Break Out the Catnip!

Today is International Cat Day! How awesome is that? Why doesn't Google have a Doodle for today? I just don't know, sometimes. But Simon's Cat has the perfect message, anyway:

Ranga has settled on a pretty consistent routine. He will spend a lot of the day wandering in and out of the house, meowing incessantly at any closed door. If you open said door, he may or may not come in - he just likes the doors open.

At some point after night-fall, he'll decide he's had enough of the outside world and follow me around the house. He doesn't want to be petted or anything - he just wants to be in whatever room I'm in, hoping I'll hand out treats. I'll give him some treats.

Sometimes, though, he's too lazy to follow me around, so he'll flop in the middle of the floor and meow until I enter the room he's in, at which point he'll just look at me. Does he want to go outside? No. Does he want to be petted? Most definitely not. He just wants me in the room, where he can keep an eye on me.

After I brush my teeth, I'll give him some dry food and fresh water. Then, I'll go to bed, and he'll curl up beside me somewhere that is too far away to pet him but close enough to make sleeping awkward for me. Sometime between 3 and 6 a.m., he'll start meowing to be let outside. Sometime around 8:30 a.m., he'll meow to come in again, and follow me around while I get him wet food, fresh water, and more treats. Then, he starts his daily wandering in and out.

He's got me pretty well trained, by now.

It's a good thing he's pretty. 

More cat links for you!

• New York museum opens exhibition devoted to internet cats 
• 36 Cat Facts for International Cat Day

• Want more cat facts? Check out Animal Planet's Cat Fact Generator! 
• Want more cat videos? Yes, you do! Here you go: Celebrate National Cat Day With 10 Impossibly Cute Videos 

Today is also National Twins Day, apparently, but I don't happen to have a twin. And, so far as I'm aware, there aren't shelters where you can go out and adopt a twin. Happy National Twins Day, if you have one, though! Call up your twin and tell them they're lucky to have you.

Links!

• Libraries, Books, Writers, & Suchlike
• American Bile "I’m 67 and have lived through some angry times: Joseph R. McCarthy’s witch hunts of the 1950s, the struggle for civil rights and the Vietnam protests in the 1960s, Watergate and its aftermath in the 1970s. But I don’t recall the degree of generalized bile that seems to have gripped the nation in recent years." Robert Reich ain't wrong. 
• Education
• Seeing Struggling Math Learners as ‘Sense Makers,’ Not ‘Mistake Makers’ 
• High Schoolers And Snooze Buttons: A Public Health Crisis? 
• Net, Tech, Health, & Science
• Digital divide and internet surveillance "We cannot permit a situation to emerge whereby there are those that can be intellectually free online and those that cannot. Digital inequality has to be eliminated, and part of that means ensuring the intellectual freedom of everyone online, not just a highly skilled few."
• Verizon Ends Annual Cell Phone Contracts "The No. 3 mobile carrier is switching to month-to-month plans starting Thursday."
• European Weather-Monitoring Satellite Takes Its First Image Of Earth 
• Toxic Fracking Water Being Used to Water Crops During California Drought 
• Mine Waste Water Released into Animas River 
• Child contracts plague at Yosemite National Park 
• Authority Issues
• "Oppressed People Are Everywhere": A Year After Ferguson, a Conversation With One of the Protests' Organizers 
• One year later: Ferguson is still pumping out arrest warrants Related: Ferguson Official Says Police Reform Is Too Expensive: Report 
• Louisiana
• In Louisiana, Rebuilding Mother Nature's Storm Protection: A 'Living Coast' 
• International
• Military court sends mother of two to 28 years for lèse majesté Ridiculousness. 
• Other (Serious Stuff)
• Donald Trump made one shockingly insightful comment during the first GOP debate "Trump is presenting himself as someone who has so mastered the corruption of American politics that he can be trusted to resist it.[...] One of the main themes I've heard from Trump supporters explaining why they support him is their belief that he 'can't be bought.' And weirdly enough, his frankness about how he himself has tried to buy others helps make this point." That's a bit like hiring the Kingpin to clean up New York City's crime problem, isn't it? 
• Of course, that's not the only thing he's said, which leads to this: Trump Booted From Conservative Forum After Latest Remarks Not all in the Republican leadership will put up with unapologetic misogyny, which is good to know. I mean, this is hardly his first "slip of the tongue" when dealing with women: Donald Trump’s Gross History of Misogyny: From Rosie O’Donnell to Megyn Kelly I still find it odd that his disdain for women is causing him more trouble among conservatives than his shady business practices. 
• Of course, all the candidates are familiar with "shady" - FactChecking the GOP Debate, Early Edition and FactChecking the GOP Debate, Late Edition 
• 10 ways Bernie Sanders would make the economy work for everyone 
• 18 CEOs Called Out By Bernie Sanders For Taking Trillions In Bailouts, Evading Taxes, and Outsourcing Jobs "[...E]ighteen of the 80 CEOs who signed the call for deficit action are actually some of the biggest outsourcers and tax cheats in America. Not only did they crash the economy in 2008, they followed that incident by taking billions in taxpayer bailout dollars.  Then, they outsourced jobs and evaded taxes. It’s pretty unbelievable, then, that they are now calling for action on a deficit that they helped create over the past four years." 
• Other (Randomness)
• Nashville pastor raises money to build tiny homes for homeless What a great idea! 
• And just for fun: 21 Tiny Mistakes That Changed History