Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Moments after hitting a 3-pointer against Indiana on Dec. 21, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior guard Jack Kostel turned around and — seemingly staring at one of the cameras — blew a kiss. Gene has covered sports in the Chattanooga area since 2008 and has ascended from covering preps to colleges in his time. He primarily covers UTC athletics, a job he's held from 2013-18 and again since 2020, having spent two seasons covering Tennessee pre-pandemic. Gene played four seasons of college basketball and has a 20-year-old son named Judah who plays at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. Copyright © 2025, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Inc. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Chattanooga Times Free Press, Inc. 2025","birthPlace":"Yankton"}Share a memoryAdd to your memoryPhotos/VideoCandleMementosPost NowPostObituary Glenn was a devout Christian and believed in a life everlasting the middle child of Henry and Lucille (Peterson) Mannes of N His older sister Ruth and younger brother Dale both loved and admired Glenn greatly The Manneses were part of a large extended family in Sioux Falls that included the Graffs Glenn had many wonderful relationships with his aunts and enjoyed telling tales of their family adventures The entire clan took annual summer vacations to Vacation Village on West Lake Okoboji where the cousins all participated in talent shows Glenn suffered from polio as a boy and spent time in a children’s hospital between the ages of 8 and 10 and in great part due to his father’s dedication Glenn recovered from polio and went on to enjoy all kinds of sports and activities with no physical limitations He claimed to have been “Sioux Falls City Champ” at most things – golf and more – and we have no solid proof that he wasn’t he especially enjoyed playing in the N.B.A golfing with his friends and grandchildren and sailing competitively – several boat classes and going on trips with his wife and family Regular trips to the Black Hills and Custer State Park included cycling the Mickelson Trail with friends After graduating from Sioux Falls Washington High School in 1962 where he embarked on becoming an architect Architecture was his childhood dream and a profession he would enjoy for 50 years Iowa State is also where Glenn met Bernita Kay Mercer Our dad would often tear up recalling the night of their first date and then chuckle when he told us how Bernita began the date with tell me about yourself.” Glenn and Bernita were married in 1967 and spent their early years in Sioux City Glenn and Bernita’s greatest joys together were the times they spent as a family with their children: son Brent and daughter Sarah the family grew to include Brent’s wife Tamara and then his pride and joy: grandchildren Laine and Leah Together they would enjoy fish frys on the deck s’mores and crosswords around the campfire Christmas tree hunting at Cedar Ridge (their home north of Lewis & Clark Lake) Glenn’s architectural career brought him tremendous satisfaction an early mentor who became a lifelong friend Glenn and his young family moved to Yankton where he single-handedly opened and grew a branch office of James M Duffy & Associates and eventually became a partner in Duffy He was delighted when daughter Sarah joined his practice in 2005 when the firm officially became Mannes Architects Sarah and Glenn worked as close partners for the final 15 years of his career The buildings Glenn designed - across Yankton and throughout the region - are a lasting testament to his dedication to his craft He truly loved the process of helping his clients turn their ideas into buildings and took pride in their being practical and efficient “Design is a patient search,” was a phrase he repeated often Glenn completed over 1,000 projects between 1968 and 2019 He received an AIA South Dakota design award for Yankton’s Riverside Park Amphitheater which still comes to life regularly as an outdoor event and music space Glenn’s favorite projects included those where he teamed up with his son Brent who provided mechanical engineering on several projects including the sanctuary addition at Trinity Lutheran Church (2012) and the Cedar County Courthouse remodel and addition in Hartington (2009) Glenn was also especially proud of the projects that included his son-in-law Gregg’s expertise including the Yankton Fire Hall #2 (2014) and the Yankton School District Administration Buildings (2009) He took on a supporting role when Sarah assumed the role of lead designer in the office spearheading projects like the South Dakota Magazine addition (2012) and the Boys and Girls Club of Yankton (2018) Glenn was an active member of Trinity Lutheran Church where he sang in the adult choir and enjoyed the men’s bible study group He served as congregational president and on multiple boards He was a founding member of the Yankton Morning Optimists Club and proudly volunteered at events alongside his fellow Optimists He enjoyed serving as the chairman of The Optimists’ different committees and also served as club president He served on the Board of Directors for The Center and also served on the Board of Trustees for (then) Mount Marty College Glenn was Head