Beloved Zurich Zoo gorilla is euthanized after years of declining health
GENEVA — The Zurich Zoo's beloved gorilla of more than 40 years has been put down after a long struggle with declining health, a zoo official in the Swiss city said Wednesday.
N'Gola was 47 and one of the oldest male gorillas in European zoos, said Zurich Zoo director Severin Dressen.
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Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
My partner and I lived long distance for 5 years. It gave me the space I needed.
My husband and I got married last June in a simple ceremony at New York City Hall. A week after our wedding, he went back to his home in London, and I stayed in mine in New York. We'd been together for five years when we got married, during which time we always lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic. We recently moved in together only after we'd been married for seven months, but having that literal space in our long-distance relationship was something that really worked for both of us. I'd been commitment-phobic most of my adult life I'd almost gotten married in my early 20s, calling off the wedding just a month before the big day. Canceling a fully-planned wedding is difficult enough, but the experience of breaking up with someone I had thought I'd spend my life with was traumatic, and left me with serious commitment issues. In the following years, I still longed for partnership, but it became evident that I had a commitment phobia when every relationship I got into ended up tanking pretty quickly. I often chased unavailable men who wouldn't commit, subconsciously sparing myself from having to make an actual commitment myself. Being long-distance with someone allowed me the space I needed for intimacy to develop I first met my now-husband when he came to New York for work, about seven years after I'd called off my wedding. He was only in town for a week, but we developed feelings for each other. Our relationship didn't begin in earnest until some years later when I went to visit him in London, though we kept in touch sporadically via email. Various complications kept us from trying sooner, but I think subconsciously we were waiting to be truly ready for each other. After we decided to be in a long-distance relationship, the idea of living together, or even being on the same continent, wasn't part of the conversation for many years. People talk about needing space in a relationship, but this kind of literal space allowed both of us to ease into the idea of partnership. We supported each other emotionally, video chatting at least twice a day and checking in regularly via text. My flexible freelance schedule, which also involved some European travel, allowed us to see each other at least every other month for most of the next five years. This space also meant that we didn't have to adjust our schedules or priorities right away. We were free to keep doing our own things, albeit with love and encouragement from the other person, gradually easing into the idea of lifelong partnership. The honeymoon phase lasts a really long time when you can't see each other frequently When we could see each other, it always felt special, and airport reunions became a cherished part of the relationship ritual. We'd usually spend about a week together, sometimes two, whenever one of us could make the trip across the sea. We both loved London and New York, and were always eager to take the other person to our favorite places. Sometimes we'd meet in Ireland, where he's from, or Michigan, where my family lives. The honeymoon phase of our relationship went on this way for years. I'd even go so far as to say we're still in it. Because of the five-hour time difference, we developed a sweet ritual of sending each other love letters every day. I'd write mine before I went to bed in New York so he'd receive it when he awoke in London, and he'd write his to me after he got up, before the sun would rise on my side of the Atlantic. It's a powerful practice to intentionally lift your partner up this way, every day, letting them know how much you admire them and how important they are to you, and to receive that kind of affirmation in return. The challenges were mostly logistical Like any relationship, there were challenges, but ours were mostly logistical. It can be heartbreaking when you feel like you really need the other person, and they're not physically there, or may be asleep in a different time zone. I was lucky that work travel brought me to Europe several times a year, but that wasn't always the case, and buying regular international flights was expensive for both of us. When we did visit with each other, one of us would likely be in work mode while the other was in vacation mode. Because of the expense of our circumstances, neither of us could afford to just take a week off to be together. Not to mention, a pandemic prevented us from seeing each other for a full year. We got through all of this, though, and rarely had emotional conflicts or experienced jealousy. I think that's part of what made us both realize that we had developed true intimacy. Living together has been wonderful Having a long-distance relationship for as long as we did melted away the anxieties I once had about commitment. Living together was a surprisingly easy transition, and it still feels really special to see each other daily. Long-distance relationships may not be for everybody, but they can be a positive experience for two people who want to make it work.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
War on rats gets ugly as hundreds of ‘eyesore' Empire Bins gobble up parking spaces in Harlem
These drivers are in for rat-ical change. West Harlem has become the first neighborhood in the United States to have all of its trash containerized in order to squash uptown rats' curbside trash feasts, City Hall officials said Monday – but the hundreds of UFO-like 'Empire Bins' are now permanently taking some coveted parking spots, The Post has learned. The latest cohort of European-style bins, which are mandatory for all residential properties with more than 30 units, were installed over the weekend — and have gobbled up about 4% of parking spaces in the neighborhood overnight, a city sanitation department rep told The Post. 'It takes up parking spots that were already hard to find,' said Harlem resident Erica Lamont, who claims she circled the blocks of Broadway and West 149th Street for a half-hour on Tuesday morning. 'The bins are the size of small cars and when you put two and three on a residential street, you are ultimately forcing people to force blocks away,' Lamont, 46, said. 'It's not placed in no standing or truck loading zones – they are placed in the few actual parking spots that residents could get,' said Michelle R., a 40-year-old dog sitter in the neighborhood. 