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BBC News
20 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Tower blocks in Sunderland's East End to be demolished
Three tower blocks are to be demolished to avoid "significant" repair costs, a housing association has said it carried out surveys at Lambton, Londonderry and Lumley Towers in Sunderland's East End in said the buildings - which have 214 flats - were safe to live in on a daily basis but, following a consultation, it had opted to demolish them. No date has been set for their removal but it is expected to be within five association said it would support every resident with a housing team and all would be "offered an alternative Gentoo home that suits their needs", with an expectation all will have moved by May 2027. The surveys identified a need for fire safety work and structural strengthening, among other issues, and guidance and advice had been issued so residents could stay safe while still living in the buildings.A Gentoo spokesperson said the association had informed residents "about the required levels of investment and ongoing disruption to remediate these blocks" and "shared the available options and costs with them". Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Boston Globe
29-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
‘Pebbling' is the latest scourge of our digital age
There's power in naming. Sexting, ghosting, trolling, the inimitable Dad text — pebbling has joined the pantheon of normalized digital communications. To pebble or not to pebble, that is the question. Pebbling is what researchers studying Gentoo penguins in Antarctica call the species' courtship ritual of offering small rocks to desired mates. The term first entered the lexicon for human expressions to describe how the neurodivergent give small tokens to build connections IRL and to express affection without language. Pebbling has since been applied to the wider population as an enhanced form of digital communication. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Before the internet and in a time that seems as distant as when the paleo diet was popular because mastodon was the only item on the menu, my mother snail-mailed me newspaper clippings. These were typically about the low odds of earning money as an actress — my chosen profession — and how teaching would provide greater financial stability. She scoured all known media to find articles that were passive aggressively triggering without crossing the line to aggressively aggressively triggering. It was an art form. It was her love language. I'd receive these missives once a week, roll my eyes, and then read them — a reliable source of cringe hilarity — out loud in my scene study class. Advertisement My completely unscientific polling of Facebook friends suggests there are few pebble agnostics. To be clear, most of your friends are on board when you text a pic of your plate of picarones in Peru. And interspecies-love GIFs — a Advertisement My daily pebble pile consists of the following subtypes: The Confirmation Bias Pebble Memes, videos, and links to media with political leanings that mirror those of the chain's recipients. Parody videos that so closely resemble reality that they command a 'wWait, is that real?' moment. Reaped from the Ddoom Sscroll, these outrages jolt the receiver out of the fleeting illusions that feeling calm is a form of resistance. They might be accompanied by the label: THIS! The 'You, Go, Girl' Pebble Anything with Tina and Amy, Tina or Amy, girlfriend, tiny house compounds where we're all gonna grow old together, Tina and Amy Pphotoshopped into our tiny house compound. These are often labeled: THIS! Advertisement The Hot Stone Massage Pebble Breathe, Keep Living Off -the -Menu, ' 'It feels like stoning,' said one of my respondents. 'What's the etiquette?' one of my survey respondents asked. 'If I respond to each one, I can't get any work done.' 'IDK,' I replied, because writing out the words 'I don't know' requires too much of an effort in 2025. I'd been stumped because a close friend who relocated to a different part of the country has adopted pebbling as her preferred communication, and as the stones left unturned stack up, it seems like just another brick in the cyberspace wall that separates us. 'Is there a polite way to make it stop?' I asked Shari Foos, a marriage and family therapist and a friend, after receiving a pebble of unsettling provenance. Foos is the founder of Foos encouraged me to have a 'heart to heart' with my friend. 'Pebbling may be a quick way for somebody to blow an air kiss,' she says, 'but it's turned into yet another one-way form of communication.' She says that constant exposure to 'the noise on the internet,' — what she calls 'the cult of culture,' — fragments our already fragile concept of authentic versus transactional associations. Every virtual space we enter feeds us 'media and marketing propaganda that confuses and shames you into conforming to groupthink, unattainable standards, and superficial goals,' she says. Advertisement The pebble that prompted my call to Foos is one I received from three women in one day. It came bearing a link to an Instagram video beamed in from the Mmanosphere and starring an unidentified Frenchman who was bro-splaining to 'Jonathans' the reasons dating has become problematic. 'Y ou're not competing with other guys,' he tells his phone's camera. 'There are no other guys. You're competing with her sacred silence, her weighted blanket, her cat named Chairman Meow, and the simple joy of not having to share her fries.' As with French fries, I can't consume just one, so over the next hour of my life that I'll never get back, I watched a dozen more videos before realizing that the account is an advertisement for a #women empowerment coach. There is no free pebble, people. I thought of the penguins. The pebbles they offer become the foundations for their nests. But are the virtual ones humans blast out fostering our feelings of connection or just shoring up one another's algorithms? A notable exception, in my survey, to the pebble disdain comes from a pair of friends who share an affection for Aretha Franklin and exchange Aretha-related pebbles all day long. But that's an agreed upon, mutual thing, like sharing your Wordle. I've been around long enough to remember the hours spent gabbing with my girlfriends on my pink princess phone. Coiling and uncoiling the cord, reveling in the kinked (not kinky) connection. 'I just pebbled to say I love you,' a friend texted today along with a link to another rando Insta meme. I love you too , I wanted to text back. And, I'd give anything to hear your voice. Advertisement
Toronto Sun
11-07-2025
- Science
- Toronto Sun
For a few days this summer, your days will be just a smidge shorter
