In Cambodia, 60 eggs were found in the nest of one of the world’s most endangered large reptiles which after hatching set a new record for an international conservation effort to save them. It was believed the Siamese crocodile, with the distinctive bony crest running down its skull, was extinct in the wild until it […] The post A Record Hatch for Near-Extinct Siamese Crocodiles Signals a Croc Comeback appeared first on Good News Network.

The post Do Cats’ Waters Break? Our Vet Explains Feline Pregnancy Facts 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. Click to Skip Ahead What Waters Are Breaking? Signs of a Cat in Labor How Long Will Labor Last? Signs of Problems Should I Let My Cat Have Kittens? Whether you’ve experienced it yourself, know someone who has, or watched it on practically every sitcom in existence, you know what it means when a pregnant woman’s waters break—it’s baby time! If you’re awaiting the arrival of some kittens, you’ll want to know what to be looking out for. Will there be contractions, panting, screaming, and crying? Will you see the telltale sign of their waters breaking? The answers are yes, sometimes, no, not usually, and not exactly. So, what does a cat’s water breaking look like? For everything you need to know about what happens when a cat gives birth, keep reading. What Waters Are Breaking? For humans, when the fetus is ready to leave the safety of the womb, the cervix dilates, causing the mucus plug that has been blocking the entrance to the uterus to dislodge, and the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby rushes out, sometimes discreetly, sometimes all over your shoes. With cats, there are usually multiple fetuses inside the womb—typically around four to eight, with each contained within their own amniotic sac. Much of the time, the kitten is delivered still enclosed within the sac, so no amniotic fluid comes out before the birth. If the sac does break before the kitten is delivered, you may notice a very small amount of fluid coming from the mother cat’s (queen) vulva, but most of the time, she will clean it up before you’ve had a chance to notice anything. The fluid may be clear, greenish, or pink-tinged. Brown, red, yellow, or black discharge means it’s time to phone the vet. So, if you’re expecting a dramatic flood of fluid to let you know that kittens are on the way, you’re in for a disappointment. This is why cats so often manage to sneak off and deliver their kittens without anyone noticing. Image Credit: Jim Polakis, Shutterstock What Are the Signs That My Cat Is in Labor? If we can’t rely on breaking waters to let us know that a cat is in labor (also called queening), what other signs can we be looking out for? Cats are notoriously stealthy when it comes to giving birth, and often, the first sign we will see is the sudden presence of kittens by her side! Most cats prefer to give birth in private, so don’t be too committed to the idea of holding her paw through the process. If you want to know when kittens are on the way, here are a few signs you can watch out for: Nesting: This might include gathering blankets, getting comfortable in a bed you’ve provided, or finding herself a cozy spot of her choosing. Pacing: As the kittens are shifting into position and contractions are starting up, your queen may pace and seem uncomfortable or unsettled. Vocalizing: For cats, birth is normally a fairly quiet affair, but some cats might let out some small meows, squeaks, or squawks if things get a bit uncomfortable, particularly if this is their first litter. Licking: One of the main reasons you’ll see very little in the way of discharge before, during, or after the birth of kittens is that the queen will be focused on cleaning her vulva, the kittens, and any fluids. This is an evolved survival technique, minimizing the scent of newborn kittens that could attract predators. Before a kitten appears, you will usually see a “bubble” appear at the entrance to the vagina. This is the amniotic sac. The queen will usually take care of breaking the sac and crushing the umbilical cord, so only intervene if there seems to be a problem. How Long Will Labor Last? Image Credit: Anna Krivitskay, Shutterstock Once queening has commenced, expect to see a kitten at least every hour, but it is not unusual for the delivery to be much quicker than this. It is also not unusual for there to be a pause in the delivery for the queen to rest, and many cat owners have woken the next morning to find two or three more kittens! What Are Signs of Problems? In the vast majority of cases, cats will deliver their kittens with very little difficulty and without the need for human intervention. However, there is always a chance of things going wrong, so here are some red flags to look out for: Lots of licking, but no kittens after 1 to 2 hours Brown, black, red, or yellow discharge Lethargy in queen or kittens Lack of interest in kittens or not allowing them to suckle Crying, pacing, and distress—a little is normal, but if it continues, there is likely a problem Be sure to have your vet on speed dial in case you have any concerns or are in need of advice. Should I Let My Cat Have Kittens? Image Credit: rzarof, Shutterstock It is a common myth and misconception that female cats should be “allowed” to have a litter before they are spayed. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support this notion, having come from the anthropomorphic (applying human emotional experiences to other animals) idea that all females should experience motherhood. If you are thinking about breeding your cat, first consider these statements: Tom cats have a barbed penis, so intercourse is unlikely to be an enjoyable experience for females. Males also usually grip the female’s scruff in their teeth to stop them from getting away. Kittens are weaned when they are 6 to 8 weeks old, and female cats often don’t tolerate their offspring hanging around much beyond that. There are around 30 to 40 million cats in animal shelters across the US. This is why our advice is to spay and neuter your cat. However, if you really want to allow your cat to have a litter, then please ensure that you have already found a loving home for all of the kittens. However, by bringing more kittens into the world, you would be taking away the opportunity for already existing kittens to get adopted. Final Thoughts If you are waiting to see your pregnant cat’s waters break, you are likely to be disappointed. Although they technically do experience a similar process to that seen in humans, the volume of “water” is so small that it’s likely to be missed, if not already cleaned up by the queen before you have a chance to see it. Additionally, most kittens are born still contained within the amniotic sac, so the fluid is contained until after the birth. It’s important to be aware of what is and isn’t normal when it comes to queening, but even more important is knowing that there are millions of cats in desperate need of homes, and adding to that population unnecessarily is something that should be carefully considered. So, it’s often best to spay or neuter your cats. Featured Image Credit: Boy67, Shutterstock The post Do Cats’ Waters Break? Our Vet Explains Feline Pregnancy Facts 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.

Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course A massive technology outage is wreaking havoc worldwide. Early reports blame the chaos on an issue with Microsoft, the dominant operating system for desktop computers and the software Falcon from Crowdstrike. We’ve been assured this isn’t a cyberattack, but a software glitch affecting the OS of computers across the world. Here are some of the ways this outage is causing global chaos today. Flights grounded American Airlines, United, Frontier, and Delta made a drastic move, grounding all flights. The ground stop impacted all flights from the airlines, regardless of their destination, the Federal Aviation Administration said. As of mid-Friday morning, more than 600 flights into, out of or within the United States had been canceled, according to FlightAware.com. The outage does NOT impact flights that were in the air when it occurred. The problem is with the other processes, such as check-in, luggage, and booking. American Airlines has since resolved the problem, and its flights are resuming. But for tens of thousands of other travelers, chaos and uncertainty still reign in the airports. As well, in New York City, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has also had its systems go offline. Banking disrupted Around the world, operations have ground to a halt at many major banks, including: Commonwealth Bank in Australia Capitec in South Africa Certain operations at Barclay’s in the UK Banks in Israel, which have not been named at the time of this post Some of the issues have been the inability to use ATMs, access online banking, and self-checkout registers. As well, the London Stock Exchange website is unable to update. 911 outages According to Newsweek, 911 services in many parts of the country have been affected. Emergency services and access to 911 operators have been affected in multiple states as a major IT outage causes chaos worldwide. Alaska State Troopers posted on Facebook on Thursday night: “Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the State of Alaska.” They added that in the case of emergency, alternative numbers can be contacted. New Hampshire also experienced a service outage overnight, but it has since been restored, according to the Department of Safety, local ABC affiliate WMUR reported. In Phoenix, Arizona, emergency services have faced further issues. As some computers stopped working, dispatchers had no access to the internet or their usual systems, and were manually writing down information for first responders, according to local news outlet The Arizona Republic. Downdetector has also noted a spike in reports about 911 services. Medical services interrupted Health systems and hospitals around the world have reported issues with their systems as well. Israeli Health Services has reported problems and NHS has said that most general practitioner offices in the UK have been affected. News broadcasts down In some areas, major mainstream media outlets are at a complete standstill. Australian and British broadcasters SBS, Network 10, the ABC and Sky News Australia and Sky News UK were all taken off air. What caused all of this? CNN reports that the issue originated with a software update issued by CrowdStrike. It is specifically affecting Falcon, one of CrowdStrike’s main cybersecurity software products. CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software — used by numerous Fortune 500 companies — detects and blocks hacking threats. Like other cybersecurity products, the software requires deep-level access to a computer’s operating system to scan for those threats. In this case, computers running Microsoft Windows appear to be crashing because of the faulty way a software code update issued by CrowdStrike is interacting with the Windows system. George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike says that they have identified the problem and deployed a fix. Here’s the statement he released to the media: CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers. One little glitch caused mass chaos. Regardless of the cause, this certainly goes a long way toward reminding us how much our systems are reliant on computers. While they do make many things far easier, many businesses are entirely unable to function without them. It’s just a glimpse into the disaster we could face with a significant cyber attack or other service outage. Hopefully, this will be shortlived but also provide a cautionary tale for the businesses affected. Are any of your services affected? Have you experienced any issues related to this glitch? If so, can you tell us about it? Do you think there is a problem aside from the software? Let’s discuss it in the comments section. 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 MASSIVE Global Technology Outage Grounds Flights, Takes Down Banks, Medical Services and 911 appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

A pet lover creates innovative collar tags, called Fido Alert, that help dog owners efficiently and quickly reunite with their lost pets.

