We stood on the rocky shore of the Mizque River in central Bolivia, binoculars trained on the towering cliff before us. The summer sun beat down as we scanned for birds. “There,” whispered my nine-year-old son. “A pair is coming.”  The red-fronted macaws were worth the wait. Teal wingtips spread, green and yellow plumage vivid against red crowns, the striking birds sailed directly overhead. After they disappeared into the forest, we turned our binoculars back to the cliff to watch a dozen more pairs flitting in and out of their nests. Red-fronted macaws are found nowhere else on earth except Bolivia’s dry, forested Andean valleys. Like many other members of the parrot family, they have suffered from habitat loss, illegal capturing for the pet trade and conflicts with farmers who kill them for stealing crops. In 2013 only an estimated 600 red-fronted macaws remained. While the latest census from 2021 estimates nearly double that number now soar through the valleys, these tropical birds are still critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).  Perched red-fronted macaw. Credit: Paul B. Jones / Armonía Luckily, innovative conservation agreements that improve rural landowners’ livelihoods are creating a brighter future for red-fronted macaws as well as the forests they depend upon. Many Bolivian farmers now see the bird as a boon rather than a burden, and a valuable resource worth safeguarding. The cliff we were watching is the perfect example. Located near three Quechua communities about 200 kilometers southeast of the city of Cochabamba, it’s home to the largest-known breeding colony of red-fronted macaws. Locals used to take chicks from their nests and sell them as pets to Europeans or Americans.  Then in 2006, a Bolivian bird conservation organization, Armonía, showed the communities they could make more reliable income by offering tourists the chance to watch these beautiful birds. They helped the communities set up the 50-hectare Red-Fronted Macaw Community Reserve and build an ecolodge facing the cliff that can house up to 14 guests. In 2023 the communities earned $25,000 in profits from the ecolodge. Plus, local families now help monitor wildlife, build new nest boxes and restore habitat within the reserve. 

In the late 70s, rock music was given a steel-booted kick up the backside by a new breed of band.The NWOBHM would go on to rule Britannia – and the world

80 years ago today, British, American, and Canadian forces stormed five sandy spits of land along the Normandy Coast, intending to liberate mainland Europe from Adolf Hitler’s tyranny. The D-Day Landings were one of several major turning points in the war, and historians ever since have relished plucking every imaginable detail of strategy and courage […] The post Good News in History, June 6 appeared first on Good News Network.

Democrats Attack Republicans … for Not Being Willing to Force Nuns to Buy Birth Control (A Deep Dive)

On a wing and a prayer. The post Is The Byrds song ‘Eight Miles High’ about drugs? first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

by Jim Rickards, Daily Reckoning: The steady path toward World War III continues. U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine in the war with Russia has been one long failure, but that hasn’t stopped them from escalating the war with new weapons and tactics. Russia has met the escalation with its own escalation every step of […]

Carrie Sheffield is known within conservative journalism circles as a talented columnist and broadcaster. She is a graduate of Harvard University and a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum, but many who have followed Sheffield’s work were surprised to learn of her harrowing childhood, detailed in her new memoir.  Growing up, Sheffield attended 17 public schools in addition to sometimes being homeschooled. She and her seven siblings spent much of their childhood living in a motor home with a father who believed he was a prophet, a challenging reality that inspired the title of Sheffield’s book, “Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness.”  Sheffield reveals on the “Problematic Women” podcast that her family often lived in “Third World” conditions within the U.S. I describe the existence as “careening between a Third World and a First World existence” quite frequently. So, sometimes we did have houses, and we were living in a regular house. But then we would be back living in the motor home, and then sometimes we’d be living in a tent. So, my mom gave birth to my brother when the family was living in a tent. When I took my ACT exam to go to college, we were living in a shed with no running water. It would be piped in from one of those greenhouses, so it was really unstable. I would say that’s probably the strongest—or the most consistent word was inconsistency.  And the reason we lived this way is because my dad claimed that he was a prophet. He was excommunicated from the official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints … . But his philosophy and kind of theology is part of the broader kind of Mormon diaspora. There are lots of different offshoot groups, and my dad just kind of became a self-styled homegrown Mormon prophet—self-proclaimed.   Through a series of events, including her brother attempting to rape her, Sheffield made the decision as a teen that she needed to leave home.  “I told my dad that I wanted to go away to college, and he raised his right hand … like he was making an oath,” Sheffield recalls, “and he said, ‘I prophesy in the name of Jesus that you’ll be raped and murdered if you leave.’ So, at that moment, it was a crossroads. Do I stay and face physical violence potentially from my brother again or do I leave and have the potential of this prophecy coming true? I decided to take my chances and left home and my dad.”  Sheffield’s road to becoming a successful professional was not instantaneous after she left home. In her memoir, she details many of the challenges she had to overcome and how her childhood has affected her as an adult.  Sheffield’s determination in the face of hardship and abuse, and her desire for truth, has rightly earned her the title of “Problematic Woman.”  Catch the conversation with Sheffield on this week’s edition of the “Problematic Women” podcast below: The post She Grew Up ‘Careening Between a Third World and a First World Existence.’ Carrie Sheffield Shares Her Shocking Childhood. appeared first on The Daily Signal.