[goldie0608]

Ohio Dad Buys Ice Cream Truck for His Kids with Down Syndrome to Inspire Others with Special Needs

"It's much more than selling ice cream," Joel Wegener said of running Special Neat Treats with his two adult children



An Ohio dad found a sweet way to ensure that his kids with special needs have employment opportunities — and now their business has become a community favorite!

Joel Wegener told NBC affiliate WLWT that he decided to buy an ice cream truck in April after realizing that it may be a challenge for his two adult kids, Josh, 18, and Mary Kate, 21, to receive a job offer because they both have Down syndrome.

"It started out as an idea to sell ice cream, now it's so much bigger than that," explained Joel, who also shares eight other biological children with his wife Freida.

"Mary Kate just finished up at Pathways [a program for individuals with varying abilities] and when people asked her, she's always said, 'I wanna work with Papa,'" he added to the outlet. "But then when we started talking about this ice cream business, it was just a natural [thing] to bring her in and also bring Josh in."

Joel ended up buying the ice cream truck from another special needs family in Indiana before his wife came up with the name Special Neat Treats, in reference to their employees with special needs, WLWT reported.

Then, the family hit the road in their Loveland community — and the response has been nothing but positive.

"Almost every time I go out, I find a family with special needs or with some connection," Joel explained to WLWT. "It's just been an unbelievable journey."

So far, Joel said their business has "exceeded expectations," with the truck having sold close to 5,000 desserts, according to WLWT. They've since started selling in the greater Cincinnati area and have plans to expand the fleet of trucks next summer, the outlet reported.

While working alongside his children, Joel has been teaching them financial and social skills, like managing money and interacting with customers, WLWT reported.

Speaking to the outlet, Josh noted that his father also suggested he "make [the customers] smile, and he's told me about waving at them."

"Because they love ice cream and they scream for ice cream when asking for ice cream," the teen added.

As they continue to run the business together, Joel hopes Special Neat Treats will help raise awareness about the hiring potential of people with varying abilities.

"It's much more than selling ice cream," the dad of 10 told WLWT. "It's about an experience for everybody, but to give my kids something to do and show other parents maybe there is something creative, out of the box that we can come up for our family and for our kids to do."

"No matter what your abilities are, there's something that you can do and you can spread joy and interact with other people," he added.

https://youtu.be/R59RnXyR3Eo

[PennySerenade]

For many women, coming home to find a man in the kitchen cooking dinner is sweet — but when that man is wearing your clothes and you've never seen him before in your life, it's anything but romantic.

Toronto Police are asking for the public's assistance with a Break and Enter investigation after someone entered a 33-year-old Toronto woman's apartment without authorization and did some stuff that's kind of weird for a burglar.

Police say that they were called to the Yonge Street and Gloucester Street area around 5 p.m. on Monday, July 18, for reports of a break and enter.

It is alleged that the victim "returned to her home and found a male inside her apartment" that day — a terrifying occurence in its own right.

Creepier still is that the man "was wearing clothing items belonging to the female." Police say it is also alleged that the man "had cooked a meal" and "stolen personal items."

The suspect fled when the woman called police, but officers caught up with him a short time later and placed him under arrest.

Robert Anthony Stumpo, 35, of Toronto, was subsequently charged with one count of break and enter. He appeared in court at College Park this morning at 10 a.m., after which point police put out a call for help from members of the public.

"Police are seeking the public's assistance, and information regarding any other possible victims," reads the TPS media release, which includes a photo of the accused.

Anyone with information that could help is encouraged to contact Toronto Police at 416-808-5100 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS.

[mrvictor]

Fisherman Delighted to Find Rare Melo Pearl, Worth up to $350k, In His Seafood Lunch



A crab fisherman was delighted after being surprised by a rare orange Melo pearl in his seafood lunch.

40-year-old Prasarnphon Phunwan took home a large sea snail he caught while trawling for crabs in Prachuap Khiri Khan in Thailand.

The fisherman boiled the seafood for a meal, but while he was slicing off the cooked meat, he hit on something hard and found a pearl.

