Latest news with #What3Words
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
Dog owners in East Yorkshire urged to add What3Words to microchip
Dog owners in East Yorkshire are being urged to add location app details to their pet's comes after a homeless man was reunited with his dog due to its microchip being registered with What3Words - an app which gives every three square metres of the world a unique three-word Riding of Yorkshire Council said the additional information was particularly useful in tracing owners without a fixed address, or in rural are also being reminded to update their pet's details if they move house. By law, all dogs in the UK must have a registered microchip implanted by the time they are eight-weeks-old. Residents can ask their vets to implant microchips if they do not already have one, the council Lyn Healing, cabinet member for communities and public protection, said "It's vital to keep dogs safe, and to ensure that they can be returned to their owners if lost." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Scottish Sun
15-06-2025
- General
- Scottish Sun
Urgent warning as 18ft long ‘pet' PYTHON on the loose in UK countryside after being dumped by its owner
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ONE of the world's longest snakes is at large — after five were illegally dumped by their owner in the countryside. The 18ft pythons are believed to have been kept as pets before being abandoned. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 Urgent warning as 18ft long 'pet' PYTHON on the loose in UK countryside after being dumped by its owner Credit: Humberside Police North Lincolnshire Four were recaptured by police but they are still hunting for the missing reptile. Dog owners are being warned to keep pets on leads in the Twigmoor and Cleatham areas of rural Lincolnshire where the reticulated pythons were found. Humberside Police say the snakes will attack only to defend themselves but can 'squeeze the life' out of their prey. A spokesman said: 'So far four snakes have been captured by colleagues who work with exotic animals. 'They are believed to be Reticulated Pythons. We suspect that one snake may currently still be out in the wild. 'The reticulated Python is the longest species on earth. It is a non venomous constrictor snake. In the wild, they will kill their prey by biting it and then coiling around it to literally squeeze the life out of it. 'In the pet trade, these come in many colours. An 18ft Snake found at Manton is a wild type, but the other three are a mixture of two Albinos and what we think is a Pied Golden Child Morph. 'In the event that you find one in the wild in the UK, please call police immediately. DO NOT try to catch it yourself, keep an eye on it and give a What3Words location to the police so it can be assessed by an expert and collected appropriately. 'We would advise keeping dogs on a lead in the areas where these snakes were found. 'These Snakes will not attack you. They will only try to defend themselves if they feel threated. We suspect that the snakes that have been dumped were pets and this will make them less likely to bite. Incredible video reveals ultra rare snake with three fangs 'Please if you have a pet that you can no longer keep for whatever reason, please take it to an exotic animal shop or animal rescue. DO NOT release them into the wild. 'If you have any information on the release of these snakes please contact Humberside Police Rural Task Force at RTF@ or call 101 quoting investigation reference 25000081788."
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Landen-Deerfield Park set for major change with creek project
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – The Warren County Park District has announced construction will begin mid-June on the Simpson Creek Headwaters Restoration project at Landen-Deerfield Park. The park is on U.S. 22 and 3 in Deerfield Township, near Maineville. Warren Co. Park District said this project will improve water quality, reduce flooding risk and expand public access. It will change the aging manmade pound into a stream and wetland system. This will transform the area and enhance habitats for native wildlife. By changing it into a stream, this will strengthen the health of the Little Miami River Watershed, and in turn reduce the flooding risk. Glen Helen Nature Preserve needs your help after weekend storm damage There are also plans to improve the park itself – new trails, a nature play area, educational signs and a half-acre fishing pond. The park district said the main benefits of the project will be the following: Cleaner Water and Healthier Habitat: The wetland system will filter pollutants more effectively and support a greater variety of plants than artificial ponds. New and Improved Recreation: Visitors will enjoy expanded trails, nature play features and a redesigned fishing pond. Lower Maintenance and Less Flooding: It will remove the need for future dredging, reducing long-term maintenance costs and lessening the risk of downstream flooding. Educational Value: The newly restored area will support field trips, volunteer programs and environmental learning. The park district is hosting a temporary 'Catch and Keep' fishing opportunity at the existing pond. No license or registration is required. This is because the fish currently in the pond will not survive the transition. The park district said turtles and other mobile wildlife will self-relocate as the conditions change. What3Words app helps Brookville Fire Department find lost individuals Crews will drain the pond and move vegetation and soil. This might cause noise and unpleasant smells. This is normal for a wetland restoration project. The Landen-Deerfield Park will remain open throughout construction. There will be a fence placed around the construction site. Visitors will be asked to stay out of the construction zone for their safety. 'While we recognize that construction can be inconvenient in the short term, the long-term benefits for the park and the environment will be substantial,' said Matt Latham, CEO of the Warren County Park District. 'We appreciate your patience as we complete this important restoration effort.' Illustrations of the future water system via the Warren County Park District. This project is funded by H2Ohio initiative and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grants. It is expected to be finished by late 2025. The native plants and habitat stabilization efforts will continue into 2026. To see project updates, plans, and FAQs, click here. For general information on the Warren County Park District, which manages over 1,700 acres in 12 parks across the county, call (513) 695-3980, email parks@ or click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What3Words app helps Brookville Fire Department find lost individuals
