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Ljubljana, Slovenia

And across the USA in cities such as:

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Today in History

955		Otto organizes his nobles and defeats the invading Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany.
1539		King Francis of France declares that all official documents are to be written in French, not Latin.
1557		French troops are defeated by Emmanuel Philibert's Spanish army at St. Quentin, France.
1582		Russia ends its 25-year war with Poland.
1628		The Swedish warship Vasa capsizes and sinks in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage.
1779		Louis XVI of France frees the last remaining serfs on royal land.
1831		William Driver of Salem, Massachusetts, is the first to use the term "Old Glory" in connection with the American flag, when he gives that name to a large flag aboard his ship, the Charles Daggett.
1846		The Smithsonian Institution is established in Washington through the bequest of James Smithson.
1864		Confederate Commander John Bell Hood sends his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William Sherman's supply lines.
1911		The House of Lords in Great Britain gives up its veto power, making the House of Commons the more powerful House.
1913		The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Second Balkan War.
1941		Great Britain and the Soviet Union promise aid to Turkey if it is attacked by the AxisPowers.
1950		President Harry S. Truman calls the National Guard to active duty to fight in the Korean War.

Non Sequitur

Epic American drought gets worse in key farm states, after hottest month on record

This does not bode well for food prices: the Plains states where corn and soybeans are produced in greatest quantities are receiving the worst of excessive drought conditions, in the wake of the hottest month ever recorded in the US. Welcome to the new Dust Bowl? 

Storms on the Sun

We have seen a couple of solar flares this year that gave us beautiful auroras in areas that don't normally see such lights. But that was nothing compared to the coronal mass ejection known as the Carrington Super Flare in 1859.

That night there was scarcely a square inch of earth that was not illuminated by aurora. As far south as the Rocky Mountains the sky became so bright that birds began chirping and campers awoke and began cooking breakfast. Blood-red auroral light hovered over Cuba and Hawaii. The already-rattled telegraph operators at the American Telegraph Company found their equipment sputtering high-voltage nonsense messages most of the next morning, and some offices reported injuries and property damage due to electrocutions and fire.

If a solar flare of this magnitude were to happen again, the good news is that we'd know about it ahead of time. The bad news is that with modern electrical grids, the damage would be much, much worse. However, the complete opposite, meaning a lower than usual number of sunspots, can cause dangerously cold weather, as it did in 1709. Read about solar weather and its effects at Damn Interesting. 

Should Harry Reid apologize because Romney didn't pay taxes for ten years?

Sounds like Romney owes us an apology.
I will say this: The repugicans are doing a great job of giving Reid free press on his claim that an inside-Bain source told him that Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for ten years.  And while Romney denies it, he refuses to release his taxes - which every other presidential candidate has done - so not only does no one know the truth, we're left wondering what is so bad in Mitt Romney's tax returns that he's forced to hide them from public scrutiny?

Not paying any taxes for ten years is certainly a good reason to hide your taxes.

Kansas repugicans 'purge' moderates

Interesting article on how Kansas conservatives are purging their party of moderate repugicans, with the help of the Koch brothers and the Chamber of Commerce.
 

The pack is turning on their own ... Jackals do that you know.

Did you know ...

Pat Buchanan: Says the repugican party is imperiled by decline of white population

That a farmer crushes 7 police cars w/tractor over pot arrest

Mitt Romney replaces Sarah Palin as America's most hated politician

And Mitt's not doing too well in the national polls, kids

More on the Department of Homeland Security domestic terror office that was shut down by repugican pressure

Amy Goodman interviews Daryl Johnson, former Dept of Homeland Security analyst who authored a key report on domestic terrorism in 2009 - a report that the repugicans went nuts over, and effectively shut down the report and the office that was studying the domestic terror threat.
Apparently, Republicans in Congress were congress that a few too many of their supporters might be classified as domestic terrorists - which, if true, means that the report is either too broad, or the repugican base is a tad too crazy.

