Although roosters come in many sizes, shapes, and colors, if there is one thing that all roosters have in common, it’s a very strong drive to protect their flock from potential predators. That strong protective drive was captured on video and shows a rooster protecting his flock from a lethal king cobra snake in Andhra Pradesh, India.
In the video, the rooster seems to herd the snake away from the rest of the flock in a protective manner. In a fierce and fast battle of speed and reflexes, the rooster manages to weaken the large cobra by landing a series of fierce pecks. The speedy rooster darts out of range each time he manages to land pecks, so agile and fast that the cobra could not land a single bite. And that’s important because even a single cobra bite would have been deadly. How deadly? The venom from a cobra bite is enough to kill 20 people, according to National Geographic.
Until recently the oldest love poem was considered to be the Song of Solomon……but unfortunately that is no longer true…..
The World’s Oldest Love Poem was discovered in the library of Ashurbanipal in Mesopotamia. Known as the Love Song of Shu-Sin, the World’s Oldest Love Poem is about both romantic and erotic love, and was read as a part of a sacred ritual known as the ‘sacred marriage.’ In honour of Valentines Day on February 14th, this video chats about the discovery of the poem, it’s part in the sacred marriage, and then it is read in full! Prior to the discovery of the Love Song of Shu-Sin, The Song of Solomon from the bible was considered the oldest love poem!
This piece of news may be a bit disturbing for some….but I like history disturbing or not…..
This is a health issue from 200 years ago….
A cure for headaches, acne and insanity……
For a long time, medicine was pre-occupied with the question “can this be solved by putting something in the butt?”
Take, for example, tobacco smoke enemas, in which 18th Century physicians saw drowning victims and attempted to de-deadify them by blowing tobacco smoke up their rectums with a pipe. Despite having no medical benefit whatsoever, the practice was popular, and enema kits lined the Thames like lifebelts, ready to be used as one final humiliation for somebody who was crap at swimming.
This practice ended sometime after 1800 when it became apparent that it didn’t really work, given how the anus famously isn’t really connected to the lungs, but doctors weren’t quite finished with having a poke around in the general area to see what happens just yet.
(iflscience.com)
Okay as long as we are talking about butts….
Going to the toilet is a vulnerable time for a species that’s grown accustomed to having their private parts covered up. As such, haunting scenes from TV and cinema of spiders and snakes (On A Plane) catching people quite literally with their trousers down can sit heavy on the minds of anxious toilet users. These people may find the concept of an outhouse quite concerning, but surely there’s nothing more dangerous than a moisture-seeking frog to be found at the bottom of an outdoor basin? Think again, says Alaska.
Here to provide you with some serious nightmare fuel is the poor fortune of a woman who last week was bitten on her behind by what’s suspected to have been a black bear. The offending outhouse toilet was in Alaska’s backcountry where bears aren’t uncommon. The Alaska Department of Natural Resource warns on its website, “Nothing will guarantee your safety in bear country, but knowledge of bears and proper behavior greatly reduce your risk.” The information page estimates that 95 percent of the time it’s people who are responsible for negative bear encounters. I think it’s safe to say, then, that the fate of Shannon Stevens sits firmly within the 5 percent exception. Though she admits to not checking the seat before sitting down, finding a bear beneath your butt surely constitutes an unforeseeable consequence of squatting with confidence.
KETO is the fad that has become very popular in the last couple of years…but is it all that healthy?
Ketogenic diets, which forgo carbohydrates to replace them with fats, have become extremely popular in recent years, rising to the top as the most-searched-for diet of 2020. Whilst these diets are effective in treating epilepsy and have applications in various other diseases, the evidence for use as a tool for weight loss in healthy individuals remains disputed.
In a recent study performed on rats, researchers have suggested that keto diets are having a dramatic impact on people’s hearts. The results showed the high-fat-diet-induced changes within the rats’ hearts, reducing the production of mitochondria and creating scar tissue. Their work was published in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.
