Bad science?

Take some time to go through Scholastic's Moon Olympics and see how many scientific errors are made. The wrong concepts here are a great example of "common sense" not being very accurate. You'd think they would have run this thing past someone with scientific background, say, in physics.

So, what errors can you spot?

The US Military is Making Super Puppies

No, really! Apparently the US military did research in increasing intelligence in dogs by using techniques during the early stages of life. The video below describes the project and the methods used.



I knew that I'd read this somewhere before, so I took a look in my "dog library," to find out where. In The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks of New Skete discuss the benefits of stress, suggesting that "Puppies exposed to mildly stressful experiences from an early age (1-6 weeks) usually develop into dogs possessing superior problem-solving ability, with less emotional imbalance than their counterparts raised without such stimulation." They also say that mild stress will activate the immune system. The monks achieve this stress mostly by having various people handle the dogs multiple times each day. Obviously the military goes further in the video above (and in other ways).

It just goes to reinforce the well-known fact that you need to spend time with your puppies.

Canadian Idiot

I stumbled across this again and it made me laugh.


You can find the lyrics here.

Cold, cold, and colder.

It feels like forever since we've been in this deep freeze, but it's really only been a week. G'Kar got walks up until Saturday and then it was just way too cold. Even the few days before caused him to do the famous "my feet are too cold" dog limp. It was only -30C, but he was still limping after a few minutes unless he was full out running. Did I actually say only -30C?

He's actually been better behaved than I expected the last three days, even though he hasn't had a walk. I thought he'd be a bit more attention-seeking and have the zoomies every few minutes, but he's been really quite good. I was able to tire him out (a bit) on Saturday and Sunday with games of fetch inside. I realized this weekend that, other than his week off after surgery, G'Kar has never gone without at least one run in the field each day.

But tomorrow it finally warms up and he'll be out running again.

No Comment

Two prawns were swimming around in the sea, One called Justin and the other called Kristian. The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that inhabited the area.

Finally one day Justin said to Kristian, 'I'm fed up with being a prawn; I wish I was a shark, and then I wouldn't have any worries about being eaten.' A large mysterious cod appeared and said, 'Your wish is granted' Lo and behold, Justin turned into a shark. Horrified, Kristian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old mate.

Time passed (as it does) and Justin found life as a shark boring and lonely. All his old mates simply swam away whenever he came close to them. Justin didn't realize that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight. While swimming alone one day he saw the mysterious cod again and he thought perhaps the mysterious fish could change him back into a prawn. He approached the cod and begged to be changed back, and, lo and behold, he found himself turned back into a prawn.

With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes Justin swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail.
Looking around the gathering at the reef he realized he couldn't see his old pal.

'Where's Kristian?' he asked.

'He's at home, still distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy & became a shark', came the reply.

Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Kristian's abode. As he opened the coral gate, memories came flooding back. He banged on the door and shouted, 'It's me, Justin, your old friend, come out and see me again.'

Kristian replied, 'No way man, you'll eat me. You're now a shark, the enemy, and I'll not be tricked into being your dinner.'

Justin cried back 'No, I'm not. That was the old me. I've changed.'.........

'I've found Cod.
I'm a Prawn again, Kristian'

Dog or cat?

G'Kar has surprised me a few times, but this was the most surprising thing he did yet. I was getting ready for work downstairs one day last week. When I came upstairs, I saw this:



Well, when I first saw him he was on his back, soaking up the sun. He flipped onto his stomach to look at me when I took his picture. You see, Leah left a chair pulled out from the table, and G'Kar saw the sun, and, well, he just jumped up on the table, completely oblivious. He's not allowed on any furniture but our bed, but we haven't told him he couldn't go on the table yet, right?

I told him "off" and he just jumped onto the chair and down onto the floor without a thought.

Note that he's nestled in between a $600 Blackberry and a $300 Kindle.