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Oct 14th, 2020, 3:09 am
Catholic Church Sets 15-Year-Old Programmer on the Path to Sainthood

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There are a lot of candidates for the most cyberpunk event of 2020. How about a drive-thru strip club with gas masks to protect the dancers from a pandemic? Or maybe covid-19 testing sites sponsored by Pepsi. Or a president shifting his duties to social media as he’s quarantined with an infectious disease. The list just gets longer. Case in point: It’s time for a cyber-saint.

Carlos Acutis died from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15. Since then, his notoriety among Catholics has grown, and on Saturday he was beatified at a ceremony at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. The boy was known in the church as a whiz when it came to navigating the modern world and the internet. He helped Catholic organizations maintain their websites and worked on various personal development projects, the most prominent being an online catalog of miracles. Now, he’s on track to become the first millennial saint.

Being tech-savvy isn’t enough to get the church to grant a person sainthood. The story of a saint’s life requires mythical qualities that speak to the great beyond. His mother, Antonia Acutis, has told reporters that she wasn’t very religious before Carlos was born and that it was her son that pulled her closer to the church. According to his mother’s account, he was drawn to the churches the family passed on the street when he was just three years old. He loved to pray the rosary and one of his unfulfilled wishes was to travel to all of the sites of Eucharistic miracles in the world.

His obsession with the Catholic faith dovetailed with his love of technology in his early adolescence, and Acutis began his work spreading the gospel through the tubes of the internet. His list of good works includes defending fellow students from bullies at school and setting up a support network for various friends whose parents were going through divorce.

After his death, calls for the beatification process began, and Acutis cleared the first step of becoming a “Servant of God” in 2013. In 2018, he was proclaimed “Venerable,” and following the weekend’s ceremony, he has been given the title of “Blessed.”

Usually, to become a saint, the church must recognize two miracles attributed to the candidate. Earlier this year, the Pope approved one miracle in which a boy in Brazil was said to have been healed of his chronic condition causing serious abdominal pain after a local parishioner acquired a relic from Carlos’s mother and asked the congregants to pray for Acutis to intervene. More reports of miracles could come to fulfill the standard saint criteria, but according to NPR, Pope Francis could also intervene and waive the requirement.

According to Catholic News Agency, Acutis has become a hero to younger Catholics who might find other saints off-putting. “Carlo puts flesh on what a saint who plays video games and goes on the internet looks like,” one of Acutis’s fans told CNA. “He challenges me to examine my conscience and say, ‘Ok, I’m called to be a saint who uses the internet too. Am I using it to make God’s love known?’”

Following the beatification ceremony, Acutis’s exhumed body will lie in repose in a glass tomb for pilgrims to visit and venerate until Oct. 17. The body is reportedly displayed wearing the style of jeans and Nike sneakers that the boy favored in life.

https://gizmodo.com/catholic-church-set ... 1845360776

"Can't we have one meeting that doesn't end with us digging up a corpse?"
Mayor Quimby
Oct 14th, 2020, 3:09 am

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Oct 14th, 2020, 7:32 am
Customers Help Wait Tables, Work Register, At Understaffed Restaurant In New Zealand

After a family emergency left a Thai restaurant in North Island, New Zealand, severely understaffed, customers stepped up and fulfilled the vacant duties.

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Emily Puhi was dining at the restaurant in Huntly and shared the wonderful story to Facebook.

"So we went to our favorite Thai food place in Huntly to find out it was packed.

The tables were filled, people lined up waiting to pay, to order or to pick up. The chef was by himself cooking so he couldn't wait the tables and be at the counter.

Found out that his staff didn't turn up.

So when the customers found out about it, the lady waiting to pay started waiting tables for him, and the other lady that works at the real estate shop beside the Thai place, worked the register with his permission and also waited tables.

We could easily feel the sense of community all around the place. Frowns turned to smiles and grumpy waiting turned to patiently waiting.

