BRANDON, Man. – Searchers who have been trying to rescue a cat with a bird feeder stuck on its head in Manitoba say their efforts to trap the hapless animal are being sabotaged.
The Brandon and Area Lost Animals group began setting out traps over a week ago after the cat, nicknamed Butterscotch, was spotted with the feeder on its head in a Brandon neighbourhood.
The cat couldn’t be easily captured because it could see out of one eye and was still able to run, and even jump, to evade the rescuers.
The group set traps, but says a man in the neighbourhood has shone lights, clapped his hands and used other techniques to scare Butterscotch away.
They say they’ve moved their traps onto private property, but their traps have been found and purposely damaged.
They say volunteers have spotted a man at night moving around the traps and shining bright lights, but that he moves back onto his own property by the time police arrive.
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/man-preventing-rescue-of-manitoba-cat-with-head-stuck-in-bird-feeder-group-says-1.1944357#ixzz39Qb2rr2f
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Porcupines are well known for their pointy quills, which
cover their backs, sides and tail to provide a natural protection
against predators.
But do these quills also make mating difficult for the large rodents?
Just how do porcupines do it?VERY CAREFULLY!
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Hey kids, remember the guy down in the States who recorded a bunch of cops arresting his friend and putting him in a choke-hold that killed him!
Well, the cops didn't like this too much, so apparently they put him under surveillance, and have been following him around for days now .............., until they finally saw him doing something illegal today and arrested him!
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In a report just given to the Perspective Research Department: Alien Bases!
Canadian UFO Bases:
Entrances at Lake Ontario possible underwater UFO bases/cities.
Toronto -Tunnels leading to subterranean city.
Newfoundland -Condemned Iron Mine connects with tunnels.
Lake Ontario -"Lights" Orange-colored spheres have been seen coming out of/diving into Lake Ontario.
The area of highest activity is between Oakville and Toronto.
There may be a connection to the Lakeview Hydro-electric plant, as many of these UFOs have been seen heading in that direction.
(Note: "The Great Lakes Triangle" by Jay Gourley would be interesting reading for more information about UFOs, etc. in the Great Lakes area.)
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There is a small opening to the underground tunnels off Parliament Street in downtown Toronto. (The entrance is between two apartment buildings, and leads to the tunnels via the sewers.)
The underground ALIEN city (abandoned?) beneath Toronto has its center beneath Gerrard Street and Church Street.
Above this area, strange magnetic effects have been observed. (Note: This corner of Gerrard & Church streets has a higher accident rate than anywhere else in Toronto. It is believed that underground equipment utilizing powerful magnetic fields which have caused many strange magnetic effects in houses near this intersection are responsible for the bizarre equipment failures that often are the cause of these accidents.)
The Indians near Toronto have legends of these tunnels.
Once again kids, remember ya heard it here first!
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Dear Readers:
About a week or 10 days ago we had did article about what would happen if a ‘Solar Storm’ knocked out our electricity system for a few months, or even YEARS!
Well, just to show you this wasn’t idle speculation, here is a piece that was published in a science magazine today!
When it comes to a violent solar storm slamming into
Earth – it’s not a question of if but when, warns a new study published
this month in the Physics World journal.
What makes it even more worrisome is that the latest research indicates that we may be overdue for a devastating blow from the sun.
Just two years ago, on July 23, 2012, we had a near miss from
two giant clouds of charged particles that the sun had belched out in
our direction. Estimates are that if these storms would have hit Earth,
it would have been the most powerful solar event in 150 years.
Fortunately for us, it had crossed our planet’s orbit a week too late
and we were out of harm’s way.
If these huge bubbles of plasma and magnetic fields, called Coronal
Mass Ejections, are large enough, they can actually rip apart Earth’s
protective magnetic field. When that happens, waves of electrical surges
would blast through transmission lines, frying them and setting off
widespread blackouts.
The largest solar storm on record is the Carrington Event in 1859. That’s when the sun unleashed a monster storm that engulfed the Earth, releasing energy equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima bombs. It’s damaging effects were minimal since we only had telegraph wires at the time.
