Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Author: Paul Handover
A beautiful shot from Southern California.
This photograph was forwarded to me from Dan Gomez, who took it on the morning of last Tuesday.
It was taken in the Coachella Valley and was a morning shot of the sun through the haze caused by the Lion Fire.
Fabulous!
How The Dodo spoke of a dog and a wild shark bonding.
I do not know much about this story apart from the fact that it appeared in The Dodo recently and I took to it.
So please enjoy! (And that assumes you have not already seen the article!)
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Published on Aug 16, 2024
For most dogs, their friend groups usually consist of a mix of humans and other dogs. But Lili, a 3-year-old dog who lives on a French Polynesian atoll called Fakarava, isn’t like most other dogs. She prefers friends who have gills and fins. In fact, her very best friend is a shark.
Ever since Lili’s mom, Emmanuelle Larchet, adopted Lili, she’s known that her dog has an affinity for all things aquatic. She started swimming in the lagoon near Larchet’s house when she was only a month old.
“She’s really a water dog,” Larchet told The Dodo.
There are around 100 sharks who live in this lagoon near Larchet’s house. So when Lili swims in the water there, she’s surrounded by them. While many dog parents would be terrified to see their dog swimming amongst sharks, Larchet knows that the sharks Lili swims with are nurse sharks, who are actually very docile creatures.
“We call them sea puppies because [they’re] like dogs, actually … They are very nice,” Larchet said.
Larchet likes to joke that when Lili swims around with her shark friends, it’s sea puppies meeting earth puppies.
Over the years Lili has been swimming in the lagoon, there’s one shark in particular she’s grown especially close with. His name is Sharky, and he and Lili visit each other almost every day. Larchet and Lili are able to recognize Sharky because he has a special marking on one of his fins.
Lili and Sharky like to explore their lagoon together. They enjoy splashing around in the warm, clear water.
“He comes to say hello every time she sees him,” Larchet said.
Even though Lili and Larchet are best friends themselves, Larchet is more than happy to share her Lili with Sharky. And even though Larchet watches Lili hang out with her shark friends all the time, it never gets old seeing them spend time together.
“[When] I see her swimming with Sharky, [I’m] so happy,” Larchet said.
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It is a lovely story!
We are speaking of the universe.
I follow Patrice Ayme and have done for many years. Some of his posts are super-intellectual and those I struggle to understand.
But a post published on September 8th, 2024 was very easy for me, and countless others no doubt, to understand and I have pleasure in republishing it on Learning from Dogs today.
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September 8, 2024
I doubt that there are civilizations around. We are facing a galaxy devoid of intelligent aliens: little green mats out there, not little green men.
First, we don’t see them. With foreseeable technology (hibernation, nuclear propulsion, compact thermonuclear reactors, bioengineering, AI, quantum computers) we should be able to send very large interstellar spaceships at 1,000 kilometers per second… Thus it would take a millennium to colonize the Centaur tri-star system…. 25,000 years to colonize a 200 light years across ball… And the entire galaxy in ten million years… Wars would only accelerate the expansion. So if there was a galactic civilization, within ten million years it would have spanned the entire galaxy and its presence should be in sight.
Second, life took nearly four billion years to evolve animals. Bacterial life could have been nearly extinguished on Earth many times…. Be it only during the Snowball Earths episodes. A star whizzing by could have launched a thousand large comets. The large planets could have fallen inward.
Third, ultra intelligent life may not be able to have hands or tentacles and thus develop industry. Once intelligent life forms have evolved, say sea lions or parrots, let alone wolves, they may just be sitting ducks for the next disaster which would revert life to the bacterial level, erasing billions of years of evolution.
Fourth, when civilization is launched, it can fail… And not get a second chance (from lack of availability of mines after easy picking during the initial civilization).
Fifth, nuclear powered Earth is special. Earth has plate tectonics, probably from a nuclear reactor at the core, keeps the CO2 just so for a temperate temperature… Water, but not too much. Her large Moon stabilizes her. Earth doesn’t have a weird rotation like Venus (retrograde and slow) or Mars (spectacularly tilting axis). Ian Miller has aluminosilicates considerations on top of that.
So I don’t expect little green men… Besides those sent by the perverse Putin…
Just when we thought we knew of all the stress, here is another one: if we go extinct, the universe loses its soul! We have thus found a new Superior Moral Directive: SUS, Save Unique Soul!
Expect little green mats, not little green men.
Patrice Ayme
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A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk to our local Freethinkers group and called it The Next Ten Years. It began, thus:
This presentation is about the world of the future; of the near future. And the biggest issue, most agree, is the change in the climate.
The Global Temperature anomaly, as of last year, 2023, is 1.17 Centigrade, 2.11 Fahrenheit, above the long-term average from 1951 to 1980. The 10 most recent years are the warmest years on record.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is quoted as saying that ‘a goal without a plan is just a wish.’ So my plan is to show you how we can change, no let me put that more strongly, how we must change in the next ten years. Because our present habits are ruining the world.
