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☆ After Escaping China by Sea, a Dissident Faces His Next Act
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-23 | by ( John Yoon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The dissident’s lone regret after his 200-mile escape across the Yellow Sea was not taking night vision goggles. Nearing the end of his jet ski journey out of China last summer, Kwon Pyong peered through the darkness off the South Korean coast. As he approached the shore, sea gulls appeared to bob as if floating. “I had everything — sunscreen, backup batteries, a knife to cut buoy lines,” he recalled in an interview. In response, he said, he faced an exit ban and years of detention, prison and surveillance.

Persons: Kwon, ” Organizations: Communist Party Locations: China, Korean, South Korea

☆ Opinion | When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Ed Yong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Last September, I drove to a protected wetland near my home in Oakland, Calif., walked to the end of a pier and started looking at birds. On that pier, for the first time, I had gone somewhere solely to watch birds. In some birding circles, people say that anyone who looks at birds is a birder — a kind, inclusive sentiment that also overlooks the forces that create and shape subcultures. I keep abreast of eBird’s rare bird alerts and have spent many days — some glorious, others frustrating — looking for said rare birds. I went out with experienced birders to learn how they move through a landscape and what cues they attend to.

Persons: I’ve, birders Organizations: Journalism Locations: Oakland, Calif, Sibley, United States, pish, owling

☆ Lone orca slays great white in less than two minutes and feasts on its liver
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Scientists witnessed one of the hunters, a male orca known as Starboard, single-handedly kill a 2.5-meter (8.2-foot) juvenile white shark within a two-minute time frame last year. “Over two decades of annual visits to South Africa, I’ve observed the profound impact these killer whales have on the local white shark population. A second great white shark carcass washes ashore in June near Hartenbos, South Africa. It wasn’t until 2022 that aerial footage first captured the orcas killing a great white shark, Towner said. The kill by a lone orca might have been made possible by the prey’s smaller size as a juvenile great white, according to the study.

Persons: I’ve, ”, Primo Micarelli, I’m, ” Micarelli, It’s, Alison Towner, Towner, didn’t, Christiaan Stopforth, ” Towner, “, Dr, Simon Elwen, wasn’t Organizations: CNN, Italy’s Sharks Studies Centre, University of Siena, of Marine Science, Rhodes University, ”, Cape Town, Search Research, Conservation, Stellenbosch University Locations: Cape Town, South Africa, ” Port, Seal, Mossel, Cape, Hartenbos, Namibia

It has also opened the door for new technology when it comes to on-ice protection from skate blades. BETTER PROTECTIONGianfranco Talarico started the company after watching a youth player get sliced in the thigh by a skate blade, just missing a femoral artery. Talarico has many times since cited research that found lacerations — often to the face, presumably from sticks as well as skates — to be a leading cause of emergency room visits among ice hockey players in the U.S. from 1990-2006. The death of Connecticut high school player Teddy Balkind from a skate cut to the neck in 2022 brought the conversation back to the forefront. The International Ice Hockey Federation announced in December it will mandate neck guards at all levels of tournaments it runs.

Persons: Adam Fantilli, Fantilli, Michael Stuart, Clint Malarchuk, Richard Zednik, Philadelphia's Claude Giroux, Carlo Colaiacovo, Ron Hextall, that’s, ”, Colaiacovo, Gianfranco Talarico, ” Talarico, “, Teddy Balkind, Johnson, Oshie, Ed Kinnaly, Carter Hogg, Charles Popkin, Andrew Saleh, Popkin, it’s, Bill Shaffer, Luke, Shaffer, Martin, Nick Meldrum, Meldrum Organizations: Columbus Blue Jackets, USA Hockey, Daredevil Hockey, “, ” Hockey Canada, NHL, Pittsburgh, Hockey, Bauer Hockey, American Hockey, San Diego Gulls, Conicity Technologies, Associated Press, Toronto Maple Leafs, Denver University , Michigan State, Penn State, Denver, Ice Hockey Federation Locations: U.S, Connecticut, Washington, balaclava, Pittsburgh, ”

☆ When people move out, wildlife moves in: 10 abandoned places reclaimed by nature
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Arya Jyothi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

The temple and surrounding forested areas were abandoned three centuries later, when the king moved the capital of the empire away from Angkor. People started moving out in the 1990s and by 2002, the village was completely abandoned. People started moving out in the 1990s and by 2002, the village was completely abandoned. The Whanganui River holds 18 fish species including eels, freshwater crayfish and black flounders. Graham Harries/ShutterstockLocated off the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales, stands a time capsule in the form of a long-abandoned island fort.

