#iii need to be euthanized

[parkeryangs]

listen. getting an essential tremor diagnosis is such a tipping point for arthur in the college band au. he doesn't even remember when the shaking first started but he does remember that it keeps getting worse and he can't even hold a glass of water without spilling it these days. it's something he adjusts to, but never really gets used to.

he doesn't reach for straws often enough, even if it would make his life a lot easier, because it feels like giving up. it isn't—not even close—and, regardless, there's really no honor in spilling half a mouthful of coffee or water or lemonade down his chin every time he tries to take a sip. that makes him feel like a kid, still; too clumsy for the body he inhabits, flecks of damp soaking into his shirt and his jeans before he snags a napkin and does his best to scrub it out of the fabric, like that does any good.

a diagnosis is the answer for everything that was always laughed off as clumsiness, all the spilled drinks and shakily-written notes. all of the silent building pressure to grow up, you're not a kid anymore. get ahold of yourself— just take care of yourself. don't spill the glass of water again, arthur. it explains everything and more, and leaves arthur almost seething in the fallout. it was that simple. it was that simple and it was never his fault, just bad luck. (after that, the laughter at his expense stung a bit more, but it was still better than the alternative.)

when he'd left that first doctor's appointment, he sat in his car and read everything he could. the cause is unknown but it's in his head and he's not imagining it. the prescription medication was much less well-received, but he was willing if it was going to make him better or at leas not so bad, and he wasn't supposed to drink coffee anymore, not every day, but some things were worth the pain and instant coffee in his dorm room was one of those things.

regardless, his symptoms were only so manageable; he was a college student with a well-known band, too much stress was pretty much a given on more days than not. he told himself the coffee made him less stressed, and maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep either, but that wasn't new; he'd been a chronic insomniac since he was young, and a too-small pill every night at 8:45 wasn't the solution to that problem. he doesn't reach for straws often enough but he takes the medication and still drinks coffee and stays up too late, it doesn't fix everything but he knew it wouldn't anyway, and he still shakes all the time like he's out in the winter without a coat, but it's not his fault.

[otome-dissection]

the way that I've sat through like one session of gaiden so far and I have like 50 screenshots almost entirely of just Joryu's face bro why is he so beautiful I'm sorry anyways look at him look at him right now

[vibingandsimping]

This is the best way I can describe how I imagine my growing fanbase and the general BG3 community.

[ratralsis]

Sorry I still haven't written anything that I promised a couple of weeks ago. I'm still working on the ol' novel, and the thousands of words I spent writing about Tina after her death might count for something. I dunno.

If I can manage to get my sleep schedule back to something resembling its previous normal soon, and get a little further ahead of schedule on my progress on the novel, I'll try to write what I hoped to write earlier for this blog.

Tina used to be pretty demanding that I go to bed before 10 PM. I actually had a decent handle on it for a while. I'm gradually getting my bedtime slightly earlier again now, but after she died, I was definitely up pretty late for a few days because I wasn't looking forward to going to bed without her. Which I realize is absurd, but it's still the truth.

If you missed the earlier posts on the subject, Tina was my cat. She wasn't, like, a human lady I lived with who dragged me to bed every night and slept next to me. She was a small cat who demanded I go to bed every night and then came and went several times throughout the night but almost always was there when I first fell asleep. Now she's not, because she's dead, and I let the vet who came to my house to euthanize her take her away for cremation and to scatter her ashes. I do still have Max, but he has never been good at sleeping next to me at night and, at fourteen years old, I don't think he's likely to learn now. He might, though! He's also never been the only cat in the house before. He and I are both still getting used to that.

I spent the last few months playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on my Switch off and on. Much like I did with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, I finished the game and then figured out a way to grind for resources without actually needing to play the game, which inflated my playtime by over 100 hours, but I still put over 200 into the game. That includes all the DLC. I liked the gameplay, though I honestly never really connected with the characters that much. I don't have a specific reason why not. I just didn't like them or care about them nearly as much as I did even in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. But the game itself was fun, and I really did enjoy the postgame Archsage Challenges and learning how to build party compositions that could tackle the hardest challenges. It took me a lot of tries to finish the 140th stage of the Gauntlet on Hard mode, but I did it, and then I did it again, and then I bought everything I wanted from the store where you use the currency you earn in those challenges and I realized I was done playing the game.

Since I did back it all the way back in 2020, I've decided to try playing Eiyuden Chronicle. I started it yesterday. So far, I don't like it much, but I said the same about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 when I first started it, too. But Eiyuden Chronicle has two big things working against it: I hate the way it looks, and it has really bad performance issues on Switch. Neither is a surprise.

I've always, always, always hated the way it looks when 2D sprites are in a 3D environment. That was true from Xenogears back on PS1 up to Octopath Traveler. I just think it looks jarring and bad. The camera moves slightly and the background moves and the character sprites can't and it just looks dumb to me. I can't get past it. I'm not at all looking forward to the HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III (and possibly the first two games, as well), but I'll probably get it, because I love Dragon Quest III enough to have played nearly every version of it already, even the untranslated Japanese Super Famicom version. My Japanese is probably at the level of a 9-year-old native speaker, but believe me when I tell you that that's good enough to play Dragon Quest III, because I did it.

It's also good enough to tell you that the localization for Eiyuden Chronicle takes some pretty serious liberties in its translation of the Japanese dialogue into English, but I honestly don't mind that part. I think it goes a good job of turning the subtext from the Japanese dialogue that would be understood from context and tone and turns it into text that an English reader can understand, which is the most important thing. Anybody who complains about the localization would be better off spending that energy studying Japanese themselves.

Anyway, I got sidetracked. Point is, I'm still around. I'm feeling better than I was a week ago. I'm still writing, just not here, and I'm holding down my job and doing everything I need to do and playing video games on the side and so on.

[kakuzatos]

makima’s manipulation tactics

!! spoilers for chainsaw man!! 

i. takes advantage of a character’s feelings for her and flattery

i’ve written about the tsaritsa and how she sees childe and the other harbingers (implied) as dogs in my fic titled ‘i bet on losing dogs’. there’s a phrase there where i write, “Show a wounded dog love, and it will swear its loyalty to you.” 

i think it would’ve been more fitting to makima and denji’s relationship. denji is an impoverished boy. he doesn’t get to eat actual food (it’s a miracle that he survived, holy shit), he sold one of his balls, he worked for all his life just to pay the debt of his father, he gets killed mercilessly then revived but his buddy disappears. he’s a wounded dog. and makima enters the scene. she gives him a hug. she shows him “love.”

denji, the naive boy he is, is easily swayed. he falls in love with makima in an instant which makes him all the more vulnerable to makima’s manipulation where makima uses his feelings. 

throughout the story, there are scenes where makima grants something first then asks for a favor.

she does it with aki in chapter 11 where she says, "because i trust you more than anyone." these are words aki wants to hear, especially from her. now that he got it, he lets denji and power stay at his place--makima's request.

in chapter 12, makima shows denji that she is capable of granting him what he wants by letting him touch her chest, therefore, denji is more motivated to do what she asks, which is killing the gun devil.

for flattery,  she does it with denji in chapter 2 where she answers denji’s question of “what type of guy do you like?” with “someone like this boy named denji”. 

