The Ukranian Battle Cat

Ukranians are some of the toughest, but also most polite and considerate people I've ever met. They love their cats. Many had to be left behind when their owners fled and there are countless rescue groups that try to reunite them, find them new homes or even adopt them out to Europe.

There are too many kittens and strays and the soldiers, who were civilians in their previous lives adopt them to be front line cats.

Ukranians are creative and great at boosting morale, so they named them "battle cats" after the he man cartoon, where He man finds a scared kitten that becomes a scared adult cat until magic turns it into a fierce warrior named Battle cat.

Roar Awwwww

The soldiers train them to climb and ride their shoulders. Cats and soldiers are nothing new in the trenches, primarily for pest control. But Ukranians consider them part of the unit, do not leave them behind and keep them as their personal pet. Sad and horrific situation, but sweet to see this documentary on the cats and dogs of Ukraine who get a second chance:

Viewing time 12 minutes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/catsofukraine/comments/1dvyb7a/frontline_battle_cats_meet_ukraines_surprising/

This is Alexander and his tactical battle cat Puck

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=929391978575500&vanity=weareseenstories

They're very well cared for and better than the alternative of letting cats fend for themselves or freeze to death.

There are many videos of them online. I'll add some more later.

Nato and Greenland

 

While trying to keep on top of the news from different points of view, I was reading a European paper that tried to make a sensational story out of nothing. It falsely claimed that European troops had recently left Greenland early.

I wish that newspapers would have experts on staff that understood political science or at least consulted with them to check facts. No wonder people are confused.

There was a recent deployment of military from various NATO countries in Greenland. This is not unusual. They are mostly intelligence and reconaissance, training together. These type of maneuvers have been happening for decades. Every country does things a little differently, so learning with and from eachother is exactly what NATO is there for. Some countries do not permit a permanent military base. Denmark permitted a US base in Greenland primarily for strategic reasons, but in the end no matter how good the relation, visiting army are always considered guests.

Nato was founded in 1949 primarily out of concern that the Soviets were expanding. It has one purpose; to come to the defense if another one of its allied members is attacked or invaded. The emphasis is on defense, if all other means of negotiation and diplomacy fail. It allows military bases in host countries mostly as a deterrent and the potential to launch weapons quickly.

People complain about the cost. In a perfect world we'd just trade and leave eachother alone. That is wishful thinking. But for the last 8 decades deploying a warship in a certain area was often enough to deescalate. Until 2014 when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea (part of Ukraine) then invaded Ukraine in 2022. Since Ukraine is not a Nato member it couldn't be defended. Europe is being dragged into a war that could escalate.

Countries that managed to stay neutral during ww2 joined nato recently for protection. Finland in 23 and Sweden in 24.

Greenland is a potential part of that. 

It's autonomously governed but all Greenlanders are Danish citizens. Denmark spends close to a billion per year for Healthcare and infrastructure and all Greenlanders have access to Danish postsecondary education. They've been a part of Denmark for 500 years.

Greenland was likely settled in part by inuit that migrated from what is now Canada. Like Canada it cannot be annexed because it was never owned by Murica. An invasion of Greenland is declaring war on Europe. The only other option is for a referendum in which the majority of the country wanted to become Muricans.

It makes no economic sense. The cost of war would far outweigh the cost of a mining company willing to invest there. Considering the adverse weather conditions even that might not be that lucrative.

To end on a more positive note here's a fun video by a group of youtubers that put themselves in extreme experiences. This one on taking a survival course with the Finnish military known as the Ghosts of the Snow. (It's an hour, but the first 10 minutes are interesting). 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9HHI2EuZoWc

As always feel free to comment without insulting any politicians.

Even our tea bags are texting us

 The world is full of slogans. I have a quotation book in which I write my favorite quotes. Mostly from the thinkers of past and present. Online many of these quotes made it onto Pinterest with backgrounds of beaches and mountains.

I always peruse the giftshops of museums and galleries and found quotes on famous art postcards as well. Then came mon-quotable slogans on the bags of food delivery: "Pasta makes you smile".

I was gifted various teas for the holidays. Mostly herb and spice mixes with names like wellness tea and  Soothing comfort.  I'm used to pouring tea then checking the label on the tea for steeping time. Instead of instructions there was this:

Sigh.  Pure poetry. Because everyone else is taken? (Wilde quote)

Wonder if fortune cookies are upping their quote game.

Excuse me, do you know where I can get a coffee?