It was beautiful to witness. What an awesome place to live in."
Oct 14th, 2020, 7:32 am
Oct 14th, 2020, 8:06 am
Man, 80, Pulls Driver from Sinking Car in Calif., 17 Years After Saving Neighbors from Burning Home

Steve Montelongo may not think he’s a hero, but the three people he’s rescued over the last 20 years might beg to differ.

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” he told KOVR. “I was just a fella that got put in the right place at the right time.”

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The 80-year-old Montelongo was in the right place at the right time last week, when he leaped into action in California to help pull a man from his car after he accidentally drove it into a canal, according to NBC affiliate KCRA.

The rescue mission came nearly 20 years after he pulled two of his neighbors to safety as their house burned down.

Montelongo told KCRA that he was taking his granddaughter home from the dentist on Thursday when they stopped at a traffic light around 10 a.m. in Modesto.

“She says, ‘Oh my god, a car just went into the canal, grandpa!’” he recalled.

Montelongo pulled over to check out the scene, and jumped into action immediately, as water had begun rushing into the car and the driver remain trapped, the Modesto Bee reported.

“Nobody’s trying to get into the water to get the guy out,” Montelongo told the outlet. “So I walked into the canal — it was about 10 feet for me — and I managed to open the door. It was unlocked, thank God for that. And I pulled it open, but then the water rushed in faster.”

Eventually, Montelongo was able to yank the “panicking” man from the car by his shirt, KOVR reported.

The California Highway Patrol identified the driver as 62-year-old Jack Swarts, and said he suffered an apparent medical episode before he crashed into the canal, the Bee reported. He was reportedly not injured, but was taken to the hospital.

Montelongo’s heroics in saving Swarts are not the first time he’s risked his life to save another; in 2003, he was awarded the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission medal for rescuing his elderly neighbors after a natural gas leak and explosion set their house ablaze.

The retired construction worker was 62 years old at the time, and managed to kick open the front door of the burning house to pull 80-year-old Kathirne Mattox to safety, according to the Commission.

“I heard the explosion, ran over to see what was going on,” he recalled to KCRA. “I thought it was my house. It was the neighbor’s house. Ran over there and my son was trying to get in the door and he couldn’t, so I said move, let me try. And that’s when I pulled the door. And then I kicked the inside door because of the carpet, and I pulled the lady out.”

He then went back into the house to rescue 79-year-old Wayne Maxwell, too. Montelongo suffered chest pains during the rescue and was hospitalized for observation, but recovered.

Tom Olsen of the California Highway Patrol praised Montelongo’s quick thinking.

“First responder, he can probably add to his resume,” he told KOVR. “A lot of people are in the right place at the right time, but very few actually did what Mr. Montelongo did.”
Oct 14th, 2020, 8:06 am

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Oct 14th, 2020, 8:08 am
Utah hiker is chased by cougar, video shows: 'I don't feel like dying today'

“No, no, go away, please go away,” Burgess said as he backed away from the cougar. “Come on, dude, I don’t feel like dying today."

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A hiker in Utah took video showing a cougar chasing him for nearly six minutes.
Kyle Burgess, 26, said he was hiking at about 5 p.m. Saturday in Provo’s Slate Canyon Park when he saw four cougar cubs.
Then, the apparent mother of the cubs started chasing him.
“No, no go away, please go away,” Burgess, a trail runner who was hiking alone, said as he backed away from the cougar pursuing him on the trail.
At one point Burgess says, apparently to the animal, “Come on, dude, I don’t feel like dying today."
The wild cat initially followed him at a slow but steady pace, but then lunged.
Burgess picked up a rock and threw it at the cougar, which then ran away.
“My adrenaline was pumping so much,” Burgess later told NBC Salt Late City affiliate KSL. “I definitely thought, 'Yeah, I was gonna get hurt'."
“It was cool, exciting and then it’s like, 'What do I do?'” he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ut ... l-n1243082
Oct 14th, 2020, 8:08 am

Exodus A.D.: A Warning to Civilians by Paul Troubetzkoy [10000 WRZ$] Reward!
https://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=5556807
Online
Oct 14th, 2020, 12:28 pm
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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
WENDESDAY OCTOBER 14th

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 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

EXAMPLE POST
Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag
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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
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 :lol: :lol: :lol:

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


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Oct 14th, 2020, 12:28 pm

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Oct 14th, 2020, 12:42 pm
Class ring lost in Arkansas lake found six years later

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A woman whose high school class ring was lost in an Arkansas lake was reunited with the item after it was found by a man with a metal detector six years later.