Here's an excerpt of the interview:

AMY GOODMAN: How did your report get picked up? How did it get disseminated in the media? What was the trajectory it took?

DARYL JOHNSON: Well, basically an anonymous person sent the report out. Obviously they didn’t agree with its findings, and sent it out to Roger Hedgecock out in southern California who is kind of a wingnut radio shock jock who really banters the immigration issue a lot. He is credited with disclosing publicly this report which was not meant for public distribution.

AMY GOODMAN: And so what happened to you, Daryl Johnson, and your unit within the Department of Homeland Security that was looking at domestic terror threats and particularly at white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups?

DARYL JOHNSON: What happened was quite shocking actually. I never anticipated that the Department of Homeland Security, my employer, would actually clamp down on the unit and stop all of the valuable work we were doing. Leading up to this report, and I will talk about this at length in my book, my team was doing a lot of good things throughout the country. We received numerous accolades from law enforcement, intelligence officials, talking about the great work we were doing in the fight against domestic terrorism. Then in lieu of the political backlash, the department decided to not only stop all of our work, stop all of the training and briefings that we were scheduled to give; but they also disbanded the unit, reassigned us to other areas within the office and then made life increasingly difficult for us. Not only did they stop the work that we were doing, but they also tried to blame us for some of the attacks that were occurring.

AMY GOODMAN: And so you lost your job.

DARYL JOHNSON: I didn’t lose my job. They just made it a very difficult environment for me to continue working there so I, on my own recognizance, sought employment elsewhere and started my own consulting company.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m looking at a quick piece from Wired which says, “Since Johnson released his ill-fated report, the Witchita, Kansas, abortion doctor, George Teller, was assinated. A security guard was killed when a gunman with neo-Nazi ties went on a shooting spree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the FBI arrested members of a Florida neo-Nazi outfit tied to drug dealing and motorcycle gangs, a man was charged with attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a Spokane, Washington, march commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and several mosques around the country have been vandalized or attacked, including a Missouri mosque that burned to the ground on Monday, which had been attacked before. Were you surprised by the attack on the Sikh temple and all that has taken place since?

DARYL JOHNSON: Unfortunately, Amy, I was not shocked. In fact, I was sitting in my living room with my wife and immediately when I saw the news coverage, I turned to her and said that this was likely a hate motivated crime against Sikhs perpetrated by a white supremacist who may have had military background.

AMY GOODMAN: It is interesting also that President Obama spoke yesterday in Denver with Sandra Fluke who introduced him, the Georgetown University law student who was speaking out for contraception and was targeted by Lush Dimbulb and others, and was talking about women’s health and women’s rights in this country. The neo-Nazi movement, along with the anti-choice movement, do you see links? I’m talking about the extremist wing.

DARYL JOHNSON: There’s definitely links between white supremacists and the anti-abortion issue. That is one of the causes that they rally around and use as a recruitment tool to bring people into the movement. I wouldn’t necessarily say it is strictly neo-Nazi. It could be, also, the Christian Identity Movement, it could be skinheads, it could the Ku Klux Klan.

Man orders TV, gets assault rifle

A Washington musician who ordered a flat-screen TV from Amazon.com was shocked to receive a semiautomatic assault rifle instead.

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Random Celebrity Photo

 

Dolores Del Rio

Why Are So Many Of The Olympic Athletes Wearing Bright Green Shoes?

If you were wondering why so many of the track and field athletes at the Olympics were wearing bright green shoes, here's why: they're all Nike athletes. And Nike has decided to go uniform across the globe on bright green shoes to grab your attention.

Known as 'Volt', the shoes are striking against the red track in London. Nike says that out of all the colors on the rainbow, the human eye is most sensitive to the yellow/green zone. That means the Nike shoes the Olympians are wearing reflect more light than nearly anything on the field. The shoes are there to be bright and bold so you look at them... and want to buy them.

Man with Parkinson's arrested at Olympics event for not smiling

"The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace," Surrey police said in a statement.

