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A T-Shirt Worn by Taylor Swift Sparks a $2Mln Windfall for Sea Otters

A pair of sea otters swim at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., March 26, 2018. (AP)
A pair of sea otters swim at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., March 26, 2018. (AP)
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A T-Shirt Worn by Taylor Swift Sparks a $2Mln Windfall for Sea Otters

A pair of sea otters swim at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., March 26, 2018. (AP)
A pair of sea otters swim at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., March 26, 2018. (AP)

A Northern California aquarium has raised more than $2 million for sea otter conservation in just two days. All it took was Taylor Swift wearing a vintage T-shirt.

Swift wore a vintage Monterey Bay Aquarium otter conservation T-shirt in a release party movie for her new “The Life of a Showgirl” album, sending her ardent fans on a quest to buy the shirt last produced in the 1990s.

After the aquarium was flooded with calls about buying the T-shirt showing two otters floating on their back, it decided to re-release the garment Thursday as part of a special campaign to raise $1.3 million, a nod to Swift’s favorite number, said Liz MacDonald, the aquarium’s director of content strategy.

The aquarium met and surpassed its goal to raise the funds for its sea otter conservation program in less than eight hours, averaging about $100,000 in sales every 15 minutes, MacDonald said. Donors who give at least $65.13 to its newest fundraising campaign to help injured and orphan otters will be mailed a T-shirt, MacDonald said.

“We definitely had a little Taylor Swift dance party in the office yesterday afternoon when we hit the goal,” she said.

The aquarium began accepting back-orders and by Friday afternoon it had raised more than $2 million, according to its website.

How Swift acquired the T-Shirt that was last produced more than 32 years ago — when she was just 3 years old — remains a mystery.

She and fiancé Travis Kelce have been documented visiting nearby Carmel, but MacDonald said the aquarium is not aware of the couple having been in their shop.

MacDonald said the staff has had fun speculating about Swift's interest in the T-shirt.

When Taylor announced the release of her new album on Kelce’s podcast "New Heights" a couple of weeks ago, the couple had a little banter about how he loves otters and loves sending her videos of the furry sea creatures.

“One of my favorite theories is that we have a sea otter on our exhibit whose name is Opal and she was named by the fans through an online poll, and I wonder if Taylor Swift may have been one of the people that voted for the name Opal,” MacDonald said, adding that opal is Kelce’s birthstone and that Opalite is the name of one of Swift’s songs.

Whatever the reason, the aquarium and Liberty Graphics, an employee-owned company printing the T-shirts, are reveling in the moment.

“They’re a company based in Maine who were as taken by surprise as us, but who are also as delighted to have this opportunity to be part of this amazing moment that does so much for sea otters and for ocean conservation,” MacDonald said.

Liberty Graphics will use 100% cotton in the T-shirts and water-based ink, which is more ocean-friendly and sustainable, she said.

“We’re also working to make sure that the packaging doesn’t use plastic," she added.

The company of 50 employees normally produces 1,500 shirts a day, said Matt Enos, a company manager.

Enos said that beginning Monday the company will probably have to focus most of its resources on fulfilling T-shirt orders from Swifties.

“We definitely didn’t envision something this big but it’s a pretty good problem to have,” he said.

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Scientists: World's Oldest Octopus Fossil Isn't an Octopus after All

FILE -Field Museum and Chicago's skyline is seen from Soldier Field prior to an NFL preseason football game between the Chicago Bears and the Tennessee Titans, Aug. 12, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)
FILE -Field Museum and Chicago's skyline is seen from Soldier Field prior to an NFL preseason football game between the Chicago Bears and the Tennessee Titans, Aug. 12, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)
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Scientists: World's Oldest Octopus Fossil Isn't an Octopus after All

FILE -Field Museum and Chicago's skyline is seen from Soldier Field prior to an NFL preseason football game between the Chicago Bears and the Tennessee Titans, Aug. 12, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)
FILE -Field Museum and Chicago's skyline is seen from Soldier Field prior to an NFL preseason football game between the Chicago Bears and the Tennessee Titans, Aug. 12, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)

A 300-million-year-old tentacled sea creature has lost its crown as the world’s oldest octopus, after scientists found evidence that it’s not an octopus at all.