While this magnitude of solar event has not been seen since, studies of neighbouring stars in the Milky Way using NASA’s Kepler exoplanet hunter telescope have shown that Sun-like stars have the capability of generating super-storms thousand times more powerful than the Carrington Event.
“If we were to lose these infrastructures tomorrow, what
would happen? It’s a scary thought, but the threat is very real,”
explained the new study’s author, Ashey Dale, a solar scientist from the
University of Bristol in an interview with Yahoo Canada News.
At this point, no nation or industry is ready for such a cosmic
emergency. Both North America and Europe are particularly vulnerable.
Meanwhile countries like China and India, with large power
infrastructures in more southern latitudes might be spared the worst
from a solar superstorm.
How far are we from the next solar super storm? Pete Riley, a senior heliophysics scientist at NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, names a sobering figure: there is at 12 per cent chance it will happen within the next decade.
OR, PUT IT THIS WAY: Someone in their 20s today will have a 50/50 chance of experiencing a solar super storm!
What makes it even more worrisome is that the latest research indicates that we may be overdue for a devastating blow from the sun.
Just two years ago, on July 23, 2012, we had a near miss from
two giant clouds of charged particles that the sun had belched out in
our direction. Estimates are that if these storms would have hit Earth,
it would have been the most powerful solar event in 150 years.
Fortunately for us, it had crossed our planet’s orbit a week too late
and we were out of harm’s way.The largest solar storm on record is the Carrington Event in 1859. That’s when the sun unleashed a monster storm that engulfed the Earth, releasing energy equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima bombs. It’s damaging effects were minimal since we only had telegraph wires at the time.
While this magnitude of solar event has not been seen since, studies of neighbouring stars in the Milky Way using NASA’s Kepler exoplanet hunter telescope have shown that Sun-like stars have the capability of generating super-storms thousand times more powerful than the Carrington Event.
“If we were to lose these infrastructures tomorrow, what
would happen? It’s a scary thought, but the threat is very real,”
explained the new study’s author, Ashey Dale, a solar scientist from the
University of Bristol in an interview with Yahoo Canada News.How far are we from the next solar super storm? Pete Riley, a senior heliophysics scientist at NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, names a sobering figure: there is at 12 per cent chance it will happen within the next decade.
OR, PUT IT THIS WAY: Someone in their 20s today will have a 50/50 chance of experiencing a solar super storm!
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Remember the story about the robot that is hitch-hiking across Canada?
Well, the owners of the “Bot” just said that there is no way this would work in the States!
The robot would either get stolen!
Run-over!
Or shot!
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I didn’t quite get the whole story because it flashed by too quick on
the screen, but it was something about a guy that lives, or plays, or
something or other, in Toronto!Seems he’s out of commission for a while because of a infected toe!
Just so ya know!
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Folks, you might wonder why I included an article about Iraq on these pages, but this subject is important to both human history, and heritage!
Especially Christian heritage!
Mosul has long been known for its religious diversity.
Iraq’s second largest city has been home to Persians, Arabs, Turks, and Christians of all denominations since it was first believed to have been settled in 6000 B.C. The ruins of Ninevah, one of the greatest cities in antiquity and former seat of the Assyrian Empire, lie within its modern city limits.
But now the Islamic State (IS) has arrived.
The Sunni extremists of the IS, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have been working to erase evidence of that diverse history since they seized the ancient city on June 10. (Related: “Iraq: 1,200 Years of Turbulent History in Five Maps.”)
By some estimates 60,000 Christians lived in Mosul a decade ago, a number that may have been halved over the past decade of turmoil but could now be close to zero following an order by the IS to convert, leave, or die. This month reportedly marks the first time in 1,600 years in Mosul that no Sunday Mass has been held. (Related: “Iraq Crisis: ‘Ancient Hatreds Turning Into Modern Realities.’”)