Our blue planet is ruled by cycles. There’s the water cycle; the solar cycle; the menstrual cycle, all tiny epicycles on the great orbit that is the Circle of Life. But one you may not have heard of – or even thought of much before – is the salt cycle: how salt, or rather salts, enter and interact with the natural world.It’s vitally important to life – which is a bit worrying, actually, because it’s also getting thrown pretty noticeably out of whack lately. So what is this saline phenomenon? What’s going wrong? And is there anything we can do about it?What is the salt cycle?While the popular health advice is to avoid salt – and that is, for most of us, a pretty good idea – some amount of it is vital for survival. Not just for us, but every animal: “We’re basically an electrical system, controlled by salts,” Sujay Kaushal, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland, told Fast Company last year.Plants, too, rely on salts to aid the production of chlorophyll; you could even argue that the planet itself relies on salt to survive, since its presence helps the soil underneath our feet to clump together. “Salt has a small ionic radius and can wedge itself between soil particles very easily,” Kaushal explained in a statement. “In fact, that’s how road salts prevent ice crystals from forming.”But where does all this salt come from? Not the seasonings aisle: like everything in the natural world, it exists in an epic cycle of movement, growth, precipitation, and more.It works like this: originally, salt comes from the Earth’s mantle – tectonic activity exposes the magma to the ocean or air, where it solidifies into rocks and is gradually worn down by wind and rain, or else leached into the seas via chemical reactions.Salt ions are released into the soil, where they are taken up by plants and other organisms; other ions may be washed away in rivers or blown into the atmosphere by the wind or sea sprays. A small amount of salt can enter the atmosphere via evaporation, but less than you might think – it simply takes too much energy for that to be common.In an ideal model, all that salt then gets gobbled up by plants and animals, or else ends up in the sea and soil again, until the whole thing starts again. But there’s a big variable that has yet to be accounted for: us.Is the natural salt cycle changing?Humans are, in ecological terms, the ultimate keystone species. Without our intervention, the planet would be markedly cooler, the number of species alive would be much higher – and, it turns out, there would be a lot less salt hanging around.“Increasing salt production and use is shifting the natural balances of salt ions across Earth systems, causing interrelated effects across biophysical systems collectively known as freshwater salinization syndrome,” begins a 2023 paper from Kaushal and colleagues. “Anthropogenic activities have accelerated the processes, timescales and magnitudes of salt fluxes and altered their directionality, creating an anthropogenic salt cycle,” it explains. “Global salt production has increased rapidly over the past century for different salts, with approximately 300 Mt of NaCl produced per year.”Thanks to humans, salt no longer enters the salt cycle just from natural processes like geological uplift and erosion from weather phenomena. Now, the natural world has to cope with salt being extracted en masse for food and road deicing (and changing the sex of frogs as a side effect); with acid rain that has sped up the rate salts are released from rock; with salt-filled wastewater from agricultural and industrial processes, and so on.In fact, the impact from humans has been so dramatic that researchers now refer to the “anthropogenic salt cycle” – that is, the salt cycle as produced by humans.Why is that a problem?Too much salt is bad for your health, and the same is true for the Earth. “If you think of the planet as a living organism,” Kaushal explained, “when you accumulate so much salt it could affect the functioning of vital organs or ecosystems.”And just like when we consume too much of the delicious crystals, the excess builds up in the system. For us, that means kidney complaints and raised blood pressure; for the planet, it means a massive buildup of salts in waterways, lakes, and even the air and soil. In fact, over the last half-century, research has shown that approximately 2.5 billion acres of soil around the world – an area roughly the size of the continental US – has been salinized to a problematic degree. And remember, we’re not only talking about “salt” as in the stuff in your condiments cupboard. The term technically refers just to a compound made of positively charged ions and negatively charged ions, so while a lot of salt is indeed sodium chloride, there are also a lot of salts based on other elements.“When people think of salt, they tend to think of sodium chloride,” Kaushal said, “but our work over the years has shown that we’ve disturbed other types of salts, including ones related to limestone, gypsum and calcium sulfate.”It’s a big problem, and not just for the salt itself. “When humans add salt to waterways, that salt also releases a lot of dangerous collateral chemicals,” Kaushal explained in 2018. This was a cause of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, and it’s also extremely harmful to natural ecosystems – especially since these “chemical cocktails” can be more damaging in total than as a collection of individual constituents.“It’s clear that regulatory agencies need to find new ways to address these ‘chemical cocktails’ released by saltier water,” Kaushal said, “rather than looking at individual freshwater pollutants one by one.”What should we do about it?So, how do we remove all this extra salt from the system, and reset the salt cycle back to a sustainable status?Well, that’s a tricky question. “This is a very complex issue because salt is not considered a primary drinking water contaminant in the US,” Kaushal said, “so to regulate it would be a big undertaking.”Removing the salt that’s already there is also difficult. “Removing salt from water is energy intensive and expensive,” he explained, “and the brine byproduct you end up with is saltier than ocean water and can’t be easily disposed of.”So perhaps a preventative method is better. In the US, the worst offender against the natural salt cycle is road salt – seriously: between 2013 and 2017, road salts represented 44 percent of US salt consumption, as well as 14 percent of the total dissolved solids that entered streams across the country. And of course, roads need to be de-iced – but in places like Washington DC, city authorities have started using beet juice instead, achieving the same effect with a much lower salt content.Whatever the solution, researchers stress that time is of the essence. With road salt, for example, “there's the short-term risk of injury, which is serious and something we certainly need to think about,” Kaushal agreed, “but there’s also the long-term risk of health issues associated with too much salt in our water.” “It’s about finding the right balance,” he said. “But do I think it’s a substance that is increasing in the environment to harmful levels? Yes.”All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

