BRISBANE: For Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, first came her polarizing performance at the Olympics, followed by her panic when she was chased through the streets of Paris.
The 37-year-old university lecturer from Sydney — her birthday was on Monday — bewildered expert and casual viewers alike in the sport of breaking with an unconventional routine that included mimicking a kangaroo.
Breaking was being contested at an Olympics for the first time. And it might be a one-and-done, not scheduled on the Olympic program for Los Angeles in 2028 or for Brisbane, Australia in 2032.
“Raygun” as she was known, was later ridiculed on social media, with some posts also questioning the Olympic qualifying process.
In a television interview for The Project on Australia’s Channel 10, she told of being chased by cameras through Paris streets and how she dealt with the very public reaction to her performance.
“That was really wild,” she said in rare public comments since the event. “If people are chasing me, what do I do? That really did put me in a state of panic. I was nervous to be out in public. It was pretty nerve-wracking for a while.”
She apologized for the commotion, but again defended her performance and said she was thankful for support from others in the sport.
“It is really sad to hear those criticisms,” she said. “I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced, but I can’t control how people react. The energy and vitriol that people had was pretty alarming.
“While I went out there and had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly. I think my record speaks to that.”
She had previously defended how she qualified for Paris, and reiterated it on the TV program.
“I won the Oceania championships. It was a direct qualifier,” Gunn said. “There were nine judges, all from overseas. I knew my chances were slim as soon as I qualified,” for the Olympics.
“People didn’t understand breaking and were just angry about my performance,” she added. “The conspiracy theories were just awful and that was really upsetting. People are now attacking our reputation and our integrity — none of them were grounded in facts.”
One of the most highly-critical reactions to her performance was a sketch on American comedian Jimmy Fallon’s late-night television show.
She said she was still “not in a place to watch it.”
Otherwise, Gunn said she’s just trying to cope a month later, with some help from therapy.
“I definitely have my ups and downs, good and bad days,” she said. “It has been so amazing to see the positive response to my performance. I never thought I’d be able to connect with so many people in a positive way ... but it definitely has been tough at times. Fortunately, I got some mental health support pretty quickly.”
Panic on the streets of Paris for Australian Olympic breaker ‘Raygun’
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Panic on the streets of Paris for Australian Olympic breaker ‘Raygun’
- Experts and casual viewers alike bewildered with her unconventional routine that included mimicking a kangaroo
- Rachael Gunn had previously defended how she qualified for Paris, and reiterated it on the TV program The Project
Shy penguin wins New Zealand’s bird election after campaign filled with memes and tattoos
- The hoiho — a noisy, smelly and shy bird believed to be the world’s rarest penguin — was propelled to its second victory by a star-studded campaign
WELLINGTON: It’s noisy, smelly, shy — and New Zealand’s bird of the year.
The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country’s fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species.
It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was absent the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.
More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke — a “deeply weird bird” which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win.
This year, the number of votes cast represented 10 percent of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood.
“Birds are our heart and soul,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare.
This year’s victor, the hoiho — its name means “noise shouter” in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world’s rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand’s South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78 percent in the past 15 years.
“This spotlight couldn’t have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes,” Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird — the organization that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can’t find enough food.
“The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers.
Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote.
“I do feel like we were the scrappy underdog,” said Emily Bull, a spokesperson for the runner-up campaign, for the karure — a small, “goth” black robin only found on New Zealand’s Chatham Island.
The karure’s bid was directed by the students’ association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting a fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin.
The rivalry provoked a meme war and students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the magazine’s campaign secured endorsements of the city council and local zoo, Bull despaired for the black robin’s bid.
But the karure — which has performed a real-life comeback since the 1980s, with conservation efforts increasing the species from five birds to 250 — took second place overall.
This weekend as Rawson wrapped up her campaign for the ruru, she took her efforts directly to the people, courting votes at a local dog park. The veteran campaign manager who has directed the bids for other birds in past years was rewarded by the ruru placing fourth in the poll, her best ever result.
“I have not been in human political campaigning before,” said Rawson, who is drawn to the competition because of the funds and awareness it generates. The campaign struck a more sedate tone this year, she added.
“There’s been no international interference, even though that was actually a lot of fun,” she said, referring to Oliver’s high-profile campaign.
It was not the only controversy the election has seen. While anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires electors to verify their ballots after foreign interference plagued the contest before. In 2018, Australian pranksters cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag.
The following year, Forest & Bird was forced to clarify that a flurry of votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird-lovers.
While campaigns are fiercely competitive, managers described tactics more akin to pro wrestling — in which fights are scripted — than divisive political contests.
“Sometimes people want to make posts that are kind of like beefy with you and they’ll always message you and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?” Bull said. “There is a really sweet community. It’s really wholesome.”
Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.
SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.
They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers) following Tuesday’s liftoff.
Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.
During Thursday’s commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.
The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX’s Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.
SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.
This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won’t divulge how much he spent.
A river otter attacks a child at a Seattle-area marina
- River otters can be territorial and “like any wildlife, are inherently unpredictable,” officials said
BREMERTON, Washington: A river otter attacked a child at a Seattle-area marina, dragging the youngster from a dock and into the water before the mother rescued her child, wildlife officials said.