Sierra Welter said she moved to Arkansas shortly after graduating from Oak Harbor High School in Washington state in 2010 and she lost her class ring while swimming with friends in Lake Dardanelle in 2014.

"I freaked out," Welter told KING-TV. "I actually bawled my eyes out over it that night."

Welter feared the ring was gone for good, but six years later Tom Williamson was searching Lake Dardanelle with his metal detector when he discovered a ring.

"The biggest thing I ever found before was a set of gold teeth," Williamson said. "I've always wanted to find a class ring that I could return to the owner. It was on my bucket list. You can miss them by two inches and the metal detector won't pick it up. Luckily, I went across that one."

Williamson mailed the ring to the Oak Harbor School District, where employees Tonya Mays and April Williamson-Stachause took up the search. The ring was cleaned, revealing the name "Sierra" engraved with no last name.

The women did some detective work and determined the ring likely belonged to Welter, who they contacted on Facebook.

Welter said the ring represents more to her than just high school memories -- it was a gift from her mother, who has since died.

"The ring is one of the few things that I have left of her," Welter said. "It means a lot to me."

She said she was touched to find out that people had put effort into returning the ring to her.

"I'm just in awe. I'm so grateful that somebody took the time to research where it even came from in the first place to return it back," she said. "It's definitely a precious reminder of my mom."

The school district applauded the efforts of Mays and Williamson-Stachause in a "shout out" on the district's Facebook page.

Source: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/10/13 ... 602609732/
Oct 14th, 2020, 12:42 pm

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Oct 14th, 2020, 2:38 pm
A Fisherman Has a Decade-Long Friendship With a Blind Seal Who Follows Him Each Day

A fisherman has formed the unlikeliest of decade-long friendships—with a blind seal who follows every day.

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Nicholas Lewis first met Shauna the seal in 2010 when she was just a pup. She poked her head out of the water looking for some food.

Ever since, the sociable seal has greeted Nicholas at the steps at Peel Bay on the Isle of Man to “say hello.”

The 41-year-old crab and lobster fisherman says he now feels like Shauna is like his own child as he sees her every day and “loves her very much.”

Shauna will spend her afternoons following one of Nicholas’ three boats around the bay before enjoying two or three mackerel a day.

The dad-of-four said, “When she was just a little pup she’d appear and we’d always feed her and she became so confident and comfortable around us. I don’t think we’d go a single morning without her coming to say hello.


“She used to come up the steps to wait for us knowing that we’d be there in the morning. It was a bit startling at first seeing a seal waiting for you like you had an appointment. I love seeing her by my boat—she’s fascinating.

Sadly, in the last year Shauna has become blind in one eye and has progressively lost sight in both eyes.

Nicholas noticed Shauna’s left eye was suddenly turning white in late 2019, and then six months later both turned fully white.

He said he has had to take extra care for his best pal in recent times, as she has become more prone to injuries.

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Still, ten years on and this pair continue to be inseparable—something Nicholas says he won’t ever take for granted. For him, Shauna will always be like “family.”
Oct 14th, 2020, 2:38 pm
Oct 14th, 2020, 4:13 pm
Could Electromagnetic Fields Treat Diabetes? These Scientists Think So

Researchers may have discovered a safe new way to manage blood sugar non-invasively.

Exposing diabetic mice to a combination of static electric and magnetic fields for a few hours per day normalizes blood sugar and insulin resistance, researchers at the University of Iowa have found.

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The unexpected and surprising discovery raises the possibility of using electromagnetic fields (EMFs) as a remote control to manage type 2 diabetes.

According to a statement from the university, the effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in diabetic mice have been “long-lasting, opening the possibility of an EMF therapy that can be applied during sleep to manage diabetes all day.”

