January 31, 2019

Monarch butterfly population wintering in Mexico increases 144%

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/30/mexico-monarch-butterflies-wintering-population-increase#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s

Monarch production will not be replicated next year, experts warn, as above average temperatures will cause problems.

The population of monarch butterflies wintering in central Mexico is up 144% over last year, according to new research.

'It's a sad reality': a troubling trend sees a 97% decline in monarch butterflies

The data was cheered but scientists quickly warned that it does not mean the butterflies that migrate from Canada and the United States are out of danger.

This winter, researchers found the butterflies occupying 14.95 acres (6.05 hectares) of pine and fir forests in the mountains of Michoacán and Mexico states – an increase from 6.12 acres a year ago.

This year’s is the biggest measurement since the 2006-2007 period, said Andrew Rhodes, Mexico’s national commissioner for protected natural areas. A historic low of just 1.66 acres (0.67 hectares) was recorded in 2013-2014.

January 31, 2019

Vent your anger about THE WALL to the White House

I don't know how I got on the White House mailing list, probably from some letter I sent. Received this email from them earlier. I hit reply and unloaded. I'm sure it won't be read, but certainly made me feel better. Go for it.

Walls Work
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Walls Work

“Of all the Democrats’ arguments against a southern border wall, the shadiest is that it would not work,” Deroy Murdock writes in National Review. The evidence says otherwise: “Love them or hate them, their effectiveness is indisputable.”

Murdock gives 8 examples. Here’s just one: “A barrier between the Tucson, Ariz., sector and Nogales, Mexico, was erected in 2000. That year’s 616,346 arrests plunged to 38,657 in FY 2017 — down 93.7 percent.” That doesn’t just mean less illegal immigration. It means fewer potentially fatal encounters with smugglers and traffickers for our law enforcement officers, too.

Click here to continue reading.

“In his inauguration speech, President Trump promised: ‘We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American,’ White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro writes in Fox News. Today, the President will sign an executive order—“Strengthening Buy American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects”—that will give another boost to these key pillars of his economic program.

In the Washington Examiner, Eddie Scarry writes that U.S. Border Patrol agents recently apprehended both an MS-13 member and an attempted murderer near the U.S.–Mexico border. “Both incidents happened in the southernmost part of Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the border, where illegal crossings are more than three times that of any other sector and where agents told me they are in dire need of a physical barrier wall.”

“President Donald Trump spoke Wednesday with the man the U.S. government recognizes as the legitimate leader of Venezuela even as turmoil continues in the oil-rich socialist country. About 50 countries have joined the United States in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as acting president of the South American nation while Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro, tries to cling to power,” Fred Lucas writes in The Daily Signal.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, President Trump harshly criticized Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) and Democratic state Delegate Kathy Tran’s advocacy of late-term abortion. “I thought it was terrible,” the President said, adding that “this is going to lift up the whole pro-life movement like maybe it’s never been lifted up before.”


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January 30, 2019

This little girl would be welcome in my barn any time

January 23, 2019

Scientists Use 3D Bioprinter To Generate Cartilage Tissue

Behold the coming cure for arthritis. I could sure use it.

January 23, 2019

Brett Kavanaugh 'likely' to be investigated for perjury, House judiciary member says

A freshman Democrat selected to serve on the House Judiciary Committee has told his constituents the panel will “likely” investigate claims accusing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of perjury during his controversial confirmation hearings last year.

Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat elected in 2018 to serve the state’s second congressional district, told supporters on Friday the committee could move to impeach the newly-appointed justice if their findings prove he knowingly lied to lawmakers during his confirmation process.

Donald Trump’s second pick to serve a lifelong appointment on the Supreme Court was alleged to have provided misleading statements surrounding sexual assault accusations levelled against him by Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale classmate.

“There’s no question [Kavanaugh] committed perjury during the confirmation hearings and so forth,” Mr Neguse said on Friday. “I think the Judiciary Committee is likely to take that up.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/brett-kavanaugh-perjury-investigation-probe-democrats-house-judiciary-committee-a8740831.html

January 22, 2019

California Town Launches 'Goat Fund Me' Campaign to Prevent Wildfires

https://www.care2.com/causes/california-town-launches-goat-fund-me-campaign-to-prevent-wildfires.html


After the Camp Fire—the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history—burned over 153,000 acres and took at least 88 lives in November, the little Northern California town of Nevada City (population: 3,136) came up with a plan. To clear 450 acres of fire-prone, city-owned vegetation, the city would rent goats to eat it. This fire safety measure is not at all unusual. There’s a term for it: “prescriptive grazing”.

But there was one major problem: nearby ranchers had already rented out all their grazing goats for most of 2019. Goats were only available this winter, and there wouldn’t be time for Nevada City to receive a grant to pay for them.

“No one is going to save us. FEMA is not coming in, right? The cavalry is not coming in,” Vice Mayor Reinette Senum said. “It’s us or it’s nobody and this town knows that. We’ve seen the cautionary tale of Paradise. We don’t want that.”

As a way to cover the cost in the interim, Senum launched a “Goat Fund Me” online campaign last month. Six weeks after the campaign started, it had raised over $16,000 of its $30,000 goal.



Sure beats trying to rake it. We're getting ready to fence in a stretch of our woods for goats and donkeys to clear out the underbrush.

January 17, 2019

Feed the Fish!

January 12, 2019

I Dare You Not To Dance!!

January 11, 2019

OMG, UNBELIEVABLE! 1958 TV Show Predicts Trump And His Wall

Sometimes life is just so strange and uncanny!

This is amazing: In 1958, CBS aired an episode of Trackdown in which a con man attempted to sell a town a “wall” in order to protect them from the fake threat of a meteor shower.

Guess what the con man’s name was? Trump.

The show’s main character (Robert Culp) ultimately exposes Trump as a fraud who was plotting with the town’s sheriff to sell the wall, enrich himself and then get out of town. His final words: “You’re under arrest Trump.”

This is like an episode from Twilight Zone, you can’t get any weirder or more prescient!

Snopes agrees with the authenticity of this:

www.snopes.com/...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/10/1825132/-OMG-UNBELIEVABLE-1958-TV-Show-Predicts-Trump-And-His-Wall?detail=emaildkre

January 8, 2019

Cartoon: Smokey's shutdown survival guide

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