Science Etcetera Jupiterday, 20080320

March 20th, 2008

Ice Plant

Ice Plant
Delosperma cooperi
Photo by Ryan Somma

Happy Vernal Equinox!!! Which occurred today at 05:43 UTC.

This month marks the 75th Anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps and Corpus Callosum wonders, with our collapsing economy, if we might not need to resurrect it?

Engineers Without Borders is an awesome organization, and it’s bringing electricity-generating technology to villages without power.

Is drinking even an occasional beer what makes a bad scientist? Or is it that bad scientists comfort themselves with beer? And is it just Czech scientists? A study links beer-drinking to unsuccessful science careers (HT Douglas).

3,000 robots deployed in the world’s oceans have reported no warming this year. It doesn’t mean that Global Warming has stopped, but it does mean we have much to learn about how our planet processes heat.

Dextre the robot is officially part of the ISS crew.

Dextre

Dextre

Not really 20 things as the title proclaims, but Discover has an interesting list of things you don’t know about sex including the fact that homosexuality has been observed in at least 1,500 species of animal.

Not only is China beating up Tibetan dissidents, but it’s beating up Tibet’s environment too.

Despite the cold winter, the Arctic ice declined sharply. That might be because it was still warmer than average.

Biggest black hole ever, mass of 18 billions suns. The article also states that it is “about the size of an entire galaxy,” but that doesn’t grok (HT Douglas).

Own a pet? Be eco-friendly about it. Keeping your cat indoors is a big one I learned about a few years ago, and an action I plan to take with my next round of felines.

There are flickr sets capturing people’s reactions their first time seeing goatsee, tubgirl, or 2girls1cup (I won’t link to those things here). This scientific study showed people similarly disgusting videos to measure how well they could suppress their disgust.

For today’s Moment of Science: Go Outside and Look Around You. (Then report back here and tell me what it was like.)

8 comments to “Science Etcetera Jupiterday, 20080320”

The Sun. Heeeeeeeeee.

It was bright and noisy. Also an interesting observation, the outside seemed to have more air in it than inside.
by Nick Hamden March 20th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I gotta disagree with the pet article … a lot. First off, getting pets only from shelters only works if you’re willing to go through a home visit, and a shitload of paperwork taking up hours of your time. They’ll call your vet, and not sell you a cat if you’ve had too many die recently. They’ll make you sign a contract telling you what to do with your own cat! It’s just a bunch of bull.

We finally had to go to a non-shelter breeder to get our next cat. After having wasted a good 12 or so hours at animal shelters without a cat, and being insulted by the way they act (don’t tell me not to put my finger in the cage! I want to see how the cat THAT I MAY OWN reacts to me!).

So … I’m never going to a rescue shelter again, and discourage anyone else from doing the same. They are bleeding hearts with no sense of reality. We put to death 5+ million cats and dogs every year in this country because there is a surplus, yet they make it hard to adopt. If you ask me, they contribute to the death count via their practices.

Cleaning up their poop? Don’t let them outside? That’s ridiculous! Global warming is either caused by mankind, or it is not. Dog poop was not warming the planet before man came along, and the idea that poop, a natural byproduct of all life, somehow constitutes “pollution” of the water supply is just utterly ridiculous to me. I suppose we should stop all the fish that live in the ocean from pooping in it too.

The pet article seemed like it was more interested in increasing smug levels than anything else.

As a separate issue, I think keeping a cat indoors is morally wrong. We use the excuse that we are smarter than cats, and therefore more qualified to make decisions for them — despite the fact that a 6 month old kitten can survive on its own, while a human of the same age could not.

We use our intelligence as an excuse to enslave another species. People of course wants their pets to live longer, because that serves their purposes of having a pet they love.

Let’s say, for the sake of getting a precise number, that humans are 5 times more intelligent than cats. So if the average human’s IQ is 100, does that mean that an alien species with an IQ of 500 now somehow has dominion over our lives? After all, they are so much smarter than us, and are able to make decisions so much better. They could imprison us inside buildings, never letting us leave. We would never get HIV or STDs. We wouldn’t be allowed to smoke or drink. We would live longer. This would all be in our best interests right?

I’d rather die myself. And would rather not force a similar situation on another creature.

Of course, our next cat is probably going to be indoor only due to us having 2 cats run over by cars in the past year. It goes against our own ethical philosophy on the matter, but sometimes practicality must supersede idealism.