The IS is also trying to eradicate visual evidence of belief systems that don’t follow its strict interpretation of Islam. The Sunni extremist fighters have removed or destroyed more than a dozen tombs, statues, mosques, and shrines—including shrines that hold meaning for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike—such as the site believed to be the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah, which was wired with explosives and detonated last week. The shrine of Prophet Seth, considered to be the third son of Adam and Eve, has also been demolished.
Mosul is one of the oldest cities in Iraq. Ninevah is now part of the city; it used to be just outside Mosul. During the 9th century onward, Mosul was the seat for all the Christian religious movements and studies. Just outside the city is one of perhaps the oldest monasteries in the world—Mar Mattai, or St. Matthews.
Iraqi-British archaeologist Lamia Al-Gailani Werr is an honorary senior research associate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and she spoke with National Geographic about the physical and spiritual heritage being lost in Mosul today:
Is that monastery safe so far?
I have not heard anything about Mar Mattai, so it could be still safe. Some say it dates back earlier than the fourth century, to the second century.
The Assyrian Empire dates to the first millennium B.C., but there are a lot of sites within the area that go back 10,000 years. Mosul is absolutely rich with archaeological sites. Rich with people too: The people there count themselves as being in the center of the world. The people of Mosul are very proud of their city. For Christianity, the Eastern Church in Mosul was really the church that spread Christianity to the east. Islam was also there from the beginning, when it came through Iraq in the seventh century.
Have you visited the sites that have been destroyed?
I went to visit the archaeological sites in 2001. We saw Nabi Yunus [the tomb of Jonah], which has a mosque that has been renewed again and again. The minaret of Nabi Yunus was only from 1924 because the old one fell down. Nabi Yunus has been renewed quite often—during Saddam’s time they did a lot of renovations. Mosul has a number of these shrines that go back to the 9th, 10th century, especially 12th and 13th century.
The shrine of Jonah, isn’t that something of value not just to Jews and Christians but also to Muslims?
Yes, it has—or it had—a mosque over it. It’s difficult to say when it was built, but Nabi Yunus stands on top of a mound that was probably an Assyrian temple. After the Assyrians it became a Zoroastrian temple. Then it became a church, and afterwards it became a mosque. In the 1990s, the State Board of Antiquity and Heritage did excavate at the bottom of this mound and they found the gates from an Assyrian palace.
Why is the IS destroying places that are also important to Islam?
They are shrines. The IS, or the fundamentalist Salafist people, don’t think that it is right to go and worship a dead person. They are absolutely against that. So what they’ve been doing literally is destroying any shrine. Not mosques, but shrines. They did destroy mosques or smaller mosques that belong to the Shiites, but they consider the Shiites as not religious, as not Islamic.
The Shiite mosques are called husseiniya. The IS has been destroying them systematically, not only in Mosul but also other places. But then the minute they got to Mosul, they demolished a shrine which is from the 12th century. It was that of Ali ibn al-Athir, a historian and writer from that period who was accused even then of being an apostate.
Aren’t they also, like the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, attacking relics that depict a human face or form?
We don’t have that in these sort of shrines in Iraq, these human forms. That’s mostly in Christian places. But they could destroy these in Christian places if they get to them.
The extremists also tried—and so far have failed—to destroy the crooked minaret of Mosul, which is said to be 840 years old.
Yes, it is still standing. Next to it there’s another shrine, and they presumably were intending to destroy it. I heard that they put all these explosives around it and asked the people who live around it to evacuate their houses.
But the local people have shown complete opposition to them, and there’s another militia that came in and surrounded the place so the IS people left. So it’s been spared for the time being. We don’t know what will happen next. This is the most frightening thing, that minaret.
Why is that so frightening?
Because it really is more iconic to Mosul than even the tomb of Jonah. It’s like the leaning tower of Pisa. All the Iraqis and the people of Mosul are so proud of it. It’s a beautiful minaret. The Hadba Minaret is built of brick, which is all intricately decorated and is from about the 12th-13th century.
Why is the minaret crooked?
