When 200 men and women shed their clothing in the desert for a photo shoot on Oct. 17, it wasn’t for a risqué movie or social media stunt.
Rather, the project is designed to bring attention to the deterioration of Israel’s Dead Sea and the opening of the Dead Sea Museum in nearby Arad.
This was the third such photo session by American art photographer Spencer Tunick. A decade ago, he gathered some 1,100 people for an in-the-buff shoot at a Dead Sea beach that no longer exists.
Spencer Tunick, left, with Arad Mayor Nisan Ben-Hamo ahead of this year’s photoshoot. (Doron Orgil)
The salty lake in the Judean desert does not receive enough freshwater to replenish itself and is heavily mined for minerals. Therefore, the water level drops about a meter (equivalent to a yard) per year and the ground caves in.
“The original installation site has all but disappeared and is no longer accessible due to dangerous sinkholes,” Tunick said.
In 2016, he returned for a smaller and more covert shoot at another point along the shore. That site, too, has fallen victim to sinkholes caused by the dissolution of underground layers of salt.
“I am hoping that my new work and the inauguration of the Dead Sea Museum that will be in Arad will inspire methods and technologies, environmentalism and conservancy, aimed at rebuilding and recondition the Dead Sea,” Tunick said.
Tunick said his works at the Dead Sea “attempt to poetically visually create pushback against the loss of a natural wonder of the world” and that the volunteers who stood barefoot on the rocky soil for the project help publicize the environmental challenges that must be overcome.
“For me, the body represents beauty and life and love,” Tunick told reporters against the backdrop of misty mountains facing Arad.
“When I think of the nude body I don’t think of violence and crime. I think of art and progress, togetherness and equality.”
Participants in Spencer Tunick’s photo shoot in Arad on Oct. 17. (Irit Eshet Mor/Arad Municipality)
The photo project was conceived by Ari Leon Fruchter, a social entrepreneur and co-founder of the Dead Sea Revival Project and the initiator of the virtual and actual Dead Sea Museum to be designed by Neuman Hayner Architects. Also involved is art consultant and curator Keren Bar Gil, Tunick’s exclusive representative in Israel.
Tunick’s entire collection of Dead Sea photos are on view in the virtual Dead Sea Museum until April 21, 2022.
When experts in China unearthed what they say could be the world’s oldest anatomically modern human remains ever discovered, it would have seemed natural to ask: How can they be so sure? 300,000 years ago, perhaps. How do they know?
Even a member of the team studying the more than 30 bones found in Hualong Cave in Anhui Province in eastern China points out the difficulties of proving the claim with 100 percent certainty.
University of Southern California Professor Kristian Carlson said in an interview that the “most useful line of evidence to achieve this would be to directly date one of the human fossils.”
“This would be a destructive process though, so it is clearly not advisable,” he said. Instead, he said to look to human teeth to be as sure as one can ever get in human dating accuracy.
“Some teeth of associated faunal remains were directly dated with success,” Carlson said. “This is encouraging if the human fossils were ever to be considered for undergoing direct dating attempts.”
Hualong Cave No. 6 (A) compared to the position of the perforation in the hard palate of other ancient human fossils. Researchers say using the teeth from the fossil may be the best way to accurately date it without destroying it. (Ancient Spine Institute, Chinese Academy Of Sciences/Zenger)
Carlson also points out that dating human fossils could also be a bit of a head game, specifically involving the breccia, or sedimentary rock, deposited “around and within” the human cranium. But it “provides a pretty solid estimate of minimum age for the deposition of the human cranium, although it still involves a range,” he said.
“There isn’t really a good way (at least rigorously) of being more precise within the range,” he said.
The Hualong Cave discoveries “proposes that the transition of human evolution from ancient to modern forms in East Asia occurred 300,000 years ago, which is 80,000 to 100,000 years earlier than previously known,” the researchers wrote in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Researchers Liu Wu and Wu Xiujie of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that apart from brow and cheekbone features being similar to Homo erectus and ancient humans from the mid-Pleistocene period between 700,000 and 1.25 million years ago, the rest of the facial features are more like early-modern and modern humans.
“The comparative analysis of modern human specimens resulted in a series of new discoveries and understandings,” Liu Wu said.
