[Fatima99]

Saudi Arabia is Building a Zero-Carbon City With No Cars or Pollution: ‘A new era of civilization’

hough not often a role model for social justice, freedom, or democracy, Saudi Arabia is delivering to the world a worthwhile example of future living: as it’s announced plans to build a revolutionary zero-carbon, zero-traffic city for over a million people, spanning 105 miles and featuring futuristic technology.



The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an announcement that the city, called The Line for its long, thin shape and route along the coastline, will preserve 95% of the natural environment in and around which it’s built, and will be an economic engine for the Kingdom.

“We need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one,” Prince Mohammed said at an event to launch the city, according to Arab News.

“By 2050, one billion people will have to relocate due to rising CO2 emissions and sea levels. 90 percent of people breathe polluted air.”

Construction is set to start in the first quarter of this year. Eventually, it’s planned that a 105-mile network of AI-operated automated transport will carry a future population through four distinct districts (coastal, coastal desert, mountains, and upper valley) on the northwestern corner of the Kingdom, on the coast of the Red Sea.

The cost of this technological wonderland where there will be no cars, no streets, and no pollution, and where sun and wind will generate almost all of the electricity, is between $100 billion and $200 billion, much of which will come from domestic funds, and the rest from foreign investment, both from businesses wanting a stake in the city of the future, and companies looking to showcase technological innovation.

Indeed, $1.5 billion is set to pour in from cloud information technology alone. Data is the central font around which NEOM and The Line will be planned, as Saudi economist Mazen Al-Sudairi described to Arab News, most major cities in the world are organized around the flow of water and placement of crops, while The Line will be planned around access to data.

All the Saudi royals came out in support of the project, with the Education Minister Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Asheikh describing it as “characterized by the principles of global humanity, economic diversity and artificial intelligence, and the enhancement of research and innovation opportunities for the future industry.”

Walkability will define life on The Line, with planners allegedly working to ensure that education, transportation, and medical facilities, shopping and leisure locations, as well as green areas are all between 5 and 15 minutes by foot from any point in The Line’s communities.

“It is a new era of civilization, a new model for a city which is clean, proper and with zero carbon,” said Al-Sudairi.

[PennySerenade]

Nurse Working on Coronavirus Frontlines Wins $1M Lottery: 'I Had Been Praying for Something'



A nurse from North Carolina who has been helping patients throughout the coronavirus pandemic has just received a well-earned reward.

Terri Watkins of Durham, North Carolina, recently took home the $1 million prize after her entry was picked from over 513,000 submissions in the North Carolina Education Lottery's Supreme Riches second-chance drawing.

Winners of the drawing are typically called or emailed to be notified about their prize, the group said on their website.

"I thought that it was a scam. I was a little upset actually!" Watkins told the lottery. "I thought that it was not real, couldn't be real. It's still something that I really don't believe, I'm still in some shock here."

Watkins said she works as a nurse in the COVID unit at a long-term care facility and has experienced so much since the pandemic started early last year.



"Just seeing some of the things that I've had to see, I am very thankful," she said. "I had been praying for something to help me with this situation. It really is a great thing. I'm very blessed."

According to the lottery, Watkins chose to take home the lump sum of her winnings instead of receiving 20 $50,000 yearly payments. In the end, she received $424,500 after required state and federal tax withholdings.

"I'm just gonna take it slow and easy and figure out what I'm gonna do," said Watkins. "I would love a new home, but I've just got to take time and put it in the right place."

According to a New York Times database, North Carolina has experienced upwards of 638,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, and more than 22.7 million people have been diagnosed with coronavirus across the United States as of Tuesday afternoon. More than 379,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus so far, the outlet added.

[hija]

Number of indy bookshops grew despite pandemic



One upside of lockdown is that it has prompted us to rekindle our love affair with literature, with some research claiming 35 per cent of people have read more during the crisis.

