sense for cyclists to wear helmets,” says a statement on helmet wear by the Danish Cyclists’ Federation.

The amusing Game of Thrones-like video can be seen on youtube HERE (no idea how to imbed it)
(Video has English subtitles)



Source

[Fivetide]

Archaeologists dig hilltop over Plymouth Rock one last time


University of Massachusetts Boston graduate students Sean Fairweather, of Watertown, Mass., left, and Alex Patterson, of Quincy, Mass., right, use measuring instruments while mapping an excavation site, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, on Cole's Hill, in Plymouth, Mass. The archaeologists are part of a team excavating the grassy hilltop that overlooks iconic Plymouth Rock one last time before a historical park is built on the site. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Archaeologists are giving a grassy hilltop overlooking iconic Plymouth Rock one last look before a historical park is built to commemorate the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people who once called it home.

Braving sweltering heat, a team of about 20 graduate students enrolled in a masters program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston began excavating an undeveloped lot on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, this week.

The National Historic Landmark site — which contains the first cemetery used by the Pilgrims after they arrived from England in 1620 and was a Wampanoag village for thousands of years before that — has been poked and prodded numerous times over the past century.

But now, as historical organizations reboot pandemic-stalled plans to construct a permanent memorial they’re calling Remembrance Park, this could be the last chance to mine the soil for Native and colonial artifacts.

“Cole’s Hill is among the most sacred land we’ve got,” said Donna Curtin, executive director of the Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum, which owns the tract. “We want to make it more than just a grassy, empty lot. We want to engage people. And the archaeology is deeply wedded to the site.”

David Landon of UMass-Boston’s Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, who’s leading the effort, said he’s confident his team will recover items of interest from the site.

“You don’t always get the opportunity to do work at sites that are so significant,” he said. “We know we’re going to find stuff — there’s no question about that. Anytime you start digging in Plymouth, you find interesting stuff.”

Less than 48 hours into the excavation, which is scheduled to run through July 1, the team recovered what Landon calls “the debris of daily life”: a few Wampanoag artifacts, broken pieces of 1800s pottery, and the bones of cows and pigs — leftovers of a colonist’s dinner.

There are hopes for more. A few small homes once stood on the area where they’re digging, including an early 1700s mariner’s house.

To be built atop the hill overlooking Plymouth’s waterfront, Remembrance Park originally was conceived to mark 2020′s 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim’s 1620 arrival, the founding of Plymouth Colony and the settlers’ historic interactions with the Wampanoag people. But then the coronavirus pandemic hit, idling many commemoration events as well as construction.

The newly reimagined park will highlight three periods of epic historical challenge: The Great Dying of 1616-19, when deadly disease brought by other Europeans severely afflicted the Wampanoag people; the first winter of 1620-21, when half of the Mayflower colonists perished of contagious sickness; and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

Linda Coombs, a Wampanoag tribal leader and activist, said she’s glad attention is being paid to what’s largely a forgotten chapter of history.

“People are unaware that the Great Dying happened,” she said. “At school, you’re pounded with the story of 50 Pilgrims dying during their first winter. But during the Great Dying, about 50,000 Wampanoags died, as well as who knows how many other tribal people to the north in what’s now Maine. It’s kind of nice to see those numbers lined up side by side.”

Construction is expected to begin late next year or early in 2023 on the park project, said Curtin, whose Pilgrim Hall Museum is partnering with Plymouth 400 Inc., a nonprofit group.

“We want to create an interpretive space here where people can engage,” she said. “The park is intended to acknowledge and preserve what we’ve all lived through in 2020. It’s an opportunity to bring the past and present together in ways we never could have foreseen.”

If the archaeologists make any transcendent finds, Landon said he’s confident they’ll be given more time to complete their work, if only because the townspeople share a sense of stewardship over Plymouth’s rich history.

“We’ll learn what we need to learn from the site before any construction takes place,” he said.

[BigGlen]

Homeless Couple Found Living in a Walmart Attic?



The web site Now8News published an article positing that two homeless people had been found living in the attic of a Walmart in Tennessee:

Being homeless has to be very difficult, especially in the colder times of the year. But not for this Tennessee couple who had been “living in the lap of luxury” above a Tennessee Walmart store. The ‘homeless’ man, 48-year-old Wilbert Thomas, admitted to police that he and his girlfriend 54-year-old Ingrid Malone, had been living above the store for over two years. What they did to the attic, baffled police and store employees.