The left maxilla and cheekbone of Hualongdong No. 6. (Ancient Spine Institute, Chinese Academy Of Sciences/Zenger)
“This also gives us some new guesses about human evolution. The initial transition event of human evolution to modern form is likely to occur in a relatively isolated local area, while other parts of China are still being affected by older humans.”
Since the cave project began in 2013, more than 30 ancient human fossils have been found as well as “hundreds of stone tools” and a high number of “mammalian fossils and traces of cuts and slashes on the surface of animal bones,” said a statement released by the Ancient Spine Institute of the Chinese Academy Of Sciences.
The researchers said there was still a lack of consensus among paleoanthropologists regarding when exactly ancient humans transformed into modern humans in East Asia.
“We believe that more ancient human fossil discoveries and studies will further reveal the emergence of modern humans on the East Asian continent and clarify disputes related to the origin of modern humans,” Liu Wu said.
Hualong Cave No. 6 face bone fossil. (Ancient Spine Institute, Chinese Academy Of Sciences/Zenger)
Carlson said working on the project had been a “dream,” and that he was “extremely grateful.”
“In many ways, this experience has fulfilled a long-running dream of mine since my undergraduate days to make a contribution to the field of study on modern human origins,” he said.
Carlson points out that “East Asia is one of the most important regions to consider when it comes to questions surrounding modern human origins, in part because of the long history of work done with evidence in this area.”
The “arms race” for electric vehicles (EV) is under way, as nations look to ways to lessen carbon emissions.
The Biden administration wants half of new cars in 2030 to be EVs. Ford plans to accelerate its EV building in the U.S. Electric Last Mile shipped its first batch of electric urban delivery trucks. Multiple manufacturers are looking at solid-state battery technology rather than lithium-ion for, of course you guessed it, EVs.
The focus isn’t surprising. The transportation sector is responsible for about 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Get cars and trucks to stop emitting greenhouse gases and the country could make a big dent, making EVs seem obvious.
But while there’s a lot of good, and even more potential good, in EVs, according to experts, the landscape and implications are more complex than headline stories suggest.
“To assess the carbon footprint of any product, one should think about its lifetime emissions — that is, the emissions generated throughout the different phases of the product’s lifecycle,” says Ioannis Bellos, a professor at George Mason University School of Business who has conducted research on EVs and their adoption. Currently, EVs generate more emissions during their manufacture than similar fossil fueled-powered vehicles, largely due to the production of batteries.
The current, mainstay of EV battery technology, lithium-ion, has some inherent problems, according to a 2018 study by management consulting firm Berylls Strategy Advisors. After eight years, their storage capacity drops to about 80 percent of the original and the charging rate deteriorates, which makes for an ultimately unattractive used car market and creates a need to build new cars, not use existing ones for longer.
Demand for minerals is going up, thanks to electric vehicles and other technologies.
There are also issues of mining rare earth materials incorporated into magnets that are an essential part to higher-performance EV engines. “If you’re trying to optimize heavier vehicles that want to go very fast, you need these rare earth minerals,” says Kevin Heaslip, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.
And many of these materials and others used in EV construction have additional environmental impacts that go beyond carbon emissions.
“If you look solely on the carbon footprint, you could get out ahead,” says Dr. Kwame Awuah-Offei, director of the mining engineering program at Missouri University of Science and Technology. “But I think your big problem is a lot of the materials we need would not be mined in developed countries where the environment regulations are strict but in [an area] that are not strict.”
Byproducts of the mining process can generate runoff that moves dangerous heavy metals into drinking water supplies in poorer countries where the needed minerals and metals are frequently found, meaning developed countries could be exporting serious environmental problems to focus on carbon reduction.
Where EVs can come out ahead environmentally is in the long run. “Typical use of an electric vehicle can make up for this ‘emissions debt,’” Bellos says. The lower the operating emissions an EV, the greater a chance it will more than make up the higher manufacturing emissions over time. The amount of time needed time depends on the driving patterns, the electrical grid, and future battery technology.
It also depends on the source of electrical power.
One issue is that the sources of electricity for EVs to charge most frequently are from fossil fuels. “If you’re using renewables as a power source, that could be game changing,” says Heaslip. But that’s not so easy. Some, like wind, are at a distance from where cars typically are charging their batteries, and the longer the distance, the more power loss from inescapable resistance in electrical grids. “There are areas that could be used for energy harvesting but they’re far enough that the transmission losses are significant.”
