Quick look into migrant children situation

A rescue from a fire

The people climbing up the building that is on fire are teenagers from Nantes, France. They helped a family escape from their apartment on the third floor of the building. Those watching this also contributed by bringing mattresses to the foot of the building; a six-month-old resident 'escaped' by being thrown onto the mattress.

Alligators moving into new home

Robots at work

Cherry Blossom Festival

Courtesy of our Florida correspendent

A Young Astronaut

Freedom House looks at political rights and civil liberties

Details? Look here

Helping a disabled duck

Adopting a pigeon

Making friends

The U.S. Gun Violence

Paradise in Australia

 

Swan Lake Live

Get your vaccination and get a freebie

Many companies are using vaccinations as a marketing ploy. Here are some examples as documented in the NY Times:

In Cleveland, the Market Garden Brewery is offering 10-cent beers to the first 2021 people who show a Covid-19 vaccine certificate. “Yes, you read that right,” the brewery says on its website. “Ten Cents.”

At the Greenhouse of Walled Lake, a medical marijuana dispensary in Michigan, anyone 21 and over who gets a Covid vaccine can pick up a prerolled joint until the end of the month.

Chobani provides free yogurt at some vaccination sites. And Krispy Kreme said on Monday that for the rest of the year, it would give one glazed doughnut per day to anyone who provides proof of a Covid-19 vaccination.

“Vaccinated doughnuts” were sold last month by a bakery in Germany, garnished with plastic syringes that dispense a sweet, lemony-ginger amuse-bouche.

In a promotion it is calling “Tokens for Poke’ns,” Up-Down, a chain of bars featuring vintage arcade games, is offering $5 in free tokens to guests who present a completed vaccination card. Up-Down, which has six locations in five Midwestern states, is extending the offer to guests who visit within three weeks of their final dose.

Cleveland Cinemas, a movie-theater chain in Ohio, is offering a free 44-ounce popcorn at two of its locations to anyone who presents a vaccination card through April 30.

To encourage younger people to get vaccinated, the city of Tel Aviv set up a mobile vaccination clinic at a bar last month, and offered free beer and shots of nonalcoholic peach juice to those who received a shot, The Times of Israel reported. 

Some vaccine perks flow from corporations to their employees. Tyson Foods, Trader Joe’s and others pay for the time it takes them to get vaccinated, while Kroger pays them a $100 bonus.

Other incentives target people in vulnerable groups. Uber, for instance, has agreed to provide 10 million free or discounted rides to seniors, essential workers and others in countries across North America, Europe and Asia to help them get to vaccination centers.

Should you move to a Scandinavian country?

You should, if you want to live in the happiest countries in the world. Each year the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, in collaboration with various organizations and experts around the world, produces its World Happiness Report. The list is based on key data points from GDP, life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity, and more. These key data sets are still important. But, this year the data was also focused on how COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our wellbeing.

Here are their conclusions as to the 20 happiest countries:

1. Finland 

2. Iceland 

3. Denmark 

4. Switzerland 

5. Netherlands 

6. Sweden 

7. Germany 

8. Norway 

9. New Zealand 

10. Austria 

11. Israel 

12. Australia 

13. Ireland 

14. United States 

15. Canada 

16. Czech Republic 

17. Belgium 

18. United Kingdom 

19. Taiwan Province of China 

20. France

Then, the reverse - the 20 unhappiest countries:

130. Swaziland 

131. Comoros 

132. Egypt 

133. Ethiopia 

134. Mauritania 

135. Madagascar 

136. Togo 

137. Zambia 

138. Sierra Leone 

139. India 

140. Burundi 

141. Yemen 

142. Tanzania 

143. Haiti 

144. Malawi 

145. Lesotho 

146. Botswana 

147. Rwanda 

148. Zimbabwe 

149. Afghanistan

Forbes thinks that there are four important conclusions:

#1: The gap between the “happys” and the “happy-nots” is enormous
#2: People who move to happier countries become happier by association
#3: Smaller countries are getting happier; larger countries are not
#4: Urbanites are happier than country-folk, at least prior to coronavirus

Man does make mistakes

Another from Glenn Gould

Uniting to play The Rite of Spring

Smelling mating time

A different kind of sharpshooter

Delivering the mail

Visiting The Villages

Walking to America

The earth moves

Returns to generations are decreasing

Child benefits are increasing

 

A truly presidential speech

Can you find anything wrong? I can't.



It will be interesting coming back here in a few months to check my assertion.