'I like the garbage cans, but I feel bad for the people that normally park their cars there.' Other locals, like Harlem resident David Jones, simply blasted the bizarre look of the gargantuan containers. 'It's an eyesore,' said Jones, 40. 'It's right there in front of your face. I'm neutral. If it does the job then let's applaud it — If it doesn't, then let's get rid of them and come up with something else.' Some locals previously told The Post the massive receptacles clash with the neighborhood's aesthetic, even though they may be needed to scare away rats. The pilot program, which spans Manhattan's Community Board 9, includes 1,100 on-street containers for about 29,000 residents living in properties with over 30 units, as well as about half of properties with 10 to 30 units that opted to use the bins. The locked bins are accessible to building staff and waste managers via 'access cards,' and have been serviced by automated side-loading trucks since Monday. 'Rat sightings in NYC are down six months in a row,' a DSNY rep told The Post. 'This is the exact same period that residential bin requirements have been in effect. Containerization WORKS, and there is no reason that other cities can have it and New York can't.' But while citywide rat sightings are down, Manhattan's Community Board 9 has seen a 7.8% jump in rat sightings compared to this time last year, according to a Post analysis of 311 data. Still, City Hall hopes the new bins will end the curbside rat buffet fueled by garbage bags lingering on residential streets — which uptown residents say have made it nearly impossible to walk on some streets at night. 'When there's trash on the sidewalk, there's rats—plain and simple. And yet for years, City Hall acted like trash cans were some sort of sci-fi/fantasy invention,' said Council Member Shaun Abreu, Chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. 'Now with full containerization in West Harlem and Morningside Heights, we've got clean bins, no more sidewalk piles, and fewer rats. We fought like hell to make this happen, and now we're proving it works.' Harlem resident Rick M. said he hopes the new containers are effective as residents have historically had to move quickly past piles of street side trash 'because you don't know what may run out. 'I've seen rats run from one big pile to another so it's nice to not have to walk by piles of trash,' the 30-year-old said. 'The rat problem was so bad here that humans couldn't be living here — they'd be attacking you right here,' lifelong Harlem resident Shanice Day told The Post at Morningside Avenue and 124th Street. Day, 39, recalls rats as big as cats 'like Master Splinter rats from Ninja Turtles' that would chew wires off people's cars — and attributes the Empire Bins to a rapid decrease in rodent sightings. 'What I can honestly say is we are almost rat free,' she added. 'If people are upset about the bins they're crazy, because they are a big help.' But Harlem resident Wise Grant, 64, warns the containers are only as effective as those who use them. 'It slows them down but it's not a way to get rid of them,' the retired voting machine technician said. 'It's up to the individual people. People throw food on the floor and it feeds them.' 'That's what people do on the streets. They don't care … They have to care about where they live.'
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Story of Vietnamese orphans who resettled here 50 years ago proves there are greater things than politics
Fifty years ago, near the end of the Vietnam War, as North Vietnamese troops headed south, the director of the Cam Ranh Christian Orphanage, Pastor Nguyen Xuan Ha — known to everyone as Mr. Ha —decided it was time to escape to somewhere safe. Mr. Ha put 85 children and staff on two buses and headed for Saigon where he hoped they could flee to safety. One of the buses was shot at by a North Vietnamese soldier and the buses separated. Somehow they re-united in Saigon. After renting a boat and getting some distance from shore, the engine quit. For five days they drifted before a Thailand tanker approached. The captain refused to help, but later changed his mind, turned around and towed them for a while. After cutting the tow line, a group of fishermen towed them toward Singapore. Soldiers refused to let them ashore. Mr. Ha wrote a name on a piece of paper and asked a soldier if he could locate a missionary named Ralph Neighbour to help. Dr. Neighbour (now 96), newly arrived in Singapore, was miraculously found. He picks up the story from there in an email to me: 'Singapore government kept them out on St. John's Island. Our missionary team took clothes and food out. USA embassy contacted Swiss United Nations Refugee Center. Special flight arrived. Children whisked thru Singapore on bus with windows covered. Government feared losing neutrality during war. No official record they were there.' I knew Dr. Neighbour from when he was a pastor in Houston where I worked at a local TV station. He called and asked if I could help get the orphans and staff to the United States and find temporary housing for them. I contacted some Washington officials I knew and permission for them to enter the country was granted. When they arrived in Houston, a church couple with a large ranch offered them shelter and food until the Buckner Children and Family Services in Dallas could assist with processing and adoptions. I interviewed the youngest, oldest and one in between who made the anniversary trip. Sam Schrade, who was a baby when he was rescued from the streets of Saigon, is 51 and owns a successful media business in Houston. How would his life have been different had he stayed in Vietnam? He says the fact that he is of 'mixed race' (American-Asian) would make it 'doubly hard' because native Vietnamese 'look down upon such people. I have been told by many people I would not have had a good life here because of the race issue and a government that didn't want me.' Kelli St. German, now 56, thinks she might have been growing coffee beans and doing hard labor had she not come to America. She also believes she would not have developed a strong faith because of the state's antipathy toward religion. 'I became a teacher for 30 years.' Thomas Ho, the oldest orphan, now 76, was 25 when he left Vietnam. He helped organize the evacuation and prepared small amounts of food for the children. In America he became a chef and then studied to become an engineer. He says if he had stayed in Vietnam, 'I might not have survived, especially at my age now. Life here is very difficult. A lot of the food is not very healthy.' Reuniting with these adults, many of whom I met when they were children, is a reminder that there are things far greater than politics, celebrities and the petty jealousies that are the focus of too many of us. There are few greater blessings than to have had a role in changing these lives for the better. These former orphans are blessed. So am I. Cal Thomas is a veteran political commentator, columnist and author.
