I’ve seen some people complain about how the Owl is supposedly “not happy” or “warning the girl”. Those folks actually don’t know anything about birds, because birds including Owls communicate their unhappiness through Threat Displays. In other words, they puff their feathers out and make themselves look as larger and angry as possible.
I don’t know the term for it, but those “nibbles” are one way birds display affection. It’s a grooming behavior, and all kinds of birds do it. The parakeets I had as a child did it, and our Conure does it. He actually goes, “Kisses! Kisses!” when he wants us to get close so he can do it. You’ll also see wild birds, including Owls, do it with each other.
Owls are also a social species, and will often cuddle with each other. So in conclusion, Happy Owl is Happy and loves their little girl.
In the official Christmas advert for the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, the popular Judith Kerr character Mog the Forgetful Cat commences a chain of unfortunate events that completely destroys Christmas for her loving family. Mog’s clumsy actions, however, also included accidentally dialing 999, which saved the lives of her family and even rescued Christmas in that the generous people in the neighborhood came out in droves to share their Christmas dinner with the Thomas family.
This year, we worked in partnership with HarperCollins Children’s Books and world renowned author and illustrator Judith Kerr to create a Christmas story based on her much loved character Mog. We hope that families will come together this Christmas to enjoy this very special story #ChristmasIsForSharing
More than half a dozen state governors have come out against President Obama’s plans to relocate several thousand Syrian refugees within the United States.
Some have pledged to actively resist settlement of these refugees.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ®, for example, signed a letter to Obama that
begins “as governor of Texas, I write to inform you that the State of Texas will not accept any refugees from Syria
in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Paris.” Louisiana Gov.
Bobby Jindal ® issued an executive order instructing all “departments,
budget units, agencies, offices, entities, and officers of the
executive branch of the State of Louisiana” to “utilize all lawful means to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the State of Louisiana while this Order is in effect.”
The problem for Jindal, Abbott and the other governors opposed to
admitting refugees, however, is that there is no lawful means that
permits a state government to dictate immigration policy to the
president in this way. As the Supreme Court explained in Hines v. Davidowitz,
“the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign
affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and
deportation, is made clear by the Constitution.” States do not get to
overrule the federal government on matters such as this one.
Stop vilifying adults that live with their parents.
We’re still deep in one of the worst economic recessions of modern times. For many of us its not a choice but a requirement in order to survive. For many of us we have disabilities that make finding accommodation that suit our needs a lot harder and a lot more expensive.
Many of us pay into the household. Many of us are trapped in abusive households because we don’t have the means to leave. We aren’t moochers or afraid to leave the nest. The world simply isn’t built to support us anymore.
I want to write an action movie about some older retired government agent who’s married and settled down. He’s started to let his guard down. And that’s when the past comes back to haunt him.
They come for him while he’s home alone and he’s resisting their interrogation techniques, refusing to betray whatever or whoever they’re after. Except then his teenage daughter comes home early.
And the baddies send one of their henchmen out there to deal with her. And RetiredActionDad is all “Don’t you touch her! I’ll kill you! Rar!” But the baddies just laugh.
Except they realize, after a little while has passed, that the one guy never came back from dealing with the daughter.
And then go outside and find the missing baddie floating face down in the pool.
The rest of the movie is the teenage girl calling in favors and running around following the baddies to save her RetiredActionDad.
President Obama said on Monday morning that the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed more than 100 people on Friday should not affect the small intake of Syrian refugees into the United States. "Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," he said during remarks at the G20 economic summit in Antalya, Turkey.
The comments were a direct rebuke to the governors of Alabama and Michigan, who announced over the weekend that their states would no longer resettle Syrian refugees because of security concerns. They were joined by the governors of Texasand Arkansas on Monday morning. While no Syrians have settled in Alabama since the start of the country's uprising in 2011, Michigan is home to a large Arab and Middle Eastern community and at least 200 Syrians have found homes there, according to data compiled by the New York Times. That number was likely to rise after the Obama administration's announcement in September that the US would take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, a nearly tenfold increase in the number of Syrians who have settled here since 2012.
Obama also took a clear swipe at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, both of whom said on Sunday that the US should focus on taking in Christian refugees rather than Muslims. Their comments echoed those of Eastern European leaders who pushed back against accepting refugees over the summer by saying their countries weren't prepared to accept Muslims. "When I heard political leaders suggest that there would be a religious test for which a person who's fleeing a warn-torn country is admitted...that's shameful," Obama said, growing visibly heated. "That's not American. That's not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion."
Opponents of refugee resettlement have called for more stringent security checks on Syrians to make sure they have no connections to ISIS or other terrorist groups, but Syrians currently undergo a lengthy screening process that resettlement experts say is already sufficient to uncover terrorist ties. "Refugees are subject to the highest level of security checks of any category of traveler to the United States," wrote Danna Van Brandt, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, in an email to Mother Jones. "Screening includes the involvement of the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense."
