The post Alex and the Somersault of Happiness 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. It’s not always easy to tell when your cat is happy, and other times, it’s so obvious that they may as well be holding a neon sign that says “This is what joy looks like!” Purring, cuddling, headbutting, and ‘making biscuits’ are all signs that your cat trusts you and is happy. My little ginger ninja, Alex, has one additional way of signalling his pleasure: the somersault of happiness. I’m not talking about just a roll. No, this is a somersault. The head down, body rolling forwards over the top manoeuvre one might expect from the likes of Simone Biles. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but it’s still quite an unusual move, and he always sticks the dismount. Alex has always been a bit of an odd one. Alex Is A Bit Of A Weirdo Like all cats, Alex is flexible, coordinated, and elegant. He also has some strange little quirks that set him apart from the other cats in our house, and most other cats I have known. For starters, he enjoys extending his front legs in front of him when perched on high surfaces. Not simply dangling his paws over the edge, but with the whole limb sticking out in front. His second positional quirk is his preference for sitting cross-legged. The first couple of times I noticed it, I assumed it was just a fluke. Perhaps he’d been in the middle of a turn, or got distracted as he was sitting down. However, you are far more likely to see Alex with his dainty little front feet crossed than to be so boring as to have them sit side by side like some sort of commoner. He’s always been a little bit different! The Mystery of Movement Why does he do this? Well, I suspect that if I could answer that question, I would be in possession of some pretty major feline secrets. What I do know is that he is a very sweet little cat with some unusual ways of expressing himself. Which brings me back to his happy little somersault. You’ve no doubt seen a happy cat. Hopefully, you’ve experienced the joy of watching a blissful cat as they rub themselves on walls, furniture, even you. When Alex gets into one of these displays of happiness, his rubbing takes a turn. A turn over the top of his head. He seems so wrapped up in showing us how happy he is, as well as enjoying the sensation of the walls and floor as he rubs up against them. Somewhere in the midst of all this bliss, he tucks his head between his front legs, and over he goes. It is completely adorable. Initially, my husband and I were the only ones to ever witness this strange little ritual, but over the years, a few close friends and relatives have been granted access to this elite group. Alex is quite wary of new people, so when he decides to demonstrate his joyful tumble for someone new, you can imagine how thrilled we, and the privileged recipient, are. The Somersault Happiness Is Just a Somersault Away Happiness isn’t always easy to come by in this world, and I can’t remember the last time I wanted to jump for joy, let alone somersault. But I have to admit, watching Alex expressing himself through gymnastics, is one way to put a smile on anyone’s face. Stay weird, Alex. This article is a part of Dr. Karyn's series with her five hilarious cats. Read her previous article: When Breeding Becomes Cruel: The Problem with Designer Cats The post Alex and the Somersault of Happiness 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 Five Books About Five SFF Stories With a Refreshing Lack of Violence Tired of weapons and explosions? How about some stories that move the plot along in other ways… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on October 4, 2024 Photo: Aliis Sinisalu [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Aliis Sinisalu [via Unsplash] Violence can be a very direct way to communicate. It will come as no surprise that violence can also be quite useful to authors—it’s the chili pepper in many plots. But consider this: Quiet conversations can be just as dramatic. You can test this yourself simply by softly whispering to any significant others you might have “We need to talk.” Plots don’t require gunplay, or sword fights, or weaponized leaf blowers to entertain and enthrall readers. Consider these five works1. The Men and the Mirror by Ross Rocklynne (1938) Stalwart space cop Colbie has pursued charmingly roguish criminal Deverel across the Solar System. Episodes in this series usually feature plots that depend on the physics of unique planetary settings. Deverel always escapes, but Colbie is relentless. Colbie arrives on the as-yet-unnamed planet Cyclops to discover that his quarry is deathly ill. Once Colbie solicitously nurses Deverel back to full health, the pair explore the planet’s dominant feature, a vast concave frictionless mirror onto which one would have to be foolish indeed to fall. Having fallen onto the mirror, the men discover that the mirror is almost but not quite frictionless. The mirror seems inescapable… but is it? This was the third installment in the Colbie and Deverel saga. Taken on its own, it’s an acceptable problem-solving story. In the context of the other two stories, the effect is either comic or tragic: poor Colbie is fated to never quite catch Deverel2. This was