 

Rainforest Cafe

Pop up stores have been around for a while and I generally don't mind them. Often tied to a trend or serving as the introduction of a new line filling empty storefronts.

Until they started to bother me. This surreal reality were living in that is forcing people to shop online is just part of this feeling of an unstable world.

Municipalities approve what goes where and four internet cafes in a row made no sense to me. Its poor city planning. In November,  a much needed cafe showed up. Baked goods, breakfast and coffee. It was packed on the opening day. People read papers and their digital media. Anytime I walked by, it was well frequented. I asked about brunch and they were still just serving yoghurt and muesli as they had just opened and weren't ready.

I was ill for a month and when I walked by the Cafe I'd been looking forward to just a month later, it was gone. There is no possibility that a new owner with a thriving business was failing. A pop up cafe?

I like to support small businesses, but I suspect it's part of much bigger companies who either try out concepts or are required to fill their empty real estate with something.

During Covid a number of landmark department stores closed. Because of the number of jobs involved, the government stepped in. Some of those companies didn't make it and as it turns out the new owners had no interest in the retail aspect, but were only interested in its real estate. Government is suing. We'll see.

I like new experiences, but not being able to rely on any store being where it was is not an experience but a hassle.

One of those experiences was the Rainforest café in London, a few years after it had opened. I went as an adult as it had not been around when I was a child. I would have driven my parents crazy had it been. At the time it was still in great condition, animatronic animals, a fog machine, thunder and lightening. No gift shop that I recall and the animals weren't well known cartoons. My inner child was in awe, adult me thought this was a better design than Disney world. The food was overpriced, less than meh, but we had a good time. It was a once in a lifetime themed experience. A number of them have closed in the last few years. I can do without a themed restaurant, but I do not want everything to turn into a theme or trend.

An aquaintance of mine wants to open a themed bar with miniature train sets delivering beverages and hammocks to relax in, if only he could get investors to fund it. I laughed because I doubt either will work well with inebriated people.

Too much is disappearing too quickly. That businesses come and go is normal, but that everything is disappearing is not. Spouse and I needed some new pots, but the store where we always buy them from was now selling clothes under the same name. I no longer know what store carries what items at any given time.

Maybe I should open my own flower shop, which also serves a good coffee, sells pots and pans as well as art supplies.

Everything is weird. Even the grocery store.

 Salsa. I had a sudden craving for organic  chunky Salsa. I used to have it quite a bit. It was another one of my lazy go tos ages ago. I had found one that tasted fresh, not like a tomato paste based sauce, more like Gazpacho with large bits of identifiable vegetables.

I had a Nacho phase but could not replicate a healthy version at home. I came across this jar and can no longer recall the brand name, but it made a great pasta sauce, especially if I added herbs and Parmigiano reggiano, the real stuff not the Kraft kind. Alternatively, fresh scallops and a little garlic. I had it so much, I salsad out until the recent craving.

There is no Salsa, I tell spouse.

People stopped dancing?

Not this Salsa. I do a little Salsa shuffle. The store didn't have any Salsa. None. It's like all those post-apocalyptic series, games and movies where people look for cans and jars in abandoned grocery stores to survive zombies , environmental disasters, alien invasions and weirdos.

They also ran out of eggs. During.The.Week! But guess what they had? Easter Eggs.

Easter Eggs?

Yup. Colored Eggs. Uncooked I assume. In JANUARY! IN JANUARY??? What's the thought process there? They can't be from last Easter or next Easter. Eggs don't keep that long. Some CEO said let's introduce Christmas Eggs?

"They're probably cooked so they can last longer."

My point exactly, I exclaimed. Nothing in this reality makes sense. As soon as I get over long Covsshh, I'm putting up an All Season tree with lights and seasonal or trendy ornaments.

Doesn't seem weird anymore.

Hope and Mentorship

 

Theres a lot of hopelessness in academia at the moment for many varied reasons. In fact, one interesting thread I came across quickly devolved into what's the point. It became so negative that I simply stopped scrolling. Talking about how bad everything is might make one feel less alone for a moment, but it does nothing to improve the situation.

It reminded me of a personal experience that to this day gives me strength.

I was in undergrad at university. Had filled my mandatory course load and since I wanted a well rounded experience, I chose to take an environmental biology course. It was an upper year course, but my marks and academic status allowed me to do that. There were several books, the main one was "Our Common Future World Commission On Environment and Development". I did what I always do; buy the book and preread. The book was dense and I lacked the economic terminology to really understand it.