Dad waterboarded 11 year old daughter

From CNN:

A Delaware doctor and his wife were arrested this week after their daughter told authorities that she was punished by "waterboading," police said.

The 11-year-old girl told police that her father, pediatrician Melvin Morse, would hold her face under a running faucet causing the water to shoot up her nose, the Delaware State Police said. The punishments happened at least four times over a two-year period and the girl's mother, Pauline Morse, witnessed some of them and did nothing, police said.

Morse specializes in near-death experiences in children and wrote a book about the subject called "Closer to the Light" in 1991.

But lest anyone think he's an uncaring father:

The girl said her father said "she could go five minutes without brain damage," the newspaper reported, citing court documents.

But remember, waterboarding isn't torture. So it's ok.

This is what the repugicans have done, and are doing, to our country. They're coarsening it, making it more violent, uncaring (and dumb) - far worse than any music video could ever do.

Mom used to call the TV "the idiot box."  I'm more worried about the Idiot Party.

Thieves steal stripes from bottom of swimming pool

Bernalillo County officials said they're baffled after someone stole the stripes off the bottom of the Paradise Hills swimming pool in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

County parks and recreation officials said vandals stole all of the five black vinyl lane markers. A total of 375 feet of vinyl was taken. "You have to pull pretty hard because it's been welded together," Ed Chismar, with the parks and recreation department, said.

The sheriff's office is investigating, but there are no leads so far. Officials believe it took more than one person to do the job. The crime was not caught on camera because officials said there hasn't been enough crime in the area to warrant surveillance.

Swimmers are surprised about the theft. "What would you do with them? There's nothing to do with them after you steal," swimmer Kim Lyons said. Officials said it's going to cost $2,000 to replace the stripes.

How Airlines Make Money

 

So blindingly obvious, now that The Cranky Flier blog pointed it out:

There is value in the upsell.
When American first rolled out increased legroom for all coach seats on the airplane many years ago, the idea was to become a premium airline that people would pay extra to fly. That didn’t happen. A lot of coach travel is viewed by consumers as a commodity. They just want to get places for cheap. So when American removed seats, it increased its unit costs (costs ended up being spread out over fewer seats) and it couldn’t get enough revenue to justify it.
With United, however, Economy Plus was just a subsection of coach. It took the airline years to figure this out, but there are absolutely some people who will pay for more legroom. Some people. United’s Economy Plus has now become so popular and profitable that not only did the new (ex-Continental) management decide to keep it despite biases to do otherwise, but American and Delta have all copied it as well.

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Wisconsin boy is the fastest texter in US

A 17-year-old boy who says he has "abnormally fast thumbs" has been named the fastest texter in America for the second year in a row.

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Top 10 Ways To Boost Your Home Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is one of the most useful and important parts of using a computer, and yet it's also one of the most frustrating. If you're plagued by slow speeds, bad reception, and other Wi-Fi issues, here are 10 ways you can power up the Wi-Fi in your home.

There Goes The Neighborhood

Mobile Victorian House Sets Sail for Desert

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event begins on the last Monday in August, and ends on the first Monday in September. The event is described by many participants as an experiment in community, art, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance.

Burning Man is flipping weird. It's not uncommon to see giant moving sculptures and 'art-cars' exhibiting all kinds of mechanical wizardry. Yet none are quite so magical as a nomadic 19th-century structure called the Neverwas Haul, equal parts locomotive, steamship, and Victorian house.

Sinai border attack seen as test of Egypt-Israel relationship

The attack this week along the Israel-Egypt border poses dilemmas both for Israel and for the new Egyptian president.

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Egyptian capital hit by rash of blackouts

A massive blackout hit many parts of the Egyptian capital on Thursday, briefly halting traffic on much of its crowded subway and delaying the start of trading on the stock exchange.

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Russia Sect Lived Underground for 10 Years

More than a dozen children were among the 60-member Muslim sect that had holed up underground for a decade.  

Read more

Asian Miniatures

In the digital collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, there is an album of pencil and watercolor sketches of Hindu gods and Mughal emperors, but they don't know the date -possibly the 18th century. Pictured here is the goddess Durga. See a selection of these fascinating miniatures at BibliOdyssey. 

