“Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind.”

[msfntor]

The first day (and night) with 'Mía'.
How I learned that cats always do whatever they want and that anything under a sheet is susceptible to being bitten.

PEDRO ZUAZUA
Madrid - 14 SEP 2016 - 11:42 UTC
Exactly one year ago I told my best friend: "Look Miguel, in my house a cat doesn't enter. Period." Well I lied. Not entirely, since it has finally been a cat, but wow, that's the only argument I can hold on to to not be slaughtered for going back on my word (and more so in front of a friend who will use it to his advantage in any debate).

Mía usurping the TV remote control.
PEDRO ZUAZUA
The thing is that Mía, a common European white and light brown cat, arrived home on Sunday morning, June 19. She was just two months old. She arrived in a bag (my girlfriend Barbara's, the one that made all this possible) and, on the way to her new home, she stuck her head out and looked attentively at everything that was going on around her.

When he arrived, he sniffed everything. Like a good first-time parent, I put his food, water and sandbox in the same corner of the house. I filled the feeder to the top, in case the apocalypse came, and I let him loose a couple of toys around the house (a very nice hedgehog and a phosphorescent yellow stuffed animal that disappeared the first day and that, despite its striking appearance, has not reappeared). He neither ate nor drank, but took a good nap on the bookshelf, on a catalog of the work of the painter Dario de Regoyos.

During that first afternoon, I changed the traditional visits to the traditional cat videos for more professional consultations. In La loca de los gatos I discovered some tricks and suddenly I found myself building a toy with an old shoe box, exploring corners of the house to leave hidden prizes (cats are hunters, guys!) and studying every movement she made, to see if it was a symptom of something. Yes, I checked several times to see if he was still breathing.

When she woke up, I played with her for a while with the unhappy illusion of tiring her out for the night. The first day with a cat one learns several things: among them that they do what they want, when they want and the way they want. Mia decided she wanted to win my heart by falling asleep on my belly while we watched TV. At the same time that an Albanian named Sadiku scored the winning goal for his team against Romania, my cat crossed her front paws and closed her eyes.

Mía prefers to sleep among books.
PEDRO ZUAZUA
And of course, I melted. Especially because I could not anticipate the night that awaited me, full of purring, meowing and a strange fondness for trying to massage my hair. I could barely sleep for 20 minutes at a time. The first night with a cat you also learn that anything hidden under a sheet or blanket is susceptible to being bitten and scratched. And also that "No!" is enough to make them look at you for a second with a "Are you talking to me?" face, but that pedagogically the method still needs some evolution.

When it dawned, I didn't know if I hated her or loved her.

But there was no turning back. I had already posted a picture of Mia on my Instagram profile, and you know, in the cat world, an Instagram is forever.

 

HERE: https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/09/14/animalesycia/1473847475_844173.html#?rel=mas

Edited September 2, 2022 by msfntor

[msfntor]

How 'Mía' met her grandmother
The author's cat discovers cannelloni, Vetusta Morla and a place to take a nap at Christmastime

When you adopt a cat, you are doing a mental exercise in feline risk prevention. No matter the process. It will always fall short. Previously non-controversial events will come up that suddenly border on the dramatic. Christmas, for example. Or, even more so, your cat's first Christmas at your mother's house. For those of you who don't have time to read on, a summary: love didn't arise, but almost.

On December 23rd Mía went north to Oviedo. Freshly spayed (and in need of a second stitching, as she got the urge to pick at her stitches) she endured a trip through traffic jams and fog that lasted almost seven hours. She only meowed when she heard her name.

I decided to take Mia on a trip for a very simple and very stupid reason: it broke my heart to imagine her alone on Christmas Eve. So, even though my mother is not at all fond of animals, off we went. I packed a bag with her favorite toys, food and that great friend of traveling cats, Feliwey.

As soon as we arrived, when we opened his carrier, he ignored my mother, who had come out to greet us, and went straight to my room. I guess it was the smell. My friend Catalina had bought me a sandbox and two containers for food and drink that were the size of Manute Bol's cat, so I had to steal a container from the crockery (sorry, Mom).

