Beloved Pharaoh. Born: June 3rd., 2003 – Died: June 19th., 2017. A very special dog that will never be forgotten.
Dogs live in the present – they just are! Dogs make the best of each moment uncluttered by the sorts of complex fears and feelings that we humans have. They don’t judge, they simply take the world around them at face value. Yet they have been part of man’s world for an unimaginable time, at least 30,000 years. That makes the domesticated dog the longest animal companion to man, by far!
As man’s companion, protector and helper, history suggests that dogs were critically important in man achieving success as a hunter-gatherer. Dogs ‘teaching’ man to be so successful a hunter enabled evolution, some 20,000 years later, to farming, thence the long journey to modern man. But in the last, say 100 years, that farming spirit has become corrupted to the point where we see the planet’s plant and mineral resources as infinite. Mankind is close to the edge of extinction, literally and spiritually.
Dogs know better, much better! Time again for man to learn from dogs!
I came across this post yesterday and thought that it would make a good article for today. But the truth is that I, and I expect many other readers, do not understand the article.
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Employees Heartbroken When They See Someone Tied To ‘Do Not Abandon Animals’ Sign
Outside the front door of the Harbor Humane Society sits a sign. “Do not abandon an animal here,” the sign reads. “Wait until business hours. No fee for bringing an animal to HHS. For the sake of the animal, please be humane.” An older, outdated version of the same sign sits at the back of the shelter, too, near some picnic tables where employees can take a break. When they arrived at work one morning recently, there were no animals waiting for them out front.
Harbor Humane Society
Sadly, the same could not be said for the sign in the back.
Tied to the base of the “do not abandon animals” sign was a tiny dog who had been abandoned there the night before. Security footage showed the dog, later named Trixie, had been tied to the sign around 9 p.m. and wasn’t found until 7:30 a.m. the next morning, meaning she’d waited there for 11 hours.
Harbor Humane Society
“Our team member was just about to unarm the building (had just arrived to start their morning shift) when she noticed the dog tied to the signpost near our intake door located toward the back side of the shelter,” Jen Nuernberg, director of marketing and strategic initiatives at Harbor Humane Society, told The Dodo. “Initially, she was nervous and scared, barking at her. But once she crouched down and gave her some time, she quickly warmed up and crawled right into her lap. She has been very friendly ever since!”
Harbor Humane Society
Trixie was terrified out there all alone, wondering why she’d ended up there. As soon as she met her rescuer, though, all was well. She was rushed inside and eventually met the rest of the staff members, who were just as heartbroken by the situation. Thankfully, Trixie seemed to be pretty healthy, just a little confused — as was everyone at the shelter.
“When someone abandons an animal without any information, we are just left to guess,” Jen Self Aulgur, executive director at Harbor Humane Society, told The Dodo. “So we can assume she is about 3 to 4 years old, but we don’t know her story, her name, her likes, her favorite treats or toys. This is all information we try to get on animals when they are surrendered to the shelter.”
Harbor Humane Society
The shelter employees are still hoping someone might come forward to give them some information about Trixie before she’s adopted, just to make sure she’s getting the best care possible.
“This pup deserves to have her story and history known,” Self Aulgur said. “We do not want to shame or get you in trouble — we just want to help this poor pup.”
Harbor Humane Society
Trixie is safe now and will be available for adoption in about a week or so. Until then, she’s getting as many kisses and cuddles as the staff can give her while she dreams of her loving forever family.
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Let me add my wishes to the Harbor Humane Society in hoping that very soon Trixie will be adopted by that loving family.
There were so many things that I could have written about for today but they were all swept aside by an email that came in from an old friend of mine, Chris Snuggs.
Chris and I go back many years to the time when I was a visiting teacher at Isuga in France.
But the point of this post is to share the video that Chris provided about Julie Christie. Here is the first part of a WikiPedia article:
As 99% of you know, Jean, my wife, has Parkinson’s Disease. One of the characteristics of the disease is the effect it has on sleeping; Jean frequently has a bad night. Plus, our two dogs, Cleopatra and Oliver sleep in the bedroom on dog beds.
But if I was on my own I would find it difficult not to encourage our dogs to sleep on our double bed. That’s my assessment, at least! Over to The Conversation on the topic.