“I don’t mean to laugh, but these people really got one over on Walmart,” said Lieut. Marshall Weiss. “In the attic, we recovered 2 pounds of meth they had somehow produced on a hot plate. They also managed to get food, drinks, mini refrigerator, a big screen TV, surround sound system, bedroom set, hangers, clothes … I mean, if Walmart sells it they had it. These people were living good. They even managed to splice into the satellite TV wire and ordered NFL Sunday ticket!”

[Zbignieww]

US driver caught driving in carpool lane with fake passenger



A driver in the US has landed himself in hot water over a hilariously brazen attempt to use the carpool lane.

A Long Island man was pulled over and given a summons for allegedly driving in the Long Island Expressway lane with a fake passenger on Wednesday night, police said.

Police said Justin Kunis, 20, attached a white drama mask to the front passenger headrest of his Nissan sedan in a bid to make it appear as if somebody else was in the car with him.

A Suffolk County highway patrol officer spotted the suspicious set-up near exit 52 in Commack and pulled Kunis over at about 7.15pm, police said.

Kunis, of Lake Grow, was issued a summons for an occupancy violation.

The high-occupancy vehicle lanes Kunis was caught driving in (also known as an HOV lane or carpool lane) on the Expressway are reserved for cars with two or more passengers, or buses from 3pm to 8pm.

The same restrictions are in place from 6am to 10am.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 86a46483ed

[PennySerenade]

Okay, so, remember when No Frills — the Canadian discount grocery store chain with famously zany marketing strategies — dropped its own album back in September?

Created in the same youthful spirit as the brand's popular streetwear line and 8-bit video game, Haulin' State of Mind was well-recieved among shoppers in Toronto, where it played on loop over store intercoms for months after its fall release.

Many of the album's 13 tracks were said by listeners to "slap," due to a combination of hot beats, catchy lyrics and fun, Canada-specific grocery shopping references.

Solid bops from the album include tracks with such titles as "88 Sale," "A Cart Apart," Bag it Up," "Spicy" and "Bananas."

While most people who would download the album (or bought a sold-out vinyl copy) understand that the songs are meant to be more light and silly than Grammy-winning fire, the producers of at least one American TV talk show took Haulin' State of Mind dead seriously.

That is to say that they mistook "No Frills" to be an actual band, and eviscerated its 2020 album on air as though it weren't produced by an advertising agency working for a Canadian grocery giant.



Jimmy Fallon spent nearly two minutes on last night's episode of The Tonight Show ripping on the record during a recurring segment called "Jimmy's Do Not Play List," in which he highlights particularly bad songs and artists.

"This next one is an artist called No Frills," says Fallon in a clip from the show reposted by the grocery store on Instagram. "Look at the album cover — it's a banana."

Guess they didn't get No Frills' clever grocery-related Warhol/alt-rock reference.

Announcer Steve Higgins and even Questlove get in on the fun with some laughs at the album's expense, joking about how there are "no frills on that album cover" and the absurdity of the lyrics in the song "Bananas."

Fallon loses it when the person singing refers to bananas as "the portable fruit," sparking a debate about which foods are and are not portable, as well as whether one could actually — as the song asserts — make cold-pressed juice from a banana.

Canadian viewers were quick to point out on Twitter to Fallon that, um, No Frills isn't an artist — it's a grocery store where people sometimes fight over cheap corn and parking spots.

"'No Frills' is a grocery store chain here in Canada and that record you played on 'Do Not Play' is essentially a marketing campaign for them," wrote one Twitter user to the comedian and talk show host.

"No Frills is actually a discount grocery chain in Canada with some very un-grocery marketing campaigns!" wrote another, linking to the album.



Some Canadians were even slightly offended by Fallon's take on the work.

"That hurt to watch. That album is my grocery shopping soundtrack," wrote one, to which someone else replied: "Exactly. It was very cringe. But, I guess No Frills just got a bunch of free advertising."

But did they? Or was this all part of a paid-for ploy by the Loblaw-owned grocery chain to drive brand awareness and / or Spotify spins?

I'm pleased to say no. According to Loblaw Companies Ltd., the appearance of Haulin' State of Mind on the NBC show was entirely unexpected.

