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Dogs are known for being particularly playful creatures, but they are certainly not the only ones! Creatures of all kinds love to have play time — and often in some of the most unexpected, and adorable, ways. Debbie Schluterman proves this through the amazing content she posts on her TikTok page. Here, you’ll find all sorts of fun videos showcasing her donkey named… well, Donkey. And yes, he is named after the beloved character in Shrek. At 9-years-old, it seems that there is little that Donkey loves more than getting a new toy. Many get donated to him, and Debbie records his reaction to playing with them for the first time. “But what kind of toys do donkeys like,” you might be wondering. Well, for this particular guy, the answer is frequently… a squeaky rubber chicken toy! @debbieschluterman Thanks so much @Bryan he really loves the peg leg pirate chicken you got from @Gotrubberchickens.com! I appreciate you sending it to him!! #donkey #happy #petsoftiktok #joy #squeakytoy #animalsfunny #pettricks #crazyanimals ♬ original sound – Inthemorningimmakingwaffles Although Donkey is a fan of these toys in general, he especially loves the one in the video above. As soon as he hears it, he wags his tail, eager to get ahold of his new toy. Once he’s able to find a comfy spot to sit, he goes to town! As the toy squeaks away, Donkey joins in with his own silly noises. Just when you think he’s had enough, he simply keeps going! “You’re making me dizzy, Donkey,” Debbie says. Donkey’s Pure Joy Over New Squeaky Chicken Toy is Contagious Then, as if he understands her, Donkey takes a break. As soon as he does, he gets closer to Debbie so she can pet him. It’s almost like he’s taking the time to thank her for giving him such a fantastic toy! “This donkey is happier than I’ve EVER been,” someone admits in the comments, “and I’m always happy.” “That’s the happiness I wanna feel,” another person shares. “I’m coming back as a donkey!!” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Donkey Can’t Contain His Excitement Over New Squeaky Toy appeared first on InspireMore.

Get your popcorn ready for these idiots

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. After a recent censorship effort by German authorities, yet another government has demanded that free speech platform and Big Tech alternative Gab censor content that the government disapproves of. And once again, the platform is refusing to comply. This time, the demand concerns the removal of content about one of the recent Sydney stabbings – and is part of Australia’s wider censorship drive targeting multiple social sites. And, it comes coupled with a threat of a huge fine. Gab CEO Andrew Torba said in a blog post that the notice asked that a video showing the stabbing in the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church be removed. It was sent by Australia’s at this point notorious, free speech suppression-wise, eSafety Commissioner, stating that “all reasonable steps” are required to be taken by platforms to “safeguard Australians at risk from online harms.” But Gab doesn’t appear to consider censorship a “reasonable” step. And so the video – that documents the violent act, and is, Torba said, followed by “a heartfelt message” from the victim who survived the attack, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel – remained online. According to Torba, the reason is that despite its disturbing nature, it “serves a vital purpose in informing the public about the reality of this horrific incident,” while the bishop’s message provided the public with some context. All this, the Gab CEO believes, means that the video is both newsworthy and in the public interest. As such, he qualified the removal notice and the threat of a fine equivalent to some half a million US dollars, “a clear violation of our users’ freedom of speech,” that he said his platform would not commit. Torba said that instead, Gab would remain committed to free speech and leave the video on the platform, at the same time urging users to express support to the bishop (who, in the wake of his wounding, voiced strong criticism of the censorship of content covering the crime) and to his Church. The Australian eSafety Commissioner’s fine threat is a warning that civil penalty proceedings will be launched unless the video is removed; it isn’t clear what the mechanics of realizing the threat might be, given that Gab is a US-based entity. