California fires: At least 2 arrested on arson-related charges

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/16/us/california-wildfires/

Tribune staff and wire reports

9:32 a.m. CDT, May 16, 2014

SAN DIEGO—

California firefighters were battling wind-whipped wildfires on Friday, as some 125,000 people fled their homes in the San Diego area and police arrested at least two people on arson-related charges. The cluster of fires comes as California enters its peak fire season amid its worst drought in decades. Officials worry it could be a particularly dangerous year.
Crews made some progress against the fires, which have scorched thousands of acres this week across Southern California. But they had only a tenuous grip on the so-called Cocos Fire, which was threatening the northern San Diego county communities of San Marcos and Escondido. Late on Thursday, Escondido Police said they had arrested two teens, ages 17 and a 19-year-old, identified as Isaiah Silva, on arson-related charges after locating the pair near a mall. They matched descriptions by witnesses of two people trying to set fires in the South Escondido area...Continue reading...

California Wildfires - The New York Times.

News about California Wildfires, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. Craig Durling/Associated Press

California Wildfires - The New York Times

Skeeter Davis, "Gonna Get Along Without You Now"

[image] last.fm/music Skeeter Davis

Pet Cat Heroically Saves Boy From Attacking Dog And Proceeds To Chase Mutt Down

My hero ... Jeremy with Tara in a picture tweeted by America’s ABC. Source: Supplied [photo]

Laura Stampler:
The title of man’s best friend might be in contention.
A pet cat came to her small human boy’s rescue when a neighborhood dog began attacking the child out of nowhere. Not only did Tara the cat hurl itself at the dog, but she chased him down the street.

“Thankfully my son is fine!” Roger Triantafilo said in the description of the surveillance video footage he posted on YouTube. The boy’s mother told the Bakersfield, Calif. ABC affiliate that her son needed stitches, but is overall a-okay. The dog is currently under observation — probably plotting his evil revenge. http://time.com/99301/cat-saves-boy-from-attacking-dog-video/ Visit: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/fearless-feline-rescues-young-boy-from-dog-attack-1.1821546

Just Dance Kids 2 - "Hokey Pokey"

Th origin of the "Hokey Pokey"Just Dance Official Website

Good News, Space Heathens! The Pope Is Open to Baptizing Extra Terrestrials

By Victoria McNally
You know all those really inspiring parts of the bible that talk about how Jesus loves the little aliens? No? Right, that’s because they don’t exist. But if Pope Francis has anything to say about it, any interested members of an unknown intelligent race of galaxy-traversing beings in search of a new religion are 100% welcome in the Catholic Church.
In a homily on Monday about the dangers of “closing the doors” on people interested in Catholicism, the Pope compared Simon Peter’s baptizing of the unclean and uncircumcised to the baptism of another inconceivable group of possible converts:

“That was unthinkable. If—for example—tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here… Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them… And one says, ‘But I want to be baptized!’ What would happen?”

Note that he envisions a scenario in which the alien actively seeks out a change in religion and doesn’t suggest that we try to force it on them, which is great, because the latter type of rhetoric feeds into problematic colonialist and imperialist ways of thinking. But also, I suspect that maybe Pope Francis just doesn’t want to piss the aliens off. After all, almost every science fiction story our species has ever written suggests that they’re going to have way bigger guns than we do when they inevitably come knocking on our door.
Of course, the Pope’s main point isn’t “don’t piss off aliens.” It’s “don’t be a dick to people who are interested in your thing.” The thing just happens to be religion in this case. He continues:.. Continue reading...

Capturing Wildlife: How Poachers Are Liking and Using Your Photos

• by Jessica Ramos
  
  
  When it comes to social media, sharing can be a lot of fun. Who doesn’t like making friends, family and followers hungry with mouthwatering #foodporn pictures?
  Capturing and sharing images or videos of your encounters with wildlife can also be a lot of fun, but it turns out that it can also disrupt the natural order of the circle of life. Poachers can secretly be liking and using your content. Your content (and its possible built-in geotagging feature) could help poachers track down, hunt and kill some of the world’s most endangered animals.
  What‘s Geotagging?
  Geotagging adds geographical metadata to a piece of content in real-time. Geotags can be applied to your photos, videos, text messages, websites, RSS feeds and websites; they most commonly indicate latitude and longitude coordinates. Yet, they can also note the altitude, distance, accuracy and the name of a location.
  Poaching and Profit Gets Digital
  Geotagging makes cyberpoaching quick, easy and efficient.
  If you want to understand the risks that geotagging poses to wildlife, then here is how one park put it:
  
