Stirewalt strongly resembles Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) from Bonanza?

I kept waiting for him to put on a cowboy hat and ride out of the room on a horse.

Like most cats, Ember loves looking out the window, especially in spring and summer when there is more going on. I have an upper floor apartment with a view for several blocks.

As soon as the sun comes up in the morning, Ember is on the window sill, checking for any changes that might have happened overnight. But this morning, there was a thick fog, blocking out everything except a building across the street, which looked weirdly like it was floating since the ground below it and sky above it were not visible.

Poor Ember looked startled at the scene. She stretched her neck forward as if she could not believe her eyes. I gave her some reassuring scritches, a kiss on the head, and a hug. Told her it would be "all right" later. She knows that the words "all right" mean nothing to get alarmed about. But I think she felt cheated. She jumped down to the floor and has not looked out since.

It is starting to clear up now. Once it does, I expect she'll be back at her window post.

DNA analysis of remains of 13 year old reveals a Neanderthal mother and Denisovan father. This is the first time that a first generation hybrid, with 50/50 DNA has been found.

The article suggests that part of the reason that Neanderthals and Denisovans no longer exist is that they were absorbed into the Sapiens population through interbreeding rather than due to disease or inter species fighting.

According to the article, everywhere in Asia and among Native Americans there is less than 1% Denisovan DNA. There is 5% Denisovan DNA in Papua New Guinea and among Aboriginal Australians.

One Denisovan legacy is a mutatin of gene EPAS1 that makes it easier for the body to access oxygen. This gene is found in 90% of Tibetans and 9% of Han Chinese.

I wonder if that gene variant accounts for the Native people of Peru where the people lived in the Andes Mountains and the Inca Empire used runners to carry messages at those mountain heights.

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-neandertal-mother-denisovan-fathernewly-sequenced-genome.html

I have been thinking about showing support for gun control by wearing an armband every day to mourn all the people killed by firearms, especially in mass shootings, in the US.

A plain orange armband, or one with a message on it, like "Stop the killings." Or, "Stop the insanity."

Initially I thought of black armbands as a traditional color for mourning, but since orange is the choice for gun control support, then orange armbands would convey the message.

An armband can be worn daily, while an orange shirt is not likely daily wear.

The point is to keep the symbol visible so that people do not forget, and to show politicians how much support for gun control there is. It would not take the place of action, but would be supplemental to working for change. A reminder to people to vote out the politicians who refuse to take action.

(NOTE: This was edited to choose orange instead of my original thought of black for mourning.)

It is as relevant today as it was then.

Get Together, by The Youngbloods.

Since it is a reality today that they are needed, I am not in any way suggesting that we should not have them.

But, WTF is wrong with American society that such drills ARE necessary?

Boomers like myself can remember fire drills and air raid drills. Some regional locations might have had tornado drills. But, except for tornado drills in high risk regions, we never expected that there would be a fire or bomb. They were "just in case" drills.

Now kids not only practice active shooter drills, but can realistically expect it to happen.

Buffalo NPR news is reporting that several "credible" threats have been made to Buffalo businesses today. The threats specifically named which businesses and gave a time range of between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm. The stores included two Tops locations and one Wal-Mart location as well as other businesses.

The threats say that Blacks will be the targets at those locations.

In a separate incident, yesterday, a man was arrested for making threats to a Buffalo pizza parlor and to a beer brewery. In his threats, he said that he would shoot the places up like Tops.

WTF is wrong with people?

Today on NPR's All Things Considered, Adrian Florido interviewed Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee. The program's title was, "After Roe v Wade, What's Next?"

Tobias said their next issue is contraception devices that cause abortion. Asked if they will push to make contraception illegal, Tobias said that their goal is to educate people on the issue.

In other words, contraception is their next target. Does anyone doubt that "educate people on it" means push propaganda that calls for criminalizing contraception?

I have seen threads here warning about this. Today we have it in their own words. The anti abortionists (aka right to life) have contraception next on their agenda.

Heard a sermon today that said this is a holiday of hope and love. So, even in the middle of national and world events that seem to be so discouraging, keep hope and love alive and don't forget that it still exists.

Interview with Ira Rutkow, a medical historian, on the history of surgery. He discussed evidence of stone age brain surgery and the history of surgery from ancient times through the Middle Ages into modern times.

The interview was on NPR's Fresh Air program.


https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/29/1089213668/ira-rutkow-surgery-empire-of-the-scalpel