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THE WORLD IS GETTING SCARIER

Now we've got squirrels hunting and eating meat. Won't be long and they're gonna getting into squirrel squads and coming after us and our pets!

Squirrels spotted hunting and eating animals for first time​

Sarah Knapton
Wed, December 18, 2024 at 11:34 AM CST
3 min read


California ground squirrels of all ages and genders were observed actively hunting the small rodents

California ground squirrels of all ages and genders were observed actively hunting the small rodents
Flesh-eating squirrels which hunt down and devour voles have been spotted for the first time in the wild.
Until now, squirrels were thought to be primarily vegetarian, cramming their cheeks full of seeds and nuts, which they often bury in underground stores to get through the colder months.
But biologists were amazed to see Californian ground squirrels chasing and killing voles in predatory behaviour never before recorded in the animals.



Experts say it fundamentally changes their understanding of squirrels, which clearly have a more omnivorous and flexible diet than had been assumed.
“This was shocking,” said squirrel expert Dr Jennifer Smith, of the University of Wisconsin.
“We had never seen this behaviour before. Squirrels are one of the most familiar animals to people. We see them right outside our windows; we interact with them regularly.
“Yet here’s this never-before-encountered-in-science behaviour that sheds light on the fact that there’s so much more to learn about the natural history of the world around us.”
Researchers have been following squirrel populations at Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County since 2010, but this is the first time they have observed the carnivorous behaviour.
Ground squirrel

The squirrels’ carnivorous behaviour peaked during an explosion in vole numbers
Out of 74 observed interactions with voles between June and July, 42 per cent involved active hunting of these small rodents by ground squirrels.

Dr Sonja Wild, who helped set up the California Ground Squirrels Project with Dr Smith, said she was astonished when undergraduate students first came to her saying they had filmed the strange new behaviour.
“I could barely believe my eyes,” said Dr Wild, of the University of California. “From then, we saw that behaviour almost every day. Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere.”
Ground squirrels generally live on the ground or in burrows, in contrast with British tree squirrels, such as the red and grey, which make their homes in trees.
Tree squirrels have large bushy tails, unlike ground squirrels, and measure between 12 and 20 inches long, compared with ground squirrels, which average about eight to 12 inches in length.


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Ground squirrels are known to eat insects, bird eggs and nestlings, but can 'respond to changes in food availability', say scientists

Ground squirrels are known to eat insects, bird eggs and nestlings, but can ‘respond to changes in food availability’, say scientists


Ground squirrels are known for their burrowing behaviour, creating intricate tunnel systems which they use as escape routes from predators.
As well as nuts and seeds, the animals are also known to occasionally eat insects, bird eggs and nestlings.
In new research, published in the Journal of Ethology, the authors documented California ground squirrels of all ages and genders hunting, eating and competing over vole prey.
The squirrels’ carnivorous summer behaviour peaked during the first two weeks of July, coinciding with an explosion of vole numbers at the park.
This suggests the squirrels’ hunting behaviour emerged alongside a temporary increase in the availability of prey, the study said. The scientists did not observe the squirrels hunting other mammals.

‘Incredible opportunists’​

“The fact that California ground squirrels are behaviourally flexible and can respond to changes in food availability might help them persist in environments rapidly changing due to the presence of humans,” Dr Wild added.
Dr Smith added that many species, including the California ground squirrel, are “incredible opportunists”.
But they said many questions remain unanswered, including how widespread hunting behaviour is among squirrels, whether and how it is passed down from parent to pup, and how it affects the environment.
The authors are planning to return to the same spot next summer to see what impact, if any, this year’s vole hunting may have on squirrel reproduction compared with the past decade.

New 2025 Target out of Canada Talks Iowa Offer

Spoke with one of Iowa's newest offerees, Tristan Beckford yesterday afternoon.

Details on his super recent recruitment with Iowa, his thoughts on what the Hawkeyes have to offer, what he's looking for in his recruitment, and we drop an evaluation.

STORY:

Majority of Americans oppose Trump’s proposals to test democracy’s limits

Then why in the world did they vote for him?:

A majority of Americans oppose Donald Trump’s plans to use the U.S. military to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, to instruct the U.S. Justice Department to investigate his political rivals and to pardon rioters charged with breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a nationwide Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.


Get the latest election news and results

Even larger majorities of Americans oppose Trump’s plans to jail reporters for writing stories he doesn’t like and having police use force against anti-Trump protests.
The survey of 1,251 Americans was conducted weeks after Trump’s victory and sought to examine public sentiment about positions espoused by the president-elect that challenge democratic principles and strain constitutional norms, as well as views on the legitimacy of American elections after Trump’s win. Trump has claimed a broad mandate for his proposals and has selected cabinet secretaries and other executive branch officials who have expressed eagerness to carry them out. But the poll results indicate that Americans reject many of the proposals that experts say could erode the guardrails that help keep presidential power in check.



