Thread: Strange News

Very strange, very strange.

.....

• British soldier claims record for fastest woman to ski alone across Antarctica

A British army medical officer has said she has become the fastest woman to ski alone across Antarctica.

Capt Harpreet Chandi broke two Guinness world records for polar exploration last year and now claims she has broken a third.

She covered the 1,130km (702 miles) of Antarctic ice in 31 days, 13 hours and 19 minutes, beating the previous record holder, the Canadian Caroline Cote, by one day, 14 hours and 34 minutes.

She left Hercules Inlet on the Ronne ice shelf on 26 November and arrived at the south pole at 2.24am UK time on Thursday.

Guinness World Records still needs to verify the record, which can take several months.

Speaking from the south pole, Chandi said: “I’m tired but so glad I made it. This was completely different to my last expedition. I completely pushed myself to my limits on my last expedition, a speed attempt is completely different. After my last expedition, I knew I could cope well on the ice, which gave me the confidence to tackle this head on.”

She skied for between 12 and 13 hours a day on average and pulled a 75kg sledge containing everything she needed to survive behind her.

Chandi added: “It was definitely not a sprint, but I had to constantly weigh up my effort and how long I would ski for each day. Too long or too fast and I was going to burn out. Too slow or finish too early and I’d miss out on the record.

“Antarctica is an amazing place to be and it’s an absolute privilege to be here. It is not a place any person can conquer, it is a place you treat with respect and hope it allows you safe passage. I’m so glad it allowed me safe passage.

“I just focused on what I could control, I couldn’t control the conditions – the blistering sun, the whiteouts, the temperatures of -30C – but I can control how I dealt with them. Just keep taking it one step at a time.”

Chandi, from Derby, is on a career break from military service, where she was a physiotherapist providing rehabilitation for injured soldiers and officers. She first made history by becoming the first woman of colour to complete a 700-mile Antarctic journey, solo and unsupported, to the south pole.

Returning the following year, she broke two world records including completing the longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski expedition. She was recently made an MBE and was named woman of the year at the Women in Defence awards 2022.

After breaking two world records, she did not expect to return to Antarctica this year but soon found herself “dreaming up the next challenge”. She said: “This expedition is not only about only pushing myself, but also about inspiring others to challenge their boundaries, and break their barriers. It’s in those tough moments when you find out what you’re made of.

“One of my biggest motivations in those dark times on the ice is the thought of inspiring others to face their own challenge. When I make myself accountable to a bigger purpose, how could I not continue!”

Chandi will return to the UK soon to recover and plan her next adventure. “We all know what happens when I say ‘never again’,” she said.

Wow, strange new indeed.

Originally Posted by Norton

.....

I would take the onion over the points any time. If it were one of those tiny red Thai chilies, I would give it second thoughts.

• Queensland woman uses electric car to run her son’s dialysis machine during power cut

Amazing’: Queensland mum uses electric car to ‘save’ son’s life with dialysis during power outage

An electric vehicle owner has used her car’s emergency power system to run her 11-year-old son’s life-saving dialysis machine and another has ridden to the rescue of his neighbours after devastating storms cut power in south-east Queensland.

When the power went down after storms and flash flooding on Christmas Day, many residents immediately felt the consequences: electric gates did not work, septic tanks began to fill, air conditioners could not run and fridges began to warm as a heatwave followed.

But some electric vehicle drivers whose cars are equipped with “vehicle to load” systems – a back-up power system that allows the car to act as an emergency generator or supply for devices such as lights, laptops, TVs and refrigerators – stepped in to help out and, in some cases, save lives.

One woman on the Gold Coast, Kristy Holmes, 42, used her BYD electric car to power her 11-year-old son’s dialysis machine after their power shut off on Christmas Day.

At first, Holmes and her husband used the car to plug in their fridges and those of their neighbours in the adjoining units but when the power did not come back on quickly, she started to wonder whether the BYD Atto 3 the couple bought in February could also handle the life-saving dialysis machine.

“We ran it off the car,” Holmes said. “We only needed to use it for the one night. We could have run it for at least four nights and then have to go charge the car somewhere.”