The basis of ketogenic diets revolves around bringing the body into a state of ketosis through consuming mostly fats. Ketosis is a normal metabolic response that kicks in when the body doesn’t have enough glucose to ensure enough energy is provided. The liver begins turning fat molecules into ketones, which are released into the bloodstream and used as an alternative energy source.
I admit it….the only social media I use is Twitter….mostly as a news feed…..
The news is that changes are coming to Twitter…..
They’ve worked well for Facebook, so Twitter is going to add groups to its platform—though they’ll be called “communities.” That’s one of the major changes announced Thursday, the Verge reports. The other big one is called Super Follows, which will permit users to steer their followers to content and charge them for the privilege. The content could include additional tweets, newsletters, support badges, and access to one of the new communities. In Twitter’s example, the users charge $4.99 per month for the benefits, enabling them to collect directly from their followers. The changes were unveiled during Analyst Day, per CNBC, and the idea is that they’ll help the company reach its 2023 goals for users and revenue.
Many of the changes aren’t new, but they’re new to Twitter. Users will be able to start and join communities built around common interests. The examples Twitter gives are cats and plants, so users in a cat community would see even more cat content. Users who run communities would be allowed to set their own rules for members, beyond those set by Twitter. Details were sketchy, but Twitter also said it’s looking into allowing followers to tip certain accounts. The company thinks “an audience-funded model where subscribers can directly fund the content that they value most is a durable incentive model that aligns the interests of creators and consumers,” its head of design and research said. Super Follows is supposed to launch before the end of the year.
Nothing will change for me.
When I heard changes were coming I thought they decide to charge people for being members….that would kill it for me.
Ever since Biden was elected president the politicians have been saying that it was time to heal from the deep political divisions during the Trump years.
Looks like Trump will make a speech and it will be that he is in control…..
Former President Donald Trump is getting ready to make headlines with his first speech since leaving office last month.
Trump is planning to brand himself as the “presumptive 2024 nominee” during his speech at CPAC, Axios reported Monday.
While it is well known that Trump remains a dominant force in the Republican Party, this would be the first public indication from him that he wants to run for a second non-consecutive term.
But that analysis is for his speech….now to day one of the meeting….
The line-up for Friday was a love fest from Trump toadies….
Florida governor Ron DeSantis
Senator Mike Lee
Former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker
Senator James Lankford
Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi
Senator Ted Cruz
Rep. Mo Brooks
Rep. Madison Cawthorn
Senator Tom Cotton
Sen. Marsha Blackburn
Rep. Matt Gaetz
Sen. Rick Scott
Sen. Josh Hawley
Donald Trump Jr.
Here is FOX News take on the speakers.
During the first full day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), speakers hit cancel culture, China, Big Tech and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
But one thing pervaded it all — fealty to former President Trump.
These types of gatherings usually look to the future and plan for it….but this time the conservs will embrace the past and the disastrous policies they held….and a continuation of revisionist bullshit.
I have never seen a bunch of clowns shoveling manure so liberally.
Sorry for the break in tradition for IST on weekends but some stories are too important to wait.
Back in 2018 the Saudi government murdered a journalist because he was a staunch critic of the Saudi royals…….
Pres. Biden has done something that Trump refused to do and released the intel report that points the finger at the crown prince of KSA as the instigator of the murder.
The US released an intelligence report on Friday that directly implicates Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal killing of Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authoritarian consolidation of power, per the AP. Still, since the finding had not been officially released until now, the public assignment of responsibility amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the 35-year-old crown prince. US intelligence officials concluded that bin Salman approved the operation that led to Khashoggi’s killing, per the Washington Post. (The US-based Khashoggi was a columnist for the Post.) The move could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable.
The report was released one day after a later-than-usual courtesy call from President Biden to Saudi King Salman, though it wasn’t clear whether they discussed the killing. On the day of his death, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Turkey to pick up documents for his wedding. Once inside, he died at the hands of more than a dozen Saudi security and intelligence officials who had assembled ahead of his arrival. Surveillance cameras had tracked his route and those of his alleged killers in Istanbul in the hours leading up to his killing. A Turkish bug planted at the consulate reportedly captured the sound of a saw dismembering Khashoggi’s body within an hour of his entering the building. His remains have not been found. The prince said in 2019 he took “full responsibility” for the killing since it happened on his watch, but denied ordering it.