it echoes her preference for people who are easily swayed and the type who will do anything for her. and because she knows denji likes her, she says the words he wants to hear. 

she rewards her dogs flattery too, just so they can believe that they are being treated right. 

i think this is makima’s most used way of manipulating people around her because she knows it’s one of the easiest ways to getting what she wants. she has the charm to do it. denji thinks of her as an angel; he owes her because she “saved” denji when he was at his most vulnerable, and that’s what make this tactic so effective. 

 ii.  takes advantage of a character’s fear of her

power showcases this best since she feels a great fear for makima due to makima’s powers as the control devil. although makima doesn’t grant power anything, she knows power fears her, so that’s enough for power to follow her. 

 iii. using threats or coercion 

literally in chapter 2, you see makima threatening to kill denji if he doesn’t kill the devil who took the kid. if he didn’t get the job done, he will get killed, or in makima’s words, euthanized. 

chapter 5, makima threatens denji and power to be executed if they were to be removed from aki’s squad.

basically, makima scares denji. she says that he’ll be put to death once he doesn’t obey her commands. and she will kill him if he does disobey, given that she doesn’t really care about denji at all. she doesn’t need him, she needs pochita. denji is nothing but a dog that says yes or woof. otherwise, denji is nothing. 

iv. dehumanizing people

makima sure likes to refer to people she knows as dogs, well because she views them as such and she knows calling them dogs will, little by little, dehumanize them. and that repetitive calling can affect denji’s view of himself. 

instead of him thinking that he is a person, that he isn’t just some dog, he slowly succumbs to the thought that he might be just a dog--a dog that can very well be controlled by makima. which led him to say this in chapter 80.

what a contrast to this page of chapter 2. 

v. using her authority and blackmailing

in chapter 33, she blackmails the yakuza by bringing them the eyes of their loved ones. she uses her authority to make sure she has her way, even in twisted ways like this.

vi. lying, gaslighting and guilt-tripping

in chapter 82, makima lies to denji, gaslit him and guilt-tripped him into thinking that he was at fault for defending himself, and for power’s and aki’s death. 

all of this is done to crush denji even more. he’s already at the lowest point of his life, having to see aki’s fate and battling him, and makima wounds him even further. 

this tactic is used by real-life manipulators who know that their victim is already in a vulnerable state. so, the manipulator can take control of the victim’s feelings and view of themself.

most manipulators are portrayed as this “bad” characters who shames people all the time and actively hates them. but in real life, manipulators can be the one who looks kind on the outside; the quiet one; the soft-spoken one; the charming one. 

makima’s character is disturbing because she’s portrayed as this “good” person who showed up in denji’s life at the right time; the person who saved him. and makima uses this to her advantage to get what she wants. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Monopolists are winning the repair wars

In 2018, dozens of states introduced Right to Repair bills. These bills are wildly popular among voters, but wildly unpopular among monopolists ranging from Apple to Microsoft to Google to GM to John Deere to Wahl. Every one of these bills was defeated.

Repair advocates regrouped for 2021. 27 R2R bills have been introduced at the state level. Every single one that came up for a vote was defeated, thanks to aggressive lobbying by an unholy alliance of the country’s largest, most profitable, least taxpaying corporations.

In 2014, a pair of American political scientists published a groundbreaking peer-reviewed paper analyzing 30 years’ worth of US policy-making that compared policy outcomes to public polling results.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#authors-details

They concluded that general public sentiment had almost no impact on US policy making — but the political preferences of wealthy people and large corporations were hugely predictive of what laws and regulations we’d get.

Or, in poli-sci jargon, “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”

The Right to Repair fight is a hell of a proof of this principle. It’s really hard to overstate the popularity of the idea that you should be able to fix your own stuff, or choose where you get your stuff fixed.

Take auto-repair. As auto-manufacturing has grown more concentrated, car makers have squeezed independent mechanics — as close to a folk-hero as the American imagination can produce! — to the margins.

After all, forcing car owners to use official service depots has huge advantages: manufacturers can gouge on service prices, they can force drivers to buy expensive original parts, and they get to unilaterally decide when a car is beyond repair and force you to buy a new one.

Drivers have a good intuitive sense that this is going on. That’s why, when Bay Staters voted on Massachusetts Question 1 (an automotive R2R ballot initiative) in 2012, it passed with an 86% majority!

Mass Question 1 is a really good example of how monopolists can arm-twist politicians into frustrating the will of the people. Immediately after the 2012 initiative, auto-makers set about retooling their cars to escape the new right to repair rule.

The 2012 rule forced automakers to give mechanics access to diagnostic info from cars’ wired internal networks, so Big Car moved all the useful diagnostic data to their cars’ wireless networks. Hence the 2020 Massachusetts R2R ballot initiative, which closed this loophole.

The 2020 fight over the Mass. R2R ballot initiative was fuckin’ wild. The car-makers ran some seriously freaky scare-ads, in which the ability of auto mechanics to read wireless diagnostic data led directly to women being stalked and murdered.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

I’m not making this up. The underlying premise was, “We turned your car into a hyper-aggressive mobile surveillance platform that incidentally gets you places. If we let other people see the data we’re nonconsensually extracting from you, it will put you in terrible danger.”

Thankfully, Bay Staters saw through this bullshit and passed 2020’s Question 1 with a 75% majority.

The thing is, people completely understand that they should be in charge of deciding who fixes their stuff.

They understand that the risk of poor repairs should be addressed through consumer protection laws (which also bind monopolists’ own authorized repair depots), not by having the repair market privately regulated by monopolists who have vast conflicts of interest.

This understanding has only deepened through the pandemic year, as authorized repair depots shuttered and vital equipment languished thanks to anti-repair laws and technological countermeasures.

For example, Medtronic’s workhorse PB840 ventilators couldn’t be refurbed without using a grey-market activation dongle that a single Polish med-tech homebrewed, encasing them in cases harvested from busted clock-radios and guitar pedals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Medtronic — a med-tech monopolist that effected the largest corporate inversion in history to escape US taxes — argues that letting independent med-techs fix its products puts patients at risk, but this argument is every bit as flimsy as the auto-makers’ Mass. scare-ads.

It ignores three important facts:

I. Med-techs have always done this kind of repair. The change isn’t that med-techs are demanding the right to do something new — it’s that Medtronic leveraged its monopoly to foreclose on the industry-standard practice

II. Medtronic’s own security track-record is comically terrible. This is the company that makes pacemakers that can be wirelessly hacked from across a room to kill its user, whose software update system doesn’t even use cryptographic signatures.

If Medtronic is an expert on any aspect of patient safety, that expertise is certainly hard-won, derived from its long history of lethal patient endangerment.

III. If there is a problem with indie technicians struggling to fix Medtronic products, the obvious answer is to provide service manuals, parts and diagnostic codes.

The case for Right to Repair is incredibly strong. Not only does R2R protect consumers from ripoffs, it also provides local jobs — 1–4% of US GDP comes from the independent repair sector, almost entirely in independent small/medium businesses.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/02/euthanize-rentiers/#r2r

Repair is an important environmental, labor and human rights story. As leaked internal memos demonstrate, Apple’s aggressively landfilling of devices (so customers buy more) is environmentally devastating and creates demand for conflict minerals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/31/hall-of-famer/#e-waste-apple

The average American family loses $330/year because of the lack of access to independent repair, a $40b annual drag on the economy thanks to monopoly rents collected by monopoly firms.