Coach of the Yankton Quarterback Club and served on the BOD of the SD Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) He lived in a comfortable and supportive setting as his dementia progressed and his family were blessed to have spent so much quality time with him there Bernita and Brent made very regular visits and hilariously working on crossword puzzles together Their evening ritual was sharing a glass of red wine Many of the staff at Majestic came to feel like extended family consistently offering their care and reassurance They delighted in Glenn’s belting out the oldies whenever the radio was on His singing voice and keen sense of humor never diminished we wish the ending had been easier for you We remember you at your very best and we celebrate the good Your legacy will be passed on for generations Glenn was preceded in death by parents Henry and Lucille Mannes parents-in-law Bernard “Butch” and Gladys Mercer He is survived by his wife of nearly 58 years Bernita grandchildren Laine and Leah Mannes and Henry and Ellia Homstad In lieu of flowers, please consider making a contribution to the charity of your choosing. Tribute Archive The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fresh off an 8-5 non-conference basketball schedule highlighted by a quality win over Bryant gets into Southern Conference play Wednesday with a game at Mercer Gene has covered sports in the Chattanooga area since 2008 and has ascended from covering preps to colleges in his time a job he's held from 2013-18 and again since 2020 having spent two seasons covering Tennessee pre-pandemic Gene played four seasons of college basketball and has a 20-year-old son named Judah who plays at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Chattanooga Times Free Press Material from the Associated Press is Copyright © 2025 audio and/or video material shall not be published rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use The AP will not be held liable for any delays errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 2/22/2024 9:34:00 PM Thanks for visiting ! 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You will also receive a one-time email, one week prior to the anniversary of death. The email will only serve as a reminder should you choose to connect with the family at what will no doubt be a difficult time. Please select your relationship to the deceased and add your email address before submitting. Say hello to Matt Kostel, the kid from Queens that moved to Brooklyn shares his story of what happened and the harsh realities of getting a divorce, his process and how he created pure gold. He begins by sharing that his first six months were some of his most honest moments and ends with how he thought having kids would make it better. He talks about how he sat on his hands and swallowed his pride, and then takes responsibility for how he got there. Sharing about the ripple effect of how things filtered through him onto others and how he was trying to be somebody for somebody else.  Matt’s interview is a great representation of what it looks like when you stay with someone knowing you have not been happy, then something happens and you choose you again.  1);}.css-4hf0t5:focus{outline:none;}.css-4hf0t5:hover{border-color:rgba(215 21.1 - Literally from womb to birth we were in marriage counseling the kid from Queens that moved to Brooklyn shares his story of what happened and the harsh realities of getting a divorce He begins by sharing that his first six months were some of his most honest moments and ends with how he thought having kids would make it better He talks about how he sat on his hands and swallowed his pride and then takes responsibility for how he got there Sharing about the ripple effect of how things filtered through him onto others and how he was trying to be somebody for somebody else Matt’s interview is a great representation of what it looks like when you stay with someone knowing you have not been happy then something happens and you choose you again powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com If you've ever wanted to know about champagne Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche Connect with our staff on topics that matter to you via email or request a reprint Place classified and announcement notices or grow your business with advertising and marketing solutions Please email comments to letters@livingchurch.org Kostel is the fourth person to hold this position since it was created in the 1970s Kostel is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law where she was editor in chief of the law review Department of Justice and practiced law in Washington firms representing the Episcopal Church in various matters Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori appointed Kostel as special counsel for the church’s property litigation and disciplinary matters in 2009 She recently resigned as chancellor of the Diocese of Washington and is a trustee of Virginia Theological Seminary Beers is a graduate of Trinity College and the University of California at Berkeley and entered private law practice in Washington He is now Of Counsel of the Goodwin Law Firm After serving as chancellor of the Diocese of Washington from 1977 until 1991 he was appointed by