Animal magic

Acquisition of a Joystick-Operated Video Task by Pigs (Sus scrofa). The heading of an article in frontiers in Psychology, by Candace Croney and Sarah Boysen of the Department of Comparative Pathobiology and Animal Science, Center for Animal Welfare Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana and the Comparative Cognition Project, Sunbury, Ohio.

Four pigs were trained to "manipulate a joystick that controlled movement of a cursor displayed on a computer monitor. Results indicate that despite dexterity and visual constraints, pigs have the capacity to acquire a joystick-operated video-game task".

I rang my local pig farm to see whether any of their pigs could give me a hand dealing with this problem I'm having with barbarians:

Unfortunately their pigs haven't yet achieved their BTEC in Video Gaming, but they suggested I talked to the chicken farm, as they had heard that their animals had some special skills.

A contributor to an online forum in BackYard Chickens:

This morning we are out in the pen with our girls. Feeding treats, doing chores etc. Everything as usual. But today, when the treats were gone, the girls went over to a corner of the pen and layed down, very close to each other. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm?

We got more treats, they came over, scratched, ate and enjoyed. Once again, as soon as the food was gone, back to the same corner huddled together. They have never done this before. 5 minutes later, we had an earthquake! Since the earthquake they have been up walking, scratching, pecking as they do every day.

The chicken farmer, having never experienced this behaviour as earthquakes are not all that common in Cornwall, referred me to a nearby reptile park.

The United States Geological Survey tells us:

The earliest reference we have to unusual animal behavior prior to a significant earthquake is from Greece in 373 BC. Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days before a destructive earthquake.

Neuroscientist Michael Brecht of the Humboldt University of Berlin conducted an experiment which showed that rats can learn the rules of hide-and-seek. However when I contacted him, he referred me to a horde of barbarians living in the tundra near St. Austell..........

Dynastic mini quiz answers

Q1. Who was Kublai Khan's grandfather? Genghis Khan

Q2. Who was the great grandmother of Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of the Netherlands? Catherine The Great

Q3. How many great grandchildren did Queen Victoria have? 87

Q4. What relation is a great great grandchild with another of different great grandparentage? Third cousin

Q5. What relation is Abraham Lincoln to George Clooney? Half-first cousin five times removed

And seven places I definitely won't be visiting

⛔Chernobyl. Can't think why.

⛔North Korea. Too close to dangerous countries like, er, North Korea.

⛔Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Apparently my invitation got "lost in the mail".

⛔Caracas, Venezuela. "The most dangerous city in  the world". 120 homicides per 100,000 residents.

⛔Norwich. All Ipswich fans will know why.

⛔Mawsynram And Cherrapunji, India.

⛔Yakusk, Siberia. -40 degrees Celsius in winter.

My seven places to visit

Thinking about the ancient world wonders and the "new seven" wonders, I got to thinking about what seven other places I would like to visit. So here they are.

Uluru, aka Ayres Rock, Northern Territory, Australia.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Estádio Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Iguazu Falls, on the Argentina/Brazil border.

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Polar bear migration, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.

Trans Siberian Railway, Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia.

Let me hear yours!

The new seven wonders of the world

The "new seven wonders of the world" were chosen by tens of millions of people voting in a contest run by a Swiss company, The New 7 Wonders Foundation, in 2007. Here they are, in no particular order.

The Great Wall of China.

Petra, in Jordan.

Chichen Itza, Mayan site in Mexico.

Cristo Redentor, "Christ The Redeemer", in Rio de Janeiro.

The Colosseum, in Rome.

The Taj Mahal, Agra, India.

Machu Picchu, Incan site in Peru.

Next, I will be cogitating on what would be on my list of my "must visit" places in the world. A kind of bucket list, In suppose. Pretty impractical in pandemic times but maybe...... What would you choose?

An apple a day...

...keeps the doctor away.

The phrase can be traced back to 1866, when Notes and Queries magazine published the first-known example of the proverb: “Eat an apple on going to bed, And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread." According to wonderopolis.org, which is a great name for a web site. [Should that be website?] It's tag line [should that be tagline?] is "Where the Wonders Of Learning Never Cease". Darn, they got there before me.

And it's true. I eat an apple every day - or at least most days - and no doctor has been to my door in, well, years, maybe ever. [Warning to readers: don't confuse correlation with causality]

It's also true that "a brandy at night makes me want to write".

And "a post a week keeps your blog unique".

"Every second must be reckoned". Very profound.

The oldsters sure knew a thing or two. Keep eating those Granny Smiths.