Vampire burials were seemingly commonplace in ancient Poland

So, it's seemingly easier to threaten the life of the Republican nominee than it is to interview the Democratic one.

'It's disgusting'

'This is the right decision for my family and myself'

SECRET SERVICE FOILS ANOTHER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT... ‘We Live In Danger Times’: Secret Service, Local Officials Speak On Apparent Second Trump Assassination Attempt (VIDEO) Local and federal officials confirmed Sunday during a press briefing that the Secret Service fired upon an allegedly armed suspect in what is being investigated by FBI officials as a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

The season is set to return on Oct. 27

30 years ago this month, botanists in Australia made the “find of the century” when they discovered a stand of pine trees in the mountains near Sydney that have survived from the time of the dinosaurs. Now, to mark the occasion, the Botanic Gardens of Sydney are auctioning off 6 saplings to avid horticulturalists in […] The post 6 Saplings of Dinosaur-Era Tree Species Being Auctioned to Spread the Pines Around Australia appeared first on Good News Network.

The post Do Cats Have a Sense of Humor: Olga’s Comedic Ways 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. I didn’t have a boring life before adopting Olga, but she has entertained me for almost eight years. When studying cat behavior, we often connect their actions to instincts. Their aversion to water is attributed to their desert origins, and their fondness for playing with toys is related to their predatory instincts, but is their sense of humor instinctual? Comedic Cats I think most felines have a sense of humor, and it’s hard to argue that they don’t appreciate physical comedy. Olga doesn’t laugh or smile, but she gets a kick out of knocking my glasses off the shelf above my bed, especially if they land on my face. She attacks inanimate objects when she’s hungry and wants attention, but sometimes, she does it for entertainment. The other day, she was sitting in my lap, half asleep, while I was working on the computer. She lazily stretched her left paw out and pushed a pen off my desk. Irritating me isn’t instinctual, but Olga is amused by it and enjoys laughing (internally) at my expense. She wouldn’t be the same cat without her sense of humor, and I probably wouldn’t enjoy living with her. Christopher, I only hit you because I’m amused by violence. Slamming Doors Erratic behavior isn’t unusual in cats, but until I adopted Olga, I didn’t think opening and slamming doors was a source of feline entertainment. She loves squeezing her body into the narrow gap between the door and wall, standing on her hind legs, and pushing the door closed with her front legs. She can grab the door handle and pull the door open, but she struggles sometimes. She screams if she cannot open the door and increases the volume if I ignore her. When I open the door, she howls at me and runs away. Most cats don’t like trapping themselves in a room. After the first experience, they’re unlikely to repeat it, but Olga is a goofball. She’ll wait a few minutes before running into another room and slamming the door. If I play a joke on her and lock the door, she’ll scratch the carpet by the door and whine. After I ignore her, she’ll start ramming the door. She’s a little cat but sounds like a bull or a battering ram. Although her cries sound urgent, and she looks upset when the door opens, she doesn’t relent and finds another door to attack. Her behavior isn’t instinctual, and she wouldn’t repeatedly slam the door if it didn’t amuse her. This is my favorite chair to tear up! Sources of Amusement As young kittens, cats are entertained by their siblings and parents and eventually by their owners. If they live in a shelter, they lose their sense of humor unless they’re adopted. Feral cats probably aren’t as concerned about entertainment since they’re often in pain from injuries and disease, but at least those living in colonies can bask in their communal despair. Cats like Olga are lucky they can experience joy and humor. We are the primary source of comedy for our cats, and without us, they would revert to being humorless predators. This article is a part of Christopher and Olga's series. Read his previous article: Are Cats Manipulative? Olga’s Manipulation Skills The post Do Cats Have a Sense of Humor: Olga’s Comedic Ways 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.