Local generation of energy could help, but in many urban settings it might be impractical. And charging batteries is a power-hungry undertaking. Some of super-fast battery chargers use so much power to top off an EV that it’s like the electrical needs of an “entire city block for a whole day,” Heaslip says. Also, the speed of recharging an EV can’t come close to touching the brief few minutes it takes to fill a conventional car’s tank with gasoline or diesel.
This could change over time. “From my perspective, I see electric vehicles still being fairly early in their technology maturity,” Heaslip says. “That may seem counter intuitive to most people that look at the media, but there’s still a lot of optimizations of materials, a lot of optimizations of renewable energy that could be used.”
In the meanwhile, while moving to electric vehicles will be necessary, companies, investors, and the public should remember that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done and no immediate magic solution to a big and complex problem.
Newly crowned WBC champion Tyson Fury has declared himself “the greatest heavyweight of my era,” having transitioned from pure boxer to a 6-foot-9 behemoth with two-fisted power whose footwork and mobility belie his size.
The unbeaten “Gypsy King” can whip former champions Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, along with unified titleholder Oleksandr Usyk and former champ Anthony Joshua, trainer Javan “Sugar” Hill-Steward, told Zenger News in an exclusive interview on Saturday.
“Tyson Fury’s footwork is like Muhammad Ali’s, and he’s told me ‘A fighter has to not only knock me down, but knock me out to beat me,’” said Hill-Steward, Fury’s cornerman for his past two fights. “Tyson has more power in both hands to the point where he’s a fighter with one-punch knockout power.”
Fury (31–0–1, 22 KOs) stopped 6-foot-7 Deontay Wilder by 11th-round TKO on Oct. 9, flooring “The Bronze Bomber” in the third round, rising from a pair of knockdowns in the fourth, and dropping him once each in the 10th and 11th of his first defense.
“Deontay Wilder, Usyk and Joshua are good challenges. But I would put Tyson against Joshua tomorrow, and against Usyk two weeks later, so line ‘em up,” said Hill-Steward, channeling “Honey” Roy Palmer from the 1992 film ‘Diggstown,’ in which the boxer — portrayed by actor Louis Gossett Jr.— handled 10 men in a single day.
“Tyson Fury’s not looking for a decision, and I don’t train him for decisions. Whether it’s the first round or the 12th round, I train Tyson for knockouts. I don’t see anybody in the heavyweight division who can beat Tyson Fury. You can pick the round, but Tyson Fury knocks everybody out.”
Fury rose from ninth- and 12th-round knockdowns during a December 2018 draw with Wilder before dethroning him via two-knockdown, seventh-round TKO in their February 2020 rematch.
Over the course of Fury’s trilogy with Wilder, the champion’s skills have transitioned from blending nimble reflexes, head movement and distance fighting with an 85-inch reach to an amalgam of speed, double-fisted power and finishing skills.
“For Tyson Fury to rise from a combined four knockdowns against one of the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division’s history in Deontay Wilder, and to come back from those and pull off the big knockouts in back-to-back fights shows that Tyson Fury is a big-time fighter,” Hill-Steward said.
“Our first fight working together, Tyson was leaning on Wilder and mauling him. But in this last fight, Tyson didn’t maul him. Tyson opened up his mid-range punching game. On the inside, he would lean but pivot himself into punching position, throwing counter punches with bad intentions. Tyson is a better fighter because he wants to learn, and I want to teach.”
Fury added Wilder (42–2–1, 41 KOs) to a legacy that includes dethroning 6-foot-6, long-reigning lineal champion Klitschko in November 2015, a unanimous decision that ended “Dr. Steelhammer’s” run at 22–0 (15 KOs) and 11½ years as Fury became IBF/WBA/WBO/IBO champion.
“The Gypsy King” credited Hill-Steward for his victory over Fury on Oct, 9, stating, “If it wasn’t for ‘Sugar’ Hill … I wouldn’t have gotten through that fight.
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (standing) floored Deontay Wilder in the 10th round during an 11th-round TKO victory on Oct. 9. “Tyson has more power in both hands to the point where he’s a fighter with one-punch knockout power,” said Fury’s trainer, Javan “Sugar” Hill-Steward. (Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
“This was one of my greatest wins, and I’ve gotten off the floor to do it. I pulled it out of the bag when it needed to be done,” added Fury, whose career-high 277 pounds countered Wilder’s career-high 238.
