otter

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/25327109

Le Monde reports that confidential movements of powerful leaders like Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris could be tracked through a fitness app used by their bodyguards.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/Xopbm

SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fbiden-trump-macron-bodyguards-security-strava-0a48afca09c7aa74d703e72833dcaf72

Name:

The name Dassie Rat is derived from the Afrikaans word for a hyrax; “dassie”, and is a rather apt name as Rock Hyrax co-habit the same rocky outcrops that the Dassie Rats enjoy, and superficially, a Dassie Rat resembles a young hyrax, that is until its long fluffy tail is spotted! The Dassie Rat’s alternative name is the Noki.

Fun Facts:

Dassie Rats are well known for their ability to wedge themselves into extremely narrow crevasses from which they are almost impossible to extract. They have evolved narrow, flattened skulls and very flexible ribs to master this talent. Female Dassie Rats even have teats on the sides of their torso, rather than underneath, so that their young can nurse in the very confined and narrow spaces in which they den.

Sources:

• https://www.rockjumperbirding.com/the-dassie-rat-an-unique-rodent-by-adam-riley/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassie_rat

You can also enjoy this picture of a Hyrax, which I originally got from Wikimedia Commons for this post since it was listed as a "South African Dassie", before investigating further since it did not look optimized for narrow spaces...

the page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_African_Dassie.jpg

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21355499

Link to original Financial Times page: https://www.ft.com/content/0b295e1e-a0bf-40e0-88f2-99c1ace8603d

From the article:

Bangladesh’s new central bank chief has accused tycoons linked to the toppled regime of Sheikh Hasina of working with members of the country’s powerful military intelligence agency to siphon $17bn out of the banking sector during her rule.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ahsan Mansur — who was appointed Bangladesh Bank governor after Sheikh Hasina fled the country in June — said the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence had helped force takeovers of leading banks.

Mansur said an estimated Tk2tn ($16.7bn) had been spirited out of Bangladesh after the bank takeovers, using methods such as loans made to their new shareholders and inflated import invoices.

“This is the biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards,” he said. “It didn’t happen on that scale anywhere, and it was state-sponsored and it couldn’t have happened without intelligence people putting guns [to former bank CEOs’] heads.”

The governor said Mohammed Saiful Alam, founder and chair of industrial conglomerate S Alam, and his associates had “siphoned off” at least $10bn “as a minimum” from the banking system after taking control of banks with the help of the DGFI. “Every day they were granting loans to themselves,” he said.

They resemble rabbits due to convergent evolution

Viscacha or vizcacha (UK: /vɪˈskætʃə/, US: /vɪˈskɑːtʃə/) are rodents of two genera (Lagidium and Lagostomus) in the family Chinchillidae. They are native to South America and convergently resemble rabbits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscacha

The data comes from Cascades Pika Watch, a program of the Oregon Zoo that began in 2018 after the Eagle Creek Fire destroyed much of the pika’s habitat.

Every summer, volunteers now go out into the field to watch and listen for pikas at specific locations. They then upload their data online for biologists to better track the population.

Pikas typically live on mountains at elevations above 6,000 feet throughout the western United States. But the new data observed a low-elevation population living in the Gorge, just a half-hour drive from Portland.

According to the zoo, last year’s volunteers spotted pikas at two-thirds of the surveyed sites. But this year, the number was even higher. They added 150 volunteers who submitted 558 surveys from 84 locations throughout the Gorge this year.

“Each season, we’re getting closer to the pre-fire population numbers,” said Dr. Johanna Varner, with the Cascades Pika Watch program. “This is great news for everyone monitoring the Gorge pika population.”

When I’m a small prey mammal and I’ve evolved to survive the barren rocky landscape by optimizing into a tan egg

Origin:

• Screenshot over on [email protected]
• Tumblr post

For posts about animals that loosely fit the description above. While the animal does not have to hit all the requirements, it should hit some of them:

• Type: Prey
• Class: Mammalia (mammal)
• Habitat: Barren rocky landscape
• Appearance: Similar to a tan egg

Please leave a comment in the pinned post (here) if you would like to be a moderator. I don’t expect it to be too much work, and it should be perfect for someone who hasn’t been a moderator before.

You can also help get the community off the ground by foraging for content and sharing cool things you find related to tan eggs (articles, photos, images etc.)

When I’m a small prey mammal and I’ve evolved to survive the barren rocky landscape by optimizing into a tan egg

Origin:

• Screenshot over on [email protected]
• Tumblr post

For posts about animals that loosely fit the description above. While the animal does not have to hit all the requirements, it should hit some of them:

• Type: Prey
• Class: Mammalia (mammal)
• Habitat: Barren rocky landscape
• Appearance: Similar to a tan egg

Please leave a comment in the pinned post (here) if you would like to be a moderator. I don’t expect it to be too much work, and it should be perfect for someone who hasn’t been a moderator before.

You can also help get the community off the ground by foraging for content and sharing cool things you find related to tan eggs (articles, photos, images etc.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/25102568

Efforts to eradicate the disfiguring mosquito-borne infection lymphatic filariasis are advancing, but it is still rife in 51 countries

Archived version: https://archive.li/q2b8x

SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fglobal-development%2F2024%2Foct%2F25%2Fgenital-swelling-disease-mosquito-borne-infection-lymphatic-filariasis-hydrocele