Now for something different, but marvellous!
My son, Alex, is a keen photographer.
Here is his photograph of a tawny owl and her owlet, taken in an Urban city park in Bristol, England. It is shared with you with Alex’s permission.
It is an amazing picture!
This is a lovely story from The Dodo.
I saw this article in the August 23rd issue of The Dodo magazine and it appealed to me.
So I wanted to share it with you all.
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Published on Aug 23, 2024
Ellie Woods’ family dog Bobby has always been an important part of her love story with her wife Georgie Woods. When Ellie brought Georgie home for the first time, the family member she was most anxious for Georgie to meet was Bobby.
When the couple got engaged and started planning their wedding, they decided it would be fun to try to document the wedding from Bobby’s unique perspective. So right before the ceremony started, they attached a GoPro to Bobby’s back and then set him loose.
For some dogs, walking around with a camera on their back might take some getting used to — but not for Bobby. He immediately felt comfortable.
“He loves being the center of attention,” Georgie told The Dodo. “He just loved it.”
Georgie and Ellie said having Bobby at their wedding was incredibly meaningful for them.
“Animals are really important to queer couples,” Ellie said. “[I]t was so important to have him … as part of our big day.
When the newlyweds sat down to watch the footage Bobby had captured, what they saw surprised and delighted them. The GoPro had caught Bobby stealing hors d’oeuvres and even walking in on Georgie’s sister in the bathroom. While Bobby is an expert videographer, he is still a dog, after all.
Of course, Bobby’s camera recorded much more than shenanigans. Georgie and Ellie loved watching themselves walk down the aisle together from Bobby’s perspective.
“It captured some really special moments,” Ellie said. “[W]e couldn’t be happier for how it came out because it’s just so organic and such an interesting, different perspective.”
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Dogs are just incredible. As much as I have already said that, time and time again there comes a story that just reinforces that previous sentence.
I’m speaking of a radio programme on BBC Radio 4.
Yesterday, we listened to a fabulous broadcast on the subject of Awe.
The programme was called ‘MORE WOW’ and the picture of the page from BBC Sounds follows:
It is available on BBC Sounds and the link is https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022kt2
As I said to Jeannie the broadcast really spoke to me as each morning I am in awe of the black-tailed deer that I go down to feed near the old stables just outside the house.
Then I pause on my way back and look at Mount Sexton and the rising sun; again I am in awe.
Then at night, being a crystal-clear sky on many occasions, I am in awe at the heavens above.
The programme spoke of one being in awe of both the small and the large and I want to close with two of my photographs of me sensing awe in both scales.
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That’s my story for today!
Perfect dog pictures courtesy of Jess.
(And I’m sorry for the duplicates.)
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I have repeated these pictures as, for whatever reason, I did not receive a new batch from Jess.
All of them were white puppies, and …
This was a story that recently was shown on The Dodo site.
Too many dogs, and cats, are abandoned on a regular basis. But read on and see why this rescue was extra special.
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Rescue Finds A Box Of Puppies Abandoned On Their Property — And Then They Realize Why.
By Caitlin Jill Anders, Published on Aug 15, 2024
When staff members and volunteers at Saving Hope Rescue noticed a box had been dumped on their property, their hearts sank. As they got closer, they saw the box had “puppies her” written on the side of it and had a feeling they knew who was inside.
When they opened the box, the rescuers came face-to-face with a whole pile of all-white puppies. Even though their rescue was already at capacity, they knew they couldn’t turn their backs on the sweet little family. They put out a call for help to the community in order to get some support and began to get the pups settled in.
As everyone at the rescue started getting to know the abandoned puppies, they realized that the pups had been hiding something: Apparently, they were all visually and hearing impaired to some degree.
“At first, they were all deemed blind and deaf,” Lauren Anton of Saving Hope Rescue told The Dodo. “Eventually, as time went by and they developed some more, we discovered that some puppies are more impaired than others.”
It’s possible that this was the reason the puppies were abandoned in the first place, but it’s hard to know for sure. Either way, it didn’t change anything for the puppies’ rescuers. Even if they might need a little extra help, they were still members of the Saving Hope family.
As the puppies grew, their unique personalities began to shine through, and their rescuers were also able to start getting an accurate picture of their different abilities.
“Mate is a good example of the slightly impaired puppies,” Anton said. “We don’t know how much she can see and hear, for sure, but we do know that she can hear being called, knows when we shake the food bag, and will approach people when called to come over … Koala, on the other hand, is much more impaired … We aren’t sure how much he can see. Maybe just shadows.”
Everyone is doing their best to get to know the puppies and their individual needs so they’ll know how to best help them as they grow. One thing is for sure though, the puppies are happy and thriving.
“Over the last few weeks, they’ve gone from sleepy babies to rambunctious puppies,” Anton said. “They’re constantly playing and wrestling with each other. They’ve learned that human pets and snuggles feel nice, and they love to sleep in our arms.”
