The Davies equation plays a featured role in this take on pig manure “Calculating pH in Pig Manure Taking into Account Ionic Strength,” A. M. Nielsen, H. Spanjers and E. I. P. Volcke, Water Science & Technology—WST Vol 57 No 11 pp 1785–1790. Doi:10.2166/wst.2008.099. (Thanks to Adam Eyring for bringing this to our attention.) The […]
Tag: animals
Pet-face-detecting camera
The Pentax Optio I-10 camera includes face detection technology for detecting pet faces, according to Pentax, which has not trumpeted the news but instead mentioned, almost mumbled, it in the device’s lengthy technical specifications: Face detection available: Yes (up to 32 faces in 0.03 sec), Smile Capture, Blink Detection, Pet Recognition (3 faces) (Thanks to […]
Animal bias at BMJ?
Marmot. “Bit of an animal”. Hawkes. What seems a strange animal bias is evident the past two weeks in the features section of BMJ, the publication known until a few years ago as the British Medical Journal. Here are two screen captures from the BMJ web site:
The Curious Case of the Boyfriend and the Replacement Cat
“A Zoocentric Capgras Syndrome” [article in German], U. Ehrt, Psychiatrische Praxis, vol. 26, no. 1, January 1999, pp. 43–4. The authors, who are at Klinik und Poliklinik fur Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Halle/Saale, Germany, report that: “We present a case of a 23-year-old women who had the delusional belief that her cat had been replaced by […]
Prairie dog specimen vacuum collection
The prairie dog was unknown to scientists until 1805. Collecting the first specimen was an adventure, as National Geographic hints: Lewis and Clark encountered their first prairie dog “town” near present-day Fort Randall Dam. A live prairie dog was among the specimens sent to President Jefferson from Fort Mandan in 1805 Guy Balfour‘s prairie dog […]
Archaeology: Old tricks for new dogs?
In Fornvännen 2007:3, husband & wife historians of archaeology Drs Åsa Gillberg and Ola W. Jensen note that there are currently ongoing attempts to train dogs to sniff out archaeology, much like they have proved capable of finding illegal drugs, recently buried murder victims, even cancerous tumours. Results so far are inconclusive. The point of […]
The fallacy of examples: an example
Yes, I am a goat-giver, and proud of it. But— I’ve noticed in business writing in particular the frequency of what we can call the Fallacy of Examples (a type of Fallacy of Hasty Generalization). You read some story about a successful CEO as if we should learn from his (yes, usually it’s a him) […]
Giant gentleness quiz
TRUE OR FALSE: Giraffes are ever-gentle creatures. ANSWER: See these two videos (click on the images). (Thanks to Brontosurus em Meu Jardin for bringing this to our attention.)
Taxonomy: Approved tastiness of giraffes
The June 6, 2008 issue of The Daily Telegraph contains a rare newspaper report about a fine point of taxonomy: According to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, vets were asked to treat an adult, female giraffe at Israel’s largest zoo, the Safari Park in Ramat Gan. The team, led by Professor Zohar Amar, […]