5 Hawaiian crows have just been released onto the island of Maui in an attempt to return this species to the islands. Extirpated from its native Big Island in 2002, all remaining members of the species have been bred in captivity since then. However, the animals were raised to retain their wilder instincts in the […] The post Hawaiian Crow That Went Extinct in the Wild Decades Ago Released on Maui appeared first on Good News Network.

The post Ivy Settling In: Some of My Favorite Memories by Crystal Uys 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. Welcome to the Wednesday Cats of Catster! Every week, we share a story from one of our cat-loving Catsters. This week is about Crystal and her soul cat, Ivy. Hi, Catsters! The last time you heard from me, I discussed how I prepped for Ivy’s arrival and how much preparation actually goes into adopting a cat. This week, I wanted to touch on Ivy’s first few weeks with us, and some of my favorite first memories with her. Since Ivy was still a kitten when we got her (in my eyes, she’s still a little baby!), she was doing all of the things kittens usually do! Sleeping A LOT, zooming around nearly just as much, and doing a ton of exploring. We lived in a duplex at that time, and even though it felt like a tiny-ish home for us humans, it obviously seemed a lot bigger to her. Everything had to be inspected – everything. No stone was left unturned, no cupboard left unsniffed, and no crevice or crack proved too small for her to fit into. This led to a lot of cat-proofing around the house. The watcher on the stairway She arrived during the summer months, and for those unfamiliar with South Africa and its weather: it was hot. Really hot. However, I had to keep all of the windows and doors shut at all times to ensure she didn’t escape and get lost. Of course, she was curious about the ‘big outside’ and sat by the windows frequently to have a peek at what was going on out there. ‘I am merely a prisoner in my own home’ At the time, I was also the person keeping our local ‘Garden Centre’ in business, coming home with at least 4 new plants every weekend. She took a liking to one plant in particular – and that plant paid the price dearly! Luckily, it was a True Bamboo plant and not toxic for her to munch on. ‘Wasn’t me’ Ivy figured out where we kept her dry food and treats in record time and tried to crack open the container multiple times a day until I finally shut it away behind closed doors. She was actually very clever when it came to this and was caught red-pawed one day! The container had been standing on the counter, and she was on top of the counter trying to knock it off so that the lid would pop off. ‘Nothing to see here…’ Of course, her cute pink bed was completely unused! Instead, much to my delight, she slept curled up next to my face or in my arms. She still does this to this day, and it never fails to melt my heart. My favorite spot Shower time was especially interesting, with her sitting on the shower mat or the toilet with a puzzled look, trying to figure out why the humans get into a big box to be sprayed with water. Kitty-nightmare, much? Safeguarding the humans After a while, I began noticing that she was bored. Seeing as she was an indoor cat, she needed a lot of enrichment. This was when she got her first proper cat tree, which she ‘helped’ to assemble. Assisting cat tree assembly As soon as the box arrived, she seemed to know it was for her! This cat tree is still with us and gets used daily! My kingdom These memories are but a drop in the ocean – we’ve gone through so much in our three years together, but I will treasure the first few months of her kittenhood forever! What are some of your fondest memories with your kitty? Catch us on Catster.com next month, where I’ll be talking about the dreaded F-word: FLEAS! This article features Crystal and Ivy in our Wednesday Cats of Catster series. Read her previous article: Preparing for a Kitten’s Arrival: How I Prepped for Ivy The post Ivy Settling In: Some of My Favorite Memories by Crystal Uys 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 Five Books About 5 Unique, Contemporary Adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Here are five recent books that mess about in Mary Shelley’s wonderful Gothic playground. By Elisa Shoenberger | Published on December 11, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share In the past several years, I’ve seen many productions based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Chicago-based Manual Cinema, a unique puppet company, created an astonishing puppet/live action version of the story. There have been at least 2 full length ballet performances as well as a play that tells the story of Frankenstein and Shelley developing the story. Even earlier this year, the teen-romcom horror movie Lisa Frankenstein was released, which brought all the joy and gore of reanimating the dead with a high school romcom.  My biggest surprise from seeing all these adaptations was that our conception of Frankenstein is wrong. He’s not the hulking beast we see in many films, he’s a person who wants to love and be loved but scorns the world that has tossed him away.  It’s a story about how nurture really does matter. My favorite Frankenstein meme sums it up best: “Knowledge is realising Frankenstein was not the monster, Wisdom is realising Frankenstein was the monster.” As I was getting ready to see the Joffrey Ballet’s Frankenstein performance last fall, I realized that it was time to finally read the actual book. I generally shy away from pre-1900 literature, intimidated by the long paragraphs, flowery language, and a lack of dialogue, but instead of impenetrable prose, I found the book astonishing and brilliant. I’m now sorry I waited this long to read it. In my opinion, it should be included as part of more literature curriculums because of its discussion of science and ethics, the responsibility of creators to their creations and the world around them, and so much more.  