conuly

Of course, Ana felt the urgent need to interject and point out that "just because a priest or whoever comes to her house and says she's a goddess doesn't make it so" and "if there really was a god people wouldn't all die". When I suggested that maybe god (or whoever) likes killing things for the lulz she responded, deadpan, "no, that's my job".

!!!

I love Ana so much. I don't always understand her, but she's a wonderful kid. Don't tell her I said so, she gets twitchy weird about compliments.

****************************

The number of refugees in the world has topped 50 million for the first time since World War II – and half of them are children, The Guardian reported on Friday, World Refugee Day.

http://bit.ly/1lbb892

The Kremlin on Friday denied a statement by NATO suggesting Russia was building up troops on the frontier with Ukraine but said Moscow had brought in more border guards because of security concerns.

http://reut.rs/1qm1IZ0

Hostilities between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists have escalated as Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko was said Friday to be about to unveil a 14-point peace plan to curb an ongoing insurgency.

http://usat.ly/1m3xj19

Obama to extend family leave to gay couples

http://usat.ly/1lGvo1U

The United States has made top-secret deals with more than 30 third-party countries so that the National Security Agency can tap into fiber optic cables carrying internet data in those parts of the world, new leaks reveal.

http://bit.ly/1st1IKX

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's on-the-ground offensive in northern Iraq this month has been aided, analysts say, by an unprecedented social media blitz.

"I think it was obvious very early on that they launched their offensive with a social media campaign well planned in advance. This wasn't an afterthought. This wasn't something that they made up as they went along," said John Little, who monitors national security, conflicts and technology at Blogs of War.

http://cbsn.ws/1lQB4Cc

House libertarians and liberals banded together for a surprise win in their fight against the secretive National Security Agency, securing support for new curbs on government spying a year after leaker Edward Snowden's disclosures about the bulk collection of millions of Americans' phone records.

http://fxn.ws/1rfwYbY

Scottish Independence Would Wreck UK-US Special Relationship, Warns Sir John Major

http://huff.to/1ire4ig

Netflix Wants To Make A New ‘Star Trek’ Series Happen

Do you know, every time I glance over at this tab I think it says that Neelix wants to make it? Which raises a question - would this series be in the original continuity or the reboot one?

http://uproxx.it/1np5gqQ

New ultrastiff, ultralight material developed

http://bit.ly/1nSyWyk

The death of the American mall

http://bit.ly/UmI0By

I'm not sure if this "First Moon Party" commercial for a disposable pads kit is hilarious or horrifying. Little bit of both.

http://bit.ly/TdVoHb

It turns out Starbucks isn't contributing any upfront scholarship money to an online college degree program it introduced this week.

http://bit.ly/1iPXVho

As millions of Americans continue to struggle in a sluggish economy, a growing portion of the country says that poverty is caused by circumstances beyond individual control, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

http://nbcnews.to/1pry9pp

New York City has agreed to pay $40 million to five men who were convicted, and later exonerated, of brutally raping a female jogger in Central Park in 1989, settling a long-fought civil rights lawsuit, according to a person familiar with the matter.

http://reut.rs/1iPYdER

World Gets 22% of Electricity From Renewable Energy

http://on.wsj.com/UUkIn8

French Jews leave for Israel in increasing numbers

http://yhoo.it/1kUTCRD

Brown’s review focuses especially on bony fish. It suggests that fish are, in fact, far more intelligent than many previously believed. Fish have very good memories, live in complex social communities where they keep track of individuals, and can learn from one another. This helps to develop stable cultural traditions. Fish even recognise themselves and others. They also cooperate with one another and show signs of Machiavellian intelligence, such as cooperation and reconciliation. They build complex structures, are capable of using tools, and use the same methods for keeping track of quantities as humans do. For the most part the primary senses of fish are just as good, and in many cases, better, than that of humans. Their behaviour is very much the same as that of primates, except that fish do not have the ability to imitate.

http://bit.ly/1qy4qgj

In a Bolivian rainforest society, children learn to count just like in the U.S., but on a delayed timetable.

http://bit.ly/1lF5c9p

A senior official for Doctors Without Borders says the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa is "totally out of control" and that the medical group is stretched to the limit in its capacity to respond.

http://yhoo.it/1np79DJ