Trump does seem to have the blessing of a majority of registered Republicans for some of his most divisive ideas, including 77 percent who back his pledge to use the armed forces to carry out mass deportations compared with 42 percent of Americans overall. Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans say they support the Justice Department investigating Trump’s enemies, whereas fewer than 4 in 10 Americans overall agree. And 60 percent of Republicans back Trump pardoning Jan. 6 convicts, almost double the 32 percent of Americans in general who feel the same.

“I find it mostly disheartening that there is so much division. There is a fundamental disagreement about basic norms and basic facts,” said Mike Hanmer, a government and politics professor at the University of Maryland. “We’re not on the same page in terms of how we deal with power and how we hold power accountable.”
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Americans are also split over how Trump will behave as president this time. The poll finds 40 percent think he will try to rule as a dictator, 41 percent say he won’t and another 19 percent aren’t sure. Yet Americans widely have faith in democratic institutions, with 71 percent saying constitutional guardrails like the checks and balances of Congress and the Supreme Court would block Trump from securing total power over the country, while 25 percent think Trump would succeed if he tried.


An overwhelming majority of Americans across the political spectrum do not think Trump should jail reporters who write stories he doesn’t like. Still, 1 in 10 Americans support it, including 15 percent of Republicans and 5 percent of Democrats. Hanmer said that’s still a “dangerously high” number of people who would be okay with prosecuting journalists. During a news conference this week, Trump said he wanted to “straighten out the press” and suggested the Justice Department target the “very dishonest” media.
Separately, a 72 percent majority of Americans oppose police using force to stop anti-Trump protests; including 54 percent of Republicans. Seven in 10 Republicans support Trump firing FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, while just over half of the public overall opposes prematurely ending his 10-year term. The poll was completed before Wray announced his intention to resign last week, though Trump had sent a clear message that he intended to replace Wray when he endorsed Kash Patel as the next FBI director.
The poll also asked how people felt about President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter, who had been convicted in June on tax and gun charges. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans oppose the decision, including 47 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of Republicans. Far fewer Republicans support Biden pardoning his son, who was not convicted of a violent crime, than they do Trump pardoning a group of people who engaged in a violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol.


Drew, a 31-year-old police detective in New Jersey who declined to give his last name for fear of online harassment, said he hadn’t supported Trump pardoning the Jan. 6 convicts until Biden did so for his son. Drew, who voted for Trump, said in an interview that as someone who works in law enforcement, he didn’t support what the rioters did that day. But he also said he thinks they were trying to “practice their civic duty” because the 2020 election results “didn’t seem accurate.”
The mob of Trump supporters who sought to block Congress’s certification of Biden’s victory in 2021 did so after Trump convinced them that there had been widespread voting fraud that cost him the election — despite there being no evidence of significant malfeasance. In the months leading up to the 2024 election, Trump and many of his allies baselessly warned of voting irregularities and corruption to steal the election for the Democrats. Since he won, Trump has not publicly questioned whether the election was administered fairly and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, quickly conceded defeat.
The Post-UMD poll finds 79 percent of Americans say Trump won legitimately this year while 63 percent say Biden’s victory in 2020 was fair. Acceptance of Trump’s win is bipartisan, with 96 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of independents and 70 percent of Democrats saying he won legitimately. There is also a slight uptick in Republicans accepting Biden’s 2020 win compared to a Post-UMD poll conducted in 2023. Last year, 31 percent of Republicans said Biden fairly won in 2020 and this year 41 percent do. A 58 percent majority of Republicans continue to reject Biden’s 2020 victory.




Democratic acceptance of Trump’s win this year is more than twice as high as in 2017, when a Post-UMD survey that year found 32 percent believed he legitimately won the 2016 vote. Those views were fueled by investigations of that year’s election, which found that Russia had spread disinformation to interfere on Trump’s behalf.
The poll also asked whether there was voter fraud in the 2024 election. About 1 in 6 Americans (16 percent) say there is solid evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2024 election, down from the 1 in 3 Americans (33 percent) who said this about the 2020 election in a Post-UMD poll last year. Perceptions of evidence of fraud in elections have plummeted among Republicans. Last year, 62 percent of Republicans said there was proven fraud in the 2020 election compared to 21 percent today who say there was in this year’s election. (There is no evidence of widespread fraud in either election.)

“The Republican base will believe what Trump says about this,” Hanmer said.



Thomas Sweeney, a 74-year-old from Texas, said he voted reluctantly for Trump. He blames the president-elect for the Jan. 6 attack and, as a West Point graduate, said he strongly opposes using the military for any domestic matters, including deportations. He also believes Trump will try to rule as a dictator, but is hopeful Congress will stand up to him.

“We need to have Congress be able to flex their muscles and not roll over every time he yells about something,” Sweeney said.
Americans are also divided over whether Trump will try to stay in office after his second term ends in 2029, despite the Constitution saying a president can only be elected to president twice. Just under half, 48 percent, say he will try to stay in the White House for a third term, and 50 percent say he will step down. Some Trump allies, like former adviser Stephen K. Bannon, have already floated the idea that Trump could run again because his terms were not consecutive. Constitutional scholars say the theory has no basis.