Now we have the culprit responsible brutal murder of Khashoggi……;what did Biden do?
US sanctioned Saudi officials over the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after the release of a US intelligence report that said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, ordered the killing. Although MBS, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, was absent from the list of blacklisted Saudis.
In response to the report, the State Department announced a new visa restriction called the “Khashoggi Ban.” The ban allows the US to impose visa restrictions on individuals who engage in “extraterritorial counter-dissident activities” against journalists or activists. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The first Khashoggi Ban restrictions were implemented on 76 Saudis. The State Department described them as “individuals believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing.”
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on Saudi operatives believed to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death. The measures targeted members of Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force that were sent to kill Khashoggi.
The Treasury Department also targeted Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri, the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency, who the US says was assigned to carry out the Khashoggi hit.
The Biden administration is facing calls from Congress to take action against MBS for the killing. A Biden administration official told Politico that the White House decided against sanctioning MBS, fearing that it would put the US in an extremely “hostile” position with Saudi Arabia.
For their part, Saudi Arabia said it “completely rejects” the US intelligence assessment. Riyadh’s story has been that Khashoggi was killed by rogue operatives and that MBS had no knowledge of the plan.
The Biden administration has said it will reevaluate the US-Saudi relationship. Besides the sanctions, President Biden has also announced an end to US support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive” operations in Yemen. The US suspended some Saudi arms sales, and a report from Reuters on Friday said the administration is considering stopping sales for “defensive” weapons as well.
NOTHING for the culprit, MbS……why?
Just another incident that we are kowtowing to the Saudis for some damn reason….and I thought it was pathetic the way we do that with Israel but now we have another nation that we feel we must massage their egos to keep them buying stuff from our defense industries.
Once again we care nothing for human rights as long as we keep our hand in their pockets.
It is a pathetic response….and I expect more of the same from the Biden administration.
Sending a verbal ‘finger’ to Congress the Postmaster General of the USPS saying that he cannot be fired so get use to having me mess with your mail.
President Biden can’t directly fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—and DeJoy certainly knows it. During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, DeJoy corrected a Democratic lawmaker who described him as a “Trump holdover,” Politico reports. “I’m not a political appointee,” he said. “I’d really appreciate if you’d get that straight. When Rep. Jim Cooper asked DeJoy how long he planned to remain in the role, he said, “A long time. Get used to me.” DeJoy, a Trump ally and major Republican donor, was appointed by the United States Postal Service’s GOP-dominated board last year and has been heavily criticized over moves that significantly slowed down service. His opponents have urged Biden to end his tenure by filling three vacant slots on the nine-person board, or by just replacing the entire panel.
Biden hasn’t said whether he will try to get rid of DeJoy, though White House spokesman Michael Gwin tells CNN that the president “is working as quickly as possible to fill board vacancies so the USPS can effectively fulfil its vital mission for the country, and live up to the commitments made to its workers.” During Wednesday’s hearing, DeJoy acknowledged that there had been “unacceptable” delays but said there had been major issues before he arrived. “You can sit here and think that I’m bringing all this damage to the Postal Service,” he said. “But as I said earlier, the place was operationally faulty because of a lack of investment and lack of ability to move forward, which is what we’re trying to do.” DeJoy, who said the USPS was in a financial “death spiral,” told lawmakers he would release a long-term plan next month.
Really dude?
Well Biden took his mean spirited threat seriously.
President Biden announced his three nominees to join the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors on Wednesday, the first step for the board to potentially oust controversial Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. There are currently three vacancies on the nine-member board, and the six existing members were all appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden has chosen Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union; Amber McReynolds, a voting rights activist and the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute; and Ron Stroman, who recently retired as deputy postmaster general. If confirmed by the Senate, Democrats would have a majority on the board, which currently has four Republicans and two Democrats.