EMFs, it’s been indicated by the new study, alter the balance of oxidants and antioxidants in the liver, improving the body’s response to insulin. This effect is mediated by small reactive molecules that seem to function as “magnetic antennae.”

Serendipity and Collaboration

The initial finding–published in Cell Metabolism on October 6–was pure serendipity. Sunny Huang, Calvin Carter’s co-lead author and an MD/PhD student interested in metabolism and diabetes, needed to practice taking blood from mice and measuring blood sugar levels.

Carter offered to let her borrow some of the mice he was using to study the effect of EMFs on brain and behavior in the animals.

“It was really odd because normally these animals have high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes, but all of the animals exposed to EMFs showed normal blood sugar levels,” Huang says. “I told Calvin, ‘There’s something weird going on here.'”

The finding that these mice had normal blood sugar levels after EMF exposure was doubly strange because the mice had a genetic modification which made them diabetic.

“That’s what sparked this project,” Carter confirms. “Early on, we recognized that if the findings held up, they could have a major impact on diabetes care.”

The findings held up. Carter and Huang, working with senior author Val Sheffield and diabetes expert Dale Abel, found that the combined wireless application of static magnetic and electric fields modulates blood sugar in three different mouse models of type 2 diabetes. The team also showed that exposure to such fields, approximately 100 times that of the Earth’s, during sleep, reversed insulin resistance within three days of treatment.

EMFs and Redox Biology

EMFs are everywhere; telecommunications, navigation, and mobile devices all use them to function. EMFs are also used in medicine, in MRIs and EEGs, for example.

However, very little is known about how they affect biology. On their hunt for clues to understand the mechanisms underlying the biological effects of EMFs on blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, Carter and Huang reviewed literature from the 1970s investigating bird migration.

They found that many animals sense the Earth’s electromagnetic field and use it to orient themselves as well as for navigation.

“This literature pointed to a quantum biological phenomenon whereby EMFs may interact with specific molecules. There are molecules in our bodies that are thought to act like tiny magnetic antenna, enabling a biological response to EMFs,” Carter says. “Some of these molecules are oxidants, which are studied in redox biology, an area of research that deals with the behavior of electrons and reactive molecules that govern cellular metabolism.”
Oct 14th, 2020, 4:13 pm

Twitter: Fatima99@fatima99_mobi
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Oct 14th, 2020, 4:33 pm
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Five weeks ago, a 1-year-old German shepherd-husky mix with startling blue eyes fell off a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean north of San Diego. The dog, named Luna, was miles from land.

She was reported missing on Feb. 10 by her owner, fisherman Nick Haworth, who told authorities that Luna was a strong swimmer and would head toward land. But the nearest shoreline was San Clemente Island, home to a U.S. naval facility and about 2 miles from where the dog fell into the water.

Sandy DeMunnik, public affairs officer for the base, said staff helped Haworth search the island for the dog, but with no luck.

"He stayed in the area for two more days to look for her, and after a week, we considered her lost at sea and presumed dead," DeMunnik said, according to ABC News.

Crushed, Haworth made peace with Luna's death, posting on Facebook, "RIP Luna, you will be greatly missed."
Then, on Tuesday morning, she reappeared.

Luna turned up near the naval installation on the island as crew members were arriving for work.

"They saw Luna just sitting on the side of the road wagging her tail," DeMunnik said, according to ABC. "Keep in mind, there are no domesticated animals on the island, so it was a stunning sight."

The officers may have been surprised to see a dog, but Luna wasn't fazed to see the officers.

"They literally opened up the car door, whistled, and she jumped right in," Navy wildlife biologist Melissa Booker told The San Diego Union-Tribune. The newspaper writes:

"The determined dog had apparently swam to shore and survived on her own for five weeks. She was found to be a bit malnourished but otherwise healthy and uninjured. It appeared she'd eaten small rodents to survive, Booker said."

DeMunnik's evaluation was the same. She told ABC that Luna was undernourished but in good health, adding that the dog had likely been "surviving off of mice for the past few weeks."