Previous coverage on Brookville. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Finding yourself in an emergency situation without any nearby landmarks can be extremely distressing. The Brookville Fire Department (BFD) would like to remind people the free What3Words app can help them find exactly where they are. 'Street addresses help us find you most of the time. But trees all look the same, and do not have addresses. So, if you are in a park or stadium, or any other large area, What3Words can help. Latitude and Longitude locations are extremely specific, but it is easy to mess up their long string of numbers,' wrote the BFD. If you find yourself needing to use the app while calling 911, there are three steps to remember. Open the app. Wait a few seconds and you will see a blue dot. Locate yourself. Tap the airplane icon (iPhone) or the crosshair icon (Android). You will see three words at the bottom of your screen. Give the three words. Read these words over the phone to emergency services. 'We already have several examples where What3Words has helped us find the exact location of lost people and caller locations,' wrote the BFD. The app itself can be used anytime, free of charge, for any reason – from being lost to finding new locations. Click here to learn more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Mint
10-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Rahul Matthan: Digipin will displace workarounds to getting around
Whenever I order something online, I've learnt to provide as much location information as I can at checkout. As with most parts of India, the houses on my street are numbered somewhat at random (mine is 22/1 and my immediate neighbour's is 13), and there is no way anyone relying solely on GPS can find me without help. So they call, I explain, they get lost anyway, and we repeat this dance till somehow, with persistence and a lot of patience, the package finally reaches me. This is a story that repeats itself millions of times a day across the length and breadth of the country. Our addressing system is so broken that delivery agents have taken to calling even before they set out. Despite India being a top-five economy, we still navigate like medieval merchants, using directions like 'turn left at the paan shop." Also Read: Arguments against deploying DPI don't really hold up This is somewhat ironic considering that India has one of the world's most extensive postal networks. With 155,000 offices and 89% rural coverage, India Post can reach virtually every person in the country. But the challenge isn't reaching them, it is reaching them on time. In a world where next-day delivery is the norm and 10 minutes is fast becoming an expectation, our postal service is just not up to the task. So we've turned to logistics companies and their armies of delivery agents who zip around following turn-by-turn directions on mobile phones strapped to their handlebars to get parcels to us. And even if the miracles of modern technology get them close to us, the last mile often defeats them. Last week, the Department of Posts launched Digipin, a brand new digital addressing system that might be an answer to this problem. By dividing all of India into millions of tiny squares (about the size of a parking space), each with a unique 10-character name, all you would need to do is find the Digipin square that corresponds to the exact location of your doorstep and share the ten characters that define it with whoever needs to reach you. Also Read: DPI integration with AI will elevate the quality of public services as well as risks Unlike proprietary pinpoint systems like What3Words, Digipin is India's latest block of digital public infrastructure (DPI). Free, open and designed for national scale, it offers a foundation for addressing-as-a-service. Since its specifications are open source and easily accessible on Github, all it takes is a few API calls for applications to integrate with it. Which means that we no longer need to go through endless cycles of 'turn left at the temple, then right after the blue house," for deliveries to reach us. The real challenge will be adoption. Digipin names are unintelligible alphanumeric phrases like 'G4J-9K4-7LPY' that are hard to remember. If this is what we have to memorize to use it, we will get even more lost than we do today. What's needed is a way to translate these alphanumeric phrases into something we can recall. This is a problem that's already been solved. Internet websites are identified by 12-digit URLs that no one remembers. However, since all URLs are mapped to domain names that are easy to recall, we simply type those names into a browser for domain name servers (DNS) to translate into URLs that a computer can understand. Just as DNS unlocked the web for billions by translating forgettable URLs into names we could remember, a similar alias layer could unlock Digipin's mass adoption. Once we have this, I will be able to register a phrase like ' and map it to the precise Digipin coordinates of my front doorstep. Then all I need to do is share it with the delivery agent, who will then be able to navigate directly to my front door. Also Read: India's drive to globalize Digital Public Infrastructure: Time to take stock Digipin is designed to work with all Global Navigation Satellite Systems, but I am particularly pleased to see that it will work with India's own NavIC satellite constellation. In a 2017 Ex Machina article, I had pointed out that GPS is 'probably modern civilisation's single point of failure," given that it is a US Department of Defense system that underpins everything we rely on, from mobile networks to power grids. At this fractious time in global geopolitics, we should ensure that our digital location service relies on our own network of geo-positioning satellites. According to MIT Media Lab, India loses over 0.5% of its GDP annually because 80% of its addresses are described in relation to landmarks that lie anywhere between 50 and 1,500 metres away from their actual location. For an economy that wants to grow to $5 trillion by 2027, precision addressing isn't a luxury—it's a necessity. Also Read: Digital public infrastructure could help the world fight climate change As with every other DPI, the role of the government should be catalytic, not operational. Digipin's breakthrough moment will come when someone builds the addressing equivalent of Google Pay or PhonePe—with an interface so intuitive that using landmark-based directions feels as antiquated as paying with cash. Early adopters will, no doubt, be delivery-heavy businesses, but I'm far more keen to see the second-order effects: How precise addressing will reshape social coordination in ways that we have yet to imagine. Some 30 years ago, we couldn't imagine needing the internet; 20 years ago, mobile phones seemed like a luxury; 10 years ago, digital payments felt optional. Today, precise addressing feels like a nice-to-have, but tomorrow, we probably won't remember how we managed without it. For too long, we've been finding workarounds to getting around. Digipin is our chance to finally address our addressing challenge. The author is a partner at Trilegal and the author of 'The Third Way: India's Revolutionary Approach to Data Governance'. His X handle is @matthan.