To say nothing of the impact on jobs: landfilling a kiloton of ewaste creates <1 job; recycling that waste creates 15 jobs, while repairing it creates 200 good, local jobs that can’t be offshored (you don’t send a phone overseas for repair).

https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair/Jobs-Revolution

Then there’s the food security story: John Deere is an agribusiness monopolist that outraged farmers by claiming that they didn’t own the tractors they paid six figures for, merely “licensed” them on terms that forbade them from fixing their own machines.

Deere leads Big Ag’s anti-repair, forcing farmers to use official parts, preventing modifications that would allow third-party attachments, and collecting outrageous service call fees for a technician whose job is to unlock the tractor after the farmer replaces a part.

This policy means that farmers who fix  their own tractors still can’t use them even if there’s a hail-storm coming and they need to bring in the crop. Farmers — who’ve been fixing their own gear since the first farmer built a forge next to their farmhouse — are desperate.

Some farmers download anonymously maintained Ukrainian firmware and overwrite the Deere software, creating unknowable risk of remote attack. Others have to maintain “backup tractors” they use for weeks while waiting for Deere to fix their equipment.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000400896/standoff-between-farmers-and-tractor-makers-intensifies-over-repair-issues

Just like Medtronic and GM, Deere claims that allowing independent service creates infosec risk — but just like its anti-repair comrades, Deere’s own infosec is a dumpster-fire, with tractors across America at risk of mass-scale cyber-attacks:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

The common thread joining these firms is monopoly: a lack of competition that allows them to extract billions from the public, and a cozy cohort of business leaders who can mobilize that loot to ensure that politicians and regulators don’t give the public what it demands.

American industry is experiencing a wave of monopolism not seen since the Gilded Age, and it affects every sector. Take hair-clippers — a category that exploded during the lockdown thanks to the newly created need for home haircuts.

The clipper market is monopolized by a single firm, Wahl. As I discovered — the hard way — Wahl has designed its newest clippers so they disintegrate if you try to take them apart to sharpen them.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1380554358824136706

Instead of sharpening these devices, you’re expected to buy a new $40 blade (for a shaver that costs $60 all in!), and throw out the old one — or, less realistically, you can mail them your razor for factory sharpening.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Wahl is part of the war on repair, sending letters to state legislators warning that letting people sharpen their own clipper blades could lead to fatal housefires.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4446374-Wahl-Opposition-Illinois.html

Two years ago, the FTC convened an inquiry on independent repair called “Nixing the Fix.” The Nixing the Fix report was released earlier this month, and it affirms everything that repair advocates have said all along.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro-act-class-war/#we-fixit

The FTC calls bullshit on manufacturers’ claims about cyber-risk, housefires, and whether getting your car fixed by your family’s beloved mechanic will lead to your murder. It broadly and firmly endorses Right to Repair.

Which brings me back to 2021, were every one of the 27 R2R bills that has been brought before a state legislature for a vote has been defeated, thanks to heavy corporate lobbying by monopolists.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/microsoft-and-apple-wage-war-on-gadget-right-to-repair-laws

These bills were voted down after heartbreaking testimony from ed-tech repair specialists who described the devastating impact that a broken laptop has on poor families whose kids are doing remote learning.

They were voted down despite the record, the public support, the climate questions, the food security issue, the human rights issues — voted down to preserve the monopoly profits of a tiny number of firms whose claim to being “American” is tenuous at best.

These tax-dodging, offshoring companies view the American public as an all-you-can-eat buffet, and disclaim any responsibility to the country — while still expecting its lawmakers to defend their interests, at the expense of the voters.

Image: Jcaravanos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E-waste_workers.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[skiplo-wave]

King Charles III is doing what everyone thought he would do. We are back in the era of malicious dangerous monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II had her problems too but this is completely different. First off he is not suppose to be on the throne because he is divorced and married to a divorced woman. His uncle had to abdicate because of that. They can say well "Edward did this and Edward did that" but no the sole reason he had to give up the throne is because he wanted to marry a divorce woman. People need to educate themselves and realize how wrong this is that he is allowed to do this. One could say that this is suspicious AF considering for starts --- 1936 year of the 3 kings which resulted in Queen Elizabeth II becoming the Princess of Wales, her grandfather was accidentally euthanized. Granted he was going to die anyway BUT... WTF?

Going back to Charles, second instead of fixing the inflation crisis, he is instead slimming down the monarchy or in other words keeping most the money for him and Camilla. I am sure the Prince and Princess of Wales will be okay but most the family will not have any financial gain from the royal purse. No free money for them. While his people is suffering, he's worried about himself and his money. That's crazy. What is wild though, he is allowing Prince Andrew to step in for him if he is out of the country or sick completely ignoring the fact that their mother stripped his titles because of what he did.

I am like everyone else, I believe Diana left money to Harry because she knew what was going to happen one day when Charles took over. And for those who don't believe that, it's a funny coincidence that the past 5 years that Charles started to take more responsibility, the first one to be cut off was Harry. He wasn't even allowed security protection. While everyone was so quick to blame Elizabeth, she did not do that in her whole 70 year reign. Only when suddenly Charles had to take over for her and now that he is king, he's about to cut off a bunch of them. Obviously he had a plan. He wants the stereotypical royal life and he doesn't want anyone to out shine him. His unrealistic ambitions will be his downfall. Both Charles I and Charles II lost their thrones. As Prince Harry said, the past repeats itself.

[horsenews12]

Invoice To Prevent Mistreatment Of Tennessee Strolling Horses Passes

A good house to me means homeowners who correctly care for the horse whereas it’s theirs; then if or when they need to promote it, they take the time to search out it one other good residence. 

My Three Kids died Sunday, according to the racing board. She had one win in 14 career starts and earnings of $14,908. She finished second in her final race on Feb. 6 at Golden Gate. NIANTIC -- It is a horrible story of animal abuse, however now, there is hope for a gaggle of uncared for horses.

A North Dakota man accused of feeding moldy hay and denying water to numerous horses that wound up dead or sick has been charged with felony animal cruelty.

 Mercer County deputies found 15 lifeless horses and 11 lifeless foals and fetuses over the weekend on the property of Shanan Weigum, of Zap, They additionally discovered a donkey and 39 horses in poor condition, as well as four dead lambs. 

The Bismarck Tribune stories that two of the sick horses needed to be euthanized and two were transported for therapy of infections. Zap is positioned about 60 miles (ninety six.5 kilometers) northwest of Bismarck. 

CARLTON, Ore. — The proprietor of a horse farm southwest of Portland is dealing with a felony charge for animal neglect, after investigators discovered almost 50 horses there weren't being given sufficient food or water. 

CARLTON — The owner of a horse farm southwest of Portland is facing a felony cost for animal neglect, after investigators discovered nearly 50 horses there were not being given sufficient food or water.