  Please be careful when sharing photos on social media. They can lead poachers to our rhino. Turn off geotag function and do not disclose where the photo was taken.
  Emails aren’t even safe. In India, there was a potential scare when a user was trying to access a conservationist’s email account. While this possible hacker was unsuccessful, they could’ve been privy to sensitive radio tracking collar information about the animals’ real-time location and movements.
  According to National Geographic, there is big money in the wildlife-trafficking industry. The industry hauls in profits of $7.8 to $10 billion per year.
  The cybersphere also makes it easier to buy a dead wildlife animal or the parts of a wild animal; it’s more anonymous, the transactions are quicker, and it’s harder to track. Websites dedicated to the trafficking of majestic animals do exist. Apparently, the animal’s blood on an object is a strong selling point...Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/capturing-wildlife-how-poachers-are-liking-and-using-your-photos.html#ixzz31byCsXrq

Photo: CHP cops rescue Chihuahua trapped on busy highway

By PoliceOne Staff
CONTRA COSTA, Calif. — California Highway Patrol officers rescued a frightened Chihuahua trapped on a busy highway in Contra Costa Friday.
NBC Bay Area reports that officers received a call that  the dog was sitting in the middle of the center divider. Officer Alex Edmon and his partner responded and spotted the scared animal.
"We attempted to coax it, we could tell it was very frightened, it was shaking - we were able to pet it a little bit, but other than that we could tell it was not happy," Officer Alex Edmon said.
After Edmon attempted to coax the dog with a snack, the officers decided to call animal control, as they had no way of transporting the Chihuahua on their motorcycles.
The 2-year-old pup was rescued without injury. Officers are unsure how the dog became stranded.
Officials say a home may be lined up for the Chihuahua if an owner does not come forward. http://www.policeone.com/police-heroes/articles/7179461-Photo-CHP-cops-rescue-Chihuahua-trapped-on-busy-highway/

Mule Deer Migration

Mule deer in western Wyoming migrate 18-140 km to high-elevation summer ranges where they access high quality forage and accumulate fat reserves that help them survive the harsh winters. The ability to identify and prioritize these migration routes may improve management and land-use planning... [photo] Read here...

vimeo: Wildlife biologist Hall Sawyer discovers the longest ungulate migration in the lower 48, nearly 5000 mule deer migrate 150 miles in western Wyoming. The journey from the desert to the mountains that these deer undertake is truly remarkable. Sawyer’s groundbreaking science is combined with first ever migration footage from photographer Joe Riis to highlight and inspire the importance of conserving migration corridors around the world.
Film produced by Joe Riis and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Go to migrationinitiative.org for more information. https://vimeo.com/88619272

Medication Madness: The Dark Side of Anti-Depressants

By Lorie Johnson

CBN News Medical Reporter

Far too often we hear news of a deadly attack at a school, mall or military base - violent crimes committed by those we least suspect.

Many of those violent outbreaks have involved guns. Sometimes, however, there's another common thread: anti-depressants.

Anti-depressants are some of the most widely prescribed drugs in America. Millions of doctors and their patients appear to like these drugs, but there is a darker side.

Medication Madness

For decades, psychiatrist Peter Breggin has studied the link between anti-depressants and violent crimes.

"The anti-depressants cause violence and they cause suicide, and they do it in all age groups. We have studies in all age groups. There's just no doubt about it," Dr. Breggin said.

Anti-depressants work on the brain, thereby altering the way their users think.

"These drugs are causing agitation, anxiety, insomnia, hostility, aggression, mania," Dr.Breggin said. "In addition to driving the person with this amphetamine-like effect, the anti-depressants do a bit of a lobotomy. You lose your empathy. You lose your caring."...Continue reading...

Jihad becoming ‘as Canadian as maple syrup’ says Calgary man who joined armed extremists in Syria. Update

Todd Korol for National PostDowntown 8th & 8th Musallah, the storefront Islamic centre in Calgary where Abu Dujana al-Muhajir said he started a prayer group.