A Syrian passport bearing the name Ahmed Almuhamed was found near the remains of a suicide bomber at Paris' Stade de France on Friday night. The passport was used by a refugee who entered Greece just six weeks ago, stoking fears that ISIS members may be using the refugee crisis as cover. But Syrian passports, both stolen and forged, are popular on the black market, and it's still unknown if Almuhamed himself was the bomber. Obama cautioned on Monday about drawing quick links between terrorist groups and refugees. "It's very important that...we do not close our hearts or these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism," he said.
Obama also fielded several questions about his strategy in Syria, which he defended as the only "sustainable" strategy available to the United States. While he said there will be an "intensification" of the current US actions, which include a long-running bombing campaign against ISIS and the recent deployment of special operations soldiers to northern Syria, he rejected any possibility that the US will deploy a large ground force to take on ISIS. "It is not just my view, but the view of my closest military and civilian advisors, that that would be a mistake," he said. "We would see a repetition of what we've see before: If you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance and who are pushing back against ideological extremists, that they resurface unless you're prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries."
Women’s health services are arguably Planned Parenthood’s most vital and necessary component. But more than 4.6 million people use their sexual and reproductive health and education services each year, and from 2002 and 2012, the number of men using them grew by a staggering 83%. Yes, Planned Parenthood helps men. Even when they are not the immediate beneficiaries of Planned Parenthood, men often are by direct association.
God I hope I am immortalised by my husband for having 40 cats
Fun facts:
It cost $5,000 in 1888 to have this painting made, which is more than $120,000 in today’s money.
I say 1888 because it took three years for Kahler to complete, reportedly because he spent most of the time studying and sketching each cat to get a feel for their personality.
It was painted for Kate Johnson, the title was her husband’s idea though, proving him the most patient and good-humored husband in the history of crazy cat ladies.
Speaking of cat ladies, the picture actually contains 42 cats. Or more specifically, Mrs. Johnson’s 42 most favorite cats. She had 350 in total.
It sold at auction via Sotheby’s a few days ago for over $800,000 dollars, vastly more than its $200,000-$300,000 estimate.
“Recently Gaiman shared his thoughts on “racebending” in an interview with Junot Diaz. Bleeding Cool reports that during the interview, Gaiman brought up two of his books: Anansi Boys and American Gods.
Apparently Gaiman refused to the sell the rights to Anansi Boys when a
producer told him he would have to change the race of the two main
characters because “Black people don’t like fantasy.” Considering the
entire book is about two brothers whose father was an African god, their
race is vital the story and is not something Gaiman would ever consider
changing.”
One year at Christmas Ginny is opening presents and she opens the one from her mom. It is a much too large crimson sweater with a G on it. She holds it in her hands out in front of her. Her brothers walk in wishing her a merry Christmas all wearing theirs. George’s midriff is showing.
“The Institute for Women’s Policy Research released a report Wednesday noting the U.S. states in which women are more likely than men to live in poverty and less likely to own a business. Those states are marked in pink:
Hold on. That can’t be right — every state is colored in.
Unfortunately, the map is accurate. According to the report, “Status of Women in the States: 2015,” even though women are outperforming men, across races, in education and health care coverage, they still own fewer business and tend to be poorer.
And it’s especially problematic for millennial women, who are much more likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher than millennial men, but who are consistently earning less and living in poverty more.
Only 17.6% of men without children live in poverty, whereas the number for childless women is 20.9%. The most disheartening statistic in the study reveals that the most likely demographic to live in poverty is single mothers, with an astonishing 43.1% living below the poverty line.
What can we do to make it right? The most obvious change to make would be to mandate equal pay. This would cut the poverty rate for working women by half. Women are still only earning 78 cents to every man’s dollar.
“Using 2012 data, the amount of income that women would gain if women were paid the same amount as men would amount to just under 450 billion dollars which is about 3% of 2012 GDP,” Jessica Milli, co-author of the latest report, told Mic. “That is about 14 times the amount of money that was spent by federal and state governments on welfare.”
“ In August, 1968, the country was still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King four months earlier, and the race riots that followed on its heels. Nightly news showed burning cities, white flight, radicals and reactionaries snarling at each other across the cultural divide.
“A brand new children’s show out of Pittsburgh, which had gone national the previous year, took a different approach. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood introduced Officer Clemmons, a black police officer who was a kindly, responsible authority figure, kept his neighborhood safe, and was Mr. Roger’s equal, colleague and neighbor.
“Around the first anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemmons to join him in soaking their tired feet in a plastic wading pool. And there they were, brown feet and pasty white feet, side by side in the water. Silently, contemplatively, without comment.
“25 years later, when the actor playing Officer Clemmons retired, his last scene on the show revisited that same wading pool, this time reminiscing. Officer Clemmons asked Mr. Rogers what he’d been thinking during their silent interlude a quarter century before. Fred Rogers’ answer was that he’d been thinking of the many ways people say “I love you.”
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” – Ray Bradbury