Published Jul 11, 2025 • 3 minute read A composite of 216 images shows the trail of stars over colonies of Gentoo and King penguins in Bluff Cove, Falkland Islands. Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post You're not running late — Earth is just moving faster, at least for a few days this summer. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account On July 22, Earth will spin about 1.38 milliseconds faster than its typical 86,400 seconds in a day. If that's not quick enough, Earth will rotate 1.51 milliseconds faster on August 5. Those numbers are calculated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, according to The IERS tracks Earth's orientation in space and schedules leap seconds, which are added to help keep our clocks synchronized with astronomical time (when Earth moves a bit more sluggish). People already experienced a shorter day on July 9 — but maybe didn't know it because it's only 1.3 milliseconds faster. The fastest day since the introduction of the atomic clock occurred on July 5, 2024, when the day was truncated by 1.66 milliseconds. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Since we are talking [about] 1 millisecond, it's not something you'd notice,' Duncan Agnew, geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, said in an email. But while the changes may not register to people, scientists track them to keep our technology accurate, including GPS systems that tells us where exactly we are. Shorter days happen from time to time. They tend to occur during the summer, when Earth spins faster than other times of the year, Agnew said. But there's also added boosts on these days from the moon and maybe even mysterious processes in Earth's core. During the summer, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, which minimizes the difference in temperature between the equator and Earth's poles. This smaller temperature variation slows down the jet stream — a narrow band of strong winds around 30,000 feet above us — and moves it northward. (The slower jet stream also explains why storms are more sluggish during the summer in the northern hemisphere.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. To recall a lesson from physics class, the angular momentum in this Earth-atmosphere system is conserved. When the atmosphere begins moving slower, Earth's rotation speeds up. But some days are even shorter than the rest, thanks to the moon. Agnew explained that the moon isn't perfectly aligned with Earth's equator, orbiting on an incline. It travels over the equator twice a month and also travels overhead at higher and lower latitudes twice a month. The moon reaches its most extreme north and southern positions about every 18.6 years — called a lunar standstill — which is occurring in 2024 and 2025. On July 22 and Aug. 5, the moon will be close to its peak angle, 28 degrees, to Earth. The steeper angle causes Earth to rotate faster. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'So twice a month, when the Moon is North or South, it spins faster,' said Agnew. That's important information to know for GPS operators, for instance. GPS determines accurate positioning by sending signals from satellites to receivers on Earth. To do so, it relies on precise measurements of Earth's rotational speed. If a GPS system doesn't account for a faster rotation at a particular time, then it may arrive to a point on the ground earlier than expected and create positioning errors. Earth's spin has varied throughout its history. When Earth was first formed and the moon was closer, days were much shorter. Days were 19 hours long for about 1 billion years. As the moon has drifted away from us, our more recent days have been some of the longest in history. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Out of the trillion days or so of the Earth's existence, almost all have been shorter: very very roughly, maybe 100,000 have been longer,' said Agnew. 'It's just that the long days have all been recent.' Some processes like the melting of the ice sheets may have contributed to slowing down Earth's rotation, too. The meltwater is moving toward the equator, making our planet bulkier and rotate slower. Even as Earth is moving much slower than historical timelines, Earth's rotation has mysteriously been speeding up in recent decades. Agnew said the boost could be due to processes deep within our core, which is hard to confirm or predict because of limited observations. Given all the factors, it's also hard to know if Earth will continue to speed up or tap the brakes in upcoming years. At the end of the day, all we can do is make the most out of 86,400 seconds, give or take. Editorial Cartoons Relationships World MLB Toronto & GTA
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sharing Animal Memes Is Good for Your Health, According to a New Study
Sharing Animal Memes Is Good for Your Health, According to a New Study originally appeared on PetHelpful. There are few things as enjoyable as scrolling through funny and adorable animal memes. Between the cute photos of baby critters, to the hilarious pictures people capture of their pet's antics, the internet is a wealth of images of animals that are perfect for sharing. But now, scientists say that hitting "send" on those animal memes may actually be good for you. The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research. In it, researchers compared the sharing of memes to an activity that penguins do called pebbling. 'Pebbling is a behavior practiced by Gentoo penguins who present pebbles to desired mates as tokens of affection,' Ghalia Shamayleh, the head researcher involved in the study, told BBC Science Focus. 'Our research observes a similar behavior in humans interacting on social media.'That behavior? Sharing adorable animal memes online. "We share them with our loved ones as a token of affection, to reinforce our relationships," Shamayleh explains, adding that content creators are especially guilty of pebbling, and it can be seen in the way they dress their pets up or talk about them, using phrases like "teefs," "doggo," and "sploot." Of course, cute animal photos are pretty universally adored, making them easier to share with our loved ones. Not only that, but researchers discovered that people also put a lot of thought into what they're sharing, and with whom. 'By sharing animal content with the added reference to the sender's relationship, people digitally pebble their loved ones as though to say 'This made me think of you, of our relationship',' Shamayleh explains of those things we personalize with a note before we means the next time someone sends you an animal meme, they're doing more than just sending a funny picture, they're trying to tell you how much you mean to them... one cute kitten or fluffy "doggo" at a time. 🐾 SIGN UP to get "pawsitivity" delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends along with expert advice from veterinarians and pet trainers 🐾 Sharing Animal Memes Is Good for Your Health, According to a New Study first appeared on PetHelpful on Jun 17, 2025 This story was originally reported by PetHelpful on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.