also the final entry in the series, perhaps because the Solar System only has a limited number of physics-demonstrating settings in which the pair could be temporarily trapped. “The Will” by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1954) (First published in Fantastic; collected in The View From the Stars) Doc Jules has doleful news for Rod. Rod’s stepson Kenny has leukemia. Without some miraculous medical breakthrough, Kenny is doomed. Nor will the boy and his family have long to come to terms with this death sentence. Kenny has at most months to live. Terminally ill Kenny takes the long view. Current medicine can’t save him. Inevitable progress means that a cure will eventually exist. Bridging the gap between his present predicament and that distant future cure for it is merely a technical challenge for which Kenny has the key insight. (The key insight isn’t hexapodia, as surprising as that may seem.) Kenny understands something from which Anne McCaffrey’s Moreta would have benefited: “But Dad, don’t you see? What difference does time make, if you’re working on a time machine?” Which is why Kenny is, with Bill and Ted, on the list of time-travel aficionados to whom one must compare all time-traveler aspirants. If a traveler cannot match the ingenuity of one young boy or two teenaged dolts, they probably should not have a time machine. The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke (1986) Perhaps the impending destruction of Earth and all on it provoked panic and mass violence… but not for the people of the ocean world Thalassa, fifty light-years from Earth. Provided a carefully curated version of humanity’s cultural heritage by the robot craft that decanted the first humans on Thalassa, the Thalassans are a bucolic, laid-back people who have found the perfect balance between procrastination and sloth. Into this garden of Eden comes a serpent, in the form of slower-than-light starship Magellan. The sleepers on Magellan outnumber the Thalassans. The visitors possess superior technology. The visitors also have no intention of staying any longer than it will take to replace their debris shield, nor do they intend to greatly inconvenience the locals to do so. Thus, the only real issue is how to courteously manage the ensuing Terran-Thalassan romantic triangles. There is an on-stage death in this novel but it’s the result of a mishap. Otherwise, everyone is terribly pleasant and polite, relentlessly non-confrontational. Perhaps it goes back to the local love of indolence. Why argue when one can just go fishing? Twilight Star Sui and Neri by Pan Tokunaga (2020) Inexpensive star flight and an abundance of easily settled planets have lured the majority of Earth’s people off-world. The few people remaining on Earth are insufficient to maintain, less alone increase, Earth’s infrastructure. Thus, these few are doomed to inexorable, albeit genteel, decline. Having known nothing else, this does not concern either Sui or her elder brother Neri (who is a talking sloth). Off-worlder Shida takes a room at Sui and Neri’s Kutsurogi-no-Yado inn. What follows is a largely carefree exploration of Sui and Neri’s bucolic hometown, Tetsunagi. It’s not so much that Earth in general is an impoverished utopia, but that Tetsunagi is. In fact, it’s pretty clear that had Pan Tokunaga wanted a kidnap and rescue plot, the means to provide it existed. The author did not, thus the amiable tale that ensues. Seven Days in Silverglen by walkingnorth (2022-onward) In a world much like ours, populated by creatures of myth, dryad Mira has a problem. Mira wants to join her relatives for the autumnal celebrations in Silverglen. Mira would like to avoid her family’s incessant efforts to interfere in single Mira’s romantic life, or lack thereof. The logical solution? Ask a co-worker to pose as Mira’s girlfriend for the duration of the celebration. Gorgon Tess is the perfect candidate, save for one or two facts of which Mira is unaware. Tess is painfully shy. Tess is painfully infatuated with Mira. Tess is also entirely sensible, which is why after less consideration than one might expect, she decides to confront her anxieties and agree to Mira’s request. What could possibly go wrong? One of the contributing factors to Tess’ social anxiety is that one of the features her world shares with ours is bigotry. Some races are considered more equal than others. Gorgons are down at the bottom of the pecking order. While there are fewer SFF works that eschew gunplay and other forms of intentional violence than those that lean into violence, there are far more examples than the five listed above. Please regale us with particularly fine examples in the comments below.[end-mark] I almost included On the Beach, as the events within the novel itself are largely peaceful. However, some people might view state-sanctioned mass suicide as a form of violence, and of course the entire plot is predicated on World War Three having doomed all life on Earth. ︎It does not help that Colbie immediately forgets his ostensible goal as soon as he discovers the criminal is ill. One almost suspects Colbie values the pursuit, and not its supposed goal… ︎The post Five SFF Stories With a Refreshing Lack of Violence appeared first on Reactor.

