Category: Extraordinary

India’s moon rover completes its walk. Scientists analyzing data looking for signs of frozen water.

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

This image provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shows Vikram lander as seen by the navigation camera on Pragyan Rover on Aug. 30, 2023. India’s moon rover has confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements on the surface near the lunar south pole a week after the country’s historic moon landing. ISRO says the rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also has detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon. (Indian Space Research Organisation via AP)

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover has completed its walk on the lunar surface and been put into sleep mode less than two weeks after its historic landing near the lunar south pole, India’s space mission said.

“The rover completes its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” with daylight on that part of the moon coming to an end, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement late Saturday.

The rover’s payloads are turned off and the data it collected has been transmitted to the Earth via the lander, the statement said.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 days on Earth. Continue reading

With drones and webcams, volunteer hunters join a new search for the mythical Loch Ness Monster

natixis-ezine

Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – This undated file photo shows a shadowy shape that some people say is a the Loch Ness monster in Scotland, later debunked as a hoax. Mystery-hunters converged on a Scottish lake on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023 to hunt for signs of the mythical Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Center said researchers would try to seek evidence of Nessie using thermal-imaging drones, infrared cameras and a hydrophone to detect underwater sounds in the lake’s murky waters. (AP Photo/File)

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Mystery hunters converged on a Scottish lake on Saturday to look for signs of the mythical Loch Ness Monster.

The Loch Ness Center said researchers would try to seek evidence of Nessie using thermal-imaging drones, infrared cameras and a hydrophone to detect underwater sounds in the lake’s murky waters. The two-day event is being billed as the biggest survey of the lake in 50 years, and includes volunteers scanning the water from boats and the lakeshore, with others around the world joining in with webcams.

Alan McKenna of the Loch Ness Center said the aim was “to inspire a new generation of Loch Ness enthusiasts.”

McKenna told BBC radio the searchers were “looking for breaks in the surface and asking volunteers to record all manner of natural behavior on the loch.” Continue reading

In fight against Canada fires, dancing South Africa crews are a familiar and uplifting sight

natixis-ezine

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

South African firefighters gather for a safety briefing in Fox Creek, Alberta, on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Several countries, including South Africa, deployed firefighters to Canada to help local efforts to control widespread wildfires. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

By NOAH BERGER Associated Press

FOX CREEK, Alberta (AP) — Some three dozen South African firefighters, clad in their bright yellow jackets and dark blue pants, danced, sang and cheered in a sprawling parking lot close by the majestic woods of central Alberta. The mood was light as the men and women smiled and clapped, some taking out smartphones to record video of their dancing colleagues before heading off to another day battling the fires raging through Canada.

The group gathered on an early July day in the small town of Fox Creek had traveled nearly 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) to help fight the hundreds of devastating wildfires that have burned homes and wild lands in the region, destroying an area about the size of the U.S. state of Virginia. They chanted and worked through drills before signing a Canadian flag presented to them as a token of thanks. Continue reading

UN council to hold first meeting on potential threats of artificial intelligence to global peace

natixis-ezine

Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

United Kingdom Ambassador to the United Nations Dame Barbara Woodward speaks during a security council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, June 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council will hold a first-ever meeting on the potential threats of artificial intelligence to international peace and security, organized by the United Kingdom which sees tremendous potential but also major risks about AI’s possible use for example in autonomous weapons or in control of nuclear weapons.

UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward on Monday announced the July 18 meeting as the centerpiece of its presidency of the council this month. It will include briefings by international AI experts and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last month called the alarm bells over the most advanced form of AI “deafening,” and loudest from its developers.

“These scientists and experts have called on the world to act, declaring AI an existential threat to humanity on a par with the risk of nuclear war,” the U.N. chief said. Continue reading

The American flag wasn’t always revered as it is today. At the beginning, it was an afterthought

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – Tang De Wong, lower left, and other members of the Chinese Benevolent Association march in an Independence Day parade in Philadelphia, July 4, 2008. Flags proliferate every July Fourth, but it wasn’t always a revered and debated symbol. Unlike the right to assemble or trial by jury, the flag’s role was not prescribed by the founders: Flags would have been rare during early Independence Day celebrations and were so peripheral to early U.S. history that no original flag exists. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In the bedroom of the Betsy Ross House, a reconstruction of where the upholsterer worked on her most famous commission, a long flag with a circle of 13 stars hangs over a Chippendale side chair and extends across the floor. Over the weeks in 1776 needed to complete the project, Ross would have likely knelt on the flag, stood on it and treated it more like an everyday banner — not with the kind of reverence we’d expect today.

“She would not have worried about it touching the floor or violating any codes,” says Lisa Moulder, director of the Ross House. “The flag did not have any kind of special symbolism.”