The prof was ponytailed, looked like he had just stepped off the farm and was very outdoorsy. I expected a laid back personality. Within two lectures he told us young impressionable minds that we had no future. It was because everyone had two DVD players and if we didn't stop this consumerism we were doomed. Bad example, how about taking the time to explain that we need products that last?

The lab work was a field trip to set up grids to measure predator/prey numbers. My grid showed no activity. Therefore, any life form had already been driven to extinction. EVEN THE SQUIRRELS. Then we had to present a research project that felt like a high school science fair. Followed by being voluntold by the TA to help pith mice. (Feel free to look it up). Using students as an unpaid labor force is one thing, doing that? Not happening. Feeding lab animals, letting them run mazes with treat rewards, I was willing to do, but not that. Additionally, I did not care how many bunnies pooped in a field. I was done.

After every lecture I walked home, looking around this gorgeous campus watching birds and adorable chipmunks chatter about their day. They were all going to perish. The world was going to end, build some spaceships the apocalypse was coming. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was utterly depressed after every lecture. Animal preservation was futile. Global warming and overpopulation was coming. There were no solutions.

I made an appointment to see the Prof. Thought it was a good sign that his two labradors were in his office. Prof. Ponytail and I chatted. He was anti-corporate, anti-establishment and cranky. He told me that he's tough and very few students get an A. I nodded politely. My scholarship and future career path depended on straight As. and a full course load, so I couldn't drop it.

I was miserable. Other things weren't going well either that year. I called my father, explained. He listened, the gist of his advice: I don't know. This sounds like university politics. Talk to other students and profs. Be diplomatic and don't mention that he's a bitter jerk. Trust your gut. There is ALWAYS a solution. You'll find it.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, dad. I didn't mention that I was ready to quit. At least ten more years of this. Of weekends spent hitting the books and not having much fun.

If this was fiction I'd insert some deus ex machina device, some great encounter with a sensei who showed me the path. Instead I moped, and went to see a University counsellor. I explained the situation. What's your GPA, he asked. I told him; close to a 4.0. Whoa, we usually see students that are failing, I have never had those kind of marks. 

This is not about you or what you can't do. And for anything financial there's always student assistance. Thanks genius, I'm trying to stay debt free. Why don't you drop the Varsity team? Because I enjoy it.

I said nothing. Well that was utterly useless, I thought. A clueless councillor who tells students to give up.

I rolled up my sleeves, went through courses that would fit my program and time slot and interviewed the professors. I mentioned that I would like to audit the course because it was months into the academic year and I didn't know if I could catch up. (I was a little screwed).

One prof told me to register. He was going to help me catch up. He was funny and encouraging despite the topic. So I did, after getting special permission for an additional course. Then went back and dumped the one I had started to dread. In quiet retaliation I tried to sell Our Common Future (no one wanted it, the irony doesn't escape me.)

I had closed the door on despair and opened the door to hope. Prof. Fantastic turned out to be thought provoking, entertaining and hilarious. His classes were always well attended. He became a mentor and was one of those rare gems of educators who encouraged and helped.

The year was tough and bad, I occasionally still get bad dreams when something reminds me about it, but my marks had increased compared to the previous year. Had I stayed with Prof. Ponytail, he would have been the last straw.

I learned a lot that year

1. Bad advice is freely given. Good advice is hard to find.

2. People don't care. Sometimes you really are on your own. It's alright. Nothing lasts forever; neither good times nor bad times.

3. If someone doesn't feel right. Get them out of your life. There are always three types of people: those that pull you up, those who drag you down and those who are indifferent.

4. Neeeeeever, Eeeeever lose hope. Sometimes quitting can lead to better things. Be flexible in your envisioned path.

5. Life moves on with or without you, better if it's with you.

6. My father wasn't particularly helpful that year, but in hindsight and as an adult I realize that he believed in me and trusted my choices. He believed that I would manage and gave me the confidence to do so.

7. Mentors are lifesavers.

8. I made it through that year.

9. Listen to my own advice.

We just want you to be happy, Carol. Update

E pluribus unum is written on the banner

 Spouse talked me into watching Pluribus. A show that I had heard much about, but I didn't want to watch yet another adaptation of puppetmaster/Body snatchers, this time by alien invasion.

I figured that the acclaim was mostly marketing and didn't want to watch yet another series made by a media giant.