He then took the bright yellow-orange pearl to his younger brother, who checked the internet, and told him it might be a type of expensive Melo.

Fisherman Prasarnphon said: “My family had been fishing for generations but I believe our fate is about to change because of my lunch.”

The precious gem is being kept by the family in a plastic container wrapped in a cotton ball, but has not yet been weighed.

Officers from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and local fisheries department have been informed but they are yet to visit the family to check the authenticity of the pearl.

Curious neighbors, however, have already flocked to their house to have a look at the pearl.

Prasarnphon added that they will be ready to sell the pearl at the right price after it was checked by officials.

He said: ‘We know that the pearl is expensive so we want to give it to the person at the right price after it has been checked.’

In February, trucker Monthian Jansuk found a similar pearl in Chonburi province, while fisherman Hatchai Niyomdecha stumbled upon the rare gem in Nakhon Si Thammarat in January. Hatchai was offered up to $351,000 for the 7.68-gram precious gem—so the most recent lucky fisherman could truly see his fortunes change quite soon.

Melo pearls range from orange to tan to brown in color, with orange being the most expensive shade. They are usually found in South China Sea and Andaman Sea off the coast of Myanmar and are produced by predatory sea snails called Volutidae.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/prasarn ... ood-lunch/

Brazilian tattoo artist turns himself into an 'ORC'

Fernando Franco de Oliveira has covered around 99 per cent of his body with ink
De Oliveira, who owns a tattoo studio in Tatui, has horn implants fitted to head
He also has a forked tongue and vampire teeth and removed his nose to make it look like part of his skull

By Rachael Bunyan For Mailonline

Published: 07:42 EDT, 21 July 2021 | Updated: 07:42 EDT, 21 July 2021

While some may claim to be avid Lord of the Rings fans, this Brazilian tattoo artist has gone one step further by turning himself into a real-life 'Orc' by having his nose removed, ears mutilated and his skin tattooed blue.

Fernando Franco de Oliveira has covered around 99 per cent of his body with tattoos, including his eyeballs which are now entirely black, and even has horn implants fitted to his head.

The tattoo artist, who owns a studio in the southern city of Tatui near Sao Paulo, admitted he is 'addicted' to the pain of needles.

De Oliveira has acquired a forked tongue and vampire teeth, but he said the most painful and life-changing surgery was the removal of his nose.
Fernando Franco de Oliveira has covered around 99 per cent of his body with tattoos, including his eyeballs which are now entirely black, and even has horn implants fitted to his head

The Brazilian tattoo artist has also had his ears mutilated and his skin tattooed blue to make him look like an orc from Lord of the Rings
De Oliveira before all of the surgery and tattoos
+8

De Oliveira after most of his surgeries - but before he had his nose removed and ears mutilated
+8

The tattoo artist, who owns a studio in the city of Tatui in the Brazlian state of Sao Paulo, admitted he is 'addicted' to the pain of needles. Pictured: De Oliveira with just a few tattoos (left) compared to Dr Oliveira with his skin tattooed blue and his forked tongue (right)
De Oliveira has now turned himself into a real-life 'Orc' from Lord of the Rings (pictured)
+8

He decided to cut and reshape his nose so that it would look like part of his skull, and despite the drastic measure, he is still able to breathe normally.

De Oliveira said: 'I have a forked tongue, an 'orc' ear, vampire teeth and horn implants in my head. The last one I did, to make me look completely frightening, was my nose. I mutilated it to look like a skull.'

But after the original operation in March, it took a long time for the 'skull' nose to heal and needed a great deal of care.
De Oliveira has acquired a forked tongue and vampire teeth, but he said the most painful and life-changing surgery was the removal of his nose
+8

Fernando Franco de Oliveira from Sao Paulo, with the title 'Most tattooed man in Brazil in 2014'
De Oliveira from Sao Paulo in Brazil is pictured with his dog while covered in tattoos and with horns on his head - but before cutting his nose
+8

De Oliveira from Sao Paulo in Brazil is pictured with his dog while covered in tattoos and with horns on his head - but before cutting his nose

He admitted that he enjoyed the process of reshaping his skill with the final transformation of his nose the most difficult and complicated of all of the procedures he underwent to look like an orc from Lord of the Rings.