This can also be true if you have calves in your possession too. Their stables must be cleaned twice day by day and should be strengthened enough to have the ability to cease the elements from posing a risk to your horses. Remember that a proper environment applies to both the indoors and outside.

In 2020, Stetson began 149 horses at Fon and completed fifth within the standings with 22 wins and a 15 p.c win rate. He then went west to claim leading coach honors at Arapahoe Park last summer with 22 wins from a hundred and fifty starts – he's consistent. 

Stetson trains to race; watch for his runners at the entry field and winners circle. Vaughan feels that almost all of her rescue horses originally got here from houses with a properly-meaning person who lacked the experience wanted to take on a horse, particularly one that turned out to have behavioral issues.

 Instead of taking the time, assets and energy needed to work by way of those problems, people gave up and returned the horse. I APPLAUD PROFESSIONAL trainers who often absorb abandoned, neglected and/or rescued horses to properly train and put together for a hopefully long-term and good house.

The group has repeatedly demonstrated the facility of partnering with horses—in non-driving interactions—to successfully obtain private progress and therapeutic.

 Horses stay in herds, which implies they can get anxious if they’re the one ones round. Older horses are particularly prone to this, and so they usually require a bit extra care than the youthful ones.

When she went to feed her horses the subsequent morning, she knew one thing was incorrect. They say SCRAPS simply showed up and took their animals. SCRAPS says they were investigating expenses of Animal Cruelty, Transporting or Confining Animals in an Unsafe Manner and operating an illegal commercial kennel. 

Hollingsworth’s lawyer Steve Greenberg objected to that request, saying he’d seen no evidence that his consumer presents any hazard to his animals. While he acknowledged Hollingsworth could have had a lapse in judgment in using NuNu onto the busy expressway, Greenberg said his client did not intend to seriously injure the horse. 

Weeks after he pleaded not responsible to a felony animal abuse charge, the person often known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy” has been ordered to have no contact with any of the horses he owns while his criminal case performs out.

The horse gained that race and another contest in February of final year in Florida after receiving adulterated and misbranded PEDs earlier than each races, according to the indictment. 

Cable news show Spectrum News 1 aired a characteristic on Cal Poly Pomona’s Horses for Heroes program on multiple newscasts on Feb. 12. Through this system, 10 scholar veterans had been matched with horses at the W.K. 

Kellogg Arabian Horse Center for the mutual advantage of the horses and the veterans. One recent morning, he drove down a dusty non-public drive lined with orange groves.

A few weeks earlier, a resident had called him on his cell phone to report a suspicious van there. The people inside appeared to be taking footage of horses. 

So far, that is the only case that the Animal Hospital has seen this year. If you could have any questions about this case or the plant itself, contact your native veterinarian. It is also crucial to contact your veterinarian should you suspect that your animal has consumed the plant. 

It is not only toxic to horses, but in addition to cows, sheep and goats. Project Horse is one of the solely equine therapy centers within the United States targeted exclusively on mental well being and wellness.

Posted on-line this month, the coverage replaces one that limited consumers to purchasing 4 wild horses every six months until granted particular permission. Senate and House leaders will now meet to type out the differences between the bills in what is known as a Conference Committee. 

We want the Senate to hold the line on each wild horses protections and horse slaughter. Senate handed a win to wild and home horses on Wednesday by approving a Fiscal Year 2019 “mini-bus” appropriations package deal that included protecting language for wild horses and burros as well as an anti-slaughter provision.

 Orlando and Willerslev's paper hints at the other kinds of discovery that these applied sciences can allow. X Y Jet received the celebrated Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai in March 2019, which paid $1.5 million to the winner, highlighting a career of 12 victories and more than $3 million in earnings  about horses .

Furthermore, you’ll wish to make sure to supply your horse with adequate blanketing and shelter. No matter in case your shelter is a run-in shed or a stable, having a spot for the horse to go is essential for proper care, as horses will need to get out of the wind and rain.

 Make certain you are always on the lookout for indicators of sicknesses similar to runny eyes and noses, coughing, or wheezing to maintain on high of your horse’s well-being. Visual checkups must be carried out every day, so you don’t miss something that’s preventable by mistake.

 The Southwest, the final of three stakes set for today, was originally scheduled for Feb. 15, along with the Grade III, $600,000 Razorback Handicap for horses 4 years old and up. Both had been twice postponed because of ice and record snowfall. Each joins the $200,000 Spring Fever Stakes for fillies and mares 4 years old and up as right now's feature races.

[29whitelilies]

My cat is a cunning little witch - a story nobody asked for in 3 parts:

I.

In September of 2018, my boyfriend and i decided to adopt two shelter cats. I wanted them. He wasn’t really excited about it but he did it for me because of how heartbroken i was after the family cat i grew up with had to be euthanized 9 months prior. So this is how we got these two idiots:

II.

Since this seems to be the case in every story that starts with men not being excited about new pets, you guys won’t be surprised to hear that my boyfriend was immediately smitten with the cats - and the cats with him. But while both of them love him, it quickly became clear to me that Lilly, the black-and-white one, ADORES him beyond anything i‘ve ever seen between a cat and a human being. She would practically live on his chest/belly if that was possible and she‘s so possessive that, when i come into his office to hug him while he’s sitting in his chair, she jumps over from her spot on his desk and FREAKING SQUEEZES INTO THE SPACE BETWEEN OUR CHESTS and takes up as much of his surface area as she can, purring as if her life depends on it. While i am generally ‚allowed‘ to pet her and she enjoys it for the most part, she hardly ever actively seeks contact with me and that’s okay - i‘ve gotten used to it.

III.

But I’ve recently noticed something new: Now that i‘m stuck at home without regular hours of work/uni classes, i almost always stay up later than my boyfriend, who has to be up and working from home in the morning. So, for the past week, without fail, my boyfriend would go to bed and roughly 10 minutes later, Lilly would come running from the office to the living room couch where i am. And suddenly, she NEEDS my attention. She flops down next to me, purrs like crazy, rolls around, demands belly rubs and even nudges me with her paw when i stop petting her. She just completely goes from

to

..in, like, 10 seconds. Then, she‘s the sweetest, most loving cat on earth until i go to bed.

And in the morning, she’s back to „nah bitch - i only love him“ and in full-on aloof diva mode where I’m concerned. So, i guess, the bottom line is...

Dear Cat,

What the actual fuck?!

[nerdygaymormon]

Reaction to “Truth and the Plan” by Dallin H. Oaks

I finally read the talk from October 2018 General Conference that has everyone worked up. I’m not surprised that Elder Oaks talked about the Family Proclamation and gender, those seem to be favorites of his. I’m also not surprised he spares no words of sympathy or love for LGBT individuals. I am upset that Elder Oaks essentially said anyone who disagrees with him is confused and under the influence of the devil.

—————————————————————

Elder Oaks begins his talk by saying we have access to a lot of information and we need to think critically about the source of that information. What expertise or qualification does that individual have in that subject area? What is their motivation?

This is a valid point. Not all opinions are equal and some people misconstrue or selectively choose facts to support a particular point of view.

—————————————————————

Part I

Elder Oaks teaches that spiritual truths and non-spiritual truths are separate, we should not look to “secular” sources for spiritual truth. Mentions that people who rely on scientific truth risk losing their faith.