Even so, the idea of opening a bookshop in the middle of a pandemic will likely seem like a farfetched narrative to some. However, according to the Booksellers Association, more than 50 bookshops launched last year despite the coronavirus crisis, outnumbering the 44 that closed.

The increase in openings helped the association swell its membership to 967 bookshops in the UK and Ireland – the most number since 2013.

[Zbignieww]

Schertz couple experiences 'once-in-a-lifetime' moment during fishing trip at Cibolo Creek



Imagine finding a fish with another live fish stuck inside its mouth? A Schertz couple recently experienced what they are calling a "once-in-a-lifetime" moment during a fishing trip on Saturday at Cibolo Creek.

Stephanie Drew and her husband Nathan Belloff started their trip at Guadalupe River, but left to Cibolo Creek after having no bites in eight hours. Drew said they typically always catch something while at the creek, which runs 96 miles long from Boerne to Stockdale.

Drew noted they were in an area near Crescent Bend in Cibolo.



While at the creek, Drew said they saw a few perch fish jumping around, along with a good size largemouth bass – which they wanted to catch. However, they noticed the bass acting strange as they approached it in their canoe, she said.

"We thought it might have been caught on an old line or something," Drew said. "We saw something in its mouth but didn't know what it was."

After many attempts trying to catch the fish, she said she eventually grabbed him up and saw a sight they've never seen before. Drew said they found a live perch stuck inside the bass' mouth – which typically eats frogs, small and large fish, and insects.

The dorsal fin on the perch prevented the two from pulling it out by hand, but the two helped the bass out by using pliers to free the fish inside its mouth. Thankfully for the fish, this wasn't dinner and a show.

"This particular bass had some eyes bigger than his belly," the 26-year-old joked. "But we got the perch out, and they both got to swim another day. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, for sure."

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/ ... o-20483961

[Fivetide]

Fake US leg band gets pigeon a reprieve in Australia


In this Jan. 13, 2021, file image made from video, a pigeon with a blue leg band stands on a rooftop
in Melbourne, Australia. A U.S. bird organization said the leg band identifying the bird as a U.S. racing
pigeon was counterfeit, which may save the bird from strict Australian biosecurity policies that would
call for a U.S. pigeon to be killed. (Channel 9 via AP, File)

A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.

The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away, two months earlier.

On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.

But Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said on Friday the band was fake.

The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States which is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.

“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable,” Roberts said. “They do not need to kill him.”

Australia’s Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, agreed that the pigeon dubbed Joe, after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, was wearing a “fraudulent copy” leg band.

“Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk,” it said in a statement.

The department said it will take no further action.

Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack had earlier said there would be no mercy if the pigeon was from the United States.

“If Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck Joe, either fly home or face the consequences,” McCormack said.

Martin Foley, health minister for Victoria state where Joe is living, had called for the federal government to spare the bird even if it posed a disease risk.

“I would urge the Commonwealth’s quarantine officials to show a little bit of compassion,” Foley said.

Andy Meddick, a Victorian lawmaker for the minor Animal Justice Party, called for a “pigeon pardon for Joe.”

“Should the federal government allow Joe to live, I am happy to seek assurances that he is not a flight risk,” Meddick said.

Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the change of nationality but pleased that the bird he named Joe would not be destroyed.

“I thought this is just a feel-good story and now you guys want to put this pigeon away and I thought it’s not on, you know, you can’t do that, there has got to be other options,” Celli-Bird said of the threat to euthanize.

Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the bird’s owner based on the number on the leg band. The bands have both a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird didn’t remember the symbol and said he can no longer catch the bird since it has recovered from its initial weakness.

The bird with the genuine leg band had disappeared from a 560-kilometer (350-mile) race in Oregon on Oct. 29, Crooked River Challenge owner Lucas Cramer said.

That bird did not have a racing record that would make it valuable enough to steal its identity, he said.

“That bird didn’t finish the race series, it didn’t make any money and so its worthless, really,” Cramer said.

He said it was possible a pigeon could cross the Pacific on a ship from Oregon to Australia.

“In reality, it could potentially happen, but this isn’t the same pigeon. It’s not even a racing pigeon,” Cramer said.

The bird spends every day in the backyard, sometimes with a native dove on a pergola.

“I might have to change him to Aussie Joe, but he’s just the same pigeon,” Celli-Bird said.

Lars Scott, a carer at Pigeon Rescue Melbourne, a bird welfare group, said pigeons with American leg bands were not uncommon around the city. A number of Melbourne breeders bought them online and used them for their own record keeping, Scott said.

Australian quarantine authorities are notoriously strict. In 2015, the government threatened to euthanize two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Faced with a 50-hour deadline to leave Australia, the dogs made it out in a chartered jet.

[HogwartsExpress]

A museum let a group of penguins wander its empty rooms, and they couldn't take their eyes off the paintings


As we continue to stay at home, penguins around the world are having a blast. They're meeting whales in the aquarium, roaming the streets of Cape Town, South Africa, and even getting their first art history lesson.

Penguins from the Kansas City Zoo recently paid a visit to the nearby Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, wandering the halls as they admired Baroque and Impressionist masterpieces.

The three Humboldt penguins examined paintings by the likes of Caravaggio and Monet, surprising the museum's director with their artistic tastes.

The director, Julián Zugazagoitia, told Insider he initially assumed his penguin visitors would be entranced by Monet's "Water Lilies."

"The reason we wanted to expose the penguins to the 'Water Lilies,' besides the fact that it's one of our favorite paintings, is that it's so calming and soothing," he said. "We thought maybe they would react to the soothingness of that painting, but they seemed to wander around and not particularly stop on that one."

But the penguins, it seems, are far bigger Baroque fans.

"I think they felt more comfortable there," Zugazagoitia said. "They seemed to spend more time there and look more intently. The room is much warmer, the walls are red, and there's a lot of action going on in the paintings."

"I don't know if the penguins were recognizing human figures and looking at that, as they like interacting with humans," he added. "Or maybe they just like the Old Masters more."

The idea to bring penguins to the museum actually started as an April Fools' joke.

On April 1, Zugazagoitia called up Randy Wisthoff, the director of Kansas City Zoo, to ask about his plans for reopening during the coronavirus pandemic.

"All of Kansas City, especially the arts and nonprofits, is a very close-knit and friendly group," Zugazagoitia said. "So we're all talking to each other to coordinate how to reopen."

"I was calling him to see how operations were going and when they were thinking about reopening. Then, as a joke, I said, 'Hey, why don't you bring some of your penguins to the museum?'"

"I thought he'd think it was a crazy idea," Zugazagoitia added. "But he said, 'Of course, when do you want to do it?' So it went from silly banter with a friend to something possible and real."

Staff members from the zoo and the museum worked together to plan the visit.

"We were concerned first and foremost for the security of the birds and the art, and that's what determined what rooms were available," Zugazagoitia said.

During the visit, the penguins' caretakers followed closely behind as they waddled around the new and exciting space.

And Zugazagoitia said he was surprised to find that the penguins were quite similar to the museum's usual guests.

"They reacted very much like our visitors, who wander around the rooms and look a little here and a little there," he said. "They say the average attention span of humans is eight to 10 seconds when you're looking in a very big museum, and I think the penguins were in that average. They were more anthropomorphic than I had expected them to be."

Since the penguins are Peruvian, Zugazagoitia spoke with them in Spanish as they explored the museum.

"I'm not an expert on the animal world," he said. "But seeing them was like, 'Oh my god, they're paying attention, they're curious.'"

The museum posted a video of the penguins' May 6 visit on YouTube, where it quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views and even made international news.

"The greatest surprise was seeing the emails and comments from people saying how much they enjoyed it," Zugazagoitia said. "I think it's also a sign of the times, that it's good to be light and whimsical and have a little bit of fun."

