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☆ Russian ally ditching Putin's rival to NATO damages the image Putin wants to project of himself, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-14 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewArmenia's announcement that it's going to leave a Russia-led alliance that was set up to rival NATO is a blow to the image Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to project, experts told Business Insider. In fact, experts say it's the opposite of what Putin hoped to achieve with the alliance. But leading it is still important to Putin as, in Putin's mind, "great powers lead alliances and organizations." Armenia snubbing RussiaPashinyan's announcement came after months of snubs against Putin, and criticism of the CSTO in general.

Persons: —, Vladimir Putin, Nikol Pashinyan, Putin, Davis Ellison, Alexander Cooley, Thomas Graham, snubs, Pashinyan, Graham, Armenia doesn't Organizations: Service, NATO, Collective Security, Organization, Business, The Hague, Strategic Studies, Columbia University, Yale, Armenia's, Reuters, Getty Locations: Russia, Armenia, Kremlin, Soviet Union, Moscow, Soviet, East, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Washington, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

What Ukraine Has Lost A drone photograph shows numerous severely damaged buildings with labels highlighting residential buildings, a football field and a high school. This is the first comprehensive picture of where the Ukraine war has been fought and the totality of the destruction. More buildings have been destroyed in Ukraine than if every building in Manhattan were to be leveled four times over. In mid-May, the Russians bombed some towns in northeastern Ukraine so ferociously that one resident said they were erasing streets. “No matter how unpatriotic it may sound, there’s not much future for her in Ukraine,” Ms. Hrushkovska said.

Persons: it’s, Corey Scher, Den, Finbarr, Jamon, Diego Ibarra Sánchez, Marinka, ”, Iryna Hrushkovksa, “, Hrushkovska’s, Hanna Horban, ” Ms, Hrushkovska, ” Marinka, Celestino Arce, Tyler Hicks, Laura Boushnak, Finbarr O’Reilly, Horban, Horban’s, Vova, Svitlana Moskalevska, Olha Herus, “ Fish, Jan, Serhii Nuzhnenko, Gleb Garanich, Leonid Ragozin, Varvara, Herus’s, Tetiana, Ms, Herus, Reni, Izmail, Vavara, Varvara Hrushkovska, Hanna Kovalenko, “ It's, ” Artem Hoch, Danylo Organizations: New York Times, City University of New York Graduate Center, Den Hoek of Oregon State University, The New York Times, Copernicus Sentinel, Maxar Technologies, Google, Russia’s Defense Ministry, Ukraine ., Museum of Local, People’s Museum, Getty, Ukrainian Army, Reuters, SHEVCHENKA, SHCHORSA, New York, Kyiv Kharkiv, Ukrainian, Chernihiv Kyiv Kharkiv UKRAINE Dnipro, Kherson Mariupol, Kyiv Kharkiv UKRAINE Mariupol, Microsoft Bing, Institute for, American, The New York Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Marinka, Kyiv, Mariupol, Rubizhne, Kherson, Kharkiv, Manhattan, Dresden, London, Gaza, Den Hoek of, Geneva, Donetsk, Izium, Den Hoek, Crimea, Russian, Donetsk City, Vilkhivka, Huliaipole, “, Ukrainian, Berlin, Pavlograd, Soviet Union, NurPhoto, Kolos, Marinka — Donetsk, Donetsk People’s Republic, іі, Marinka’s, Irpin, Ukraine’s, Bakhmut, Ukrainians, Zaporizhzhia, Orikhiv, Dnipro, Nova, Oleshky, Donbas, Chernihiv Kyiv Kharkiv UKRAINE, CRIMEA, Kyiv Kharkiv UKRAINE

☆ Where Canada's 'super pigs' are most likely to invade the US — and potentially cause millions of dollars in damage
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-01 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewResearchers have warned that Canadian "super pigs" could soon invade the US, potentially causing millions of dollars in damage — and four states in particular are especially at risk. The researchers used data from GPS collars on feral pigs to follow their movement patterns and determine their invasion potential. Rodger Mallison/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service/Getty ImagesBrook called the super pigs an "environmental train wreck." According to USDA estimates, feral pigs already cause $2.5 billion worth of damage to US agriculture annually. So, regardless of what you've heard, it's unlikely you can shoot your way out of a super pig invasion.

