JohnnySavage
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2008
- Posts
- 44,472
You've been on the Pickup Artist forum again, haven't you?
You know Rob... I have so much useless information in my brain, there's no room left to remember where I left my car.
Good Reads
- Thread starter Laurel
- Start date
You know Rob... I have so much useless information in my brain, there's no room left to remember where I left my car.
which interestingly enough, (to spark the depths of your memory) was discussed in paragraph 5 of the quoted article. . .
Minson says that she and Chen weren’t totally surprised by their results. Those who study animal behavior have proved that many species, like dogs, control others by staring them down and then attacking. “The intuition that drove our research was that when someone disagrees with you and they look you in the eye in a prolonged, direct manner, it gives you the feeling of someone trying to dominate you,” says Minson. “Our reaction may be primal.”
*thumps head*
JohnnySavage
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2008
- Posts
- 44,472
I wondered where I had read that.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
#goodparenting #welldone
From another article:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/0a0f5460780caf09f2c36b29f277f123/tumblr_mu6fups5fM1qjo9duo1_500.jpg
The father of a bully in Killeen is responding to negative feedback he has received after making his son stand at a busy intersection on Tuesday holding a sign.
That sign said, "I'm a bully. Honk if you hate bullies."
[...]
Lagares says his son, a fourth grader, has been in trouble at school recently for bullying a fellow classmate.
After unsuccessfully trying every other form of punishment he could think of, including grounding and even hard labor, Lagares says he was forced to give his son an overdose of tough love.
"It was just the final straw, and it seemed to work," explains Lagares.
[...]
"I refuse to allow my child to be somebody else's pain. Ya know, we don't need another Columbine, and we don't need another Solomon Harris. Ya know, we don't need that to happen, and I refuse for my child to be the cause of that," explains Lagares.
The father of a bully in Killeen is responding to negative feedback he has received after making his son stand at a busy intersection on Tuesday holding a sign.
That sign said, "I'm a bully. Honk if you hate bullies."
[...]
Lagares says his son, a fourth grader, has been in trouble at school recently for bullying a fellow classmate.
After unsuccessfully trying every other form of punishment he could think of, including grounding and even hard labor, Lagares says he was forced to give his son an overdose of tough love.
"It was just the final straw, and it seemed to work," explains Lagares.
[...]
"I refuse to allow my child to be somebody else's pain. Ya know, we don't need another Columbine, and we don't need another Solomon Harris. Ya know, we don't need that to happen, and I refuse for my child to be the cause of that," explains Lagares.
- read the full article Bully's Father Responds to Critics (from KCEN TV)
From another article:
“Bullying is also a form of public humiliation,” Lagares told the station. “Maybe he understands that when he humiliates someone publicly that doesn’t feel good.”
Saint Peter
shoots left
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2002
- Posts
- 94,075
Right on, Dad!
Radiohead
You look so tired-unhappy
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
- Posts
- 9,779
Apparentally dad went out the next day with his billboard saying "I'm not sorry, honk if you hate bullying"
girlsmiley
catastrophe
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2010
- Posts
- 22,148
And yet it's all there in the interview process -supposedly- to look the prospective employer in the eye.
I look away when I think. It's not disrespectful or a sign of shyness - it's a genuine thinking pose. It's what I do.
neci
flagged
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2008
- Posts
- 38,120
it completely depends on whom you are dealing with. it is all cultural and psychological within that culture. it also depends on your sex. as a female, if i were to deal with putin, i would allow him the grace and dignity of the dominate stare. to start. eye contact on my end would be brief yet firm. smiles causing squinting. intense gaze. if i had to make a serious point, i would glare him down, but only if such point were to be so intense that it were worth ending the conversation at that point - see gassed babies in syria. in that case it would be the stare of the holy mother reigning down. at the point of breath and realization, you break and allow them to regroup dignity and save face.
kim jong un is different. for him, he believes himself to be god. gods may look into the eyes of other gods, but for a human to glance upon the truth of the eyes would be treason. this is why peace lays in the hands of the rodmans and the muses. they are the hope for negotiation. see greek mythology. wars have been started over less. it's my personal opinion that the man and his entire nation need their cocks sucked blind. while the sac is drained, reprogramming must take place at light speed. the new seed must be chemically altered directly from brain to balls.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/grandoldflag.png
Pat Sajak, longtime host of Wheel of Fortune, recently taped an episode featuring contestants drawn from active-duty members of the United States military. Observing their dedication, patriotism, and willingness to serve and sacrifice, he was moved to voice his concerns about a divide he perceives in the America.
