In Other News: Floods leave Yellowstone landscape ‘dramatically changed’; Bronx Zoo elephant named Happy isn’t a person, court rules

Published 12:00 am Friday, June 17, 2022

So long, Internet Explorer. The browser is now retired

Microsoft has officially sent Internet Explorer into retirement. As of Wednesday, Microsoft will no longer support the once-dominant browser that legions of web surfers loved to hate — and a few still claim to adore. Its launch in 1995 signaled the beginning of the end of the web’s first widely popular browser, Netscape Navigator. IE’s market share peaked in the early 2000s at over 90%. But it began to fade as users found faster, less crash-prone alternatives.

Floods leave Yellowstone landscape ‘dramatically changed’RED LODGE, Mont. — The forces of fire and ice shaped Yellowstone National Park over thousands of years. It took decades longer for humans to tame it enough for tourists to visit, often from the comfort of their cars. In just days, heavy rain and rapid snowmelt caused a dramatic flood that may forever alter the human footprint on the park’s terrain and the communities that have grown around it. The historic floodwaters that raged through Yellowstone this week, tearing out bridges and pouring into nearby homes, pushed a popular fishing river off course — possibly permanently — and may force roadways nearly torn away by torrents of water to be rebuilt in new places. “The landscape literally and figuratively has changed dramatically in the last 36 hours,” said Bill Berg, a commissioner in nearby Park County. “A little bit ironic that this spectacular landscape was create by violent geologic and hydrologic events, and it’s just not very handy when it happens while we’re all here settled on it.” The unprecedented flooding drove more than 10,000 visitors out of the nation’s oldest national park and damaged hundreds of homes in nearby communities, though remarkably no was reported hurt or killed. The only visitors left in the massive park straddling three states were a dozen campers still making their way out of the backcountry.

Bronx Zoo elephant named Happy isn’t a person, court rulesNew York’s top court has ruled that Happy the elephant may be intelligent and deserving of compassion but cannot be considered a person being illegally confined to the Bronx Zoo. The 5-2 decision Tuesday by the state Court of Appeals comes in a closely watched case that tested the boundaries of applying human rights to animals. The zoo and its supporters warned that a win for the Nonhuman Rights Project could open the door to more legal actions on behalf of animals. The group’s founder says he is pleased it managed to persuade two judges that Happy has legal rights.