Thread: Strange News

Strange ?

Or did I miss something ?

News it is

Strange enough.

World's largest active volcano doesn’t erupt every day

love the line under the title


Bald patches and grey hair outlawed in new Air India cabin crew guidelines

The rules also apply when staff are travelling in their own time

Air India has reportedly outlawed grey hair, bald patches and receding hairlines for cabin crew in its updated staff guidelines.


A new 40-page booklet was given to employees in October this year, following a meeting about ‘grooming’.


It read: “Grey hair is not permitted. Grey hair must be regularly coloured in [a] natural shade. Fashion colours and henna are not permitted,” reports the Hindustan Times.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/air-india-bald-patches-grey-hair-cabin-crew-b2235087.html

April 1. ?

Stick to Mohican Air, outstanding Indians . trim to perfection



While pickin' toes n Poughkeepsie

Philippines' largest prison holds mass burial for 70 inmates

The bodies of 70 inmates from the Philippines' largest prison were laid to rest Friday in a mass burial, weeks after their decomposing remains were discovered in a Manila funeral home.

They were among 176 corpses found by police during an investigation into the death of an inmate, who was accused of being involved in the killing of a journalist in early October.

Most of the deaths were due to "natural causes", said Cecilia Villanueva, the Bureau of Corrections' acting director for health and welfare services.

Among them was a Japanese national.

Villanueva said 127 of the 140 bodies buried so far were badly decomposed and could not be autopsied again.

The bodies began piling up in the funeral home in December 2021 after their families -- most of them poor -- did not claim them.

Villanueva blamed "constraints" for the failure of corrections staff to ensure the inmates were given timely burials.

Bodies are normally held at the accredited funeral home for three months to give relatives time to retrieve them.

Friday's mass burial was the biggest ever by the Bureau of Corrections, Villanueva told reporters.

Minimum security inmates carried the 70 plywood coffins to their final resting place -- cheap concrete tombs in a cemetery inside the prison complex.

The gruesome discovery at the funeral home was only the latest scandal to rock the troubled Bureau of Corrections, which runs the country's overcrowded prison system.

Its chief Gerald Bantag is accused of ordering the killing of radio broadcaster Percival Mabasa, as well as Cristito Villamor Palana, an inmate who allegedly passed on the kill order to the gunman.

After Bantag was suspended from his job as director general, a huge pit was discovered next to his former official residence inside the prison complex.

Bantag claims it was for scuba diving, not an escape tunnel for inmates.

Among the remaining bodies still at the funeral home, eight would be re-examined by Raquel Fortun, one of the country's two forensic pathologists.

Villanueva said an average of one to two prisoners died every day inside New Bilibid Prison, where about 29,000 inmates are held in a facility designed for 6,435.

There were only five doctors to treat the prisoners, but the Bureau of Corrections was trying to hire more.

"We are doing everything we can, we try to provide health care, just as health care is provided to the public, but there are so many constraints," Villanueva said.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Most of the deaths were due to "natural causes", said Cecilia Villanueva, the Bureau of Corrections' acting director for health and welfare services.

Then the article goes on to say :
" Villanueva said 127 of the 140 bodies buried so far were badly decomposed and could not be autopsied again."
so from the 140 bodies found only 13 were autopsied yet they determined that "most of them died of natural causes.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

140 bodies found only 13 were autopsied

A rare case of you do the path

Ancient DNA describes a lush Greenland 2 million years ago

Ancient DNA recovered from Greenland's permafrost contains fragments of genetic material from plants, corals, mastodons and other animals that provide details about the warm, lush landscape that existed there 2 million years ago, scientists reported this week.

Why it matters: DNA from plants and animals that lived long ago carries records of how organisms responded to climate change in the past and could help scientists understand how they might adapt to current global warming.

• "It opens up a new possibility to mitigate the impact of climate change," the study's co-author Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen said in a press briefing.