Persons: —, Ryan Brook, Rodger Mallison, John Kilgo, Brooks, you've Organizations: Service, Farmers, Business, University of Saskatchewan, Fort Worth Star, Tribune, USDA Forest Service Locations: Canada, Alberta , Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana , North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Stephensville , Texas, California, Texas, Florida, Americas, , Montana, South Carolina

☆ Ukraine’s Oreo production is back in business after Mondelez repaired its war-damaged factory
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Mondelez’s plant in Trostyanets is now fully rebuilt after opening partially last year to make chocolates, according to a company statement. The company said the Oreo cookies and other chocolates produced at the Ukrainian factory are not being exported to neighboring Russia. Mondelez said it was making its business in Russia “stand-alone” with a self-sufficient supply chain by the end of 2023. “We continue to increase our investments in supporting and rebuilding Ukraine,” the company said in the statement. Norges Bank, Mondelez’s 11th-largest shareholder according to LSEG’s Eikon, backed the proposal, according to the fund’s disclosures.

Persons: Mondelez, “, Dirk Van de, LSEG’s, ” Organizations: CNN, Nestle, Reuters, Milka, Cadbury, Norges Bank Locations: Ukraine, Trostyanets, Russia, Europe, Oreos, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukrainian, Mondelez’s

☆ Legacy of Flaco, Escaped Zoo Owl, to Live at Museum in His Neighborhood
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Ed Shanahan | More About Ed Shanahan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The legacy of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and year on the loose enthralled New York City before his death in February, will live on in physical form near where he spent most of his life, zoo officials said on Tuesday. Flaco’s wings and tissue samples have been transferred to the American Museum of Natural History, where they will become part of its scientific collections, according to a statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Central Park Zoo. A spokeswoman for the museum declined further comment. Flaco’s tissue samples will be kept in the museum’s frozen tissue specimen collection, the society said. The rest of Flaco’s remains have been archived at the Bronx Zoo’s Wildlife Health Center.

Organizations: Central Park Zoo, American Museum of, Wildlife Conservation Society, Zoo, Wildlife Health Locations: New York City, Wildlife, Flaco’s, Bronx

☆ Some birds may use ‘mental time travel,’ study finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Kate Golembiewski | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“It’s often helpful to think about episodic memory as remembering, whereas semantic memory is just knowing,” he said. To find out whether Eurasian jays are capable of "mental time travel," researchers worked with birds trained to find food hidden under cups. “The idea is that with human episodic memory, we remember details of events that, at the time, weren’t necessarily relevant to anything. This aspect of episodic memory is sometimes referred to as “mental time travel.”To find out whether Eurasian jays are capable of mental time travel, the researchers worked with birds that had been trained to find food hidden under cups. “The big disease of memory is Alzheimer’s disease, and of course, the most debilitating aspect of Alzheimer’s disease is a profound loss of episodic memory,” Crystal said.

Persons: CNN —, ”, James Davies, Davies, “, “ There’s, James Davies Corvids, Nicola Clayton, —, advisee, ” Davies, weren’t, didn’t, ‘, I’ll, ’ ” Davies, Jonathon Crystal, ” Crystal, “ It’s, Kate Golembiewski Organizations: CNN, University of Cambridge’s, University of Indiana Bloomington Locations: Chicago

☆ Opinion: Hardened like diamonds, these Gen Z protesters fight for a European future
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Opinion Will Cathcart | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

They snatch protesters from the crowd and drag them back into a mass of black uniforms. Will Cathcart Will CathcartHundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Georgia in recent weeks to protest the government’s adoption of a Kremlin-inspired “foreign agents” bill. As with the foreign agents law, the bill’s authors claim it promotes transparency, an absurd notion. The foreign agents bill is a symptom of a deeper issue – money. The pressures of authoritarian intimidation and systematic violence have hardened Georgia’s young protestors like diamonds.