“I’ve always said I’m the best in the world, and he’s [Wilder] the second-best. I’m the WBC champ and the lineal champion. It was a great fight tonight worthy of any trilogy in the history of the sport. I hope Oct. 9, 2021 will go down in history as one of the greatest fights.”
Hill-Steward is the nephew of the late Hall of Fame trainer, Emanuel Steward, who foreshadowed Wilder’s becoming heavyweight champion before dying of cancer three days after Wilder’s 27th birthday on Oct. 25, 2012.
Steward also worked with Lewis, Holyfield and Klitschko. Hill-Steward believes Fury is simply too big for Holyfield and too slick and elusive for Lewis.
“Evander Holyfield is one of my favorite fighters — an old-school boxer and warrior who was in with all the big boys. But Tyson’s 6-foot-9, and I don’t see Evander Holyfield dealing with that too well, not with me training him. So Evander Holyfield gets stopped,” Hill-Steward said.
“Lennox Lewis is the best challenge for Tyson Fury. Lennox Lewis had the best footwork of his time, and after him, Wladimir Klitschko. But Tyson has everything Lennox Lewis has and more. Tyson Fury beats Lennox Lewis, possibly by knockout, but he definitely wins that fight.”
A bronze-medal winner in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Holyfield (44–10–2, 29 KOs) was considered the greatest cruiserweight of all time before retiring in June 2014 at age 52 as the only four-time heavyweight champion.
The 6-foot-2½ “Real Deal” earned the heavyweight crown in his seventh division bout by third-round KO of James “Buster” Douglas (October 1990), representing his 13th straight stoppage victory. Douglas had dethroned Mike Tyson in February 1990 via 10th-round KO.
Holyfield was 1-2 against 6-foot-5 champion Riddick Bowe in November 1992, 1993 and 1995, 0–1–1 against 6-foot-5 undisputed champion Lewis in March and November 1999, and lost by majority decision in December 2008 to seven-foot Nikolai Valuev, who is known for being the tallest and heaviest champion in boxing history.
Holyfield was outweighed, 235 to 205 pounds, in his initial clash of unbeatens with Bowe — a unanimous decision loss that dethroned Holyfield as IBF/WBA/WBC titleholder. Holyfield won his rematch with Bowe by majority decision, but lost their third bout by eighth-round TKO.
Holyfield was outweighed 215 to 245 in his initial draw with Lewis and lost their rematch by unanimous decision. Steward trained Holyfield for his triumph over Bowe, but opposed him in his clashes with Lewis.
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (on ropes, far right) floored Deontay Wilder (foreground) for the third and final time for an 11th-round TKO victory on Oct. 9, rising from a pair of fourth-round knockdowns. (Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
Steward worked with Lewis for his eighth-round knockout of Mike Tyson in June 2002, Oliver McCall when the latter halted Lewis by second-round TKO in September 1994, and Lewis, once again, during his fifth-round TKO of McCall in February 1997.
“Emanuel Steward was a very good strategist for coming up with game plans and when it came to fighting Bowe,” said Holyfield, who was outweighed, 214¼ to 310¾ by Valuev. “He said, ‘Bowe is taller and punches harder, so don’t go toe-to-toe. Go and bounce around, make him come forward trying to keep up with you until he runs out of gas.’ That’s how I beat Riddick Bowe.”
Holyfield weighed a career-high 226 pounds for a 10th-round TKO of Brian Nielsen in his final career bout in May 2001. “The Real Deal” acknowledged the difficulty of a fight with Fury.
“Deontay can hurt you with that right-hand power punch, but Fury’s a good boxer, and a good boxer like Fury has the ability to change up if something’s not going right,” said Holyfield, who turns 59 on Oct. 19. “Fury was able to both fight inside and from distance, so Deontay kept getting hit and hurt himself. In the end, Deontay wound up being hurt worse.”
Former contender Gerry Cooney, now 65, retired in 1990 with a mark of 28-3 (24 KOs), having fought during the late 1970s and 1980s and knocked out Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle and future Hall of Famer Ken Norton.