"We had nothing to do with the segment, it was totally organic," said a representative from the No Frills team to blogTO when asked about the Fallon clip.

"And while we're pleased with the added profile for the album, we must respectfully disagree with Mr Fallon — we remain firm in our belief that the banana represents the best of the best as far as fruit portability is concerned."

Consider the microphone dropped.

[mrvictor]

Puppies Are Born Ready to Communicate With And Understand Humans



In a bit a dreamland research, animal behaviorists at the University of Arizona got to study how 375 golden and Labrador retriever puppies performed at human communication tests.

The study was done to examine whether human-canine communication, specifically pointing gestures, was an onboard biological ability, a learned trait through exposure to humans, and whether the skill was passed through genetic heritage.

Ever since the metaphorical first wolf came within the light of the campfire, humans have been selectively breeding canines as companions. The pointing to a piece of food, a shot duck, a thrown stick, or a means of passing an obstacle is a method of human/canine communication that works well, but is extremely rare in the animal kingdom.

Even chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives, can’t understand pointing gestures. In contrast, this study showed that 8-week-old puppies could reliably follow pointing gestures as good as adult dogs.

Furthermore, their skill at following a human finger to a hidden treat did not improve over time, but stayed consistent at about a 67% success rate. This suggested to the authors that the puppies were born with the ability and didn’t have to learn it.

Puppy see puppy do

Service dogs have to be animal geniuses in order to help people with disabilities or blindness get around a complex environment like a city, while those raised to help trauma survivors have to have an extreme ability for empathy.

Discovering where these skills come from, can they be inherited, and whether they vary breed to breed and individual to individual is a key step towards being able to breed and raise the most effective service dogs.

The researchers teamed up with Canine Companions for Independence, a service dog breeding center that keeps records of genetic history of the animals going back decades.

At eight weeks old, the nearly 400 puppies, all with genetic breeding histories, spend all day with their siblings and mother—making them perfect for the study aims, Evan MacLean told Smithsonian Magazine.

“They’re adorable and it’s fun to work with them,” says MacLean. “But they’re puppies, they have short attention spans and they pee and poop on everything. At the start of this project, it was like, ‘Puppies!’ And by the end it was, ‘Puppies.’”

In contrast to the immediate success of pointing to a hidden treat under upturned cups, researchers also subjected the puppies to a 30-second script of praise in a high-pitched voice to see how long the puppies could keep their attention on the speaker’s face.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/researc ... -gestures/

Theory Suggests Jack The Ripper Could Have Actually Been A Woman

A theory suggests Jack the Ripper, the killer who terrorised women around London during the Victorian era, could actually have been a woman.

OK, so we've all heard of Jack the Ripper, right?

The murderer roamed the streets at night and was known for the grisly and almost surgical killings of a number of unsuspecting women.

However, some people believe Jack the Ripper wasn't a Jack at all, giving rise to a theory we'll call 'Jill the Ripper'.

Let's look at what we know.

We know that the serial killer murdered at least five women in the East End of London, specifically around Whitechapel, in 1888.

We know the police came in for some serious criticism for their inability to catch anyone, and the crimes remain unsolved to this very day.

On top of that, the gory nature of the killings - some victims had their reproductive organs removed, for example - captured the imagination of the world's press at the time.

However, few considered the idea that the murderer could be a woman, although there is a theory that suggests it as a distinct possibility.

The idea wasn't completely overlooked at the time. In fact, Detective Frederick Abberline, who was involved in the case at the time, was once said to have pondered: "Do you think that it could be a case not of Jack the Ripper but Jill the Ripper?"

His idea was based on the idea the murderer could have been a female midwife.

You see, at the time of Mary Jane Kelly's death - believed to have been the Ripper's fifth victim - she was thought to have been pregnant.

Kelly was extensively mutilated, and - unlike the others - killed at home.

A midwife would have had easy access to women's homes, and could have slipped away relatively unseen.

She would also have some of the knowledge shown in the mutilations performed on the victims, and would have attracted little attention if seen covered in blood.

It's not exactly concrete proof, but it's something worth thinking about.

The prime suspect for those who subscribe to this way of thinking is a woman called Mary Pearcey, who was convicted of her lover's wife and child and hanged in 1890.

She was also known to have used a method similar to the Ripper's killing style to commit those crimes.

So, could she have committed the other murders? We'll probably never know.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/interesti ... n-20210603