Latest news with #MarchofProgress
Metro
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
European town takes aim at tourists with sassy poster and begs for 'decorum'
Before you leave the beach, put those clothes on (Picture: Getty Images) We all know there's a stereotype of a Brit abroad that's, erm, less than favourable. Wandering around shirtless (and sunburnt) in sliders with socks, if we're not drinking at a Ye Olde pub at 11am, we're hogging sunbeds by the pool. But now, one French town, that claims to have '200 years of elegance' is taking a stand. Les Sables d'Olonne, a seaside resort on France's west coast, is fining tourists for showing too much skin. The mayor asked for a 'little decorum' in their 'elegant' town (Picture: Getty Images) Writing in a Facebook post, Mayor Yannick Moreau, said he wanted to 'clearly' remind visitors that 'it's forbidden to walk around naked or in a swimsuit at Sables d'Olonne'. Sign up to The Getaway newsletter Fuel your wanderlust with our curated newsletter of travel deals, guides and inspiration. Sign up here. Mayor Yannick said that it's an 'indecent' habit that the town experiences during the summer, and begged for 'a little decorum, please!' The stern words were accompained by a poster, which featured a play on the March of Progress illustration, often used to depict the theory of evolution from ape to man. Do you recognise the guy in the pink shorts? (Picture: Les Sables-d'Olonne) In Les Sables d'Olonne's poster, the iconic image is in reverse, starting with a decidedly French looking fellow in a beret, and ending with a rather familiar-looking shirtless man, complete with ginger beard, socks and sliders, and cross-body bumbag. The poster confirms that tourists will be slapped with a €150 (£130) fine if they're caught flouting the rules, with a reminder to not 'end up in your underwear in our alleys.' This elegant town doesn't want tourists forgetting their clothes (Picture: Getty Images) The Mayor reminded visitors in his rather sassy Facebook post that Les Sables d'Olonne has 11km of coastline 'to show off your pecs and your best swimsuit'. If you do visit Les Sables d'Olonne — and can manage to keep your clothes on — there's fun to be had. La Grande Plage is perhaps the most popular beach, but there are eight in total, with some ideal for keen surfers looking to ride the waves. There's also a promenade to talk a stroll along, but perhaps the most unique part of the town is Penotte Island neighbourhood. The quaint Penotte Island neighbourhood (Picture: Getty Images) Over the years, the facades of houses and buildings have been covered with colourful moasic murals. It's the perfect place to while away a few hours, strolling the narrow streets and admiring the artwork. Further afield, there are lots of hiking and cycling routes, offering stunning views along the French Atlantic coast. European destinations cracking down on tourist behaviour Les Sables d'Olonne isn't the only place taking a stand. Across Spain, tough new rules have been unveiled for holidaymakers. For example, in Mallorca's Playa de Palma, S'Arenal and Magaluf, and in San Antonio, Ibiza, all-inclusive guests now have a six-drink limit. Under the rules, you can have three drinks at lunch, and a further three at dinner. And, on Magaluf's infamous strip, pub crawls have also been banned. Elsewhere in Palma, there's a crackdown on walking tours. New requirements will see tours limited to 20 people per group, which will likely make them more expensive. And in Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, a whole host of new banned beach items and behaviours were announced. These include things like smoking or vaping, reserving spots on sun decks, collecting shells using an umbrella for shade. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ Arrow MORE: 'Sick' £86 daily charge proposed for European city visited by 30,000,000 Arrow MORE: I played 'check-in chicken' and it backfired spectacularly – be careful Arrow MORE: Ryanair axes all flights to three European destinations — including a winter break hotspot
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This Strange Life Form Is Caught in an Evolutionary Time Loop
Evolution doesn't always move inextricably forward, instead sometimes taking the occasional detour or even getting stuck in never-ending circles. In Madison, Wisconsin's Lake Mendota, bacteria evolves cyclically in lockstep with the lake's changing conditions. A new study detailing this phenomenon includes data from water samples gathered over 20 years to create the largest metagenomic time series of a natural system. Evolution is often portrayed as a forward-moving natural force. Even the famous 1965 illustration of human evolution—from Pliopithecus to Modern Man—is known as the 'March of Progress.' But of course, like most things in nature, things aren't really that simple. Take, for instance, Lake Mendota. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, this lake goes through rapid changes throughout the year—freezing in the winter before being covered in algae in the summer. Because the lake has long been the subject of an ongoing study as part of the National Science Foundations long-term monitoring project, 471 water samples collected over 20 years creates a rich data set of the genome changes of the bacteria that call the lake home. However, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Texas (UT) undertook a study that came to another startling conclusion—there wasn't any evolutionary change at all. Or to put it more succinctly, the evolution of the bacteria in the lake was like 'a movie run back to the beginning each time and played over again,' the researchers said in a press statement. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Microbiology. 'I was surprised that such a large portion of the bacterial community was undergoing this type of change,' said UT's Robin Rohwer, lead author of the study. 'I was hoping to observe just a couple of cool examples, but there were literally hundreds.' To understand the changes occurring within the lake (especially under the body of water's constantly changing conditions), the researchers constructed a 'metagenome,' which contained all the genetic sequences from DNA fragments left behind by bacteria. If that sounds complicated, rest assured, it definitely is. The researchers relied on the supercomputer powers of the Texas Advanced Computing Center to essentially reconstruct bacterial genomes from the 471 water samples spread across two decades. After months of number-crunching (a task that would've taken 34 years for a typical computer to accomplish), the resulting metagenomic time series was the largest of its kind collected from a natural system. 'Imagine each species' genome is a book, and each little DNA fragment is a sentence,' Rohwer said in a press statement. 'Each sample has hundreds of books, all cut up into these sentences. To reassemble each book, you have to figure out which book each sentence came from and put them back together in order.' Because these lake-bound microbes measure lifespan in days—not years—the bacteria appeared to evolve in never-ending circles to adjust to the changing environment. However, when the lake experiences any kind of disturbance, those changes can reach into the very genomes of these bacteria. For example, the authors note that in 2012, the lake experienced a hotter and drier summer than usual, and within the bacteria's genome, the team saw hints of major shifts in genes related to nitrogen metabolism, likely spurred on by the scarcity of algae in the lake. With hotter, drier conditions expected for this region of the U.S. as climate change progresses, understanding these conditions on a genetic level is incredibly important. 'This study is a total game changer in our understanding of how microbial communities change over time,' UT's Brett Baker, a co-author of the study, said in a press statement. 'This is just the beginning of what these data will tell us about microbial ecology and evolution in nature.' You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
