With the way the world and social media work today, there are all sorts of major events dominating the tweets.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are still suffering the effects of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The devastation left in their wake means it will be years before many recover. Of course, it will be those that were already at the lower end of the socio-economic scale who will take the longest to get back to where they were before. Many never will.

North Korea sent another ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to live with that threat. Worse, to hear the siren go off and have to seek shelter from a bomb! It flew about 3,700 kilometres – a little more than the distance from North Korea to Guam.

The terror threat level from international terrorism has been put up to “Critical” in the UK following a bombing on the London Underground. According to MI5 (British Secret Service), “CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently.” Until yesterday’s gutless attack, the level was “Severe” meaning, “an attack is highly likely.” Thankfully there were no deaths, but 29 have injuries. DAESH (ISIS) is claiming responsibility, but authorities are not agreeing with them yet.

DAESH were more “successful” in Iraq, where dozens of mostly Shi’a Muslims lost their lives as the result of a bomb in a restaurant. As always, it’s Muslims that suffer most at the hands of Muslim extremists and terrorists.

The attack on the Rohingya in Myanmar is ongoing. Aung San Suu Kyi has chickened out of attending next week’s UN General Assembly. The Washington Post reports “… 370,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh, according to United Nations estimates.” They go on to say:

The U.N. rights chief calls the campaign in Rakhine a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” NPR noted that “reports of unbridled murder and arson, rape and persecution have followed [Rohingya] out of Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, sketching a stark portrait of government violence.”

All these new disasters come along and we forget about the ongoing crises. Just a couple:

After six years of civil war in Syria, there are five million refugees who need help.

DAESH is on the verge of defeat in the Middle East, but their ally, Boko Haram, is not. They continue to wreak havoc in northern Nigeria and surrounding areas. Remember the Bring Back Our Girls campaign following the Chibok kidnapping of 276 in April 2014? Well, 113 are still missing along with hundreds of other women and girls, such as those from Damasak.

Damask didn’t get as much attention as Chibok and the government never publicly acknowledged it. (Remember it took international pressure to get them to admit Chibok.) In November 2014, 300 children aged from two (yes, two) to seventeen were abducted from Zanna Mobarti primary school. Another two hundred children are missing from the same region. These aren’t the only ones. There are hundreds more.

We can all come up with a whole lot more to add to the list. You can see why people who are steeped in religion could imagine all this means the end of the world is nigh. It’s an irrational response, but religion is already an irrational response to life.

What we really need is more cats on Twitter! They were harder to find today. I had to tweet some myself to make up the numbers!

Cat Tweets

This is what we need after all that ghastly stuff …

 

And this …

 

I said it in the tweet …


They feel safe in the enclosed space but can still see what’s going on – good invention humans!

 

Cat Face palm!

 

Cat trap …


 

Beautiful! Look at those paws! And this is great news re its status, though more work must be done.
(Via Ann German.)

Dog Tweets

And you thought is was only cats who got in the sink!

 

Other Animals Tweets

I’ve heard that guides in Africa are more scared of hippos than any other animal. They won’t take their boats anywhere near them because they’re extremely territorial and so dangerous. This tweet shows how right they are. WOW!
(Via Ann German.)

 

As a Kiwi, I’m NOT a fan of possums. The ones we have here are pests that destroy our native birds, especially the flightless ones, and damage our flora, both native and exotic. They also carry TB which they spread to cattle. However, this little guy is undeniably cute.

 

Reptile Tweets

Awww, what a cutie.

Entertainment Tweets

Jamie Lee Curtis is coming back as Laurie Strode in a new ‘Halloween’ movie.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Surely they knew what they were doing here?
(Via Ann German.)

 

So, of course, I had to reply with this one …

 

Art Tweets

Very cool.

Political Tweets

I loved this movie, so this tweet had to go in!
(Via Ann German.)

 

If Mayweather likes Trump, that’s a reason not to in my book. It’s shocking that Mayweather says this, but it’s even more shocking that he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he’s saying. Where were all the people who should have been telling Trump and Mayweather the right way to treat and speak about others when they were boys?

Scenic Tweets

I’m not sure how the votes for this got some. There are some beautiful countries missing from the list. What about France, for example? Still, I’m happy New Zealand is right up there.

Rough Guide Readers – top 10 most beautiful countries:

1. Scotland
2. Canada
3. New Zealand
4. Italy
5. South Africa
6. Indonesia
7. England
8. Iceland
9. USA
10. Wales

 

Gorgeous. I could lie back on the grass and look at this for hours.

 

Science Tweets

You can rely on science to come up with new ways to improve our lives.

 

I can’t wait for self-driving cars. These days the state of my body limits me to about two hours driving, and I’m a wreck after that. The increase in freedom of a self-driving car would be great.

Very cool!

History Tweets

This is very cool! “We do not beg for freedom, we fight for it.” Go Poland!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Wow! Fantastic pic!

 

I remember my mother having a bra just like this. She looked a bit like this too, though I don’t recall her striking that pose!

 

It shocks me that this was ever acceptable. No wonder race relations are still so fraught in the US when this sort of thing was part of society. We certainly aren’t, and never were, perfect in NZ, but we also never had this sort of appalling scenario. I retweeted this pic with this comment: “Good ole white Jesus in the window overlooking this example Christian brotherly love.”

 

Why fingerprints are important (and now DNA).

Religion Tweets

Someone else with an irrational response to reality.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Space Tweets

The Cassini Mission is over, which I think is sad. I don’t like the idea of it burning up – I wish there was a way it could come back to earth. It’s an amazing and important project and I’m sure there’s more we will learn from it still.

Funny Tweets

Not sure this is real, but it’s fun all the same.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Human Rights Tweets

I find the bail system in the US shocking and disgusting. There is no money in NZ’s bail system. Whether a person is granted bail depends on factors like the alleged crime, flight risk, criminal history etc. I don’t claim we’re ideal, because we’re not, but we’re better than the US imho. (See here.)


So this is the sort of person Fox Sports employs, and then they wonder why they have to keep firing their male hosts for sexually harassing women? Of course, they’ve worked out they can’t get away with blatant racism anymore, but it’s still okay to speak like this about women.
(Via Ann German.)

 

And so I need to post one of my favourite Jesus and Mo cartoons here.

Jesus and Mo - Women's Rights Don't Matter

 


 

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