"I’m not talking about a political divide or a racial divide, but a divide based on — how to best phrase it? — an emotional investment in our nation," he wrote. "The two Americas I see are the one populated by those who truly think of this nation as exceptional and who are comfortable with patriotic themes and moved by the majesty of the founding documents, and the one populated by those who find all that rather uncomfortable or, perhaps worse, don’t ever think about those things at all. Is it just our cynical Twitter age? Is it our political class? Our educational system? Is it our modern media? Is it an all-volunteer military? Is it a populace drowning in mind-numbing digital playthings? Why do so many people seem detached from our nation and all it stands for?"
Similar worries are widespread among a subset of Americans, many of them political conservatives. As the comments beneath Sajak's post illustrate, their earnest concern hasn't helped them to see the subject clearly, or to identify why some Americans are put off by displays of patriotism that other Americans venerate. The most significant explanation is simple. Confronted with displays of patriotism, many Americans react with ironic distance as a defense mechanism. They are wary that cynical actors are exploiting patriotic impulses and symbols as tools of manipulation because cynical actors frequently do just that.
Ironic detachment isn't high on my list of worrisome problems the United States faces. But those who worry about such things ought to identify the real culprits. They shouldn't blame the zeitgeist, or the education system, or the modern media.
They ought to blame patriotism-baiters, or those who try to gain an illegitimate advantage in political debates, electoral campaigns, and legislative fights by acting as though the side one takes indicates how much one loves the United States.
Pat Sajak, longtime host of Wheel of Fortune, recently taped an episode featuring contestants drawn from active-duty members of the United States military. Observing their dedication, patriotism, and willingness to serve and sacrifice, he was moved to voice his concerns about a divide he perceives in the America.
"I’m not talking about a political divide or a racial divide, but a divide based on — how to best phrase it? — an emotional investment in our nation," he wrote. "The two Americas I see are the one populated by those who truly think of this nation as exceptional and who are comfortable with patriotic themes and moved by the majesty of the founding documents, and the one populated by those who find all that rather uncomfortable or, perhaps worse, don’t ever think about those things at all. Is it just our cynical Twitter age? Is it our political class? Our educational system? Is it our modern media? Is it an all-volunteer military? Is it a populace drowning in mind-numbing digital playthings? Why do so many people seem detached from our nation and all it stands for?"
Similar worries are widespread among a subset of Americans, many of them political conservatives. As the comments beneath Sajak's post illustrate, their earnest concern hasn't helped them to see the subject clearly, or to identify why some Americans are put off by displays of patriotism that other Americans venerate. The most significant explanation is simple. Confronted with displays of patriotism, many Americans react with ironic distance as a defense mechanism. They are wary that cynical actors are exploiting patriotic impulses and symbols as tools of manipulation because cynical actors frequently do just that.
Ironic detachment isn't high on my list of worrisome problems the United States faces. But those who worry about such things ought to identify the real culprits. They shouldn't blame the zeitgeist, or the education system, or the modern media.
They ought to blame patriotism-baiters, or those who try to gain an illegitimate advantage in political debates, electoral campaigns, and legislative fights by acting as though the side one takes indicates how much one loves the United States.
- read the full article Why Many Americans Are Averse to Unironic Expressions of Patriotism (from The Atlantic)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/files/2013/09/popcorn-611.jpg
Movie theater popcorn is a concession stand staple whose scent has spawned marketing ploys and copycat recipes, but movie theaters haven’t always been saturated with the tempting smell of salt and butter. The history of popcorn is vast, and it intersects with movies in the relatively recent past–a symbiosis of taste and place created to save the fledgling movie theater industry from near collapse during the Great Depression.
About 8,000 years ago, maize was cultivated from teosinte, a wild grass that doesn’t look much like the modern corn we know today. Popcorn–a name mostly associated with puffed kernels of corn–is actually a strain of corn, characterized by especially starchy kernels with hard kernel walls, which help internal pressure build when placed over heat. It was one of the first variations of maize cultivated in Central America. “Popcorn went north and it went south, but as far as I can see, it really only survived in South America,” says Andrew Smith, author of Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn. Eventually, trade and commerce brought the unique kernels northward. “Most likely, North American whalers went to Chile, found varieties of popcorn, picked them up and thought that they were cute, and brought them back to New England in the early 19th century,” Smith explains.