"I think this provided an unexpected joy and a bit of fun," he added. "The zoo and museum of art are generally physically apart, you don't see them on the same day. But we brought the two together and it was a fantastic surprise. Plus, the penguins were so cute and well-behaved. It was just an amazing day."

While The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art remains closed for the time being, Zugazagoitia said staff members had been pouring their creativity into its website.

"These very difficult times are allowing us to experiment and do things that would otherwise be hard to imagine," he said. "It's important for us to provide a robust and exciting website that mimics the life of the museum, and I hope it's feeding the curiosity and intellect so that people will want to see even more of it when we reopen."

As the penguins have proved, you always learn something new during a day at the museum.

source
https://www.insider.com/penguins-visit-art-museum-for-the-day-2020-5

[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 JANUARY 16
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 may post One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can enter only once a day
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, 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
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

Florida wildlife officials rescue six trapped manatees

Six trapped manatees were rescued at Pine island Conversation Area in Florida by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission.



The FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute posted photos of the rescue on Facebook Thursday and noted that the manatees likely got into the refuge system by swimming over a concrete weir during a high-water event that later didn't allow them to swim out.

Five of the six manatees were rescued first, with four of them released back into the wild following a health assessment.

The fifth manatee is being rehabilitated at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.

The sixth manatee was recused the next day and also taken to Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens to be rehabilitated.

A manatee previously spotted with a bicycle tire wrapped around its body appeared more than a year later with the tire gone, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported in December.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/01/14 ... 610650245/

[HogwartsExpress]

Retired mathematician fixes bikes for hundreds without charging a dime

Potomac, Maryland — This past April, Ric Jackson helped a neighbor who was looking for someone to fix the brakes on his daughter's bicycle.

"I fixed it up. He took it back. And she was thrilled and he was thrilled," Jackson said. "And it's just mushroomed."

The avid cyclist and retired mathematician has since fixed more than 650 bikes for friends, neighbors, even strangers.

He charges nothing for this labor of love, but says he gets a lot in return. Especially the looks on children's faces when they see their old bikes transformed.

When he looks at a bike he says he sees "a thing of beauty."

"If you clean off the dirt from the tires, put new handgrips on," he said, "before you know it, it will be … something that will just delight the heart of some little girl someplace."

One father sent Jackson this text: "Thank you for the wonderful gift today. We had a great daddy-daughter bike ride and she was all smiles."

"That's the kind of thing that makes my day," Jackson said. "That's my reward."

And during times like these, there might be no better reward than the smile of a child.

source
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ric-jackson-bike-repairs-retired-mathematician/

[HogwartsExpress]

Fairy garden sparks a friendship between strangers

Kelly Kenney was walking in her Los Angeles neighborhood one day when she came across a fairy garden. While staring at these tree trunk trinkets, she felt an alter ego emerging.

"On my way back to my apartment I was brainstorming ideas of what my name was going to be," Kenney said. "My imagination just kind of took over and I just started thinking, 'Well, maybe if I left a note as a fairy, that would be really fun to do.'"

The next night she did just that — she left a note for whoever built the garden.

"My name is Sapphire," she wrote. "I am one of the fairies who lives in this tree."

The next day, a 4-year-old girl named Eliana wrote back. It was the first exchange in what has evolved into a remarkable friendship — nine months of letters and presents and glitter galore. They exchanged photos of one another and turned a year of disappointment into a season of wonder.

Eliana's mom, Emily, couldn't be more grateful.

"We were constantly floored, like just completely floored. The gifts that she would give were just so personal, so kind, and we were just like, 'We don't even know you!'" she said.

Eliana felt like the luckiest girl in the world. But what she wanted more than any present was to meet her friend. And that's when Sapphire remembered that fairies can, on very rare occasion, become human sized. So, earlier this month, she appeared.

