The post Cyril For a Day: Following My Cat’s Schedule by Dr. Karyn Kanowski BVSc MRCVS (Veterinarian) 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 Dr. Karyn! Read my introduction to learn more about me and meet my five hilarious cats: Clutch, Cyril, Alex, Zelda, and Zazzles. I often find myself feeling envious of my cats. No responsibilities, all meals provided, nothing to do but laze the day away. So this week, I decided to take my envy and turn it into action, spending the day in Cyril’s shoes (or paws). It turns out that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. 02:00: I’m feeling a bit lonely, so I’m going to find my human and spend 15 minutes getting comfortable on their back. 02:30: Bored now. I’m going back to my room to sleep there instead. 04:00: Feeling a bit peckish; I might run in and out of the human’s bedroom a few times, see if that generates any food. 04:30: Food mission was not a success. Time to get the others involved. 04:45: Commence ‘Operation Wake The Humans’. The ginger one and I take turns chasing each other, and the black one. Sometimes the torti one joins in as well. 04:55: Humans have stirred and grumbled, but no move to get out of bed. 05:00: Tiny dog jumps on the floor. Human is up and follows it downstairs. Irritating that tiny dog is able to achieve what I had not, but at least food should arrive shortly. Very excited. 05:15: Food arrives and I am very excited to see that it is the same thing as yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that…… Yum! I wish I could be this excited for the same food every day. 05:25: Time for a nap. 07:30: Humans are more active now. Maybe today will be the day they forget that we have already been fed? No? Well, there’s always tomorrow. Time for another nap. 09:45: One of the humans is sitting at the desk and their hands are moving a lot. Perhaps they are cold. I shall help by sitting on them. 09:50: Human doesn’t seem to realize that I’m trying to help. I will persevere. 10:00: Human has rejected my assistance. Instead, I deposit a large poop in the box beside the desk. The human seems to be very pleased, making all sorts of sounds as they gather it up for their collection. I wonder what they do with them all. 12:45: Feeling bored and a bit hungry. Check bowl – no food. Another disappointment. I’ll have a drink and lick my butt, and check back later. 13:00: Still no food. Time to fall dramatically onto my back in the middle of the room and lie there for 30 minutes. Being Cyril for just one day deserves a nap. 13:30: One of the tiny dogs sniffs my tail, so I swish and twitch it enticingly. He makes an annoying yappy sound, so I roll over and tap his head. He runs away crying. What a wuss. 13:40: Tiny dog returns with tiny friend, and they chase me up the stairs. The cheek of them! When I reach the top I turn around to watch them, and they run away. They are not very brave. 14:00: Bowl check – still no food. I’ll give it another hour, but then it will be time to commence our afternoon demands. In the meantime, I shall nap. 15:30: Engage shadow mode – where human goes, I go. They try to shut me out of the small room with the porcelain chair, but I manage to squeeze through the gap in the door. Bathroom doors are no obstacle for a cat. 17:30: Human is making preparations in the kitchen. Numerous bowls and foods appearing on the counter. I shall inspect them all. Large dog jumps up and licks my face. Disgusting creature. 17:45: Dinner time! I am very excited to see that it is the same thing as last night, and the night before that, and the night before that, and the night before that…… Yum! The cats are always excited for their food, even if it is always the same! 18:00: Lazily washing my face and paws, and trying to decide if I shall vomit some of my dinner on the carpet tonight. Not tonight, maybe tomorrow. Instead, I’ll have a nap. A pile of warm towels has just appeared on the bed, so I will make use of that. 19:30: I am woken by the sound of the human scraping around in the litter box, so I wait patiently for them to finish their scavenging before going in for a large pee. Human lets out a sigh, presumably relieved that there will be more waste products for them to harvest. 20:00: Human is watching the noisy picture on the wall, so I sit in front and have a wash. I wait for them to say something about making a cup of tea, and take this as my cue to curl up on their lap for a nap. One thing is clear: being Cyril is exhausting. 21:30: Human hasn’t moved, so I will stay here for a while longer. 22:00: Can’t sleep as human is jiggling their knee, so I stretch and disappear upstairs. The human follows but goes into the room with the porcelain chair. 