The decision has been made by the Parliamentarian on whether the $15 minimum wage can be added to the Cocid-19 recovery bill…..
Looks like the coronavirus relief bill will not include a minimum wage hike. The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday ruled against the inclusion, saying it goes against budget rules. Every provision in the $1.9 trillion bill must comply with budget rules since Democrats are attempting to use the fast-track budget reconciliation process to get the bill passed with a simple majority, the Hill explains. But Nancy Pelosi says the House will leave the $15 minimum wage item in the bill when it votes Friday, despite the fact that it will almost certainly be removed from the Senate bill. The only way it wouldn’t would involve Vice President Kamala Harris basically eschewing the parliamentarian’s ruling, which the White House said it does not support; Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin also says he wouldn’t support bypassing budget rules.
“What are we supposed to tell voters in 2 years before the midterms? Sorry, we couldn’t pass the $15 minimum wage that we promised you because the Senate parliamentarian advised against it?” Rep. Pramila Jayapal tweeted. “Two-thirds of voters want this done. Time to deliver.” As the Week reports, Bernie Sanders quickly unveiled his “plan B,” saying he’s working on an amendment he wants included in the bill that will eliminate tax deductions for “large, profitable corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour” and also give smaller businesses incentives to increase wages. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, similarly, said he’s “looking at a tax penalty for mega-corporations that refuse to pay a living wage.” Sources tell CNN the minimum wage hike’s removal will likely make it easier for the Senate to pass the bill, as Democrats can avoid infighting over its inclusion—moderates like Manchin are not in favor.
As usual there will be other avenues to travel for this policy.
Black Lives Matter have been protesting for years now trying to bring some notice to the injustice that is still occurring in the US.
For the most part they are non-violent…..I know there is reports of vandalism and looting…..for the most part it is thugs using the protests as cover for their criminality….it is mostly citizens protesting calmly and with purpose.
I need to ask….what has these non-violent protests accomplished?
I know there are bringing a focus on the injustice and inequality in our society….but the conversation around these protest are more about the isolated acts of criminality than the issues that caused the protest to start.
What will it take for this situation to generate a real conversation on the social inequality?
Black Lives Matter has brought about a few “promises” from governmental agencies…..
While it is too early to assess the global impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, emerging evidence indicates that it has made significant progress. The first significant impact of the protests has been the toppling of Confederate and slavery-related statues around the world — statues that had stood all-too-proudly for centuries. In England, protesters toppled the statue of Edward Colston, a prominent slave trader. In Belgium, protesters set fire to a statue of King Leopold II. In the USA, statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln have been toppled. Airports and schools are also being renamed.
Second, city councillors have vowed to reform police departments. From Minneapolis to New York City, and from Los Angeles to Denver, mayors have pledged to take money away from the police and reinvest it in community programmes. In Los Angeles, for example, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that he would redirect US$250 million from the police budget into healthcare, jobs and ‘healing’ programmes for the city’s communities of colour. Democrats in Congress have also unveiled sweeping legislation on police reform, including banning chokeholds and mandating federal police officers to use body and dashboard cameras.
Third, corporations such as Apple, Facebook, Google, Reddit and Amazon have promised greater diversity and inclusivity. In fact, Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian recently resigned via a video urging the board to fill his seat with a black candidate. Ohanian also pledged US$1 million to Colin Kaepernick’s Know your Rights Camp in the announcement. On top of this, a new database has been set up to collect video footage that documents police violence at demonstrations across the country.
(By the way….I do not agree with this supposition…..what it calls for has not worked in the past and most likely will not again)
These promises are nothing but a pacifying move…..cities are promising reform and yet the killings continue and the cops still walk or get slap on the wrest for their murder…..and corporations are throwing money at the problems hoping it will put them in a favorable light…..basically the same crap they pulled in the 60s and we all know how that worked out, right?
I sorry to be a downer but I do not see any change in the future because of these protest….any change will be incremental at best…..and that tactic has gotten Blacks where they are today.