Persons: Prohm, King Jayavarman, Alexander Arndt, Angelina Jolie’s, “ Lara Croft, pileated gibbons, silvered, Johannes Eisele, Leo Francini, Marcio Martins, University of São Paulo, Martins, “, Al Madam, Giuseppe Cacace, Yasuyoshi Chiba, James Beasley, allan wright, Kilda, Graham Harries, Shutterstock, Nicholas Mueller, ”, Mueller Organizations: CNN, Wildlife Alliance, ., Steam, SS, Titanic, Cyclone, University of São, Google Arts & Culture, National Institute of Ecology, Al, Getty, United Arab, Japan Earthquake, University of Georgia, TED, UNESCO Locations: CNN —, Europe, Ta Prohm, Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Khmer, Angkor, Shengshan Island, China, AFP, Houtouwan, Shengshan, Zhoushan, Mangapurua, , New Zealand, Nowhere, Mangapurua Valley, New, Whanganui, North, Australia, Grande, Brazil, Sao Paulo, Marcio, Korea, South Korea, Al Madam Village, UAE, Al, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sharjah, Fukushima, Japan, St Kilda, Scotland, Scotland’s, Kilda, Atlantic, Soay, Boreray, Fort, Wales, Pembrokeshire

☆ Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ May Be Her Biggest Rerecording Yet. Here’s Why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Ben Sisario | More About Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Taylor Swift’s “1989” has been a fixture in the Top 20 of Billboard’s album chart for months. But “1989” is about to make an all-but-certain plunge down the chart. That’s because on Friday, Swift will release “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” the latest installment in her ambitious and wildly successful project to rerecord her first six studio albums. “1989” will be the fourth of Swift’s remakes, and each one so far has opened at No. “Speak Now” came out in July and started with 716,000 sales, including a remarkable 268,500 copies sold on vinyl LP.

Persons: Taylor Swift’s, ”, Swift, “ Locations: United States

☆ Seagulls close Venice airport
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-16 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Venice may be know as La Serenissima, but for those who have encountered her resident seagulls, the experience can be anything but serene. Now, the winged criminals have gone one stop further, causing an hour-long shutdown and two hours of chaos at the city’s airport. Venice Marco Polo Airport, located north of the city, with a runway adjacent to the lagoon, is the fifth busiest airport in Italy, and the largest in the north of the country outside the Milan area. Twenty incoming flights were diverted to other airports in northern Italy: Treviso, Verona, Trieste and Milan. Venice airport employs a resident falcon, who was dispatched by a falconer to disperse the 200-odd birds.

Persons: we’ll, Stanley Tucci, Venice Marco, falconer, Marco Bertorello, LaGuardia, Chesley “ Sully ” Sullenberger Organizations: CNN, intel, Venice Marco Polo Airport, SAVE, Eastern Air Lines, Ethiopian Airlines, Addis Ababa, Ryanair, Boeing, Hudson Locations: Venice, Italy, Milan, Treviso, Verona, Trieste, AFP, Boston, Addis, Frankfurt, Rome, New, Charlotte, Canada, Hudson

Putin’s Forever WarVladimir Putin wants to lead Russians into a civilizational conflict with the West far larger than Ukraine. Far from the Potemkin paradise of Moscow, the war is ever visible. On the eastern shore of the lake, where white-winged gulls plunge into the steel-blue water, Yulia Rolikova, 35, runs an inn that doubles as a children’s summer camp. She is some 3,500 miles from the front, yet the war reverberates in her family and in her head. “I said, ‘No, you have an 8-year-old daughter, and it’s a much more important duty to be a father to her.’”

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Will, Yulia Rolikova, “, —, ”, ‘, ’ Locations: Ukraine, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Moscow

☆ In the Azores: Earth, Water, Fire and Air, Sometimes All at Once
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Amy Thomas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

After our fill of scampering, we went to nearby Ponta da Ferraria to soak. A bubbling hot spring beneath the lava cliffs creates a heated cove right within the ocean. We followed the trail of sunbathers and adventure seekers past the indoor spa to the black, sometimes jagged, rocks where scores of people lay. Warm and churning, invigorating and intimidating, the water bounced us between the rocky edges and a rope strewn across the waterway for safe-holding. We parked and walked to the trailhead, the wind whipping against us, stirring whitecaps on the volcanic lake thousands of feet below.

