Day Five of The Fund-Raising Week. What You Don't Know Can't Hurt You?

1.  Here's another of those hidden foundation cracks the Trump administration is causing by demolishing the government:

The Trump administration has killed NASA's Carbon Monitoring System, which was responsible for compiling data from separate satellite and aircraft measurements of CO2 and methane emission across the Earth.
This program allowed scientists to have a picture of the flow of carbon all over Earth.
...

This move will make it harder for nations to be able to verify that quotas are being met according to the promises in the Paris climate accords. Every nation on Earth, except the US, is part of the accord.

This is acting like a father/mother who does not wish to know about his/her child's high fever so destroys the thermometer.  Well, actually it's worse, because it is all about short-term profit at the expense of the future survival of human civilizations.





2.   Today's activity alert is about the case of Noura Hussein who has been sentenced to death in Sudan for the murder of her husband:

The case, which once again highlights the issue of forced marriage and marital rape in a number of countries, is striking for its shocking details.
Married by her family at 16, Noura fled to take refuge at an aunt’s house for three years before she was tricked into returning home by her own family, who then handed her over to her husband’s family.
According to her supporters – including the activist group Equality Now, which is backing a petition organised on her behalf – Hussein had been with her husband for six days when he raped her with the assistance of his brother, a relative, and a witness, who held her down.

“She would not have sex with the man,” Sarah ElHasan, an activist supporting Hussein’s case, told al-Jazeera. “He recruited some of his cousins and brought them [to his] home where they held her down while her husband raped her.”
When he attempted to rape her again the following day, she stabbed her husband to death before going to her own parents, who handed her over to police.

You can sign up to protest Hussein's sentence here.  Because the legal system of Sudan does not acknowledge the existence of marital rape, she is assumed to have deliberately murdered her husband for no good reason.  I am not sure if the legal system of Sudan acknowledges forced marriage, either.

3.  About a week ago I spoke with a family member on the phone and heard about the unexpected death of a friend from pancreatic cancer.  I did no online searches about cancer or its treatment, but nevertheless those "tailored" ads I received the following day were all on chemotherapy and other treatments of cancer.

This could have been a pure coincidence.  And snakes can fly.

4.  And because all the above thoughts are grumpy and angry ones, here's a Bernese puppy who has almost learned the stance dogs take when they are shown in dog shows: