A whale that was worth $1,500,000

An attempt at assimilation

 

Maybe he likes being on TV

A member of the Canadian Parliament, William Amos, has been on Canadian television twice in the past two months.

In April, he appeared naked on a video session with colleagues and said he had accidentally turned on his video on while changing into work clothes after going for a jog. His formal statement said he would temporarily step away from some duties while continuing to represent his constituency and he would "seek assistance." 

In May he appeared naked on a video call with colleagues. His statement for incident #2 - "I am deeply embarrassed by my actions and the distress they may have caused anybody who witnessed them.”

Do you understand this?

Disagreeing with mask policy

A dispute over Southwest Airlines' mask policy led to a passenger punching a flight attendant.

Incidents like these have been on the rise in the US, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. There have been 2,500 reports of "unruly behavior" by passengers in 2021, says the agency, compared to 100-150 during a typical year. Most of the incidents were related to the federal mask mandate.

He doesn't need hands

The original version of one of my favorite songs

Flirting in the 21st century

 

Roaming in Crimea

Don't look below


This is what is really happening - A gibbon walks amid models of vehicles at a zoo in the park of miniatures in Bakhchisaray, Crimea, on May 24, 2021.

And here's one more from The Atlantic

Covid cases are declining

Bon Appetit!

Can you top this?

We Easterners missed this

Did you eat too much in the pandemic?

Are you an ultra-marathoner?

These are people who run races longer than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles. It is a growing sport; more than 600,000 people participated in an ultrarace in 2018, an increase of nearly 350 percent during the past decade, and nearly 1,700 percent from the 1990s. But it can be quite dangerous.

Last week 21 runners died as a storm descended on a high mountain pass during a 62-mile race in northwestern China. Last year, Kateryna Katiuscheva of Ukraine, known as the “Iron Lady” of ultrarunning, collapsed six miles from the finish of a 42-mile trail race. Organizers found her after an eight-hour search but she died in the hospital, at age 33, the following day. And last summer, the veteran ultrarunner Kim McCoy lost her leg when she was struck by a car while crossing a highway 70 miles from the finish line of a 340-mile race across the American South.

Most runners are on their own. Few organizers provide nourishment. Some organizers require runners to have their own crew supporting them along the way. It is not clear how strict organizers are about making runners carry an emergency pack with warmer clothing, something that has become increasingly common at races that pass through high-altitude regions in the United States and Europe.

Mice in Australia

Deaf people don't like the mask

Is she real?

 

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Telling your kid about racism

Where did sneakers come from?

 

Would you pay $761,000 for this?

It's been on the web since 2007 and has garnered 883,000,000 views.

Other videos have gone for more. In March, Twitter boss Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet, from 2006, which reads "just setting up my twttr," for $2.9 million to a Malaysia-based businessman.

Russia moves into the Arctic

Getting to Net Zero

 

Rewards for getting vaccinated

There are many odd schemes to induce people to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Here are a few from the BBC:

The White House is partnering with several prominent dating platforms including Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble to give access to premium content to those who can prove they have been vaccinated.   "According to research from OKCupid, people who are vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated receive 14% more Matches than people who don't plan to get vaccinated," it revealed.

The state of New Jersey has launched "Shot and a Beer", a scheme offering a free beer to those who get their first dose in May. To claim a drink, those who have been jabbed must take their vaccination card to one of 13 participating breweries.

New Yorkers who get Covid-19 shots receive free lottery scratch cards with a chance to win $5m (£3.5m), State Governor Andre Cuomo announced on Thursday. The scheme, called "Vax & Scratch", will allow those who get vaccinated to receive a $20 lottery ticket

The Greenhouse of Walled Lake, a marijuana dispensary in Michigan, is giving out "pot for shots". Since launching in February, the firm has handed out over 35,000 free joints, according to owner Jerry Millen.

Rewards are not limited to the U.S.:

Dubai residents who have been fully vaccinated will be allowed a fortnight's gym membership.

