Raccoons Have Passed an Ancient Intelligence Test by Knocking It Over

typhlonectes:

Many scientists have used a test paradigm in which the creature under
investigation has to figure out how water displacement works in order
to reach a treat. As it turns out, some raccoons just don’t buy into the
premise.

The paradigm of water displacement actually comes from an ancient
Greek fable written by Aesop called “The Crow and The Pitcher”, and it’s
been used to investigate whether birds and small children understand how cause and effect work.

The fable is about a thirsty crow that can’t drink from a pitcher
with a low water level. To raise the water level higher, the bird drops
stones in the pitcher until the water level rises and it can drink.
(This paradigm has actually been tested on New Caledonian crows with amazing results.)

Now, a group of researchers from the University of Wyoming and the
USDA National Wildlife Research Center has found that raccoons have a
different way of being innovative when it comes to getting their sweet
prize.

Raccoons Have Passed an Ancient Intelligence Test by Knocking It Over

When insults had class

simonalkenmayer:

dutchfruitjar:

These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:
“Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease”. “That depends, Sir,“ said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

“He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”- Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure.” -Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” – William Faulkner
(about Ernest Hemingway).

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends..” – Oscar
Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend…. if you have one.”
(George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill)
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second  …. if there is
one.“  (Winston Churchill, in response.)

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” –
Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” –
Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” –
Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” – Paul Keating

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” –
Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” – Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” -Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” – Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.”
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” Groucho Marx

All excellent insults.

brighteyedbadwolf:

I know this nose art is for the Bad Batch, but I can’t help but imagine another Clone Unit with a stronger claim on the Senator as a mascot. (And how much Anakin would FLIP THE FUCK OUT)

—

Morale Booster

“REX!”

… And it looks like the paneling repair will have to wait, as his General’s boots appear next to his head beside the transport’s landing gear. He pushes himself out from under the machine on a dolly, flat on his back.

“Sir?”

“What is THAT?!” his fearless leader yelps, pointing dramatically, emphatically upwards and towards the nose.

He scoots out farther, past General Skywalker’s legs, and props himself up on his elbows to take in the three-quarters-finished pinup Hardcase has been taking such pains with for the last four hours.

“Morale booster, sir. Couldn’t do something clever like the 104th and their Plo’s Bros or anything, so–”

“So you chose SENATOR AMIDALA?!” Did his voice just crack? It did.

He shrugs. “Sure. She’s been through enough hell and high water with us.”

“She’s a SENATOR!”

“And she’s a keen eye with that blaster,” he reasons, jerking his head up to the painting, and the flawlessly detailed replica of the Senator’s favored sidearm, primed to fire and held at a jaunty, confident angle. He even got the chipped paint over the trigger guard right.

“Got the looks for it too!” Hardcase yells down from where he’s shading in a long bare stretch of thigh, pausing to vigorously shake his can of spray paint. “We might finally be able to give the 327th a run for their money, with General Secura and all.”

“GENERAL SECURA is half naked on the nose of a transport?!”

“What? No!” Of course not, that’s just tasteless.

There’s a clatter from up above as Hardcase puts his paints down and leans over the scaffolding, a hand wobbling skeptically. “Well… Technically…”

“She’s in her usual outfit, y’know, with the–” Rex explains, and zig-zags a finger down from his head, mimicking the General’s lekku straps. “–and the leather pants.”

“It’s just a little leg, Anakin, I don’t see what you’re so upset about.”

Oh thank all the stars and little planets. Backup. General Kenobi steps up beside his former Padawan to admire the paint job himself. “Excellent work on her hair, Hardcase,” Kenobi continues, tilting his head.

“Thank you, sir. Run a probe with some white and a little metallic gold through the wet paint, gets it to streak so the shine looks real.”

General Skywalker is starting to do that thing where he puffs up like an angry coppi lizard and splutters furiously while he tries to think of something else to be upset about. He can hear Fives rolling his eyes from the opposite side of the transport. General. Honestly. If you’re trying to keep a relationship secret, openly displaying your klik-wide jealous streak is not how you do it.

“The 212’s is worse, anyway,” Kenobi muses idly, as Hardcase carefully adds the supposedly “very distinctive” freckle high on the Senator’s hip, just below the split in her modified favorite Council dress. Skywalker starts to go wide-eyed at that, because his sabacc face out of genuine combat is complete sleenshit, and startles when his master continues.

“She’s on the 212th transport too?!”

“Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. We can’t have duplicates, that defeats the purpose,” Kenobi says, in that too-reasonable tone he takes on when he’s deliberately fucking with his former Padawan.

“’Cept Master Ti,” Echo yells, from somewhere inside the paneling he and Rex had been working on.

“Except Master Ti, yes,” Kenobi agrees, and shrugs. “But that’s to be expected. Rather like how so many people have that arm tattoo of a heart with the ribbon that says ‘Mom’.”

Rex personally knew of at least eight other clones that had that exact tattoo, though the ribbon was usually striped like Master Ti’s headtails, and nods agreeably. That seems to have sufficiently diverted Skywalker, or at least confused him.

“Then how is it worse?” Skywalker asks, a little desperately, then his face lights up completely with slightly malicious anticipation. “Is it the Duchess?!”

Oh boy. Rex looks up at Hardcase, who is biting down on his paint-splattered fist to keep from laughing, as General Kenobi gets that look.

“Certainly not,” Kenobi says sternly, and waits a full beat to drop his bombshell. “It’s me.”

Skywalker just stares.