The child was pulled underwater and resurfaced after a few moments during the encounter Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at the Bremerton Marina in Kitsap County, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers said in a press release.
The otter continued to bite and scratch as the mother pulled the child out of the water. The animal chased them as they left the dock, wildlife officials said. The child was treated at a hospital.
“We are grateful the victim only sustained minor injuries, due to the mother’s quick actions and child’s resiliency,” said Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Ken Balazs. “We would also like to thank the Port of Bremerton for their quick coordination and communication to their marina tenants.”
Officers trapped the otter and took it to a disease diagnostic lab for testing, including for rabies, the release said. The agency did not respond to questions Saturday about test results.
River otters are common throughout Washington and can be found in fresh and saltwater habitats, officials said. Encounters with humans are rare, with six occurring in the past decade, they said. River otters can be territorial and “like any wildlife, are inherently unpredictable,” officials said.
Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England
Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England
- Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man
- “The caller had conducted an Internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police said
DELAWARE, USA: Police dispatchers in Delaware’s capital city are being lauded for helping direct rescuers to a boat foundering in the English Channel thousands of miles away.
Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man who thought he was calling emergency personnel in Dover, England.
The mix-up happened Aug. 27, when the man learned that his brother’s boat was sinking in the English Channel, according to Delaware authorities.
“The caller had conducted an Internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police officials said in a news release Thursday. “The family member thought they were calling Dover, England but was connected with our agency here in the United States.”
Recognizing that trying to refer the frantic caller to authorities in England could cost valuable time, Communications Operator MacKenzie Atkinson kept the man on the line and began collecting critical information. The caller provided the coordinates of the vessel, and Atkinson, who had recently acquired certification from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, followed protocols for a vessel in distress, officials said.
Meanwhile, Communications Officer Connor Logan began making international notifications. Within four minutes, he established contact with the several agencies, including the US Coast Guard, French Coast Guard, His Majesty’s Coast Guard in England, the United Kingdom’s Maritime and Coast Guard Agency’s Coordination Center, and police stations in Dover, England, officials said.
Dover police said that 15 minutes and 48 seconds after the initial call, the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency confirmed that rescuers were on their way to the vessel. Dover police said they received confirmation on Sept. 5 that the vessel and everyone on board were safely returned to the Port of Dover, England.
Dover police officials have nominated Atkinson, Logan and two other communications officers on duty during the emergency for a Distinguished Unit Commendation.
Hearts, tails and blubber at Japan fin whale tasting
- Tokoro’s firm Kyodo Senpaku hopes the taste of fin whale will revive demand and help it recoup the costs of its new 9,300-tonne ‘mothership’
- With three-quarters of Japan mountainous and ill-suited to agriculture, Japan has long relied on the sea – including whales – as a vital source of food
TOKYO: Bite-size portions of fin whale were available to sniff and taste Friday as Japan’s whaling industry seeks to rekindle appetite for a traditional protein source that has fallen out of favor.
“Once young people eat it and they realize it’s good, they will eat it more and more,” Hideki Tokoro, the head of Japan’s main whaling firm, said at the event at Tokyo’s main wholesale fish market.
“People are excited about the fin whale... It’s just delicious,” he said in his trademark whale-themed hat and jacket.
Since 2019, Japan has caught whales in its own waters after abandoning under international pressure hunting for “scientific purposes” in the Antarctic Ocean and the North Pacific.
The catch list was limited to sei, minke, and Bryde’s whales, but this year fin whales — the planet’s second-largest animal — were added and on August 1 the first killed.
Tokoro’s firm Kyodo Senpaku hopes the taste of fin whale will revive demand and help it recoup the costs of its new 9,300-tonne “mothership.”
Almost every part of the whale was on display, including slabs of heart, slices of tail and chunks of blubber.
With three-quarters of Japan mountainous and ill-suited to agriculture, Japan has long relied on the sea — including whales — as a vital source of food.
As imports of other meats have grown, consumption of whale has slumped to around 1,000 to 2,000 tons per year compared to around 200 times that in the 1960s.
Kyodo Senpaku this week released footage showing its first fin whale catch. The animal was almost 20 meters (65 feet) long and weighed at least 55 tonnes.
Fin whales are deemed “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Japan’s decision to catch them has alarmed conservationists.
Japan’s industry has come under additional scrutiny since the arrest of US-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, 73, in Greenland in July on a Japanese warrant.
Watson co-founded Sea Shepherd, whose members played a high-seas game of cat-and-mouse with Japanese whaling ships in the 2000s and 2010s.
Anna Okada, a visitor to Friday’s event who runs a cafe in the Yamanashi region, said that she is on a mission to jazz up whale meat to appeal to younger people.
“Sashimi and deep-fried whale meat have an old-fashioned image of having a bad smell,” Okada said.
“The popularity can spread quickly when people try and find it delicious,” she said.
“If it’s sold from younger people’s perspective, for example like casual, stylish and tasty tacos, I think it will be popular quickly.”
Some schools are starting to serve it again in their canteens, she said, while products where the whale content isn’t obvious — such as in dumplings — can increase demand.
Keita Ishii, another visitor to the tasting event who works for an “izakaya” pub in Tokyo — famous for their meat skewers — was impressed.
“We’re using Bryde’s whale (for our restaurant). I came here to look for other whale meat today,” he said.
“The fin whale tasted different. It was delicious.”