"She turned around and saw me and I immediately was like, 'Are you Eliana?!' And she was like, 'Yea.' And the way that she looked at me, I'll never forget that," Kenney said.

Kenney said she was at a dark place at the start of the pandemic. But with a little imagination and kindness, she found her light.

"I want people to believe that they don't have to be a fairy to give a little bit of magic to someone else. And it doesn't have to be a child either," she said.



source
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fairy-garden-sparks-a-friendship-between-strangers/

[BigGlen]

This Company Is Looking For Someone To Binge-Watch Netflix, Eat Pizza



In today's edition of lucrative job offers is an opportunity to get paid for watching Netflix and eating pizza. BonusFinder, an American website dedicated to reviewing and offering deals for legal gambling sites, is on the lookout for a "professional binge watcher".

"Following a rocky start to 2021 and lockdowns coming back, the team at BonusFinder want to spread some cheer by opening a new role where you'll be paid to watch Netflix and eat takeout pizza," BonusFinder explains on its website.

So, on National Pizza Day which falls on February 9, one lucky job-seeker will be paid $500 to kick back with some pizza and watch three Netflix shows.

The selected candidate will be required to review each series for story and plot lines, acting quality and series ending, among other things. They will also have to rate their takeout pizzas on taste, base texture, value for money and more.



Meanwhile, another job opportunity is also grabbing eyeballs on social media. Bedroom Athletics, a UK-based company, has two vacancies for a "Slipper Tester".

The selected candidates will have to wear slippers for 12 hours a day, two days a month. They will be paid a total monthly salary of 333 pounds for two days a month for one year as they test out and give feedback on different slippers and other products.

(Footnote - - I'm more than qualified for both of these jobs)

[HogwartsExpress]

Archaeologists find world's oldest animal cave painting



Painted using dark red ochre pigment, the life-sized picture of the Sulawesi warty pig appears to be part of a narrative scene.

The picture was found in the Leang Tedongnge cave in a remote valley on the island of Sulawesi.

It provides the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.

"The people who made it were fully modern, they were just like us, they had all of the capacity and the tools to do any painting that they liked," said Maxime Aubert, the co-author of the report published in Science Advances journal.

A dating specialist, Mr Aubert had identified a calcite deposit that had formed on top of the painting, and used Uranium-series isotope dating to determine that the deposit was 45,500 years old.

This makes the artwork at least that old. "But it could be much older because the dating that we're using only dates the calcite on top of it," he added.

The report says that the painting, which measures 136cm by 54cm (53in by 21in), depicts a pig with horn-like facial warts characteristic of adult males of the species.

There are two hand prints above the back of the pig, which also appears to be facing two other pigs that are only partially preserved.

Co-author Adam Brumm said: "The pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs."

To make the hand prints, the artists would have had to place their hands on a surface before spitting pigment over it, the researchers said. The team hopes to be able to extract DNA samples from the residual saliva as well.

The painting may be the world's oldest art depicting a figure, but it is not the oldest human-produced art.

In South Africa, a hashtag-like doodle created 73,000 years ago is believed to be the oldest known drawing.

source
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55657257

[HogwartsExpress]

People dressed up as Star Wars characters seen during Aus-India Test


During the second day of the fourth and final Test between Australia and India at the Gabba, spectators dressed up as Star Wars characters were seen at the stadium. Photos and videos of the spectators went viral on social media. ICC shared an image of the spectators and wrote, "The best dress up award on day two goes to."

source
https://inshorts.com/en/news/people-dre ... 0802614901

I think that's enough news for one day It'd be spamming if I posted more

[Fatima99]

‘Stunning’ Victorian Bathhouse Uncovered Beneath a Manchester Parking Lot

A stunning Victorian-era bathhouse over 150-years old was uncovered when builders upended a Manchester parking lot during the construction of a new public park.

Unlike a Roman-era construct that would only be known as “bathhouse,” city archaeologists identified the find as Mayfield Baths, a place where city textile workers bathed and washed clothes during the 19th century.