23:00: Time for a last-minute wrestling match with the ginger one before turning in for the night. I check the bowl in case any food has appeared, but sadly, it is empty. Oh well, I shall check again in a few hours… I’ve realized that, although Cyril’s life looks pretty chilled and free from stress, it’s also pretty dull. I’m also not sure that I could eat the same food every day with the level of enthusiasm displayed by my cats; not having autonomy over my meals would be a deal breaker for me! I could probably get used to all the naps though! This article is a part of Dr. Karyn's series with her five hilarious cats. Read her previous article: How to Stop Your Cat Peeing in the House (Without Moving Across the Country) The post Cyril For a Day: Following My Cat’s Schedule by Dr. Karyn Kanowski BVSc MRCVS (Veterinarian) 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 dinosaurs Five Stories That Know Everything’s Better With Dinosaurs From time travel to alternate timelines, science fiction authors keep finding novel ways to bring us into contact with dinosaurs—some friendly, others not so much. By James Davis Nicoll | Published on August 23, 2024 “Leaping Laelaps” by Charles R. Knight (1897) Comment 0 Share New Share “Leaping Laelaps” by Charles R. Knight (1897) As astonishing as it may sound, there are many people who do not have a favorite dinosaur. Indeed, not only do these people rarely think about dinosaurs, in some cases it seems that they never think about dinosaurs at all! For the rest of us, however, there’s a lot of dinosaur-related fiction. You might be interested the following five prose works1, old-time and modern, that scratch that dino-loving itch. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912) Exuberantly bearded Professor Challenger is convinced that dinosaurs survive somewhere in South America and that he can prove it. Reporter Edward Malone is convinced that he can win the clearly un-smitten Gladys’ heart with a sufficiently bold display of courage, such as accompanying Challenger to South America. One of the two men is correct. Happily for the reader, that man is Challenger. Deep within the Amazon basin is a plateau2 and on that plateau live many otherwise extinct species, from dinosaur species to primitive humans. Fame and glory are Challenger’s… if he and his companions live long enough to escape the plateau. Modern readers curious about Edwardian-era paleontology or virulent bigotry need look no further than this novel. Curiously, although Doyle wrote later Challenger books, his protagonist never returned to the plateau or if he did, Doyle never saw fit to document it. Perhaps the author felt that reprising The Lost World would cheapen it. “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury (1952) In the 21st century, dinosaurs are still just as extinct as they were in 1952. But thanks to the development of time travel, dinosaurs are far more accessible than they were in 1952. For the reasonable sum of $10,000, Time Safari Inc. will convey avid hunters back in time to bag a dinosaur. Not being complete idiots, Time Safari avoids changing the past, lest their present be altered as well. Only dinosaurs fated to die from other causes are targeted by hunters. Countermeasures are deployed to protect the present from Jurassic errors. And if these protections should fail? What possible difference could Eckels’ brief foray off the prescribed path make to the world of 2055? In Eckels’ defense, allowing time safaris despite knowing history is not fixed was as sensible as building a nuclear reactor with a positive void coefficient. In any case, this story contains a reference to “To the Future,” another Bradbury tale about time travelers escaping from the 21st century into the past. Perhaps even the “good” version of the future wasn’t all that good. The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek by Evelyn Sibley Lampman (1955) Joan and Joey are alarmed to encounter a rattlesnake and astonished to be saved from the snake by a passing stegosaur named George. Surely stegosaurs are extinct? As George explains, his kind are not extinct at all, merely terribly shy… which probably also explains why no human knew stegosaurs could talk. Having befriended the young siblings, George is determined to help them in other ways. As George is unfamiliar with human customs, hilarious misadventures are certain. One has to feel sorry for the poor snake, on whose territory the children trespassed and whose reward for warning them off with a rattle is to get stepped on by George. Modern parents may wish to be aware that olden-time kids’ books could be surprising off-handed about death. Don’t get me started on Old Yeller. Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick (2002) Offered time travel by the mysterious far future entities known as the Unchanging, paleontologist Richard Leyster and his colleagues can hardly say no. Heretofore, dinosaurs and their ilk were known only from fossils. Thanks to the Unchanging, whoever or whatever they are, researchers can investigate extinct species in person in the distant past. Who are the Unchanging? Why do they want to help 21st century paleontologists? And how long will it take before time travel is sullied by human obsessions and politicking? All these questions are answered in time. It takes about as long as you would expect for the humans to determine which model of time pertains. Alarmingly, it seems to be the single, alterable, timeline version. That version often ends badly for time travelers and their civilization. However, unlike Bradbury’s authorities, the Unchanging have countermeasures to protect their own timeline that actually work. Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson (2008) Following the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea, antiquated destroyer USS Walker flees the more modern, much larger, heavily armed Japanese battlecruiser Amagi. A storm offers respite from the pursuer…at the cost of conveying USS Walker across the timelines to a world quite unlike that of the 1942 they know. The dinosaurs in this world did not go extinct. They thrived. Amongst the dinosaurs’ modern offspring are the intelligent Grik. Grik are as bellicose as they are cunning and their relentless expansion has forced the equally intelligent, more peaceful mammalian Lemurians to flee east. Now the Grik are encroaching on the Lemurian’s final redoubt. Doom seems certain… unless the USS Walker can turn the tide. If there is just one lesson embattled primates fending off implacably hostile intelligent dinosaurs should take from Destroyerman, it is this: always be the cuter (even better, sexier) of the two sides involved in a war to the death if there is even the smallest chance humans from another timeline might happen by. Humans are often heavily armed and almost always suckers for cute. Speculative fiction authors have loved dinosaurs ever since the ancient behemoths were recognized for what they were. The above is only a very small sample of the works I could have mentioned3. Are there works overlooked that inspire that special tingle? If so, please mention them in comments below.[end-mark] My focus on prose means that the TV series Primeval and its Canadian spin-off Primeval: New World get relegated to a footnote. Probably for the best, as it might be difficult to convey to non-Canadians how alarming was the implication that access to and control over history itself was now in the hands of the then-prime minister. ︎It is best not to ask questions about the book’s geology. It is also better not to wonder how primitive hominins known nowhere else in the New World got to that plateau. ︎Dinosaur Sanctuary was omitted because I have not yet read it. McCaffrey’s Dinosaur Planet was omitted because I couldn’t find a nice way to say, “it’s terrible.” ︎The post Five Stories That Know Everything’s Better With Dinosaurs appeared first on Reactor.

Recently relocated from NJ to LA, Daniel becomes the target of a gang of Cobra Kai dojo students. When Mr. Miyagi saves him with expert Karate skills, Daniel convinces him to teach him to defend CONTINUE READING... The post 84 From ’84: The Karate Kid appeared first on The Retro Network.

The FBI shouldn’t be weaponized to pick winners and losers, which is exactly what it has done by targeting pro-lifers and failing to investigate pro-abortion vandals, former FBI agent Steve Friend says. “What we’re seeing is a politically captured agency that is not only interested in the results,” Friend told The Daily Signal. “They want to get overwhelming results, so they’re putting their fingers and entire arms on the scale.” FBI whistleblower Friend joined “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss his experience in the FBI, why he left in 2022, and the weaponization of the bureau against those with religious or political ideologies deemed to be a “threat.” Listen to the full podcast here: The post ‘Politically Captured Agency’: Why a Former FBI Agent Wants to Defund the Bureau appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Kamala Speech Burdened Us By What She Has Been

The newly developed device captures moments a quintillionth of a second long.

Spending all day in their jimjams? A vibe.

CBS’s Stephen Colbert wrapped up his week of live shows from Chicago on the final night of the Democratic National Convention by hyping Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech as “everything we've been waiting for.” To cap it all off, he welcomed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for some additional party promotional material. During his monologue, Colbert noted, “All this week, the DNC has been a big TV hit. On Tuesday, the DNC crushed night two of the RNC by 39 percent.”     Colbert had an idea as to why, “One reason could be the speakers. Night two featured Michelle and Barack Obama, while the RNC's second night closed with Lara Trump and Marco Rubio. That's like saying, ‘Sorry, we don't have coke. Is diarrhea okay?’" As for the actual nominee, Colbert teed up a clip of Harris by recalling, “Harris had this warning about Trump.” In the clip, Harris warned, “Understand he is not done.” Going full fanboy, Colbert responded, “Madame Vice President, I politely disagree ‘cause after you roasted him this hard, I think he's well done. There we go. Kamala Harris's speech was everything we've been waiting for all week. She hit her opponent on his policy failures. She hit him on his dereliction of duty. She hit him on his lies, his treason, and his crimes and his crimes and his crimes. She is a prosecutor in the trial of Donald J. Trump. He is guilty as charged and now it is time to sentence him to four to eight years of President Harris.”     Harris wasn’t the only one who received copious amounts of praise. During his interview with Ocasio-Cortez, Colbert gushed over President Joe Biden, as if he wasn't forced out: Joe Biden has gotten a lot of praise this week, and I just don't think we can praise him enough for the courageous and patriotic decision he made. When George Washington got to the end of his second term and willingly set down his office, King George said quote, ‘If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.’ And no one since Washington has laid down this office in quite the same way by his own volition… What do you have to say about President Biden's choice?” Ocasio-Cortez did likewise, “I think, similarly to George Washington, President Biden did this in order to not just establish, but preserve American democracy, and I think it is one of the largest acts of political selflessness that we may see in our entire lives, and he deserves an enormous amount of credit for the kind of character that it takes to do that.” Later in the interview, Colbert came down with a heavy case of selection bias, “The Democratic Party has got a few in important firsts. First black president, first female vice president, first female presidential nominee, first speaker of the House, first person of color to lead the House Dems. Why do you think those firsts are established by the Democrats when either party has an opportunity to do that?” Ocasio-Cortez claimed it was because “it really comes down to what we fight for in living our values, which is gender equality, racial diversity, civil rights, housing equality. And also, and it's not just the civil and gender and orientation and identity rights that we protect.” Of course Colbert didn’t mention the first female Supreme Court justice, black Secretary of State, first black female Secretary of State, or first post-Reconstruction black senator from the Deep South, but that would upset the narrative.   Here is a transcript for the August 22-23 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 8/23/2024 12:02 AM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: All this week, the DNC has been a big TV hit. On Tuesday, the DNC crushed night two of the RNC by 39 percent. Those numbers are helping the Dems attract big advertisers. Charmin has changed its slogan to "When we wipe, we win." Are they a sponsor? They’re a sponsor? Okay. One reason the ratings difference there, one reason could be the speakers. Night two featured Michelle and Barack Obama, while the RNC's second night closed with Lara Trump and Marco Rubio. That's like saying, "Sorry, we don't have coke. Is diarrhea okay?" … COLBERT: Vice President Harris made a very good point about her opponent. HARRIS: In many ways Donald Trump is an unserious man. COLBERT [TRUMP IMPRESSION]: "Not true, Kamala. I am very serious. Just ask my dear friend the late great Hannibal Lecter." [NORMAL VOICE] Harris had this warning about Trump. HARRIS: Understand he is not done. COLBERT: Madame Vice President, I politely disagree ‘cause after you roasted him this hard, I think he's well done. There we go. Kamala Harris's speech was everything we've been waiting for all week. She hit her opponent on his policy failures. She hit him on his dereliction of duty. She hit him on his lies, his treason, and his crimes and his crimes and his crimes. She is a prosecutor in the trial of Donald J. Trump. He is guilty as charged and now it is time to sentence him to four to eight years of President Harris.  … COLBERT: Joe Biden has gotten a lot of praise this week, and I just don't think we can praise him enough for the courageous and patriotic decision he made. When George Washington got to the end of his second term and willingly set down his office, King George said quote, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."  And no one since Washington has laid down this office in quite the same way by his own volition. LBJ did it, but much earlier on and in the face of a war.  ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yes. Yes. COLBERT: What do you have to say about President Biden's choice? ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: I think, similarly to George Washington, President Biden did this in order to not just establish, but preserve American democracy, and I think it is one of the largest acts of political selflessness that we may see in our entire lives, and he deserves an enormous amount of credit for the kind of character that it takes to do that. And I say that as well because it wasn't just an act of selflessness. It was an act of -- it is a risk, right? You don't know. There is uncertainty about what is going to happen and the weight of that, I can only imagine what was on his shoulders in that and so to make that decision, we all owe all of what we just experienced in large part to his decision and his choice. … COLBERT: The Democratic Party has got a few in important firsts. First black president, first female vice president, first female presidential nominee, first speaker of the House, first person of color to lead the House Dems. Why do you think those firsts are established by the Democrats when either party has an opportunity to do that? OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, I think that it really comes down to what we fight for in living our values, which is gender equality, racial diversity, civil rights, housing equality. And also, and it's not just the civil and gender and orientation and identity rights that we protect.  It's also the economic abilities for us to actually pursue these opportunities in life and, you know, six years ago, the day after it happened, I was here speaking with you and I was a waitress the day before and I had become a congresswoman-elect almost overnight and I feel like, first of all, that can only happen in America. But also it can happen with Democrats too in terms of what we champion.