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[Prorootect]

6 reasons dogs truly are man’s best friend

Research suggests dog ownership may improve heart health, decrease depression, and even help you live longer.
by Kevin Dickinson, 22 January, 2020

• Dogs have been man's best friend for at least the past 15,000 years.
• Science now shows that this symbiotic relationship has been as beneficial for humans as their canine companions.
• Benefits of dog ownership include familial ties, a reduce risk of schizophrenia, and improved cardiovascular health.

Dogs see us as family...
Dogs reduce the risk of schizophrenia...
Dogs are your heart's best friend, too...
Dogs make life better (and longer)...
Dogs teach us ways to learn: Put simply, dogs are better at ignoring bad advice than their human peers...
Dogs teach us about ourselves...Dogs really do resemble their owners. ...

...read more on bigthink.com: https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/dog-mans-best-friend

 

[show-Zi]

Mammal animals treat human babies like parents. Is it a wild maternal instinct? Great.

 

[Prorootect]

How Russia May Have Used Twitter to Help Seize Crimea
- By University of California - San Diego January 23, 2020

Online discourse by users of social media suggests it can be used by governments as a source of military intelligence to estimate prospective casualties and costs incurred from occupying foreign territories.

New research shows real-time social media data may have been a source of military intelligence for the Kremlin and potentially other governments.


Online discourse by users of social media can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. New research suggests it can even be used by governments as a source of military intelligence to estimate prospective casualties and costs incurred from occupying foreign territories.

In a new University of California San Diego study, researchers examine data from Twitter during the 2014 conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian television narrative, which is that a fascist coup had taken place, did not “catch on” in Ukrainian Russian-speaking communities. The only exception was Crimea. This could explain why Russia’s forces did not advance further than Crimea’s borders, as Russian analysts may have observed overt signals, including some from social media, that they would have faced strong and violent resistance.
“If you’re a conservative Russian military planner, you only send special forces to places where you are fairly certain they will be perceived as liberators, not occupiers,” said the study’s first author Jesse Driscoll, associate professor of political science at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. “A violent occupation of Russian-speaking communities that didn’t want the Russian soldiers to be there would have been a public relations disaster for Putin, so estimating occupation costs prospectively would have been a priority.”
The study, published in Post-Soviet Affairs, does not present evidence that Russian analysts used Twitter data – only evidence consistent with its potential to be repurposed using the methods in the paper. Through reconstructing how the Russian-state narrative was received by Russian-speakers living in Ukraine, the researchers were able to determine the areas where it would have been safest for Russia to send special forces. This bore an eerie resemblance to the map of where Russian soldiers actually went – Crimea and a few probes in the far East, but no further.

In the study, the data from Twitter was collected in real time beginning in August 2013. The researchers compiled tweets with GPS coordinates of social media users who had their locations services turned on. Though data was collected from all over the world (roughly 940,000,000 tweets), the researchers filtered the data by time (the 188 days from February to August 2014), location (Ukraine) and language (Russian).
“We were most interested in Russian-speakers in Ukraine because that is the population which might have considered sedition,” said Driscoll.
The researchers then created two dictionaries to identify key words associated with the two polarized and competing narratives of the news cycles at the time....

.. Though there was some pro-Kremlin sentiment expressed on Twitter in every oblast, the spatial visualization of the data showed Crimea as an outlier based on its high pro-Kremlin percentage.
“If Russian strategists were likely considering expansion beyond Crimea, they would have been able to use social media information to assess, with a great deal of precision and in real time, the reception that they would likely receive,” Driscoll and his co-author wrote. “Our data shows that further expansion beyond Crimea could have resulted in an ethnic bloodbath.”...

...It is easy to imagine military crisis-bargaining applications of these methods. Mainland Chinese analysts may be hungry for real-time updates on Taiwanese public opinion. U.S. analysts may be interested in the opinions of youth groups in Iran. Social media is a new frontier in this space. ...

-read more: on scitechdaily.com: How Russia May Have Used Twitter to Help Seize Crimea

 

[HarborFront]

Watched the following movies recently

Black and Blue 2019
Survival Code
The Mystery of the Dragon Seal
Maleficent : Mistress of Evil
Velocipastor (this is a lousy movie)

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

Hello, I am watching Dplay currently.