The 6-foot-6 Cooney was 25 years old in 1982 when he lost his title bid by 13th-round TKO to Larry Holmes, having entered at 25-0 (21 KOs).
“Fury’s long and awkward. When Klitschko tried to do something, Fury would feint, tie him up, go jab, right hand. When Fury did that, Klitschko was lost, never able to reset himself to throw good punches,” Cooney said.
“Fury’s a much better, tougher fighter than he was against Klitschko. Wilder’s best punch is a right hand, but Fury’s gotten up a total of four times against him, which shows that he has a lot of guts. Can Usyk beat Fury? I don’t think so.”
The 6-foot-3 Usyk (19–0, 13 KOs) dominated and dethroned Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) as IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion on Sept. 25, joining Holyfield and England’s David Haye as the only former cruiserweight titleholders to also capture heavyweight crowns.
Joshua has exercised the rematch clause in his contract with Usyk, a 2012 Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist. In that case, the WBC may declare that Fury face the winner of an Oct. 30 clash between the organization’s interim titleholder Dillian Whyte (28–2, 19 KOs) and southpaw Otto Wallin (22–1, 14 KOs).
“Usyk, Joshua, Wallin, Whyte or whoever you put in front of him, Tyson Fury knocks out,” Hill-Steward said. “We may win by decision, but we only train for knockouts, and you can put an exclamation [point] on the end of that.”
From mime artist to Buddhist monk, David Bowie made several left-field changes in his career.
One occurred in the mid-nineties when he became a journalist after offering the art world the unobtainable — an interview with the “least known great painter of the 20th Century.”
But in four hours of conversation, the singer never once asked the elderly Balthus about the most notable aspect of the painter’s work: the allegations of pedophilia.
A new book on Bowie looks back at the singer’s meeting with the 86-year-old Polish-French artist, and tries to understand why Bowie steered away from the most notable feature of his interviewee’s art.
“We Could Be… Bowie And His Heroes” tells the history of David Bowie through stories of his encounters with other famous icons. (Courtesy Tom Hagler)
Balthus was the last survivor of the School of Paris, a group of diverse, innovative artists, including Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Mondrian and Modigliani, who rejected established artistic practices. But while his contemporaries embraced new styles, Balthus’ main challenge was in his content; paintings of pre-pubescent girls in a series of erotic and voyeuristic poses.
Bowie had recently bumped into the artist’s wife at an exhibition in Switzerland and discovered they were almost neighbors. Telephone numbers were exchanged and Bowie called her husband suggesting a meeting.
“Shall I bring a ‘proper’ journalist,” Bowie asked. “Good heavens, no,” replied Balthus. “I can’t stand art journalists. They are always so intellectual. I’d prefer you to do it, dear boy.”
Bowie almost did not make it to the painter’s chalet. “I was so petrified, I nearly turned back three times,” he said. Not only would this be his first “serious” article in a “serious” publication, it would also define whether he would sink or swim in the new world of high art and intellectualism.
“I wanted to show my mettle,” Bowie said, who had just joined the board of Modern Painters. “Being a rock singer — Rock GOD — it’s quite hard to convince people that your interests extend outside the parameters of purely being up on stage wearing funny trousers.”
David Bowie performs his final concert as Ziggy Stardust at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. (Express/Express/Getty Images)
The two men hit it off from the start and the resulting 20 pages was the longest interview the magazine ever printed.
“That was a joy to do because he was such a gentleman and so mysterious and knew he was pulling you into his myth,” recalled Bowie. Balthus spoke about lunching with Marlon Brando. Picasso, he said, had defended him when the Polish painter was accused of being a fascist for painting figurative art. “He knew ’em all,” Bowie told Raygun magazine. “Hung out with Pablo, got drunk with Duran and all the rest of it. And it was great sort of having him go back and then suddenly remember. [elderly voice] ‘Oh. I remember Pablo would say to me…’ or ‘I was sitting there with Igor…’ Stravinsky!”
Balthus also mentioned how the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, his mother’s lover, had helped him as a young boy publish his first book at the age of 11.
The painter appeared unaware of Bowie’s side job as a rock god. “Are you used to photographers?” he asked innocently, as a cameraman took snaps of the two. “Unfortunately, yes,” replied Bowie.