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Could sharing a bedroom with your pets be keeping you from getting a good night’s sleep?
Sleeping with your dog in the same room could be negatively affecting your sleep quality, according to my team’s recently published research in Scientific Reports.
We recruited a nationally representative sample of more than 1,500 American adults who completed questionnaires assessing their sleep habits. Overall, about half of the participants reported co-sleeping with pets – defined in our study as sleeping in the same room with your pet for at least part of the night.
Next, our research team compared the sleep habits of people who did and didn’t co-sleep with pets. Our analyses revealed that participants who co-slept with pets had poorer sleep quality and more insomnia symptoms than those who did not. These findings persisted even after accounting for demographic differences between these groups. When considering pet type, we found evidence for a negative effect on sleep when co-sleeping with dogs but no evidence for a negative effect on sleep when co-sleeping with cats.
Surprisingly, 93% of people in our study who co-slept with their pets believed that their pets had either a positive or neutral overall effect on their sleep. Although more research is needed, these findings could suggest that most people are unaware of the potential negative effects their pets may have on their sleep.
However, our study fills an important knowledge gap by indicating that co-sleeping with pets can affect sleep quality. Good sleep is a pillar of health and wellness. Even though pets may have an overall positive effect on mental health, it is possible that some of this benefit may be undermined if they are also causing you to lose sleep at night.
Although some people report that co-sleeping with their pets can provide them with a sense of comfort or intimacy, it is important for people sharing a bedroom with their pets to be aware of their potential to serve as a source of nighttime noise, heat or movement that can disrupt your ability to fall or stay asleep.
What still isn’t known
Survey-based studies like ours are unable to prove that co-sleeping with pets causes disrupted sleep, although there is some evidence suggesting that this could be the case.
It probably isn’t realistic for most people to just stop co-sleeping with their pets. So, what should someone do to improve their sleep if they already share a bed with their pets?
Some expert tips include choosing a mattress that is large enough for you and your pets, washing and changing your bedding regularly, and establishing and maintaining a consistent bedtime routine with your pets. Further research is needed to identify more specific habits and routines that pet owners can adopt to ensure a good night’s sleep when sharing the bedroom with their pets.
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
Coming back to Jean and me at least we have a pretty regular routine with us going to our bedroom around 7pm to 8pm. In the morning over our daily coffees I always ask Jean what sort of night she had. Yesterday morning Jean replied that she had had a poor night. My judgement is that Jean has roughly one in two poor nights.
A riveting history of counting and calculating from the time of the cave dwellers to the late twentieth century, The Universal History of Numbers is the first complete account of the invention and evolution of numbers the world over. As different cultures around the globe struggled with problems of harvests, constructing buildings, educating their citizens, and exploring the wonders of science, each civilization created its own unique and wonderful mathematical system.
Dubbed the “Indiana Jones of numbers,” Georges Ifrah traveled all over the world for ten years to uncover the little-known details of this amazing story. From India to China, and from Egypt to Chile, Ifrah talked to mathematicians, historians, archaeologists, and philosophers. He deciphered ancient writing on crumbling walls; scrutinized stones, tools, cylinders, and cones; and examined carved bones, elaborately knotted counting strings, and X-rays of the contents of never-opened ancient clay accounting balls. Conveying all the excitement and joy of the process of discovery, Ifrah writes in a delightful storytelling style, recounting a plethora of intriguing and amusing anecdotes along the way.
Now to that article on The Conversation.
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From thousands to millions to billions to trillions to quadrillions and beyond: Do numbers ever end?
Why don’t numbers end? – Reyhane, age 7, Tehran, Iran
Here’s a game: Ask a friend to give you any number and you’ll return one that’s bigger. Just add “1” to whatever number they come up with and you’re sure to win.
The reason is that numbers go on forever. There is no highest number. But why? As a professor of mathematics, I can help you find an answer.
First, you need to understand what numbers are and where they come from. You learned about numbers because they enabled you to count. Early humans had similar needs – whether to count animals killed in a hunt or keep track of how many days had passed. That’s why they invented numbers.
But back then, numbers were quite limited and had a very simple form. Often, the “numbers” were just notches on a bone, going up to a couple hundred at most.
