10+1 reasons why my daughter is a cat

10 reasons for a 10 months old child. 1. She seems to enjoy walking on the edges, showing no fear. Ok, here’s a less than perfect parallelism: my daughter barely crawls and she has no idea of the risks involved, while cats are renown for their sense of balance and always land on all fours. But you’d be surprised to know how often they fall ruinously. Oh, since we’re here. 2. She crawls like a cat. Of course, you may add: that’s normal for infants at this stage. I’m not saying my offspring is special. I’m saying we’re closer to felines than we care to notice. 3. She meows. Although she emits all…

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Pope Francis: today the Eucharist is for pagans too

Catholic missionaries in Papua New Guinea

A Papua New Guinea pilot project in inclusiveness. This is the latest gimmick devised to make Pope Francis’ Church That Goes Forth reach even further: giving the Eucharist to anybody who asks; but only today, by way of exception, to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. It’s not just about the divorced and remarried, or fellow Protestant faithfuls. Even non-Christians and skeptics can now participate and receive the Sacrament. At least if you live in Papua. This morning, during Easter Mass, thousands of people who had never received Jesus in the Eucharist before were greeted in the churches across Papua New Guinea as honored guests who could now experience a direct,…

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A lonely Japanese drone got lost in Europe

Prodrone PD6B

UPDATE -11:50 am CET- the linked page is no longer available (See bottom of page) A sort of artificial tourist is wandering the skies A Osaka University autonomous drone, designed to explore urban environments and take photos of Google Maps landmarks, went missing during a test flight on March 18 while the developers were visiting the University of Hannover, in Germany. This machine is programmed to fly solo, without the need of human intervention. As reported on the webpage dedicated to this project, a malfunction occurred to the drone’s CNC (cellular network connection module) so that the robot couldn’t receive the “COME HOME” signal. As reported by the project manager Kazuo…

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March 8: Women’s Day is actually for us Neanderthal males!

If you are based in the US and don’t know it already, today is International Women’s Day. Here in Europe everybody seems preoccupied with sending good wishes to all female acquaintances and with expressing their politically correct opinion on the subject of women’s rights. This is especially true since the advent of social media. Facebook timelines are inundated with cheesy stuff. Now, let’s think this through.   1. We are called to side with the weak and the needy. Especially victims. Moreover, those who unwittingly fall in the category of victims are suffering an even worse fate.   2. We’ve been accused of “homophobia and transphobia” because we didn’t cheer for the…

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Idea: turbocharging homeopathy

Wait! I just realized I invented a Homeopathy Power-up! Today’s homeopathic remedies are still burdened by this annoying problem… you know that undesired aftertaste of dinosaur and cyanobacteria… stuff that our water has carried within itself for ! You don’t want that to spoil your mood or appetite.   Your average water dose remembers too many things and you run the risk of receiving the wrong cure. Say you wanted a powerful, high-dilution arsenic potion, but for some reason your water was instead reminiscing about that occasion when it went to a mineral spa. Or maybe you put your hands on a Berlin Wall homeopathic pill (I’m not making this up!) but the…

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On Prayers Of The Faithful And Distractions

Painting of the martyrdom of the 7 Maccabees

At Mass   Scene: today we went to Mass in a church that we know but isn’t our parish. All went well, no complaints (oh, how grumpy we pew-critters tend to be at times!): a good priest, a beautiful church full of art. Before the beginning of the service, while we are already seated, there comes a guy in charge of organizing stuff. The following exchange ensues: -Anyone wants to read the Readings? The Prayers Of The Faithful? Moment of indecision. I’m pondering the idea of blurting out the appropriate answer for an occasion like this, one I’ve prepared some time ago. -I may read a Reading, but… -Then it’s…

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A morsel sized tale of animal mania

Basset Hound pendant

A telling episode re: animalism, the epidemic of people obsessing about the well-being of animals (especially pets) and treating them like humans. Yesterday at the beach. There comes a corpulent woman, I’d say weighing more than 300 pounds, firmly holding in her hand a leash carrying a small dog, about 4 pounds or so. I said she was carrying it because the rat-dog was literally hanging from her hand, suspended like a salami in a butcher shop. I know, I know. It’s neither polite nor acceptable to comment on other people’s weight issues (plus I’m overweight too!), but in this case she contrasted splendidly with her pedigree doggie. A sort…

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