Edinburgh Reporter
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Oldest rockhopper in town
Keepers at Edinburgh Zoo recently celebrated their oldest penguin when Northern rockhopper Nestor turned 32 years old. The 20 inch tall penguin has been dubbed 'oldest rocker in town' — and he even has a mate exactly half his age. The oldest penguin of any kind at Edinburgh Zoo, he is also believed to be currently the third longest-lived rockhopper penguin in the world. Nestor celebrated his birthday chilling out in the shade in the attraction's Penguins Rock, with his long term mate, 16 year old Issy. Edinburgh Zoo animal keeper Katherine Burnet, said: 'Nestor is a really nice boy and our oldest penguin. 'At the ripe old age of 32 now, he can be a little slower than some of the other penguins in the colony, but he's lovely to work with. 'It's amazing to think he's the third oldest rockhopper in the world. He's already lived over twice the lifespan of a rockhopper in the wild.' Rockhoppers are among the smallest penguins, easily recognised by their bright yellow head plumage and red eyes. The species has declined by 90 per cent in the wild since the 1950s and is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Nestor hatched in France in 1993 and also spent time in Belgium before coming to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) attraction in 2006. He can be identified among the other rockhoppers in his colony by the unique blue and pink coloured band on his right wing. Nestor can be found spending most of his time around the pool with long term partner Issy. They can be seen waddling around their enclosure or preening one another on their nesting ring in a shaded area to the rear of the colony. Katherine said: 'Nestor and Issy have been pair bonded for a few years now and he takes really good care of her. There may be a 16 year age gap but they make a really sweet couple. 'They tend to go around the enclosure together and wherever you see one you often find the other. They have certain spots they frequent. 'Nestor is quite a chilled out boy. He tends to avoid any drama going on in the colony, although he can be quite protective of Issy and he will tell the youngsters off if they come too close to his nest. 'He's also pretty smart so when it's sunny or hot you'll find him in the shade keeping cool.' Edinburgh Zoo is home to over 100 Gentoo, Northern rockhopper and King penguins. The attraction is famed for its Penguin Parade, which first took place in 1951 when a keeper accidentally left the gate open and a few curious penguins left the enclosure. The parade became a much-loved daily ritual until March 2020, when it was stopped to avoid people gathering in large crowds during Covid. The Zoo now hosts the 'Wee Waddle', a reimagined version, which is completely voluntary. Penguins are not coerced into taking part or leaving their enclosure. There is also a small, 'penguin-sized' fence separating the birds from visitors along the short route. Edinburgh was previously home to the world's oldest rockhopper penguin. Mrs Wolowitz was killed by a fox that broke into the enclosure in 2022, just months after she celebrated her 35th birthday. The world's oldest rockhopper is now thought to be 34-year-old JT in Moody Gardens, Texas, a year older than 33-year-old female Janet who lives at Montreal Biodome in Canada, and two years older than Edinburgh's Nestor. Edinburgh Zoo has the oldest Rockhopper 32 (Back and Right) and his partner Issy 16 Picture Alan Simpson Edinburgh Zoo has the oldest Rockhopper 32 (Back and Right) and his partner Issy 16 Picture Alan Simpson Edinburgh Zoo has the oldest Rockhopper 32 (Back and Right) and his partner Issy 16 Picture Alan Simpson Keeper Katherine Burnet PHOTO Alan Simpson The penguin enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo Picture Alan Simpson Like this: Like Related