After popcorn made its way to the eastern part of North America, it spread rapidly. Eaters found the act of popping corn wildly entertaining, and by 1848, popcorn, the snack food, was prevalent enough to be included in the Dictionary of Americanisms. Popcorn had literally exploded onto the scene and was available everywhere–especially at entertainment sites like circuses and fairs. In fact, there was really only one entertainment site where the snack was absent: the theaters.
Movie theater popcorn is a concession stand staple whose scent has spawned marketing ploys and copycat recipes, but movie theaters haven’t always been saturated with the tempting smell of salt and butter. The history of popcorn is vast, and it intersects with movies in the relatively recent past–a symbiosis of taste and place created to save the fledgling movie theater industry from near collapse during the Great Depression.
About 8,000 years ago, maize was cultivated from teosinte, a wild grass that doesn’t look much like the modern corn we know today. Popcorn–a name mostly associated with puffed kernels of corn–is actually a strain of corn, characterized by especially starchy kernels with hard kernel walls, which help internal pressure build when placed over heat. It was one of the first variations of maize cultivated in Central America. “Popcorn went north and it went south, but as far as I can see, it really only survived in South America,” says Andrew Smith, author of Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn. Eventually, trade and commerce brought the unique kernels northward. “Most likely, North American whalers went to Chile, found varieties of popcorn, picked them up and thought that they were cute, and brought them back to New England in the early 19th century,” Smith explains.
After popcorn made its way to the eastern part of North America, it spread rapidly. Eaters found the act of popping corn wildly entertaining, and by 1848, popcorn, the snack food, was prevalent enough to be included in the Dictionary of Americanisms. Popcorn had literally exploded onto the scene and was available everywhere–especially at entertainment sites like circuses and fairs. In fact, there was really only one entertainment site where the snack was absent: the theaters.
- read the full article Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies? (from Smithsonian Magazine)
RobDownSouth
BoycotDivestSanctio
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2002
- Posts
- 78,986
You're my team's first round draft pick at the next Lit Trivia Challenge.
girlsmiley
catastrophe
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2010
- Posts
- 22,148
Dying for sex.
In what may be the ultimate sacrifice for lust, Australian scientists have discovered why the males of some species of marsupial are dying for sex.
Scientists have pondered for decades why the males of more than a dozen native species of insect-eating marsupials, including many small rodent-sized antechinus and phascogales, die not long after mating.
A team led by Diana Fisher, of the University of Queensland, has confirmed the behaviour, known as dying off , was driven by the males' attempts to out-compete each other to father offspring during the short time females were fertile.
http://m.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/dying-for-sex-its-a-male-marsupial-thing-20131008-2v4uw.html
In what may be the ultimate sacrifice for lust, Australian scientists have discovered why the males of some species of marsupial are dying for sex.
Scientists have pondered for decades why the males of more than a dozen native species of insect-eating marsupials, including many small rodent-sized antechinus and phascogales, die not long after mating.
A team led by Diana Fisher, of the University of Queensland, has confirmed the behaviour, known as dying off , was driven by the males' attempts to out-compete each other to father offspring during the short time females were fertile.
http://m.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/dying-for-sex-its-a-male-marsupial-thing-20131008-2v4uw.html
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/10/07/RTXHSR1/large.jpg
Yousuf Mindkar, the director of public health in Kuwait announced that the country has stumbled upon the technology to "detect" gays and prevent them from coming across its borders. Mindkar's master plan will be debated on November 11 when the Gulf Cooperation Countries committee convene. What he, and presumably Kuwait, wants is to make sure that the expatriates going to Kuwait are healthy, which seems to mean that they are also not gay.
"Health centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries. However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states," Mindkar said in a local report picked up by Gulf News. (In fairness to Kuwait, other countries have had similarly myopic and anti-gay immigration laws. In 2009, the U.S. ended its ban on foreigners with HIV from immigrating or traveling here.)
Mindkar's anti-gay enthusiasm has piqued our interest and conjured images of metal detector-like devices with a disembodied RuPaul voice saying, "Shante you are not gay. You stay." or "You are gay, sashay away (from Kuwait)" after someone steps through.