Her son Levi, who is about to go on a transplant list this month, would have faced life-threatening health consequences had he not been able to receive treatment, and would have needed to travel to Brisbane during the storm if he could not find an alternative.

Holmes said she had known she could “use my car for good things” since she made slow-cooked mulled wine for a movie night using the car’s electric system.

“It’s the most amazing car I’ve ever owned. Now it’s been able to save my son during a storm, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a petrol car again.”

Another EV driver, chemistry teacher Matt McLaughlin, 52, used his vehicle to help those in need after he posted to the Bonogin community Facebook group offering emergency power.

“If anyone needs electricity briefly. To open gates, pump out biocycle etc. As long as it’s on a 3 pin 10A plug, I can help out,” he said.

“My much maligned EV has V2L which means you can run power to it. Give me a shout but I will require you to publicly acknowledge that EVs aren’t all bad.”

McLaughlin, a member of the Rural Fire Service, was unaffected by the power outage thanks to solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall home battery system at home. This allowed him to assist others, including a couple who had been locked in their home by an electric gate.

“Most gates now have a key with which you can manually unlock them, but theirs was really old. There was nowhere to put the key,” he said. “They were trying to get out their back gate into the national park.”

Other EV drivers with similar systems were out helping where they could, as were those with Tesla Power Walls who rigged up power to help run their neighbours’ fridges.

“I think everyone does just help out around here,” McLaughlin said. “In a semi-rural area, you’ve got to help out your neighbours.”

He said the crisis also taught a lesson to many about the advantages of zero-carbon technologies, included helping answer some “very anti-EV” sentiment from people who have sworn they’ll “never give up [their] dirty diesel”.

McLaughlin said even his wife was initially sceptical about his heavy investment in solar panels, home batteries and their two electric cars, but has since been convinced.

“We have been completely off-grid for six days, we’ve had air-con running and the pool pump running. I’ve been able to charge the car off the excess solar all day,” he said. “My wife thinks it’s fantastic.

“People can be sceptical until they realise, ‘Hang on, this is going to be better’. If the power goes out for half an hour in the middle of the night, we don’t notice. We’re oblivious to it.

“I wasn’t aware the power had even come back on when I woke up this morning.”

Norwegian Blues causing trouble

Foul-mouthed parrots are teaching other birds to swear

Banished offenders have been reintroduced to wildlife park flock, although keepers admit they may end up with 100 birds squawking expletives

When staff at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park noticed an outbreak of swearing among five of their African grey parrots in 2020, they segregated the birds to spare the blushes of the public.


The bad-mouthed parrots were eventually put back on display, but with plenty of warnings for visitors of a “sensitive” disposition.


Now three further birds appear to have discovered the joys of a squawked expletive. But this time their keepers are planning an altogether different response.


Instead of segregating the birds, named Eric, Captain and Sheila, the staff plan to release them into the wider flock in the hopes of “diluting” the foul language.


Steve Nichols, chief executive of the wildlife park who has spent 35 years caring for parrots, is more than aware of the risks.


He said: “We could end up with 100 swearing parrots on our hands. Only time will tell.”


He added the decision was also motivated by welfare concerns: “Parrots are flock creatures. They need to be with other parrots. The bigger the flock, the happier they are.


“Even though they swear, the welfare of the birds has to come first.”


The original five parrots, named Billy, Tyson, Eric, Jade and Elsie, spent three months in isolation as a result of their antics before they were put back on display.


They have since become the park’s star attraction, according to Mr Nichols, with a disclaimer notice installed at the enclosure to warn those of “a sensitive nature” about the birds’ colourful language.


Although keen not to offend families, Mr Nichols said the parrots offered humour “when the world seems very serious”.


He added: “You never tire of being told to eff off by a parrot. You can’t help but laugh. Of course, visitors stand around the enclosure swearing, trying to get the parrots to copy them.”


The African grey parrots are intelligent birds which thrive on social interaction


Asked what he thinks is likely to happen when the swearing parrots meet the remainder of the flock, Mr Nichols said: “Ultimately, I think the swearing will be diluted.


“People think parrots are loud birds but they talk quite quietly. I’m hoping, above the general noise of the flock, the swearing will be drowned out.”


Mr Nichols said he doubted the group of eight would completely stop swearing, noting that “once it’s in their vocabulary, it’s usually there for good”.