How numbers evolved throughout the centuries.
When numbers got bigger
As time went on, people’s needs grew. Herds of livestock had to be counted, goods and services traded, and measurements made for buildings and navigation. This led to the invention of larger numbers and better ways of representing them.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians began using symbols for various numbers, with a final symbol for one million. Since they didn’t usually encounter bigger quantities, they also used this same final symbol to depict “many.”
The Greeks, starting with Pythagoras, were the first to study numbers for their own sake, rather than viewing them as just counting tools. As someone who’s written a book on the importance of numbers, I can’t emphasize enough how crucial this step was for humanity.
But there was a problem. Although the Greeks could mentally think of very large numbers, they had difficulty writing them down. This was because they did not know about the number 0.
Think of how important zero is in expressing big numbers. You can start with 1, then add more and more zeroes at the end to quickly get numbers like a million – 1,000,000, or 1 followed by six zeros – or a billion, with nine zeros, or a trillion, 12 zeros.
This brief history makes clear that numbers were developed over thousands of years. And though the Egyptians didn’t have much use for a million, we certainly do. Economists will tell you that government expenditures are commonly measured in millions of dollars.
Also, science has taken us to a point where we need even larger numbers. For instance, there are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy – or 100,000,000,000 – and the number of atoms in our universe may be as high as 1 followed by 82 zeros.
Don’t worry if you find it hard to picture such big numbers. It’s fine to just think of them as “many,” much like the Egyptians treated numbers over a million. These examples point to one reason why numbers must continue endlessly. If we had a maximum, some new use or discovery would surely make us exceed it.
The symbols of math include +, -, x and =.
Exceptions to the rule
But under certain circumstances, sometimes numbers do have a maximum because people design them that way for a practical purpose.
A good example is a clock – or clock arithmetic, where we use only the numbers 1 through 12. There is no 13 o’clock, because after 12 o’clock we just go back to 1 o’clock again. If you played the “bigger number” game with a friend in clock arithmetic, you’d lose if they chose the number 12.
Since numbers are a human invention, how do we construct them so they continue without end? Mathematicians started looking at this question starting in the early 1900s. What they came up with was based on two assumptions: that 0 is the starting number, and when you add 1 to any number you always get a new number.
These assumptions immediately give us the list of counting numbers: 0 + 1 = 1, 1 + 1 = 2, 2 + 1 = 3, and so on, a progression that continues without end.
You might wonder why these two rules are assumptions. The reason for the first one is that we don’t really know how to define the number 0. For example: Is “0” the same as “nothing,” and if so, what exactly is meant by “nothing”?
The second might seem even more strange. After all, we can easily show that adding 1 to 2 gives us the new number 3, just like adding 1 to 2002 gives us the new number 2003.
But notice that we’re saying this has to hold for any number. We can’t very well verify this for every single case, since there are going to be an endless number of cases. As humans who can perform only a limited number of steps, we have to be careful anytime we make claims about an endless process. And mathematicians, in particular, refuse to take anything for granted.
Here, then, is the answer to why numbers don’t end: It’s because of the way in which we define them.
Now, the negative numbers
How do the negative numbers -1, -2, -3 and more fit into all this? Historically, people were very suspicious about such numbers, since it’s hard to picture a “minus one” apple or orange. As late as 1796, math textbooks warned against using negatives.
The negatives were created to address a calculation issue. The positive numbers are fine when you’re adding them together. But when you get to subtraction, they can’t handle differences like 1 minus 2, or 2 minus 4. If you want to be able to subtract numbers at will, you need negative numbers too.
A simple way to create negatives is to imagine all the numbers – 0, 1, 2, 3 and the rest – drawn equally spaced on a straight line. Now imagine a mirror placed at 0. Then define -1 to be the reflection of +1 on the line, -2 to be the reflection of +2, and so on. You’ll end up with all the negative numbers this way.
As a bonus, you’ll also know that since there are just as many negatives as there are positives, the negative numbers must also go on without end!
Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
This article was written for those a great deal younger than I am. But, to be honest, it is a fascinating account of something so utterly basic to humans and human cognition.
