Tickle Some Rats!

0:03 Calaroga Shark Media. I'm Johnny Mack with five good news stories. Good news if you're a rat who likes to be tickled, I have some scientists who can help you with that. Some scientists notice that play has been observed and documented in many species, not just in mammals, and they decided to study it. Well, how do you study it? You tickle rats. Obviously, these scientists played with and tickled rats and observed the rodent sprain activity. They identified a part of the brain that's active when both the rats are playing and when they're tickled. You can read about this study in the July issue of the journal Neuron. Scientists say active plays widely seen in birds, especially smart ones like crows, and it's been observed in some fishes, frogs, and reptiles. It could take many forms, such as rough and double fights and games with complex rules, but there are a few common features. One of the scientists says, first of all, it's not done when animals or humans don't feel well. When they're stressed, they don't play. Play in itself is rewarding. You do it for the fun of it. Both animals and humans when they play, they could be very vocal. In rats, the equivalent of laughter is an ultrasonic squeaking, which is too high pitched for the human ears. See that's why you didn't know. The rats are having a good time. The scientist says, rats really love to be tickled.

1:17 There's a very clear relationship between ticklishness, say that three times and playfulness in rats. So if you've got a rat and you want to tickle it, all right, what do you do? You can play hand chasing games. Here, ratty, ready, chase my hand. Then you tickle the rat and whatever. Good news for some archaeologists, some sheep or helping them preserve ancient ruins At Pompeii. A flock of grazing sheep is helping archaeologists preserve the ruins of Pompeii. One of the archaeologist says, if grass or other plants grow on the ancient walls and houses, it's problems. So we try to have a sustainable approach of the whole environment in order to avoid using substances to stop the plants from growing. The solution a flock of one hundred and fifty sheep. Meanwhile, the elders of the ho Chunk nation are recording their language help and keep going. Ho Chunk Nation public relations officer Casey Brown says it's critical to capture the voices and dialects of speakers because many of the elders are now seventy five plus years old. Brown told CNN, it's very important that we do these things now. The Language Conservancies an organization that seeks to preserve languages so they don't go extinct. They worked with elders to make audio recordings of them speaking and their indigenous language. Ho Chunk Nation tribal elder Elliot Garvin participate in the recording and said he wanted to restore what was lost now that the language is often only spoken during traditional ceremonies. Barbara Laken fixes disheveled Barbie dolls. She told CNN, people must think I'm insane sitting on a bus sewing closed for dolls, but they don't know who I'm doing this for.

2:38 The girls who get these Barbie dolls are migrants. Barbara takes old Barbies that she buys or they're donated, and she restores them as gifts for the children. Barbar's a former fashion designer, and she says she spends hundreds of hours making unique outfits for the dolls. She says, some of these families have traveled from country to country to get to the border, then spent forty hours on a bus to come to New York. They got everything taken away from them. It's hard to imagine what these children have gone through. I think for a child to have a toy, especially in these circumstances, is really important. Something they can comfort them, something that they can hold close. I think we all like to lie down, but maybe, perhaps possibly you could lie down too much. There was a contest to break the record for lying down. The record was one hundred and seventeen hours. Seven competitors were lying down on mats to vuy for the coveted title of Laziest Citizen. This is a satirical contest held annually in a holiday resort in northern Montenegro. Contest was launched twelve years ago to mock a popular myth that labels Montenegrins as lazy.

3:37 Well, the old record got shattered. There were seven remaining contestants from a starting field of twenty one that had been lying down for four hundred and sixty three hours. The rules stipulate that standing or sitting are considered a violation and grounds for disqualification, but contestants are a lot of ten minutes every eight hours to go to the toilet. Philip was trying to win. He said, we have everything we need here. Company's fantastic and time goes by quickly. What do you win? A thousand euros that's around one thousand and seventy dollars. Not worth it and I like to lie down. That's your five good news stories for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like it too. You guys, have a great day.