But he thought there was a good chance the birds would “imitate other sounds as well”, making the swearing less frequent.


Mr Nichols said: “We have about 30 birds who make the beeping sound that a reversing lorry makes. Hopefully, the rest will pick up on that and there will be less swearing.”


Although the odd swearing parrot is not unheard of in the world of avian wildlife keeping, having five at the same time was unusual, Lincolnshire Wildlife Park said at the time of the original outbreak.


Although nobody complained, staff moved the five swearers to allow young visitors to hear the other African greys’ natural calls.


Lincolnshire Wildlife Park is also home to the parrot Chico, who made headlines in September after learning to sing a range of pop songs, including Beyonce’s If I Were A Boy.


African greys are a common companion parrot because they are prized for their ability to mimic human speech.


In 2008, an escaped pet of the species in Japan was returned home after repeating the owner’s name and address.


They are relatively intelligent birds and thrive from a behavioural and socially enriching environment, as well as lots of attention.


Home to the National Parrot Sanctuary, the wildlife park houses more than 1,500 parrots.

Foul-mouthed parrots teach other birds to swear, says Lincolnshire Wildlife Park

Originally Posted by malmomike77

“Even though they swear, the welfare of the birds has to come first.”

Teach them to say"farking jews" or "bloody pommie bastards"........and then report back

• Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane possibly detected by sonar 16,000 feet underwater, exploration team claims

Amelia Earhart's disappearance over the central Pacific Ocean 87 years ago remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Countless theories about her fate have emerged in the decades since, but now a deep-sea exploration team searching for the wreckage of her small plane has provided another potential clue.

Deep Sea Vision, a Charleston, South Carolina-based team, said this week that it had captured a sonar image in the Pacific Ocean that "appears to be Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra" aircraft.

The company, which says it scanned over 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor starting in September, posted sonar images on social media that appear to show a plane-shaped object resting at the bottom of the sea. The 16-member team, which used a state-of-the-art underwater drone during the search, also released video of the expedition.

Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, told the Wall Street Journal that he funded the $11 million search by selling off his commercial real estate properties.

"This is maybe the most exciting thing I'll ever do in my life," he told the Journal. "I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt."

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, while flying over the Pacific Ocean during Earhart's attempt to become the first female aviator to circle the globe. They vanished without a trace, spurring the largest and most expensive search and rescue effort by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard in American history. Earhart and Noonan were declared dead two years later.

Multiple deep-sea searches using high-tech equipment have tried but failed over the years to find Earhart's plane.

Romeo told the Journal that his team's underwater "Hugin" submersible captured the sonar image of the aircraft-shaped object about 16,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean's surface less than 100 miles from Howland Island, where Earhart and Noonan were supposed to stop and refuel before they vanished.

Romeo's team didn't find the image until about three months into the trip, and at that stage it was impractical to turn back, he told the Journal, so they intend to return for a closer look.

Sonar experts told the Journal that only a closer look for details matching Earhart's Lockheed aircraft would provide definitive proof.

"Until you physically take a look at this, there's no way to say for sure what that is," underwater archaeologist Andrew Pietruszka told the newspaper.

There other theories about where Earhart may have vanished. Ric Gillespie, who has researched Earhart's doomed flight for decades, told CBS News in 2018 that he had proof Earhart crash-landed on Gardner Island — about 350 nautical miles from Howland Island — and that she called for help for nearly a week before her plane was swept out to sea.

Gillespie told CBS News the calls weren't just heard by the Navy, but also by dozens of people who unexpectedly picked up Earhart's transmissions on their radios thousands of miles away. Reports of people hearing calls for help were documented in places like Florida, Iowa and Texas. One woman in Canada reported hearing a voice saying "we have taken in water… We can't hold on much longer."

Gillespie's organization, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has also claimed that it found forensic evidence, including bones on the island, that were likely Earhart's.

Still, nearly 90 years later, no wreckage has ever been found, and Romeo thinks his team's sonar image may finally show the long-lost aircraft.

Romeo, who was joined on the expedition by two of his brothers who are also pilots, told the Journal that their aviation expertise provided a fresh perspective during the search.