Of course, our cat Samhain lived near main roads for 10 yrs, never getting hit. He was much smarter than most cats, and also NOT a chaser (wont chase laser pointers), so he didn’t tend to run uncontrollably (and end up in the middle of the road). And a ton of neighborhood cats wander around my yard, and don’t get run over. How the hell we had 2 get run over in a yea ris beyond me, but it sucks. I’m now racist against grey tabbies.
by Clint March 20th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Sorry for your bad experiences with the shelters. I’ve had pretty good experiences with them myself. Putting my hand in a cage and having my current cat, Molly, rub up against my hand is what convinced me to adopt her.

The problem I have the “do we have the right to enslave another species?” argument is that it makes even owning a cat morally wrong. If cats do well on their own, then we have no business breeding them, feeding them, etc, because it’s hubris of us to say we know what’s best. Taking this logic further, it’s wrong to take a cat for vaccinations because they’re going to get stuck with needles, and they may not have died of feline leukemia if we didn’t vaccinate them.

Outdoor cats have much shorter lifespans than indoor, but the best reason to keep a cat indoors is that it is an invasive species. Cats kill so many birds that we are seeing bird populations drop off in North America. We took the unnatural action of making cats our pets; therefore, we have the responsibility to maintain the natural order of things.
by ideonexus March 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Or even better. A cat that can go both indoors and outdoors. Or a cat who can go outside in an environment where they are protected from cars and other animals. Eh, whatever.

If only Humans lived longer if they always stayed indoors. Nerds would run the world! Mwhaha.
by Nick Hamden March 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Sorry to post such a long tirade.. I didn’t realize going in it would end up filling up a screen. I do tend to type a lot. :)

RE:Bird Population
The thing is, mankind is a product of nature, and part of nature too. Our sentiences does not remove us from the natural order of things. If mankind tends to have pets, then having more cats is sort of a byproduct of our natural population growth. (I’m not sure what logical fallacy this is, but it just seems to me that on a fundamental level, our sentience does not change our place as still being in nature.)

We just need to sequence all that damn DNA, before it’s too late! We’ll figure out what to do with it later. :)

Furthermore — most of our country is still rural. Where are all the birds that don’t live near human beings??
I mean, I know they really like K-Mart parking lots, and tourist beaches, but what about the rest of the birds? The ones I hear every morning at the campsites???
Citation needed! Citation needed!
“Scientists estimate”. What scientists? The ones hired by the Audubon Society to say what THEY want? But WHO are THEY?!?!?!?! (Tightens tin foil cap. Looks out window.)

RE:shelters
Nice that your shelter let you touch them without yelling at you. We only got to touch 1 or 2 cats, by having someone bring us to a special room. After playing with one for 45 minutes and deciding to get it … “Oops. Forgot to check that it wasn’t already spoken for before bringing into this room and wasting 45 minutes of your time”. Ugh.

RE:enslavement
That is a good point overall. Some would argue that by domesticating cats, we are helping them. I think that might be a bit of a stretch.

I would state that it simply is wrong, and I am indeed enslaving a being against it’s will, and committing a wrong, and have made a conscious decision to do so. Might makes right, I want a slave kitty, so I will have a slave kitty — as *property*.

I still don’t think that makes it invalid to make further moral considerations, just because that first “decision to enslave” was there. It was wrong to enslave black people in the dark days of American slavery — But sensible people still chose not to whip their black slaves, for example, on moral grounds (Though some probably didn’t do it just to keep their “property” from being “damaged”)…Some treated their slaves better than others, on moral grounds, despite already deciding to have enslaved another human being.

I just wish, for cat purposes, that I didn’t live on such a busy road. The outdoor cats in Blacksburg seemed to do well.
by Clint March 21st, 2008 at 3:11 am
crap, i did it again
by Clint March 21st, 2008 at 3:11 am
cats are supposed to go outside :(
by Matt Kho March 23rd, 2008 at 4:40 am
Christine O’Keefe, PhD
Dr Andrew P. Beckerman, Department of Animal & Plant Sciences
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
the Smithsonian
Stanford Scientists published in the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
worldwatch Institute
Portland Audubon’s Society’s research
National Audubon Society’s research.
by Ryan Somma March 25th, 2008 at 9:17 am