Kidding aside, how is this even going to work? Is it purely visual (this is very confusing in certain cases)? Doesn't Kuwait know that plenty of LGBT people have spent years living in closets and pretending to be people they're not? Is there a lie detector test? And we wouldn't want to be the ones to break it to Mindkar that gay people come from the loins of straight people, meaning any attempt to keep your country gay-free is all but impossible.
Yousuf Mindkar, the director of public health in Kuwait announced that the country has stumbled upon the technology to "detect" gays and prevent them from coming across its borders. Mindkar's master plan will be debated on November 11 when the Gulf Cooperation Countries committee convene. What he, and presumably Kuwait, wants is to make sure that the expatriates going to Kuwait are healthy, which seems to mean that they are also not gay.
"Health centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries. However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states," Mindkar said in a local report picked up by Gulf News. (In fairness to Kuwait, other countries have had similarly myopic and anti-gay immigration laws. In 2009, the U.S. ended its ban on foreigners with HIV from immigrating or traveling here.)
Mindkar's anti-gay enthusiasm has piqued our interest and conjured images of metal detector-like devices with a disembodied RuPaul voice saying, "Shante you are not gay. You stay." or "You are gay, sashay away (from Kuwait)" after someone steps through.
Kidding aside, how is this even going to work? Is it purely visual (this is very confusing in certain cases)? Doesn't Kuwait know that plenty of LGBT people have spent years living in closets and pretending to be people they're not? Is there a lie detector test? And we wouldn't want to be the ones to break it to Mindkar that gay people come from the loins of straight people, meaning any attempt to keep your country gay-free is all but impossible.
- read the full article Kuwait Thinks Its Gaydar Is Good Enough to Ban Gays from the Country (from The Atlantic Wire)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://d1435t697bgi2o.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/narcissism-illo.jpg
Have you ever taken a drawing seminar or a creative writing class, looked around at your fellow students and thought, “There sure are a lot of narcissists in here”?
Recently published research suggests you were quite possibly right.
A new British study finds people with narcissistic tendencies are more likely than others to think of themselves as creative, and to engage in creative activities. If your opinion of yourself is unusually high, there's a good chance you long to share your brilliance with the rest of the world.
Have you ever taken a drawing seminar or a creative writing class, looked around at your fellow students and thought, “There sure are a lot of narcissists in here”?
Recently published research suggests you were quite possibly right.
A new British study finds people with narcissistic tendencies are more likely than others to think of themselves as creative, and to engage in creative activities. If your opinion of yourself is unusually high, there's a good chance you long to share your brilliance with the rest of the world.
- read the full article Narcissism Breeds Belief in One’s Own Creativity (from Pacific Standard)
I just put it down to 'God's Will' and go back to my book.
pearldiver69
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Posts
- 937
Last night, I watched a Charlie Rose segment on PBS, during which he had Margaret Atwood seated opposite him at his well known round table. This was the first time I'd actually heard her talking about her life, her body of work, and, surprisingly, her reliance on the internet and Twitter, of all things. Well, she was delightful, and I fell in love. I was so impressed, in fact, that I went out and bought "Madd Addam", the last book in her trilogy, which I hadn't planned on buying so soon. When I leave here, I'll go sit in bed and begin reading it.
RobDownSouth
BoycotDivestSanctio
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2002
- Posts
- 78,986
How country music went crazy: A comprehensive timeline of the genre's identity crisis
Are you aware that Nashville is currently embroiled in an outright civil war?
The straw that broke the camel’s back arrived two weeks ago, when Zac Brown called Luke Bryan’s No. 1 single “That’s My Kind of Night” the “worst song I’ve ever heard.” That remark caused Jason Aldean to hop on Instagram and tell Brown, “trust me when I tell u that nobody gives a shit what u think.” The country community quickly took sides in the debate, and the resulting feud has catapulted country music’s identity crisis straight into the spotlight.
LINK
Are you aware that Nashville is currently embroiled in an outright civil war?
The straw that broke the camel’s back arrived two weeks ago, when Zac Brown called Luke Bryan’s No. 1 single “That’s My Kind of Night” the “worst song I’ve ever heard.” That remark caused Jason Aldean to hop on Instagram and tell Brown, “trust me when I tell u that nobody gives a shit what u think.” The country community quickly took sides in the debate, and the resulting feud has catapulted country music’s identity crisis straight into the spotlight.