Persons: Will Cathcart, Mikheil Saakashvili, Cathcart Will Cathcart, Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Hans Gutbrod, ”, Salome Zourabichvili, aren’t, Gen Z, Europe –, Giorgi Arjevanidze, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Party ” –, Mamuka Mdinaradze, Shalva Papuashvili, – “, “, James O’Brien’s, Ivanishvili, Zviad Organizations: CNN, Tbilisi CNN — Riot, Georgian, Ilia State University, European Union, Getty, Global, Party, Georgian Orthodox Church, US, State, Eurasian Affairs, Fletcher School of Law, NATO, Special Forces Exchange Locations: American, Tbilisi, Georgia, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Europe, AFP, Georgian, Soviet, Russian, United States, Brussels, Washington, Moscow, EU

☆ Sex and marriage patterns in an ancient empire revealed by DNA
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

With opulent graves but no written records, the empire and its people have remained largely in the shadows of history until recently. But a landmark April 2022 study involving ancient DNA taken from the graves of the Avar elite shed light on the empire’s far-flung origins. A tiny sample is drilled from a bone at the ancient DNA laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. In the case of men, researchers found two partners in 10 cases, three partners in four cases and four partners in one case. “Polygamy (having multiple marriage partners), serial monogamous marriages and extramarital relations are all possible explanations,” she said.

Persons: ”, Zsófia Rácz, Rácz, aren’t, Guido Alberto Gnecchi, Max Planck, Eötvös Loránd University Múzeum Lara Cassidy, “, polygyny, Ruscone, Cassidy, Bryan Miller, wasn’t Organizations: CNN, of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd, Múzeum, University’s, Archaeological Sciences, Max, Max Planck Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Trinity College Dublin, Turks, Central, University of Michigan Locations: Central, Eastern Europe, Hungary, Rákóczifalva, Budapest, Leipzig, Germany, Europe, Mongolia, Caucasus, what’s, Constantinople, Byzantine, Eurasia

☆ Live updates: 7.4-magnitude quake near Taiwan's coast sparks tsunami warnings
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Nectar Gan | Wayne Chang | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Taiwan’s east coast is breathtakingly rugged and a major tourist draw, its geography a testament to the powerful tectonic forces that lie underneath. The island is located where the Philippines Sea Plate meets the vast Eurasian Plate. The result is a tear-drop-shaped island that boasts a towering spine of mountains running down its middle and an eastern coast that often experiences tremors. In contrast, the east coast is much less populated and rural. Winding roads and a much slower train line cling to steep cliffs and have to go through dozens of tunnels.

Locations: Philippines, Hualien

☆ Flaco the Owl's Death Shows Risk of Rat Poison to Wildlife in Cities
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Because the rat poison does not kill the animal for several days, there's time for an owl to prey on it and also injest the poison. Murray told Tufts Now that the numbers of raptors with rat poison seen by the clinic had steadily increased. Raccoons, foxes, skunks, coyotes, and house pets can also be exposed to rat poison, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While some cities are amping up the use of rat poison, others are addressing the threat posed to wildlife. The use of rat poison has been restricted in California for years, though the rodenticides continued to show up in animals that were not being targeted.

Persons: —, Flaco, Flaco's, Maureen Murray, Murray, Gavin Newsom, Tiffany Yap Organizations: Service, Central, Zoo, Yorker, Police, Business, Veterinary Medical Science, Tufts Wildlife Clinic, Tufts, California Department of Pesticide, California Department of Fish, Gov, pumas, Center for Biological Diversity Locations: Manhattan, New York, Chicago, Boston, Massachusetts, California, California Department of Fish and

☆ Russia knew of Moscow terrorist attack plot weeks ago, Ukraine's military spy chief says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Law enforcement officers stand guard near the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a reported shooting incident, near Moscow, Russia. Chief of the Military Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, attends the Kyiv Stratcom Forum 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 27, 2024. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesThe Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed it was behind the Moscow attack last Friday in which 143 died. Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesBudanov claimed Russia knew where the combat groups would come from, and which countries the attackers would travel through to reach Russia. The damaged Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow, Russia, following an attack by gunmen.

Persons: Maksim Blinov, Budanov, Ukrinform, Kyrylo Budanov, Putin, Dmytro Kotsiubailo, Vladimir Putin, Alexander Bortnikov, Nikolai Patrushev —, —, Patrushev, Maria Zakharova, Dmitry Peskov, Peskov, Vyacheslav Oseledko Organizations: Crocus City Hall, Sputnik, AP Russia, Hall, Russian Federation, Kyiv Stratcom, Military Intelligence, Nurphoto, Islamic, Kremlin, Directorate of Intelligence, Getty, Russia, concertgoers, Russia's Federal Security Service, Russian Ministry of Emergencies, Anadolu, Security, RIA Novosti, Russian Foreign, U.S, CNBC, Economic, Afp Locations: Crocus, Moscow, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Kyiv, U.S, Russian, Bishkek