So when I read about some recently published books taking inspiration from Frankenstein, I naturally wanted to see what authors today made with this 1818 book. Here are five books playing in Mary Shelley’s wonderful Gothic playground. Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill This is the book that started the idea for this list. Frankenstein + dinosaurs? Yeah, that’s going to be a slam dunk for me. It’s 1850s England and paleontology is all the rage. It’s even the cause of rage as reputations and fortunes are made on scientific theories and disproving others people’s theories. Mary Brown has always had an interest in paleontology and geology but as an illegitimate orphan and a woman, she has few prospects. Neither does her husband Henry who was disowned by his wealthy father and has a tendency to rack up debts and ruin any possible career prospects for himself. Running out of money and fearing the workhouse, Mary stumbles upon her great-uncle Victor Frankenstein’s papers, and she comes up with a plan to marry their interests with Frankenstein’s work to find a place and reputation in society. But the cost might be higher than they had expected. The book brings the history of paleontology/geology, women’s place in Victorian society, and ethics in science together. We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim This one brings together Frankenstein and Indian mythology, which is really exciting for me. I love seeing how Sim takes the general story of re-animating the dead and twists it in interesting and delicious ways. Plus there’s a very good undead dog named Kutaa. All Kajal wanted to do was bring her sister Lasya back to life. But reviving a person can be dangerous since souls can be reincarnated, so while Kajal is successful in raising her sister, it’s not the sister she knew. Instead she’s revived her sister as a Bhuta, a supernatural creature who gains strength from murdering people.  Kajal finds herself imprisoned for her work and bringing this monster into the world. But that means Lasya may permanently stay a Bhuta if Kajal cannot find a way to help her. Kajal is offered help from a group who springs her from her jail, but they are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts—they want her to use her reanimation skills for revolutionary purposes. Will she get to her sister in time or will the revolution and the authorities get in the way? Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne I chose this one because it’s kinda the opposite of the first two books in tone. This is a great example of scifantasy, with heavy emphasis on romance. When Angelika Frankenstein can’t find a suitable spouse, she decides to build her own. After all, she helped her brother (Victor) reanimate the dead. While she is successful at reanimation, he’s not quite the man of her dreams. Instead of falling in love with her, he wants to find out who he was before he died the first time, and she finds herself on a quest to help her creation find itself. Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel A. Olivas In Olivas’ book, reanimation is prevalent; people can be pieced together from different bodies. The only catch is that the reanimated cannot return to their own lives and do not retain their old memories. Because of this, the Pharmaceutical industry is doing gangbusters, but being widespread doesn’t mean that everyone accepts reanimated people, or “stitchers.” To make things worse, the president is stoking the flames of anti-reanimation prejudice. When a young reanimated man falls in love with a young woman, he ends up wanting to know more about his first life, breaking all known taboos. If you are looking for a sharp political satire, Chicano Frankenstein is the book for you. Unnatural Creatures: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women by Kris Waldherr To round out the list, here’s a book that focuses on the three women in Shelley’s original story: Caroline Frankenstein, Victor’s mother; Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor’s bride; and Justine Moritz, the loyal servant of the Frankensteins. In the original, these women are kinda sidelined, focusing on Victor and his obsession so I love that this book brings the female characters front and center. Caroline wants nothing more than to protect her family from the outside world, inadvertently setting her son Victor down the path of seeking the secret of eternal life. Elizabeth is adopted by Caroline at the age of 4. Instead of the ‘angel of the house’ image we see in Shelley’s book, Elizabeth is not in love with Victor and only marries him out of loyalty to Caroline. And finally, Justine Moritz who is rescued by the Frankensteins and will do anything for the family, bringing her into a destructive path with the Creature. I love books giving you windows into other works through other points of view. [end-mark] The post 5 Unique, Contemporary Adaptations of Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the accompanying video from professor Peter St. Onge. New job numbers are out and—hilariously—payrolls jumped 227,000, yet persons employed dropped 355,000. Are they just making it up? The numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which—thanks to the power of imagination—reports that jobs