It is something to do with the geological ground—a structural fault. Most minarets in Iraq, and especially in Mosul, tend with time to lean slightly. That is one reason why minarets are always being replaced. However, the Hadba is still standing after so many centuries and has become the icon of Mosul.
What is the cultural value of these minarets and shrines?
They are very important. If we’re talking about Islamic shrines, quite a number of them have very distinctive architectural domes. Because most of the domes in Iraq are built with brick, not many of them have survived. In Mosul, however, there are quite a number of them and they’re being destroyed. From an architectural point of view, it’s a great pity.
Has there been any other time in Mosul’s history where its diversity has been so threatened?
Never like now where there is an evacuation of all of them [the Christians]. That was the lovely thing about Iraq—we lived all of us together, and it is politics that has interfered. This time it is fundamentalist Islam. I’m very angry about this. The Jews were in Iraq from Babylonian captivity. And then politics let them leave from the 1950s onwards, and now the Christians are going. I remember as a child my father had three childhood friends. One was a Jew, one was a Christian, one was a Muslim. That gives you a symbol of what it was like. (Related: “What Does It Mean to Be Iraqi Anymore?”)
I also have an English friend in Mosul whose husband has lived in Mosul for over 20 years. He says he’s had tea and coffee and Coca-Colas with every single Christian sect in the world. Because they were all there. This is how it was. I honestly can’t believe that its going like this. It is a great pity.
Iraq’s second largest city has been home to Persians, Arabs, Turks, and Christians of all denominations since it was first believed to have been settled in 6000 B.C. The ruins of Ninevah, one of the greatest cities in antiquity and former seat of the Assyrian Empire, lie within its modern city limits.
But now the Islamic State (IS) has arrived.
The Sunni extremists of the IS, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have been working to erase evidence of that diverse history since they seized the ancient city on June 10. (Related: “Iraq: 1,200 Years of Turbulent History in Five Maps.”)
By some estimates 60,000 Christians lived in Mosul a decade ago, a number that may have been halved over the past decade of turmoil but could now be close to zero following an order by the IS to convert, leave, or die. This month reportedly marks the first time in 1,600 years in Mosul that no Sunday Mass has been held. (Related: “Iraq Crisis: ‘Ancient Hatreds Turning Into Modern Realities.’”)
The IS is also trying to eradicate visual evidence of belief systems that don’t follow its strict interpretation of Islam. The Sunni extremist fighters have removed or destroyed more than a dozen tombs, statues, mosques, and shrines—including shrines that hold meaning for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike—such as the site believed to be the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah, which was wired with explosives and detonated last week. The shrine of Prophet Seth, considered to be the third son of Adam and Eve, has also been demolished.
Mosul is one of the oldest cities in Iraq. Ninevah is now part of the city; it used to be just outside Mosul. During the 9th century onward, Mosul was the seat for all the Christian religious movements and studies. Just outside the city is one of perhaps the oldest monasteries in the world—Mar Mattai, or St. Matthews.
Iraqi-British archaeologist Lamia Al-Gailani Werr is an honorary senior research associate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and she spoke with National Geographic about the physical and spiritual heritage being lost in Mosul today:
Is that monastery safe so far?
I have not heard anything about Mar Mattai, so it could be still safe. Some say it dates back earlier than the fourth century, to the second century.
The Assyrian Empire dates to the first millennium B.C., but there are a lot of sites within the area that go back 10,000 years. Mosul is absolutely rich with archaeological sites. Rich with people too: The people there count themselves as being in the center of the world. The people of Mosul are very proud of their city. For Christianity, the Eastern Church in Mosul was really the church that spread Christianity to the east. Islam was also there from the beginning, when it came through Iraq in the seventh century.
Have you visited the sites that have been destroyed?
I went to visit the archaeological sites in 2001. We saw Nabi Yunus [the tomb of Jonah], which has a mosque that has been renewed again and again. The minaret of Nabi Yunus was only from 1924 because the old one fell down. Nabi Yunus has been renewed quite often—during Saddam’s time they did a lot of renovations. Mosul has a number of these shrines that go back to the 9th, 10th century, especially 12th and 13th century.