☆ Who are ISIS-K, the group that claimed it carried out the Moscow terror attack?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It is a branch of ISIS, the terror group that emerged in Syria and Iraq and, at its peak, controlled a huge stretch of territory. By 2018, ISIS-K was ranked the world’s fourth-deadliest terror group, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, which monitors global terrorism. Video Ad Feedback What we know about ISIS group claiming responsibility for Moscow terror attack 04:16 - Source: CNNWhat do they want? Russian state media reported on March 7 that the FSB, Russia’s security service, prevented an ISIS attack on a synagogue in Moscow, according to Reuters. It is the most active terror group in the country, responsible for 73 deaths in 2023, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Persons: Kamala Harris, –, Joe Biden, Putin, ”, Daniel Byman, ” Byman, John Miller, Wakil Kohsar, Washington, Vladimir Putin Organizations: CNN, Islamic, ISIS, Sunday, US, Institute for Economics, The United Nations, Sharia, “, RIA Novosti, RIA, Reuters, Kabul University, CSIS, National Legal Training, US Central Command, National Intelligence, UN, Manchester Arena, State Department, Kyiv Locations: Moscow, Soviet, Tajikistan, Khorasan, Asia, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Africa, East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Kabul, Afghanistan’s Kunar, Nangarhar, United States, Britain, Europe, “ Russia, Georgetown, Caucasus, Pakistan –, Mastung, AFP, Germany, Paris, Ariana Grande, England, Orlando , Florida, Russian, Ukraine, Crocus

☆ Flaco, Central Park Owl, Died With High Levels of Rat Poison in System
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Ed Shanahan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and life on the loose captivated New York, had potentially lethal amounts of rodenticide in his system as well as a severe pigeon virus when he died last month after striking an Upper West Side building. The findings, from a necropsy conducted by Bronx Zoo pathologists after Flaco’s death on Feb. 23, validated widespread concerns about the hazards he faced living as a free bird in Manhattan for just over a year. He would have turned 14 this month. “Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors — infectious disease, toxin exposures and traumatic injuries — that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting,” the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Central Park and Bronx Zoos, said in a statement. Initial necropsy findings released the day after Flaco died suggested he had sustained an acute traumatic injury to his body, with signs of substantial hemorrhage under his sternum and in his back near his liver.

Persons: “, Flaco Organizations: Central Park Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx Zoos Locations: New York, Manhattan, Wildlife

☆ How NASA and Google Earth are helping save tigers
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Rebecca Cairns | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

That’s why conservationists have teamed up with NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Google Earth Engine to create a new real-time monitoring system for tiger habitats. “(Tiger landscapes) are also producing clean water and helping sequester carbon,” he says. The original iteration, called the “tiger conservation unit analysis” was produced in the late 1990s, and the second, TCL 2.0, in 2006. A map of the six categories of Tiger Conservation Landscapes on 1 January 2020, from the study published in Frontiers. “I don’t think people were cognizant about the amount of habitat that’s in this restoration landscape category, or about how much habitat is actually available for tigers that’s unoccupied,” he says.

Persons: Eric Sanderson, Sanderson, “, ” Organizations: CNN, NASA, European Space Agency, ESA, Conservation Science, Tiger Conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society Locations: Russian, Sumatra, Java, Bali ., Assam, India, Tiger

☆ From warning on nuclear war to 'psychotropic drugs': Here are 5 things Putin told the Russian media
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin making a speech at the second Eurasian Economic Forum on May 24, 2023, in Moscow, Russia. In an interview with pro-Kremlin media published Tuesday, Putin laid out his vision for relations with the West, war and peace. 1) Russia 'technically' ready for nuclear warPutin was again keen to point out that Russia is ready for a nuclear war on a technical and military level. Nonetheless, Putin said Russia would be ready to conduct nuclear tests — if the U.S. did so. It's estimated that the war has cost Russia at least 315,000 dead and wounded troops during two years of war in Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Dmitry Kiselev, Mikhail Klimentyev, Ria Novosti, Rossiya, We've, Ukraine's, Joe Biden, Jens Stoltenberg, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ludovic Marin, Emmanuel Macron Organizations: Economic Forum, Getty, Kremlin, RIA Novosti, Ukraine Rossiya, It's, Afp, Ria, Russian Federation —, NATO, AFP, Ukraine Locations: Moscow, Russia, U.S, Ukraine, Crimea, Europe, Paris