Haworth's friend picked up Luna on Wednesday, and she is scheduled to be reunited with Haworth, a 20-year-old San Diego State student, when he returns from a trip on Thursday.

Haworth posted on Facebook, "Beyond stoked to have Luna back. I always knew she was a warrior."
Oct 14th, 2020, 4:33 pm
Online
Oct 14th, 2020, 6:34 pm
Self-driving shuttle will connect residents of Scarborough (MY) neighbourhood to GO Transit

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TORONTO -- A self-driving shuttle will connect residents of one Scarborough neighbourhood to GO Transit next spring as part of a new pilot project by the City of Toronto.

In a news release issued on Wednesday morning, the City of Toronto announced that officials have signed an agreement with Local Motors by LM Industries for the new autonomous shuttle trial, which will be operated in partnership with Metrolinx and funded by the Government of Canada.

The shuttle, which is equipped with an accessibility ramp and a wheelchair securement system, will transport residents of the West Rouge neighbourhood to the Rouge Hill GO Station.

“It was picked because it is one of those neighbourhoods where you have a lot of streets going back into the subdivision that may be far away from transit,” Mayor John Tory told CP24 on Wednesday.

“The whole idea here is for people to have the convenience of an autonomous vehicle going by their home.”

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The shuttle can accommodate eight passengers and an on-board safety attendant will oversee operations to ensure the vehicle is working properly.

“You can get on that vehicle for no additional charge and it will take you to the GO station,” Tory said. “So the whole idea of it is to increase transit ridership as an attractive and convenient option for people.”

The city says to “monitor and learn” from the pilot, a certified operator from Pacific Western Transportation and one customer service ambassador will be on board for every trip.

The duration of the pilot project is estimated to be between six and 12 months.

“I think this is very exciting,” the mayor said. “We are not the first city to do it but it is the first time it will be done in Toronto.”

The exact start date for the program has not been released.
Oct 14th, 2020, 6:34 pm

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Buzz is the best doggo ever.
Online
Oct 14th, 2020, 8:22 pm
Defying terror with music

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When a car packed with explosives detonated in the busy Mansour district of Baghdad, Karim Wasfi, the conductor of Iraq’s National Symphony Orchestra, did something unusual. As police secured the area, he took out his cello, sat on a chair and began to play amidst the debris. “It was an attempt to overcome grotesque acts of terror by an act of beauty,” he says.

Wasfi has since founded the Centre for Creativity-Peace through Arts, which brings young people from different ethnic backgrounds together to play music on Baghdad’s streets.

His approach has had some success. “One positive experience was when around 14 militiamen decided to give up their commitment to their weapons and to become musicians,” he reports.
Oct 14th, 2020, 8:22 pm

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Oct 14th, 2020, 9:54 pm
A taste for travel? Finnair to sell plane food in shops

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In this Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 file photo, passenger planes of the Finnish national airline company Finnair stand on the tarmac at Helsinki international airport, Helsinki.
Finnish carrier Finnair will start selling business class airplane food in supermarkets in a move to keep its catering staff employed and to offer a taste of the airline
experience to those missing flying in the COVID-19 times. The state-controlled airline said that in a pilot scheme the handmade meals, called “Taste of Finnair", would
initially be offered at one store as of Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. (Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva via AP, file)


Finnish carrier Finnair will start selling business class airplane food in supermarkets in a move to keep its catering staff employed and to offer a taste of the airline experience to those missing flying in the COVID-19 times.

The state-controlled airline said that in a pilot scheme the handmade meals, called “Taste of Finnair,” would initially be offered at one store as of Thursday.

The ready-made dishes include options like reindeer meatballs, Arctic char and Japanese-style teriyaki beef and are suited for Nordic and Asian palates and would cost about 10 euros ($12) to 13 euros, Finnair Kitchen said. Finnair is one of the main airlines flying between Europe and Asia, and several Asian chefs and cooks work at its catering unit.

The move comes as airlines around the world try to employ their idled resources during the pandemic and tap into people’s desire to fly when most planes are grounded. Some are offering simulated flights, fake trips where the aircraft takes off and lands in the same location, or even just time to sit in the plane.