Retro Photo

USS Arizona in the East River NYC 1920s

Posters warn women of acid attacks for wearing jeans

Posters warning of serious consequences like acid attacks if women wore jeans and tops created panic across Ranchi in Jharkhand, India, on Tuesday but police refused to react to the threats and made no arrests.

Written in red ink, the posters by a group calling itself Jharkhand Mukti Sangh were seen at Albert Ekka Chowk, outside the office of the registrar and St John School at around. They were deliberately penned in red ink to give the impression that they were the handiwork of a rebel group, said police. "We are not taking the posters seriously as we feel some miscreants are behind them. But we will investigate," said DGP G S Rath, adding to the insecurity created among the city's women.

"The police should immediately look into the matter and take action. If they are not booked, it will be very difficult for us to move around freely," said a girl student of St Xavier's College. She was furious with the group. "They are behaving like the Taliban. I don't know why they have started this moral policing," she said on condition her identity be kept secret for fear of reprisal.

YouTube link.

The chairperson of the State Women's Commission, Hemlata S Mohan, was shocked. "There is no justification for such posters. We cannot allow the girls to be targeted in this fashion," said Mohan. The posters also warned of violence against job seekers in Jharkhand who are not domiciles of the state. "Outsiders" planning to buy land in the state have also not been spared, just as companies have been warned about the backlash if they displace people. The police said "attacks" and warnings to "outsiders" is nothing new.

Man set fire to toilet seat for religious reasons

Further proof (as if it were needed) that religion is for shit!

Police in Louisville, Kentucky were called to a petrol station on a type of bathroom emergency. They responded to the Speedway convenience store on Brownsboro Road on Saturday after reports of a man setting a toilet seat on fire.

Upon arrival police arrested James Crittenden, 46, who had been confronted by store personnel in the restroom. According to the written citation, Crittenden told store workers he lit the fire for religious reasons.

Crittenden was also arrested on July 25, 2012 after police said he was huffing cans of a whipped cream product in the ValuMarket at Mid City Mall. Crittenden, 36, who had been banned from the store in the past for disorderly conduct and theft, opened 10 cans of the product, which totaled $23.90.

Crittenden told store personnel that he would pay for the opened cans, but only had $7.00 in his pocket. The arrest report states Crittenden said he was huffing the cans to wake up and that the US Constitution allowed him the authority to huff Redi Whip. Crittenden has been charged with arson.

Child found living in menagerie

A child was allegedly living with 19 dogs, 15 cats, two rabbits, three quail, nine chickens and one duck in a house. The plight of the 12-year-old boy living in the menagerie led animal welfare officers to contact police to assist with a search warrant for the boy's home in Newark, Delaware.

"When officers arrived and entered the home, they smelled a pungent odor of urine, which made it difficult to breathe, emanating throughout the house and observed the residence to be in deplorable conditions," Colonel W. Scott McLaren, chief of New Castle County Police Department said in a statement.

Sandra Kelsch, 49, and her husband, Edward Kelsch, 48, were each charged with endangering the welfare of a child. They were released on $500 unsecured bail. Animal cruelty charges are pending against the couple by the Kent County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

SPCA animal control agents removed the pets. Another 10 cats that could not be caught were left behind and 28 more dogs were seized from the property. The home was condemned as unfit to live in. The couple’s 12-year-old son was taken to A.I. duPont Hospital for Children to be evaluated for any health problems. The boy was medically cleared and placed in the care of relatives.

There's a news video here.

Remains of "Ape Woman" to Finally be Returned and Buried in Mexico

Pastrana worked as a carnival sideshow attraction known as the "Ape Woman". Born in 1834 in Mexico, Pastrana was born with hypertrichosis terminalis, a deformity that caused the development of an oversized jaw, excess facial hair growth, her ears and nose were unusually large, and her teeth were irregular. 