☆ Meet the heavy metal-drumming CEO bringing back cheap transatlantic travel, and learning from the mistakes of his airline's failed predecessors
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Birgir Jónsson is the CEO of Play, an Icelandic airline offering cheap transatlantic flights. Jónsson told BI how Play keeps costs low, and how important volcanoes are to Icelandic tourism. From 2014 to 2015, he was the deputy CEO of Wow Air, an Icelandic ultra-low-cost carrier that went bankrupt in 2019. AdvertisementHis foray into the sector began as CEO of Iceland Express, which was acquired by Wow. While other airlines had to avoid the country's airspace — lengthening journey times — Play got planes at discount prices.

Persons: —, Jónsson, Icelandair, it's, York's, New Orleans —, Etienne De Malglaive, Los Angeles —, They're Organizations: Jónsson, Service, Wow, Iceland Express, Icelandic Post, Southwest, Ryanair, York's Stewart, Airbus, North, British Airways Flight, Nasdaq, Russia Locations: Icelandic, Europe, New York, London, Reykjavík, Romanian, Manhattan, Iceland, New Orleans, Eyjafjallajökull, India, Los Angeles, California, Dubai, Russia

☆ What We Can Learn From Flaco, the Wild Owl in the Urban Unwild - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped the Central Park Zoo and spent a year on the lam in Manhattan, is dead. Few apex predators fare well in the built human environment, and Flaco was an apex predator who had never been taught to hunt. He learned to hunt anyway, as a wild owl in the urban unwild. I live in Tennessee, but I began to follow the wonderful urban wildlife photographer David Lei on Instagram just for the pure joy of seeing Flaco, day after day, in all his ill-fated magnificence. Flaco had spent his life among our kind and seemed to be as curious about us as we were about him.

Persons: It’s, irretrievably, Flaco, —, David Lei Organizations: Park Zoo, ahs Locations: Manhattan, York, Tennessee

☆ What Flaco the Owl Can Teach Us About Risk - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Carl Safina | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Flaco the owl is gone, but his life had all the elements of a classic hero’s story, not soon forgotten. Born in captivity, he lived a dozen years in a comfortable cage in the Central Park Zoo where little happened and less was needed. Then, a little over a year ago, someone released him. Flaco’s liberation from his comfortable confinement came at a cost — he spent the final year of his life free, but threatened from all sides by a booming city. Almost from the moment he was released, Flaco became a symbol of hope for many of the people who followed his story and recognized parts of themselves in him.

Persons: Flaco Organizations: Zoo Locations: Manhattan

☆ Flaco’s Death Calls Attention to Bird Strikes and How to Prevent Them
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Tracey Tully | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Memorials sprang up in New York City over the weekend in honor of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl who died on Friday after apparently striking a building on the Upper West Side. His ability to thrive for a year in Manhattan after escaping from the Central Park Zoo last February captivated much of the city, offering an enchanting object lesson about the power of instinct and the beauty of urban wildlife. His death may prove equally instructive. Flaco is among the estimated one billion birds that will die this year in the United States after striking buildings. Building strikes are one of the main causes of death for birds — and one of the easiest threats to solve, according to Christine Sheppard, director of the glass collisions program at the American Bird Conservancy.

Persons: Christine Sheppard Organizations: Central, Zoo, Bird Conservancy Locations: New York City, Manhattan, United States

☆ Flaco, the owl that escaped from Central Park Zoo, is dead after hitting a building
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Dalia Faheid | Rob Frehse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Just over a year ago, Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl captivated the hearts of New Yorkers when he fled from a Central Park Zoo enclosure after it was vandalized. Flaco became an attraction in Central Park with birders and others regularly posting updates on X about his whereabouts and eating habits. Despite efforts from members of the Wild Bird Fund who responded quickly to Friday’s collision scene, the bird was declared dead, the WCS said. The Wild Bird Fund notified zoo staff who picked up the bird and transported him to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy. Flaco had frequently been seen in and near Central Park and other locations across Manhattan since then, according to the society.

