car

Birds follow speed limits

dr. dolittle — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 23:38:04 +0000

Birds follow speed limits

Dr. Pierre Legagneux (University of Quebec in Rimouski, Canada) and Dr. Simon Ducatez (McGill University, Canada) published a new study in Biology Letters suggesting that birds judge the speed limit of cars to determine when to take flight. In areas with higher speed limits, birds were observed to take off sooner than areas with lower posted speed limits.

Birds Adapt to Posted Speed Limits by GeoBeats

dr. dolittle Tue, 08/27/2013 - 19:38

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Life Science

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speed limit

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I am generally interested in science that has to do with health. Your post has me thinking about the whole nature v. nurture argument. If these birds are reacting to the environment, how can we use this knowledge to predict how best to address weight issues caused by the environment. (The social environment, that is)

http://rtlw.blogspot.com/
September 7, 2013

It is said that pigeons were used for sending letters to places during ancient times, which indicates their abilities to memorise specific places. This study would help us to explore the hidden abilities of birds.

Weekend Diversion: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

esiegel — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 16:30:28 +0000

Weekend Diversion: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man." -Mark Twain

While it's hard to imagine for me now that I have one, there are plenty of people out there who have never known the rewards and joys that come with rescuing an animal. This week, I present to you a song by six future Soundgarden-and-Pearl Jam members back when they were part of the band Temple of the Dog,

Call Me a Dog.

And while there are many internet jokes out there about dogs driving cars...

Image credit: Kathy of http://www.petswelcome.com/.

...this is about to become a reality.

Because while the dogs above are not really driving their cars, the dog below, named Ginny, is.

Image credit: Photo / supplied / SPCA from The New Zealand Herald.

This is no joke: dogs are being trained to drive cars for real. New Zealand's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has spent seven weeks working with and training different three of their rescue dogs to teach them to drive. The hope is that by demonstrating the remarkable intelligence and capabilities of rescue dogs, they'll do a better job securing good homes for rescue dogs, particularly the older ones that are wanted less frequently.

Image credit: Photo / supplied / SPCA from The New Zealand Herald.

The three dogs chosen for this task were Monty, an 18-month-old schnauzer who was given up by his owner who deemed him "uncontrollable," Ginny (in the photos above and below), a one-year-old whippet mix who was rescued from abusive owners, and Porter, a ten-month-old bearded collie mix, who was found in the streets after being abandoned.

The remarkable thing is that, with just a little bit of training and positive reinforcement, all of these dogs were able to learn an increasingly complex chain of commands, culminating in being able to control a motor vehicle.

Image credit: Photo / supplied / SPCA from The New Zealand Herald.

A television program that highlights these dogs will air on New Zealand television this coming week. The CEO of SPCA Auckland, Christine Kalin, had the following to say:

I think sometimes people think because they're getting an animal that's been abandoned that somehow it's a second-class animal.

Driving a car actively demonstrates to potential rescue dog adopters that you can teach an old dog new tricks. The dogs have achieved amazing things in eight short weeks of training, which really shows with the right environment just how much potential all dogs from the SPCA have as family pets.

The dogs were trained to not only steer, but to start a car, accelerate, brake, and shift gears as needed.

Image credit: Photo / supplied / SPCA from The New Zealand Herald.

You might think I'm either exaggerating or pulling your leg, but I assure you that this is not the case. Yes, there are plenty of genuine write-ups (and pictures) of this story, but perhaps the following two videos will demonstrate to you just how impressive this actually is. (Warning: both videos have an advertisement preceding them.)

Not only were these three dogs trained to drive a car, these were merely the three best out of seven dogs that successfully learned to drive! Their trainer, Vette, had the following to say:

Monty, Porter and Ginny are great dogs each with their own distinct personality. You wouldn't believe any dog could learn to drive a car on its own and the way all three SPCA rescue dogs have taken to training really does prove that intelligent creatures adapt to the situation they're in. It really is remarkable.

Yes, yes it is. Watch the full story (so far) here. Have a great rest-of-your-weekend, and if you're considering getting a pet for your children, a loved one or just for yourself, please strongly consider getting a rescue animal. There's nothing like it in the world.

esiegel Sun, 12/09/2012 - 11:30

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Okay. So I'm a driving dog and I go into a bar and say, "Hey, look at me, I'm a driving dog. How about a drink for a driving dog?" The bartender said, "Sure. The toilet's down the hall, first door to the right."

Yes, I'm a driving dog. My owner is blind. One day he walks out of the store and into the parking lot. He grabs me by the tail and starts swinging me around over his head. A surprised policeman politely asked my owner, "Are you hurting that dog?" My owner answers, “Not at all, he's just looking for his car."