The shrine of Jonah, isn’t that something of value not just to Jews and Christians but also to Muslims?
Yes, it has—or it had—a mosque over it. It’s difficult to say when it was built, but Nabi Yunus stands on top of a mound that was probably an Assyrian temple. After the Assyrians it became a Zoroastrian temple. Then it became a church, and afterwards it became a mosque. In the 1990s, the State Board of Antiquity and Heritage did excavate at the bottom of this mound and they found the gates from an Assyrian palace.
Why is the IS destroying places that are also important to Islam?
They are shrines. The IS, or the fundamentalist Salafist people, don’t think that it is right to go and worship a dead person. They are absolutely against that. So what they’ve been doing literally is destroying any shrine. Not mosques, but shrines. They did destroy mosques or smaller mosques that belong to the Shiites, but they consider the Shiites as not religious, as not Islamic.
The Shiite mosques are called husseiniya. The IS has been destroying them systematically, not only in Mosul but also other places. But then the minute they got to Mosul, they demolished a shrine which is from the 12th century. It was that of Ali ibn al-Athir, a historian and writer from that period who was accused even then of being an apostate.
Aren’t they also, like the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, attacking relics that depict a human face or form?
We don’t have that in these sort of shrines in Iraq, these human forms. That’s mostly in Christian places. But they could destroy these in Christian places if they get to them.
The extremists also tried—and so far have failed—to destroy the crooked minaret of Mosul, which is said to be 840 years old.
Yes, it is still standing. Next to it there’s another shrine, and they presumably were intending to destroy it. I heard that they put all these explosives around it and asked the people who live around it to evacuate their houses.
But the local people have shown complete opposition to them, and there’s another militia that came in and surrounded the place so the IS people left. So it’s been spared for the time being. We don’t know what will happen next. This is the most frightening thing, that minaret.
Why is that so frightening?
Because it really is more iconic to Mosul than even the tomb of Jonah. It’s like the leaning tower of Pisa. All the Iraqis and the people of Mosul are so proud of it. It’s a beautiful minaret. The Hadba Minaret is built of brick, which is all intricately decorated and is from about the 12th-13th century.
Why is the minaret crooked?
It is something to do with the geological ground—a structural fault. Most minarets in Iraq, and especially in Mosul, tend with time to lean slightly. That is one reason why minarets are always being replaced. However, the Hadba is still standing after so many centuries and has become the icon of Mosul.
What is the cultural value of these minarets and shrines?
They are very important. If we’re talking about Islamic shrines, quite a number of them have very distinctive architectural domes. Because most of the domes in Iraq are built with brick, not many of them have survived. In Mosul, however, there are quite a number of them and they’re being destroyed. From an architectural point of view, it’s a great pity.
Has there been any other time in Mosul’s history where its diversity has been so threatened?
Never like now where there is an evacuation of all of them [the Christians]. That was the lovely thing about Iraq—we lived all of us together, and it is politics that has interfered. This time it is fundamentalist Islam. I’m very angry about this. The Jews were in Iraq from Babylonian captivity. And then politics let them leave from the 1950s onwards, and now the Christians are going. I remember as a child my father had three childhood friends. One was a Jew, one was a Christian, one was a Muslim. That gives you a symbol of what it was like. (Related: “What Does It Mean to Be Iraqi Anymore?”)
I also have an English friend in Mosul whose husband has lived in Mosul for over 20 years. He says he’s had tea and coffee and Coca-Colas with every single Christian sect in the world. Because they were all there. This is how it was. I honestly can’t believe that its going like this. It is a great pity.
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MEANWHILE: Hundreds of Iraqi Canadian Christians gathered in Toronto today calling for the government to stand up against the persecution Christians in Mosul have faced since terrorist group ISIS began its occupation on June 10.
The crowd marched around Queen’s Park Sunday afternoon.
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