Hurricane Katrina, historian Douglas Brinkley wrote for Vanity Fair on the 10th anniversary of the 2005 storm, was the “Flood That Sank George W. Bush.” Ten years from now, the American people might look back at the current natural disaster and say that Hurricane Helene was the flood that sank Vice President Kamala Harris. Although 19 years apart, the failures that plagued the Bush-Cheney administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina and the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene are strikingly similar. When Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, Bush was on his 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas. The president had been away from the White House for more than three weeks, working with a reduced staff and reduced resources from his Crawford property. Bush received his daily intelligence briefings from a secure trailer parked across the street. The Bush administration did, however, get to work before Katrina struck by pre-positioning assets throughout the Southeast. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, pre-positioned more than 3.5 million liters of water, nearly 2 million meals, and 33 medical teams in what became the largest preparation of federal disaster assistance in the nation’s history. Although Bush was slow to act, he was aggressive when he did, signing emergency declarations for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in quick succession at the requests of the respective governors. Nevertheless, the president remained in Crawford, Texas. It wasn’t until the morning of Aug. 30, 2005, when Bush determined he would return to Washington. First, however, Bush made an appearance in San Diego for a scheduled address at a V-J Day celebration. Bush began his remarks by expressing concern for and solidarity with those affected by Hurricane Katrina, but it was what happened on the flight back to D.C. that defined Bush’s response to that storm. At the request of top political adviser Karl Rove, Bush agreed to fly over and survey the wreckage left in Katrina’s wake. Bush and his staff refrained from visiting the disaster area to avoid pulling resources away from the rescue effort. From thousands of feet above, Bush stared down in dismay at the devastation while photographers snapped pictures. “The photo-op of the man in charge staring out the window of his plane was disastrous.” journalist Douglas Brinkley wrote, “the sight of a man slumming, a man in a bubble, a man deluged.” President George W. Bush surveys the damage left by Hurricane Katrina from a window of Air Force One as it flies over New Orleans on Aug. 31, 2005. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) Bush wrote about the photos in his 2010 book “Decision Points”: When the pictures were released, I realized I had made a serious mistake. The photo of me hovering over the damage suggested I was detached from the suffering on the ground. That wasn’t how I felt. But once the public impression was formed, I couldn’t change it. Three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, on Sept. 2, 2005, Bush made his first trip to the affected area. For Biden and Harris, it took six days after Hurricane Helene made landfall for the president and vice president to survey the wreckage from the ground. Like the Bush administration, the Biden-Harris administration had FEMA pre-positioning assets in areas expected to be hit by the storm: 14 urban search and rescue teams, 1.6 million liters of water, and 2.7 million meals. Biden signed emergency declarations requested by Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. And, like Bush, Biden and Harris didn’t oversee the federal government’s initial response from the White House. The president was at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, over the weekend, but cut his time short and returned Sunday to Washington. When reporters asked Biden why he wasn’t commanding the federal response from the White House, Biden said he “was commanding it.” “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well,” the president said. “l command it. It’s called a telephone.” Harris, however, didn’t return to Washington until Monday. The vice president was busy fundraising and campaigning on the West Coast when Helene struck. At fundraisers in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Harris hobnobbed with megadonors, some of whom spent nearly $1 million for a ticket to meet the vice president. She raised $55 million for her campaign while the Southeast suffered. Harris, however, did release a statement saying: “My heart goes out to everyone impacted by the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Helene. As we continue to respond and as communities recover, our administration will remain in constant contact with state and local officials.”  