In the Indian city of Rajkot, Gujarat, goldsmiths have banded together to give women free gold nose pins for getting the jab, while men are offered a hand blender.

Living in hell - part 2

Part 2 is here.

Kids and Bombings

How do we talk about racism

I think he likes to run

A look at Aid Workers

A 2021 Mayflower

Living in hell

Moving between trees

An athletic cat

Traveling whale

Move to Ohio

An Israeli attack in Gaza City

 

Is this your boat?

This one, which cost $45,000,000, is one of about 7500 prowling the sea. It is considered a super yacht.



Jeff Bezos is having one custom-made. It will be longer than 400ft, which is almost as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza (if it was laid out vertically) and just under half as long as the Eiffel Tower. It will need a crew of 60 or so. Building cost will be about $500,000,000.

The Wheelchair Maven

Why the battle in Israel

 

Roaming the streets of Houston

The Smithsonian thinks there are at least 5,000 tigers living in captivity in the U.S. The tiger in the video is one of them. This is not the first tiger found on the streets of Houston; in 2019 another was found and was moved to a sanctuary. Tigers have also roamed the streets of San Antonio and Dallas.

Their life work

I was amazed at da Vinci's output

Trying to come to America

Coming to America

Male Ballerinas

 

When will they be buried?

At the height of the pandemic last year, over 800 deaths were recorded in a single day in New York City. On a typical day more than 500 bodies were stored in refrigerated trucks, which were used as a long-term temporary morgue at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The idea was that families could lay their loved ones to rest as they saw fit.

Well, 750 bodies are still there. It's likely that they will be buried on Hart Island, where for the past 100 years the city has buried those who were poor or unclaimed.

Childhood is the springboard

A mystery in Lebanon

Free after 68 years

Raindrops keep falling on her head

 

What you can do with your mask

Create a work of art

Or a Pocketbook

Even a wedding dress

or a lamp

or design some furniture

Inside a revolution

Protests in Colombia

 

Some odd research

A researcher in Germany is a bird lover and was interested in knowing “What makes a great bird photo?”, so she decided to look at bird photos on Instagram. She looked at more than 27,000 photos of birds across nine Instagram accounts with a combined following of nearly 3.5 million users. And this is what she found

It's a frogmouth, it's name derived from its wide, flattened gape, which can open wide like a puppet’s, making it suitable for catching prey. It blends in with its surroundings because of its plumage coloration, camouflaging as it perches on tree branches. Most of them can be found in Southeast Asia and Australia.

It is a somewhat sedentary bird. Its 'win' was based a lot on its eyes. They face the front which make them more “personable” and “humanlike”. Most birds’ eyes sit on the sides of their heads.

Rowing on the Atlantic

Buy a bottle of wine for $1,000,000

That's what Christie's thinks it will get when,on Tuesday, it auctions off a bottle of Petrus 2000 wine which orbited the earth for more than one year.

Petrus is considered one of the most expensive in the world. A 2000 vintage bottle of Pétrus usually sells for about $6,000.

Restoring Coral Reefs

 

I've never heard of something like this

 A woman gave birth to nine babies - not over nine years, but in one fell swoop. Doctors knew this was going to be an extraordinary birth as they had detected seven babies during scans. The mother was 25 years-old and a native of Mali. 

The doctors were concerned about Mali's medical capabilities, so the mother was sent to Morocco where the babies were born. Five girls and four boys were born by Caesarean section and were doing well, Mali's health minister said.

Here are three of the babies.

Gun injuries in the U.S. from 2000 to 2016

Shortages

What's next?

An old, really big sturgeon

It was caught in the Detroit River last week. It weighed 240 lbs, measured 6’10” long, and had a girth of nearly 4′. It is one of the largest lake sturgeon ever recorded in the U.S. The scientists who studied it concluded it was a female and an old one, maybe 100 years old.

We really like guns

Attitudes towards vaccination

More rivers hold plastic