But de Oliveira is not done yet. He still wants more horn implants in his head and perhaps remodel his ears, which have been mutilated to appear like an orc's, some more.

He revealed: 'I have had everything tattooed except my palms and the soles of my feet.

'I really like the pain of needles, I am addicted. Every now and then I get the need to touch up the tattoos because I don't have enough space on my body.'

[Zbignieww]

Fake cardinals get busted by fake priests



The week's weirdest news from around Europe...

Rome police dressed up as priests to bust a ring of con men disguised as cardinals.

Five suspects aged between 58 and 75 have been arrested for a total of 20 offences committed since 1988, involving a total of around 1.7 million euros (£1.45m).

Police said the fraudsters bought religious robes from shops that serve the city’s real clergy and presented themselves as cardinals who could arrange loans from the Vatican bank and a fictional Luxembourg fund called Eurozone in exchange for small deposits, which then disappeared.

They hired places around the Vatican for meetings and even set up a fake notary’s office in a building on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

When arrested at Rome’s Basilica of Holy Mary of the Angels and Martyrs in the Piazza Esedra, one of the men claimed to have diplomatic immunity from his work with the Pope.

A woman who fell from a window of a hilltop fortress in Scuffhausen, on the upper Rhine in Switzerland, has admitted leaning out to take a selfie.

The drop was around 10 metres (32 feet), but she avoided serious injury by catching a branch of a tree as she fell.

Fortress guard Karola Lüthi said: "The woman was very lucky that she clung to the tree.”

***

A 65-year-old man from Graz, Austria, sat down to perform his morning ablutions and was bitten on the penis by an albino python hiding in his toilet.

Police said the pensioner was taken to hospital while bleeding from his genitals, while his 24-year-old neighbour in their block of flats is facing charges of failing to control a pet. The younger man had not noticed that one of his 11 snakes was missing.

Snake expert Wernger Stangl, who was called in to deal with the reptile, said the reptile was “not poisonous” and “its teeth were not large”. He said that a journey around the apartment block’s drainage system had probably left the snake “stressed, and it could bite for that reason.”

***

A trainee nurse in Norway who retook a clinical medicine exam and reused 194 words from her previous paper in a 5,000-word essay has been banned from her course for a year for self-plagiarism.

Karina Roksvåg Skjold said she thought the decision was “very unfair” but she would not appeal in order to make others aware of stringent rules.

A spokesperson for the University of Agder, where Karina was studying, said she had also been disciplined for incorrectly crediting her coursebook as the source of two quotations, rather than the journals which originally published the papers reprinted in the coursebook.

***

A Krakow man is facing two years in prison after drink-driving to what he thought was his girlfriend’s house.

Instead, the man pulled into the car park of the police station in Władysława Łokietka just before midnight, braking sharply and telling officers who came outside to investigate that he must have taken a wrong turning.

During the conversation, police said they noted a strong smell of alcohol and found the driver was three times over the limit.

***

Transport authorities in Berlin, Munich and Vienna are dropping the word “Schwarzfahren” - which translates to ‘riding black’ - to describe fare-dodging after debates over whether it has racist connotations.

Wiener Linien, which runs trains and buses in the Austrian capital, said it was phasing out the term to avoid “misunderstandings”.

The news comes as Germany’s national airline Lufthansa announced it would stop calling passengers “ladies and gentlemen” in announcements. A spokesperson said: "The crews have been instructed to use a welcome that instead includes all passengers.”

***

The owner of a small currency exchange shop in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, has been cleared of money-laundering despite depositing and withdrawing 89 billion kronar (£2.98 billion) from a Prague bank in just 15 years.

The man would arrive with briefcases full of euros and then take money out of his account in dollars. Police suspected he might be linked to Russian gangs.

His wife said: "He's already given a lot of explanations to the police. The state requires us to document the people who come to us to exchange money, so this seems completely crazy to me.”

***

A family who tried to lower their jetski bike into water off Povlja on the Croatian island of Brač saw their BMW slip down the gangway and underwater too.