Harris posted a photo on the social media platform X that allegedly shows her on the phone with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell while flying from California to Nevada for more campaign events. She spoke Sunday night at a rally in Las Vegas, but cut short her time there to rush back to Washington for a briefing at FEMA headquarters. https://twitter.com/VP/status/1840589803789934809/photo/1 Bush’s absence from the scene in a time of crisis and the images of him flying over Hurricane Katrina’s devastation left an indelible stain on the 43rd president’s tenure.  A Washington Post-ABC News poll in September 2005 found that Bush’s approval ratings were the lowest he had received up until that point. Trust in Bush during a crisis cratered. It was all downhill from there. In Bush’s own words, “the legacy of fall 2005 lingered for the rest of my time in office.” The legacy of fall 2024 might linger for Harris as well. Lucky for her, that might not be too long. The post The Flood That Might Sink Kamala Harris appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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And that creates a problem when it comes to conservation.

Hurricane Helene has wrought havoc, killing at least 215 Americans and leaving thousands homeless. Entire communities, such as Chimney Rock, North Carolina, are in ruins. Many citizens remain stranded, powerless, and in desperate need of supplies. When reading speeches in some of the affected states this week, President Joe Biden signaled an understanding of the disaster's impact — noting in Raleigh, for instance, the "historic proportions" of the damages. However, a passing encounter with the press upon his return to the White House Thursday revealed the Democratic president has at best a sporadic grasp on the reality of the situation. "What do the states in the storm zone need, Mr. President?" a reporter asked Biden. "Sorry?" responded the 81-year-old president, who had just finished off celebrating former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney's supposed "physical courage" in endorsing Kamala Harris. "What do the the states in the storm zones — what do they need after what you saw today?" said the reporter. "Oh, in the storm zone? I'm wondering which storm you're talking about," said Biden. "They've got everything they need. They're very happy across the board." Biden's apparent confusion regarding "which storm" was at issue as well as his characterization of those affected by Hurricane Helene as "happy" prompted concerns and outrage. 'My grief today is unfathomable.' One user responding to the video on X noted, "This makes my blood boil! Our families are suffering. The death toll is going to be shocking. The missing need to be found!!!!" "Oh, everyone impacted by Helene are happy, across the board. Oh. Good to know. Getting everything they need. Oh. Good to know," wrote another user, ostensibly in disbelief over Biden's remarks. While Americans have showcased compassion, courage, and resilience throughout this ordeal, it's clear that happiness is far from ubiquitous. A user on X who goes by A.P. Hill Legacy Foundation shared his firsthand account of challenges on the ground in North Carolina, noting that people "have no driveways, no power[,] no food. People are dying. Grown men crying and hugging me for giving them $100." 'Harris says Joe Biden is completely fit to be president.' "People were crying telling me that they watched a women [sic] and her 3 children be washed away in the flood and they cried the entire night because they couldn't help them," said the X user. "Another man told me that his son is a paramedic and one of the bodies he found was his best friend. I hugged them and cried." Meghan Drye of Asheville, North Carolina, made clear to Fox Weather earlier this week that she was anything but happy, having just lost her parents and her 7-year-old son Micah to the storm. "My grief today is unfathomable," said Drye, emphasizing she's been sustained since then only by prayer. "I'm sorrowful. You know, I feel broken." The tearful mother added while in the embrace of her weeping sister, "I'm so proud of my son because in his last moments he wasn't screaming for me. He was screaming, 'Jesus. Jesus save me. Jesus, I hear you. Jesus, I'm calling upon you.' In his wildest dreams and everything that he wanted to be was a superhero, and that was his goal in life. And instead, he's my hero because he reached for something past flesh, past human, past anything that even grown adults, I think, would reach for. My son called out to the one God Almighty. And I think at that moment, he was rescued." Critics seized upon Biden's confusion as more evidence that Kamala Harris hid disqualifying decrepitude from the American public. The Virginia GOP wrote, "Remember: Kamala Harris says Joe Biden is completely fit to be president. She is either a liar or hopelessly oblivious. Either one is disqualifying." The Mississippi GOP tweeted, "This is what Kamala Harris & the media covered up." The Trump campaign narrowed the blame down further, writing, "THIS is what Kamala covered up." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

