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Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, did you learn any more science today?
Younger offspring: Yes! More dinosaur stuff.
Dr. Free-Ride: What kinds of dinosaur stuff?
Younger offspring: Stuff about dinosaurs with sharp, pointy teeth.
Dr. Free-Ride: Is there another song?
Younger offspring: Yeah, but I'm not ready to…
I originally wrote this as a comment to my interview over on Page 3.14 and then decided it ought to be its own entry. I thank BSCI for raising this issue, and admire BSCI's prescience, for lauding my role models and mentors is, indeed, the subject of a forthcoming post.
BSCI, regarding the role…
Really, it isn't enough to simply "believe" in evolution: it's more important to understand it and more deeply, to have an intellectual commitment to reason. There's a beautiful example of this principle in Iowa right now.
Iowa allowed gay marriage in the state a while back, and good for them…only…
Take a look at this promising poll at Daily Kos. This informal and unscientific survey of the netroots seems to be showing that a third of the readers are utterly godless, and that if you toss in the agnostics, freethinkers have got a clear majority. I anxiously await the hysterics from the…
Better warn Al Sharpton.
When I was a teen I used to hunt in southern Minnesota and I never could get close enough to a crow out in hunting territory to shoot one. Not when I had a gun, that is. I was a decent stalker but when crossing a field where the flock could see me, from an enormous distance, they'd fly off... if I had a gun. I even tried holding the rifle on the side opposite them, blcoking it with my body, and they'd fly off. No gun, no flight.
Interesting. A long string of coincidences? Maybe. Reading my body language? Maybe. Just interesting.
You know, these animals' lives depend on their being able to read signs. Funny how we're so often surprised to find they can read them really well.
Sure, but has anyone tested donkeys?
V. v. true. As a younger man, I enjoyed wandering out with a gun to find something to 'put under a pastry sky'. Rabbits and wood pigeon (yumm) recognised the 'long pointy stick', and ran as though their lives depended on it.
Sans 'stick', they eyed me with wariness.
Corvids (crows, magpies, etc.) were even more finely tuned to it. If I was 'out on a mission', they'd be flying to the next county before I'd climbed over the gate to the field. If all I carried was a camera, they'd casually walk away if I got within 30 metres.
I only carry a camera nowadays.
Not to over anthropomorphize but crows are damned smart animals. Don't have explanations just how the crows "knew" you had a gun or knew your intent, but I have no doubt that they did "know".
A POIN'ED STICK?
Ooh ooh ooh, we want to learn about poin'ed sticks now do we??
When I first read the title of the post I thought it said "sharp pointy EARS" and my initial thought was they'd be buggered on Vulcan then. I kid you not.
...I mention this only to make you all feel better in the knowledge that when you're feeling stumped or a bit daft, there is someone out there who is really thicker than you.
Already posted this link at Greg Laden's site, but movie fans with long memories may remember a difficult-to-watch film from 1982 called "White Dog" that involved similar themes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084899/
Excellent film, but not for the faint of heart.