The big picture: Ancient DNA has been found in marine sediments near Antarctica, a cave in Georgia, an Arctic lakebed and other locations around the world.

• But the 2-million-year-old DNA from the polar desert of Greenland is the oldest sequenced so far — and about twice as old as DNA extracted from a mammoth tooth.

Details: The team of researchers extracted DNA from sediment samples taken from the Kap København Formation in northern Greenland, where fossils discovered earlier indicated a forest existed two million years ago.

• By comparing the sequences of ancient DNA fragments to those in libraries of DNA from plants, mammals, invertebrates and other organisms, the scientists found 102 genera of plants and animals. (The data resolution isn't fine enough to detect species.)
• These included poplars and pines that no longer grow in Greenland but are found further south in northern boreal and deciduous forests, according to the paper published this week in the journal Nature.
• They also found fragments of DNA from mastodons, hares and geese as well as horseshoe crabs, corals and other marine organisms that suggested the water in the area was warm.
• Mastodon DNA was a surprise, the researchers said. They are thought to be a much younger species that lived further south.

What they're saying: "It was super exciting when we recovered the DNA that a very, very different ecosystem appeared," said Willerslev, who has been collecting sediment samples at the site for 16 years in search of two-million-year-old DNA.

How it works: A big challenge for scientists working with ancient DNA is it can degrade over time from shearing, enzymes in microbes or spontaneous chemical reactions.

• The researchers found clay minerals could preserve the DNA better than quartz, which dominates the sediment. They said improving their methods for extracting DNA from clay could allow them to go further back in time and to increase the resolution of their findings.

Ancient DNA can also be contaminated with genetic material from organisms that lived much later.

• "We can find DNA in any samples we look at, but most of it will be recent contamination or from living organisms such as microbes," Jamie Wood, a paleoecologist at the University of Adelaide, said in an email.
• The authenticity of the data in the new study was determined by analyzing patterns of damage, comparing the DNA results with pollen from the same samples and other techniques.

The intrigue: The mixture of Arctic and temperate species isn't found on the planet today, Willerslev said.

• The climate though was "very similar to what we expect to face on Earth due to global warming," he added.
• Studying DNA from the environment could provide insights about how to help organisms adapt to climate change, including determining which organisms could live together, as well as breeding and gene editing that could help plants, in particular, survive, he said.
• "Organisms have already experienced what we are facing today with climate change. A lot of those adaptations have been lost. By going back into the past, you have this roadmap of how they adapted."

What to watch: The clay and cold environment that preserved the samples in the study could give researchers insights about the ideal conditions for finding ancient DNA, Wood said.

• Willerslev and his colleagues are looking at deep sea sediment samples as well. "We know even less about the ocean's response to climate change," he said.

(The mixture of Arctic and temperate species isn't found on the planet today, Willerslev said.)

Give the accepted wisdom of land mass movements, and earlier discoveries of tropical, arctic and temperate regions in different continents, I can understand their surprise, but not their excitement.

Ocean depths may yet reveal decent preserved species due to very low temperatures. (That's just a layman's guess).

I always knew it

Snakes have a clitoris: scientists overcome ‘a massive taboo around female genitalia’

Female snakes have clitorises, scientists have detailed for the first time in a study of the animal’s sex organs.


The scientists say previous research had mistaken the organs as scent glands or underdeveloped versions of penises, in a study that criticised the comparatively limited research into female sex organs.


In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers found that snakes have two individual clitorises – hemiclitores – separated by tissue and hidden by skin on the underside of the tail.


‘They’ll swim, they’ll climb trees’: experts hissue warning over snakes on the flood plains
Read more
“Female genitalia are conspicuously overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts, limiting our understanding of sexual reproduction across vertebrate lineages,” the study’s authors wrote.


Male snakes and lizards are known to have hemipenes – a pair of penises which are everted outside the body during reproduction. In many species, hemipenes are covered in spines or hooks.