LINK
Lorilei
asexual prude
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2007
- Posts
- 24,649
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Ancientlibraryalex.jpg/472px-Ancientlibraryalex.jpg
One of the great tragedies of ancient history, memorialized in myths and Hollywood film, is the burning of the great library at Alexandria. But the reality of the Library's end was actually a lot less pyrotechnic than that. A major cause of the Library's ruin was government budget cuts.
Alexandria was a Hellenistic city founded in Egypt by Alexander the Great's invading forces. Ptolomy II Soter, who ruled after Alexander, wanted to found a museum in the Greek style, based on Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens. He imagined that this place — called Ptolemaic Mouseion Academy — would attract great scholars from all over the world. No longer would Alexandria be a colonial backwater or just a nice vacation spot for rich Greeks. Instead, it would become a great city of wealth and learning.
One of the great tragedies of ancient history, memorialized in myths and Hollywood film, is the burning of the great library at Alexandria. But the reality of the Library's end was actually a lot less pyrotechnic than that. A major cause of the Library's ruin was government budget cuts.
Alexandria was a Hellenistic city founded in Egypt by Alexander the Great's invading forces. Ptolomy II Soter, who ruled after Alexander, wanted to found a museum in the Greek style, based on Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens. He imagined that this place — called Ptolemaic Mouseion Academy — would attract great scholars from all over the world. No longer would Alexandria be a colonial backwater or just a nice vacation spot for rich Greeks. Instead, it would become a great city of wealth and learning.
- read the full article The Great Library at Alexandria was destroyed by budget cuts, not fire (from io9)
gotsnowgotslush
skates like Eck
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2007
- Posts
- 25,720
I dunno, if this has been included-
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
by Alice Munro
"In the nine breathtaking stories that make up her celebrated tenth collection, Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that
loop and swerve like memory, and conjuring up characters as thorny and contradictory as people we know ourselves.
A tough-minded housekeeper jettisons the habits of a lifetime because of a teenager’s practical joke. A college student visiting her brassy,
unconventional aunt stumbles on an astonishing secret and its meaning in her own life. An incorrigible philanderer responds with unexpected
grace to his wife’s nursing-home romance.
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is Munro at her best, tirelessly observant, serenely free of illusion, deeply and gloriously humane."
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111126.Hateship_Friendship_Courtship_Loveship_Marriage
Oct. 10, 2013
According to the release announcing the prize, "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro 'master of the contemporary short story.''
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/10/10/...rature-for-short-story-writing/9291381407913/
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
by Alice Munro
"In the nine breathtaking stories that make up her celebrated tenth collection, Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that
loop and swerve like memory, and conjuring up characters as thorny and contradictory as people we know ourselves.
A tough-minded housekeeper jettisons the habits of a lifetime because of a teenager’s practical joke. A college student visiting her brassy,
unconventional aunt stumbles on an astonishing secret and its meaning in her own life. An incorrigible philanderer responds with unexpected
grace to his wife’s nursing-home romance.
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is Munro at her best, tirelessly observant, serenely free of illusion, deeply and gloriously humane."
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111126.Hateship_Friendship_Courtship_Loveship_Marriage
Oct. 10, 2013
According to the release announcing the prize, "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro 'master of the contemporary short story.''
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/10/10/...rature-for-short-story-writing/9291381407913/
girlsmiley
catastrophe
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2010
- Posts
- 22,148
I heard this song this morning and thought: "Impossible like kbate."
girlsmiley
catastrophe
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2010
- Posts
- 22,148
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/3035eccd697957efcd2c13001b9700e960a2f0cf/c=281-0-427-110&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/GenericImages/2013/09/24/1380041373000-Earplug-from-study-1.jpg
Image of the actual earplug from the whale studied in the paper.
Whales don't use Q-tips and that turns out to be a good thing for science. Using built-up earwax taken from a blue whale carcass, researchers have been able to reconstruct a picture of its life by the chemicals and hormones in its ears.
The whale in question was a male blue whale that died after it was struck by a ship near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2007. Researchers removed a 10-inch ear plug from the carcass during a necropsy. They did a careful chemical analysis of it to measure what the whale had been exposed to in its lifetime. The study appeared in a recent edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
The scientific community has been excited about the possibilities raised by the new method "once they get past the 'eew!' factor of it being earwax," says Stephen Trumble, lead author on the paper and a biology professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Image of the actual earplug from the whale studied in the paper.