No-one was injured in the incident, which saw the boat trailer that the jetski had been parked on slide down into the water, dragging the luxury car in behind it.

One onlooker said: “If the ramps were better maintained and not covered with so much algae that is as slippery as ice, there would be no such situations.”

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit ... me-8151918

'Time traveller' bizarrely claims he's stuck in 2027 and warns of human extinction
TikTok user Javier bizarrely claims he has somehow found himself in 2027 and is the only human - though electricity and the internet still appears to work


Javier said he's found himself in 2027 and has posted constant updates since February (Image: TIKTOK

A man who bizarrely claims to have time travelled into the future has warned human extinction is just a few years away.

TikTok user Javier said he has found himself in 2027 and that there are no people left, only abandoned buildings and cars.

Going by the name @unicosobreviviente (only survivor), he has been sharing videos since February 13, when he first showed a supposedly desolate Valencia in Spain.

Despite the lack of people, electricity and the internet appear to work fine for him to continue uploading, however.

"I just woke up in a hospital and I don't know what might have happened. Today is February 13, 2027, and I am alone in the city, " Javier said in the video caption.

https://www.tiktok.com/@unicosobreviviente/video/6928686796830215429?lang=en&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6982916864506758662

"Humanity has been extinct," he says in the clip, adding "there is no one in shopping centres", before the video cuts to an empty clothing shop.

But the shelves are seen to be fully stocked with clothes.

The following day Javier asked his followers for help.


Javier shared a photo of a deserted clothing shop, though the shelves were full (Image: TIKTOK @UNICOSOBREVIVIENTE)

"I keep trying to find human life," he said.

"I am starting to lose hope. Today I got something to eat. How long is this going to last? Mention in the comments who might be able to help me," he wrote.

When asked by users how there still lights and internet access he said he didn't know but "most likely there is a type of connection between 2021 and 2027".

Javier has continued to regularly share footage of his "life in the future" and says he is trapped and desperate to get back to the present day.

[HogwartsExpress]

Man stuck in M4 jam plays football on carriageway

A stretch of the M4 in Wiltshire was closed in both directions on Friday as firefighters dealt with the burning vehicle.

With traffic backed up and at a standstill for nearly three hours, one man decided to have a kickabout in the middle of the road.

Police warned of the "extremely hazardous" behaviour of the public.

Inspector Mark Freeman, of Wiltshire Police, said: "We are aware of reports that some people ventured on to the closed carriageways after the M4 was closed to allow emergency services to attend a lorry fire on Friday.

"I would remind members of the public that such behaviour is potentially extremely hazardous and could distract emergency services from attending an incident."

The fire broke out on the M4 eastbound between junction 15 at Swindon and junction 14 at Hungerford.

The warning comes as drivers also struck cones while driving and filming the blaze.

source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-57900658

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
FRIDAY JULY 23
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

[ozswede]

Cockatoos learn how to flip open garbage bins by copying each other


Household garbage bins have become another potential food source for suburban cockatoos.

For most of us, dragging the bins out to the kerb every week is a fine example of domestic drudgery. But for cockatoos gazing down from the trees, the sight of wheelie bins can mean meal time.

In recent years, there have been reports of cockies flipping open the lid of household waste bins to steal leftover food. And it turns out cockies pick up these lid-flipping skills by copying each other, allowing the behaviour to quickly spread across suburbs in New South Wales, according to a study published today in Science. Richard Major, an ecologist at the Australian Museum, said the birds' sharp skills are yet another example of their ability to thrive in urban areas.

"It really confirms that they are such winners at surviving in suburbia," said Dr Major, who co-authored the study. "It's just amazing how they can exploit a new environment."

Catching cockies in the act

It all started when Dr Major saw a sulphur-crested cockatoo up to no good on a wheelie bin in Stanwell Park, NSW in 2015. With his phone camera in hand, Dr Major captured a video of the thieving bird as it lifted the heavy bin lid with its beak and foot.