On Friday evenings, just before sunset, the din of traffic on the roads around Lehigh Acres, Florida, gives way to a sound far more pleasing — the cheerful chorus of happy pups on the move.
It’s at this time, like clockwork, a dog train takes to the streets just to brighten the lives of its furry passengers.
Alice E. Herrick
Alice Johnston and her husband, Paul, moved to Lehigh Acres about eight years ago, after years spent operating an animal rescue shelter in Costa Rica. But they didn’t relocate alone. They also brought along the more than a dozen dogs under their care there — all of whom had been saved from the streets.
Now in the suburbs, the Johnstons decided to get creative.
Alice E. Herrick
“We have so many dogs, of course we couldn’t walk them all or put them in the car to take them for a ride,” Alice Johnston told The Dodo. “So, my husband build a train so that we could take them out, drive around the community. He pulls the train with a lawnmower, and I ride a little scooter behind him to keep an eye on things, to make sure they’re safe.”
“The dogs get so excited. They just love it. They absolutely love it,” Johnston said. “They know it’s Friday better than we do. It’s amazing how they know.”
But the pups aren’t the only ones thrilled about their weekly trips.
“We have people who wait for us every week [to pass by on the street],” Johnston said. “Some people come out and give the dogs treats. They really enjoy it.”
The Johnstons have put all that attention the train gets to some very good use.
“My husband has signs all over the train encouraging people to adopt, and not shop,” Johnston said. “There are so many homeless dogs, and they make wonderful pets. Anything we can do to encourage people to give these dogs a chance, we are happy to do it.”
The Johnstons don’t aim to publicize their Wonderland Express dog train, though they are glad people are happy to see it. For them, it’s all about their dogs’ enjoyment — and spreading the word about the joy of adopting.
“It gives us so much joy to know that dogs are getting a second chance,” Johnston said. “And it really gives us satisfaction knowing we’re giving our dogs a good life.”
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That last image I had real trouble with but I left it in the post just in case when it is published it comes out. But even without that photograph one gets the clear idea of the pleasure the Johnstons give to their dogs.
I shall be 80 in November and I find myself thinking about death more often than I did a few years ago. As an example of how my mind has changed, yesterday I was contemplating renewing my subscription to the Free Inquiry magazine and wondering if I should renew it for two or three years? In other words will I still be alive in three years time? Silly but it is the truth. And that is not taking into account that I go to the Club Northwest two days a week and try and bike ride another two or three times a week.
Then let us not get into the topic of whether I will die before Jean or the reverse. That is an enormous subject and, thank goodness, where we live in Oregon one has the choice to die: “Two states, Oregon and Washington, currently have statutes providing a procedure for a terminally ill patient to request medication to end his or her life. These laws are sometimes referred to as “death with dignity” or “physician-assisted suicide” laws.“
All of which is an introduction to a recent article published in The Conversation that I republish below:
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Loneliness can kill, and new research shows middle-aged Americans are particularly vulnerable
Middle-aged Americans are lonelier than their European counterparts. That’s the key finding of my team’s recent study, published in American Psychologist.
Our study identified a trend that has been evolving for multiple generations, and affects both baby boomers and Gen Xers. Middle-aged adults in England and Mediterranean Europe are not that far behind the U.S. In contrast, middle-aged adults in continental and Nordic Europe reported the lowest levels of loneliness and stability over time.
We used survey data drawn from over 53,000 middle-aged adults from the U.S. and 13 European nations from 2002 to 2020. We tracked their reported changes in loneliness every two years across the midlife years of 45 to 65. This span provided us data from the so-called silent generation of people born between 1937 and 1945; baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964; and members of Generation X, born between 1965 and 1974.
Our study makes clear that middle-aged Americans today are experiencing more loneliness than their peers in European nations. This coincides with existing evidence that mortality rates are rising for working-age adults in the U.S.
We focused on middle-aged adults for several reasons. Middle-aged adults form the backbone of society by constituting a majority of the workforce. But they also face increasing challenges today, notably greater demands for support from both their aging parents and their children.
Loneliness is considered a global public health issue. The U.S. surgeon general released an advisory report in 2023 documenting an epidemic of loneliness and a pressing need to increase social connection. Other nations, such as the U.K.and Japan, have appointed ministers of loneliness to ensure relationships and loneliness are considered in policymaking.
