CREATURES -- HUMOR -- HOT TIMES -- HEARINGS

This blog is either going to the dogs, is for the birds, or maybe it's just the cat's meow.  All this started when I came across a Jeanne Moos video captioned:  "People are posting their cats' reactions to this new video game" HERE

Later I found this video of cats and dogs reacting to that STRAY video game:

Subsequently I received some feline education with Jackson Galaxy and the game cat in action: 

Earlier, I had been intrigued with another of Jeanne Moos' videos given my ongoing interest in our Big Bear Bald Eagles occasionally featured on this blog:  "Eagle appears to clutch baby hawk for dinner, then decides to adopt it: "HERE".

The piece de resistance was a Jeanne Moos video captioned: 

"See what happens when you put a group of introverted dogs together".

       

I decided to look up this Jeanne Moos who was featuring quirky videos that appeal to my sensibility to discover them all and others on her CNN  profile site HERE.   

I immediately recognized some of the other Moos' wacky videos at which I've been laughing.  I had never before given much attention to the source.  Jeanne Moos, 72 years old, has been a national news correspondent for 34 years at CNN who eventually evolved into this entertaining video niche many of us are enjoying.  Perhaps you have or will find them a fun view, too.  

                          <                                    ^                                  >

Southern California, aka SoCal, where I've lived for 50 years is certainly having its share of hot weather as is the rest of our country.  News reports of the high temperatures in other parts of the world where some readers here live are experiencing heat unlike anything they've had before, too.  Many such countries such as the U.K. are quite unprepared with buildings lacking air conditioning as one example.

Before my family moved here, we lived a few years in the Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona area.  Previously we lived in the Midwestern Great Lakes area where I recall 80 to 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures (32 Celsius) felt sticky miserable due to the humidity but few homes had air conditioning. 

Initially in Arizona we had an evaporative house cooling system in the dry heat which I liked for all but a few weeks when the air became much more uncomfortable due to higher humidity outdoors in their monsoon season.

During the few years we lived in Arizona more people were moving there as continues to occur and more land was becoming converted to golf courses requiring much watering in the summer and year 'round.  Simultaneously, we noticed humidity was increasing.  For the first time ever that winter, local news media reported the area experienced smog.  The climate was becoming much less desirable, so we installed air conditioning.  The next year an employment change resulted in our moving to California.

I recall only a few days toward the end of summer our Arizona temperatures ever were in the 3-digit area of 110 Fahrenheit degrees (43 Celsius) or above.  In 2021 Phoenix set a record for F115+ (46+ Celsius) or more consecutive days of such high temperatures since 1895.  Certainly, the humidity is no less now and probably more than when we lived there despite the drought.  

Future temperatures will only become higher.  Countries that are now experiencing high temperatures they've not had before, where air conditioning has not been needed have my concern for how well residents there are able to cope, especially our older generations.  

The nation's first publicly funded Heat Response and Mitigation Office was established in Phoenix in October 2021 with David Hondula of Arizona State University named director.

Hondula said at his appointment "...changes, including planting trees, installing shade structures and adding light-colored surfaces to streets and roofs, can make the city cooler."  He reports finding success in cooling the temperatures a few degrees with residents saying they now notice a difference with the use of special cool-grey paint sprayed over their paved streets.  Cooling ultra-white paint is being used in various ways also.  Volunteers are planting "...trees for a new Phoenix 'cool corridor' " reported in the Arizona Republic newspaper.

So little is being accomplished by our federal legislators, especially in the Senate, House actions are blocked from even coming up for a vote that address environmental issues.  We can thank them for the slow progress adjusting to climate changing issues.  I find it very difficult to accept such a short-sighted view of environmental concerns and failure to act more aggressively toward some resolution given the threat to our earth.  

Local communities and individuals can adopt ways to achieve some change as our contribution with or without federal involvement.  Perhaps more ways will be found in communities where each of us live to cool our environment.  There may be unique ideas some of you are aware of or that are being undertaken where you live that could be described in your comments here.  

                     <                                       ^                                          >

U.S. Select House Committee on January 6th Hearings 

Eight hearings have been held.  More hearings are expected in the fall.

PBS NewsHour -- "20% of Americans are paying no attention to the hearings"