The truth is that Mia seemed to adjust well. The first night I was more worried than she was, judging by the runs she made and the fact that she didn't pay any attention to me at any time. She quickly picked a spot on a couch near the window, and I put her cushion there.

Here 'Mia', usurping the bed of my youth.
PEDRO ZUAZUA
The next morning came the first test of fire. At my mother's house one person works a couple of hours a day. And yes, you guessed it, she is allergic to cats. That allergy led to a sort of Yellow Humor door test, with Mia moving from room to room depending on which part of the house was being cleaned at the time. And you know how unfriendly cats are to closed doors. While I was reading Bruce Springsteen's biography, she was giving a concert next to the door.

At home, the risks are more or less under control. The stove is always locked, no one opens the windows and almost nothing is left to the chance of catlike mischief. But of course, in the house of your 76-year-old mother who, of course, does whatever she wants, you have to impose the cat rules in a very subtle way. And explain, for example, that no matter how calm she seems, it is not that she will suddenly get a deer and jump out the window, but that she has a thing called instinct and that is why when she sees a bird, although she has never hunted one in her life, she loses control over her body and travels thousands of years back in time, to her origins.

Mía' becoming strong in my mother's armchair.
PEDRO ZUAZUA
My mother tried, but she couldn't be affectionate with Mía. She called her "Gati" and tried to strike up conversations with her (I do it sometimes too, so less laughter). And that hardly ever saw her scratching the couches. When that happened, I would look at Mía with a "stop it, this is not our house" face and she would stop for a second, look at me, and adopt that feline attitude: "I don't care if it's our house or not, I'm a cat and I do what I want when I want". Of course, Mía knew that my mother's couch is my mother's couch... maybe that's why as soon as my mother got up, she ran to lie on top of the backrest.

New Year's Eve was a drama. There were cannelloni for lunchtime. When I got home, Mia was starting a foray into the fountain. Since they were solely for me, I didn't say anything (sorry, Mom). I separated out the part I had been digging into and ate the rest. They were delicious, by the way. In the evening, I went to dinner at a friends' house. When I called to congratulate her on the new year, they told me that they had to lock her in the bathroom. She had become obsessed with the grapes and kept trying to get to the different places they moved them to. She probably didn't care about the grapes themselves. But if they were hiding something from her, that was a big deal. She also stuck her paw and tongue in the scorpion fish pâté for dinner, but since everyone saw that, there was no way to save it (sorry, mom).

'Mía', on a break from her New Year's Eve grape attack.
PEDRO ZUAZUA

When I returned home at 4:30 in the morning, he did not come out to meet me at the door. I was surprised. I looked everywhere and there was no sign of her. I opened the door to my mother's room, in case she had been locked in (I could not understand any other reason why she would not have come out to greet me, as she always does, since she is my cat for a reason). Not a trace. I opened the door to my aunt's room, who had come to spend a few days with us. Not a trace. And that's when I started to worry. And what does someone like me do when she worries? Wake up his mother, to help him look for her and, above all, to share the worry with someone with some sense. My poor mother almost had a scare. First because of the shock of being woken up at that hour. Then because of the hypotheses that were going through her head (her main fear was that she had run out of air in a drawer) and then because of how scary it must be to have such a silly child.

Mia was in my aunt's room, who always sleeps with the radio on. And Mía likes voices and music. When she appeared, Vetusta Morla was playing on Radio Nacional. My aunt is very modern. So at 4:45 we all went to sleep, starting the year off right.

With the arrival of 2017, things started to go better. Although, mind you, my mother kept having the same phone conversation with everyone who called home:

"Pedro well, here he is, but don't miss it, he came with cat!". And she would then begin a series of explanations about the pedrada that her youngest son handles.

My mother told me that she had been lying next to him while she was napping, and I sensed some illusion in her words.
But one afternoon, when I returned home, Mía was waiting for me at the door, as she always does when she is not listening to Vetusta Morla in my aunt's room. When I arrived, my mother told me that she had been lying next to her while she was taking a nap, and I sensed some illusion in her words. In the following days, in the morning, she would always say to me, "Where did Mia sleep today, that she didn't come to see me?". There something similar to love was being born, not love, but affection.