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Random Photo

Both Mars and Rembrandt

When did the repugican party become the party that hates science?

Ever the drama queen, repugican super-strategist Grover Norquist is vewy vewy upset about this breathtaking photo of the sunset on Mars:

Norquist is implying that the Mars mission wasn't worth it.

And Iraq was?

George Bush's vendetta war in Iraq is costing us $3 trillion, or 1,200 times the cost of "that picture of Mars" (the Curiosity mission cost only $2.5bn).  So, actually, had the repugicans not invaded Iraq on a lie we could have afforded both Mars and Rembrandt.

This is something that bothered me way back in 2001.  I remember when the shrub was proposing the huge $1.6 trillion tax cut, and when Democrats, led by Tom Daschle, immediately caved and countered with a $1.3 trillion tax cut (that'll show 'em).  At the time I thought, yeah we have a surplus thanks to Bill Clinton, but shouldn't we save this for a rainy day rather than run out and spend it like a drunken Reagan?  Yet that's what the repugicans did, and it's what they always do.

The repugicans never met a surplus they didn't spend.  They wasted America's rainy day fund on tax cuts for the rich and wars of convenience, and now we're all paying for it.

Of course, it gets even funnier.  Had Norquist taken a few more science and math classes he might have had the smarts to Google the photo before sending it out to the world as a new photo from Mars.  It's not a new photo at all.  It's a photo from 2005, and has nothing to do with Curiosity's current mission to Mars.

And Grover, there's one more difference between the Mission to Mars and the $3 trillion repugican war of convenience in Iraq.

The Mission to Mars didn't kill anyone.

P.S., Oh, and Grover, the pic you're complaining about was from the shrub cabal.  But funny you didn't complain about the cost of the Mars mission, or shrub's various wars, then.

Curiosity transmits first full-color panorama back from Mars

Ain't it pretty? The first color panorama image of Gale Crater, the landing site for the Curiosity rover. Thumbnail versions of images taken by the Mast Camera were combined to form this 360-degree view. From NASA:

Scientists will be taking a closer look at several splotches in the foreground that appear gray. These areas show the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground. What appeared as a dark strip of dunes in previous, black-and-white pictures from Curiosity can also be seen along the top of this mosaic, but the color images also reveal additional shades of reddish brown around the dunes, likely indicating different textures or materials.
The images were taken late Aug. 8 PDT (Aug. 9 EDT) by the 34-millimeter Mast Camera. This panorama mosaic was made of 130 images of 144 by 144 pixels each. Selected full frames from this panorama, which are 1,200 by 1,200 pixels each, are expected to be transmitted to Earth later. The images in this panorama were brightened in the processing. Mars only receives half the sunlight Earth does and this image was taken in the late Martian afternoon.

Full size available here.

Mars Panorama

Last month NASA released some of the most beautiful photos of Mars the world has ever seen. Panoramas.dk, a site created by Danish commercial photographer Hans Nyberg, assembled 817 images into a panorama. The images were taken between December 21, 2011, and May 8, 2012, while Opportunity was stationed on an outcrop informally named 'Greeley Haven'. on a segment of the rim of ancient Endeavour Crater.

Awesome Images Make You Feel Amazing

Awe-inspiring images inspire that sense of time stopping. So here's some awesomeness to make you smile. Read more

The Bird Of Paradise Without Wings

This particular bird has no wings and will never fly. However, people around the world will stop and gawk at its flightless beauty. Strelitzia reginae is a monocotyledonous flowering plant indigenous to South Africa.

The flower is also known as Crane Flower or Bird of Paradise. Its scientific name commemorates Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III. Take a look at the bird of paradise without wings.

Police officer frees moose stuck in swing set

A moose was set loose by a Weber County Sheriff’s Deputy after the animal got his antlers tangled in a swing set. The moose wandered into a homeowner’s backyard in Causey Estates outside of Huntsville, Utah, and trapped himself in the chains of several swings.