Kimmo Sivonen, store manager at the K-Citymarket Tammisto which will sell the Finnair meals, told the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat that the dishes have been modified to have less salt and spices than those offered in the air, where people’s sense of taste is dulled by high altitude.

Takeaway food sales have boomed in Finland since spring after an estimated 60% of local work force started working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For their part, Finnair and the supermarket hope the meals will appeal to people’s yearning for travel.

“I think everyone has a bit of wanderlust these days and we can now satisfy that need a bit,” K-Citymarket’s Sivonen said.

Finnair Kitchen Vice President Marika Nieminen said that the airline’s catering unit has been looking to expand outside traditional flight meal services since the spring, when the pandemic forced almost all global airlines to halt most of their flights. Finnair temporarily laid off a large part of its nearly 7,000 workforce and its flight traffic was down 91% in September from the previous year.

“So many of Kitchen’s employees are temporarily laid off and we can now create new work and employment for our people,” Nieminen said.
Oct 14th, 2020, 9:54 pm
Oct 14th, 2020, 10:08 pm
New Research Shows Why Crows Are So Intelligent And Even Self-Aware, Just Like Us

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Crows, rooks, and ravens, a family of birds known as corvids, are pretty dang smart. In some ways, there are crows as smart as first graders.

In 2014, a famous ornithological accomplishment saw New Caledonian crows, who as outlined in Jennifer Ackerman’s brilliant work The Genius of Birds, are possibly the smartest of their race, and capable of passing newly acquired knowledge down to immediate offspring, completing the Aesop’s Fable challenge.

This famous test of intelligence and problem solving—which no animal had ever solved before, saw the crows drop stones into a water-filled tube in order to raise a floating platform of food high enough so that they could reach it.

More recently though, carrion crows have demonstrated that they can subjectively experience, process, and report on tasks or phenomena they have completed or seen.

This type of behavior is associated with the cerebral cortex, a region of the brain which not all animals possess, including birds, and suggests, according to the scientists, not only empirical evidence of consciousness in birds, but that consciousness as we would understand it can arise from different configurations of the brain organ as a whole; potentially changing the understanding of animal intelligence and neurology.

Savvy birds

Though the theory of what designs enable consciousness has moved on substantially from Descartes’ famous “cogito ergo sum” during the 1600s, the Latin phrase which translates to “I think therefore I am,” can be used to describe the recently reported performance of crows during a visual detection test.

Two crows, Ozzy and Glen, at the University of Tübingen in Germany were trained to peck at a red or blue target after they saw a light flash. Andreas Nieder, the scientist administering the test, then did something very difficult for even young children to grasp: he began changing the rules.

When at first the objective was to peck the red panel when a flash was detected, Nieder changed it to blue, which the crows picked up on and followed before Nieder changed it back to red. Furthermore, he would change the rule after the flash had already occurred or hadn’t occurred, giving the birds a few seconds to review what they knew about the task and make the correct corresponding choice.

This meant that they not only attached a phenomenon to a physical motion, but were able to review that in their head, and apply the same (could you say logic, or inference?) to the task again to continue pecking the correct panel.

“These results suggest that the neural foundations that allow sensory consciousness arose either before the emergence of mammals or independently in at least the avian lineage and do not necessarily require a cerebral cortex,” wrote Nieder et al. in their corresponding paper published in Science.

Bird-brained–a compliment

During the task hundreds of neurons were lighting up on monitors which tracked the activity of cells in the brain when the crows were acting on the flash, but when a light didn’t go off, the neurons remained silent, i.e. “no, I didn’t see it.”

The brilliant work of Glen, Ozzy, and Nieder was reported on by STATnews, who talked with Nieder about the study.

“I think it demonstrates convincingly that crows and probably other advanced birds have sensory awareness, in the sense that they have specific subjective experiences that they can communicate,” he said. “Besides crows, this kind of neurobiological evidence for sensory consciousness only exists in humans and macaque monkeys.”