are booming, yet the unemployment rate is … worse, rising to 4.2%. It’s actually 7.3%, using the wider U-6 unemployment number that the legacy media only report when the president is a Republican. So, how does payroll soar but unemployment gets worse? It’s because the other jobs survey the BLS uses says the number of employed people actually plunged by 355,000 people last month. It’s worth noting +227 in a month is a job boom for the ages, while -355 is a depression. Which is it? Who knows? Keep in mind this is the same agency reporting both numbers. And this report was widely touted as a critical guide for the Fed, which is kind of left with … who knows? Now, regular people might wonder how they could be so far off. The short answer is government numbers on everything from jobs to inflation to growth contain an entire library of assumptions, models, and survey techniques to creatively extrapolate. The gaps should tell them their models are garbage. But, of course, those assumptions are extremely useful to agencies who can torture the numbers to say anything they want. That’s particularly useful when your budget is up, and you need to show you’re a team player. Or not a team player if the president is named Donald Trump. In other words, follow the money. When the president is somebody the bureaucrats like—a Democrat—assume the worst. And when the president is somebody the bureaucrats are trying to hurt, assume that’s what’s driving it. So, with that, what else was hiding in the job reports? Beyond the 355,000 plunge in persons employed, Zerohedge reports the number of long-term unemployed is stuck at 1.7 million—up nearly 50% from a year ago. Labor force participation—the percent of people working or in school—is also stuck, down 2 million since before COVID-19, down 4 million from the Trump 1.0 trend. And down 9 million since the 2008 crisis and the Obama miracle. Incidentally, the BLS reports that 5-1/2 million people out of the labor force want a job, yet they’re not counted because they’re not actively looking. That’s interesting because there are more than 5-1/2 million illegals taking low-skill jobs and keeping them at minimum wage. Seems like a pretty simple fix. Speaking of illegals, one bright spot was a tumble in illegal immigrant workers—perhaps because hundreds of thousands are preparing to self-deport, or at least they’re going to ground. If it’s self-deportation, we’ll see a surge in wages for low-skill Americans who no longer haveto compete for minimum wage. We’re already seeing green shoots as real hourly earnings stopped falling last month, breaking a 2-1/2-year downward trend. Keep it up, and blue-collars might actually support a family on a factory job. So, what’s next? Jobs were supposed to give the Fed guidance with inflation rising again. Goldman called it “the most important remaining macro report of 2024.” Sadly, what they got from our finest federal statisticians was maybe +227, maybe -355. And so, the Fed’s left once again with no idea what’s happening, a blindfolded elephant in the Chinashop with regular Americans dodging the fallout. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Putting the BS in BLS: Made-Up Job Numbers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Politico: Will Senate Dems Save RFK Nomination?

Reminder: Lefties Are Always Gaslighting

Temperatures outside were as low as -30°C (-22°F).

Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope have discovered an unusual trace of a powerful jet from a giant black hole that crashed into an unidentified object in its path. Scientists used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Space Telescope to study the Centaurus A galaxy, which is 12 million light-years away. At the center of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole that shoots out jets of plasma that extend across the galaxy. These jets come not from the black hole itself, but from a surrounding disk of hot matter that feeds the black hole. In the new image, astronomers have seen that one of the black hole’s jets has crashed into an unknown object. The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal. Astronomers have found that the black hole’s jet is moving at almost the speed of light. Observations have revealed a V-shaped region of radiation that is associated with an unknown X-ray source. It has not been observed before in the Centaurus A galaxy. The unknown object, dubbed C4, is in the path of the supermassive black hole’s jet. At the same time, astronomers have determined that the length of each part of the “V” is at least 700 light years. For comparison, the closest star to us is almost 4 light years away, and one light year is 9.4 trillion kilometers. Astronomers don’t yet know what the X-ray-emitting object is that the black hole’s jet has crashed into. It could be a massive star that isn’t gravitationally bound to the black hole, or it could be a star that orbits the black hole. Scientists believe that the X-ray emission from the C4 object could be created by a collision between jet particles and particles of the stellar wind, if it is indeed a star. But why the radiation has a V-shape also remains a mystery. In fact, this isn’t the first time astronomers have seen the jet from Centaurus A’s black hole crash into other objects in the galaxy. Previous studies have suggested that these objects may be massive stars or clouds of interstellar gas. But the encounters between these objects and the jet of black hole plasma produce oval-shaped emissions in the images, rather than a V-shape. Astronomers are now trying to figure out why C4 produces the radiation it does after colliding with the black hole’s jet. It may have something to do with the type of object and how directly the jet hits it. The post Black Hole Shoots Plasma Into Space, Stumble Into Something Unknown appeared first on Anomalien.com.