Snake on a plane

Authorities responded to a plane that landed in Newark, N.J., after passengers on the flight from Tampa, Fla., found a snake on board.

United Airlines confirmed Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials and Newark Liberty International Airport wildlife operations staff were summoned to United Flight 2038 after the snake was spotted on the floor in business class while the flight was taxiing.

The serpent, identified as a harmless garter snake, was released outside the airport. Airport officials said the incident did not affect operations.

Overturned truck spills 22,000 pounds of fish on to highway

Recently, a North Carolina highway was partially closed when a crashed truck spilled 22,000 pounds of fish into the roadway.

The truck overturned in the early hours of the morning when the tractor-trailer lost its load of 22,000 pounds of catfish into the northbound lanes, sparking an hours-long clean-up operation. The driver was found to be uninjured.

Swift-footed lizard named Massachusetts state dinosaur

A “swift-footed lizard” that lived millions of years ago in what is now Massachusetts was named the state’s official dinosaur by Gov. Charlie Baker.

Podokesaurus holyokensis received more than 60% of the roughly 35,000 votes cast in a social media campaign initiated by state Rep. Jack Lewis, beating out another dinosaur that was also discovered in the state.

Lewis came up with the idea of a state dinosaur while trying to find engaging projects for the Cub Scout den he led during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Podokesaurus holyokensis, which means “swift-footed lizard of Holyoke,” was discovered in western Massachusetts in 1910 by Mount Holyoke College professor Mignon Talbot, “the first woman to find, discover, name and describe a dinosaur,” Lewis said.

The species was 3 to 6 feet (around 1 to 2 metres) in length, weighed approximately 90 pounds (40 kilogrammes), and was estimated to run 9 to 12 mph (14 to 19 kph).

World’s fastest clothes-folding robot

Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley’s school AUTOLAB, unveiled a robot that they said can fold clothes faster than any previous automaton.

The robot, aptly named SpeedFolding, can fold 30 to 40 randomly positioned garments per hour, compared to only three to six folds per hour for previous clothes-folding robots.

The robot uses a neural network called BiManual Manipulation Network to interpret input from machine vision and manipulates the clothing using a pair of industrial robot arms.

The robot’s creation and capabilities were submitted in a paper for presentation at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2022 in Kyoto, Japan.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 29th, 2022