https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/netanyahu-advises-supporters-that-voting-more-important-than-sex/2019/09/16/f54e63d2-d885-11e9-a1a5-162b8a9c9ca2_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1



JERUSALEM — In battling to extend his run as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has warned voters of many a hazard, from unrest in the occupied territories to nuclear weapons in Iran. In the hours before the polls were to open Tuesday, he warned of another one: election-day sex.

Voting day is a national holiday here and Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party posted a last-minute video beseeching supporters not to waste it by going to the beach, lounging on the couch or — as suggested by a shot of four feet intertwining beneath the sheets — engaging in a bit of weekday whoopee. While you’re enjoying yourself, the ad ends, “the left is getting ready to take over the government.”

It was part of a closing pitch that could seem strange to American political consultants who seek to convey an air of building momentum at the end of a campaign. By contrast, Netanyahu’s final message has been: I’m losing.

The final public polls showed the race between Netanyahu and former army chief of staff Benny Gantz as too close call or even slightly favoring Likud. (It is illegal to release new survey results in the final three days of the campaign.) But in hopes of motivating his base to go vote for the second time in five months, Netanyahu has been waging an all-out, all-is-lost campaign.

Showing his legendary ability to dominate the narrative, the prime minister was ever-present on national television and radio over the campaign’s final weekend, sparring with the “hostile media,” warning of widespread voter fraud in Arab neighborhoods and claiming that the country’s recent run of security and growth was in fact slipping away. Israelis, who have heard the apocalyptic tone before, call it Netanyahu’s “oy gevalt” campaign.

“Netanyahu is extremely competent at increasing the turnout of his political base,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute. “He did in 2015, he did in April and he’s trying to do it now.”

https://www.boredpanda.com/comedy-wildlife-photography-awards-finalists-2019/

It's that time of the year again! Now in its 5th year, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards continue to delight everyone with the stellar quality of their entrants, in both a technical and comedic sense.

Behind the laughter is a serious message from founders of the awards, Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam. “Remember, we are all about conservation,” they write on their website. “We want you to take up our banner of wildlife conservation, bang the drum, beat the cymbal and make some noise, we need to spread the word – wildlife, as we know it, is in danger, all over the world and we need to do something to help save it. You can start by going and having a look at what the Born Free Foundation are doing at www.bornfree.org.uk”

With the level of competition at an all-time high this year, the judges faced a nigh-impossible task of narrowing them down to just 40 finalists. However, they got there in the end and the results are here! Which are your favorites? Who do you think will win? Scroll down below to check out the final 40 for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!

The best wildlife photos taken this year reveal a hippo murder, a hungry leopard seal, and a weevil ensnared by zombie fungus

https://www.businessinsider.com/best-wildlife-photos-of-2019-animals-struggle-to-survive-2019-9

The London Natural History Museum's annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition awards photographers whose work inspires us to consider our place in the natural world and our responsibility to protect it.
This year, the contest received 48,000 entries from photographers in 100 countries.
The front-runners captured images of a leopard seal lunging for a penguin, a male hippo crushing a newborn in its jaws, and a sea turtle strangled by a rope.
Here are the 14 best photographs from this year's contest.

Guy Says African Architecture Isn’t Showcased Compared To European And Asian, Posts 44 Of Its Gorgeous Examples

https://www.boredpanda.com/african-architecture-styles-igbo-excellence/

Byzantine, Gothic, Baroque, Modernist… We are familiar with many different styles of ‘Western’ architecture because they are celebrated and rightly so. Ottoman-style mosques and the pagodas of East Asia are also instantly recognizable, as well as the temples of the pre-colonial civilizations that flourished in Central and South America.

However, the Great Pyramids Of Giza aside, the glories of African architecture are often shamefully overlooked. Sadly, this is a symptom of a larger problem overall, where the rich diversity and culture of the African continent is largely glossed over in international media. Most reporting from the continent focuses only on issues that reinforce negative stereotypes – those of poverty, disease and war.

There is much to appreciate about pre-colonial Africa – which is barely ever mentioned outside of history books. Up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs existed, and many advanced kingdoms and empires – such as the Asante Union, the Mossi Kingdom and the Zulu Kingdom – thrived before Europeans arrived with their guns, slavery and religion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/09/04/slow-intense-unrelenting-science-behind-hurricane-dorians-most-dangerous-qualities/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1



The science connecting climate change to hurricanes like Dorian is strong. Warmer oceans fuel more extreme storms; rising sea levels bolster storm surges and lead to worse floods. Just this summer, after analyzing more than 70 years of Atlantic hurricane data, NASA scientist Tim Hall reported that storms have become much more likely to “stall” over land, prolonging the time when a community is subjected to devastating winds and drenching rain.

But none of the numbers in his spreadsheets could prepare Hall for the image on his computer screen this week: Dorian swirling as a Category 5 storm, monstrous and nearly motionless, above the islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama.

Seeing it “just spinning there, spinning there, spinning there, over the same spot,” Hall said, “you can’t help but be awestruck to the point of speechlessness.”

After pulverizing the Bahamas for more than 40 hours, Dorian finally swerved north Tuesday as a Category 2 storm. It is expected to skirt the coasts of Florida and Georgia before striking land again in the Carolinas, where it could deliver more life-threatening wind, storm surge and rain.



“Simply unbelievable,” tweeted Marshall Shepherd, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Georgia and former president of the American Meteorological Society. “I feel nausea over this, and I only get that feeling with a few storms.”

The hurricane has matched or broken records for its intensity and for its creeping pace over the Bahamas. But it also fits a trend: Dorian’s appearance made 2019 the fourth straight year in which a Category 5 hurricane formed in the Atlantic — the longest such streak on record.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/politics/guns-climate-senate-standoff-smaller-states/index.html



(CNN)There's a political dynamic that virtually guarantees Congress will remain locked in a contentious stalemate over gun violence like the weekend's mass shooting in Texas and the risk of climate change embodied in the ferocious Hurricane Dorian menacing the Southeast United States.

Both issues highlight the effective veto over legislation that the Senate provides to a group of inland states -- many of them smaller, preponderantly white and heavily rural -- with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry and a strong gun culture.

These states -- primarily across the South, the Plains and the Mountain West -- provide Republicans enough Senate seats to sustain a filibuster blocking action on guns or climate change, despite polls showing that a clear national majority now supports a federal response to both.

Even if Democrats in 2020 hold the House, retake the White House and regain a Senate majority, this regional dynamic virtually guarantees Republicans could still block any legislation that offers an ambitious response to either challenge.

That's why a growing number of Democratic observers think if the party regains unified control of government in 2020, climate and gun control will likely be the two issues that create the most pressure for eliminating the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance legislation in the Senate.

On both issues, a stark regional divide with cultural and economic implications now separates the parties.