Indeed crow brains can contain 1.5 billion neurons—as many as some monkeys.

With the possibility of crows, and perhaps other animals outside the mammalian order having complex if differently formed brains, it could change the way humans view our earthly neighbors and perhaps replicate the respect we have for monkeys and apes in other creatures.
Oct 14th, 2020, 10:08 pm

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Oct 14th, 2020, 10:28 pm
Netflix’s new series ‘Bridgerton’: Can it fill the hole ‘The Crown’ will leave?

As if Shonda Rhimes’s empire wasn’t big enough, it’s now spread to Netflix with her debut show, Bridgerton. This is coming at just the right time for those who can’t get enough historical period dramas – and for those who will have a missing piece in their heart once The Crown ends.

The sumptuous royal drama that is the The Crown will end after its fifth season instead of after its sixth. That means Rhimes, ABC’s powerhouse for over decade, will be able to show Netflix how versatile & valuable she is with her new show, based off of the historical romance novels by author Julia Quinn.

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Bridgerton is based on Quinn’s eight books about the Bridgerton children’s antics and their trouble with love. Each child has very Jane Austen-esque personality traits such as smart-mouths and well-intentioned actions. Bridegerton will be focused on Daphne, the eldest daughter of the Bridgerton family.

Bridgerton looks like the right fit for a younger crowd that will eat up the complex love plots. If executed just right, Rhimes can take the youthful feel of the stories and turn them into a prolific series with just the right mix of romanticism and realism.

Bridgerton will be Rhimes’s first real attempt at historical fiction. She’ll be in formidable company right off the bat, competing with the likes of Ryan Murphy and others who specialize in historical content and are pumping out new material almost constantly.

Even though she has a lot of competition, Rhimes is very confident in herself, having said, “The future of Shondaland at Netflix has limitless possibilities.”

https://filmdaily.co/news/bridgerton-netflix-series/
Oct 14th, 2020, 10:28 pm

If you want to be happy, be... Happiness depends upon ourselves. :wave:

Cheers,
Diva ♥ x
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Oct 15th, 2020, 3:16 am
Upstate NY Man Uncovers Treasure Worth Thousands in Walls of Home

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When Nick Drummond bought a home in upstate New York to restore, he knew the walls would have some secrets - he didn't realize those secrets would end up being worth thousands of dollars.

Nick Drummond is an architect with a passion and talent for historical restoration. Last year, he and his partner left their home in Baltimore so Nick could take a position in Cooperstown and, his partner Patrick could open his own floral design shop.

When the foursquare home in Ames they had admired came up for sale - they couldn't resist. While the home needs tons of work to return it to a semblance of its former glory - it wasn't long before the home started sharing its secrets with Nick and Patrick.
Nick says when they bought the house, they were told it was built by a childless German baron who turned to bootlegging illegal liquor in the 1920s.

Nick says the story seems to be at least partly true. "While repairing trim as part of a larger renovation, we discovered multiple false walls and secret compartment under the floor in our mudroom. The foundation walls and floors in the mudroom are lined with intact cases of 1920s whiskey."

azing it’s been sitting here so long, and no one ever knew!"

Even after the initial discovery, more and more bottles are being found.

"It's hard to say at this point how many full bottles we have; my guess is half of the upright bottles. (the upside down bottles in each bundle appear full, likely because they kept the corks wet). The other bottles dried out. So we may have around 20 or so full bottles so far, out of the initial 7 bundles," Nick says.

Nick says he's been contacted by auction houses and collectors who say the value of some of the bottles range from $500 - $1200.

To keep up with Nick as he renovates the 'Bootlegger Bungalow' and perhaps makes more discoveries, follow his adventures on Instagram and Facebook at Bootlegger Bungalow.

"If he’s a childless baron.... HE WAS A BARREN BARON SMUGGLER SMUGGLER," Nick says.

Having just had a room in my house taken down to the studs and not finding even a pint of bourbon, I feel gypped. Part of my now also wishes I sealed a bottle or two in the wall for the next guy. Missed opportunity.
Oct 15th, 2020, 3:16 am

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