Stewart Bell: A Canadian foreign fighter in Syria taunted the “evil, despotic and Zionist Harper government” on Wednesday, claiming it was losing the battle against extremism and that fighting jihad was becoming “as Canadian as maple syrup.”
   In a blog post, Abu Dujana al-Muhajir, part of a small circle of Calgary youths who left for Syria to join armed extremist groups, said “so-called radical Islamists” were gaining in popularity and the number of Canadian jihadists was growing.
   He denounced leading Canadian Muslims opposed to extremist violence, naming writer Irshad Manji and imams Muhammad Robert Heft and Syed Soharwardy, calling them “deviant” and saying they were outnumbered by militants.
   “Know very well that for every single sellouts [sic] like Tarek Fatah or Mubin Shaikh, we are gaining hundreds of brave Damian Clairmont and Andre Poulin from amongst you who are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of Allah,” he wrote... Continue reading... Related: Fighting armed jihad is not "as Canadian as maple syrup." It's completely against our values

National Day of Honour commemorates mission in Afghanistan

CBC News

The 40,000 who fought and the 158 who fell in Afghanistan to be honoured during one-time event

Stephen Good and Mark Pusztai have marked Jan. 7 as a day of remembrance since 2009.
That was the year their brother, Trooper Brian Richard Good, was killed by roadside bomb north of Kandahar at the age of 42.
"I always worried about him, right. But it's one of those things," Good said. "I didn't think it would end like this. Nobody ever thinks that."

• National Day of Honour official program (pdf)
• Canada's casualties in Afghanistan
• Soldier On relay arrives in Ottawa
• Silver Cross mother still stung by 'disrespect' on eve of Day of Honour

CBC's main coverage of the National Day of Honour will be between noon ET and 2:30 p.m. on CBC News Network and will be livestreamed on CBCNews.ca ...Continue reading...

'Unkillable' soldier inspires kids on reserve - The Starphoenix

By Alyssa McMurtry, The Starphoenix:

Cpl. Hilliard Paul Kahpeaysewat

Photograph by: Viewpoint Photographic Design , Submitted photo

         On Sept 1, 2009, Cpl. Hilliard Paul Kahpeaysewat was en route to Afghanistan, leaving Canada for the first time.
        When he stepped off the plane, the temperature was a sweltering 55 C. Six hours later, a rocketpropelled grenade exploded in front of him.
        "That's when I realized it was real. These guys aren't fooling around and I'm going to have to protect myself," he said. It wasn't until later that he noticed his knee had been hit by shrapnel.
        Kahpeaysewat, the first Afghanistan veteran to come from the Moosomin Reserve near North Battleford, was stationed near the Pakistani border in Southern Afghanistan in the Panjwai district. Part of his job was driving an armoured vehicle. He spray painted an Autobot symbol on it because it looked like a Transformer.
        Over his nine-month tour, he was shot at repeatedly and drove over five improvised explosive devices.
The Taliban gave him a nickname - Unkillable.
Kahpeaysewat joined the army when he was 36. Although it had always been a dream of his to enlist, it was only when the army contacted him after Sept. 11, 2001 that he decided to sign up.
       "I'm definitely one of the older guys to join, but I'm like 250 pounds of muscle ... I'm a machine," Kahpeaysewat said.
           At that time, he was working odd jobs and struggling with alcoholism.
"Basically the war saved my life," he said....Continue reading...

Andrew Austin, "If It Ain't This Town"

By Alex Hudson: Toronto songwriter Andrew Austin is known for having his music in ad campaigns from Tim Hortons and Alexander Keith's, and as he gets ready for a couple of hometown gigs at Canadian Music Week, he has shared a video for his song "If It Ain't This Town."

The song is a thoughtfully sweeping folk rock number, and director Eric James Mayer captures the yearning mood with ultra-scratchy vintage home movies. The result is a nostalgic remembrance of snowy drives, family time by the lake, and childhood pony rides.http://exclaim.ca/MusicVideo/ClickHear/andrew_austin-if_it_aint_this_town_video                                                                                                                                                                         AndrewAustin-home  Andrew Austin myspace.com

Old Photographs of Canada from 1858-1935. vintage everyday

vintage everyday:

The photographs from the Notman Photographics Archives are a priceless testimony to the history of Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries, from its people to its landscapes... 

         Aboriginal family near Prince Albert, SK, 1919
William Notman (1826-1891), his sons, and the photographic studio he founded in Montreal, documented

Canadian life and her people from 1856 to 1936. The Notman studio, among others, was commissioned by William Van Horne (general manager of the CPR) to record the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and to show Canadians the wonders of the western scenery and the majestic Rocky Mountain ranges, with a view to encouraging immigration to the West...Photos here...