If they want to progress then there must be a new way….and that way is for them to work out…..but without another tactic nothing will change.
In case anyone was worried that Biden would be a ‘peace’ president then yu may calm your tortured mind….
Biden has ordered his first military action….
President Biden ordered an airstrike in Syria on Thursday, after recent rocket attacks launched on US forces in Iraq. The target was a structure thought to be used for smuggling weapons by two Shia militias backed by Iran, CNN reports. The goal of the US attack was to hurt the militias’ capability of carrying out any more attacks, per Politico, though the site, in the eastern Syrian town of Al Bukamal, has not been tied to the rocket attacks. The Defense Department had not publicly blamed any Iran-backed militias. Last week, per ABC, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US “reserves the right to respond in the time and manner of our choosing.”
The Pentagon said the strikes were specifically in response to an attack in Iraq that killed a civilian contractor and wounded a service member, per the AP. A Pentagon spokesman called the airstrike a “proportionate military response.” It was the first military action taken since Biden took office. “The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel,” John Kirby said. “At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to deescalate the overall situation in eastern Syria and Iraq.” The airstrikes, which took place about 6pm ET, successfully “destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups,” Kirby added. Attacks by Shiite militia groups against US targets in Iraq decreased in the months before Biden became president.
After strike briefing the SecDef issued his statement….
“I’m confident in the target that we went after, we know what we hit,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Thursday after the US launched airstrikes in Syria, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes, Biden’s first military action, were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops. An Iraqi militia official told the AP the strikes against the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, hit an area along the border between the Syrian site of Boukamal facing Qaim on the Iraqi side. Syria war monitoring groups said the strikes hit trucks moving weapons to a base for Iranian-backed militias in Boukamal.
The US has in the past targeted facilities in Syria belonging to Kataeb Hezbollah, which it has blamed for numerous attacks targeting US personnel and interests in Iraq. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the war in Syria, said 22 fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitaries that includes Kataeb Hezbollah, were killed. The report could not be independently verified. Defense Secretary Austin said he was “confident” the US had hit back at the “the same Shia militants that conducted the strikes,” referring to the Feb. 15 rocket attack. Austin said he had recommended the action to Biden. “We said a number of times that we will respond on our timeline,” Austin said. “We wanted to be sure of the connectivity and we wanted to be sure that we had the right targets.”
There can be NO doubt that Biden is a Hawk….just as I predicted when he was elected.
Nope not at all…..I am referring to an article by Robert Kagan who says the the biggest problem today is that the average American does not want to rule the world.
“All great powers” want to rule the world, declared Robert Kagan, propagandist for America as imperial power, democratic hegemon, aggressive unipower, and perpetual war machine. However, they typically fail. Wrote Kagan in a new Foreign Affairs article: “Much of the drama of the past century resulted from great powers whose aspirations exceeded their capacity.”
The U.S. has a different problem, he contended. The American people. Rather than realize their unique calling to sacrifice themselves and obey their betters when instructed to patrol the globe, they continued to look inward.
They failed to realize that their destiny is to impose order upon independent and subservient, judge innocent and guilty, wage war upon great and small, and, yes, kill anyone who and destroy anything which gets in the way of fulfilling this sacred duty. Instead of focusing on the wishes of Washington, D.C., the world’s imperial city, and rising to the greatness expected of them by supporting the aggrandizements of a globally dominant America, they focused on the local and personal – their careers and educations, their communities and towns, their clubs and associations, and their families and friends.
How dare the American people focus their attention on some mundane things as their careers and educations, their communities and towns, their clubs and associations, and their families and friends. (Of course that was sarcasm in case you missed it)
Apparently I do not agree with Kagan on very much.
I believe that our destiny and/or duty is to this country and not wanting to rule the world.
We already have a wealth of politicians that feel we should rule and care little for what the American people desire.
I have a problem with pissing away taxpayer money on endless interventionism while the country and its people suffer from a wealth of problems…health, poverty, failing infrastructure, education and so many more that could be solved with the cash wasted on continuous wars.
In Saner Thought 