 

[upnorth]

 

[Prorootect]

Thank you very much upnorth, very nice video!
Another:
This Guy LOVES Playing Piano For His Rescue Cats | The Dodo Faith=Restored


Good Night❤

 

[Prorootect]

Rescue of a Homeless Mom and Her Puppies From Pipe

 

[plat]

One of the cats of the piano-man is completely blind, it seems. Very precious. Better the piano than the computer keyboard, though--that would drive me a little nuts. Thank you for these heartwarming videos. That mommy dog and her babies--so cute! ❄

 

[Prorootect]

Elephant Trunk Nebula.jpg

On Wikipedia: Elephant's Trunk Nebula - Wikipedia

 

[show-Zi]

 

[Prorootect]

I'm browsing My Pictures folder, found this heartbreaking image:

They say that a dog is mans best friend and for Navy Seal Jon Tumilson and beloved dog Hawkeye not even death could break this loyal bond.jpg


...and this one:

WiffleGif - cat asks and gets kisses from girl gif by Farikvlog.gif

 

[upnorth]

 

[Prorootect]

On Friday, President Donald Trump became the first president to ever address the March for Life in person. Here is what he said (extracts):

Trump at March for Life: ‘Baby in the Womb Reflects Majesty of God’s Creation’

"Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and sanctity of every human life."
"When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation."
"When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world. From my family — and I can tell you, I send love and I send great, great love."
"Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House." (Applause.) "And as the Bible tells us, each person is “wonderfully made.” " (Applause.)
"That’s why I’ve called on Congress ... to defend the dignity of life and to pass legislation prohibiting late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in their mother’s womb."
"We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve, the dreams they will imagine, the masterpieces they will create, the discoveries they will make. But we know this: Every life brings love into this world. Every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting." (Applause.) "And above all, we know that every human soul is divine, and every human life –- born and unborn –- is made in the holy image of Almighty God." (Applause.)

“All of us here today understand an eternal truth: every child is a precious and sacred gift from God"

- read more (and play video) on stream.org: Trump at March for Life: 'Baby in the Womb Reflects Majesty of God's Creation' | The Stream

 

[upnorth]

 

[Outpost]

"Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and sanctity of every human life."

This rule does not seem to apply if the president is dealing with Mexicans.

I think the president doesn't believe much in what he said.

 

[plat]

Kobe Bryant is dead today. He was killed in a helicopter crash.

NBA great Kobe Bryant and daughter among nine killed in helicopter crash near Los Angeles

Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA's all-time greatest players and an athlete of global renown, was killed at age 41 on Sunday in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven on board, officials said.

www.reuters.com

 

[Prorootect]

Bat Soup
Eat the bat, big.t.

Published
2 days ago
on
24 January, 2020
Paul Joseph Watson
Video link on Summit.news: Bat Soup

 

[Prorootect]

Watch on YouTube:
'British people are sick and tired of being called racist'
by Sky News Australia - Published on Jan 25, 2020

 

[Prorootect]

Fast Radio Burst Observations Deepen Astronomical Mystery
January 5, 2020

Image of the host galaxy of FRB 180916 (center) acquired on Hawaii’s Maunakea with the 8-meter Gemini North telescope of the international Gemini Observatory

Astronomers have pinpointed the origin of a repeating Fast Radio Burst to a nearby spiral galaxy, challenging theories on the unknown source of these pulses.

Observations with the 8-meter Gemini North telescope, a program of the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, have allowed astronomers to pinpoint the location of a Fast Radio Burst in a nearby galaxy — making it the closest known example to Earth and only the second repeating burst source to have its location pinpointed in the sky. The source of this burst of radio waves is located in an environment radically different from that seen in previous studies. This discovery challenges researchers’ assumptions on the origin of these already enigmatic extragalactic events.

An unsolved mystery in astronomy has become even more puzzling.

The source of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) — sudden bursts of radio waves lasting a few thousandths of a second — has remained unknown since their discovery in 2007. Research published today in the scientific journal Nature, and presented at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, has pinpointed the origin of an FRB to an unexpected environment in a nearby spiral galaxy. Observations with the Gemini North telescope of NSF’s Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (OIR Lab) on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, played a vital role in this discovery, which renders the nature of these extragalactic radio pulses even more enigmatic.
The sources of FRBs and their nature are mysterious — many are one-off bursts but very few of them emit repeated flashes. The recently discovered FRB — identified by the unpoetic designation FRB 180916.J0158+65 — is one of only five sources with a precisely known location and only the second such source that shows repeated bursts. Such FRB’s are referred to as localized and can be associated with a particular distant galaxy, allowing astronomers to make additional observations that can provide insights into the origin of the radio pulse.

...

So:
"An unsolved mystery in astronomy has become even more puzzling."
"The sources of FRBs and their nature are mysterious"....
"the unknown source of these pulses"...
-read more on gemini.edu : Fast Radio Burst Observations Deepen Astronomical Mystery