You know this is just going to backfire in their face when amongst all the very well-behaved and wonderful rescue animals there's the one bad seed who uses his training to perform the first canine car jacking.

Yes, I'm a dog; but I'm not dumb. So my owner thinks that I'm sleeping and says to his wife. "I think we've got to get Driving Dog neutered." Now why would any male say that about another male animal. I don't complain about drinking from the toilet, or when he swings me by my tail. But neutered, even a dog's draws a line.

So it's back on the street for me again. There is no ASPCA for me; their religion is neuter and spay.

Well at least Blind Man had me trained to drive a car. He doesn't need his car anyway.

Yeah Blind Man also had me trained to use his computer too. He introduced me to astronomy; except for the moon, I just don't get it. If he had a laptop computer or an ipad; I'd take that too.

So you won't be hearing from me for a while. I'm on a roadtrip to California. Hope to find a good bitch along the way. We'll howl the moon.

I'm curious, do those dogs actually get that they are steering the vehicle, or are they just obeying commands? That is, if the dog were left up to it's own devices, would it be able to navigate to some destination on its own without further coaching on every single turn?

Dark Jaguar is proof that dogs are smarter than cats.
Cats just can't comprehend cars and should never be allowed to drive.

The bitch next door is coming to California as long as we stop in Vegas. HOWL!!!

I really wanted to keep a low profile; but she's a Poodle with Papers and wants a bugatti.

Yelp, I'm keeping my seeing-eye dogtag as a backup plan.

Cats can drive.

Just not very well.

*cue stock clip of car driving over cliff*

Of course CB. How could anyone forget Toonsis the driving cat?

From Out-N-About: latest web notables

ddobbs — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:34:51 +0000

From Out-N-About: latest web notables

We'll start with the science, cruise through J school, and end with healthcare reform or bust.

Genetic material

Willful ignorance is not an effective argument against personal genomics : Genetic Future Mr. McDonald spanks the frightened.

The American Scientist, meanwhile, takes a shot at Putting Genes in Perspective

Culture and the human genome From the excellent A Replicated Typo. (That's gene humor, is 'replicated typo.')

Going to J School

State of the Media, By the Numbers : CJR A review of a review: Columbia Journalism reviews Pew's "State of the Media" report. Eye-popping numbers and stark statements prevail.

Bora ponders the New science journalism ecosystem. I'm not altogether with him on this, but will lodge those differences later.

Science loses (in the short term -- but usually wins in the long term) NeuroDojo takes a clear-eyed look at the growing clamor over how scientists and journalists should respond to bad science journalism and manufactured controversies.

How Ars Technica's "experiment" with ad-blocking readers built on its community's affection for the site Â» Nieman Journalism Lab Ars Technica, playing hardball, put up blank pages for readers who were running blockers. Got a lot of attention, including this (typically sharp) post from Nieman Journalism Lab

The Science Reader: Help Me Draw A Profile | The Loom | Discover Magazine Zimmer asks Dear Reader for help seeing through the fog ahead.

Et alia

Book review: The Open Laboratory Good review of what the editors considered the best of the science blogosphere last year, including one by yours truly, amid much good company.

Home Stretch: Health Care in One Week or Bust | The Atlantic Wire "Or bust." Worrisome. Atlantic Wire rounds up the prognosticians and handicapping.

ddobbs Mon, 03/15/2010 - 09:34

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Can't afford to pimp your car? Camouflage it

bioephemera — Sun, 03 May 2009 13:32:02 +0000

Can't afford to pimp your car? Camouflage it

Following up on my previous post about visual illusions, reader Jake alerted me to this story from the BBC:

A design student made a battered old Skoda "disappear" by painting it to merge with the surrounding car park. Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance.

Note that like a trompe l'oeil painting in a building, or an anamorphic projection, the perspective work on the car will only allow it to "blend in" seamlessly when seen from a specific vantage point - which might be why we only have one photo in the BBC article! It would be interesting to see the back of the car to discover if the artist tried to make the illusion work from other angles as well.

Update: nice - a gallery with more views of the car. Also the original BBC story now has a video!

bioephemera Sun, 05/03/2009 - 09:32

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That's an idea I might have been too cynical to bother with, but the effect is actually intriguing. Especially where the shadow of the car doesn't disturb the illusion.

That's very clever. I can see a few places where it doesn't look quite right to me, especially along the left edge of the car. But overall it blends very nicely.

Wow. I hope she got major extra credit for that.

Aren't you supposed to _not_ stop on the yellow criss-cross areas?!! Although I guess if no one sees you, you can get away with it....

thats great!I love it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/5261764/Invisible-car…

Shows a different angle

Very nicely done! This young woman has an excellent eye for this sort of thing. I truly hope she gets top marks for this project!

Someone's going to come along and smash into that thing because they can't see it's there.