Presiding Bishop Edmond L He was chancellor to four presiding bishops Beers was a five-time deputy to General Convention and served one term on Executive Council He is a trustee of Virginia Theological Seminary which recently honored him with the Dean’s Cross for Servant Leadership Adapted from the Office of Public Affairs Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022 He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker One focus of the House of Bishops’ Title IV discussion is whether a single person — an attorney acting as a prosecutor — should have unilateral authority to shut down a disciplinary proceeding against a bishop after the Disciplinary Board for Bishops (DBB) has recommended a public ecclesiastical trial The House of Bishops spent nearly an hour September 20 reviewing a chronology of allegations by the second-ranking officer of the church against a prominent bishop President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris alleges that her former bishop made “unwanted and non-consensual physical contact” and inappropriate comments that prompted her to file a Title IV complaint The two served together for years on the churchwide Executive Council Mary Kostel, chancellor to the presiding bishop, reviewed the more than 30 entries spanning more than a year on the chronology she had prepared for the bishops’ consideration. TLC published a leaked copy of the chronology September 14 Kostel was careful to avoid providing any details about the alleged incident that led to the complaint or about the deliberations of the various panels involved But in response to a question about the role of the church attorney she said the Standing Commission on Structure Constitution and Canons was already discussing that issue before the current high-profile case became public knowledge the DBB rejected two settlement “accords,” reportedly because they were considered too lenient The accords were between Konieczny and Bishop Dena Harrison who was overseeing the case after Presiding Bishop Michael B Ayala Harris was consulted on the accords but was not a party to them although in at least one case she “supported the provisions that directly impacted her.” After discussions toward a revised accord were abandoned the “reference panel” administering the process referred it to a hearing panel for trial and an initial hearing was scheduled for August 11 the church attorney referred the matter for “pastoral response in lieu of disciplinary action,” which had the effect of dismissing the case “Questions had come up from other places about that the exercise of the church attorney’s discretion and should there be other ways or other people involved or other consultations rather than letting one person have that much discretion,” Kostel said The church attorney in a Title IV matter has been described as the rough equivalent of a prosecutor in the secular world and she noted that such prosecutors have similar authority to decide not to pursue a case There is no mechanism in the canons to appeal the church attorney’s decision Church Attorney Brad Davenport of the Diocese of Virginia has not responded to requests for comment The House of Bishops is meeting online September 19-22 and portions of the plenary sessions have been made available to the media over a livestream the bishops broke into groups for private discussions vice chancellor of the Diocese of San Diego is a Title IV expert who is not involved in the current case But she said there have been a lot of angry discussions about the matter throughout the church asking “how did the response end up being so ‘nothing’?” A different canon lawyer who asked not to be identified described the outcome as “a gift” to Konieczny More than 50 bishops signed a letter declaring that bishops should not get a “free pass” on behavioral matters — before it was revealed that Konieczny was the accused bishop has been prominent in church governance matters for years The Title IV process is designed to be confidential up until the point that a hearing panel holds an ecclesiastical trial This story has been updated to correct Polly Getz’s title Kirk Petersen began reporting news for TLC as a freelancer in 2016 and was Associate Editor from 2019 to 2024 focusing especially on matters of governance in the Episcopal Church ROCHESTER — Donna Kostel has been working to fundraise for her granddaughter with Type B cell Leukemia No one was expecting leukemia when 3-year-old Violet Marquardt got sick in January Marquardt is described as a sweet and energetic child by Kostel and despite the rest of the family crying “It's still a fairly new diagnosis but she fell sick in the middle of January and it wasn't really anything chronic,” said Kostel “It was just a fever for any unknown reason Took her in because it had been three days and no break in the fever and then this was the diagnosis So you know by mid to the third week in January there was a diagnosis and treatment started and since then it's just been watching her go through the stages of chemo.” For Kostel and the family it feels like every time they make progress and there are also setbacks They are all trying to remain positive through it all and want to continue making memories through everything going on You take one step forward and five