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Gab Stands Firm Against Australia’s Censorship Demands appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Did you know there's more than one way to press flowers? If you have a flower garden and would love to see your beauties all the time, why not preserve them by pressing? I've listed three ways to press flowers perfectly, and I can't wait for you to try all of them! Know-How To Press Flowers For Your Arts And Crafts From decorating your scrapbook to designing wedding invitations, pressed flowers are the way to add an extra special touch to any DIY project. But were you still waiting weeks for your flowers to dry out in an old book? Our three easy tutorials will “leaf” you inspired to create! So now, let's get ready perfectly press some petals! Tips To Press Flowers Effectively Choose naturally flat flowers, like daisies, pansies, violas, and miniature daffodils. Choose perfect flowers with no holes or discoloration – we only want the best! Pressed flowers are extremely fragile. Handle with care! Use makeup oil blotting paper to help soak up moisture and insert a sheet on top of your flowers before you press to get the best results. Let your flowers have their space! When laying out flowers, make sure they are not overlapping each other in the press, or else you will get one glob of petals. Now Let's Get Started! Want to craft something cute in a flash? This flower pressing method is the method for you! In only minutes, you have some beautiful pressed flowers that are craft ready when you are! Supplies needed: Iron Ironing board Paper sheets fresh flowers and leaves   Step 1: Lay a sheet of paper down on your ironing board. Place flowers on top and cover with another sheet of paper. Lay heavy hardcover book on top. Try not to slide the book as this may damage the flowers. Instead, push down on the book and wait for 2-3-minutes. Step 2: Remove the book, but keep flowers on the paper. Take out iron and remove any water if it's a steamer kind. Set the iron to the lowest heat setting (or dry, if your iron has it). Gone are the old days of waiting days for pressed flowers to dry. Irons turn fresh flowers into pressed flowers within minutes! Place iron down on paper and press. Hold for 10 seconds, remove, and repeat this process across the sheet. Do NOT drag across like you do on clothing. This will damage both your flowers and your paper. Instead, remove flowers slowly to prevent tearing and set them aside on another clean sheet of paper. And that's it! Pressing Flowers With A Flower Press Have some more time to invest in creating perfectly flat flowers? Try a flower press – easy to make and use. Flowers are ready to be used after 24 hours in the press. Supplies: 2 7” x 7” wood squares Scrap cardboard Four screws, washers, wing nuts Sheets of paper or blotting paper Fresh flowers and leaves Power drill 5/32” drill bits Step 1: image via instructables First, cut or purchase two identical pieces of wood, and measure about 1” in from the edge of your wood corners with a pencil. Step 2: image via instructables Drill over your pencil marks through both boards at about 1″ in from the corner on all four sides. Place washers on the bolts and slide the bolts up through the bottoms of both squares. Make sure to add wingnuts on top to tighten and loosen your press easily. Step 3: image via gardenista Take some scrap cardboard that is roughly the same size as your press. Trim off corners of cardboard, so they do not interfere with the bolts of your flower press.   Step 4: image via fine gardening Take your flowers and lay them out how you like on plain paper. Next, insert your flowers between your cardboard sheets and use the wingnuts to tighten and press. After 24 hours, you will have perfectly pressed flowers! image via country living   Pressed Flowers With Wax Paper This next method of pressing flowers is perfect for lightweight flowers. Once completed, you will have a translucent flower sheet that adds rustic dimension to any craft project. Supplies: Iron Ironing board Wax paper sheets Paper towels Small fresh flowers and leaves (small daisies or orchids)   Step 1: image via homeheartcraft The steps for this process are similar to pressing flowers with an iron. Just replace the paper with two sheets of wax paper sandwiching your flowers. Step 2: image via homeheartcraft Take some paper towels and lay them on top of your wax paper, then press down with your iron for 10 seconds at a time. You will have a sealed translucent sheet filled with flowers in only a few minutes! image via homeheartcraft   Did you know you can also press flowers in a microwave? See how in this video:  Wasn't pressing flowers easy enough? It can be intimidating at first, but it gets easy after knowing all the methods and options. I'm sure you'll want to try making some yourself. What was your favorite method to press flowers? Let me know below in the comments!  