Whales don't use Q-tips and that turns out to be a good thing for science. Using built-up earwax taken from a blue whale carcass, researchers have been able to reconstruct a picture of its life by the chemicals and hormones in its ears.
The whale in question was a male blue whale that died after it was struck by a ship near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2007. Researchers removed a 10-inch ear plug from the carcass during a necropsy. They did a careful chemical analysis of it to measure what the whale had been exposed to in its lifetime. The study appeared in a recent edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
The scientific community has been excited about the possibilities raised by the new method "once they get past the 'eew!' factor of it being earwax," says Stephen Trumble, lead author on the paper and a biology professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
- read the full article Whale discovery sets science on its ear (from USE Today)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/85/233978405_f97ad27a44.jpg
image from The Kozy Shack (Flickr)
The dog is steering the boat, and the humans on board are pretty sure he’s leading it astray.
Tucker, a nine-year-old black lab mix, is an improbable character in a high-stakes detective story: the case of the declining orcas. He’s sniffing for a needle in a haystack — a small plastic container filled with the feces of a killer whale, floating somewhere in the vastness of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in northwestern Washington state. With his body language — pacing across the bow, leaning over its edge, the angle of his nose — he tells his handler, Liz Seely, and Deborah Giles, who sits behind the wheel, where to steer.
He seems firm on the scent. He’s directing the boat in the opposite direction of where we floated the sample before motoring away to set up this test of his abilities. “Oh no, this is so embarrassing,” Seely later admitted to thinking.
But suddenly, there it is ahead of us: the pink plastic bowl, bobbing on the surface of the water, just where Tucker knew it would be. The wind and current have moved it far from where we placed it, but Tucker picked up the scent from more than half a mile away. He’s rewarded with applause and his favorite thing in the world: a few minutes of play with a ball. He barks, whips it around, throws it overboard. He’s so overcome he’s practically dancing.
But this isn’t a game. The whales whose poop Tucker pursues across the Salish Sea belong to an endangered population, the Southern Residents — a genetically and behaviorally distinct group of orcas that feeds here each summer and whose population is at its lowest in years. The scientists on board believe that Tucker’s impressive olfactory feats may help them figure out what’s wrong with the whales, and what can be done to help them.
image from The Kozy Shack (Flickr)
The dog is steering the boat, and the humans on board are pretty sure he’s leading it astray.
Tucker, a nine-year-old black lab mix, is an improbable character in a high-stakes detective story: the case of the declining orcas. He’s sniffing for a needle in a haystack — a small plastic container filled with the feces of a killer whale, floating somewhere in the vastness of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in northwestern Washington state. With his body language — pacing across the bow, leaning over its edge, the angle of his nose — he tells his handler, Liz Seely, and Deborah Giles, who sits behind the wheel, where to steer.
He seems firm on the scent. He’s directing the boat in the opposite direction of where we floated the sample before motoring away to set up this test of his abilities. “Oh no, this is so embarrassing,” Seely later admitted to thinking.
But suddenly, there it is ahead of us: the pink plastic bowl, bobbing on the surface of the water, just where Tucker knew it would be. The wind and current have moved it far from where we placed it, but Tucker picked up the scent from more than half a mile away. He’s rewarded with applause and his favorite thing in the world: a few minutes of play with a ball. He barks, whips it around, throws it overboard. He’s so overcome he’s practically dancing.
But this isn’t a game. The whales whose poop Tucker pursues across the Salish Sea belong to an endangered population, the Southern Residents — a genetically and behaviorally distinct group of orcas that feeds here each summer and whose population is at its lowest in years. The scientists on board believe that Tucker’s impressive olfactory feats may help them figure out what’s wrong with the whales, and what can be done to help them.
- read the full article Fecal finders: how poop-sniffing dogs are helping killer whales (from The Verge)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/LonelyPlanet/ps1_lonely_planet-450.jpg
An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet lifetimes.
It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-22 is all by itself, without a host star.
"We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” explained team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”
An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet lifetimes.
It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-22 is all by itself, without a host star.
"We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” explained team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”
- read the full article A Strange Lonely Planet Found without a Star (from Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii)