The study’s lead author and a PhD student at the University of Adelaide, Megan Folwell, said “a massive taboo around female genitalia” was a potential factor in why snake clitorises had not been described earlier. “I think it’s a combination of not knowing what to look for and not wanting to,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/14/snakes-have-a-clitoris-scientists-overcome-a-massive-taboo-around-female-genitalia

I could think of worse places to be stranded. But if I was on medications, stuck at Machu Picchu or in Cuzco would be a problem.

• Hundreds of tourists stranded in Machu Picchu amid Peru protests

About 300 tourists from around the world have been left stranded in the ancient city of Machu Picchu, according to the mayor, after Peru was plunged into a state of emergency following the ousting of the country's president.

Former President Pedro Castillo was impeached and subsequently arrested in early December after announcing his plan to dissolve Congress. The unrest sparked by his arrest has prompted international warnings about travel to Peru.

Darwin Baca, Machu Picchu's mayor, said that Peruvians, South Americans, Americans and Europeans are among the stranded travelers.

"We have asked the government to help us and establish helicopter flights in order to evacuate the tourists," Baca said. The only way to get in and out of the town is by train, and these services are suspended until further notice, he said.

Trains to and from Machu Picchu, the primary means of accessing UNESCO World Heritage Site, were halted on Tuesday, according to a statement from PeruRail, Peru's railway operator in the south and southeast regions of the country.

"PeruRail said they are still reviewing the situation," Baca explained.

The United States is in touch with American citizens stranded in Peru, a State Department Spokesperson told CNN on Friday.

"We are providing all appropriate consular assistance, and are monitoring the situation closely. Due to privacy and security considerations, we won't go into further details about numbers of US citizens who have reached out," the spokesperson added.

The US embassy in Peru said in a statement early on Friday the Peru government is organizing an evacuation of foreigners from Aguas Calientes, a town that serves as the main access point to Machu Picchu.

"We will release a message with instructions as soon as the assistance plan is confirmed. Travelers located at Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu Village should follow instructions from local authorities whether they choose to remain in place for assistance with travel to Cusco, as well as any travelers who may choose to travel by foot," the statement added.

Man with WWI explosive lodged in his rectum sparks bomb scare, hospital evacuation

The case left doctors shell-shocked.

A French hospital was partially evacuated Saturday after a senior citizen arrived with a World War I artillery shell lodged in his rectum.


The 88-year-old patient visited Hospital Sainte Musse in Toulon to have the antique explosive removed — but instead sparked a “bomb scare,” French publication Var-Matin reported.


“An emergency occurred from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday evening that required the intervention of bomb disposal personnel, the evacuation of adult and pediatric emergencies as well as the diversion of incoming emergencies,” a hospital spokesperson stated.


“We had to manage the risk in a reactive framework,” the rep added. “When in doubt, we took all the precautions.”

Bomb disposal experts at the scene determined there was little possibility the shell would explode inside the man.


“They reassured us by telling us that it was a collector’s item from the First World War, used by the French military,” the hospital stated.


Stunned doctors subsequently began the process of trying to remove the object — which measured almost 8 inches long and more than 2 inches wide — from the man’s rectum.

It’s believed the pervy patient inserted the item up his anus for sexual pleasure.


“An apple, a mango, or even a can of shaving foam, we are used to finding unusual objects inserted where they shouldn’t be,” one doctor declared. “But a shell? Never!”

Medics were forced to take the elderly man into surgery, cutting open his abdomen in order to remove the relic.


According to the hospital, he is now in “good health” and is expected to make a full recovery from the surgery.

Man with WWI explosive lodged in his rectum sparks bomb scare, hospital evacuation

Originally Posted by misskit

The 88-year-old

Originally Posted by misskit

It’s believed the pervy patient inserted the item up his anus for sexual pleasure.