And then came Epiphany. And, next to the family gifts appeared a small circular scratching post with eyes and a little ball tied to a string. It was my mother's gift for Mía. "She's just like my granddaughter," she said.

On the return trip, Mía didn't whimper. When we arrived in Madrid, she recognized the house, saw that everything was in order, gave me a reproachful look for having forgotten her cushion, and went to sleep on my chest. I think he missed his grandmother.

P.S: Mom, by the time you read this I suppose you will have picked up the Nativity Scene and noticed that either the mule or the ox - I don't know which is which - has a nice sticking of hair around its neck. It was Mia, yes, but a granddaughter can be forgiven anything, can't she?

HERE: https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/01/16/animalesycia/1484590219_026866.html#?rel=mas

[D.Draker]

15 hours ago, mina7601 said:

What's un-understandable in my linked post?

Well , I was going to ignore this "discussion" . But you're so persistent ! 

OK , it really looks like your Englsih isn't as good as you advertise .

Seems you use a translator of some sorts .

I made this post : "Dave-H is so cool ! I already wrote somewhere on this forum - he looks like a British actor, also he is an interesting person". 

And what was your reply ?!  Here it is :

Wednesday at 12:52 AM by mina7601 you wrote :

"My post over here proves it otherwise, but about forum moderation instead."

In English this means you don't agree with me and you think @Dave-H's moderation is NOT cool ! 

You even underlined it ! I understood it and gave you a chance to change your opinion about Dave-H . I write as simple as I can , so your translator will translate as it should.

Here's the screenshot . 

 

[mina7601]

11 minutes ago, D.Draker said:

I made this post : "Dave-H is so cool ! I already wrote somewhere on this forum - he looks like a British actor, also he is an interesting person". 

And what was your reply ?!  Here it is :

Wednesday at 12:52 AM by mina7601 you wrote :

"My post over here proves it otherwise, but about forum moderation instead."

In English this means you don't agree with me and you think @Dave-H's moderation is NOT cool ! 

You even underlined it ! I understood it and gave you a chance to change your opinion about Dave-H . I write as simple as I can , so your translator will translate as it should.

Fine, I fixed my reply by removing the word "otherwise". I hope you calm down now.

11 minutes ago, D.Draker said:

Seems you use a translator of some sorts .

No, I don't use a translator to write posts.

Edited September 2, 2022 by mina7601

[D.Draker]

2 hours ago, mina7601 said:

Fine, I fixed my reply by removing the word "otherwise". I hope you calm down now.

No, I don't use a translator to write posts.

I'm calm , and you're very rude . I don't care what you use . 

[msfntor]

A single cat leads to another cat
We exclusively release the first chapter of 'Días para ser Gato', the second book of our first cat, who is already an expert in feline matters.

Mía and Atún in full observation.
PEDRO ZUAZUA
Madrid - 25 APR 2022 - 12:16ACTUALIZED: 25 APR 2022 - 13:18 UTC

If you want to write about being human, keep a couple of cats at home.
Aldous Huxley

Between my cat's happiness or being a person of my word, I chose the former. In June 2016, after repeating actively and passively to anyone who would listen to me that a cat would not enter my house, Mia appeared. That tiny, adorable, playful being transformed my life in a way I could never have imagined. It's not a commonplace: I developed a love for animals I never knew existed, became a tenant in my own home, became the manager of my cat's Instagram account, wrote a book that sells in several countries and, above all, became the preferred phone number of everyone I know who came in contact with a cat. It doesn't matter what kind of relationship: they want to adopt? They write to me. They meet one in the street? they write to me. They write to me. They receive a video, a photo or a montage? They forward it to me. Since June 2016, 80% of the images I have on my cell phone are of cats. The people who investigate what we do with our phones must be freaking out.

At the same time that Mía was taking over the household, a routine was taking hold that was quite pleasant for both of us. After the first few weeks, in which arriving home was a lottery of small novelties in the form of damage, we began to lay the foundations of an unequal idyll: I was dying of love for her and she listened to me whenever she felt like it. And that made me love her even more. Because that's how life, in general, and love, in particular, works.