In the temple it’s taught “all truth may be circumscribed unto one great whole.” In other words, scientific knowledge is valid and goes together with spiritual truths, they inform each other.  

He teaches that spiritual truths help us understand who we are, the meaning of life and what happens after death, things which can’t be learned by scientific or secular methods.

I agree with Elder Oaks on the purpose of spiritual truths, which is to give meaning to life, not to undermine the truths we learn from other sources.

—————————————————————

Part II 

God is the father of our spirits.

Gender is eternal, we all lived as male or female spirits before being born.

God created a Plan for us to receive a physical body and make choices between good and evil.

The Savior provided an atonement, making it possible for all people to be saved.

Most of my trans friends speak of their gender being eternal but not matching their biological sex, but Elder Oaks uses these words to mean the opposite of that. He gives no credence to the truths shared by transgender, genderfluid and nonbinary individuals about their reality. 

Elder Oaks says that exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom can only be obtained by an eternal marriage between a man & a woman.

The purpose of the Church is to “qualify” God’s children to be exalted. For people who don’t desire that or don’t qualify, God provides other lesser kingdoms of glory.

Given the purpose of the Church is to help people become exalted, it seems as a gay man I’m not wanted because even if I live the rest of my life celibate and do the best I can to keep within the Church’s rules, I won’t qualify for exaltation. My presence is a distraction from the Church’s purpose.  

—————————————————————

Part III 

We honor individual agency and we promote religious freedom around the world.

Individual agency is good. I largely support the idea of religious freedom for individuals but too often “religious freedom” is code for discriminating in public against LGBT individuals, and that I have a problem with.  

The church sends missionaries to the world to teach our spiritual truths. The church also gives money to humanitarian aid to help people regardless of their religious affiliation, we don’t tie it to our missionary efforts.

We do send missionaries around the world. And I’m pleased we contribute to humanitarian causes.

Life is sacred so we’re required to oppose abortion and euthanasia.

Opposing all abortion goes further than the Church’s official position. This change means the life of the baby is worth more than the life of the mother in all circumstances. I’d like if the opposition to abortion included support for things shown to reduce the number of abortions including providing teenagers with comprehensive sex ed, easy & affordable access to effective contraception and for the pregnant woman to feel she can afford to raise the child.

He didn’t specify these restrictions on abortion or euthanasia are specific to humans, so can pets be euthanized? Given all mortal life is sacred, why no comment about war or murder? 

The paragraph about marriage and children says the church cannot retreat from traditional marriage or make changes that confuses gender or homogenizes men & women.

The church will fight the legal and social acceptance of marriages it doesn’t approve of. This seems much in conflict with his idea that people have individual agency.

People who don’t agree with their assigned gender or conform to their gender norms are “confused.” Here’s an instance of scientific/secular knowledge being disregarded. Rather than accepting this is a proven reality and finding a spiritual meaning for it, he dismisses trans, non-binary and genderfluid individuals as “confused” because they don’t match his theology. 

I don’t even know what he means by the homogenization of men & women. I can think of a number possible meanings, most of which I find problematic. People deserve the ability to pursue opportunities and have legal protections regardless of which sex they are. There are biological differences among people that should be noted and accommodated, but not serve as disqualifiers. 

Having children is a duty of “those given power to participate in it.” Children are the ultimate treasure on earth and heaven. We must provide the best conditions for the development & happiness of all children.

WOW. I think he just implied only people who can create children via sex should have children. What do his words mean for Infertile straight couples, single individuals and gay couples who use artificial insemination, surrogate pregnancy, or adoption?

The best conditions for children, I presume he means they should have a mother & a father. Studies show that children raised by same-sex couples do no worse than those raised by straight couples, and actually often do better. Having two moms seems to be optimal for children. Two gay men also works well. Actually, research is showing family situations with straight men are often the least advantageous for children as those men tend to focus on careers and let it distract them from nurturing their children. Straight men are prone to be more violent or abusive than other types of individuals. But recognizing this reality would mean accepting secular truths. 

The church’s positions on these topics provokes opposition. Opposition is Satan’s part of The Plan as he seeks to destroy God’s work. Satan operates by discrediting the Savior and his authority, discourages repentance, gives counterfeit revelation, opposes individual accountability. Satan seeks to confuse gender, distort marriage and discourage child bearing.

He just said any concerns or doubts about what he taught are from the devil. I think this also means people who are gay or trans are doing Satan’s work or are under his influence. Under this logic, when LGBT people point out that we’re excluded from the Plan, ask if there’s any accommodation for us or share our experience and realities, we are seeking to destroy God’s work. The revelations that many LGBT people have received confirming their orientations and gender and that they should pursue loving relationships – all are counterfeit by definition.

—————————————————————

Part IV

Being repentant would mean not trying to change the church. If you have issues with what was taught, hold on to what teachings you can believe and stay strong until you get more knowledge.

Once again, the Church is not wrong, it is inerrant. If you have disagreements or other understandings, don’t leave and hopefully you’ll come to see it our way.

The purpose of our creation is joy and is to be obtained by the “covenant path.” 

Except that whole groups of people have been excluded from this covenant path unless they deny essential characteristics about who they are and how God created them.

I don’t believe that loving Heavenly Parents created people to have these alternate ways of experiencing life and not allow them to express it, in fact, even if they keep quiet and deny themselves of much joy & happiness in this life they are not good enough to be exalted in the next.

[douxreviews]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) Review

Spock: "I am well versed in the classics, doctor." McCoy: "Then how come you don't know 'Row row row your boat'?"

When I rewatched Star Trek III: The Search for Spock recently in order to review it, I hadn't seen it in a long time and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I was hoping for the same thing to happen with Star Trek V. Unfortunately, no. Big time.

This movie is awful on pretty much every level. In fact, it is so appallingly bad that we stopped watching half-way through, and I only went back and finished it alone a few days later so that I could write a complete review.

It's even hard to figure out what is the worst thing about it, because there is so much badness to choose from. Spock's messianic half brother whose existence had never been mentioned before? (Isn't a sibling coming out of nowhere a "jump the shark" moment?) The search for God, who turned out to be a cruel, petty alien? Mountain climbing as a numbingly obvious metaphor for religious seeking? Come on, people. Star Trek is so much better than this.

When something doesn't work for me, I usually list what was good about it, and try to figure out what might have made it better. I doubt that anything could have made this movie better. Instead, I kept coming up with more reasons why it sucked. In general, it was like poorly written fan fiction with juvenile humor. It ripped off Star Wars several times, with the new Enterprise falling apart like the Millennium Falcon, Nimbus III scenes that looked uncomfortably like Tatooine, and Paradise City again much like Mos Eisley. (A three-breasted cat as a stripper? Really?) Spock neck-pinching a horse was right out of Blazing Saddles, and his rocket shoes belonged in a bad episode of Flash Gordon.

Even the funnier moments didn't work and occasionally made me cringe. The camping scenes could have been cool, but were just too silly and went on too long. I especially hated the little shout-out to slash fandom when Kirk started to hug Spock and Spock said, "Please Captain, not in front of the Klingons." And Uhura's hoochie coochie moment had Dan saying, "That could very well be the stupidest moment in the entire series."

