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Today's Paper | September 07, 2024

Published 18 May, 2024 06:55am

The weekly weird

9-year-old girl deadlifts 165 pounds

Arshia Goswami, a 9-year-old girl from India’s Haryana state, has been dubbed the female version of Hercules after deadlifting a whopping 75 kg.

Arshia first started attracting attention a couple of years ago when she set a national record as India’s youngest dead lifter, with a personal best of 45 kilogrammes. She has been training ever since, though, and she recently went viral once again by deadlifting 75 kilograms, more than two times her own body weight. The impressive feat was captured on video and shared on the young weightlifter’s Instagram page, where it went viral. But although most of the feedback was positive, with people praising her strength and form, some comments also expressed concern for her wellbeing, claiming that lifting such heavy weights at her age could have serious health consequences.

World’s oldest known wild bird, Wisdom spotted

The Laysan albatross, or moli, known as Wisdom has been photographed dancing with other birds at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific Ocean, according to SWNS, the British news service.

The seabird is recognised by her well-known band number Z333. She is thought to be around 72 years old. Wisdom has been seen only sporadically since arriving for nesting season in late November, according to reports.

Biologists first identified and banded Wisdom in 1956 after she laid an egg. The large seabirds aren’t known to breed before age five. It is estimated that Wisdom has produced 50 to 60 eggs and as many as 30 chicks that fledged in her lifetime, according to Plissner.

Each year, millions of seabirds return to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific Ocean to nest and raise their young. It’s a sanctuary for millions of “seabirds, shorebirds and various marine life who all call the island home,” according to the refuge’s website.

Largest ever discovered Blue hole

Scientists have identified what could potentially be the “deepest known blue hole” in the world, extending so far down that the bottom has not yet been reached.

New measurements taken during a December scuba-diving expedition indicate that the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole (TJBH), located in Chetumal Bay off the Yucatan Peninsula, extends at least 1,380 feet (420 meters) below sea level — nearly the height of Trump Tower in Chicago.

Along with satisfying their curiosity, scientists believe that the base might form an “intricate and potentially interconnected system of caves and tunnels” that could potentially house undiscovered lifeforms.

That’s 480 feet deeper than the previous record holder, the Sansha Yongle Blue Hole, aka the Dragon Hole, in the South China Sea, which measures 990 feet to the bottom.

Known in scientific circles as Karst formations, blue holes are actually vertical marine caves that were carved over thousands of years by glacial runoff during the Ice Age, according to Discovery.com. The scientists hope to hit bottom on their next excursion.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 18th, 2024

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