“Though I’m reasonably certain Duchess Kryze had something to do with it, given the way I’m half falling out of my robes.”

Now he looks vaguely green.

“Or it’s some perverse joke of Master Windu’s. It seems his style. Cody refuses to tell me.”

And before Skywalker can come up with anything else to protest, Kenobi adds:

“Besides, Senator Amidala loves it. Hers, I mean. I haven’t asked her about mine.”

Apparently even Jedi can choke on air when sufficiently surprised. But really, where did he think they’d gotten the preliminary sketches from?

Source: brighteyedbadwolf

flockdynamics:

GUYS. GUYS.

So some of you who have been around a while know I used to work at a small, privately-owned, bird-focused pet store, right? And some of those of you might remember that we had a black palmed cockatoo, Artie, there. He was wild-caught illegally back in the ‘80s–the shipment was seized by Fish & Wildlife, some of the birds were sent back to Indonesia, but some were not. Artie bounced around to a few places–a zoo, a couple private people, and eventually ended up at our store (the owner was heavily involved in the bird community and was involved with all this somehow, idk I wasn’t around). Anyway, he had been with us for more than a decade, and since he was wild caught he was never really tame, and the owner always wanted to find a breeder to take him, since black palms are so endangered. She figured since he’s here, and being wild caught his genetics would be diverse from captive populations here, it would be awesome to help propagate the species.

ANYWAY a year or so ago, he finally went to a breeder, and he almost IMMEDIATELY hit it off with one of her females, and they laid an egg very soon after. The breeder & Ruth weren’t sure it would be fertile, since it was so fast and all, BUT IT WAS AND IT HATCHED AND LOOK HOW CUTE THIS BABY IS IM CRYING.

Source: flockdynamics

You know how in cartoons snowballs can roll down hills and pick up more and more snow until they’re a big snowball? Or how cartoon kids roll balls of snow to make bigger balls of snow to make snowmen? Does snow really work like that??? Does that happen in real life???

everythingyouthinkyouknowisalie:

bettsplendens:

glumshoe:

I’m not sure why you’re asking me, specifically, but… yes? It doesn’t always work – the snow needs to be a specific texture and temperature to stick. A heavy blanket of freshly-fallen snow works best, preferably early in the season when it’s below freezing but not hellishly cold. It makes a bizarrely satisfying rumbling noise as you push the ball of snow further and it grows larger and larger until you can’t push it any further. It’s one of the sweetest pleasures in life.

It doesn’t work as beautifully as in cartoons, but snow does tend to stick to itself when it’s not really powdery, so you can absolutely do that.

When it’s especially windy in flat areas or gently rolling hills, you get rolly barrels of snow that look like giant bales of ice covered hay.

snow is fun 🙂

You know how in cartoons snowballs can roll down hills and pick up more and more snow until they’re a big snowball? Or how cartoon kids roll balls of snow to make bigger balls of snow to make snowmen? Does snow really work like that??? Does that happen in real life???

glumshoe:

I’m not sure why you’re asking me, specifically, but… yes? It doesn’t always work – the snow needs to be a specific texture and temperature to stick. A heavy blanket of freshly-fallen snow works best, preferably early in the season when it’s below freezing but not hellishly cold. It makes a bizarrely satisfying rumbling noise as you push the ball of snow further and it grows larger and larger until you can’t push it any further. It’s one of the sweetest pleasures in life.

It doesn’t work as beautifully as in cartoons, but snow does tend to stick to itself when it’s not really powdery, so you can absolutely do that.

drg-aido:

A lot of people don’t understand how difficult it can be to know you are asexual for sure, and to be confident that the label is true on you. You spend years asking yourself, “How can I know if I feel sexual attraction or not?”

Trying to prove you DON’T experience something is actually ridiculously hard especially when you are nowhere close to understanding what it is you’re trying to disprove.

It’s a lot like playing a game of Where’s Waldo, but you have no idea what Waldo looks like and you rely entirely on the partial description of him you get from other people.

Take this image, and find “Jeremy” in it:

image

At first you’re like, “Who tf is Jeremy? That’s a thing?”

And then from discrete descriptions you hear in the hallways, you find out Jeremy has a red shirt.

And so you point to everyone on that picture who has a red shirt like, “Hey hey, red, THIS could be him. Certainly one of these is him!”

But, alas, you’ve gotten it confused with someone similar, but not him at all. This happens when you mistake romantic attraction or aesthetic attraction for sexual attraction or, if you’re aro, platonic attraction for romantic attraction. You’ve misidentified him because he was wearing the same color shirt and looked somewhat like what others were talking about.

You go online and ask for more descriptions of Jeremy, and you may gleam a few details. People are like, “Oh no, Jeremy has stripes on his shirt, and a funky…I don’t know, over the shoulder scarf thingy. Look, it’s really hard to explain. Trust me, if you have seen Jeremy, you would KNOW him.” Which is like ??? confusing, although it is true.

If only you could prove Jeremy isn’t on your board you would know you’re ace//aro, but it’s hard to ever be 100% certain he isn’t there when you have no clue what he looks like.

Which is why it is important for aces//aros to just, forget about trying to be 100% certain and just identify anyways. That’s what helped me the most, knowing that I didn’t have to prove something, I could just assume, “Yeah, if I had felt sexual attraction, I would know. I don’t have to prove without a doubt I don’t in order to use the word.” It’s okay, you give yourself your own validation.

(@acephobia-is-real​ for your question)