I expected to binge watch it, but had enough after 3 episodes looking for the last which I could not find, as I do with some books to see what happens. I do plan to watch the rest of the season, so please no spoilers.

Spoilers for the first 8 episodes:

Hmm. So far it is thought provoking, but obviously heavily inspired by sci fi novels, feeding into or reflecting our current fears of losing autonomy and a hive mentality, which we recently experienced with social media, as well as a complete loss of the individual.

Spouse asked me if the hive reminded me of anything current. It's AI. Access to all the knowledge of the human race, it is looking forward to another book when Carol pretends to want to write again, because the hive does not appear to know creativity. It also cannot distinguish between Carol's trashy bestsellers and Shakespeare. It doesn't understand the knowledge or emotion it has acquired.

Frightening in its parallels to current society and what the internet has become.

Of course it's also about grieving and tremendous loss, but the protagonist, an impossibly strong female character manages to get through it. As to Carol, I really liked her character with all her sarcasm and intelligence.

Something that is interesting is that Carol's anger disrupts the "peaceful" hive mind to the point of incapacity. The koi suite in the ice hotel which represent resilience, strength and  perserverence; after a Chinese legend that koi swim upstream to turn into dragons. There are probably many references that I didn't catch. My attention span isn't what it used to be before all the scrolling.

Something that made no sense to me; if they take Buddhism to the extreme of not hurting anything; releasing animals from the zoo into habitats they can't survive in would harm them. Surely there is a zoologist that would have pointed that out?

The show is interesting but not great and I do not see how they are planning on four more seasons. Rhea Seehorn just won the golden globe. Incredibly well deserved after she is practically the only character in many scenes.

Update:

Watched up to the finale (Episode 9). Apparently the servers are overwhelmed, so couldn't watch it. I miss the good old TV days.

I wont spoil it, but I definitely recommend it. It has a lot of pop culture references. I think what you see is what you get; there are no big action sequences and weve gotten used to either that or elaborate alien spaceships in scifi.

The cinematography is beautiful and apparently not CGI. The first episode is intense. The whole series so far, mostly psychological horror, unease and stressful. What I liked the most is that Carol is relatable. It's the first time that a person in that situation knows the world is suddenly batshit and goes through normal reactions snarky one moment, scared the next and in a panic can't make something work, sleeps on it and then has a facepalm moment.

Finished watching the first season. I recommend it. Am hooked and it's disquieting and relevant to today's world. I only hope that it doesn't turn into J.J.Abrams Lost.

The humor is refreshing. No great one liners, but Carol is pure sarcasm. Some situations are absurdly funny. (Still chuckling at the drone).

Here it is:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=d2cWxqo27zU

Final thought, if everyone was about peace, love and happiness, and nothing else, wouldn't joining them be akin to joining a cult?

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER The following assumes youve watched it. A few thoughts:

I still give the show a 6 to 8 out of 10. What the show does really well is lay down the bare bones and then leave viewers to analyze and discuss it.

I was looking at online discussions and how many people disliked Carol. Spouse said and I agree that had it been a male character he would at most be a curmudgeon. I thought of Will Smith in I am Legend (there's also a golf scene) but when we discussed him back then, there was no criticism of his personality but compassion for the situation he's in.

Somehow people lost empathy in the last decade. I rarely come across any understanding of the incredible loss and trauma the humans have gone through. Carol in particular. People are devasted by the loss of a loved one, she also has to deal with the loss of humanity and potentially her own individuality.

Manounos actually tells them: you took our world from us. You don't belong here.

Another theme is that different cultures deal with it differently. The highly communal Peruvian girl would rather join then lose her community.

The 12 survivors are a cross section of humanity. Including a mother who pretends her child is fine, rather than doing anything to make sure the child is well. The French guy just wants to live his fantasy inspired by movies. Utterly selfish and self absorbed. Like Cypher in the matrix he just wants to eat his juicy steak. The hive doesn't seem happy about acting.

The hive can learn and I suspect it's learning from the humans it inhabits. Otherwise it seems to be a thoughtless species requiring a host. I think they can learn to lie. The frequency (sound?) of anger disrupts their telepathy, maybe more. I think the massage scene was very poorly done.

The hive doesn't care about what it's doing to any other species but probably genuinely believes that it's helping.

Once you've seen it, I'll check back here if you wish to discuss it.

If you watched it, what did you think of it? What are some cultural references you noticed?