In preparation for the first installment of Blaze Media’s three-part mini-documentary series, “A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn,” we decided to update readers on how we reached this point in our “Truth About January 6” series. I had been writing about January 6 for nearly two and a half years before becoming a correspondent with Blaze Media. As a result, many of our readers may be unfamiliar with the background stories that led to our major revelations about the trial perjuries of Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus and Officer Harry Dunn. Our reports also exposed corruption within the leadership of the United States Capitol Police. My interest in the Capitol Police began when I first witnessed the violence on the lower west terrace of the Capitol Building on January 6. Through my camera lens, I captured the fear in their eyes — not just from the attacks by a small group of violent provocateurs but from the overwhelming sight of thousands of protesters advancing on their position. The police were clearly caught off guard. But why? Were they unaware of the scheduled marches and legally permitted protests on the Capitol grounds that day? I needed to find the answers to these questions, and that curiosity sparked what has now become a three-and-a-half-year investigation into the inner workings of the Capitol Police. No ordinary day When I first met former Capitol Police Lieutenant Tarik Johnson, I told him that I had previously written about how he and his fellow officers were set up as “sacrificial pawns” on January 6. He pointed his finger at me and said, “That’s exactly right. They didn’t give a s**t about what happened to us that day.” Now, imagine being a Capitol Police officer showing up to work on January 6, 2021, expecting a normal day at the office. Whether you were a rookie or had 20 years of experience with the agency — regardless of your specialized training and position — many officers had spent years performing what amounted to the duties of a glorified tour guide for VIP visitors and general tourists at the nation’s seat of government. That’s an oversimplification, as the Capitol Police are made up of various specialized units, including long-gun-certified officers, a civil disturbance unit, the criminal investigation squad, the intelligence unit, dignitary protection, a SWAT team, the hazardous devices team, and several others. Why didn’t the Capitol Police frontline officers know what was coming their way? Skipping ahead to the initial breach of the west-side barricades — where Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was knocked unconscious after being shoved down by the first violent perpetrators, hitting her head on the concrete steps — now imagine being one of the few dozen Capitol Police officers ordered to respond, redeploy, and defend the Capitol’s lower west terrace against the initial agitators and provocateurs. Many supposed protesters arrived wearing gas masks, carrying blunt instruments, and holding canisters of various types of pepper spray. And who knows what else might have been concealed under their thick winter clothing? You’ve heard over Capitol Police radio that unexpected visitors have already overrun outer barricades. They’re now pushing and pulling against the barricade line you just arrived to defend. Some rioters are breaking apart permanent black-metal fencing, turning the pieces into clubs and projectile spears. You’ve arrived on the battle line without protective gear — no helmet, eye protection, or gas mask. Still, your job is to prevent further incursion toward the Capitol Building, where Congress and the vice president of the United States are currently in session to certify the Electoral College vote. Already outnumbered by both peaceful protesters and violent agitators, you look over the crowd and see thousands more protesters marching toward your position, their intentions unknown. As you defend the third, hastily assembled bike rack barricade line, you're being shoved, hit with flagpoles and broken pieces of fencing, and assaulted with pepper spray. You have no idea whether the thousands approaching your position also intend violence or carry more dangerous