Newly published research concludes that fossilized remains listed by Guinness World Records as the earliest known octopus belong instead to a relative of a nautilus, a cephalopod with both tentacles and a shell, The Associated Press reported.

University of Reading zoologist Thomas Clements, the lead researcher behind the new findings, said the fossil, Pohlsepia mazonensis, has long been the subject of scientific debate.

“It’s a very difficult fossil to interpret,” he said. “To look at it, it kind of just looks like a white mush.

“If you look at it and you are a cephalopod researcher and you’re interested in everything octopus, it does superficially look a lot like a deep-water octopus.”

The creature, a blob about the size of a human hand, was found in the Mazon Creek area of Illinois, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, that is rich in fossils from a period before dinosaurs walked the Earth.

Its identification by paleontologists as an octopus in 2000 upended ideas about the evolution of the eight-tentacled cephalopods, suggesting they emerged much earlier than previously thought. The next oldest-known octopus fossil is only about 90 million years old.

“It’s a huge gap,” Clements said. “And so that big gap got researchers sort of questioning, ‘Is this thing actually an octopus?”

To solve the mystery of the “weird blob,” Clements and his team used a synchrotron — which uses fast-moving electrons to create beams of light brighter than the sun — to look inside the fossil rock. They found a ribbon of teeth known as a radula that is common to all mollusks, including nautiluses and octopuses. Each row had 11 teeth. Octopuses have either seven or nine.

“This has too many teeth, so it can’t be an octopus,” Clements said. “And that’s how we realize that the world’s oldest octopus is actually a fossil nautilus, not an octopus.”

The teeth matched those of a fossil nautiloid called Paleocadmus pohli that had been found in the same area. Clements said the mistaken identification may have happened because the creature decomposed and lost its telltale shell before it was fossilized, complicating identification.

As a result of the findings published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Guinness World Records said it will no longer list Pohlsepia mazonensis as the earliest known octopus.

Managing Editor Adam Millward said the scientists had made “a fascinating discovery.”

“We will be resting the original ‘oldest octopus fossil’ title and look forward to reviewing this new evidence,” he said.

Pohlsepia mazonensis is named for its discoverer James Pohl, and is in the collection of the Field Museum in Chicago.

Clements said the museum should not be disappointed by the new evidence, which means it now has “the oldest soft tissue nautilus in the world.

“The Field Museum have a small collection of these ancient nautiluses, which I think as a cephalopod worker is probably the best thing ever,” he said.

The museum has been approached for comment.

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Saudi Arabia: AlUla Advances to 85th Place in IMD Smart City Index 2026

AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA
AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA
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Saudi Arabia: AlUla Advances to 85th Place in IMD Smart City Index 2026

AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA
AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA

AlUla has recorded the highest improvement in the IMD Smart City Index 2026, advancing from 112th place in 2025 to 85th this year, placing it among the most improved cities globally in this edition of the index.

This result reflects AlUla's ambition to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting.

This achievement is a continuation of the comprehensive and sustainable development objectives pursued by the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) since its establishment, and in line with the AlUla vision, which targets the development of infrastructure, improvement of services, and enhancement of quality of life for the people and residents of AlUla, whilst preserving the unique natural and cultural environment of the governorate.

This year's edition of the index measures city performance across key pillars including quality of life, service efficiency, technology, environmental sustainability, and smart governance.

These pillars are central to the commission's priorities and are being continuously advanced in partnership with stakeholders across the public and private sectors.

On the quality of life front, RCU continues to develop services for the people and residents of AlUla, spanning education, healthcare, infrastructure, and public utilities, within an approach that balances urban development requirements with the preservation of the destination's identity.

Sustainability also serves as a foundational pillar within the comprehensive development framework for the governorate. In this regard, RCU has announced the lifting of the suspension on land sales and transactions in central and southern AlUla, a strategic step that opens the door for citizens and investors to participate in real estate activities within a regulated environment.

