'But there's issues clearly with spatial orientation'

Will impact several communities throughout the coming days

It was posted illegally and was quickly removed, the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors told Check Your Fact via email.

The pools pictured aren't thousands of years old, but instead originate from the Victorian era.

A viral image shared on X purports to show a group of individuals protesting against French politician Marine Le Pen’s recent election victory. Verdict: False The claim is false, as the image originally stems from a 2014 New York Times article highlighting Anti-Semitism in Europe amid the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. Fact Check: Le Pen and the […]

Tennessee has just launched a program offering at 22 of its state parks for providing all-terrain electric wheelchairs to visitors. These allow disabled users to explore the beauty of the Volunteer State’s scenery for free to all kids and adults. “We’re trying to extend other parts of accessibility so everybody feels welcome and invited to […] The post 22 Tennessee State Parks Provide All-Terrain Wheelchairs for Visitors to Use appeared first on Good News Network.

The post Antifreeze Poisoning in Cats: Keeping Olga Safe From Toxic Chemicals by Christopher Bays appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Hi, I’m Christopher! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my silly Russian Blue cat, Olga. Antifreeze and other chemicals containing ethylene glycol, such as hydraulic fluid, de-icing products, motor oil, paints, solvents, and wood stains, are toxic to cats and other animals. A small spoonful of antifreeze can kill a cat, and most felines don’t survive unless they’re treated within 6 hours. Antifreeze Poisoning The initial signs of antifreeze poisoning include vomiting, lethargy, incoordination, excessive urination, hypothermia, excessive thirst, and seizures. Unfortunately, the cat’s condition seems to improve after 12 hours, which can cause an owner to think they have recovered. They can become dehydrated and breathe faster, but kidney damage, comas, and death are more likely after 12 hours. Keeping Olga Safe I don’t let Olga outside or allow her to explore my garage, where most of my toxic chemicals are stored, so she is less likely to be exposed to ethylene glycol than an outdoor cat. However, I’m always careful about where I store household cleaners and other hazardous products. Olga can open doors and cabinets, and I don’t keep anything toxic in the bathrooms since she likes to open the cabinets occasionally. Although cats dislike sweet food, they’re attracted to antifreeze’s aroma. They can get sick from licking their paws after walking through an antifreeze spill in the garage or sipping from a container with ethylene glycol. It’s difficult to understand why someone would intentionally poison a cat, but it happens more often than you think. When I sit next to the fridge, it means I’m hungry! Punishing a Cat Murderer Several years ago, I was visiting a friend when I heard people screaming outside. When we went outside to investigate, we learned that one of the neighbors had left a tray of antifreeze outside to kill a stray cat. Some of the apartment’s residents had become attached to the cat and frequently fed him, and they wanted to murder, or at least mortally wound, the man who had killed him. They pounded on the murderer’s door and yelled, but he was either in class or hiding inside. He was never injured or killed by the angry mob, but one of the cat lovers contacted the local university’s editor-in-chief. The cat killer was a journalist until he murdered the cat, and I’m glad the editor decided that unethical employees don’t make the best writers. I understand that stray cats annoy people and kill wildlife, but several humane deterrents can keep them away. That bug doesn’t stand a chance. Animal Cruelty Laws In the United States, killing a cat is a felony and can result in fines of up to $5,000 or 2 years in prison. Each state imposes different penalties, but some legislatures are trying to establish an animal cruelty registry that is modeled after sex offender lists. Increasing the fines and prison terms for offenders may decrease the number of antifreeze deaths, but they won’t convince me to allow Olga to explore the outdoors. I’m paranoid enough about dropping a chunk of onion or garlic on the floor when I’m making dinner, and I don’t want to worry about another person injuring or killing my cat. Keeping your cat indoors may seem selfish since they cannot explore the environment and hunt small animals, but it protects them from poisons, parasites, automobiles, and cruel humans. The post Antifreeze Poisoning in Cats: Keeping Olga Safe From Toxic Chemicals by Christopher Bays appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Books book announcement What Brings You Here: Solaris To Publish Speculative Travel Anthology, Edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Somto Ihezue A speculative fiction anthology that seeks to investigate time, place, and history in conversation with issues of migration and travel. By Reactor | Published on July 8, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Solaris is delighted to announce the acquisition of What Brings You Here from award-winning editors Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Somto Ihezue. Inspired by Ekpeki’s experiences travelling to Worldcon in 2022, What Brings You Here is a speculative fiction anthology that seeks to investigate time, place, and history in conversation with occurrences such as migration or travel that is astral, corporeal, planetary, imagined futures or past events tapping in with the politics of gender, region, culture, forced or voluntary movement. This anthology will delve into perspectives of arrivals, whether due to coercion, climate change, accessibility to resources, conflict, marginalization, or aspirations for a brighter tomorrow, and will explore themes of immigration, displacement, anti-imperialism, and nomadic experiences in unexplored, near-future, and imaginative realms, juxtaposing new tales with more familiar accounts. World English Rights were acquired by David Thomas Moore. Submissions for What Brings You Here are currently open until 30th September 2024. There’s a flexible limit of 5,000 words. Please send your stories as an attachment, and any questions, to the editors at sfftravelanthologysubs@gmail.com. Editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki on the anthology: “I am so excited to be working with Solaris on this anthology. It was inspired by the difficulties I faced travelling to the US and other states in the global North, from the global south. Difficulties, which many persons like myself without passport and other privileges have faced while trying to access the wider world. I believe that these kinds of stories need to be told and heard, and they, like the people that hold them, be allowed to fly free and soar high, unburdened by the shackles of borders and prejudices. It brings me great joy to work on a project like this and towards a world where this is all someday possible. Thankful to Solaris and happy to work with them, in helping make this happen.” And from Editor Somto Ihezue: “Super excited to be working with Solaris on this unique and intriguing anthology!” From David Thomas Moore, Fiction Commissioning Editor for Rebellion Publishing: “I watched aghast on social media as Oghenechovwe fought for permission to travel to the awards ceremony following his historic nomination, and again a few months later as he was detained by border forces in spite of travelling with a legitimate visa. I’ve travelled with BIPOC friends and colleagues and watched them submit, with mute resignation, to bag checks and heightened scrutiny every single time they fly, knowing I would sail through without question. When Oghenechovwe mentioned wanting to develop an anthology inspired by his experiences, I reached out and asked if Solaris could publish it—it was a fantastic idea and an exciting prospect.” Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is a speculative fiction writer, editor & publisher in Nigeria. He has won the Nebula, Locus, Otherwise, Nommo, British & World Fantasy awards and been a finalist in the Hugo, Sturgeon, British Science Fiction and NAACP Image awards. His works have appeared in Asimov’s, F&SF, Uncanny Magazine, Tordotcom, Apex, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, and others. He founded the Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology series and edited African Risen, the Dominion anthology and others. He was a guest of honour at CanCon, and the Afrofuturism themed ICFA 44 where he coined the genre label, Afropantheology. Somto Ihezue is a speculative fiction writer, editor, and filmmaker. He is a recipient of the Mandela Institute’s African Youth Network Movement Fiction Prize, the Horror Writers Association Grant, and the EbonyLife Academy Alumni Film Grant. His work was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award (Sydney J. Bounds) for Best New Writer, the Afritondo Short Story Prize, the Utopia Awards, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Nommo Awards. His works have found homes in venues like Tordotcom Publishing’s Africa Risen, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, POETRY Magazine, Strange Horizons, Fireside, Podcastle, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, Omenana Magazine, Africa In Dialogue, The Sauútiverse Anthology, and others. Somto is an Alumni of the Tin House Workshop, Milford Writers Workshop, and scheduled to attend the 2024 Clarion West Writers Workshop. Somto is Original Fiction Manager at Escape Artists, an acquiring Editor with Android Press, and an intern for the Publishing Taught Me Project, an SFWA [Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Association] and NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] sponsored program. He tweets at somto_Ihezue. For press enquiries please contact Jess Gofton, PR & Marketing Manager: jess.gofton@rebellion.co.uk. The post <i>What Brings You Here</i>: Solaris To Publish Speculative Travel Anthology, Edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Somto Ihezue appeared first on Reactor.