The Sun has a main cycle of activity that lasts about 11 years. We count them from minimum to minimum. We are currently around the maximum of activity and that has been the main focus of scientists. This is a period of intense solar storms, as we saw back in May. But within that flurry of activity, the seed of the next cycle has appeared.We are currently in Solar Cycle 25. It is the 25th since 1755 when the extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began. Sunspots are a way to keep track of cycles as they disappear during the minimum. But there are deeper changes that herald the beginning of the next cycle – and astronomers have just seen them.You can't see under the surface of the Sun with light, but we can see the patterns that these sound waves make at the surface.Dr Rachel HoweFor almost 30 years, since 1995, researchers have used sound wave propagation within the Sun to study its interior motion. This is known as asteroseismology. Scientists have noticed that there is a pattern of bands that can rotate faster or slower and they move toward the equator and the poles during the cycle.“You can't see under the surface of the Sun with light, but we can see the patterns that these sound waves make at the surface,” Dr Rachel Howe, from the University of Birmingham, told IFLScience.The red spots at the right edge of the graph are the first hint of Solar Cycle 26.Image Credit: Rachel HoweThey are known as solar torsional oscillations. Data from Solar Cycles 23, 24, and 25 revealed that the faster bands tend to appear before the beginning of the next cycle. The pattern did not repeat exactly, but it gave confidence that this is something that consistently happens before the new cycle. And now astronomers have spotted them.“Right up there at the edge, there's just a little bit of red if you plot it like that [as in the figure above]. It is just about 11 years after the previous one, which is one solar cycle later. So that starts to look as though you know we might be just seeing that the very very beginning of what will eventually evolve into cycle 26,” Dr Howe told IFLScience.It looks as though something is starting to propagate towards the equator. But we will need another year or two of observations to see it really clearly.Dr Rachel HoweThe faster band moves at less than 1 percent faster than the average and they slowly move toward the equator. Analysis of the previous cycles has shown that these bands form a V-shape over the span of 11 years, moving from the mid-latitudes toward the equator.  The conclusion is simple: Solar Cycle 26 is hinting its presence to us. It will begin around 2030.“It looks as though something is starting to propagate towards the equator. But we will need another year or two of observations to see it really clearly,” Dr Howe told IFLScience.Dr Howe presented the work at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Hull.