On the education front, RCU has established an integrated system that encompasses a language institute offering instruction in five languages, a scholarship program that has benefited more than 690 students, teacher qualification programs in which more than 800 educators have enrolled, and community activities that have engaged approximately 7,400 students.

In the area of transport, RCU has completed the expansion of AlUla International Airport, increasing its annual passenger capacity from 400,000 to 700,000, doubling the number of passport control lanes, and integrating smart technologies to enhance the passenger experience, alongside the introduction of smart mobility solutions within the governorate.

RCU continues to develop infrastructure through the construction of power stations and water storage facilities, as well as the enhancement of public utilities, all within the framework of the second masterplan, "Path to Prosperity", which aims to elevate quality of life and advance community development

This progress aligns with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and reflects the accelerating transformation AlUla is undergoing across urban development and sustainability, supporting its ambitions to establish itself as a leading international cultural and tourism destination, and contributing to its growing presence on global smart city rankings.

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Argentine MPs Approve Bill to Allow Mining in Glaciers

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Perito Moreno glacier, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Bernat Parera/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Perito Moreno glacier, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Bernat Parera/File Photo
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Argentine MPs Approve Bill to Allow Mining in Glaciers

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Perito Moreno glacier, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Bernat Parera/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Perito Moreno glacier, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Bernat Parera/File Photo

Argentine MPs approved a bill early Thursday promoted by President Javier Milei that authorizes mining in ecologically sensitive areas of glaciers and permafrost, and has outraged environmentalists.

The amendment to the so-called Glacier Law, which was already approved by the Senate in February, would make it easier to mine for metals such as copper, lithium and silver in frozen parts of the Andes mountains, said AFP.

The Chamber of Deputies, Argentina's lower house of Congress, approved the amendment with 137 votes in favor, 111 against and three abstentions after nearly 12 hours of debate.

Environmentalists say the reforms will weaken protections for crucial water sources.

Thousands of people took part in a demonstration on Wednesday afternoon outside parliament, marked by isolated skirmishes with police.

Some held aloft banners with slogans such as "Water is more precious than gold!" and "A glacier destroyed cannot be restored!"

Seven Greenpeace activists were arrested earlier in the day after scaling a statue outside parliament and unfurling a banner urging lawmakers "not to betray the Argentine people."

The passage of the amendment is a new coup for Milei, who pushed through looser labor laws in February despite repeated street protests.

Nicolas Mayoraz, an MP from Milei's ruling La Libertad Avanza party, assured lawmakers that combining "environmental protection and sustainable development is possible."

Environmental activist Flavia Broffoni rubbished the government's position.

"The science is clear...there is absolutely no possibility of creating what they (the government) call a 'sustainable mine' in a periglacial environment," she told AFP after addressing the protest outside parliament.

- Lithium race -

There are nearly 17,000 glaciers or rock glaciers -- a mix of rock and ice -- in Argentina, according to a 2018 inventory.

In the northwest of the country, where mining activity is concentrated, glacial reserves have shrunk by 17 percent in the last decade, mainly due to climate change, according to the Argentine Institute of Snow Science, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences.

Milei, a free-market radical who does not believe in man-made climate change, argues the bill is necessary to attract large-scale mining projects.

Argentina is a major producer of lithium, which is critical to the global tech and green energy sectors.

The Central Bank has estimated, based on industry forecasts, that the country could triple its mining exports by 2030.

"Environmentalists would rather see us starve than have anything touched," Milei has argued.

Supporters of the reform argue that it will clear up ambiguities in the current law, from 2010, on which periglacial areas -- areas on the edges of glaciers -- can be economically developed.

"We want legal certainty, we want clear definitions," Michael Meding, director of the Los Azules copper mining project in San Juan, told AFP.

Enrique Viale, president of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, told AFP that the reform threatened the water supply of "70 percent" of Argentines.

Under the current law, a scientific body designates protected glaciers and periglacial environments.

The reform would give individual provinces more powers to decide which areas need protection and which can be exploited for economic purposes.

It has been backed by the governors of northern Andean provinces with strong mining sectors, namely Mendoza, San Juan, Catamarca and Salta.