“There were so many secrets about him,” Bowie later said, although the most notable “secret” — the allegations of pedophilia — was scarcely touched upon. Paintings of pre-pubescent girls in provocative poses, allied with allegations of affairs with his young “models”, had swirled around the painter since the 1930s. Therese with Cat (1937) and Therese Dreaming (1938) both show a girl leaning back on a chair with one leg raised to expose her white knickers. Balthus would tell interviewers, years later, that this is simply the way young girls sit. The Street (1933) is more explicit with, at one end of the canvas, a man apparently groping a girl, who maintains a blank expression.
A 1938 painting was used by Penguin as the cover of Nabakov’s Lolita. According to art critic John McDonald, Balthus took up with at least two of his models when they were teens, although the exact age when the affairs began is debated. “Today, it seems no less amazing that Balthus could deny his predilection for young girls than Liberace could sue people for claiming he was gay,” McDonald wrote in the Sydney morning Herald.
Eventually, a museum in Germany would ban his work, others would face petitions to do the same, the New York Times refused to reprint his paintings, and Tracey Emin was not alone in the artistic community for labeling the painter “a pervert.”
A visitor inspects the painting “Les trois soeurs” (The Three Sisters) by Balthus, valued at $7-10 million, at a press preview of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale November 3, 2006 in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
But when speaking to Bowie, Balthus was to bring up the issue himself by mentioning one of his most controversial paintings. “The Guitar Lesson” features a young girl, skirt pulled up and naked from the waist down, lying on the lap of a female music teacher whose pulled-down blouse reveals an aroused nipple.
“I was in bad shape and I wanted to make a name for myself,” Balthus told Bowie. “You know, David, in these days, the only way to make a name for oneself was to scandalize.”
Rather than point out that Balthus had continued to paint explicit images of pre-pubescent girls even after attracting notoriety and fame, Bowie replied: “Provocation has paved the way and fostered the careers of many.”
Unprompted, almost as if he needed to get something off his chest, Balthus went on, “I am simply attracted to the immature forms of a teenager, that is all.” Again, Bowie declined to take up the offer to delve into that most talked-about aspect of the artist’s career, as any trained journalist would surely have, and instead seemingly went off on a tangent to ask about the artist’s symbolic use of books and mirrors.
Maybe Bowie thought the allegations of pedophilia were spurious, or that “the work” was more important than the life, or that a challenge from a rock star might feel hypocritical.
Or maybe Bowie sympathized with the view of Bono, who was such a fan of the artist he sang at Balthus’ funeral. “In Balthus’ era, the only subject you couldn’t approach with any curiosity was puberty,” the Irish singer told French journalist Michka Assayas. “You weren’t allowed to go there, so he had to go there. For me and rock ‘n’ roll, it was spirituality. You just can’t go there, so I had to go there.”
The singer was delighted with the interview and its impact: “I see it now quoted in academic things saying, ‘From the Bowie interview’. Whoa, that’s me!”
“As with any aged gentleman that I come into contact with, my immediate need is to treat him as the grandfather I never knew or the father I needed more of,” Bowie told The Independent’s David Lister. “We are time and worlds apart, which has made for a rather lovely friendship.”
As for courting controversy, or perhaps skirting controversy in the case of the interview itself, Bowie concluded that he and Balthus were both prepared to shock to pursue their beliefs or, as the singer termed their mutual philosophy, “Put it out and be damned.”
Tom Hagler is the author of “We Could Be: Bowie and his Heroes,” which tells the history of Bowie through short stories of his encounters with fellow icons.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The sinkhole repairs along the tracks have been completed, along with a safety assessment approving the train to travel to Nashville Riverfront. The WeGo Star will operate a modified service on Monday, October 18. The Titans Express will travel from Lebanon to Riverfront as planned. WeGo will return to full regular train service on all three trips beginning on Tuesday, October 19 to Riverfront.
Safety of our WeGo Star passengers is our main priority and we at WeGo/RTA appreciate your patience and understanding.
If you have any questions concerning service, please call Customer Care at 615-862-5950 weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m
A couple’s decision to move their dream home across a bay nearly became a nightmare, as the dwelling almost sank mid-voyage.
Moving the house across water “was definitely an ambitious undertaking,” said Daniele Penney, adding that she and her boyfriend, Kirk Lovell, didn’t know what to expect.