Overall, Americans are at odds over what Trump’s election means for the country. About 3 in 10 say his election is “a crisis for the country,” while a similar share say it is “great for the country.” About 2 in 10 say his win is a setback, but not a crisis, and roughly the same share say it is good, but not great.
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  • Poll
Your Chance to Call it Now -- Who Starts Game One in 2025?

Who Starts Game One in 2025?

  • Brendan Sullivan

    Votes: 35 54.7%
  • Hank Brown

    Votes: 3 4.7%
  • Jimmy Sullivan

    Votes: 1 1.6%
  • Jackson Stratton

    Votes: 2 3.1%
  • Ryan Fitzgerald

    Votes: 1 1.6%
  • Beau Pribula

    Votes: 19 29.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 3 4.7%

Between the QBs we know who will be in the spring and all the talk around Beau Pribula, curious what everyone thinks.

Crash Davis would not approve of this idea

MLB is going to modify the PitchCom system and give pitchers the option of calling their own signals. The experiment will start on February 24 and the league will evaluate the results during spring training to decide whether or not to use it during the regular season.

Link

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EDIT: Triangulation proves the moon landing skeptic; seeing is believing proves a round Earth

Many of you know the US and Russia both had many communications stations around the world during the Moon race. The russians could easily aim two of their antennae at our signals from the Apollo 11 Lunar landing on the moon to figure out the yes those signals intersect with our antennae at an angle that puts the source about 240,000 miles away right in line with the Moon. The British and other countries with antennae around the world could do this also.

As someone on this thread mentioned, if the triangulation didnt measure correctly we know the Soviets would have been screaming to high heaven with their evidence. But it did.

If a flat-Earther looks that the very famous picture taken by Voyager 1, the picture from about 7 million miles from Earth that is the first ever picture to capture both the Earth and the Moon in the same frame, and they do not see the terminator line where sunlight and darkness meet on their surfaces as curved showing their spherical shape then you can tell them they are stupid and insane.

Also, for proof, you may know that the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes used different lengths of shadows cast at different places on Earth about 2200 years ago to really accurately measure the circumference of the Earth. He showed that the Earth is not flat because the shadows in Greece, the Nile Delta, and much farther south on the Nile had different angles. A flat Earth would have shadows at the same angle.



What logic would you use, what arguments? I have mine but I will save them for awhile before I put them here as I want to hear your ideas first.

And what are some other crazy notions that people ascribe to and believe?

Iowa's SWARM Collective

What's going on here? I've seen multiple sites that show Iowa has a top 20 NIL collective program, yet I continue to hear we have no money. For the last few years Iowa has brought in some of the lowest transfer numbers of any P5 program, so where is the money going? I'm seeing programs like Minnesota, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech and others that supposedly don't have near the collective programs that Iowa does but yet they seem to be attracting players that we cannot. Is it the numbers are a lie? If so, why are the numbers so low? I think it might have to do with that greater than 50% of our fans are no longer "excited" about Iowa football anymore. We have a coach that's been here for 3 decades and has spent all 3 decades preaching "we're not sexy" and now the rest of the country see us as such and many players are not even giving us a look. Thoughts?

Iowa sets a date for Caitlin Clark jersey retirement

The University of Iowa announced plans to honor former Hawkeye women's basketball star Caitlin Clark on Wednesday.
According to a press release from the university, Iowa will hold a ceremony inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena ahead of its home matchup against USC on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025 to retire Clark's No. 22 jersey.
"I'm forever proud to be a Hawkeye and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball,” Clark said. "It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I've admired for so long."

Clark will attend the game against the Trojans, which is set to tip off at 12:30 p.m. (CT) and will also feature a blackout theme for the crowd. Broadcast coverage will be provided by FOX and the Hawkeye Radio Network.



“Caitlin Clark has not only redefined excellence on the court but has also inspired countless young athletes to pursue their dreams with passion and determination,” Iowa Director of Athletics Beth Goetz said. “Her remarkable achievements have left an indelible mark on the University of Iowa and the world of women’s basketball. Retiring her number is a testament to her extraordinary contributions and a celebration of her legacy that will continue to inspire future generations. Hawkeye fans are eager to say thank you for so many incredible moments.”


Last season, Clark broke Kelsey Plum's record to become the all-time women's NCAA Division I scoring leader, and also broke Lynette Woodard's AIAW scoring record and Pete Maravich's all-time Division I men's and women's scoring record.


Clark received the Wooden, Naismith, Wad, Anny Meyers Drysdale, Honda Cup and AAU Sullivan awards twice during her Hawkeye career.


She was also named 2024 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) and 2024 Athlete of the Year by TIME Magazine. She is also a three-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard Award and is the first-ever three-time winner of the Dawn Staley Award.

During her time in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes experienced unparalleled success, claiming three Big Ten Tournament titles (2022, 2023, 2024) and reached the NCAA National Championship in 2023 and 2024.
Since leaving Iowa, Clark led the Indiana Fever to the WNBA playoffs in her first professional season while leading the league in assists. The Dowling Catholic product also earned WNBA All-Star, All-WNBA First Team and WNBA All-Rookie Team honors in 2024.
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