Coyotes shot in Saskatoon found to have canine distemper

Photograph by: Greg Pender, The StarPhoenix      
Pet owners in and around Saskatoon are being advised to be keep up-to-date with their animals’ vaccinations.
Since early November, Saskatoon police have received several reports of coyotes in and near the city, says a release issued by the City of Saskatoon. And on Dec. 16, two coyotes that had wandered into the city were euthanized.
“Veterinarians later determined that the animals had canine distemper, which is a viral disease affecting wild and domestic animals. Although distemper poses no risk to humans, pets are susceptible,” says the release...Continue reading...

Slovenia,Yugoslavia

Steve McCurry has an colorful site to visit, lots of pics and poetry.

Dogs are our link to paradise.
They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent.
To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be
back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring.
It was peace.
- Milan Kundera http://stevemccurry.com/

Archie Roach - 'All Men Choose the Path They Walk'

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Gaddafi daughter asks Israel to grant her asylum.

Aisha Khaddafi

Published On Thursday, December 29, 2011 11:14:21 AM  Yourjewishnews.com/LA Times 

Is Aisha Kadafi, daughter of the slain Libyan ruler Moammar Kadafi, considering seeking asylum in Israel? Unlikely as it seems, this may be the case.

The Israeli news website Walla, quoted a report published in Intelligence Online that said Aisha indicated to confidants from Europe that only in Israel would she feel safe and that she hoped to be allowed to live there. In August, she fled Libya for Algeria with her mother, two of her brothers and several other family members. Recently she expressed concern that her Algerian hosts may not be able to resist pressure from Libya's new government to extradite her to stand trial along with her brother, Saif al-Islam...Continue reading...

Bonnie Rait & John Prine - 'Angel From Montgomery '

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Angel from Montgomerylyrics

BBC criticised for naming panda as a woman of the year

The BBC has come in for ridicule after it included a giant panda called Sweetie alongside Pippa Middleton and Adele in its list of the 12 women of the year.

Sweetie the panda arrived along with Sunshine in Edinburgh from China. Read here.

Shannon Stone’s Mother Wants Josh Hamilton to Keep Tossing Balls into Stands

photoBy Larry Brown December 28, 2011 - Posted in Baseball  Shannon Stone is a Rangers fan who died falling over a railing after trying to catch a ball Josh Hamilton threw into the stands at a game. Stone was trying to make the catch to give his son a souvenir. Instead, his son will grow up without a father. Despite the tragedy, Stone’s mother says she still wants Hamilton to throw balls to fans.
Here is what Stone’s mother, SuZann, told New York Times Magazine: Read here...

Sam the Sham and the Pharoh's - "Lil' Red Riding Hood"

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Canada must protect North

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The StarPhoenix ...Writing recently for the Toronto Star from Murmansk, Russia, Paul Watson notes that in commitment, equipment, manpower and determination, Russia is decades ahead of Canada. It wants not only to stake its claim to the Arctic's vast mineral wealth, but also to make its side of the ocean the main transport route between the Pacific and Atlantic markets.
And when French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, France's ambassador to international negotiations on the Arctic, toured the North this summer, he concluded Canada is just too small to finance the infrastructure it needs to make the Northwest Passage into a viable shipping lane. As far as Mr. Rocard is concerned, Canada has given up.
One hopes Prime Minister Harper - and all Canadians - take that as a challenge...Read here...

P!nk to the Rescue!!! Singer Saves Puppy from Certain Death

TmzP!nk just came through with a canine Christmas miracle — shelling out $5,000 to pay for emergency life-saving surgery on a puppy that had been tossed in the L.A. river and left for dead.
Sources tell TMZ … P!nk was surfing the Internet recently, when she stumbled upon a story about a puppy that had been thrown off an L.A. overpass … and suffered 3 broken legs when it landed in the L.A. river. Read here

Wait, The One-Eyed Cyclops Shark Is Real? Video

(SHARK DISCOVERY) GULF OF CALIFORNIA — Though the truth about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Abominable Snowman remains unknown, the “Cyclops Shark,” who’s riding an internet wave of popularity, appears to be the real deal.