And the serious attempts at drama were just embarrassing. Sybok, the anti-Surak, rode into the city on a donkey (okay, a blue horse with horns) and wearing white, just so that we wouldn't miss the Christ symbolism. How Sybok managed to brainwash members of the crew was never satisfactorily explained. The flashback/hallucination of McCoy euthanizing his father just made me angry; you need to do some background in order to make a scene like that work. And then there was the discussion about the deeper meaning of "Row Row Row Your Boat." I can't believe I just wrote that sentence about my beloved Star Trek.

The only things I found interesting or forward-thinking were Kirk taking steps toward diplomatic ties with the Klingons, and saying that he had always believed he'd die alone. But these two little things weren't enough to make this movie palatable.

Star Trek V was William Shatner's baby; he directed and co-wrote. I'm not a fan of his, but he's a good actor, he wrote (or got credit for) an entire science fiction book series, and he was such a strong lead for the original series. His work in the previous movies was excellent, too. But given his prominent role behind the scenes, this movie did make me think. Is this how Shatner saw Star Trek, as action/adventure with fights and explosions, complemented by transparent and simplistic symbolism? Is this how Shatner saw the character of Kirk, as a stubborn super-athlete climbing a mountain alone without an anchor rope?

For me, this movie was the franchise equivalent of Superman 3, Alien 4, or Terminator Salvation. After the exceptional trilogy that preceded it, Star Trek V was an insult to the audience and a disappointment to the fans. And that's sad.

Bits and pieces:

-- Stardate: 8454.1. Nimbus III, the Planet of Galactic Peace, in the Neutral Zone; Yosemite National Park, Shaka-Ri whatever on the other side of the "boundary."

-- The music was from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and was also used as the theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

-- Lawrence Luckinbill actually did a decent job as Sybok. Not his fault that the movie was so bad. The wonderful David Warner got very little to do; maybe that's why they gave him a slightly better part in Star Trek VI.

-- They didn't quite tell us what happened to Sybok, but the visuals reminded me of the terrible original series episode, "The Alternative Factor."

-- Scotty and Uhura as a couple. Noooooo. Please, no.

-- I remember many discussions about Roddenberry saying Star Trek V wasn't "canon." Apparently, though, he did that a lot. 

-- The lounge, sort of Ten Forward-like, had a decorative ship's wheel standing alone in front of the viewport. I'm assuming it was so that the actors had something to stand around while doing dialogue.

Quotes:

Spock: "Perhaps 'because it is there' is not sufficient reason for climbing a mountain."

Kirk: "Bourbon and beans. An explosive combination." And I thought, thank god they didn't do the obvious Blazing Saddles scene.

Spock: "Were we having a good time?" McCoy: "I liked him better before he died."

Kirk: "I could use a shower." Spock: "Yes."

One out of four absolutely pointless ship wheels.

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

[healthtimetaylor]

Folic acid modulates matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression following spinal cord injury.

PMID:  Ann Neurosci. 2019 Apr ;26(2):60-65. Epub 2019 Apr 1. PMID: 31975775 Abstract Title:  Folic Acid Modulates Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Expression Following Spinal Cord Injury. Abstract:  Background: Treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI) induced neuropathic pain (NP) proves to be extremely clinically challenging as the mechanism behind SCINP is poorly understood. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) is largely responsible for the early disruption of the blood spinal cord barrier. This system initiates macrophage infiltration and degradation of myelin, which plays a pivotal role in how NP occurs. In a recent study, we demonstrated that folic acid (FA) treatment to cSCI rats reduced NP and improved functional recovery by repressing MMP-2 expression. We hypothesize that MMP-2 expression is suppressed because FA actively methylates the DNA sequence that encodes for the MMP-2 protein. However, modulation of MMP-2 expression for alleviation of NP is only pertinent to the mid- to late-phase of injury. Therefore, we need to explore alternate therapeutic methods to target the early- to mid-phase of injury to wholly alleviate NP.Purpose: Furthering our previous findings on inhibiting MMP-2 expression by FA in mid- and late- phase following cSCI in rats, we hypothesized that FA will methylate and suppress MMP-9 expression during the early- phase, day 1, 3, 7 post cSCI and mid- phase (day 18 post cSCI), in comparison with MMP-2 expression during mid- and the late-phase of cSCI.Methods: Adult male Sprague Dawley rats (250-270g) underwent cSCI, using a NYU impactor, with 12.5 gm/cm injury. The spinal cord-injured animals were treated intraperitoneally (i.p.) with a standardized dose of FA (80μg/kg body weight) on day 1, 2, 3, prior to cSCI, followed by daily injection up to 14 or 17 days post-cSCI in different experiments. Animals were euthanized on day 1, 3, 7 post cSCI (early- phase), day 18 post cSCI (mid- phase), and day 42 post cSCI (late-phase) and the epicenter region of injuredspinal cord were harvested for MMP-9 and MMP-2 expression analysis by Western blots technique.Results: i) During early-phase on day 1, 3, and 7, the quantitation displayed no statistical significance in MMP-9 expression, between water- and FA- injected rats. ii) On day 18 post-cSCI, FA significantly modulates the expression of MMP-9 (p = 0.043) iii) Comparing results with MMP-2 expression and inhibition, FA significantly modulates the expression of MMP-2 on day 18 post cSCI (FA- and water-injected rats (p = 0.003). iv) In addition, FA significantly modulates the expression of MMP-2 on day 42 post-cSCI comparing FA- and water- injected rat groups (p = 0.034).Conclusion: We report that FA administration results in alleviating cSCI-induced NP by inhibiting MMP-9 in the proposed mid- phase of cSCI. However, FA administration resulted in MMP-2 decline during both mid- through late- phase following cSCI. Our study elucidates a new phase of cSCI, the mid-phase. We conclude that further investigation on discovering and quantifying the nature of the mid- phase of SCI injury is needed.

read more

[ournuttycrusadebouquetblog-blog]

Dog Rescue: The Benefits and Common Misconceptions

It goes without saying that a dog is man's best friend and not just because they bring happiness into one's life but they impart several other benefits too. While the system of animal shelter was developed to provide stray animals with a temporary home, the shelters are usually constrained in terms of funds and space. A majority of animal shelters resort to pet euthanasia which is the most inhuman thing to do. Below are reasons why you need to rescue a pet. It's humane Having compassion is not a weakness but strength. When you adopt from an animal shelter, you will be performing a humane service. You will get to save the life of an innocent animal therefore providing it a second chance. Apart from that, you will get to reduce the number of animals that will be euthanized. It's a great bargain When you adopt a pet, in the adoption price, the cost of neutering, first vaccinations and even micro-chipping are included. This is a great deal for you. Stop emergence of puppy mills Puppy mills have become a great problem in majority of countries not only due to the lack of proper care provided to the dogs but also the poor conditions they live in. Best friend for life Adopting a dog from the pet shelter will ensure that you have a best friend for life. Stray dogs require love and care. Common misconceptions There are several misconceptions when it comes to adopting pet dogs and they include: a. Not being able to get what one desires at the shelter. b. Lack of knowing what to get. c. If the rescue process is a humane act, why is an adoption fee required. d. Pets in shelters are a baggage. No kill rescues This is a rescue process where healthy and treatable animals are not killed even when the shelter is full. Euthanasia is reserved for terminally ill animals. The rescue service utilizes volunteers, excellent pet housing and medical protocols in order to lower the number of homeless animals. Pet rescue process a. Start by visiting the nearest pet shelter and get to see the various breeds of dogs available. During this time you will be asked various questions. Some of them include: (I). Your housing situation. (ii). Number and ages of your children. (iii). Number and types of other pets you own. (iv). Name and contacts of your veterinarian. b. Take time to pick a pet that is suitable for you and your family. c. Fill out the application forms and pay the adoption fee. d. Visit http://petrescuesagacheat.com/ with your family in order to determine if you are suitable. e. Wait for the application to be approved or rejected by the shelter. f. Once approved, visit the shelter to pick your dog.