Flags proliferate every July 4. But unlike the right to assemble or trial by jury, their role was not prescribed by the founders. They would have been rare during early Independence Day celebrations. Only in the mid-19th century does the U.S. flag become a permanent fixture at the White House, scholars believe; only in the mid-20th century was a federal code established for how it should be handled and displayed; only in the 1960s did Congress pass a law making it illegal to “knowingly” cast “contempt” on the flag. Continue reading

The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will be carried for 68 days before the cauldron is lit

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

A map is shown on a giant video screen during the unveiling of the route for the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch relay at Sorbonne University in Paris, Friday, June 23, 2023. The route of the Torch is expected to take in more than 60 departments across France as it is carried for three months in the lead-up to the July Olympics in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

By JEROME PUGMIRE AP Sports Writer

PARIS (AP) — The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will pass through 64 departments — including five overseas — and 400 towns over 68 days before the cauldron is lit.

Organizers announced the route for the torch relay on Friday at a Paris university.

“Paris 2024 is the greatest collective project in our history,” organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said. “The torch relay plays an important role because it has the capacity to touch so many people.”

The torch will be lit by the sun’s rays on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, Greece. It will then be carried around the nation before its handover in Athens.

The flame will leave Athens on April 27 aboard a three-mast ship named Belem for the French port of Marseille — a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago.

The Belem was first used in 1896, the same year the modern Olympics came back. It will be skippered by French navigator Armel Le Cléac’h, winner of the solo around-the-world race Vendée Globe in 2017. The crew will reach Marseille on May 8. Continue reading

As rising oceans threaten NYC, study documents another risk: The city is sinking

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE — Waves wash over the seawall near high tide at Battery Park in New York, Oct. 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast. If rising oceans aren’t worry enough, add this to the risks New York City faces: The metropolis is sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, apartment buildings, asphalt and humanity itself — and will eventually become flooded by the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — If rising oceans aren’t worry enough, add this to the risks New York City faces: The metropolis is slowly sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, homes, asphalt and humanity itself.

New research estimates the city’s landmass is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per year, something referred to as “subsidence.”

That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed, but the study published this month in the journal Earth’s Future sought to estimate how the massive weight of the city itself is hurrying things along.

More than 1 million buildings are spread across the city’s five boroughs. The research team calculated that all those structures add up to about 1.7 trillion tons (1.5 trillion metric tons) of concrete, metal and glass — about the mass of 4,700 Empire State buildings — pressing down on the Earth. Continue reading

Nigerian chef cooks nonstop for 100 hours to set new global record

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

Chef Hilda Baci cooks to establish a new Guinness world record for the “longest cooking marathon”, the 97-hour cook-a-thon, in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, May 11, 2023. A Nigerian chef on Monday continued her quest to set a new global record for the longest hours of nonstop cooking after surpassing the current record of 87 hours and 45 minutes. By 15:00 GMT on Monday, Hilda Baci had cooked for more than 97 hours, becoming a national sensation and to the cheering of many in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos where her kitchen is set. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian chef on Monday set a new global record for the longest hours nonstop cooking as she cooked for 100 hours, surpassing the current record.

Hilda Baci had been cooking since last week Thursday when she set out to beat the Guinness World Record of 87 hours and 45 minutes set in 2019 by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef.

At around 19:45 GMT on Monday, Baci cooked for the 100th hour in the Lekki area of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to become a national sensation in the West African nation. Thousands who gathered at the scene jubilated and sang her praises as she stopped cooking a few minutes after. Continue reading

Americans bet $220B on sports in 5 years since legalization

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

A customer checks the odds board in the sports book at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City N.J. on Feb. 6, 2023. Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets in the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for all 50 states to offer it. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets in the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for all 50 states to offer it, and the industry shows few signs of slowing despite some recent scandals that have put a spotlight on wagering safeguards.

When Sunday’s anniversary of the court ruling in a case brought by New Jersey arrives, two-thirds of the country will offer legal sports betting, with additional states likely to join in coming months or years.

The fast-growing industry is also far-reaching: its advertisements reach into most U.S. homes during sporting events and even non-sports programming. Few TV viewers have been spared from repeated ads featuring a Caesar character discussing sports gambling with members of the Manning football dynasty, or from actor Jamie Foxx placing sports bets in between takes on a film set. Continue reading

In final speech, Ardern reflects on leading New Zealand

natixis-ezine

Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

Jacinda Ardern makes her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, after her five-year tenure as prime minister. A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern stepped down as prime minister in January, saying “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.” (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

By NICK PERRY Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern described in emotional terms how she’d navigated a pandemic and a mass-shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as prime minister.

She also told humorous anecdotes like how a European leader so admired the striking hair of Ardern’s chief-of-staff that he fluffed it like a hairdresser — which she joked had helped secure a free-trade deal — and how her mother once sent her a uplifting, if somewhat grandiose, message: “Remember, even Jesus had people who didn’t like him.”

On a more serious note, she urged lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change. Continue reading