Communicate with your pets telepathically?
November 20, 2008
I’ve posted about Dr. Fox previously and here’s one of his newspaper columns from this past week where he encourages readers to submit their stories of communicating telepathically with their pets. Click on the article thumbnail for a readable version.
Telepathy is a term coined by Frederick W.H. Myers in 1882 in an article for the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. Literally the word means “distance feeling.”
Personally, I don’t think that Dr. Fox or the letter writers in this column are guilty of incompetence or fraud. I accept that they truly believe in the accuracy of their impressions. The real question is, is that belief enough for anyone else to accept that their perception is accurate? Their are many possible explanations that do not require telepathy to be real, in order to account for this perception. It could be simply that these pet owners (and Dr. Fox) are engaging in self-deception or wishful thinking.
There’s another category of possible error that should be mentioned: subjective validation. This is, almost definition, the problem with animal telepathy. We only have the person who believes in the telepathic communication reporting that it is taking place.
In 1994 a British dog owner, Pam Smart claimed that her dog Jaytee, a terrier, was able to psychically sense when she was coming home, according to reports of his behavior by her parents. Jaytee achieved world-wide fame when he was featured on the World of the Paranormal TV show and Channel 4’s Absolutely Animals.
Four years later the results of a scientific study were released and stated that “Jaytee’s love affair with sitting by the porch has more to do with passing cats, playing children and cars whizzing by.” Their conclusion was that “In all four experiments Jaytee failed to detect accurately when Pam Smart set off to return home.” Here’s a BBC article on the case, Psychic Dog Phenomenon brought back down to Earth.
50 Free Word Press themes from Six Revisions
November 10, 2008
A wonderful aspect of the community that has build up around Word Press is the designers who create themes and then release them for use for FREE! I’ll admit I don’t understand the business model here, but then I think my local library is a sucker for letting me have books at no cost and let’s me return them after I’ve extracted all the information from them.
Anyway, go here for a very nice collection of WP themes. . .
Or Would You Rather Be A Dog? A Sci-Fi short-short from 1952
November 2, 2008
Here’s a two-page sci-fi short short story called “The Terrible Planet” written by Allan Anders. It appeared in the November, 1952 issue, No. 6 of “Fantastic Worlds — Amazing Planet and Space Adventures” a title published by the modestly named Standard Comics. [ A postal regulation required comic books to have at least two pages of text to qualify for a discounted magazine mailing rate. ]
In this tale the Men of Earth Finally Find a Way to Conquer the Menace of Saturn! (Thank God!)
What if the Solar Council offered to temporarily transplant your brain into a robotic body called a Rover. The Rover was nine feet long and six feet high and looked like a giant metal greyhound. This body needed no food and it would function for 60,000 years before it began to deteriorate.
What if you didn’t want to give it back?
Clicking twice on the images below will open a larger, much more readable image in your browser.
Dogs can read emotions: Tell me something I don’t already know
October 30, 2008
Dogs are the only animals that can read emotion in faces much like humans, cementing their position as man’s best friend, claim scientists. Research findings suggest that, like an understanding best friend, they can see at a glance if we are happy, sad, pleased or angry.
This comes from a report in Britain’s Telegraph. for the full article go here.
World’s First Dog lived 31,700 years ago, according to new study
October 29, 2008
From MSNBC.com:
An international team of scientists has just identified what they believe is the world’s first known dog, which was a large and toothy canine that lived 31,700 years ago and subsisted on a diet of horse, musk ox and reindeer, according to a new study.
The discovery could push back the date for the earliest dog by 17,700 years, since the second oldest known dog, found in Russia, dates to 14,000 years ago.
Remains for the older prehistoric dog, which were excavated at Goyet Cave in Belgium, suggest to the researchers that the Aurignacian people of Europe from the Upper Paleolithic period first domesticated dogs. Fine jewelry and tools, often decorated with depictions of big game animals, characterize this culture.
If Paleolithic dogs still existed as a breed today, they would surely win best in show for strength and biting ability.
“In shape, the Paleolithic dogs most resemble the Siberian husky, but in size, however, they were somewhat larger, probably comparable to large shepherd dogs,” added Germonpré, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
For the rest of the article, go here.
17 Free Online Web Applications
October 28, 2008
The great site Smash!ng Apps has another wonderful list of 17 free online web applications that are truly useful, the link is here. And who doesn’t need free services in the current economy?
Golden Age Comics – FREE Downloads
October 23, 2008
I’ve just discovered a site that has a fantastic collection of public domain Golden Age comics from the 1930s, 40s & 50s that have been carefully scanned and are available for free downloading. It’s called, appropriately enough, Golden Age Comics and you can access their site here. The great majority of these have never been reprinted, anywhere. If you wanted to purchase copies, they would cost you hundreds of dollars, that is if you could even find them for sale.
Of course, reading them on screen does not equal holding a printed copy in your hand, but for most of us this is a close as we’ll ever get. This is a fantastic online resource for the serious researcher or collector as well as the casual fan. And if you’ve never before read a Golden Age book, I think you’re in for a real treat.
Today’s comic marketplace is dominated by a single genre: super-heroes on steroids with skin tight costumes and a bad attitude. If they’re female it seems to be a requirement that each breast is the size of her head, or larger. But during the Golden Age dozens of genres flourished; romance, western, outer space, war, horror, funny animal, crime, parodies, movie and TV star based comics, kid’s comics and more. The variety is amazing compared to what’s on the racks today.
All that’s required is a free registration (password and legitimate email address) and you can browse their archive for such gems as Joe Kubert’s TOR (in 3D), Black Magic, Crime Does Not Pay, Tales of the Mysterious Traveler, The Spirit, This Magazine is Haunted and hundreds more from over 35 different publishers.
For viewing files that are not Zip archives, Windows users can use the WinRAR utility, Mac users can use the open source Jomic, which also allows conversion to PDF format.
3 Great Sites for FREE PS Brushes, Textures & Tutorials
October 22, 2008
From the wonderful editors behind Design Tools Monthly, the Executive Summary of Graphic Design news come these three sites with great free stuff for Photoshop; brushes, textures and tutorials.
Melamine-tainted Milk Kills 1,500 dogs in China
October 22, 2008
You may remember that melamine was part of the massive Menu Foods recall story from 2007. It was used then, as it is now, to make a product falsely test higher for protein. Manufacturers use it because it’s significantly cheaper than adding a real source of nitrogen protein. This allows their products to pass inspection, be certified by the Chinese Health Ministry’s inspectors and reach the consumer market.
Four infants have died in this latest scandal, along with the 1,500 dogs, raising concerns about the safety of the entire Chinese food supply chain. Additionally, tens of thousands of Chinese children have developed kidney stones from dairy products contaminated by melamine. The Associated Press has the entire story here.
A further sad note in this story is that these ‘raccoon’ dogs were being bred and raised for their fur, just like minks. Though I have strong reservations about PETA this is one issue we can agree on, fur is murder. Given that no one owns a fur coat out of necessity, eliminating this long-standing fashion statement would mean that one less animal breed would be needlessly exploited.
Disclaimer: I’m wearing leather shoes and a leather belt. It is hard for me to accept absolutes in this particular debate.
Pet Owners: Live Longer & Healthier?
October 22, 2008
How Stuff Works weighs in on the subject of the health benefits of pet ownership, here. We’ve written about this topic before and there are dissenting opinions of precisely how much of a benefit there may be.
When looking at this I think it is wise to always remember these words of Bertrand Russell from 1959:
“When you are studying any matter never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficial social effects if it were believed. Look only and solely at what are the facts.”