After being captured, the one-eyed fish was studied by two marine scientists in La Paz, Mexico, who labeled it an abnormal dusky shark fetus. Biologists say sharks like this are extremely rare and couldn’t survive more than a few days. Read on for more information regarding this bizarre animal and possible reasons for having one single eye. — Global Animal...Continue reading...

Discovery News, Jennifer Viegas

This one eyed shark is the first documented of its kind. Photo Credit: Pisces Sportfishing            VideoClick here

Who would be a female Mountie?

This story caught the attention of Sally and Sam. Thomas's stepdad was a member of the North West Mounted Police.

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Canada's police force has been rocked by a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against male officers. By Sian Griffiths

For more than 140 years it has been one of its country's most revered institutions, but now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has come under scrutiny after being hit by a wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations from within its own ranks.

The image of the Mounties has been tarnished by allegations that have been buried, in some cases, for decades. Last month, in a case that shocked Canada, Corporal Catherine Galliford claimed she was sexually harassed by colleagues for 16 years...Continue reading...

Christmas at Heavens Gates

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This is a page Sally and Sam has bookmarked. It is easy to forget what you were doing and just listen to these old tunes.http://heavens-gates.com/sitemap.html

Cherokee Morning Song

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We n' de ya ho, We n' de ya ho, 
We n' de ya, We n' de ya Ho ho ho ho, 
He ya ho, He ya ho, Ya ya ya

Translation - We n' de ya ho
Freely translated: "A we n'" (I am), "de" (of), "Yauh" --the-- (Great Spirit), "Ho" (it is so).
Written as: A we n' de Yauh ho (I am of the Great Spirit, Ho!).
This language stems from very ancient Cherokee Cherokee Morning Song

Porky Pig- 'Blue Christmas'

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2008 - Porky Pig - Blue Christmas from Never Enough Lights on Vimeo.

Vatican Will Canonize First Native American Saint

Kateri Tekakwitha 'The Lily of the Mohawks' It credits boy's recovery to miracle by Kateri Tekakwitha

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff 

. (Newser) – A young boy's recovery from flesh-eating bacteria will help a 17th-century woman become the first Native American saint in the Catholic Church, reports USA Today. The Vatican has called the recovery of Washington state's Jake Finkbonner from near death in 2006 a miracle that can be credited to Kateri Tekakwitha. Jake's family prayed to Tekakwitha, who was disfigured by smallpox herself as a girl in what is now upstate New York... Continue reading...

UFO appears on the official White House Xmas card

  

Sally and Sam have a UFO Google alert and this Christmas card exchange appeared. Ms Dawn Brown-Eyes(cool name) may be into the New Year's bubbly.image   By Michael Cohen m.cohen@allnewsweb.com .

A resident of Pine Ridge in South Dakota, Ms Dawn Brown-Eyes, is claiming to have received an official White House Xmas card from First Lady Michelle Obama that shows a UFO or possibly two UFOs on the cover image (see video below). The UFO/UFOs appear on a shot of the exterior of the White House and can be seen overhead in the clear blue sky. Ms Brown-Eyes has created and uploaded onto the Internet at least two videos showing the card and the mysterious craft captured in it. It has been confirmed that not all copies of this version of the Xmas card include the UFO/UFOs, leading some researchers to speculate that White House employees or government agents might have noticed that the photographer inadvertently captured the alien craft and airbrushed them out of subsequent print runs... Continue reading...