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel reported on his Tuesday show that several members of his staff have become infatuated with UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s alleged murderer. During his monologue, Kimmel read several text exchanges between the staff and their friends and family, including ones who promised to bake him cookies and those who desperately wanted to get on the jury. Kimmel declared that, “So many women and so many men are going nuts over how good-looking this killer is, and there's a huge wave of horny washing over us right now. It's like we're one of the guys you work with says, ‘I had a dream about you last night.’ When it's the FedEx guy with the big muscles and rolled-up sleeves, you’re like, ‘Oh,’ but if it’s the bald IT guy wearing Crocs with black socks, you’re on the phone with HR, it’s kind of that same dynamic.”     He then recalled, “Our staff today, I've never experienced anything like this. These are screen grabs of actual exchanges between members of our staff and their friends, relatives, whatever. I've changed the names to protect the guilty, but actually, let's see, Lorraine C. asks, ‘Do you guys think the UnitedHealthcare CEO is hot?’ Friend replies, ‘Yes, I love Luigi, I think he's gay, though.’” That was just the beginning, “This is an exchange between two of our producers, we’ll call them Elphaba and Glinda, ‘My TikTok is flooded,’ ‘My mom chain's going nuts. That's my TikTok,’ ‘Everyone is obsessed. People are saying a New York jury has the power to find him innocent because we all love him.’ ‘I'm not mad at him.’” Deciding to brag about that on national TV, even under a pseudonym, is not a sterling endorsement of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff, but Kimmel continued, “This one’s from Susie D.; she got this text from her mother: ‘Am I the only person wondering if the gunman had tweezed and reshaped his eyebrows, he would have never been caught?’ ‘Ha ha, good point, his eyebrows are very defined.’ Next one: ‘Please tell me you’re obsessed as I am with this handsome CEO killer.’ ‘Yes, so many questions.’ ‘Like, ‘can I fix you?’’ and Veronica says, ‘I need him so bad, no, like so bad, so, so bad.’ ‘Okay, so I would visit him in prison. And bake him cookies, maybe. Perhaps more. But I haven't thought that far ahead.’” Kimmel concluded with, “It's not just women. This is from the husband of one of our staffers. ‘Did you see the assassin?’ ‘Yesssssssssss, I'm so upset. Like, excuse me, LOL.’ ‘I'm about to be a jailhouse bride. 'Cause damn, shorty is so fooooine. I'm dead or willing to be.’ And one more from a young woman in our segment department: ‘Texting all my friends in New York that I hope they get called to jury duty.’ ‘God, I want to do jury duty so bad.’ Well, at least it's stirring up a passion for civic duty, I guess.” The next time Kimmel goes on one of his rants about how awful Republicans are or uses emotion to make a point about health care policy, just remember his staff is full of people who have fallen head over heels for a cold-blooded murderer, and Kimmel thinks that is funny. Here is a transcript for the December 10 show: ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! 12/10/2024 11:37 PM ET JIMMY KIMMEL: So many women and so many men are going nuts over how good-looking this killer is, and there's a huge wave of horny washing over us right now. It's like we're one of the guys you work with says, "I had a dream about you last night." When it's the FedEx guy with the big muscles and rolled-up sleeves, you’re like, “Oh,” but if it’s the bald IT guy wearing Crocs with black socks, you’re on the phone with HR, it’s kind of that same dynamic. Our staff today, I've never experienced anything like this. These are screen grabs of actual exchanges between members of our staff and their friends, relatives, whatever. I've changed the names to protect the guilty, but actually, let's see, Lorraine C. asks. “Do you guys think the UnitedHealthcare CEO is hot?” Friend replies, “Yes, I love Luigi, I think he's gay though.” This is an exchange between two of our producers, we’ll call them Elphaba and Glinda, “My TikTok is flooded," "My mom chain's going nuts. That's my TikTok," "Everyone is obsessed. People are saying a New York jury has the power to find him innocent because we all love him." "I'm not mad at him.” This one’s from Susie D.; she got this text from her mother: “Am I the only person wondering if the gunman had tweezed and reshaped his eyebrows, he would have never been caught?" "Ha ha, good point, his eyebrows are very defined.” Next one: “Please tell me you’re obsessed as I am with this handsome CEO killer.” “Yes, so many questions.” “Like, ‘can I fix you?'” and Veronica says, “I need him so bad, no, like so bad, so, so bad.” “Okay, so I would visit him in prison. And bake him cookies, maybe. Perhaps more. But I haven't thought that far ahead.” And it's not just women. This is from the husband of one of our staffers. “Did you see the assassin?” “Yesssssssssss, I'm so upset. Like, excuse me, LOL.” “I'm about to be a jailhouse bride. 'Cause, damn shorty is so fooooine. I'm dead or willing to be.” And one more from a young woman in our segment department: “Texting all my friends in New York that I hope they get called to jury duty." "God, I want to do jury duty so bad.” Well, at least it's stirring up a passion for civic duty, I guess.