Pioneer Cabin Tree in California felled by storms

Storms in California have toppled one of America's most famous trees - the Pioneer Cabin Tree.
The giant sequoia was known for having a hole cut through its trunk - big enough for a car to drive through.
The tree, estimated to be more than 1,000-years-old, was felled by the strongest storm to have hit the area in more than a decade.
California and Nevada have been hit by unusually high rainfall levels, leading to flooding and falling trees.-read more

Parkour is now officially a sport – here’s to jumping for joy

Running, leaping and climbing through the city isn’t just a test of strength and stamina – it’s also now an official sport. Parkour – a form of urban acrobatics, originating in France – is now officially recognised by sports councils across Britain. On a practical level, this means that it can be on national educational curricula, apply for lottery funding and access the benefits enjoyed by other major sports.
This is a big step forward for the development of parkour, which already has about 35,000 practitioners – or “traceurs” – in the UK alone. There’s no typical traceur; participants can range from very young children to those with Parkinson’s disease, and there are new people starting up all the time.
As well as having obvious physical health benefits, parkour also continues to show signs in research of contributing to positive mental health. It’s often practised in groups, which fosters social bonds between people, as encouraging each other to engage with the city in a constructive way,-read more

The extraordinary story of the Chorlton nurse who spied against the Nazis in wartime France

The extraordinary story of the Manchester nurse who risked her life as an undercover spy against the Nazis has been pieced together by historians.
Thrice-married Madge Addy lived a life of dashing adventure... helping stranded British troops evade capture in occupied France.
But her heroic exploits would have come to a huge shock to her neighbours in Chorlton, where she had quietly worked at a hairdressing salon.
But local historians have now launched a campaign to honour Madge, who received a Royal honour for her spy work, with a blue plaque in the south Manchester suburb. They are also appealing for further information to complete the puzzle about her remarkable life.
Ms Addy, who was born in Chorlton at the turn of the century, served as a nurse in Spain during the Spanish Civil War then became an agent for the government in occupied France. Research has revealed she was awarded an OBE, or possibly even a CBE, for her work as a spy, with sources suggesting she risked death to carry secret documents for the Allies under the noses of the Nazis.-read more

Desmond T. Doss

"Fellows, come over here and gather around.  Doss wants to pray for us."

Corporal Desmond Doss, the lanky medic, cringed inside.  This was not what he had meant when he'd suggested prayer to Lieutenant Goronto.  Faced with an assault on the 400 foot sheer cliff that split the island of Okinawa, Doss had merely meant that each soldier might want to spend a few moments in personal, private prayer, before the attack began. 

Prayer certainly was in order that April morning in 1945.    Doss's 77th Division had landed on Okinawa after fierce fighting in Guam and Leyte.  The Japanese were dug in all over the island.   Presenting an additional barrier was the Maeda Escarpment, the 400 foot cliff that stretched across the island.  The escarpment rose with a steep, rugged rise for the first 360 feet, then rose another 40-50 feet as a sheer face.  Honeycombed throughout were multi-story caves, tunnels, and enemy gun emplacements.  Wresting control of the escarpment from the enemy would be a major struggle, the Americans fighting not only a well entrenched and often camouflaged enemy, but formidable terrain.  When the order to attack had come, Doss told Lieutenant Goronto, "I believe prayer is the best life saver there is.  The men should really pray before going up."

---

It really shouldn't have surprised anyone in Doss's company that he would suggest prayer.  Doss was always praying...or reading his Bible.  From the first day of training everyone could tell he was different.   A devout Seventh-Day Adventist, the first night Doss knelt beside his bunk in the barracks, oblivious to the taunts around him and the boots they threw his way, to spend his time talking to God.  Regularly he pulled the small Bible his new wife had given him for a wedding gift, and read it as well.  Among the men of the unit, disdain turned to resentment.  Doss refused to train or work on Saturday, the Lord's Sabbath.   Though he felt no reservation about caring for the medical needs of the men or otherwise helping them on the Sabbath, he refused to violate it.  The fact that he worked overtime to make up for it the rest of the week made little difference.  Doss was teased, harassed, and ridiculed.  And it only got worse.-read more

Robert Burns could have suffered bipolar disorder

Robert Burns’
tempestuous personality, intense creativity and unstable love life
suggest that he might have suffered from bipolar disorder, according to
Scottish researchers.

The 18th-century Scottish bard produced huge quantities of literary
works, including Auld Lang Syne and A Red, Red, Rose, in bursts of
creativity interspersed with periods of depression and heavy drinking.

According to scientific and literary experts at Glasgow University his
creative spikes, along with his volatile love life, point to the
possibility that he suffered from the condition that 
affects up to
three million 
people in Britain.

Dr Daniel Smith, from the university’s Institute of Health and
Wellbeing, said: “Burns had a complicated and some might say tempestuous
 personal history, with bouts of melancholic depression, heavy lifelong
alcohol consumption and considerable instability in relationships,
including a series of extramarital affairs.

“Although it is difficult to prove conclusively, it is possible that his
 life history and his prodigious literary outputs may have been
influenced by a recurrent disorder of -Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/robert-burns-could-have-suffered-bipolar-disorder-1-3427401

Robert Burns’ tempestuous personality, intense creativity and unstable love life suggest that he might have suffered from bipolar disorder, according to Scottish researchers. The 18th-century Scottish bard produced huge quantities of literary works, including Auld Lang Syne and A Red, Red, Rose, in bursts of creativity interspersed with periods of depression and heavy drinking. According to scientific and literary experts at Glasgow University his creative spikes, along with his volatile love life, point to the possibility that he suffered from the condition that 
affects up to three million 
people in Britain. Dr Daniel Smith, from the university’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing, said: “Burns had a complicated and some might say tempestuous personal history, with bouts of melancholic depression, heavy lifelong alcohol consumption and considerable instability in relationships, including a series of extramarital affairs. “Although it is difficult to prove conclusively, it is possible that his life history and his prodigious literary outputs may have been influenced by a recurrent disorder of

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/robert-burns-could-have-suffered-bipolar-disorder-1-3427401

6 strange newspaper stories that shocked Victorian Britain

Somnambulists in peril

 

The Victorians in general, and readers of the weekly newspaper the Illustrated Police News (IPN) in particular, had a fascination with the mobile but unconscious female body. Sleepwalkers, or ‘somnambulists’ as the Victorians called them, were among the favourite subjects for the IPN’s bawdy-minded draughtsmen. Male somnambulists may have been news, but they were never Illustrated Police news, even if they performed a tap-dance on the roof of the House of Lords; the IPN’s somnambulists were all young, female, and scantily clad.

 

One of the earliest IPN somnambulists was the 17-year-old Clara Dalrymple, from a small village near Glastonbury. She was well known to often go walking in her sleep, but in May 1868, she rose from her bed in her bedroom on the second floor-read more

Mice are transformed into aggressive 'zombie' hunters after scientists flick a killer switch in their brain

They're known for their timidity and love of cheese, but scientists have tapped into the 'killer instinct' of mice, to turn them into aggressive 'zombies'.

Researchers isolated the brain circuitry in mice that coordinates predatory hunting, including one set of neurons in the amygdala - the brain's centre of emotion and motivation, making the animal pursue prey.

They also 'switched on' another set in the brain region signalling the animal to use its jaw and neck muscles to bite anything in its path – a little like a fictional zombie.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4113672/The-rise-killer-zombie-mice-Switching-rodent-s-predatory-kill-instinct-makes-bite-path.html#ixzz4VjvYkC8F