Click on picture to see video

The bird quickly shuffled along the edge of the bin to flip the lid over and dived in to rummage for food scraps. The clever cockie got Dr Major wondering whether this naughty behaviour was due to genetics or a skill the bird learnt from others.

So he sent the video to study co-author Lucy Aplin, who studies social learning in animals at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour in Germany. The researchers knew a closer look was in order, but first they needed to find out if cockatoos in other areas were flipping bins too, or if it was just a quirk in Stanwell Park's cockies.

A fast-spreading skill

In 2018, the team launched an online survey for residents living in 478 suburbs across Sydney and Wollongong. The two-year survey asked participants whether they had seen cockatoos cracking into wheelie bins in their suburb, and if so, when.

Before the survey took place, bin-opening cockatoos had only been reported in three suburbs. Then it spread — fast.


The cockatoo bin-day menace.

By late 2019, the birds had been seen lifting bin lids in 44 suburbs, indicating that it had quickly become a trend among their yellow-crested residents.

"That really blew me away," Dr Major said.

Diving in deeper, Dr Major and his colleagues also found the bin-opening behaviour spread more quickly to cockatoos in neighbouring suburbs than those further away. This suggests that the cockies were picking up their bin-raiding skills from their mates.

"If it was something that wasn't learnt, you would expect it to turn up randomly across these suburbs," Dr Major said.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are real characters said co-author John Martin of the Taronga Conservation Society.

"I really love observing them and watching them observe me," he said.

"That's what's happened here with this new behaviour of bin opening, they've been observing each other and we've shown that they've been socially learning."

The team also noticed that birds in different suburbs had developed their own style of lifting bin lids, indicating that they were likely copying birds from the same area. For instance, some birds grabbed the handle of the lid with their feet, while others used their beak. Some even used a mix of the two to crack open the lid.

Most of the successful bin raiders were dominant males, which tend to be larger and stronger than other cockatoos. The rest hung around and watched on as the bin-opening pioneer flipped the lid.

"It's not a puzzle that the birds are all solving by themselves," Dr Major said. "One bird will solve the puzzle, and then because other birds are watching, they'll copy it. That's how the behaviour is spreading."

Work continues with the help of citizen scientists

The next step for Dr Major and his team is to keep tracking the spread of bin-opening behaviour in cockatoos and investigate how they work around bins that have been cockie-proofed with rocks or bricks on their lids.

"There's plenty more learning to be done by cockatoos here, and we'll be following it," Dr Major said.


Suzie Roessel has many cockatoo visitors in her backyard.

Citizen scientists like Suzie Roessel continue to give the researchers extra eyes and ears across Sydney. She said many cockatoos visit her, but she hasn't seen them open bins yet.

"I have names for around 40 or 50 of them, we hang out on a daily basis," she said. "I've seen them learn from each other, a few I’ve trained to do footsies – they'll grab my finger with their foot. There's new birds that arrive now and they're much faster to train after they've seen the other ones doing it."

Source

[Fatima99]

Golden retriever beats the heat by cooling off in busy public water fountain

The recent heatwave has seen us all consider putting a swimming costume on and sitting in the kids paddling pool with an ice lolly - but one dog has shown us all how it should be done.

TikTok user @palmerchlo shared a hilarious video of a dog at Kings Cross, in London, cooling off in the Granary Square fountains.

The video has since had over a million views and more than 192,000 likes.

The golden retriever can be seen plodding through the 1,080 water jets chomping at the water spurting from each one.



Users of the video sharing app appreciated the pup’s dedication to staying hydrated in the hot weather.

One comment said: “He’s just trying to make sure none of the water is without a chomp.”

Another added: “Must taste every single one!”

The fountains can be found by Kings Cross station, and prove to be a popular attraction for kids. There are over 1,000 choreographed jets which light up and splash in patterns, perfect for cooling down in the heat.

The website says: “We want to ensure that everyone can enjoy the fountains safely, so please play your part to keep yourself, your family and others safe by practising social distancing while enjoying the fountains.

“Bring a picnic, there are tables and benches dotted around the square. Or take advantage of nearby Waitrose for take-out treats. Granary Square fountains are open daily and are on during daylight hours, so more time for fun during the summer months.”