[wayneooverton]

Everything you need to know about visiting Canmore, Canada

My name is Marta and I am the voice behind In A Faraway Land. A travel website dedicated to providing information on outdoor activities and photography tips via my New Zealand, Iceland  and Canada Travel Guide.

I moved to Canada on a Working Holiday Visa last year and headed straight for the mountains. After road tripping for a few months in the fall last year I decided to base myself in Canmore, a little town tucked in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It was without a doubt the coldest winter I have ever experienced with temperatures sometimes reaching -45 celsius (<40f). However with the cold came some beautiful Albertan winter landscapes so I can’t complain too much.

Enjoy the read and hope to see you in the mountains soon and enjoy my best advice to visit Canmore Canada.

Watching the first rays of sunlight on top of Ha Ling Peak

Situated in the proverbial shadow of the world-famous mountain town of Banff, Canmore isn’t somewhere that should be overlooked while planning your road trip to the Canadian Rockies. Don’t get me wrong Banff and Canmore aren’t exactly Yin and Yang. They are both located in the Bow Valley, around an hour east of the closest international airport of Calgary in Alberta, are similar in size, and they both share an infectious eclectic adventurous spirit.

20 photos that made me love Alberta

I lived in Canmore for 6 months while planning and researching for my outdoor guide to Canada. I found it to be much more stable than Banff, still touristy for sure, but nowhere near the level of its neighbor. Banff is like a steroid-crazed body builder talking smack whilst bench pressing twice his body weight whilst Canmore is the mixed martial artist, planking in the corner, quietly confident, biding their time.

Canmore is more sophisticated; it isn’t tacky souvenir stores, overpriced steak restaurants and two for one jäger bombs. It’s local craft beer and artisanal bakeries, if you are catching my drift. Much more up my alley, you know?

Looking down the Bow Valley toward Calgary from the East End of Mount Rundle

When Calgary had the opportunity to host the Winter Olympics in 1988, back then, the little mountain town of Canmore was suffering as the mining industry had just collapsed in the previous decade, but it soon saw a huge development and a sharp increase of world class athletes, that later became permanent Canmorons.

Yes, you read that correctly.

It’s not something I came up with myself however, the term ‘Canmoron’ must have been the self-deprecating humor of founding few that was carried forward over time. The official terminology however is Canmorite which I personally find a little predictable. This influx of new Olympian Canmorons, and the installation of many multimillion dollar world class facilities, coaxed the rest of the town into exploring the outdoors.

Today Canmore has skiing of all types, mountain biking, snowshoeing, dog sledding, rock climbing, ice climbing, a bunch of lakes and a myriad of some of my favorite hiking trails in Canada plus loads more. Additionally, Canmore has the best access to Kananaskis Country and there’s a big possibility that it might bid to host the Winter Olympics again in 2026.

The Windtower, one of the most distinguishable peaks in the Kananaskis Range

Kananaskis Country is an amalgamation of over 10 provincial parks that surround the town.

However (and thankfully) Canmore isn’t inside any of these parks so doesn’t have to comply to the building cap that such places like Banff do. For locals and visitors alike it means cheaper accommodation, better supermarkets, more outdoor activities and less government interference.

My two favorite activities, photography and hiking, dance gleefully hand in hand around this place. Some of the best photos I’ve ever taken have been from here, especially those from the eventful time I decided to hike up Ha Ling Peak for sunrise.

The rays of light tickling the snow on Ha Ling Peak

Ha Ling Peak, in Kananaskis Country, is the most popular trail here and for good reason. It starts 8km south west of Canmore on the Smith Dorien Highway (742) at the Goat Creek Trailhead. The trail is a semi steep series of switch backs which takes the average hiker 2 hours to summit.

From the top you’ll be able to see east over Canmore to the peaks of Mount Lady McDonald and Grotto Mountain, situated on the other side of the Bow Valley, north toward the 7 peaks of Mount Rundle, south into the lake ridden Spray Valley and west toward Mount Lawrence Grassi, which Ha Ling peak is actually a part of.

Ha Ling peak is one of my favourite day hikes not only in the Kananaskis country, but it’s high up on the list of all day hikes I have completed in the Canadian Rockies!

From right to left, Ha Ling Peak, Mount Lawrence Grassi and then The Three Sisters. Taken from the Rundle Forebay.

Ha Ling peak as seen from the East End of Mount Rundle.

Further into the heart of Spray Valley down the Smith Dorien Trail (742) lies an expansive wilderness area. A true drive into the Canadian wilderness. It’s a gravel road, but during the summer any car can manage it.

In the winter make sure you have decent snow tires or better yet snow chains and please drive carefully. When I was based in Canmore I saw at least 20 car crashes in the winter, every single one of them on this road! If you are visiting Canmore in the Winter, the Spray Lakes Road is where you can become a musher and go dog sledding! I had the opportunity to participate in a tour and it was one of the best winter experiences of my life. The cool air blowing through your hair, chocolate brownies by an open fire and the sound of over 100 excited huskies!

I went with a company called Snowy Owl Sled Dog Tours, one that supports humane mushing and takes extremely good care of their dogs. I only did a two hour tour, but if I could have afford it I would have seriously considered joining one of their overnight tours! Here’s a picture of me with one of the dogs on my team, the goofball Hugo.

Hugo and I having an awesome time.

My team in business mode.

Taking a break on the frozen pond.

Even if you don’t feel like dog sledding or decide to visit the Rockies in the summer, you can still go and play with the pups! In the summer Snowy Owl offers kennel tours. You can go and play with the dogs and learn all about the life of a musher.

Dogsledding in Alberta, Canada

If you are lucky you may even see puppies! OMG.

This is little cutie named Megadeath at around 2 months old. *Note: That years litter was named after metal bands!

Further down into Kananaskis Country, past the dog sledding is an excellent chance to see moose, eagles, elk, wolves, cougars, coyotes, lynxes, weasels and in the summer black and grizzly bears. Just promise me to respect all wildlife and never approach any large mammal as they can be unpredictable.

NEVER FEED any of the animals either.

Thankfully there’s a hefty fine if you get caught, like $25,000 hefty!!!! And with good reason too, in my eyes. If bears, for example, become habituated and used to being fed by humans, they pose a threat in all future human interactions and have to be euthanized. Basically if you feed it, you kill it. Don’t be that person.