Sgt. Lane Findlay said a neighbor called to report the animal in distress. The neighbor had used a pair of bolt cutters to clip a few chains of the swing before Findlay arrived. “I walk up and there’s this full grown moose with three swings wrapped around its horn and it’s completely trapped,” Findlay said. He said the animal was clearly agitated and in pain.

YouTube link.

The moose had blood on his antlers and some of the velvet from his skin had come off. He cautiously moved toward the animal with the bolt cutters in hand and started cutting the chains. “Every time I would cut one, he would feel that tension release and start to move around,” Findlay said.

He tried not to cut the swings too high to prevent the swings from staying stuck on the moose and successfully set him loose. “Once he was free he just took off,” Findlay added. The moose wandered to a nearby home and laid down to rest. Findlay gave the moose water and sprayed him down with a hose. The Department of Natural Resources also responded to the incident. They said the animal will shed its antlers and be fine.

Sweet-toothed bear raids 'chocolate factory'

Last week a young black bear broke into The Estes Park Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Colorado and ate himself silly with chocolate treats from the sweet shop. Owner of the store Jo Adams came into work when something struck her as odd, a candy tin and one cellophane wrapper on the floor and dirt on top of her check out counter. Jo thought, “Oh darn, one of those pesky ground squirrels has got in the store and upset a few things.” Jo called her son Eric Adams to come and help her find the critter and clean up before she opened the store. The two searched and searched but they couldn’t find the offender. Jo has recently put in four surveillance cameras in the shop and Eric decided to check the cameras.

At first glance, they noticed a shadowy figure in the video and couldn’t quite make out what it was. Soon however, the figure stood up next to the front counter and Jo could begin to make out the shape of the body and then noticed some black fuzzy ears on top if it’s head. Jo blurted out, “That’s a bear!” Sometime during the night, a young black bear had got into the shop and made himself at home, enjoying lots and lots of chocolatey treats. The bear takes mouthfuls of candy from the display rack at the counter and then walks out the door and eats it on the sidewalk. As soon as he finished, he’d come back in for another mouthful and take it back outside, eat it then come back for more. All in all the bear went in and out of the shop seven times in a matter of 20 minutes.

YouTube link.

At one point, he came back in and placed his paws on the glass display case, leaving nothing but footprints, doing no damage at all. At one point, he hopped over the counter and walked behind the candy case which was sealed and he jumped up on the back counter and traipsed along, stepping over items, not disturbing a thing. Jo was amazed at how gentle and polite this bear was. Not a thing was damaged in the entire store and he left twenty minutes later. This bear certainly satisfied his sweet tooth. Apparently, the bear’s favorite things were the chocolate covered Rice Krispie Treats, peanut butter cups, a special Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory treat called Balls of Joy, English Toffee and Cookie Bears.

Jo stated, “That little bugger ate a lot of candy!” After discovering that the bear had been in the store, Jo enlisted the help of family members and employees to clean, disinfect and throw out anything the bear had any contact with. Apparently, the bear was able to get in due to a faulty lock on the door which didn’t latch properly. He slipped his claws underneath the door and was able to pop the door open. The lock was immediately replaced and the bear has not able to break into the store again. The following evening the bear came back as evidenced by some muddy paw prints left on the door yet he left disappointed since the door had been repaired. Jo doesnt’ want any harm to come to this bear. She said, “He was just doing what bears do …eat! He was hungry.”

How Do Sharks Keep Their Teeth So Clean?

Yes, sharks do have extra teeth for those that they lose, but you might not know they never lose teeth due to cavities. As it turns out, the exterior of their teeth are actually made of flouride -meaning those chompers stay pearly white until the day they fall out.
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Surprise, the world's largest mammals produce the world's largest turds

Wired Science has a revealing post about a particularly notable plume of whale poop spotted by a scientist off the Southern California coast. From giant animals come giant poo. Marine biologists and oceanographers get to study stuff like this with their serious-face on.

Seven rare rhinos photographed in Indonesia

A conservationist says seven of the world's rarest rhinoceroses were photographed at a national park in Indonesia.

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Animal Pictures