"We always felt that a group of pilots were the ones that are going to solve this, and not the mariners," Romeo told the newspaper.

• What a 45,000-year-old pit of bones reveals about our earliest human ancestors

Inside a cave beneath a medieval German castle, researchers have discovered a pit of bones that they say unlock secrets of the earliest humans.

The remains — buried in layers of soil in the collapsed cave — contained the genetic material of cave bears, hyenas and 13 bones of early humans who died some 45,000 years ago.

The findings — which were described in a trio of papers published Thursday in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution — show that early humans ventured further north earlier than scientists had realized, that they could craft spear-shaped tools, and that humans then had the wherewithal to thrive in temperatures far more frigid than the climate today.

The discoveries, which were made possibly because of the development of new DNA technology, are reshaping how scientists understand the time when both humans and Neanderthals walked the European continent.

“Because of the age of this site and location, we know Neanderthals and humans quite definitively had a large overlap,” said Elena Zavala, a paleo and forensic geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped author the three studies. The species likely roamed the same geography for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.

The discoveries could bring scientists closer to understanding why Neanderthals ultimately died out and what role humans played in their demise.

John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist who studies ancient human relatives but was not involved in this research, said the study helps solidify the theory that patches of different human cultures were developing as Neanderthals neared their end.

“These groups are exploring. They’re going to new places. They live there for a while. They have lifestyles that are different,” he said of the early humans. “They’re comfortable moving into areas where there were Neanderthals.”

These discoveries were only possible because previous researchers left a stone unturned. Archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s previously excavated the Ilsenhöhle cave, below the Ranis Castle in Germany’s Thuringia region. The castle was built above the cave long before any excavation.

At that time, the scientists hit a more than 5-foot-thick rock, which blocked them from burrowing into key layers of the collapsed cave.

In 2016, armed with modern digging technology and new forms of analysis, the researchers returned. About 24 feet below the surface, they found layers that contained leaf points — which are like spear points — and human bone fragments.

The discovery of human bone fragments sent the researchers digging through the material excavated about nine decades ago — in which they found additional skeleton fragments.

“Finding human remains mixed with animal bones that had been stored for almost a century was an unexpected and fantastic surprise,” Hélène Rougier, a palaeoanthropologist at California State University Northridge, said in a news release.

In all, the researchers were able to identify 13 pieces of bone. DNA analysis confirmed the bone fragments were from humans and also that some were linked to the same person or a family member. Tests of animal bones found nearby suggest that the climate was harsh — comparable to modern-day Siberia.

That means humans were having success in an extreme climate some 45,000 years ago.

“These early modern people seem to have mastered or put together a cultural package that let them succeed at northern latitudes better than Neanderthals had done,” Hawks said.

The study also suggests that the leaf point technology scientists had once attributed to Neanderthals was used by humans.

“It’s a thoroughly skilled process to make those things,” Hawks said of leaf points, which are flakes of rock thinned into the shape of an olive leaf. “The fact that people invested the energy to make that beautiful thing -- tells us about their social system. It tells us they were not living hand to mouth. They had time to invest.”

The fate of Neanderthals has been a subject of hot debate. Did a shift in climate doom them? Did humans kill them off? Did they simply get absorbed into humanity as the species interbred?

Today, depending on their ancestry, many people still have a sliver of Neanderthal DNA in their genetic code.

More complicated genetic testing of the Ranis bone fragments, a project that is underway, could identify whether there are traces of Neanderthal genes in the recently discovered bone fragments.

“The big question — is there Neanderthal DNA? Did these humans potentially intermix with Neanderthals?” Zavala said.

Answers to questions like these in Ranis could help answer the questions intrinsic to our species’ existence, the researchers say.

“It goes after this question — what makes us human. 100,000 years ago, throughout the globe, there were multiple kinds of hominins on the planet,” Zavala said, referring to mankind’s close genetic relatives.

“Now, it’s just us. Why did that happen? How did evolution get to where we are and what does that mean for our future?

Little deeper: Neanderthals and humans lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, genetic analysis finds

Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago | Nature

Archaeologists uncover information about prehistoric humans.

Strange news indeed.