Video here https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-new ... g-24591236

Neighbors — one 2 years old, the other 99 — found friendship during quarantine



Over the last year, Benjamin Olson, 2, and Mary O'Neill, 99, have gone from neighbors to the best of friends.Benjamin, his parents, and his baby brother Noah live next door to O'Neill in Minneapolis. The Olsons and O'Neill mostly stayed inside their homes at the start of the pandemic, but Benjamin and Mary started to interact when they were both in their backyards, separated by a chain-link fence. They have since invented a game called "cane ball" – Benjamin kicks a ball to the fence, and Mary hits it back with her cane — and now that he can open Mary's gate on his own, Benjamin regularly comes over to blow bubbles and hand her fistfuls of dirt.

Mary is "his first best friend," Benjamin's mom, Sarah Olson, told KARE 11, and she is "so happy they have each other." She was touched when Mary brought over a basket filled with metal Tonka trunks that belonged to her late son, for Benjamin and Noah to play with. Mary is a widow whose family lives out of state, and she now has pictures of Benjamin and Noah on display in her home. "They're the closest thing to grandchildren I have around here," she said.

In Basketball, Why Does the Home Team (Usually) Wear White?
BY Mark Mancini

Uniform colors have a utilitarian purpose—namely, to help us distinguish between rival clubs on game day. After all, life would get confusing fast if spectators couldn’t tell which squad was which.

At home, most North American football and hockey teams wear vibrant, multi-colored jerseys. And unless special permission to do otherwise is granted, visiting players are—again, for the most part—stuck wearing white.

Basketball reverses the trend. In both collegiate and professional contests, it’s the home team that normally dons white while their on-court guests show up in something more eye-catching. The NCAA, NBA [PDF], and WNBA [PDF] all enforce this general guideline. “Opposing team uniforms shall be of contrasting colors,” reads the official NCAA men’s basketball rule book. “The home team shall wear light game jerseys and game shorts and the away team shall wear dark game jerseys and game shorts. This rule may be altered by mutual consent of the competing institutions.”

How did this tradition start? America’s pastime probably had something to do with it.

Towards the turn of the 20th century, Major League Baseball clubs began touting dark blue, black, or (usually) gray jerseys on the road, and white ones at home. Back in those days, teams sometimes had difficulty finding laundry services outside of their own cities. So, for days on end, visiting players were often left with no choice but to wear the same, unwashed jerseys over and over. Darker outfits, therefore, helped mask the inevitable dirt and grass stains.

In its formative years, the younger sport of basketball likely stole and tweaked that custom. At every level from grade school to the pros, clubs usually honor the white-at-home, colors-on-the-road standard. Still, exceptions are out there.

Take the Los Angeles Lakers. 1967 saw the storied team adopt a radically new look. Previously, their colors were as follows: navy blue, royal blue, and white. But in that pivotal year, the club introduced its famous purple and gold chromatic scheme. Notably, the Lakers also emerged as the first NBA franchise to make non-white jerseys their standard home attire. Local fans grew accustomed to watching Jerry West and company take care of business in those now-iconic yellow unis.

Also, fans get to see a whole slew of different jersey colors and designs when a visiting team comes to town. Given how experimental the NBA can get with uniforms (sleeves?!?), a little consistency in your own back yard is much appreciated.

Big Questions Sports

[prokroustis]

Lost ‘golden city’ of Egypt, 3,000 years old, discovered



It is located near Luxor

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an ancient city dating back 3,000 years, which they describe as the “largest” ever found in Egypt. Renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass announced the discovery of the “lost golden city” located near Luxor, home of the legendary Valley of the Kings.

In a statement released on Thursday, the excavation team said the city “was lost under the sands and dates to the reign of Amenhotep III and continued to be used by Tutankhamun and Ay.”

Biggest discovery since Tutankhamun’s tomb
Betsy Bryan, professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, described the find as the “second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun” nearly a century ago.

Excavations began in September 2020 between the temples of Ramses III and Amenhotep III near Luxor, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Cairo. Within weeks, the team discovered mud-brick formations that ran in all directions.

