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State Senate Passes Same Sex Marriage Bill

:)

First Woman skis alone across Antarctica.

                                                                                               KAPERSKY LAB /AP

Not to be negative on "the optimism blog" or anything but looking for positive news takes a while! Seems like no one wants to talk about the good things that are happening out in the world.

I do though so here is a brief article about a 34 year old "British adventurer" (so awesome) who became the first woman to ski alone across Antarctica. It took her 59 cold hard days and she traveled more than 1,084 miles. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2017310369_apaaantarcticasolocrossing.html

This lady is bad ass, I could barely trudge to the Mexican restaurant up the street in the snow storm here in Seattle. She took the picture herself and look she is almost smiling!

 Lets all try to be a little more adventurous and optimistic!



:) Franny

Snow?

Hi all,


I realize it has been 11 days since my last post and in my defense I have checked the news the last couple days and positive stories have been hard to come by. That being said I am SURE that good things are happening out there in the world its just the focus of the media (and all of us) tends to be on more "exciting" negative stories. I also have been quite busy and may have not looked hard enough.

Anyway I was rather excited by the news that it may snow here in Seattle on Sunday or early next week sometime. Some of you will consider this bad news but we get snow so infrequently here that I find it exciting and beautiful. Susie (my dog) likes it too. If it snows I will take pictures and post them here.

I will try to post tomorrow!

:) Franny

Arctic Snowy Owls!

PAUL BANNICK / SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES

I scoured the internet this morning for some glorious story showing the beauty and true goodness of man kind but alas today it did not exist. So instead I will post about the glorious beauty of the animal kingdom.

In Washington this winter birders have noticed a large number of Arctic snowy owls. It is rare that we have this many in our area. Generally the owls live the Arctic, Alaska, Siberia and other ice cold climates. But this winter they will be here with us.
They like open areas like beaches and airports (seems like it would be loud?). They feed on small animals which makes me fear for my chickens, although seeing an owl swoop down and take a chicken would be a pretty amazing sight to see.
Here is the full article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017100661_snowies27m.html

If any of you see any amazing positive news stories please email them to me at: frannyfleischman@gmail.com

:) Franny

Lost Dog comes home after 8 years

Tracy WOODWARD / THE WASHINGTON POST

 

 

In Fredericksburg VA, a pit bull named Petunia was returned home after 8 years and a 2,700 mile journey.
In 2003 Petunia disapeared one morning when her family let her out to run around on the families alpaca farm like they did every day. When she never returned home they assumed she was dead or forced into a dog fighting ring.
She was found 8 years later by a wildlife biologist camping in the Spencerville Wildlife area in California. Luckily Petunia was micro chipped so she was returned safely home. She has several scars but the family thinks it is just from barbed wire fencing not dog fighting.
Here is the link to the Seattle Times article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2017104770_lostdog28.html.

:) Franny

15 year old climbs seven tallest mountains

Big Bear, Cal. -15 year old Jordan Romero reached the top of Antarctica's Mt. Vinson Massif on Saturday, making him the youngest person to have climbed all of the world's 7 highest summits.
Jordan climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro at 10 and Mt. Everest at age 13, his father and stepmother accompany him on the climbs.
I visited his website and there are extensive photo's of him completing his climbs, he also has a post on getting rid of junk food in schools which I personally find to be admirable. I hope this story makes it into the newspaper although it specifically says Jordan does not want too much attention for his achievement in the article.

 Here is a link to the article from Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/calif-teen-becomes-youngest-climb-7-summits-010157130--spt.html

 And here is his website: http://www.jordanromero.com/

Pigeons can do math! (maybe)

Had to work all day so yes this post is a bit late (it was meant for the 23rd).

A "researcher" at the University of Otago in New Zealand taught pigeons to peck images on a screen in order lowest to highest. They were eventually able to peck a groups of 6 to 9 images in the correct order.
Here is a link to the article (I'm too sleepy to go into great detail myself):http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2017075376_birdmath23.html

I personally find this refreshing considering the prejudice people have against pigeons and wild animals that are forced to co exist with us in our cities. Give them some respect! They have a right to live here too!

Happy Christmas Eve!
:) Franny