Books Five Books About 5 Books About Carnivals That Aren’t All Fun & Games Any place that pretends to be nothing but loud cheer is sure to have a dark side to it… By Mahvesh Murad | Published on July 8, 2024 Photo by Harpal Singh [via Unplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Harpal Singh [via Unplash] Who doesn’t love a good carnival? It’s the perfect place to let go of your real life worries, your daily anxieties and fall into fun and fantasy for a while. The perfect place to witness miracles and magic, people and creatures of wonder, feats and acts of awe. It’s also the perfect place for shadowy secrets and hidden evils, all hiding under the busy festivities. Any place that pretends to be nothing but loud cheer is sure to have a dark side to it, and these five books explore that, each in their own unique way. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn The strangest, greatest, most entertaining and batshit insane carny lit to date is probably Katherine Dunn’s 1989 cult classic Geek Love. The novel (which took Dunn a decade to write) is the story of a ‘freak show’ circus, populated by Al and Lily Binewski’s own children. By consuming all manner of toxins while pregnant—cocaine, amphetamines, and arsenic—Crystal Lil, herself a retired circus geek, gives birth to a series of differently-abled children: conjoined twin girls, a boy with flippers for arms and legs, a hunchback albino dwarf, and a physically average child with telekinesis. There is absolutely no politically correct lens to present this. The whole point of the book is that the ‘geeks’ are a family that are gawked at by everyone else for their (purposely designed) physical strangeness. Dunn’s characters view themselves as superior to those who are… well, average, abled. Al and Lily raise their children to celebrate and find joy in their physical differences, and display these differences with great pride and ownership. They are also of course, just human—living, and loving and just as prone to cruelty as anyone else. Dunn does not give or expect any extra sympathy for them, ever, and makes sure they are each complex characters. Arty, the Aqua boy with flippers for limbs goes on to become a cult leader; he is a scornful, power hungry man who manipulates those around him relentlessly, abusing the average person’s need to feel special, all for his own capitalist gains. The Binewski siblings are a spectacle indeed—but they hold all the power. Geek Love is a glorious, grotesque and brutal look at what monstrous is, and what that even means. Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham And speaking of geeks, William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley (recently made into a film by Guillermo del Toro) follows Stan, a young carny who is ambitious, manipulative, and will do anything to make the big time—but would never, ever fall to the level of the circus geek, a man so pathetically addicted to alcohol and drugs that he’d bite the head off live chickens just to get his next fix. But Stan finds out that manipulating everyone around him isn’t that easy in a world full of cons and carnies… With fantastic lean, 1940s hardboiled prose, Gresham gives us a story that is equally captivating and sad, a protagonist who is unlikeable yet pathetic, and a carnival that abuses and exploits the sad, the lonely, the abject. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern This 2011 NYT bestseller is a lush, gothic fantasy about a circus that appears mysteriously at night, a circus of great beauty and incredible feats, a circus that exists only as a sort of stadium for two young people to outplay each other’s magical abilities in a battle of wills and power that has been carrying on for centuries. Celia and Marco do not know each other for a long time, they only know that their fathers have trained them to outperform the other, via the Night Circus. And the though the circus itself is a place of great beauty (with Morgenstern giving us elaborate set pieces that show us what grand illusions the circus is able to provide it’s audience), there are dark forces at play, not the least of them being the traumas both magicians endured as children, as they learnt skills for a magical battle that had nothing to do with them but they were bound to, for life. Theirs is a sort of magical slavery: they may be creating beauty, but they have been manipulated their entire lives to do so. Can they change their fates, and that of the circus’ performers? And if they do, will they survive? Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury’s 1962 novel is a heavily allegorical story about the light and the dark, good and evil, in which a circus pitches up at night at a small American town just before Halloween. Instead of the bright cheery set up you’d expect, Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show is described as a ‘funeral train’ with a whistle that sounds like a ‘thousand fire sirens weeping’. It is managed by the heavily tattooed Mr Dark, who feeds off people’s pain and dreams, gaining new ink each time he takes someone’s soul in exchange for granting them their deepest, darkest desire. It is also a Bildungsroman of two teen boys who are on the threshold of adulthood, each trying to find out who they really are. Every aspect of Something Wicked is dark, shadowy, frightening—all desires come at a heavy price, one that far too many people think they can pay. Bradbury reminds us how easy it is to be lured into the darkness, how seductive and powerful that attraction can be, and how very dangerous. But he also reminds us of how there is always—always—a way to choose the light, to choose to live our lives with joy and grace and contentment. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter It is impossible to have a list like this without the glorious, over the top prose of Angela Carter and her take on carny lit. 1984’s Nights at the Circus gives us the story of Fevvers, the aerialist with wings, an orphan who may be part swan, but is always all woman. Raised in a brothel and labelled the ‘cockney Venus’, Fevvers’ story is bursting full with classic Carter grotesques, classic Carter maximalism, with an abundance of unexpected metaphors and double entendres. We follow Colonel Kearney’s circus across Europe, all the way to Petersburg and then to Siberia, as we get to know Fevvers and the rest of the crew. The colonel runs his circus on decisions made by his pet pig Sybil’s fortune telling abilities, and there are many strange, violent stories hiding behind the circus’s brightly coloured facade. The clown posse are aggressive, the acrobatic family attempt murder, there is an Abyssinian princess who can sing the tigers into submission, there is abuse and sadness and exploitation, a gang of prisoners and prison guards from a women’s prison who attack the circus train as it crosses the Siberian snows, and a man who believes himself to be a shaman, though everyone else knows he’s not. Fevver’s life with the circus starts out loud, colourful, even playful, but soon Carter shows us the filth that lies underneath those colours; the anger, the force, the madness under the magic, all of which is holding back the women in the story from spreading their (metaphorical or not) wings. [end-mark] The post 5 Books About Carnivals That Aren’t All Fun & Games appeared first on Reactor.