Senior Citizen Flash Mob - Lawrence,KS - Meadowlark Estates. via wannasmile

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http://www.wannasmile.com/page/3/

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

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Liberal leader Bob Rae ignores history of neglect

Liberal Leader Bob Rae arrives in Attawapiskat, Dec. 17, 2011. (REUTERS/Frank Gunn/Pool)

EDITORIAL.  Great Canadian explorer Bob Rae journeys up to the deep north of Ontario over the weekend and discovers a Native community called Attawapiskat living in squalor on the shores of a mammoth bay named James.
"This is a Third World," he cries, as if his eyes are the first to bear witness. "And it is right here. Right here at home."
We are uncertain if he also cried, "Eureka!"
But perhaps he did.
We remind him, therefore, that this should not have been a Jacques Cartier moment.
We remind him, in fact, that he was premier of Ontario at the time former Attawapiskat chief Ignace Gull appeared before a royal commission to talk about appalling living conditions on his northern Cree reserve -- about scores being crammed into poorly-heated huts, about lack of water, about abuse both sexual and physical, about rampant alcoholism, and about how the reserve's youth were killing themselves huffing gasoline fumes.
And it was "right there," right in his own backyard, 20 years ago when he was not only the NDP premier of Ontario but the provincial overlord of Attawapiskat's provincial money.
So spare us if his cries over the weekend don't move us.
Bob Rae did nothing 20 years ago when he could have, and should have.
He ignored Ignace Gull's pleas.
And he is doing nothing now but lay blame at other doorsteps, namely the Harper government's, even though it was largely a Liberal government that did nothing for over the last two decades to alleviate the hell that remains the frozen septic tank of Attawapiskat.
No, to Bob Rae, now interim leader of the Liberal party that failed Attawapiskat so miserably, it is all Stephen Harper's fault.
It was one quote in particular from Rae over the weekend, however, that left us cold.
"We can't go on like this for the next decade or the next 20 years without some real improvements," he said about Attawapiskat.
Why not? He let it go 20 years ago. The Chretien Liberals let it go for 20 years.
If Rae wants to play the blame game, he can start with himself, and then move up the line.
Just don't feign ignorance or innocence.Read here.-

A Lesson For Bob Rae On What 3rd World Poverty Looks Like...

‘This is our Third World,’ Rae says at Attawapiskat

Attawapiskat

The 3rd World http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/

Hillary's Angels - The number of women on the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Protective Detail team is increasing - there are currently 13 with about a fifth of the force guarding Clinton.

Text by Laura Blumenfeld. Photographs by Stephanie Sinclair. photos here   

The Bodyguards

To be a woman on the secretary of state’s security detail, you have to be fast, smart, and tough—and willing to take a bullet, even if you’re in heels. Laura Blumenfeld works out with Hillary’s AngelsThe Bodyguards

Sections of Highway 915 have washed out, stranding the 1,000 residents of Stanley Mission

photoBy Charlene Tebbutt, For The StarPhoenix

More than 1,000 people are stranded in the northern community of Stanley Mission after the community's only access road washed out Sunday morning.
Residents of Stanley Mission, about 300 kilometres north of Prince Albert, have been stuck in the community since the washout at Pipestone Creek, said Tammy Cook-Searson, chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. Another 100 residents have been put up in hotels in Prince Albert and La Ronge until they can get back into Stanley Mission, she said.
The community has a population of about 1,700 people, Cook-Searson said.
So far, no injuries or emergencies have been reported, she said. A helicopter is on standby and a doctor will be available if needed...Continue reading...

Lyle Lovett: 'Church '

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http://www.youtube.com

Here are a few good shots of canines in cars, along with a few cool cats

A dog guards his owner's Saab car at a parking lot in Muiden, near Amsterdam.
Photograph by: Michael Kooren, Reuters
photos here

Occupiers, the world don't owe them a thing.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/liquidpatriot1

Type “Let It Snow” on Google for a Pleasant Surprise

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by Charlie White     In the spirit of the Google “barrel roll,” the company has another tricky search result today: Search the words “let it snow” and watch what happens.
Of course, your Google search results will contain videos of that old favorite song, but what’s that? Snowflakes falling in your browser? Frost on the Google bar? Could this be some mistake?
Watch your browser fill up with snow, and then skate around with your mouse, where your browser acts just like a frozen lake, showing the path your cursor has taken. Want to start over? Simply click the “defrost” button and again you’ll see a clear screen, adorned by that easy wind and downy flake filling it up anew...Read here...