“We knew what we would be excavating but we didn’t expect the tiles to be in such good condition,” Graham Mottershead, project manager at Salford Archaeology, told the BBC. “They are stunning.”




So far the excavators have discovered two 62-foot long tiled pools, boiler, flues, and pumps. The apparatus heated the water then sent it circling throughout the pools or to the laundry. They used 3D laser scanning and drone photography to identify the site and make digital drawings.

Trade during the 19th century had converted Manchester into the beating manufacturing heart of England, and was known as the “Cottonopolis.” Sanitary conditions were poor, and the Mayfield Baths were the third such installation in the city to improve the lives of the factory workers.



“Before public baths the textile workers lived in crammed unsanitary conditions and would wash their clothes in the used bathwater,” Ian Miller, another Salford Archaeology expert, told the BBC.

“Public baths were a game-changer for the health of the working classes, keeping clean, and having clean clothes were essential for public health.”

The tiles will be used as part of the £1.4 billion Mayfield Partnership plan to redevelop that part of the city, including a 6.5-acre park, the first new one built in the city for over 100 years.

According to the Smithsonian, one of the new commercial buildings will be named after a 19th-century swimming instructor and public health advocate, George Poulton, who actually gave lessons at the Mayfield Baths.

[PennySerenade]

Thousands share Indigenous ribbon skirt photos in solidarity with Sask. girl



TORONTO -- Thousands of Indigenous women around the world are sharing photos on social media in solidarity with a 10-year-old Canadian girl who was ridiculed for wearing a traditional ribbon skirt to school last month.

Isabella Kulak from the Cote First Nation attended a “formal day” at Kamsack Comprehensive Institute in Saskatchewan on the final day of class before the holidays. Other girls at the school were wearing what looked like store-bought dresses, she and her parents recounted on CTV News Channel Friday, but Isabella chose to wear one of her traditional, handmade ribbon skirts.

The Indigenous attire, which are often vibrantly coloured and feature ribbon-like patterns, mean many things to different women and are worn on a variety of occasions.

For Isabella, the skirts holds much power. “It represents strength, resilience, cultural identity and womanhood,” she told CTV News Channel on Friday.

But in one moment that day, that power was taken from her, when a teaching assistant told Isabella that her skirt didn’t match her dress and wasn’t appropriate for a formal day. They pointed to another girl at the school in a dress suggesting Isabella wear something different next time. The school has since apologized to Isabella and her family.

When she went home that day, Isabella’s parents Lana and Chris noticed she seemed sad. Later that evening, she opened up to her mother about what happened.

“It really broke my heart and it brought back all kinds of emotions from when I was a little girl,” Lana told CTV News Channel. “I couldn’t believe that it was happening in this day and age to one of my children now. It was very heartbreaking.”

A Facebook group in support of Isabella has grown to more than 5,500 members since Dec. 30. In thousands of images posted to the page, Indigenous women and girls from across Canada and around the globe -- from California to England -- are seen showing off a variety of ribbon skirts. Some are simple designs, others intricate and floral. Some are playful. One woman posted a photo of her wearing an Edmonton Oilers skirt. Another young girl shared an image of her holding a baby Yoda doll in a matching ribbon skirt.

The incident has inspired a push for a “ribbon skirt day” later this month in the area. Isabella’s parents hope that the difficult moment for the family can turn into a positive lesson for others.

“These old mindsets and these old ways of thinking … people think there’s been a bunch of progress and maybe there has been, but not enough. We can always strive to do better,” said Chris. “I hope that all the support and showing of interest in this story will get people talking in a positive way about what happened and not a negative way so that we can change the course of this discussion that’s been happening for a very long time.”

The outpouring of support has already been a positive step.

“It felt very nice to know that I have lots of people supporting me around the world,” said Isabella, who has been getting personal messages of encouragement.​