Pattern Ghost Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 1 hour ago, Lucius said: That a heavier object would fall faster was something just as obvious as that cats know but ignore their own names. Really? Because I've had and seen plenty of other cats that respond to their names. And we have already had studies that prove that cats have complex vocalizations/"language", in a similar manner to dogs, who are animals that respond to their names. I also have seen lizards who don't tend to have complex vocalizations know and respond to their specific names. So, the fact that cats can recognize their name isn't just a wild ass guess based on assumptions, like heavier objects falling faster. Thanks for implying that I'm engaging in such. Your arrogance is poking through, there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 21 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said: Really? Because I've had and seen plenty of other cats that respond to their names. And we have already had studies that prove that cats have complex vocalizations/"language", in a similar manner to dogs, who are animals that respond to their names. I also have seen lizards who don't tend to have complex vocalizations know and respond to their specific names. So, the fact that cats can recognize their name isn't just a wild ass guess based on assumptions, like heavier objects falling faster. Thanks for implying that I'm engaging in such. Your arrogance is poking through, there. I am sorry if you feel insulted. I had no intention to insult you or anyone. Lucius Alexander Nor I am sure did the palindromedary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 1 hour ago, Lucius said: I am sorry if you feel insulted. I had no intention to insult you or anyone. I'll take you at your word that you weren't, since text doesn't always convey tone. No worries. Sorry for snapping at you. Stuff is blooming, seemingly directly inside my sinus cavity, so I'm perhaps too cranky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 I was aware of medical staff being murdered during World War 2 in the Far East and this shows you cannot get away with it. Someone always survives or evidence will emerge. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-47796046 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 Notre Dame cathedral had bee hives. They survived the fire. This, this is their story coming to a film channel near you in the near future. If you are really unlucky it will be SyFy https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47995604 Notre Dame through the centuries https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47971044 tkdguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 His name was Bond. James Bond. Possible inspiration for the eponymous hero gets gravestone to celebrate fact https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47977220 tkdguy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 On 4/18/2019 at 1:05 PM, Pattern Ghost said: I always wonder when people do studies on really obvious things like this. Because even when something is obvious -- or, more appropriately, seems obvious -- we don't always know the why, which down the road is likely to be very useful. After all, for thousands of years, it seemed obvious to most humans that the Universe was centered around the Earth, and people were willing to do all kinds of absurd-looking handwaving when evidence came along to show that maybe it wasn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 I wonder if cats would respond better if you mimicked their own vocalizations. Back in the 70s, my family had two cats, and you could often call one, and not the other, if you used the one you wanted's specific meows. Obviously, they were trained to come when called with affection and food, but it's not clear that they were trained to differentiate between one call and another. In other words, you would be "speaking cat". More recently, I've discovered that you can freak out magpies by mimicking their calls. They'll often give you a real WTF? look if you do that. It doesn't work during breeding season, unfortunately, at least not on breeding pairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/8895844/passengers-weighed-flights-airlines-save-fuel/ Passengers could soon be weighed before flights on ‘pressure pads’ at check-in desks so airlines can cut fuel costs. At the moment, airlines guess how much the passengers weigh and guess how much the luggage weighs then carries enough fuel to get the airplane to its destination with a sizable safety margin for both the guess for weight and for possible additional flight time. But since the weight is a guess, they're forced to overestimate how much the passengers and luggage weighs. That overestimate makes them carry too much fuel, and the fuel itself is additional weight which also has to be carried. So the airlines, by the nature of the way they do business, collectively wastes massive amounts of fuel each year which not only costs them money but increases their carbon footprint. The plan which is being proposed is automatically weighing passengers and luggage as they're being checked in so the plane can load the right amount of fuel every flight rather than too much every flight. The ironic thing to me is that when I worked for one of the two largest American airlines back in the 1990's that I made this same proposal in-company and didn't get anyone to take me seriously despite the plan being able to solve a known problem. I guess what I should have done would have been to have quit working for the airline and instead go into the business of trying to sell weight scales to the airline like these people are. assault 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 My cats each know their own names. And one of the cats definitely recognizes the name of the younger cat and gets jealous if I pay attention to it by using its name. Giving it attention is fine. Using its name while paying attention to it provokes a reaction from the other cat. assault 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 11 minutes ago, archer said: https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/8895844/passengers-weighed-flights-airlines-save-fuel/ Passengers could soon be weighed before flights on ‘pressure pads’ at check-in desks so airlines can cut fuel costs. At the moment, airlines guess how much the passengers weigh and guess how much the luggage weighs then carries enough fuel to get the airplane to its destination with a sizable safety margin for both the guess for weight and for possible additional flight time. But since the weight is a guess, they're forced to overestimate how much the passengers and luggage weighs. That overestimate makes them carry too much fuel, and the fuel itself is additional weight which also has to be carried. So the airlines, by the nature of the way they do business, collectively wastes massive amounts of fuel each year which not only costs them money but increases their carbon footprint. The plan which is being proposed is automatically weighing passengers and luggage as they're being checked in so the plane can load the right amount of fuel every flight rather than too much every flight. The ironic thing to me is that when I worked for one of the two largest American airlines back in the 1990's that I made this same proposal in-company and didn't get anyone to take me seriously despite the plan being able to solve a known problem. I guess what I should have done would have been to have quit working for the airline and instead go into the business of trying to sell weight scales to the airline like these people are. Carry-on bag weight + my weight would be significantly greater than the current 88kg allowance, so they are currently underestimating for me. I haven't seen 88kg since around 9th grade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 7 minutes ago, Ternaugh said: Carry-on bag weight + my weight would be significantly greater than the current 88kg allowance, so they are currently underestimating for me. I haven't seen 88kg since around 9th grade. I'm with ya, Brother! Ternaugh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 17 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said: I'm with ya, Brother! I guess I'm a lightweight now in more than in just holding my liquor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 1 hour ago, assault said: I wonder if cats would respond better if you mimicked their own vocalizations. Back in the 70s, my family had two cats, and you could often call one, and not the other, if you used the one you wanted's specific meows. Obviously, they were trained to come when called with affection and food, but it's not clear that they were trained to differentiate between one call and another. In other words, you would be "speaking cat". More recently, I've discovered that you can freak out magpies by mimicking their calls. They'll often give you a real WTF? look if you do that. It doesn't work during breeding season, unfortunately, at least not on breeding pairs. Cats tend to respond better to female voices than male due to our higher pitches. assault 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 2 hours ago, assault said: It doesn't work during breeding season, unfortunately, at least not on breeding pairs. ...are you trying to breed with the magpies? assault 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 1 hour ago, archer said: I guess what I should have done would have been to have quit working for the airline and instead go into the business of trying to sell weight scales to the airline like these people are. There was a flight recently that almost crashed because it was carrying a bunch of school kids and the gate attendant didn’t account for that when he entered passenger weights. All the kids sat up front, and the plane was so tail heavy that the pilots were barely able to maintain control long enough to return to the airport. Sociotard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Old Man said: ...are you trying to breed with the magpies? No, but breeding season is when they become aggressive, and when it would be best to be able to confuse them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 2 hours ago, Old Man said: ...are you trying to breed with the magpies? I hate to hit you with this so soon after the pig brains, but in these parts, no. Of course we don't do that; I just had this picture of your expression, and I couldn't let it go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 Why Authorship Matters When it Comes to Adaptations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 Over 200 Dead in Sri Lanka Church and Hotel Bombings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 12 minutes ago, Hermit said: Over 200 Dead in Sri Lanka Church and Hotel Bombings Best wishes to the survivors and the families of the dead. And on Easter as well.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 On 4/20/2019 at 9:38 AM, Michael Hopcroft said: Because even when something is obvious -- or, more appropriately, seems obvious -- we don't always know the why, which down the road is likely to be very useful. And after this study, we still don't. On 4/20/2019 at 9:38 AM, Michael Hopcroft said: After all, for thousands of years, it seemed obvious to most humans that the Universe was centered around the Earth, and people were willing to do all kinds of absurd-looking handwaving when evidence came along to show that maybe it wasn't. Another failed analogy. We already have better research into the same or similar subject matter. Read the article. All the researcher did was observe the reactions of cats when listening to recordings of some sounds with their names thrown in. Then decided that, for example, some cats don't know their names. How does he know that? Maybe those cats are tone deaf. Maybe they've got better hearing and aren't fooled by a recording. Before I read the article, and I expressed this opinion up thread, I thought that maybe some basic research was being done that the press wasn't getting into, because that's what they do. But . . . no. We have more half-assed conjecture-based research here. Had the researcher been monitoring brain activity, for example, he may have produced definitive results and perhaps contributed useful basic research about how cat brains work and maybe how they do or don't process language. Nope. Not here. Let's just watch their ears twitch and guess what it means. I mean, come on. Do you think I'm a flat Earther or something? This crap was FLAWED and USELESS. On the up side, it makes for an interesting (if unfounded) little news piece that people can repeat as if it were a fact. But there have already been better studies into cat language, including one showing that cats in different households have their own "languages" that cats new to the household then have to learn, meaning . . . Cats can learn new "languages" whether vocal or body; combined with the basic observation that cats answer when they damned well feel like it adding up to more definitive proof than this nonsense study. I admit that I could have just said all this stuff in my first post dissing the article, but I really thought that if anyone read the article that it would be self-apparent that it's just another fluff piece that was either a) misrepresenting the results of research that may be valid, or b) reporting on some goofy nonsense. (It was b, in case you're wondering.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted April 22, 2019 Report Share Posted April 22, 2019 https://splinternews.com/the-native-teen-fighting-his-school-for-the-right-to-we-1833980423 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted April 23, 2019 Report Share Posted April 23, 2019 On 4/21/2019 at 11:12 AM, Hermit said: Over 200 Dead in Sri Lanka Church and Hotel Bombings Death toll now counted at 321. About 500 were wounded. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48019189 Quote The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attack on Tuesday via its news outlet. Sri Lanka's government has blamed the blasts on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). The country's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said the government believed there "may be links" to IS. "This could not have been done just locally," he said. "There had been training given and a coordination which we are not seeing earlier." A BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka says the IS statement should be treated cautiously. As with previous attacks that the group says it carried out, it has provided no evidence for the claim. Over 300 Christians dead on Easter. The mind still boggles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer Posted April 23, 2019 Report Share Posted April 23, 2019 I just got approved by my pain doctor to take my first ever dose of cannabis oil. Takes like peppermint. Its legal for sale over the counter even in a state which doesn't allow recreational use of marijuana. It's supposed to help with both my pain and my diabetes management without impairing my cognitive functions. I can't really afford to lose any more of my cognitive functions. Wish me luck. Old Man and wcw43921 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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