When she came home from work, she would come out to meet me at the door. She would lie on her back and beg for caresses. After dinner, when I lay down on the couch, he would come and climb on my belly and start kneading me with his front paws.

Some people are always chasing abs of steel. If they are going to adopt a cat, it is more advisable to have some belly, because it is squishy and they can knead it to their heart's content. I forgot to include this vital change in the opening paragraph: I used to have a ripped abs and a sculpted body. No, I'm kidding. I was already very well equipped to have a cat.

Cover of the book 'Días para ser gato' (Days to be a cat).
After a while of kneading, she would lay her two front paws down and fall asleep on my chest while purring. I would stroke her chin and crown of her head - cats love to be stroked on the parts they can't lick themselves - and I would be toast. I'd go to bed and, after a while, she'd come in. She used to set up in one of the corners. She would spend half the night there.

Sometimes she would go on a night excursion where she didn't take into account that there was someone else in the bed. Other times, he would get out and start banging his paw on the closet door, insistently asking me to open it for him. She would go in and lie there asleep until dawn.

In the mornings, she would watch me in the shower. Afterwards, she would accompany me to watch me serve her food. Before I left the house, she would stand in the corner waiting for the treats. When I closed the door, she would give me that face that only cats know how to make and with which I didn't know if she was telling me that I had the courage to leave her alone all day or if, in reality, she was about to make a fist, bend her elbow and bring her arm inwards, while saying "Here, finally alone!

That, the loneliness, was the only reason I was considering adopting another cat. I travel quite a bit for work - sometimes a whole week - and although I am fortunate to have very good friends who came over daily and even stayed over, I was overwhelmed at the thought of all the time Mia spent alone.

For a long time, the supposed inconvenience of bringing another cat into the house outweighed it. I was terrified of Mia's reaction. A moderately happy cat, master of her space, adapted to her routines... the queen of the house, indeed.

Tuna rests under the blanket.
We were already made for each other. We often acted out that typical scene of a person reading on the couch on a Sunday afternoon, with the cat sleeping at her feet in a ball. All we lacked was a fireplace.

For three years I kept repeating the phrase "No other cat in my house" to everyone who asked me if I wasn't going to adopt a brother or sister for Mía. Perhaps because I had already demonstrated the volatility of my word, I perceived a certain ironic smile when they listened to me. The most direct was my friend Bilbo, who always said, "You start with one..." (Bilbo, by the way, has a brother named Frodo. It's not a fact that has anything to do with cats, but it's funny).

All the people who shared their lives with cats told me about the benefits of having (at least) two of them, about the company they kept, how much they played, how when you go on a trip they are not so lonely.... It reminded me of my last moments of resistance before adopting Mia. I kept saying no with my mouth, but my subconscious already knew when and how. Another thing is that I refused to recognize it. But because I had one, I was already clear about the name.

Tuna scans his domain.
The trips were increasing. And the influence of cats is inexorable. My environment was divided between those who saw it clearly and those who thought it was a bit crazy. My friend Barbara and my televeterinarian Vero insisted that I should do it. My mother told me not to even think about it. I think the poor thing could see me living with eighty cats. I changed my mind depending on the day: some days, I was determined; others, I backed out and said no way. I would think about what a drag it would be to clean two sandboxes, carry two carriers, buy two types of food, endure the adaptation period, the risk of getting a terrorist cat, the neutering.... But then I saw Mia's little face every time I closed the door of the house with the suitcase in my hand and I thought that maybe it wasn't so bad to give her a little company. In a sort of mental funnel, all my worries were reduced to one: won't I destroy the poor thing's existence?

But life is about moving forward. When we have a situation moderately under control, we tend to complicate ourselves (understand that we are talking about adopting another cat and that it is taken for granted that there are other much more interesting ways to complicate life and also to complicate it unintentionally). Otherwise, it would all be very boring.

Almost four years after Mia's arrival, I started looking for a sibling for her.