Making the jump to warp speed might not require us to leap beyond the limits of physics, a team of researchers has argued. Previously, all models for achieving this ultra-fast propulsion have relied on whimsical energy sources that contradict the properties of matter, yet the new study suggests it may be possible to build a warp drive that doesn’t run on fictional fuel.In the sci-fi realm, warp drives enable spacecraft to move at light speed by compressing spacetime in front of the ship and expanding everything to the rear, creating a warp bubble. Most strongly associated with Star Trek, the technology has helped to squeeze countless intergalactic adventures into a standard episode running time and has inspired numerous physicists to try and come up with a blueprint for their own working model.Famously, Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre devised the so-called Alcubierre Drive in 1994. The one problem with this model, however, is that it can only function using something called “negative energy”, which has never been observed in the real universe.To get around this slight inconvenience, the authors of a new study claim to have mathematical proof that warp drives can in fact be built without the need for “exotic” fuels. According to their calculations, the interplanetary transport system can feasibly be constructed using “traditional and novel gravitational techniques to create a warp bubble that can transport objects at high speeds within the bounds of known physics.”“The solution involves combining a stable matter shell with a shift vector distribution that closely matches well-known warp drive solutions such as the Alcubierre metric,” write the researchers. Summing up the significance of these findings in layman’s terms, study author Dr Jared Fuchs explained in a statement that “we've shown that warp drives might not be relegated to science fiction.”Unfortunately, the physicists say their warp drive probably wouldn’t be able to reach light speed, but could come pretty close. In essence, the plan involves engineering warp drives to “gravitate like ordinary matter”, thus eliminating the need for the fictitious dark energy.“Although such a design would still require a considerable amount of energy, it demonstrates that warp effects can be achieved without exotic forms of matter," added study author Dr Christopher Helmerich. “These findings pave the way for future reductions in warp drive energy requirements,” he said.The study is published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will not live in the pod, and he will not eat the bugs. In fact, he will make sure no one in Florida ever does — even if they want to.Last week, the governor signed SB 1084, making Florida the first U.S. state to ban “lab-grown meat” for consumers. Despite a fresh federal seal of approval for the chicken variety of cultivated meat, DeSantis has taken it upon himself to remove the consumer’s choice for these meat alternatives in the name of combating the “globalists” of the World Economic Forum. It’s true that meat consumption has its enemies, some in very high places. But does that require a ban on innovation and commerce for meat alternatives?It’s talk radio and Reddit politics turned into real-world law. The bill does several things, such as offering excused absences from school for kids participating in agricultural track programs like 4-H and Future Farmers of America, and prohibits “the manufacture for sale, holding or offering for sale, or distribution of cultivated meat in this state.”Violations are punishable by up to 60 days in jail, and restaurants that sell or serve these products risk losing their licenses to operate. What exactly did Florida ban?It’s important to understand that there are two emerging alternatives to good old-fashioned meat. Plant-based meat, popularized by Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, are grown from plant-cells and processed proteins to replicate the aroma and juices found in natural meat. The “blood” is a soy leghemoglobin compound, and for a vegetarian who misses eating meat, this makes plant-based meat extra appealing.The more recent innovation in animal-cell-derived meats are grown, or cultivated, in a lab. It does not pass the vegetarian metric of involving any animals, so it could potentially find a market with omnivorous consumers and vegetarians who simply object to any animal suffering of any kind in the process of food production. DeSantis’ crackdown applies to animal-cell derived products, not the more well-known plant-based brands that are now standard fare in McDonald's, Burger King, IHOP, and several other chains that have partnered with Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat to offer menu alternatives. Not every partnership has stood the test of time or had a positive consumer response. I’m a meat guy. My body and spirit require regular infusions of farm-fresh steak to operate at full capacity. I’ve tried out the plant-based meat products for the novelty, ordering Impossible Burgers on occasion at Red Robin’s in