After seven months of excavations, several neighborhoods have been uncovered, including a bakery complete with ovens and storage pottery, as well as administrative and residential districts.

‘Golden age of the pharoahs’
Items of jewelry have also been unearthed, along with colored pottery vessels, scarab beetle amulets and mud bricks bearing Amenhotep III’s seals.

[lush]

Guatemalan Entrepreneur Uses Live Volcano as His Own Pizza Oven
July 15th, 2021*

An amateur chef in Guatemala has become famous for turning the country’s Pacaya volcano into a pop-up pizzeria that serves fresh volcanically-baked pizza to tourists.

Mario David García Mansilla grew up in the shadow of Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s most active volcanos, and although he loved his home enough to know he never wanted to leave, he never imagined he would one day use the volcano as a pizza oven. Today, his now popular Pizza Pacaya has become one of highlights of visiting the active volcano, with tourists paying a premium to have Mansilla cook his delicious pies right on the smoldering volcanic rock, right next to flowing rivers of lava.


Photo: Mario David García Mansilla/Instagram

A native of San Vicente Pacaya, one of the 21 small human settlements around the Pacaya volcano, Mario David García Mansilla has always been fascinated by the volcano, but it wasn’t until 2014 that he came up with the idea of using the intense heat it emanates to cook pizza. He went up the mountain one day to see what was going on, and happened to see a group of tourists roasting marshmallows over the lava. That’s when it hit him…

Mario, a trained accountant, realized he could cook literally on the volcano, which would not only allow him to follow his culinary passion, but also possibly make some money doing it. However, the beginning was rough. The amateur chef first tried to roast steaks or braise chicken, but soon realized he would need to carry too many utensils to prepare and serve the food. Then he noticed the cave like structures that had formed out of dried lava and immediately thought of pizza.



The first time he tried using the intense heat emanating from the volcano to cook pizza, Mansilla burned it to a crisp. The second one came out just as bad, but his third was a perfectly cooked masterpiece, with a golden crust and covered in melted cheese. He had found the perfect dish to cook on Pacaya.

Mario David García Mansilla took no less than 5 years to turn his passion for pizza into a business, and Pizza Pacaya finally opened in 2019. Luckily, it didn’t take long for his idea to take off, and now he climbs the volcano almost daily, bringing with him a backpack containing some 60 pounds of equipment and ingredients, to cook pizza for tourists.



Mansilla has two ways of cooking his now famous volcanic pizza. He either places the tray in one of the many oven-like caves on Pacaya, or simply sets it down on the hardened lava next to the slow-flowing river of melted rock. The latter is more strenuous on his feet, as even with military-style boots on, they are subjected to extreme heat.

With hundreds of people visiting Pacaya volcano on a daily basis, Pizza Pacaya is almost never without customers, and Mario is content to be able to supplement his income and satisfy his passion for the culinary arts.

[click image to play]


So how long does it take to cook a pizza on an active volcano? Well, according to Masilla, the heat is so intense that each tray requires no more than 10 minutes to cook.

[PennySerenade]

If you've driven through Dublin, Ontario, in recent days, you may have noticed a bizarre sight that would make anyone do a double take — what appears to be giant shark fins poking out of fields of wheat.

Residents can rest assured that their eyes are not deceiving them, as the tenant on one plot of land in the small community about two hours west of Toronto has decided to bring a bit of much-needed levity to the dark days of COVID-19.

Deemed "great wheat sharks," the display is the work of Anne Melady, who told the London Free Press that she was inspired by a similar installation in a field in nearby Erin, Ontario, last year that made her smile.

"We need some fun," she told the news outlet of her new project along Highway 8, for which she's cut various fin shapes out of large pieces of plywood, painted them black and erected them a bit back from the roadway to some serious Jaws effect.


Her handiwork seems to be inspiring smiles and laughs from random passersby, and is also hilariously well-timed given that Discovery Channel's famed Shark Week just ended.

Anyone who is lucky enough to spot the wheat sharks swaying along with the crops around them is, of course, encouraged to snap a photo and share it to get in on the amusement.