Well hats off, old buddy

Snake Eel escapes from heron stomach.....

https://hasanjasim.online/a-photographer-captured-the-incredible-moment-a-snake-eel-escaped-from-within-a-herons-stomach/?fbclid=IwAR1tioLvZEJ8mBKAOWfo6oYtVwq_MVNM2qValoRe xK0tQ3jcC2jUFo8LBj4

A festive one

Pub-crawling Santas get armoured vehicle stuck in Cornish hedge

A vintage armoured vehicle filled with Santas had to be freed by police after getting stuck in a Cornish lane.

The Santas, who were believed to be on a pub crawl, got wedged in a hedge at Marsh Lane, near Hayle.

Devon and Cornwall police were called at about 7.40pm on Thursday after reports that a vehicle had been damaged. No one was arrested.

Pub-crawling Santas get armoured vehicle stuck in Cornish hedge | Cornwall | The Guardian

^ These have been used before to remove armoured vehicle from hedgerows

Old Nazi map sparks treasure hunt in the Netherlands

An old map believed to mark the spot where German soldiers hid treasure worth millions of dollars during World War II sparked the imagination of amateur treasure hunters in the Netherlands this week.

Armed with metal detectors and shovels, groups wandered through the fields surrounding rural Ommeren in the east of the country after the map was made public by the Dutch National Archive on Tuesday.

The archive said the map was believed to indicate where Nazi soldiers had hidden four large boxes filled with diamonds, rubies, gold, silver and all sorts of jewelry which they had looted after an explosion at a bank in August 1944.

The map was obtained from a German soldier shortly after the war by the Dutch institute that was tasked with tracing German capital in the Netherlands after the country was freed from Nazi occupation in 1945.

The research file which held the map was released this week as the maximum period of 75 years during which it could be held confidential had lapsed.

Although the existence of the treasure could never fully be confirmed, the institute undertook various failed attempts to find it in 1947, National Archive spokeswoman Anne-Marieke Samson told Reuters.

“We don’t know for sure if the treasure existed. But the institute did a lot of checks and found the story reliable,” Samson said.

“But they never found it and if it existed, the treasure might very well have been dug up already.”

But the small chance of finding any valuables did not deter the amateur gold-diggers.

“I see groups of people with metal detectors everywhere,” 57-year old Jan Henzen told Reuters as he took a break from his own search.

“Like a lot of people, the news about the treasure made me go look for myself. The chance of the treasure still being here after 70 years is very small I think, but I want to give it a try.”

Former Ommeren mayor Klaas Tammes, who now runs the foundation that owns the lands that might hide the treasure, said he had seen people from all over the country.

“A map with a row of three trees and a red cross marking a spot where a treasure should be hidden sparks the imagination,” he said.

“Anyone who finds anything will have to report it to us, so we’ll see. But I wouldn’t expect it to be easy.”

Dolphins ‘shout’ to compensate for human-made background noise

We have all experienced the frustration of trying to hold a conversation in a loud pub or restaurant. Now researchers have shown that dolphins may face a similar scenario, showing that they “shout” to each other when faced with background noise.

The findings revealed that a noisy environment makes it harder for dolphins to communicate and cooperate on tasks, adding to concern about the impact of human noise pollution on marine life.

“In a very noisy pub we find ourselves increasing the volume of our voice,” said Pernille Sørensen, a graduate student at the University of Bristol and first author of the research, published in the journal Current Biology. “Dolphins respond in a similar way – they’re trying to compensate but there are some miscommunications.”

Dolphins are social, intelligent animals, relying on clicks and whistles to communicate and using echolocation to hunt and navigate. So noise generated from human activity such as drilling and shipping has a potentially harmful impact on the health of marine populations.

The latest study involved a pair of dolphins, Delta and Reese, and looked at how their ability to cooperate was affected by background noise. The dolphins were required to work together to both press their own underwater button placed at either end of a lagoon within one second of each other – a task that some humans would struggle to coordinate. They were released from a starting point during each trial, and in some trials, one of the dolphins was held back for five to 10 seconds. This meant that the dolphins had to rely solely on vocal communication to coordinate the button press.