You can be lonely even when surrounded by people.
What still isn’t known
Why are middle-aged Americans exceptional when it comes to loneliness and poorer overall mental and physical health?
We did not directly test this in our study, but in the future we hope to zero in on the factors driving these trends. We think that the loneliness Americans are reporting compared to peer nations comes down to limited social safety nets and to cultural norms that prioritize individualism over community.
Individualization carries psychological costs, such as reductions in social connections and support structures, which are correlates of loneliness. Relative to the other nations in our study, Americans have a higher tendency to relocate, which is associated with weak social and community ties.
One of the reasons why we chose countries from across Europe is that they differ dramatically from the U.S. when it comes to social and economic opportunities and social safety nets. Social and economic inequalities likely increase one’s loneliness through undermining one’s ability to meet basic needs. Generous family and work policies likely lessen midlife loneliness through reducing financial pressures and work-family conflict, as well as addressing health and gender inequities.
Our findings on loneliness in conjunction with previous studies on life expectancy, health, well-being and cognition suggest that being middle-aged in America is a risk factor for poor mental and physical health outcomes.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
And on yesterday afternoon, the Sunday, I went for a bike ride of 22 miles. I loved the ride especially as I listened to music all the way; I have a portable speaker that clips near the front handlebars and plays tracks from my iPhone.
Then there was an article in March from the University of Bristol: “Happiness can be learnt, but we have to work at it – study finds.“
It reads:
Press release issued: 11 March 2024
We can learn to be happy, but only get lasting benefits if we keep practising, a first-of-its-kind study has revealed.
The team behind the University of Bristol’s ‘Science of Happiness’ course had already discovered that teaching students the latest scientific studies on happiness created a marked improvement in their wellbeing.
But their latest study found that these wellbeing boosts are short-lived unless the evidence-informed habits learnt on the course – such as gratitude, exercise, meditation or journaling – are kept up over the long-term.
Senior author Professor Bruce Hood said: “It’s like going to the gym – we can’t expect to do one class and be fit forever. Just as with physical health, we have to continuously work on our mental health, otherwise the improvements are temporary.”
Launched in 2018, the University of Bristol’s Science of Happiness course was the first of its kind in the UK. It involves no exams or coursework, and teaches students what the latest peer-reviewed studies in psychology and neuroscience say really makes us happy.
Students who took the course reported a 10 to 15% improvement in wellbeing. But only those who continued implementing the course learnings maintained that improved wellbeing when they were surveyed again two years on.
Published in the journal Higher Education, it is the first to track wellbeing of students on a happiness course long after they have left the course.
Professor Hood said: “This study shows that just doing a course – be that at the gym, a meditation retreat or on an evidence-based happiness course like ours – is just the start: you must commit to using what you learn on a regular basis.
“Much of what we teach revolves around positive psychology interventions that divert your attention away from yourself, by helping others, being with friends, gratitude or meditating.
“This is the opposite of the current ‘selfcare’ doctrine, but countless studies have shown that getting out of our own heads helps gets us away from negative ruminations which can be the basis of so many mental health problems.”
Professor Hood has distilled the Science of Happiness course into a new book, out on March 10. ‘The Science of Happiness: Seven Lessons for Living Well’ reveals an evidence-informed roadmap to better wellbeing.
The other paper authors are fellow University of Bristol academics Catherine Hobbs and Sarah Jelbert, and Laurie R Santos, a Yale academic whose course inspired Bristol’s Science of Happiness course.
We went to a Humanists garden party on Tuesday afternoon and two other attendees had brought their dogs with them. The dogs were so friendly and gentle, as well as being highly sociable, that the conversation frequently was about dogs.
In a similar vein, on The Dodo yesterday was this:
Dande
Rescue Vizsla mix, 3.5 years old.“Dande was rescued from Waco,Texas, after a hurricane and flooding. She probably got separated from her humans. She was very skittish and afraid of everything when I first rescued her. She has come a long way. She is the most affectionate dog of the four that I have owned. I love her so much!” — her person
In a world which seems so strange at present, thank goodness we have our dogs.
Learning from Dogs 