steps back A couple of times she hasn't been able to get her treatment just because her numbers have been off.” Kostel has also talked to local businesses to gather baskets and donations to host a large fundraising event at the Eagles Club in Rochester on April 6 “So we're gonna have a bake sale,” said Kostel “We'll just have sale prices on so anybody can come and help themselves and buy fresh baked goods And right now I'm at about 150 baskets which is quite a few and I got some really nice chips and water served for lunch and there will be a raffle drawing at 3:30 p.m including a six-hour tattoo session with Ash Tattoo and a weeklong stay in a cabin at Pioneer campground Kostel and her family have been overwhelmed by the community support They are grateful for the donations and efforts by the community to help their family “My three daughters are helping with meals or co-workers are helping and providing the items and basket items but I've been pretty much organizing most of it very fortunate that I had the opportunity to do this for my granddaughter It is a lot of work and it will be a little relief when it's over but I'm getting excited and I’m hoping for a great turnout.” In addition to the fundraising efforts this weekend at the Eagles Club Texas Roadhouse is also holding a fundraiser on April 16 can show the flyer for Violet’s fundraiser and 10% of their order will be donated to Violet and her family They will also match up to $1,000 to donate as well They will be present at the event on Saturday “We get together with a limited family and we're still making memories and taking pictures and she's one thing that always stands out is she's always smiling,” said Kostel but we've got to get her up over the fence The state’s agricultural runoff is the main contributor to a New Jersey-sized swath of the Gulf in which little marine life can live Returning small amounts of the state’s farmland to natural filters could help Winter isn’t the best time of year to visit a wetland No fewer than three people offered me this advice yet it’s 2 degrees Fahrenheit and I’m lost in snow-blanketed central Illinois Two phone calls and a couple U-turns later and I reach my destination: a small wetland on the edge of a 30-acre farm outside Princeton A year and a half ago this 50-foot-wide plot of matted grasses Now it’s hard at work removing nitrates byproducts of the ammonia-based fertilizers put on the farm fields from the snowmelt runoff that flows through it.  The Wetlands Initiative constructed it through a federally funded land conservation program an environmental engineer with the organization government-employed soil scientist to convince the landowner to pay $12,000 of his own money to convert this land to into a wetland Along with other nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy the Wetlands Initiative is using a suite of government cost-share programs to convince farmers across Illinois to convert productive farmland to wetlands Think of them as the earth’s kidneys—they can filter nutrients before they travel to major bodies of water this wetland removes 64 percent of the nitrates from the water that flows through it “It will get better as the wetland matures because the system just matures as a whole,” Kostel says where nitrates from farmland runoff are the number one contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone—an area roughly the size of New Jersey where no marine life can survive—a 64 percent removal rate makes a real impact “A wetland will just keep working as long as it has water,” she says Wetlands aren’t the only combatants against rising nitrate levels but they might be the simplest and most enduring “It's not like it's done after five years or 15 years It’s a long-term practice,” she continues farmers and environmentalists alike find these wetlands to be places of value Kostel tells me that even though the wetland requires little maintenance from the farmers “One of our landowners is a bird watcher and so he's got a little duck blind out there,” she says birds hop between the stalks of the tall barnyard grasses which retain a seed head through the winter months and hundreds of birds nestle in the wetlands feeding farmland can look eerily still even in howling wind – the wetland brings a little life to an otherwise dormant landscape It’s also a reminder of what this land used to look like As we walk I ask her if this land was originally wetland “Way back in history,” she answers breathing water in and out as they run dry or flood depending on the time of year wetlands are some of the most biologically diverse landscapes on the planet They’re ecosystems that are constantly in flux swelling and withering to serve the surrounding landscape as flood-control and waterway buffers Wetlands’ filtration capacity is due to the denitrifiers the microbial community that lives in the top layers of soil in anaerobic—oxygenless—conditions The shallow nature of wetlands spurs abundant plant growth because light can penetrate through the water to the soil As plants grow they pull in carbon from the atmosphere they decay below the water’s surface creating an atmosphere void of oxygen and rich with carbon the ideal condition for microbes to thrive.  