Goats can get cold feet. Who knew?
Actually the above video is from U.A.E. The pictures below are from Saudi Arabia;
I’ve noticed over the years that such back washes of cold over the Sahara or the Mideast is often loosely in conjunction with a surge of relatively mild Atlantic air up over Scandinavia. Every action has a reaction. It seems to have little to do with CO2 or Climate Change.
Watching goats is a good antidote to the cynicism which comes from watching politics.
(I haven’t been able to find out who originally took this marvelous picture, in my searching of the web. They deserve credit. The timing is perfect. If anyone discovers who the original photographer was, please tell us in the comments below.)
(Apparently the photograph is from Mongolia. I bungled across the picture while researching the gloomy subject of the current Dzud in Mongolia, and it sure helped fight off my gloom.)
Sometimes intellectual arguments cannot reach us in the manner the above picture can. It is not that a picture is worth a thousand words; it is that no amount of words can persuade us to budge from a particular intellectual stance, for it not a matter of the head but of the heart. The word that describes being budged in this manner is “touched.” Our heart must be “touched”. The funny thing is that “touched” can mean “produce feelings of affection, gratitude, or sympathy in”, but (because it is beyond the intellect) it can also mean “slightly insane”.
My Dad had every reason to scowl
At the sun, but I was just a teen
And full of good advice. As round-eyed as an owl
I’d tell him that life was nice, for I’d seen
Sunny things. He’d then scowl at his son
But have to laugh. I’m not sure why. He’d say,
“A little bit of God is in everyone”,
And leave it at that, leaving me to pray
That I might understand how such a bitter
Man could beam, and be so spiritual,
Before I spoke my sermon. The glitter
I called proofs became strangely dull,
As the Dad who had been dark grew brighter.
My youth, and not my mind, was the enlighter.
Even as the north of Europe temporarily warmed, the southern side of the cold outbreak that afflicted Europe two weeks ago was brewing a storm that moved across the mideast, giving hot tempers a cool-down, late last week. Here are some examples of Saudi humor.
From the site: http://mz-mz.net/412413/
It looks like a second outbreak of cold is brewing for Europe. Hopefully I’ll find time to post on it.
Sunrise's Swansong 