“This hasn’t really been done in decades,” said Penney. “It was really stressful to watch, the house started to sink at one point when the boat broke down. I had to turn away and look at the mountains because I thought for sure my house was gone.
“Once more boats arrived, things started to go a little more smoothly, and the house actually bobbed up a bit for the remainder of its journey across the water.”
The relocation operation took place in McIvers, a small town on the west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province. It involved moving the house about a half-mile down the north shore of the Bay of Islands.
Penney, who is 29 and works as a truck driver, said it took them about four months to plan the operation.
Despite all that preparation, the boat began sinking about halfway through its journey.
What almost sank the venture?
“The beam of the structure the house was laid on before it went in the water had a little hole in it that we didn’t know about,” Penney said. “That is what caused the house to tip back and take on water. The boat breaking down also slowed things down and caused the house to take on water really fast.
“It was a race against the clock to get more boats in the water to get things moving along before it was too late.”
Kirk Lovell (left) and his girlfriend Daniele Penney moved their home (background) about a half-mile across the Bay of Islands in Newfoundland, Canada, on Oct. 11. (Daniele Penney/Zenger)
Aerial footage shows the house being towed and pushed across the water, with two huge excavators waiting at the water’s edge to help to pull it ashore.
Once the home arrived, it was pulled up the slope by the diggers and onto a trailer and then slowly edged into place, as seen in the second video.
Another video shows the dream home with an amazing view over the bay in the background being carefully pulled into its final position.
Penney said the massive operation took place because she had always admired the two-story home but was shocked when she heard its owner was planning to raze the house and build a new one on the property.
“I have always loved the house. As a little girl I would joke around saying I would own it one day,” Penney said. “The owners were going to tear it down to build their dream home on the water. It wasn’t a decision they came to lightly, and once I heard about it, I called them. I wanted that house right or wrong, so we made it happen.”
The entire operation, which involved strapping barrels to the bottom of the house, cost about $4,000. Penney says it was Lovell who ultimately decided to relocate the house to their own plot of land on the other side of the water, but it was not possible to move it over land because of the obstacles in the way, including high-voltage power lines.
The house came with fixtures and fittings, much of which ended up water-logged as a result of the move, but the owners are hoping the property will soon dry out, helped by holes that were dug in the bottom for quick drainage.
The final touches are now being put to the property. While that happens, the owners are living in a mobile home.
After averting sinking, the house nears its new location on the shore of the Bay of Islands in Newfoundland, Canada. (Keith Goodyear/Zenger)
Even before its epic move, the house had a rich history.
“The gentleman who built the house died in the Second World War, leaving the house to his mother. It was moved to its second location 80 years ago for only a year or two, and then it was moved to the location where we took it from.
“This house is very old, and for me personally it is a dream come true to have the opportunity to own it. We look forward to the challenge of fixing it up.”
The next step, said Penney, is going to be “a lot of renovations, we already have torn the interior of the house down to the studs. We will be bringing this house back to life, and hopefully be in it by Christmas!”
The couple also said that it would probably have been cheaper to build a new one, but it was great to be part of recreating a bit of history, and it’s a memory they will always treasure — now that it’s over.
A Canadian dad snapped a picture of a 602-pound black bear standing next to his son’s gaming chair after it snuck into the family’s house.
Sean Reddy’s home in Alberta, Canada, was invaded on Oct. 4. He was cleaning up his garden because a bear had knocked over the garbage cans the night before.
As he walked around his garden, his two dogs suddenly became agitated. Reddy said he recognized the dogs’ behavior. They had reacted the same way when a bear was nearby.
The dogs soon had the bear cornered near the garage, but Reddy shouted at them to back off as the bear could have seriously injured them. Black bears have strong, highly curved claws.
“The bear did not seem fazed by my dogs, and I was calling them back so as not to them get killed. I locked them [the dogs] in my shop and closed the door to leave the bear alone,” he said.
A giant black bear climbed through an open window and entered a house in Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta, Canada, in October. (@sean.reddy.52/Zenger)
The bear then made its way into the garage, where it got its paws on dog food and some items in the freezer.
Reddy told his children, Ronan and Cormac, to stay inside and not go anywhere near the garage, as it was occupied by a hungry bear.