When nitrates flow through a wetland with this healthy community of metabolizing microbes Nitrates are compounds of one nitrogen atom with three oxygen atoms attached The microbes will eat the oxygen off the nitrate molecules converting the remaining nitrogen atom to a gas which gets released into our already nitrogen-rich atmosphere permanently removing nitrates from the ecosystem Yet farmers have long viewed wetlands as waste acres of fertile soil waiting to be drained and farmed over half of the wetlands in the continental U.S translating to roughly 60 acres of wetlands lost every hour between the 1780s and 1980s over 85 percent of the original wetland acreage was converted to agricultural and urban use in the same span of 200 years But even when wetlands are drained and the land is plowed the earth makes a concerted effort to return to its original form requiring constant monitoring and manipulation to remove the soil’s natural tendency to flood—particularly the clay-based hydric soil in the Midwest meaning they laid a system of underground pipes below cropland to absorb subsurface water from fields and drain it directly into nearby ditches and waterways perforated plastic replaced ceramic or terracotta as a more cost-effective material to produce tiling “There are millions and millions and millions of miles of this subsurface tiling all across the northern-half of Illinois director of conservation at The Nature Conservancy While farmland may appear to be unadulterated flat land in reality its subsurface hydrology is as complex as a city’s sewer system In Illinois it is estimated that over over 10 million acres contain tile That tiling helps route nitrates into streams the easiest form of nitrogen for crops to absorb Often ammonia-based fertilizers are applied in the fall Under these conditions ammonia easily converts to water-soluble nitrates “And then there it goes,” says Krista Kirkham an assistant aquatic ecologist at The Nature Conservancy An overabundance of nitrates in water do the same thing they were meant to do on land – spur plant growth But plant growth in water means algae growth which blocks sunlight and depletes oxygen levels through its decay process algae can grow as a boundaryless mass in the water unfurling to create harmful algae blooms and hypoxic dead zones Nitrates from tile-drained farmland in Illinois are the main contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone a hypoxic area that costs the Gulf’s fishing industry about $82 million per year according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Southern Illinois sits roughly 500 miles to the Gulf’s north but according to the United States Geological Survey in 2014 the state outranked 30 other states in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River Basins for its contribution In 2011 the Illinois EPA created the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy a comprehensive suite of best management practices for reducing nutrient loads from urban centers to agricultural runoff The goal is to reduce its phosphorus load – another common chemical in fertilizer – by 25 percent and its nitrate load by 15 percent by 2025 with an eventual target of a 45 percent reduction of these nutrients to the Mississippi River as it essentially amounts to throwing the money they spend on fertilizers downstream in 1997 most farmers in Illinois were losing on average more than 6.5 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre from their fields cultivating their lands with a strict regimen of inputs to ensure the most profitable crop output So why not curb the nutrient flow at the source Researchers at The Nature Conservancy are working on solutions like pushing farmers to grow cover crops noncash plantings that can help keep ammonia in the soil or even to change their fertilizer cycles from fall application to spring edge-of-field constructed wetlands appear to be a beautiful solution to the nutrient issue and once these wetlands are in they're on pace to work for decades,” says Walk of The Nature Conservancy The winter doldrums broke in the Midwest a few weeks after my initial wetlands excursion in the mid 60s and I’m in Krista Kirkham’s truck bouncing across the fields of the privately owned Franklin Research and Demonstration Farm a research hub and collaboration between the Franklin family and the Nature Conservancy which is focused on field-based solutions to nutrient reduction from tile-drained agricultural systems In 2005 The Nature Conservancy built their first wetland on Franklin Farm using money from a federally funded grant Today there are three wetlands on the property a highly engineered and monitored testbed with 10 years of data on the effectiveness of wetlands to remove nutrients from the subsurface water From 2007 to 2016 each wetland removed between 44 and 47 percent of the nitrates from the drainage that ran through them – the future goal of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy The Nature Conservancy decided to implant wetlands at Franklin Farm because of research done by David Kovacic an ecologist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Beginning work in the early 1990s on the effectiveness of wetlands in removing nitrates from farm runoff “we got a lot of discouragement,” Kovacic says Kovacic and his team found