When the little Tuna crossed the door of the house, I remembered Hemingway's phrase: "A single cat leads to another cat".

The three of us were about to start a new life.

 

HERE: https://elpais.com/elpais/2022/04/25/animalesycia/1650887548_928221.html

[mina7601]

@AstroSkipper Hey there buddy, I owe you an apology. I was wrong to mess and talk with you like this. You were right, I was wrong. You're a good man. I know I was mistaken to talk like this. I hope you forgive me.

Edited September 2, 2022 by mina7601

[AstroSkipper]

11 minutes ago, mina7601 said:

@AstroSkipper Hey there buddy, I owe you an apology. I was wrong to mess and talk with you like this. You were right, I was wrong. You're a good man. I know I was mistaken to talk like this.

Apology accepted! And now let's forget about all that! Frisians are generally not resentful as you know! 

Edited September 2, 2022 by AstroSkipper

[msfntor]

Now in peace, read my recent cat series...

[mina7601]

44 minutes ago, msfntor said:

Now in peace, read my recent cat series...

Doing so right now. I love cats.

Edited September 2, 2022 by mina7601

[mina7601]

3 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

And now let's forget about all that! Frisians are generally not resentful as you know! 

I agree with you, and your discussion about Frisians looked friendly to me btw!

Edited September 2, 2022 by mina7601

[XPerceniol]

~~~Sending positive and well wishes to everyone, everywhere, they came to me earlier also as healing energy (so) and I wrapped myself around (and into it to demolish the dark energy) the while light and will pass it along to others, I hope you can find it~~~

[msfntor]

Too much TV time could mean a higher risk of dementia

Other, less passive sedentary behaviors, such as using the computer, are instead associated with better mental health

 

According to a study that tracked more than 100,000 older people, those who watch more television are more likely to develop dementia. However, this is not the case for seniors who use a computer, a less passive mental behavior. This research, which highlights the benefits of physical activity, shows that being sedentary is not bad for the brain in of itself: it all depends on what you are doing.

Science has found a lot of evidence linking good mental healthwith physical activity, especially in the case of age-related cognitive impairment. Similarly, lack of exercise is linked to coronary diseases among the most sedentary people. But the connection between a sedentary lifestyle and dementia has not yet been categorically established. Now, one of the largest studies to date takes a look at this connection.

Researchers from several US universities compared the mental health status of 146,651 elderly people when they had an average age of 64.5, with their situation a decade later. In that time, 3,507 of them (about 2.5%) were diagnosed with dementia. The participants of the study, obtained from an impressive public health tool (the British database UK Biobank) filled a series of questionnaires to determine their level of physical activity and the time they spent sitting, either watching television or in front of the computer (excluding working hours).

Exercise and the elderly

The results of the comparison, recently published in the scientific journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), show that once other variables are controlled (sex, previous illnesses, smoking, work, age and more), physical activity appears to be related to a lower chance of developing any type of dementia. The result confirms previous studies that have also linked sports and mental health in the elderly. In April, for example, a study carried out with several thousand Americans showed how physical exercise was related to a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s. However, that study also included performing demanding cognitive tasks as part of the formula for good brain aging.

The highlight of this new study is that it reveals a consistent relationship between a sedentary lifestyle and mental health – but not just any sedentary lifestyle. The questionnaires asked participants how many hours a day they spent either watching television or in front of a computer screen. What they noticed is that the longer the participants spend sitting in front of the TV, the more likely they were to have dementia a decade later; the risk increased up to 40%. That is not the case of computers, where the likelihood of developing dementia drops up to 20%. ...

 

Read more HERE: https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-08-24/too-much-tv-time-could-mean-a-higher-risk-of-dementia.html#?rel=mas

[msfntor]

MOTTO: “immortality is undesirable, aging is inexorable, but longevity is extraordinarily plastic..."

 

The immortal jellyfish reveals its secrets for eternal life

Researchers at the University of Oviedo have sequenced the animal’s genome. The results could shed light on aging and cellular deterioration in other species, including humans

 