The border between Kananaskis Country and the stunning Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park is one of three central hubs in the Canadian Rockies where mother grizzly bears favour raising their offspring.

Grizzly 152 grazing in a roadside field of dandelions on Highway 40.

Mount Assiniboine reflecting in Sunburst Lake.

On a lighter note back to hiking!

Another mountain close to Ha Ling Peak is Mount Rundle, which runs parallel to the Trans Canada Highway all the way from Canmore to Banff. The East End of Rundle (EEOR), known as the Eeyore (like Winnie the Pooh’s friend), is the end closer to Canmore. Certainly a harder hike than Ha Ling peak, it can take up to 6 hours to complete, even though it’s only 6km long.

However the views are much more frequent because you’re in the trees less of the time compared to its counterpart Ha Ling on the other side of White Man’s Pass.

The summit views are spectacular.

I have personally attempted three times to summit EEOR, twice being interrupted by bad weather conditions. But as they say, third time is a charm and I finally got to witness both sunset and sunrise from the top of EEOR, involving camping on a very narrow ridge line at the top.

Mount Rundle which stretches around 20km from Canmore to Banff.

A hiker experiencing the ridgeline of Mount Rundle at sunset.

If you’re a little more extreme then you might consider hiking the Pocaterra Ridge. It’s tougher than Ha Ling and the East End of Rundle but the views are out of this world.

Myself tackling a snowy section of the Pocaterra Ridge.

If one of the many peaks around doesn’t give you your fill of exercise, or it happens to be raining that day, then Elevation Place should be your next port of call.

The newly built, architectural masterpiece offers a huge climbing wall, a full aquatics centre including a sauna, a gym, an award winning library, a café and a small art gallery which showcases the work of local artists. Hopefully one day my work will be hanging there!

Playing on the ice near the Policeman Creek.

The town of Canmore is named after Malcolm III of Scotland. It was his nickname and translates to “Big Head” in Gaelic which is quite contradictory of the aforementioned colloquialism “Canmoron”. That always cracks me up inside.

Growing up the town was a popular mining destination and was once inside the perimeter of Banff National Park. When inside the National Park however logging and mining could not continue to flourish and after significant pressure from the big coal corporations in 1902 Banff National Park shrunk and Canmore was excluded. Mining continued to grow and coal production was eventually ceased in 1979.

It’s location next the Bow River, then the Canadian Pacific Railway and then the Trans-Canada Highway meant that tourism in the area has always been rife but it’s only in the recent years that Canmore has begun to blossom into your next holiday destination. You may now wonder, when’s best time to come?

The smallest of Three Sisters, Hope, on the right. Mount Peter Loughead on the left. Taken from the summit of Mount Lady MacDonald at sunrise.

The best time of the year, in my opinion, is summer and fall ranging from June to early October, with September being my favorite month. That’s when most of the hikes are accessible and not covered in snow.

No promises about the snow though.  It could be there at any time of year!

The mild alpine climate boasts average summer time temperatures of a whopping 15C/59F (with highs of normally around 22C/72F). However the weather here is unpredictable and very tempestuous, it’s possible to have extreme high’s breaking into the early thirties (more than 90F).

Mount Rundle and the Trans Canada Highway. Taken from the summit of Mount Lady MacDonald.

The winters are also a very nice time to visit. Snowshoeing, cross country skiing and dog sledding are very popular. Temperatures at this time of year can be brutal though, especially in January.

On extreme cold nights the temperature can go as low as -50C (-58F) and the monthly average is a bone-chilling -9C. Thank the heavens above for the Chinook Winds.

Exploring the meadows close to where the Revenant was filmed.

If you haven’t heard of Chinook Effect before, it’s basically a really really warm wind that comes over the mountains, known as Föhn winds in the rest of the world but Chinook Winds in North America. Chinook Winds occur when moisture rich coastal air coming in from the west coast is forced upward by the mountains, it drops its moisture by the means of snow or rain, and then falls down the eastern slopes.

The adiabatic warming of downward moving air causes these warm winds. And trust me they are warm. They can raise the temperature of the entire town by easily 20C/68F in just few hours and maybe even 30C/86F for a strong one. The strongest Chinook world wide was experienced just south of Canmore in Montana in the US, where the temperature rose from -48C to +9C or -54F to +49F. A change of 57 degree celsius, or 103F, in 24 hours!!!

Winter becomes summer for maybe a few hours, snow melts for maybe a day or two before returning to normal.

When Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy were down in Kananaskis Country filming the incredible movie The Revenant a Chinook blew through and melted a lot of snow, it forced the entire production to move down to Ushuaia in Patagonia. DiCaprio was later heard blaming the problem on global warming even though this phenomenon has existed since the mountains were erected by Mother Nature, a good 300 million years ago.

Leo you’re beautiful, and you’re right about global warming but not about this one sorry!!!

The scree slope that marks the final ascent of Mount Lady MacDonald with Canmore and The Three Sisters in the background.

However dark and cold winter is I can’t complain too much, I used it as an excuse to drink multiple hot chocolates a day, stay at home, bake cinnamon rolls and lounge in front of the fire.

When I couldn’t be bothered to make myself treats I became an expert on all the local eateries around town. The best café without a doubt is the Bagel Co.

There are two of them in Canmore but my favorite is the one on Main Street (8th Street). It’s got a great atmosphere and it has the best goodies and a really wide selection of freshly made sandwiches.

Communitea is another great place if you are tea lover like me!

The Three Sisters reflecting in Policeman Creek.

My favorite place to drink was The Wood on the corner of 8th and 8th, lots of local craft beers, 4.50$ per pound of chicken wings on Mondays and 10$ steak on Tuesday.

For a place as expensive as the Bow Valley, the deals came as a welcomed change. I still must have spent a small fortune in there though. Well in between there and the Grizzly Paw Brewery I probably spent enough money to invest into a property

Mount Peter Loughead in the Kananaskis Range at sunrise. Taken from Mount Lady MacDonald.

When I wasn’t stuffing all manner of pastries into my face or double fisting 2L pitchers I was out taking photos.

Most of the time I took pastries with me too but regretfully couldn’t take the beer because I was driving.

There’s so many photography spots in Canmore, some of which are roadside stops, some of which are huge mountains. I was lucky enough to visit many photography spots in the Canadian Rockies but the one’s around Canmore stood out amongst the rest (maybe apart from the jaw dropping Icefields Parkway). Canada is pretty beautiful, especially in the Rockies.

Canmore’s topography includes everything a photographer could ever dream of. Rugged mountains, alpine lakes, wild flowers in the summer and mesmerizing ice formations in the winter.

Myself worried about an incoming squall on the Pocaterra Ridge.

All in all, Canmore is stunning and you should visit, that’s a fact and I hope when you will be planning your Canadian Road Trip Itinerary , that you will add Canmore to your list of places to stop, at least for a few days.

As always feel free to like and share and I’ll try to answer all the questions you may have about Canmore and the Bow Valley. Happy travels!

Have you ever been to Canmore or Alberta? Have any of your own tips to share? Spill!

The post Everything you need to know about visiting Canmore, Canada appeared first on Young Adventuress.

from Young Adventuress http://ift.tt/2eR0kT2