that the systems they constructed removed 45 percent of the nitrates that entered them That’s greater than the amount of nitrates that scientists believe needs to be removed from the Gulf of Mexico in order to stop hypoxia from increasing A 2001 plan aimed at reducing the Gulf’s hypoxic zone claims that by reducing nitrogen-loads in waters entering the Gulf by just 40 percent the Gulf would return to a state comparable to its mid-century version “Our results just completely meshed right with that information,” Kovacic says “You can do this if you build wetlands.” Kirkham opens one of the large lime-green cylinders that dot the landscape of Franklin Farm The Nature Conservancy measures the nutrient levels of the inputs and outputs for each cell of each wetland “In every one of these we have one of these ISCO water quality units,” Kirkham says as we look down at what appears to be a motor and 24 equally sized bottles in a circle “It's pretty intensive monitoring trying to capture what's coming in and what's leaving every single wetland,” Kirkham says just 3 percent the size of the tile-drainage area The Nature Conservancy tested this theory at Franklin Farm looking for a size that would be manageable for farmers “Something that's too small is not going to be effective something that's too big is taking land out of production unnecessarily and so what's the happy medium?” Lemke says Upfront cost is the prohibitive factor of edge-of-field wetland construction right now The Princeton wetland cost roughly $60,000 to construct a huge expense for something that will turn no profit and is not required by law the landowner received $12,000 through the federal Conservation Reserve Program but he still had to pay $12,000 of his own money The Wetlands Initiative paid the remaining $36,000 to complete the project The Franklin Farm wetlands weren’t as expensive but again the nonprofit had to cover the gap in costs The cost-share Conservation Reserve Program exists through the Farm Service Agency farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove land from agricultural production for 10-15 years and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality farmers can get up to 90 percent of the eligible costs of constructing a wetland on their crop land covered Right now constructing wetlands is difficult and expensive because the practice is so foreign The Nature Conservancy started the practice a decade ago but their first one was the first edge-of-field wetland constructed in Illinois It also makes convincing farmers a real hurdle you want to farm,” says Mike Franklin “There’s not a great benefit to these edge-of-field practices so it’s a little harder to get that mentality out there,” Kirkham says The farmers who are on board are doing so for a variety of reasons the field outreach coordinator for The Wetlands Initiative says there’s a small percentage of farmers who think regulation on farmland runoff might be coming partly because it’s possible to measure the nutrients in runoff now The fear of regulation is what is driving some folks.” (When I asked Amy Walkenbach the watershed management section manager at the Illinois EPA if the state was moving towards regulating cropland runoff she responded with a firm “no.”) the wetlands offer a shorter-term solution Because wetlands need little monitoring once they’ve matured some landowners view it as a way to be a conservationist without rearranging all of their production practices While the first year can be a little rough encouraging native plant growth and mowing back weeds the habitat will usually be pretty self-sufficient by year three or four And then there’s the hope that the wetland can take unproductive land out of rotation most farmers have a part of their land where “you're putting a lot of effort into it and a lot of money and you’re just not making a profit,” Kostel says farmers can enroll this land in the Conservation Reserve Program and by constructing a wetland earn regular payments on the land that equal or possibly exceed their farming profits is that they really love the wetlands they construct on their property “The thought of it's kind of scary at first an aquatic biologist for The Nature Conservancy Some landowners have even installed trail cams to track the creatures that come into the habitat “They'll go out and see what's hanging out at the wetland and what's going on there,” she says Between the monitoring equipment and the regularity of the wetlands’ size it’s obvious at Franklin Farm that the wetlands are constructs for research purposes It’s easy to forget that this highly monitored land conservation practice is home to hundreds of plant and animal species “Sounds like a finger on a comb,” Lemke says This land is meant to be wetland – after a bit of coaxing the soil remembers what it once was and willingly fills with water Tags: , Chicago magazine newsletters have you covered. Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. Subscribe for free today! This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Beloved RobotGrieving a machine that helped us ask deep questions which imploded six miles beneath the surface of the Pacific last weekend Kostel is a writer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Nereus was one of the institution's prized robots It died while on a mission in the Kermadec Trench one of the world's deepest undersea grooves just 10 days away from completing a 40-day expedition Nereus was about to complete the deepest dive of its mission when its video feed "abruptly went dark." This had happened before Nereus could still reach the surface with its lines of communication down; it would just take longer than usual Fragments appeared as white dots in the water A stolen laptop begins as a pit in one's stomach An iPhone left in the backseat of a taxi is a rush of panic Losing a machine means forgetting a part of ourselves Nereus wasn't just an ultra-expensive machine even—was also the physical manifestation of the sense of wonder that makes us human Nereus was a vehicle for human curiosity that is as absurd as it is familiar "But we’ll continue to do what we came here to do because in the end this is about learning something about a place that does not give up its secrets easily." The Ancient Greeks knew Nereus as a Titan god, and the shape-shifting prophet son of sea and Earth. In mythology, he was the link between the deep-ocean world and the land of men, and considered a truthful guide to humans traveling the seas. Robot Nereus was one of the most important machines in the Hadal Ecosystem Studies Project—a reference to the deep-sea hadal zone WHOIScientists long believed life in the hadal zone was scarce, but Nereus and other robots have proved otherwise. We know that these trenches are home to giant shrimp, cusk eels, and sea cucumbers, but scientists are only just beginning to understand how they thrive in a world of darkness Four days after Nereus' last mission, the sense of loss is still acute among scientists finishing the expedition without their robot. "This is new territory," Kostel wrote on Monday "And that is why we’re out here—to identify new questions to ask and to push against that flimsy yet frustrating boundary between what we know and what we don’t know." All this is a fresh reminder that scientific discovery is a painful pursuit The opportunities for breakthroughs are rare The wanting to know is what sends us back to the sea Total Croatia News Get better acquainted with one Northern Croatian Easter tradition The Kostel village is located in Krapina-Zagorje County close to Pregrada and Hum na Sutli in Northern Croatia This place is filled with history and local people are the ones who keep local traditions and customs – and in this village The event is called the Easter Pistols of Kostel and it has begun on Easter Saturday for almost 500 years. On White Sunday the event is over and everyone partakes in a colourful procession to the chapel you can see historical army uniforms and local participants The Easter pistols are connected with the religious traditions of the Parish of St Local people adopted this heritage and this way they greet the wake of nature during Easter Kostel (its name originating from the Latin word ”castellum” meaning fortress) was founded back in the thirteenth century and is one of the oldest towns in Northern Croatia The history of the custom dates way back to the year 1523 when Count Keglević from Bužim moved to Kostelgrad The count Keglević had armed personal guards who watched the grave of Christ during Easter night and fired the pistols to celebrate Easter and Christ’s resurrection This tradition stayed with local people who have kept that very same Easter tradition for centuries now The locals even have their own community and set of rules connected to the Easter pistols and this custom has gradually spread all over Northern Croatia some participants fire the pistols around their houses Then they gather and fire the pistols during Saturday evening and on the evening of the Easter wake the firing can be heard from the nearby hills and then everyone comes with their families to the Easter morning mass as well as during the mass and the procession itself The main Easter mass doesn’t have any pistol firing there is the largest number of participants from the village and the surrounding areas who start to fire the pistols in the afternoon, accompanied by a brass band White Sunday is the Sunday after Easter when this event ends with brass music and aprocession While this is the official end for the event the Kostel pistol organisation has various other events in both April and May This heritage has been listed as part of Croatia’s intangible heritage since the year 2012 the Easter pistols have hosted different historical ”troops” who participate in the event and last year was the first year when this tradition was held on the walls of the Kostel fort The Kostel pistols historical troop is still very much alive and has thirty active members and fifty more additional members their pistols are handmade and are based on old sketches To be a part of this historical troop you need to be an adult Croatian citizen with origin or family in Kostel and go through a two-week educative course on the handling of the involved weapons The troop often participates in different events throughout Croatia but also in international events – this year they participated in the St Blaise (Sveti Vlaho) festivities down south in Dubrovnik This Easter will mark the 494th time this event has taken place SOURCES: (text and photos): Kostelska Pistola and website in this browser for the next time I comment Following a visit to Slavski Laz suspension bridge where joint police and army patrols operate he stressed that the police and army guard the border in an appropriate manner He was also briefed on day-to-day problems and challenges faced by the local population due to illegal migration he met a joint Slovenian and Croatian police patrol accompanied by the Mayor of the Municipality of Črnomelj and members of the Slovenian Army involved in the protection of the border in and around Žuniči stressed the government’s readiness to cover the costs of removing waste left behind by illegal migrants The Prime Minister also pointed out that cooperation with the mayor is very close and that he had learned at first hand that the situation is under control “We have seen how the protection of the border is ensured and can say that the situation is satisfactory.” Did you find the information you were looking for Do you want to receive a response from the responsible institution Clicking on the link will open your default e-mail program and automatically draft a message that you can send to the institution responsible for the content of this website ask for a reply The Czech Republic has quite a few spooky old buildings that have fallen into ruins One has become known internationally as the “ghost church,” and its fame has helped put it on road to restoration the entire facade is almost completely renovated and work on the interior is about to begin George (Kostel svatého Jiří) in the small village of Luková in the Plzeň region have been taking place now for seven years so far and have cost over CZK 8.3 million The turnaround in the collapsing building’s fate began in 2012 when art student Jakub Hadrava put sculptures of ghostly shrouds seated in the pews of the Church of St George (Kostel svatého Jiří) in the small town of Luková in the northern Plzeň region The project was his bachelor’s thesis and officially has the title “My Mind” (Má mysl) The 32 sculptures were made out of canvas and curtains dipped in plaster They are meant to represent the people who used to attend the church Hadrava also said he wanted to explore the connection of sculptures and where they are located Information about the exhibition quickly spread tourists from all over the world began to visit the church to take pictures of themselves sitting among the shrouds The number of visits rose from 712 in 2013 to 15,600 in 2020 but saw a slight drop in 2021 What was meant as a temporary exhibit has become permanent. The church is now open to tourists from May to October only on Saturdays from 1 pm to 4 pm. The monument will also open on June 10 for the Night of the Churches (Noc kostelů) “Some 500 to 800 people come on a single Saturday,” Manětín Mayor Josef Gilbert said A short time after the art project began to attract people, the church was included in the Ministry of Culture’s program for the preservation of architectural heritage. The ministry contributes the majority of the money spent on repairs, but support from the public has also significantly contributed to the ongoing work. You can find out how to contribute, and see the list of sponsors on the church’s website The thousands of visitors over the past decade have left over CZK 1.5 million in the coffers in voluntary donations Additional money has been donated by sponsors and donors and a music festival was held to support the monument This money is used by the Manětín parish to co-finance repairs The ministry's first contribution went to the church in 2015 and was used to ensure the structural security of the building and repair the vault and the roof of the presbytery and the roof of the sacristy and all the windows were refurbished or restored The church received a new entrance door under the tower and the exterior plaster and facade were gradually repaired "The plan for this year is to complete the last part of the exterior facade then gradually begin the restoration of the interior of the church," Mayor Matuška said It was just the last in a long line of tragedies for the church but damaged soon after in the Hussite wars The church was rebuilt in 1854–58 in the neo-Romanesque and neo-Gothic styles It carried on with services for a little over a century The village of Luková used to have over 100 inhabitants there were 500 people in the church parish and when Germans were forced to leave after World War II the village never recovered the village has just five residents plus a few people who use cottages on weekends The collapsed roof from 1968 was not repaired and the church fell further and further into ruin over the next 45 years Not surprisingly considering the rundown state of the building, stories began to spread that the place was cursed or haunted This has now become part of the allure of visiting the ghost (sculpture)-filled church This building isn’t to be confused with the so-called Bone Church in Kutná Hora which is also undergoing restoration.  Your morning coffee deserves a great companion. Why not enjoy it with our daily newsletter? News from Czechia, curated insights, and inspiring stories in English. Přihlaste se k odběru našeho pravidelného týdenního newsletteru: News category: Manufacturing