Random Thoughts

More and more animal shelters and zoos have begun playing human music, the kind of fad that people who anthropomorphize animal behavior say works even though there is no evidence. Now a new study by animal behaviorists has gone beyond that and says while they don't think human music works, music created especially for animals does. Finally, programming for cats is not just in movies. From the immortal classic, "Scrooged". The first step in making cat music is "to evaluate music in the context of the animal's sensory system," says lead author Charles Snowdon, an emeritus professor of…

In 1966, when the "Star Trek" television show debuted, it was revolutionary - not just in the ways that are commonly stated, like that it took a stand against racism and petty geopolitics, we had Sidney Poitier and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. by then, but rather what it did for science. In the post-World War II era, science had gone from being a well-respected endeavor to being 'mad'. This was after Harry Harlow's monkey isolation experiments,  after LSD on unwitting subjects, after the atomic bomb and after the forced sterilization of 60,000 people under the label of science. A few movies…

All through the month of March, from 11:57 PM to midnight, visitors in Times Square can see artist Marco Brambilla's vision of Apollo 18, the mission that never was. We may sometimes think science is in the doldrums today - young people nostalgically believe the 1960s and 1970s were some kind of Golden Age of Space Exploration - but things are much better now. Between 1965 and 1975 the budget for NASA was cut in half.(1)  By 1970, the justification for more Apollo missions - the Apollo Applications Program, for example, to do science in space - was a non-starter due to high cost.  …

In 1993, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan gave us "defining deviancy down", a clever bit of alliteration based on the work of sociologist Emile Durkheim from his defining work of 1895. Durkheim wrote that crime is normal, it is going to happen, but by defining what is deviant, a community decides what is not and creates a reasonable standard for living together.  A community of serial killers would obviously have a different set of standards than a community of Catholic Bishops - but when deviancy is relative, Moynihan noted it would become defined down and things that would be Venial…

This is my first posting, and already I'm in trouble.  The pull-down menu for "Field" belies an excruciatingly conventional taxonomy of human endeavour.  If I want to deliver a critical comment on Economics, it'll have to go under "Random Thoughts".  Same with Sociology, Science Fiction, ... most everything I want to talk about now that I'm retired and no longer constrained to discuss only Physics.  I suppose I could just list everything as Physics, since that will always be my model for everything, but then no one would read any of it.  I sympathize with the view…

Romantic notions of Burns as a lovable man of the people are a little rich. Elnur By Corey E. Andrews, Associate Professor of English at Youngstown State University Robert Burns may have lost some of the nationalist charge behind his popularity since Scotland voted 'No' in last year’s referendum. But the celebrated poet continues to be fêted internationally during annual Burns Suppers from Glasgow to New York, from Toronto to Calcutta, in a ritual that has been honed since the early 19th century. All speakers at Burns Night celebrations, myself included, are expected to reflect on the poet’s…

Nothing justifies the killing of people for expressing ideas no matter how repugnant one finds them. However, these things don't happen in a vacuum. These things are not simply the fault of the minority other person and their refusal to see how superior the majority is and adopt their ways.  The Marianne LePen's of France are more the reason for this than Charlie Hebdo is.  Charlie was just a soft target that those cowards decided to attack.  Hearing a major political candidate advocate for the deportation of a large group would tend to make radicalism more likely. Yes…

Cartoon Credit: Dave Brown (Source) Twitter: https://twitter.com/steveschuler20

Many consumers today feel out of touch with how their food is produced and are disturbed by a lot of what they hear about it through their social networks or other sources of information. If it is necessary to assign fault for this phenomenon, I think we could blame Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson and Martin Barre of the more modern Jethro Tull No, I don’t mean the 70s rock band led by flautist Ian Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre, I mean the early 18th century agronomist and inventor named Jethro Tull  (the two Jethros did; however, have similar hair styles).…

Nonsensical but oddly beautiful Bing and Google translations from Facebook posts in a variety of languages: 袁嘟嘟第一次以老公的身分參加部門聚會，泡完湯好舒服 Doodle Yuan to her husband's party participated in the sector for the first time, bath soups are so comfortable 【連想ゲーム】 この車は何？こんな車で恋人とドライブに行きたいなと思ったら、まずは「婚活パーティー」で彼女ゲット。（来年は御堂筋沿線でも開催予定）... [Game] what is this car?If you think car lover and drive to go with the first marriage hunting party in his woman get. but Mido muscles along meeting scheduled next year but don't want to go alone, but if you have no friends go together, handyman…