Science facts

[blunthead]

I'll never forget a TV show I once watched, but I've forgotten whether I've mentioned it here or not, so...

They wanted to document if a dog knows things it really shouldn't scientifically know. Why they chose this particular dog I don't know. They set up an indoor camera facing the front door of a house the dog lived in with its lady owner. Then the documentarian accompanied the lady and documented her driving and shopping. The lady was told not to leave the house at her usual time, not to use the same route or roads she usually used, to take longer than usual shopping, and not to return home at her usual time. The cameras' clocks were synchronized, and the TV show replayed the synchronized videos, one showing the inside of the front door on one side of the TV screen, and on the other the lady driving, then shopping. At the exact moment the lady decided to return home, the dog appeared at the front door.

 

[FlakeNoir]

They are amazing beings...

 

[blunthead]

When my dad had a stroke I had a bad night. I'd drunk a little too much wine and ended up having something of a meltdown. My dog at the time, Joe, was beside himself trying to help me stop being so upset. He was as distressed as I was if not more so. I realize that he could see and hear my distress, that he didn't have to read anybody's mind to know. But how much he cared about my feelings might as well have been the concern of a fellow human being.

 

[danie]

Once, a long time ago, I was upset and crying, and I had a cat that actually took her paw and wiped a tear off my face!
Now, she may have been trying to catch it, but at the time, it so comforted me.

 

[Grandpa]

I'll never forget a TV show I once watched, but I've forgotten whether I've mentioned it here or not, so...

They wanted to document if a dog knows things it really shouldn't scientifically know. Why they chose this particular dog I don't know. They set up an indoor camera facing the front door of a house the dog lived in with its lady owner. Then the documentarian accompanied the lady and documented her driving and shopping. The lady was told not to leave the house at her usual time, not to use the same route or roads she usually used, to take longer than usual shopping, and not to return home at her usual time. The cameras' clocks were synchronized, and the TV show replayed the synchronized videos, one showing the inside of the front door on one side of the TV screen, and on the other the lady driving, then shopping. At the exact moment the lady decided to return home, the dog appeared at the front door.

I know I've mentioned it in another section, but my grandmother's dog howling to the sky in the early morning hours, just at the time that she died in the hospital a couple miles away. It was just inexplicable. I'll never forget it. I'm a rational guy. I don't have any rationality to cover what happened that night.

 

[blunthead]

I know I've mentioned it in another section, but my grandmother's dog howling to the sky in the early morning hours, just at the time that she died in the hospital a couple miles away. It was just inexplicable. I'll never forget it. I'm a rational guy. I don't have any rationality to cover what happened that night.

I'm a rational guy, too. But I also dig when something is inexplicable. I guess I need to believe in the "supernatural".

 

[Grandpa]

Now, someone explain this to me:

Platypus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The first people that encountered it in 1798 thought it was a hoax!

Fascinating animal. It's a monotreme, one of very few mammalian species that lay eggs. I think monotremes split off early in mammalian development and lived in more isolation and were able to compete more successfully in Australia.

And what we see is how it evolved successfully. The duckbill lets is plow through stream bottoms for its food. The thick fur allows it to stay warm. The webbed feet and beaver-like tail allow it to swim well. The poison spur provides an effective defense.

Australia, because of its isolation, has a number of species that evolved quite differently in comparison to other places on the planet. The platypus is the poster child for that phenomenon.

 

[Grandpa]

While we're talking about isolation, it's interesting to note:

New Zealand has no indigenous mammalian predators. Nor does New Zealand have indigenous snakes. It's not suspected that St. Patrick made a trip there.

 

[FlakeNoir]

While we're talking about isolation, it's interesting to note:

New Zealand has no indigenous mammalian predators. Nor does New Zealand have indigenous snakes. It's not suspected that St. Patrick made a trip there.

Just me...

 

[Grandpa]

Just me...

I guess I saw that somewhere, but I didn't realize! That was a wonderful trip for us. New Zealand could well be the prettiest country anywhere on the planet.

We landed in Auckland, flew to Wellington, ferried to Picton, then rented a car to tour the south island. Back to Wellington, back to Auckland, and back home. I hope there's a next time, because I'd like to see more of the northern island.





And I was trying to get a "local flavor" shot to prove that I really was there. How's this?

 

[blunthead]

 

[Grandpa]

jus

Oh.

Crap.

And it's funny, and here comes the geek to say, "Well, it may be funny, but it ain't right."

As far as I know (which is very limited indeed) there is no "Law of Infinite Probability." The analog of such a hypothesis (i.e., not a law) is the notion that a thousand chimpanzees typing on a thousand keyboards for a thousand years will turn out the works of Shakespeare.

Which leads me to wonder: Wait, that's a lotta words. Are they going to turn out near hits of Shakespeare as well? The complete works, but with some typos? And wouldn't there be versions which have sentences or paragraphs juxtaposed from one work to another? Because it's so random?

And frankly, chimpanzees are kinda smart critters, and I rise to speak in Support of the Oppressed Primate.

Anyway. You put your clothes in the dryer and, mathematically, there's a shot that you open it up, and your clothes are dry and neatly folded. (Of course, before that happens, your clothes will, in a variety of sequences, be not completely dry and not completely folded.) But from an infinite standpoint, it should happen. Just be sure that you - and your dryer - is immortal.

 

[FlakeNoir]

I guess I saw that somewhere, but I didn't realize! That was a wonderful trip for us. New Zealand could well be the prettiest country anywhere on the planet.

We landed in Auckland, flew to Wellington, ferried to Picton, then rented a car to tour the south island. Back to Wellington, back to Auckland, and back home. I hope there's a next time, because I'd like to see more of the northern island.

View attachment 1879

View attachment 1880

And I was trying to get a "local flavor" shot to prove that I really was there. How's this?

View attachment 1881

That's about the size of it. Glad you and Grandma enjoyed our lil piece of the world.

 

[TheGooch8494]

Stomach Cement
If you were to swallow styrofoam it would turn into a cement like material when mixed with your stomach acid.

 

[blunthead]

Stomach Cement
If you were to swallow styrofoam it would turn into a cement like material when mixed with your stomach acid.

Then you'd have to swallow a jackhammer.

 

[blunthead]

CSLewis demonstrating what I like to call Levels of Logic, wherein deeper levels prove why more shallow ones only seem logical...

 

[blunthead]

 

[blunthead]

Just consider that at the end of his life Darwin regretted his statements about "evolution", grieving that people had constructed what he called their own "religion" from them.

 

[Grandpa]

I don't really want this to be a "Hot Topics" out of place, but sure, logic can mislead. Ambrose Bierce summed it up nicely: A man can dig a posthole in 60 seconds. 60 men can do the work of one man 60 times as fast. Therefore, 60 men can dig a posthole in one second.

But evolution isn't a theory (many of its processes are, but not the fact that organisms evolve) based solely on logic, and its study encompasses hypothesis, experimentation, prediction, findings, and proofs. It's been observed, measured, and modeled in many different arenas, hypothetical to actual, micro to macro.

The story about Darwin recanting and deathbed conversion was denied by his family, who were around when he was dying, and it's most likely apocryphal.

 

[Bryan James]

None of the Above is a fun science/physics show on Nat. Geo. channel. I don't think that it's been out for long, as I've only recently wandered across it. I'm fairly glued to the tube these days. And I got one a them fancy clickers when the power ain't out. If I hit it right it tells me when the good showin' stuff is gonna be showin'.