Ever seen a bee slap an ant? We imagine the answer to that is “no”, but if you’re now desperate to know what that looks like, well, today’s your lucky day.Researchers from the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan have discovered that, in the face of unwanted visitors, Japanese honey bees (Apis cerana japonica) can take to slapping them away with pretty spectacular force – and they nabbed some footage of it.Whilst this behavior had been described before in anecdotes, this study marks the first time that “wing-slapping”, as it’s been dubbed by the researchers, has been captured in such detail.Using a high-speed camera, the team recorded interactions between Japanese honey bee colonies and Japanese pavement ants (Tetramorium tsushimae) and were able to play the footage back in slow-motion, revealing exactly how the bees slapped the ants away.“Our results show that the bees slap the ants through direct contact with their wings,” the researchers write. “Specifically, the worker bees executed the slap behavior by first tilting their bodies toward the ants, then flapping their wings while simultaneously turning their bodies.”Whilst this might be a reasonably effective way of getting rid of the pavement ants – the success rate was around one in two or three attempts – there’s a possibility the success of wing-slapping might be species specific. The team also observed the behavior in response to Japanese queenless ants (Pristomyrmex punctatus) and Japanese wood ants (Formica japonica) and found the success rate was relatively low for the latter, which they suggest might be because this species is bigger and faster, and thus more difficult to flick away.Though impressive, wing-slapping is only the latest in a long list of defensive techniques known to be used by Japanese honey bees, some of which frankly make slapping an ant so hard it falls off the ant-equivalent of a cliff seem relatively tame.We’d argue the most metal of these involves roasting giant hornets alive. Sadly, bees don’t have money so they can’t buy an oven to lob invading hornets in, but what they do have is an affinity for teamwork; they swarm around the giant hornet and vibrate, with the insect inside unable to tolerate the toasty 47.2°C (117°F) temperature that action generates.So why use wing-slapping against ants when there are other, spicier behaviors to choose from? More research needs to be done, but the researchers suggest that may come down to cost and simplicity.“Wing-slapping behavior might have evolved among Japanese honey bees as a relatively low-energy, generic defense against the threat of ant incursion,” the team conclude. The study is published in Ecology.

The Last Supper with Jesus is one of the iconic stories in the Bible. 2 thousand years later, archaeologists believe that they have found the exact location of the house where the Last Supper took place, writes Daily Mail . Researchers believe the biblical supper took place in the “upper room” of a two-story house with limestone walls and a red sloping roof. This building still stands in the city. The fact is that the site of the Last Supper was depicted in detail on several works of art dating back to at least the 4th century BC. The Bible also described in detail the story of the Last Supper in 33 AD, when Jesus gathered with his 12 apostles and said that one of them would betray him, and the death of Jesus himself was inevitable. It is known that the upper room of the biblical building, also known as the upper room, was a prayer room that could accommodate more than 120 people. Luke 22:11-13 briefly described this room when Jesus asked for a large, furnished upper room where he and his disciples could have the Passover meal. Vaulted ceiling of the Upper Room. Credit: biblicalfrchaeology.org The upper room is located in the old city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion, which is located above the southern gate. Columns support the building’s vaulted ceiling and sloping red roof. At the moment, archaeologists cannot excavate at this site, so they cannot accurately confirm the history of the building. Back in 1884, Greek Orthodox Christians found one of the earliest maps of Jerusalem. The discovery was made during the construction of a new church in Madaba, Jordan. The map was created in 560 AD as a depiction of the Holy Land, which had a Cardo Maximus (main street) running down the center, as well as two sacred structures at the southern end (lower right), identifiable by their red roofs. All objects were labeled in Greek, including the Damascus Gate and the square on the left side, the southern Jaffa Gate at the bottom and Bethlehem on the right. But it wasn’t until 2017 that University of North Carolina religious scholar David Christian Clausen noticed something unusual on the map. The building had the same red slanted roof as the Upper Room, and it was located in the same place. This is what led scientists to believe that the Upper Room was the site of the Last Supper, but more evidence was still needed. Ancient map. Photo: biblicalfrchaeology.org And they appeared in a 6th century drawing discovered in Italy in 1846. The drawing shows Jesus riding through the southern gate of the city on a donkey, with the Upper Room in the background. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) decided to test the theory in 2019 using laser technology and advanced photographic images. Using technology, scientists wanted to remove all the renovations that the Upper Room had undergone over the years in order to see what it was like during the Last Supper. “I felt like I was in Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code. There were ancient symbols to decipher,” says Amit Reem, Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority. The researchers mapped every corner of the room to create an accurate model of the space, which pointed out interesting features of the Upper Room. They displayed little-known works of art such as symbols of the Agnus Dei, or “Lamb of God,” and the Lion of Judah on the ceiling. “The lion was the symbol of King David, and according to ancient scriptures, Jesus was a descendant of King David,” explains Reem. Archaeologists still need to do more research, he said. There is still no archaeological evidence that the Upper Room was the site of the Last Supper. The post Archaeologists Claim Discovery of Jesus’ Last Supper House appeared first on Anomalien.com.

RedState at 20: My Career Path to the Site Where Truth and Bold Reporting Are Prioritized

Microsoft Glitch Brings Worldwide Halt to Business and Government Operations