Friendly Foxes are Cleverer

Well, that's the title of the article, anyway. You may remember a fox breeding program in Siberia where they were choosing kits that were neither afraid of humans nor agressive ... now it turns out these foxes are also better able to pick up on social cues from humans as well ...

Hare and his team studied fox kits that had spent "probably a grand total of 20 minutes" with humans, according to Hare, so they could not have learned how to interact with them. Introduced into a room with two hiding places for food and a human pointing and gazing intently at the one spot that actually concealed food, the 'tame' foxes took the hint and found it, whereas the 'wild' ones were flummoxed.

The specially domesticated foxes are not only socially adept, adds Hare, they are regular charmers. "They behave like dogs," he says. "They whine and bark, they wag their tails, they pee for joy, and they just want to cuddle with you."

But don't expect fox kits to be appearing in pet stores any time soon. The foxes have a pungent musk and love to dig and hide food, says Hare. "They would bury your food in your sofa and you would only find it three months later."

And this is differnt how? I've lived with a husky that would cache food in the couch (and other places, like the laundry basket), and been around a Pekinese that smelled of rancid butter ...

Professor finds a Pooka in da Vinci's "The Last Supper" ...

Read it here, with pictures. A scanned postcard of the painting found on the internet was carefully examined, and an additional figure was determined to have originally been standing just left of Christ and subsequently erased. Professor Julio Napolitani's reconstructions looks, well, like a Pooka to me (though the reconstruction seems to just be pareidolia and the texture of the wall "The Last Supper" is painted on).

Conclusion

Taking the results of this exercise into account and using established parahistorical reasoning methods, it is determined that while da Vinci may have intended to cryptically convey knowledge relating to the existence of a Holy blood-line resulting from the union of Mary Magdalene and Christ, the presence of the cat-like creature standing immediately to the right of and touching Christ, indicates that this, now erased figure, held a position of greater significance than that of the others at the table.

Further, while evidence for this conclusion is provided by the suppression of any reference in Biblical texts to marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene or of any cat-like creature resulting from the union, apocryphal texts, specifically the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (Nag Hammadi) contain references to "corruption of the body", which suggest that such a creature was central to biblical events and, while apparently reviled by many of the apostles, enjoyed the particular affection of Mary Magdalene.

I have no idea if this is serious (or at least the author is) or a spoof - it's pretty over-the-top. In particular, there's no Gospel of Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi (13 codices dating from around 390AD), though it does partially exist in another Egyptian codex. "Parahistorical" is another clue that the author is likely pulling our leg and not actually out-of-touch.

No, I don't think there's a figure there, much less a conspiracy to hide the feline love-child of Mary Magalene and Jesus Christ. (EDIT: or that there is such a love-child. Sheesh, how y'all can twist things.)

Places I lived for more than 90 days ...

Dallas, Texas
Runaway Bay, Texas
Nacogdoches, Texas
Krum, Texas
Corral City, Texas
Denton, Texas
Mesquite, Texas
Forney, Texas
Terrell, Texas
Boulder Creek, California

(no subject)

More than 200 scientists employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been directed to alter official findings to lessen protections for plants and animals, a survey released Wednesday says ... The two groups that circulated the survey also made available memos from Fish and Wildlife officials that instructed employees not to respond to the survey, even if they did so on their own time ... More than 20% of survey responders reported they had been "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information." ... 69% said they had never been given such a directive.

Article in the LA Times.

As one biologist said, it's one thing for the administration to decide to ignore findings, it's another for them to demand that findings be falsified.

Foo ...

I don't remember who first posted about the albino bear cub (with pix) ... but I stumbled across the rest of the story (on Snopes)

... on 11 July 2004 the mother was struck and killed by a vehicle as the pair of bruins was being fed by highway motorists. The female cub, unlikely to survive on its own, was subsequently taken to a new home at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. Its light-colored fur had already begun to darken by then, indicating that the cub was not a true albino ...