weapons. You might rightly assume you may never go home to your family again. Tarik Johnson told me exactly that. During the initial chaos and violence on January 6, Johnson called his wife to say he might not make it home alive. Video verification Two years later, many of my initial impressions were challenged by new and increasingly available evidence. For example, on the evening of Jan. 6, after returning to my Arlington, Virginia, hotel room, I posted a video on YouTube during which I said I had witnessed the majority of the violence being committed by Trump supporters. After returning home, I spent five days conducting a frame-by-frame analysis of my own footage, taken from the Capitol’s west terrace battle line and through the Capitol building. During that video review, I repeatedly found myself asking, “Who is that?” By the time I published my first story about what I witnessed that day, all my initial preconceptions were challenged. I even adopted a new life rule: “I’ll never again believe anything I don't see with my own eyes ... but even then, consult the videotape.” Our eyes can deceive us during a chaotic, violent event. That's why every law enforcement officer knows that a dozen eyewitnesses to a violent crime will give a dozen different accounts of what happened. Without ample experience in such events, the shock of unexpected violence makes people's minds register and process the episode in various and often contradictory ways. I now know — beyond a reasonable doubt — that some of those frontline agitators and provocateurs, who I initially assumed were all Trump supporters, were anything but. Right-wing militias were present. Left-wing anarchists and Antifa? Possibly. I definitely observed crowd manipulation tactics from professional provocateurs experienced in inciting violence and coordinating the movements of large groups. Do I know for certain whom these provocateurs worked for? Not entirely, but our understanding is growing. Secret commandos on scene Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger, in his final testimony before Congress on February 23, 2021, stated: “There is an opportunity to learn lessons from the events of January 6. Investigations should be considered as to funding and travel of what appears to be professional agitators.” During the January 2023 trial of Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who posed with his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk, defense attorney Bradford Geyer directly asked Capitol Police Captain Carneysha Mendoza whether the provocateurs she observed on January 6 operated as “highly trained violent people who work and coordinate together.” Mendoza confirmed, “Yes.” In the lead-up to my second story about January 6 — published on February 24, 2021 — my investigations led me to discover and report that several federal agencies, including Army special forces operatives, were embedded in the crowd that day. This was later confirmed by a Newsweek story on January 3, 2022, headlined “Secret Commandos with Shoot-to-Kill Authority Were at the Capitol.” Newsweek revealed that the mission of those tactical units from virtually every three-letter federal agency, along with “the role that the military played in this highly classified operation,” is “still unknown.” Yet those special operators and tactical forces were “seconded” to the FBI. If the FBI had advance intelligence substantial enough to warrant deploying such a highly trained and well-armed secret force, why didn’t the Capitol Police frontline officers also know what was coming their way? Or did only certain individuals within the Capitol Police leadership know what was coming that day?

The Civilization 7 system requirements have finally been revealed, and they're an interesting mix of old and new hardware, depending on the settings you want to run. However, if your gaming PC or laptop barely met the requirements of the previous game, you're going to need some upgrades if you hope to run the latest Sid Meier turn-based global domination sim. The Civilization 7 release date is still a few months away, meaning there is time to prepare your gaming PC to meet its system requirements. You won't need the best graphics card, but if you're aiming for the Ultra tier, you're going to need to invest in some of the best gaming RAM as Civilization 7 demands up to 32GB of memory. Continue reading The Civilization 7 system requirements need an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 at Ultra MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

A VERY Confused Biden Says People in Storm Zone Are Getting What They Need and 'Very Happy'

Oh, Honey, NO! Kamala Harris Truly HUMILIATES Herself in Desperate Post Pandering to Republicans and LOL