Manassas, Virginia, where they’re on the menu. If the Peruvian chicken place down the street in Manassas added Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken to the menu, I’d want to try it. Should this be a crime? Shifts in consumer demandWhen it comes to the plant-based meat stand-ins, one reason for their rocky market performance is that they tend to be more expensive than both the beef and bison burger options on restaurant menus and also less tasty. But they aren’t bad.Cultivated chicken and yet-to-be-approved beef products face the same uphill battle of lowering the price per pound to be competitive with consumers. The goal is to hit $2.92 per pound, according to Leticia Goncalves, president of global foods at Archer-Daniels-Midland. Global trends in food production and trade are making this hard to achieve. DeSantis speaks about the ban on lab-grown foods as if there’s an imminent threat in the market to good old-fashioned meat.“They (the World Economic Forum) want to basically eliminate meat, they want to eliminate cattle, they want to eliminate chickens, all this stuff, and they want to create protein in laboratories,” the governor said on May 1. “So, it’s essentially lab-created meat. And their goal is to get to a point where you will not be raising cattle, you will not be developing meat like we’ve been doing for hundreds and hundreds of years in the state of Florida.” It’s true that many environmentalists have identified factory farming and cattle as primary drivers of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also true that meat consumption has its enemies, some in very high places. But does that require a ban on innovation and commerce for meat alternatives? Should a reluctant vegetarian, of which there are many, who wants to enjoy guilt-free bacon cheeseburgers in Florida be denied the freedom to enjoy a lab-grown meat option? Younger generations have bucked many long-running trends ranging from wine and beer consumption to rejecting classic soda styles. They want stronger flavors and everything to be fizzy or fruity. Gen Z’s tastes may converge with previous generations, but it’s also possible that beer and wine might actually be in real long-term trouble with the rise of cannabis and hard seltzers as relaxation alternatives. Weird coalitions formAre these industries also going to be protected because centuries-old industries like cattle ranching are being shielded from future competition with the ban on lab-grown meats? That will depend on if Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab come out against beer at the next Davos summit, in strong enough terms to make it part of the culture war that DeSantis is so attuned to. Even Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) joined in with the plaudits against consumer choice, saying of Florida’s ban, “As a member of @SenateAgDems and as some dude who would never serve that slop to my kids, I stand with our American ranchers and farmers.” There are many edible substances I’m disgusted by that will never be served at my dinner table, including baked beans, cauliflower, and Pennsylvania’s bizarre “scrapple” German mystery meat, but I’m not sure where I’d get off banning it for everyone. I might start by pointing out that Klaus Schwab of the WEF is German. Coincidence? Why this is happening is no secret. The cattle ranching industry wants to smother the potential for meat alternatives, likely because it sees Gen Z habits including Meatless Mondays and “flexitarian” diets as something that will only grow in the decades ahead. Younger consumers may well respond to an alternative to factory-farmed meat, even if it's grown in a lab.Demand for meat will never go away, but it could recede, and cattle levels are at a low point not seen since 1951. Domestic demand and supply are down, and foreign imports are up. The association’s “Florida Cow PAC” has given $75,000 to DeSantis since 2017 and another $72,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. Many key legislators and Florida’s agriculture commissioner have received maximum contributions. Every industry does this, but the Florida Cattlemen’s Association presumably had the political savvy to appeal to DeSantis’ online nature and sell this as a move against the globalists and Greta Thunberg cultists in the European Union. It isn’t cronyism. It’s a middle finger to the private jet people who want you to “own nothing and be happy.” Own the libs with American beef. DeSantis has shown with his new ban on lab-grown meat in Florida that he only trusts consumers and freedom of choice so long as it doesn’t disrupt the status quo. If the tofu-slinging globalists do ever come for farm fresh meat, I’ll stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anyone in defense of naturally sourced chicken, beef, and sausage. But that time is not now, and Florida just betrayed its rebellious, live-and-let-live image in favor of protectionism for the meat lobby.

On Xi Jinping and Viktor Orbán; GOP veepstakes; merit and Asian Americans; the Met Gala; and more.

Then they’d be okay, right?