Some animals, like turtles and bowhead whales, are known for their long lifespans. Others, including elephants and naked mole rats, are known for being immune to cancer. Planarians regenerate even after their heads are cut off, and the microscopic tardigradescan survive any catastrophe imaginable. But unique in their abilities are certain species of jellyfish, who, once they reach adulthood, can turn back and become young again. Now, researchers at the University of Oviedo in northern Spain have sequenced the animal’s genome, revealing the keys to their biological immortality. The results could shed light on aging and cellular deterioration in other species, including humans. ...

Read more HERE: https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-09-01/the-immortal-jellyfish-reveals-its-secrets-for-eternal-life.html

[msfntor]

What are the limits of our universe?

The universe may be infinite, but there are boundaries we will never be able to cross and places we will never reach, even if we moved at the speed of light

 

During the 1920s, a debate about the size of the universe and the nature of the nebulae – diffuse objects of which several thousand were catalogued – raged among astronomers. Some scientists argued that they were gaseous objects located within our galaxy and that this made up the entire universe, while others asserted that they were actually star systems, similar to the Milky Way, “island universes” that looked diffuse in the distance. The argument was settled by Edwin Hubble, who, using the relation obtained by Henrietta Swan Leavitt, was able to measure the distance to the Andromeda nebula, the only one that is visible to the naked eye from the northern hemisphere of the Earth. The value obtained by Hubble was much larger than the size of the Milky Way, which proved the existence of other galaxies and dramatically increased the size of the universe.

Astronomical distances are usually determined in light years. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year; approximately nine trillion kilometers. The diameter of the Milky Way is 900 quadrillion kilometers, and the distance to Andromeda is 22.5 quintillion kilometers. These are huge distances, even if Andromeda is still part of the group of galaxies we refer to as the Local Group – that is, our neighborhood. The fact is that the universe is so vast that we cannot see it in its entirety, because after 13.8 billion years of life, there are some regions whose light has not reached us yet.

The universe that we can see – the known universe – is a sphere whose radius marks the distance between the regions that emitted the radiation that we observe today as cosmic microwave background radiation and our planet. If the universe were static, this boundary, what we call the particle horizon, would be 13.8 billion light years away. However, the distance it much longer: 46 billion light years.

The reason is that the universe is expanding, which Hubble also explained in the article A relation between distance and radial velocity among extra-galactic nebulae, published in 1929. Hubble carefully measured the speeds and distances of a sample of galaxies, showing that they are moving away from us in all directions, gaining speed as they get farther away. Although Hubble was very cautious in his conclusions, the implications were clear. Only five years before, the scientist’s work had dramatically expanded the size of the universe; now, it expanded the universe itself.

A raisin cake is often used as a way to illustrate the expanding universe. When we put the cake in the oven and it starts to grow, every raisin sees the rest move away. When it doubles in size, two raisins that initially were a centimeter apart will be two centimeters apart, while those that were three apart will be six apart. This means that during the same time, the distance between the farthest raisins will have increased three times more than the distance between the closest ones, that is, they will have moved away three times faster.

The background radiation was emitted in the early stages of the universe, but its light had to travel through an expanding universe for 13,800 years before finally reaching us. However, all

this time those regions have continued to move away, and the spots we see in the background radiation have evolved into galaxies and galaxy groups similar to those around us. If we could stop the expansion of the universe right now, the light from those galaxies would take another 46 billion years to reach us. But we cannot stop the expansion of the universe, and we will never be able to see the galaxies that these specks have become, no matter how long we wait. That is because those regions move away from us at speeds greater than the speed of light, so the light, no matter how hard it tries, will never be able to cover the distance that separates it from us. In this sense, the particle horizon, the known universe, marks the visible limit of the universe’s past, but not the universe with which we can interact.

Recently we were able to see, in images obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope, galaxies whose light could have been emitted 13.5 billion years ago. Newly formed galaxies inhabiting a baby universe, barely 300,000 years old. They are, in a way, pictures of ghost galaxies in a region of the universe with which we will never be able to interact. Can we say, then, that they are still part of our universe? ...

Read more HERE: https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-08-03/what-are-the-limits-of-our-universe.html