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Archaeologists.........

show that early humans ventured further north earlier than scientists had realized, that they could craft spear-shaped tools, and that humans then had the wherewithal to thrive in temperatures far more frigid than the climate today

.....

still not strange.

Wrong again climate denier

Originally Posted by DrWilly

strange

/streɪn(d)ʒ/

adjective

1. unusual or surprising

it is unusual

show that early humans ventured further north earlier than scientists had realized, that they could craft spear-shaped tools, and that humans then had the wherewithal to thrive in temperatures far more frigid than the climate today

I think you do not understand how archaeology works.

wrong again climate denier

12 year old girl manhandles snake to rescue her guinea pig.

12-year-old girl swings around snake to rescue her pet guinea pig | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

good for her

• The Mark Knopfler Guitar Collection

The Mark Knopfler Guitar Collection achieved a staggering £8,840,160 / US$11,227,003 / €10,342,987. The live auction in London was 100% sold, setting a new auction record for Knopfler’s 1959 Vintage Gibson Les Paul Standard, which achieved £693,000. Music aficionados, fans and collectors from 61 countries registered to bid, with phenomenal levels of competition across the 122 lots offered resulting in the auction lasting over six hours.

Twenty-five percent of the total hammer price will be divided equally and donated to charities that Mark Knopfler has supported for many years: the British Red Cross, Tusk and Brave Hearts of the North East. One hundred percent of the funds raised from the final lot are being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust. In addition, Christie’s is contributing a further £50,000 to each of the four charities.

The sale was led by Knopfler's 1959 Vintage Gibson Les Paul Standard, which sold for £693,000, setting a new world auction record for the model.

Strange how?

read the post, climate denier. it's underlined

• ‘Incredibly rare’ discovery reveals bedbugs came to Britain with the Romans

Archaeologists find remains of insects that ‘hitchhiked’ here nearly 2,000 years ago

From plumbing to public baths, the Romans left their mark on Britain’s health. But it may not have all been positive. Archaeologists working at Vindolanda, a Roman garrison site south of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, have unearthed fresh evidence that the Romans also brought us ... bedbugs.

Dr Andrew Birley, who heads the Vindolanda archaeological team, said: “It is incredibly rare to find them in any ancient context.”

The discovery was made by Katie Wyse Jackson 24, a University College Dublin (UCD) student working on the excavated material as part of her research masters in archaeoentomology, the study of insects at archaeological sites.

Focusing on one of Vindolanda’s lowest layers, which dates to around AD100, she recovered two thoraces believed to have come from the common bedbug known by its Latin name, Cimex lectularius. With needle-like mouthparts, they pierce the skin of humans to suck their blood.

“Finding this kind of thing helps humanise the people of the past,” said Wyse Jackson. Noting that Pliny, the Roman philosopher, wrote of the medicinal value of bedbugs in the treatment of certain ailments, such as ear infections, she added: “People then had all sorts of notions of what insects could do.”

The specialist team included Dr Stephen Davis, a lecturer in environmental archaeology at UCD. He said that there is one other Roman site in England where these were previously found – Alcester in Warwickshire - but the Vindolanda ones would be “the earliest found in Britain so far”.

In analysing soil samples, she has also found beetles that can give further insights: “I can learn about trade, food storage, hygiene, waste disposal from what species are present and in what numbers. At the moment, I’m finding a large amount of grain and dung beetles.

“So we’re really not looking at a clean space here. Most importantly, a large proportion of the insects I’m finding are what we call synanthropic. They live in close proximity to humans.

“The Romans do have that reputation as being extremely clean and so it’s interesting to find all of these insects that are contrary to that.”

One theory is that the Romans brought bedbugs to Britain in their straw mattresses. Wyse Jackson said: “It’s very likely they came with whatever the Romans were bringing over. Today, we see bedbugs travelling on aeroplanes in luggage, in clothes. “The Romans were bringing over clothes, straw, grain in great quantities as they were setting up their camps. So it’s the perfect opportunity for one or two bedbugs to hitchhike over.”

Oh my goodness.

Ancient Romans had bed lice.

Bed lice traveled with the Romans.



SHOCKIJGN


STRNGE

Originally Posted by DrWilly

SHOCKIJGN


STRNGE

Strange indeed!