Snow flakes up close

Here are a few photos from a fascinating article about photographing snow flakes in the NY Times:

89-year-old dancer

 

Moving Bees to a new home

Texas beekeeper Erika Thompson rescued a nest of bees that had been stuck under the floorboards of a garden shed for over two years, in a video that has since gone viral. Since posting the video online on Friday, it has been viewed over 1.5 million times on Twitter.

Yo Yo Ma gets his second dose of the vaccine

And he plays for others who also just got their dose

Saving toads

The Surfing Duck

Scenes from Australia

How would you like to go to school in Japan?

Here are some interesting rules for students:

1. Students are not allowed to style up their hair 

2. Students should not wear makeup, paint their nails while they are in school 

3. Relationships are strictly banned in schools. Ergo, no boyfriends, no girlfriends. 

4. Even if teacher is away, students are expected to study on their own. No substitute teachers. 

5. Students are expected to greet their teachers every morning in class 

6. Japanese students can't be late for school 

7. Students must wear a uniform 

8. Japanese students will not have March break and Christmas break 

 

Malea Emma wins Galaxy's National Anthem contest

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Ballet at 100

Flying golf cart

Courtesy of a Glastonbury friend

Insuring your cigars

Courtesy of a Glastonbury friend

Antibodies and a look back in history

Fred's Top 10 Movies

Taxes and Covid Relief

A meteorite in your back yard

One kid's life in the Philippines

Iceberg crashing

Courtesy of a childhood friend

Finding an apartment

Getting through the next few months (Or is it years?)

Building a flexible brain

Opposing a new port

Wasting time

Rejuvenating elephants

 

The new NILE Virus (Type C)

I thought you would want to know about this virus. Even the most advanced computer programs from Norton, McAfee, and others cannot take care of this one.

It appears to target those who were born prior to 1960. The sporadic lockdown seems to be increasing the chances of being affected! 

Virus Symptoms 

1. Causes you to send the same e-mail twice. (Done that) 

2. Causes you to send a blank e-mail. (That too) 

3. Causes you to send an e-mail to the wrong person. (Yup) 

4. Causes you to send it back to the person who sent it to you. (Ah-ha) 

5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment. (Done that) 

6. Causes you to hit SEND before you've finished. (Oh no, not again) 

7. Causes you to hit DELETE instead of SEND. (Hate that) 

8. Causes you to hit SEND when you should DELETE. (Heck, now what?) 

This virus is called the C-NILE virus! A lot of us have already been inflicted with this disease and unfortunately as we age, it gets worse. 

And if you can't admit to doing any of the above, you've obviously caught the other strain - the D-NILE virus. Doctors say that lots of naps and a daily dose of Dr. Jack Daniels liquid medicine might help.

Courtesy of a childhood friend

Talk about a difficult situation

Looking at the minimum wage

Should she get a haircut?

 

Determining reality

People can do strange things with artificial intelligence. MyHeritage, a genealogy service, has developed a tool that transforms still images into moving video; and it's hard to believe it's not reality. Here's a sample:



Our Florida correspondent again

Can the drumming bird be saved?

Dreaming

Orbital Assembly, a 3-year-old company, claims that it intends to build a hotel in space by, possibly, 2027. Here’s what it would look like:

The hotel will have individual pods attached to a rotating wheel, with tubes connecting the different areas forming an X, similar to the wheel’s spokes. 

It will not be just a hotel; it will have a raft of amenities - themed restaurants, a health spa, a cinema, gyms, libraries, concert venues, Earth-viewing lounges and bars, in addition to rooms for 400 people. Necessities including crew quarters, air, water and power will also take up a portion of the space facility. 

Orbital Assembly will finance it by selling portions of the hotel to permanent stakeholders, including government agencies looking to use the site as a training center or landlords looking to create a villa aboard the craft. 

It will reportedly circle the globe every 90 minutes, and the circle’s rotation will generate artificial gravity similar to that on the moon. 

How much will this cost? They haven’t said. 

Courtesy of our Florida correspndent

12 years old and almost 5,000,000 users on Godtube

A new hospital employee

Ida likes golf

Courtesy of our Glastonbury friend

A meeting of flamingos

A volcano erupts

 

Teaching at a young age

He was gone for 170 years

After 170 years Asia’s longest-missing bird just came out of hiding. Researchers reported last week that a black-browed babbler has been found in Indonesia.

It is a very big deal for ornithologists. “When we actually got confirmation of the identification, I did a little prayer and bowed down to celebrate,” said Panji Gusti Akbar, an ornithologist and lead author of the paper describing the new species.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/science/bird-indonesia-babbler.html

Going to school in Yemen