Persons: Eric Adams, Flaco Organizations: CNN, Yorkers, New York City, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bird Fund, Fund, Bronx Zoo, NYPD, Zoo, Conservation Society Locations: New, Manhattan, Wildlife, Central, birders, Central Park

☆ New Yorkers Mourn Flaco, the Owl They Could All Look Up To
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Ed Shanahan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pjetar Nikac has been the superintendent at 267 West 89th Street, an eight-story apartment building near Riverside Park, for 30 years. Someone had cut open the mesh on his enclosure in an act of vandalism that remains unsolved. Now, Flaco had apparently crashed into the building. Although he was still alive when Mr. Nikac found him and, with Alan Drogin, a birder and building resident, rushed to get him help, Flaco was soon pronounced dead. He was taken to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy that will determine why he died.

Persons: Pjetar Nikac, Nikac, ”, “, Mr, Flaco, Alan Drogin Organizations: Central, Zoo, Bronx Zoo Locations: Riverside Park, Manhattan

☆ Flaco, Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl and Defier of Doubts, Is Dead
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Ed Shanahan | More About Ed Shanahan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and subsequent life on the loose in Manhattan captured the public’s attention, died Friday night after apparently striking a building on the Upper West Side, officials said. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, said in a statement that Flaco had been found on the ground after hitting a building on West 89th Street. Building residents contacted the Wild Bird Fund, a rescue organization, whose staff members responded quickly, retrieved him and declared him dead a short time later, the society said. Zoo employees took him to the Bronx Zoo, where a necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. He would have turned 14 next month.

Persons: Flaco Organizations: Central Park Zoo, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bird Fund, Zoo, Bronx Zoo Locations: Manhattan

☆ Ukraine war live updates: Biden calls Putin a 'crazy SOB'; Kremlin says Biden is trying to look like a 'cowboy from Hollywood'
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting at the Congress Hall in Bishkek on Dec. 9, 2022. The Kremlin has reacted to President Joe Biden calling his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, a "crazy SOB," saying that Biden had humiliated himself, and the United States, in making the off-the-cuff remarks. "Probably there is an attempt to look like some cowboy from Hollywood, but frankly I don't think it's possible," he said. "This is the last existential threat. We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin and others and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate," Biden said.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Joe Biden, Biden, Putin, Dmitri Peskov, Peskov, I'd, — Holly Ellyatt Organizations: Economic, Reuters, Biden Locations: Bishkek, United States, Hollywood, San Francisco, Russia, Russian, America

☆ Romantic kissing’s earliest record dates to 4,500 years ago, scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Mindy Weisberger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Romantic kisses have long been celebrated in songs, poems and stories, commemorated in art and film. Modern scholars therefore concluded that romantic kisses likely originated in India. Across thousands of cuneiform tablets kissing isn’t the most mentioned topic, “but it is attested regularly,” he said. But Arbøll and Rasmussen suspected that romantic kissing became accepted in Bronze Age Europe, and not because of migration alone. Even today, many cultures shun romantic kissing, Arbøll and Rasmussen reported.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Guy de Maupassant, Troels Pank, Assyriology, Justin R, Garcia, ” Garcia, de Maupassant, Arbøll, Dr, Sophie Lund Rasmussen, ” Arbøll, “, primatologist Frans B.M, De, Rasmussen, isn’t, It’s, ” Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, University of Copenhagen, Indiana University, Kinsey Institute, Oxford University, Emory University, Scientific Locations: Mesopotamia, Bloomington, India, De Waal, Atlanta, Europe, Russia

☆ The Ballad of Flaco, the Outlaw Who Learned to Fly
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Michiko Kakutani | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Times’s longtime literary critic says that like all great outlaw-heroes, the escaped Eurasian eagle-owl tapped into our desire to see an underdog claim his freedom. “The Ballad of Flaco” began with a tear in the fence of a small Central Park Zoo enclosure the size of a bathroom, and then, after nearly 13 years in captivity, in the memorable words of the late-night host Seth Meyers, “Flaco shawshanked out of that cage.”As Flaco embraced his new freedom, New Yorkers marveled at the ability of this bird — whose entire existence had been scripted since he hatched at an avian breeding center in 2010 — to achieve that very American feat of writing a second act to his life. Flaco’s jailbreak and new life on the lam cast him in the role of outlaw — a beloved figure in American movies from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to “The Fugitive” and “The Shawshank Redemption.”

Persons: Flaco ”, Seth Meyers, “ Flaco, Flaco, —, Flaco’s, Butch Cassidy, ” Organizations: Sundance

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