Down performs "This Is How We Roll," a music video supporting Villalobos.

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Now Recognized as a Word, ‘Tebowing’ Meme Spreads Worldwide

photo by Sam Laird . “Tebowing,” the campy Internet meme inspired by lightning rod NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has, like its namesake, refused to fade away quietly. In fact, according to at least one source, Tebowing is now an official part of the English language.  “The rapid rise of the word has seldom been equaled,” the Global Language Monitor said in a statement this week that anointed Tebowing as an official word. The official Tebowing.com website defines it as a verb: “To get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone around you is doing something completely different.”...Continue reading...

National Geographic Photo of the Day - Great White Shark and Divers

National Geographic Photo of the Day

Lucas Hembree and his dog Juno

Posted by: Megi7 on Thursday, December 15, 2011  "An East Tennessee boy with a rare disease and his former shelter dog form a unique relationship. The ability of Lucas Hembree, 4, to live life to the fullest is slowly slipping away. He suffers from Sanfilippo syndrome, a rare disease that affects his entire body. There is no treatment and no cure for the disease. Doctors expect Lucas to be in a vegetative state within five years. His mother Jennifer said his life expectancy is only the mid teens..."Continue reading, more pics...

'At Last' singer Etta James terminally ill

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted: Dec. 16, 2011 | 10:32 a.m.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- "At Last" and "Tell Mama" blues singer Etta James, whose health has been fading in recent years, is now terminally ill, and her live-in doctor is asking for prayers...Read here...

Etta James biography

World’s shortest woman, an Indian high school student, wants to be Bollywood star

Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images

Guinness World Records Adjudicator Rob Molloy (R) and doctor Manoj Pahukar (2nd L) measure Jyoti Amge (C), 18, during a news conference in Nagpur Friday.
...Jyoti Amge stood just 62.8 centimeters (24.7 inches) tall — shorter than the average 2-year-old — when Guinness representatives visiting from London measured her at a ceremony attended by about 30 family and friends in the town of Nagpur, in Maharashtra state...Read here...

Ray LaMontagne - 'Roses and Cigarettes'

CinemgragphCollection.com  lyrics

A Dog's Rules For Christmas

1. Be especially patient with your humans during this time. They may appear to be more stressed-out than usual and they will appreciate long comforting dog leans.
2. They may come home with large bags of things they call gifts. Do not assume that all the gifts are yours.
3. Be tolerant if your humans put decorations on you. They seem to get some special kind of pleasure out of seeing how you look with fake antlers.
4. They may bring a large tree into the house and set it up in a prominent place and cover it with lights and decorations. Bizarre as this may seem to you, it is an important ritual for your humans, so there are some things you need to know:
a. Don't pee on the tree
b. Don't drink water in the container that holds the tree
c. Mind your tail when you are near the tree
d. If there are packages under the tree, even ones that smell interesting or that have your name on them, don't rip them open
e. Don't chew on the cord that runs from the funny-looking hole in the wall to the tree
5. Your humans may occasionally invite lots of strangers to come visit during this season. These parties can be lots of fun, but they also call for some discretion on your part:
a. Not all strangers appreciate kisses and leans
b. Don't eat off the buffet table
c. Beg for goodies subtly
d. Be pleasant, even if unknowing strangers sit on your sofa
e. Don't drink out of glasses that are left within your reach
6. Likewise, your humans may take you visiting. Here your manners will also be important:
a. Observe all the rules in #4 for trees that may be in other people's houses. (4a is particularly important)
b. Respect the territory of other animals that may live in the house
c. Tolerate children
d. Turn on your charm big time
7. A big man with a white beard and a very loud laugh may emerge from your fireplace in the middle of the night.
DON'T BITE HIM!! Read here.       Christmas Doghouse for Santa

Animal welfare: Israel's donkey sanctuary

By Pete Wedderburn

3:28PM GMT 15 Dec 2011.   There’s a picture of a donkey on a Christmas card on my mantelpiece, standing outside a snow-covered stable in a classic nativity image. The donkey is hardly the star of the scene, but looks happy enough: work done, shelter and food for the night assured. Here is another picture of a donkey in the Holy Land, described to me on a recent visit: an animal set on fire, then cruelly abused, saved only by the intervention of volunteers from a painful death. No beast of burden should have to suffer that much...Continue reading...

