OMG. Ember was funny today.

I just bought a pair of platform sandals, which I love since I'm short. The tops are white leather with little sparkles glued onto them, which I don't like, but I discovered that I can pick them off easily enough.

I put them on when I got home (before removing the sparkles). Ember backed away from me and crouched down in that slinking posture that cats use with things that they don't trust and might want to attack. So I put one foot forward for her to check it out. She hissed.

I took the sandals off and extended one out toward her to see that it's harmless. Nothing doing. Ember did not trust either the height or the sparkles. Vehement hiss, followed by a swat.

I left the sandals on the floor for her to check out in her own good time. She sneaked up on them and stretched her neck out to sniff them, then backed away and went to her dish. Like, "If I ignore them, maybe they will go away."

I will see later if she is ok with them after I get the sparkles off.

Never saw her react to shoes before.

Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump

Some thoughts occurred to me after watching Hillary on a video responding to the Trump indictment in Miami.

Hillary Clinton will go down in history as a great American who served her country as a Senator and as Secretary of State. She will always be known as the first woman candidate in a major party for the office of President who won the popular vote.

Her descendants for many generations will be proud to claim her as an ancestor.

Donald Trump will go down in history as a criminal who was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman, who stole top secret documents and obstructed justice when told to return them, who compromised national security, who aroused violence and racism in his followers, and who incited a violent attack on the Capitol in an attempt to stay in office after losing an election.

Trump's descendants for many generations will be embarrassed and ashamed to carry his name and might even change it. Unless, of course, if they inherit his lack of conscience and his inability to feel shame.

Gravity testing cats

Bipedal cats compilation.

Smoke in the air. How to cope with it??

My first glimpse out the window this morning looked like winter.

Since my apartment is a few floors up, with no buildings or trees to block my view, I can see for several blocks - except in winter. When snow fills the air, the world outside my window turns white, reducing visibility, and giving me the eerie feeling of floating, disconnected from the ground.

But this morning, the grayish white outside my window that reduced visibility was smoke. The air smells like fire, not snow. I have not been outdoors yet. The smell is inside my apartment. When I developed a headache, I put the winter cover onto the outside wall A/C unit and put a door air stopper on my living room windowsill where a draft often comes in during winter.

I can put on a mask if it gets bad enough, but I am concerned about the cat.

I have a small, portable air purifier. I did not even open the box until this morning, only to find that it requires a 5V wall power unit which I don't have. I guess I can go out and buy one, although that means more exposure to the smoke. I do have surgical and N95 masks.

How a virus changes the world.

This short video was produced in 2012 and added to a DVD of the movie Contagion. At You Tube, the comments from 2012 are interesting in comparison to those posted after covid 19.

Remember when the movie, Contagion, was only sci fi and not reality?

I wonder how many people who saw it before covid 19 thought that it was just a scary movie and unlikely that such a deadly pandemic would ever really happen again in the world like the 1918 flu and the Medieval Plague. After all, we know so much more today about sanitation, the spread of disease, treatments, vaccine development, etc. Wouldn't happen in our life time, right?

I had not seen Contagion before covid, so I ordered it on DVD during the Delta wave and compared it to what was happening in real life with covid. It was pretty accurate in some ways, like the closed schools and businesses, the need to isolate and wear masks before there was a vaccine, the refusal by some people to follow safe protocols, the fake cure huckster, the objections that the vaccine was too rushed and not as safe as the huckster cures. The worst part of the real life similarity is that the huckster promoting the fake cures was our own president! And it was his followers who refused to accept the vaccine!

Other parts of Contagion were not so accurate. I don't remember hearing of any one being kidnapped to ensure that a particular region got the vaccine once it was developed. Also, even though our shelves got pretty bare of some items, there was not such a food shortage that the government was issuing MREs to the general population.

My DVD of Contagion has this cartoon video about viruses in the "extras" or "special effects" section. Remember, the cartoon video was prior to covid 19, too. The comments section of this vodeo on you tube shows the difference in people's reactions t0 the video in 2012 versus the comments made after covid.

Remember this talking cats oldie from You Tube?

Another thread of talking parrots reminded me of these adorable cats having a chat together.

417 interconnected Mayan cities discovered in Guatemala dating back to around 1000 BC.

Researchers from a joint US-Guatamalan archaeological expedition revealed in an interview with the Washington Post that they had uncovered 417 cities connected by a network of highways dating back approximately 3000 years.

According to the Washington Post, the discovery of a road and city network, hydraulic systems, and agricultural infrastructure indicates that the communities in Central America were more advanced than previously thought.

https://www.dailysabah.com/life/history/scientists-discover-417-mayan-cities-in-guatemalas-forested-area

Archaeologists discover Mayan board game

The article discusses the uses of board games in various societies and what can be learned from this Mayan board game.

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-archaeologists-ancient-mayan-board-gamehere.html