Column SFF Bestiary Not Quite Lazarus: The Tasmanian Tiger It’s been over 40 years since the last sighting of the Tasmanian Tiger, but rumors persist… By Judith Tarr | Published on September 16, 2024 Illustration from John Gould’s The Mammals of Australia, 1864 Comment 0 Share New Share Illustration from John Gould’s The Mammals of Australia, 1864 Before I move on from land-based cryptids, I have to pay tribute to one last, unique animal. The thylacine or Tasmanian tiger was officially declared extinct in 1986, fifty years after the last one died in captivity. But there’s a strong belief in Tasmania that the thylacine is not in fact extinct; that there may be a population, however small, still living and breeding in the remoter parts of the island. In fact the last credible sighting occurred in 1982, when a park ranger happened to be doing a game survey. He had pulled over to the side of the road and camped for the night. Around two a.m. he shone a light out into the road, and caught what he declared was, without a doubt, a Tasmanian tiger. A healthy male, he said, four to five years old. He observed it for several minutes until it moved off into the bush. What he saw was an apex predator, a marsupial about the size of a small wolf or a medium-large dog. Its snout was long and pointed and capable of opening to ninety degrees, with a daunting array of teeth. Its ears were smallish and rounded; it had a distinctive conical hind end with a long, straight, inflexible tail. It was sandy in color, with the distinctive stripes over the back and hindquarters that gave it its name. This was a trained observer, and he knew what he was seeing. After his report was filed, biologist Nick Mooney conducted a two-year search which yielded no results. That didn’t deter scientists and enthusiasts from continuing to search off and on through the Nineties and into the new millennium. Both official and unofficial investigations have turned up no evidence that the thylacine survives, but the sightings continue. Occasionally a searcher finds tracks that might or might not be thylacine tracks. Sometimes there’s a photo or video, but none so far of high enough quality to state categorically that yes, this is a thylacine. Youtube has a nice collection of influencers and wildlife enthusiasts taking to the trail and recording their adventures. They do their homework; they sum up the history and weigh in on the likelihood that somewhere, deep in the bush, Tasmania’s iconic predator is still alive. They never find anything, but what they manage to do is show the world how beautiful Tasmania is, and how much of it is still wild. Earlier this year, 60 Minutes got into the game with a segment that first aired in April and then repeated in June. They reported on the tragedy of the species’ extinction and the persistence of belief that it’s still out there. They checked in with Nick Mooney himself along with a number of other experts. They also touched base with Andrew Pask, a researcher in Australia who is so devoted to the idea of the thylacine that he’s trying to bring it back to life through a process called de-extinction. He’s doing this not through cloning (though some sources are calling it that) but by tweaking the DNA of a living relative: the fat-tailed dunnart. This is the Down Under version of the grasshopper mouse, a tiny, ferocious predator that’s close enough genetically that Pask believes he can edit its DNA to recreate the thylacine. Not everyone believes Pask can do it. Fellow biologist Chris Helgen points out that gene editing is a process of trial and error. You tweak a few dunnart genes, get something a little bigger. Tweak a few more, size it up a tad. Another tweak, you get some stripes. It’s a long process, he says: 1001 steps to get something that looks like a thylacine, but it’s really not. So why do it? he asks. It’s an attempt to redeem ourselves for driving this animal to extinction. We feel the guilt; we mourn the loss. We try, in our bumbling way, to make up for our terrible mistake by bringing it back. In Helgen’s view, this is a waste of resources. We should focus on endangered species, on animals that are still alive, that can still be saved. Let’s keep what we’ve got, and not try to bring back what we’ve lost. I can imagine what he’s saying about the scientists who are trying to bring back the mammoth. Or the ones who talk about retconning chickens and ending up with dinosaurs. I tend to agree with Helgen. It’s tragic that the thylacine is lost; it did not have to be, if humans had known or cared about preserving an essential part of the native ecology. But there’s enough to do to keep what we still have, while also keeping the climate from collapsing. And if there really are thylacines out there, somehow? If the whispers are true, that locals are keeping their lairs and habitats secret, to keep them from being overrun? Good for them. I hope they survive.[end-mark] The post Not Quite Lazarus: The Tasmanian Tiger appeared first on Reactor.

Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course Friends, I have a few questions about the second Trump assassination attempt in as many months. I don’t have answers for these questions (though I do have some theories – but not enough evidence to voice most of them.) My questions Here goes… Why, shortly after the first assassination attempt, was a second would-be assassin able to get within 400 feet of where Mr. Trump was about to be? How did this fellow, Ryan Routh, who is from North Carolina but now lives in Hawaii know precisely when Mr. Trump would decide to play a last-minute round of golf? How did Ryan Routh end up getting a gun legally, especially after this incident with a gun in 2002? Does it seem oddly coincidental that Ryan Routh was ALSO in a Black Rock commercial, just like Thomas Matthew Crooks, the first guy to take a crack at Mr. Trump? Why the heck are the lefties still screaming that Trump and his supporters are a “threat to democracy” when they keep trying to KILL the dude running for president? Who’s the real threat here? What kind of a**-backward thinking is it to BLAME TRUMP for people trying to shoot him? From NBC: “Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail. Mr. Trump, his running mate JD Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants” in Springfield, Ohio, resulting in bomb threats.” What kind of country are we going to have if the third attempt succeeds? We’ll have a president who never won any kind of primary and just got put on the ballot without any due process, after the guy who won a primary was murdered? Can you say “banana republic?” Which of these is the REAL threat to democracy? Why was Ryan Routh the star of this article from a Polish website? On that note, why, oh why, don’t career politicians know that we have a constitutional republic? Why is the media pretending they have no idea what Ryan Routh’s political ideology is? “Unclear political ideology” ??? He’s donated to ActBlue 19 times, has a Biden/Harris sticker on his truck, & vehemently hates Trump. His political ideology couldn’t be more clear. https://t.co/vzFFsz94SD — Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) September 16, 2024 ; I’m thankful that Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken over the investigation. Perhaps this time, we’ll get some answers. My conclusion: Our media is the biggest threat to truth and “democracy” in this country. What do you think? Do you have more questions to add to the list? Do you have answers to any of these questions? Let’s discuss it in the comments section. While we still can. About Daisy Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews. Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter. The post I Have a Few Questions About the Second Trump Assassination Attempt appeared first on The Organic Prepper.