Pony rescue in Israel

Billie Jo Spears - Sing me

Billie Jo Spears in a ’57 Chevrolet. Her 1978 song of the same name recalled nights spent at drive-in picture shows. Photograph: Neville Marriner/Daily Mail  

• Tony Russell
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 December 2011 18.14 GMT

    British bursts of affection for country music have sometimes exalted artists whose names were fading in their own country. One such was the American singer Billie Jo Spears, who has died of cancer aged 74...Read here...

Last of U.S. Soldiers Leaving Iraq - Video

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By MARTHA RADDATZ (@martharaddatz) , RICHARD COOLIDGE, HUMA KHAN, BRUNO ROEBER and GINA SUNSERI

Dec. 14, 2011.  Camp Victory, once the site of Saddam Hussein's former palace, is a military ghost town now. A base where 70,000 Americans once lived, the base was eerie and barren as the last of the U.S. troops departed Iraq this week with a one-way ticket... Continue reading, video

Panetta formally shuts down US war in Iraq

It's Over: Iraq War Ends Today

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 15, 2011 2:47 AM CST | Updated Dec 15, 2011 7:57 AM CST

Leon Panetta shuts down operation in quiet ceremony  (Newser) – Today's the day. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared the Iraq War over in a quiet ceremony in Baghdad, saying the conflict was worth the cost because it set Iraq on a path to democracy. After speeches, the flag of United States Force-Iraq was "cased"—furled around a flagpole and covered in camouflage—and the US military’s mission was declared at an end ... eight years, eight months, and 25 days after it started. American troops will be home for the holidays, and won't have to wait for the Dec. 31 deadline set by a US-Iraq agreement, reports the Washington Post... Read here...

TIME's Person of the Year, from 1927 to 2011

TIME's Person of the Year is bestowed by the editors on the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year. See who made the grade over TIME's first eight decades...Read here...

Strange Light Falls on Dead Vet's Dog - 'It made me wonder if Justin was there,' writes '20/20' reporter

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff

 

- (Newser) – A strange, almost, er, heavenly, light that fell on a dead veteran's dog during 20/20 filming has given a photographer paws for reflection, she reveals in an unusual note on ABC News.com. The beam of light that briefly bathed Hero the mutt during a "simple" shoot at the New Hampshire home of fallen soldier Justin Rollins "made me wonder about life after death," writes Kimberly Launier. She was filming Rollins' parents playing with their son's dog, who was rescued from the Iraq war zone. Sometimes mom Rhonda Rollins would pet Hero's face and ask, "Justin, are you in there?"... Continue reading...

Over the rainbow, photo by Phil Thompson

Sally and Sam are busy cleaning bookmarks,  'twin' rainbow is rare.
By Emma Reynolds

Last updated at 2:03 PM on 23rd November 2011

An amateur photographer was lucky enough to stumble across the arresting sight of a 'twin' rainbow reflected out of the sea.
Phil Thompson, 57, took his photograph of the rare phenomenon from the jetty at the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, Australia.
Not only was the rainbow reflected in the sea, but it had a double seemingly emanating from the water at a different angle...Read here...

Sleeping With The Enemy: What You Get From Your Pet

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  By Maryn McKenna

The most numerous and passionate comments I’ve ever gotten here were responses — OK, vituperation and denunciations — to a post describing how a Pacific Northwest family caught plague from their dogs’ fleas.
So I’ll be over in the corner donning a flame-resistant bio-suit — because  it turns out that, when it comes to pets on the bed, plague is not the only health risk. It’s one of many, along with hookworm, roundworm, MRSA, rabies, Chagas disease, Pasteurella, cat scratch fever, Capnocytophaga, Cryptosporidium and Cheyletiella. Oh, and bites...Continue reading...