Organizations: whitecaps Locations: Ponta, Lagoa, Fogo, Lake, Fire

☆ Scientists isolate human gene able to fend off most bird flu viruses
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) - UK researchers have homed in on a human gene implicated in thwarting most bird flu viruses from infecting people. Nicknamed B-force by the researchers, the gene was found to block the replication of most strains of bird flu in human cells. However, the gene's antiviral activity failed to protect against seasonal human flu viruses. This gene is part of a broader defensive apparatus in the human immune arsenal against bird viruses. To be sure, viruses mutate all the time, and this does not mean that bird flu viruses could not evolve to escape the activity of BTN3A3.

Persons: Massimo Palmarini, ”, Sam Wilson, Natalie Grover, Nancy Lapid, Christina Fincher Organizations: MRC, University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, World Health Organization, WHO, Thomson Locations: London

☆ Birds in the Atlantic are pecking baby whales to death, eating blubber from their backs as they surface for air
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gulls off the coast of Argentina have developed a peculiar food habit: pecking at whales' back fat. The birds used to feed on skin shed by the whales, but they figured out how to go straight to the source. The birds — kelp gulls — used to feed off sheets of skin from right whales, which the animals naturally shed. The birds flutter about waiting for the whales to surface, then they pounce, pecking at the whale's hide to get to the blubber. "Our analysis supports recent studies indicating that gull harassment at Peninsula Valdés may impact southern right whales population dynamics," the scientists said in the study.

Persons: —, peck, Mariano Sironi, wildestanimal, LUIS ROBAYO Organizations: Service, Gulls, Instituto, New York Times, Times, Getty Locations: Argentina, Conservación, Ballenas, AFP

☆ Birds With a Taste for Flesh Threaten Whale Calves
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Annie Roth | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thousands of colossal southern right whales travel to the calm waters of Península Valdés off the coast of Argentina each year to breed and give birth. The cetaceans, which can reach 56 feet in length, are a sight to behold, especially with their calves in tow. For the past 50 years, the kelp gulls of Peninsula Valdés have been mercilessly pecking at any southern right whale that dares to swim to the surface to breathe. The birds gorge on skin and blubber ripped from the whales’ backs. Over the past few decades the problem has escalated, and is now so severe that it’s causing young southern right whale calves to die prematurely, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters.

Persons: Península Valdés, “, ”, Macarena Agrelo Organizations: Federal University of Santa Locations: Península, Argentina, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil

☆ It Rocks in the Tree Tops, but Is That Bird Making Music?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Marlowe Starling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

According to Dr. Doolittle’s research, the song patterns of Eurasian blackbirds found in that region resemble Stravinsky’s compositional style. Neuroscience research points to the idea that this affinity between birds and humans is not so unusual. But the brains of monkeys and non-songbirds, like gulls, are organized in a different way, Dr. Bolhuis said. For example, both humans and birds can produce smash hits that evoke feelings in their listeners, the psychologist Dr. Tchernichovski explained. “This is the magic in music,” Dr. Tchernichovski said.

Persons: François, Bernard Mâche, zoomusicology, Igor Stravinsky’s, Dr, Johan Bolhuis, Bolhuis, Tchernichovski, ”, Birdsong, “ Locations: Ukraine

☆ 'I'll have what they're having' — seagulls like to get a human's recommendation before they steal their food, research shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

New research found that seagulls mimic human food choices, which is why they steal your food. Research by the University of Sussex found gulls studied human behavior and applied the knowledge. But new research suggests that it is a sign of intelligence after scientists at a British university found that the birds mimic human food choices. He added that "gulls may be less likely to steal our food if we focus on reducing litter. That's because littering increases gulls' ability to learn about how our different food options and how they taste."

Persons: —, beachgoers, Paul Graham, Graham Organizations: Research, University of Sussex, Service Locations: British, England, Brighton

☆ Uninhabited Scottish island could be yours for $190,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —If you’ve ever fancied escaping the grind of daily life and heading to a remote island with no other inhabitants, now could be your chance. Situated just off the southern coast of Scotland, Barlocco Island is up for sale, priced at offers over £150,000 ($190,000). Barlocco Island is a haven for wildlife. At low tide, the island can be reached on foot, by tractor or quadbike. “We have witnessed strong demand from domestic and international parties for entire private islands having handled the sale of several in Scotland,” Edgar said.

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