Legend of the Corsair

To start things off, I wanted to talk about the following NYT article, its comments, and some speculation of my own.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/science/dogs-and-humans-speculation-and-science.html

Reading through the comments and I realize that the relationship between humans and the various companion animals are symbiotic in nature. Each of the creatures provides a specific group of traits and abilities to the whole that the other creatures cannot or cannot easily do for themselves. This is especially true of animals that have been working partners in various professions and livelihoods: cats, dogs, horses, hawks, geese (the guarding type), etc.

Just as an example, a comment on the article started with “The presence of a wolf track alongside that of a child DEEP inside France's Chauvet cave to me constitutes powerful evidence of domestication 25,000 years ago.” Fire, and those that can carry it with their clever paws (hands) would be useful to dogs in certain places and situations.

Additionally, I think that we didn’t domesticate them… we domesticated each other by learning how to communicate without them speaking a human language and without us speaking canid or feline or what have you.

As one commenter put it: “The naturalness that dogs and humans share in social interactions had to have developed through mutual evolution. Watch people let their dogs sniff their babies; the trust had to have evolved.”

Another good comment on the usefulness of speculation and daydreaming about all the “what-ifs” in the world:

“Even if the author doesn't have a useful test for his hypothesis, someone else may. By publishing an interesting speculation, scientists give other scientists the opportunity to devise means of testing the theory.

Observation gives rise to questions, experiment ratifies or rejects hypotheses. But we shouldn't forget the importance of the process in the middle, that of theory formation, because it is there that the most brilliant and important work is done. The notion that science is just a matter of empiricism is wrong. Any naturalist could observe birds in the Galapagos: it took a Darwin to tell us what they meant.”

The speculator in question: http://www.patshipman.com/about/

The article causing all the chatter: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/do-the-eyes-have-it
Single page – printer friendly version: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.15294,y.0,no.,content.true,page.1,css.print/issue.aspx

And now, a handful of links I found interesting earlier in the day:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/05/35-star-wars-pop-culture-tributes/?pid=7077&viewall=true

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LosAngelesNeedlework

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/star-wars-blaster-speed/

Oh good lord… The following article link is about how Facey Space is going to synthesize all our data (which belongs to them, remember) into easy to use data models representing the connections betwixt all the users in existence (and all their stuff, services, habits, etc). “Little snippets of your online behavior are streamed into the Facebook Newsfeed and onto your Facebook Timeline, and ultimately, this feeds the habits of your online friends.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/facebook-open-graph/


TOWEL DAY!
http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/05/etsy-guide-galaxy/

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/05/42-in-pop-culture/

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/05/hitchhikers-live-onstage/

http://www.hitchhikerslive.com/

http://www.hitchhikerslive.com/tour-dates.html

OMG! OMG! OMG! – how I WISH I could be in Edinburgh for the show on July 21 when the Voice Of The Book is Neil Gaiman! Gaaaaaaahhh!