The family watched the bear from their window and assumed that after finishing the food it would head back into the woods.
Minutes later, Cormac, 10, asked his dad where all the scratching he heard was coming from. Ronan then shouted to his dad, saying the bear was now in the hallway.
“I went in to see and sure enough, there it was. I don’t remember what I said or if I was yelling at the bear, but that’s when he walked into Cormac’s room.”
Reddy thought a window was open in the room, so he shut the door and hoped the bear would leave the same way it came in.
He rushed outside to check if the window was open, only to find that it was shut.
When he realized he had locked the bear in Cormac’s room, he ran back into the house and discovered his son Liam had left his bedroom window wide open — and that’s how the bear entered.
A giant black bear entered a house in Alberta, Canada, via an open bedroom window. He smashed a computer monitor, but otherwise, the family escaped with minimal damage to their home. (@sean.reddy.52/Zenger)
With Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Fish and Wildlife officials unreachable, it was up to Reddy to remove the bear from his son’s bedroom.
He called his neighbor, who came over with some anti-bear spray.
“We decided to get a bunch of furniture ready to block off the hallway. There is a bookshelf by Cormac‘s bedroom, which I had pulled back thinking at least if I opened the door and a mad bear was coming out, I had a bookshelf between us.”
However, when he opened the bedroom door, the bear did not show itself.
“I climbed over the small bookshelf to look in, and the bear was at the computer desk looking back at me as if to say ‘what do you want? That’s when I said to the guys here: ‘I have to take a picture because no one will believe me!’”
The black bear walked across the hallway back toward the bedroom and left shortly after Ruddy snapped its picture. Damage was minimal; the bear knocked the computer monitor off the desk and smashed it. He also knocked the window screen out.
The bear has not been seen again. Ruddy said bear sightings are not uncommon near the family’s home, although they usually keep to the garden and the garage.
A zoo in Spain reported two of its critically endangered gorillas celebrated birthdays.
The Bioparc Valencia, which is located in Valencia, Spain, said Jitu, a male silverback gorilla turned 38 on Oct. 15, while Fossey, a female, turned 22 on Oct. 16.
Gorillas live in family groups of usually five to 10, but as large as 50. They are led by a dominant adult male — or silverback.
The zoo said the gorillas are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Endangered Species, which is why the “birthdays of two of the gorillas that Bioparc Valencia houses are a reason for joy.”
“Jitu is one of the most admired animals in the park, a majestic western coastal gorilla that is celebrating its 38th anniversary today. The entire technical team has always paid special attention to his health, as Jitu was operated on for a testicular tumor in 2008, so maintaining his strength is essential,” the zoo said.
Gorillas are endangered in the wild, so the zoo in Valencia, Spain, was happy to celebrate the birthdays of two apes. (Bioparc Valencia/Zenger)
It also said Fossey “moved to Valencia together with the male Mambie in 2007. For the first time, our city had the honor of hosting a gorilla breeding group and thus becoming part of the international program for its ex situ conservation.
“Fossey gave birth to Pepe in 2018, one of the four gorillas that has been born at Bioparc. Contemplating this family today, with the games and interactions of all of them, represents the hope of contributing to the recovery of this emblematic species.”
Gorillas are “one of the five species of great apes that exist, along with orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. They are our closest living ‘relatives,’ and we are bringing them to the brink of extinction. Therefore, all coordinated conservation actions are key to saving them,” the zoo said.
Gorillas and humans share approximately 98 percent of their genetic code, according to the 2012 sequencing of the gorilla genome, published in the journal Nature.
A gorilla protected at Bioparc Valencia in Spain. The gorillas’ survival in the wild is threatened by hunting, poaching and the destruction of their habitat. (Bioparc Valencia/Zenger)
Protecting the gorillas’ original habitat, given the example of the Ebo Forest Research Project in Cameroon, is equally vital. The zoo said: “The Ebo forest symbolizes the fight for the preservation of nature in the face of devastating human activity.
“This ecosystem is a treasure for its biodiversity and last year, it was in serious danger, due to the interests of the timber industry. An important international mobilization managed to stop the project. Today, the fight to turn the Ebo forest into a sanctuary for gorillas is more alive than ever.”
The species population is threatened by the rapid destruction of its habitat, due to mining and commercial logging, as well as hunting and poaching.