When increasing levels of noise were played from an underwater speaker, both dolphins compensated by changing the volume and length of their calls to coordinate the button press. Nevertheless, they could not entirely compensate. From the lowest to highest levels of noise, the dolphins’ success rate dropped from 85% to 62.5%, according to the research.

The dolphins also changed their body language, reorienting themselves to face each other more frequently at higher noise levels and swimming across the lagoon to be closer to each other.

The highest noise levels were comparable with what are sometimes experienced in marine environments as a result of shipping and drilling.

“Despite their attempts to compensate, despite being highly motivated and the fact that they know this cooperative task so well, the noise still impaired their ability to successfully coordinate,” said Sørensen.

Sound travels 4.5 times faster through water than through air, meaning many marine organisms have evolved to rely on sounds to provide important cues to navigate, forage for food, avoid predators and enable communication. Invertebrates and fish hear sounds at low frequency, while cetaceans (dolphins and whales) can hear very high frequencies, up to 200Hz and also use active sonar to detect objects, including prey. Humpback whales, singing at a low frequency, can be heard up to 16,000 kilometres away.

But during recent decades, the underwater soundscape has radically changed from one that featured mostly natural sounds to one in which some regions are dominated by human noise pollution, from shipping traffic, seismic exploration, oil drilling and offshore windfarms. The increase in background noise has been linked to strandings, decompression sickness and behavioural changes.

“Those same reasons that make sound so advantageous for animals to use also make them susceptible to disturbance from noise in the environment,” said Sørensen.

In September 2020, Australia experienced the largest whale stranding recorded in history in which 450 pilot whales were found washed up on the west coast of Tasmania, most of which had to be euthanised due to their low chance of survival. Some linked the mass stranding to underwater noise pollution.

Another recent study found that when narwhals are exposed to seismic air guns, used for surveying in the oil and gas industry, they immediately begin diving to escape from the noise. These high-intensity dives use much more energy than normal and put the marine mammals’ health at risk, scientists said.

Sørensen said there had been some positive attempts to address the issue, such as the use of bubblenet structures around construction sites to muffle sounds. Some noises, such as ships engines, are more difficult to avoid, but the overall impact could be mitigated by better understanding how noise affects marine life and taking this into account. “Maybe there are times of the year that it is better not to be in a certain area,” said Sørensen. “So you could reduce traffic at certain times and increase it at others.”

Norway archaeologists find ‘world’s oldest runestone’

Archaeologists in Norway said Tuesday that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world.”

“This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part, told The Associated Press.

Older runes have been found on other items, but not on stone. The earliest runic find is on a bone comb found in Denmark. Zilmer said that maybe the tip of knife or a needle was used to carve the runes.

The runestone was discovered in the fall of 2021 during an excavation of a grave near Tyrifjord, west of Oslo, in a region known for several monumental archaeological finds. Items in the cremation pit — burnt bones and charcoal — indicate that the runes likely were inscribed between A.D. 1 and 250.

“We needed time to analyze and date the runestone,” she said to explain why the finding was first announced on Tuesday.

Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters (12.2 inches by 12.6 inches), the stone has several types of inscriptions and not all make linguistic sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug” — which could be the name of a woman, a man or a family.

Zilmer called the discovery “the most sensational thing that I, as an academic, have had.”

There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, dubbed the Svingerud stone after the site where it was found.

“Without doubt, we will obtain valuable knowledge about the early history of runic writing,” Zilmer said.

The runestone will be exhibited for a month, starting on Jan. 21, at the Museum of Cultural History, which has Norway’s largest collection of historical artifacts, from the Stone Age to modern times.

Based Irish woman yells at Sam Smith.

Looking for attention, again