These puppies may have been abandoned, but now they’re getting the second chance they deserve.
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That is a beautiful story. Lauren and the staff are to be congratulated on doing what they did, and that was giving these puppies a new lease of life.
We are in an era of unknown weather, across the world!
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Simon H. Lee, University of St Andrews; Hayley J. Fowler, Newcastle University, and Paul Davies, Newcastle University
Published: July 30, 2024
Extreme weather is by definition rare on our planet. Ferocious storms, searing heatwaves and biting cold snaps illustrate what the climate is capable of at its worst. However, since Earth’s climate is rapidly warming, predominantly due to fossil fuel burning, the range of possible weather conditions, including extremes, is changing.
Scientists define “climate” as the distribution of possible weather events observed over a length of time, such as the range of temperatures, rainfall totals or hours of sunshine. From this they construct statistical measures, such as the average (or normal) temperature. Weather varies on several timescales – from seconds to decades – so the longer the period over which the climate is analysed, the more accurately these analyses capture the infinite range of possible configurations of the atmosphere.
Typically, meteorologists and climate scientists use a 30-year period to represent the climate, which is updated every ten years. The most recent climate period is 1991-2020. The difference between each successive 30-year climate period serves as a very literal record of climate change.
This way of thinking about the climate falls short when the climate itself is rapidly changing. Global average temperatures have increased at around 0.2°C per decade over the past 30 years, meaning that the global climate of 1991 was around 0.6°C cooler than that in 2020 (when accounting for other year-to-year fluctuations), and even more so than the present day.
If the climate is a range of possible weather events, then this rapid change has two implications. First, it means that part of the distribution of weather events comprising a 30-year climate period occurred in a very different background global climate: for example, northerly winds in the 1990s were much colder than those in the 2020s in north-west Europe, thanks to the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the global average. Statistics from three decades ago no longer represent what is possible in the present day.
Second, the rapidly changing climate means we have not necessarily experienced the extremes that modern-day atmospheric and oceanic warmth can produce. In a stable climate, scientists would have multiple decades for the atmosphere to get into its various configurations and drive extreme events, such as heatwaves, floods or droughts. We could then use these observations to build up an understanding of what the climate is capable of. But in our rapidly changing climate, we effectively have only a few years – not enough to experience everything the climate has to offer.
Extreme weather events require what meteorologists might call a “perfect storm”. For example, extreme heat in the UK typically requires the northward movement of an air mass from Africa combined with clear skies, dry soils and a stable atmosphere to prevent thunderstorms forming which tend to dissipate heat.
Such “perfect” conditions are intrinsically unlikely, and many years can pass without them occurring – all while the climate continues to change in the background. Based on an understanding of observations alone, this can leave us woefully underprepared for what the climate can now do, should the right weather conditions all come together at once.
Startling recent examples include the extreme heatwave in the Pacific north-west of North America in 2021, in which temperatures exceeded the previous Canadian record maximum by 4.6°C. Another is the occurrence of 40°C in the UK in summer 2022, which exceeded the previous UK record maximum set only three years earlier by 1.6°C. This is part of the reason why the true impact of a fixed amount of global warming is only evident after several decades, but of course – since the climate is changing rapidly – we cannot use this method anymore.
To better understand these extremes, scientists can use ensembles: many runs of the same weather or climate model that each slightly differ to show a range of plausible outcomes. Ensembles are routinely used in weather prediction, but can also be used to assess extreme events which could happen even if they do not actually happen at the time.
When 40°C first appeared in ensemble forecasts for the UK before the July 2022 heatwave, it revealed the kind of extreme weather that is possible in the current climate. Even if it had not come to fruition, its mere appearance in the models showed that the previously unthinkable was now possible. In the event, several naturally occurring atmospheric factors combined with background climate warming to generate the record-shattering heat on July 19 that year.
The highest observed temperature each year in the UK, from 1900 to 2023
Later in summer 2022, after the first occurrence of 40°C, some ensemble weather forecasts for the UK showed a situation in which 40°C could be reached on multiple consecutive days. This would have posed an unprecedented threat to public health and infrastructure in the UK. Unlike the previous month, this event did not come to pass, and was quickly forgotten – but it shouldn’t have been.
It is not certain whether these model simulations correctly represent the processes involved in producing extreme heat. Even so, we must heed the warning signs.
Despite a record-warm planet, summer 2024 in the UK has been relatively cool so far. The past two years have seen global temperatures far above anything previously observed, and so potential extremes have probably shifted even further from what we have so far experienced.
Just as was the case in August 2022, we’ve got away with it for now – but we might not be so lucky next time.
Simon H. Lee, Lecturer in Atmospheric Science, University of St Andrews; Hayley J. Fowler, Professor of Climate Change Impacts, Newcastle University, and Paul Davies, Chief Meteorologist, Met Office and Visiting Professor, Newcastle University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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That last sentence says it all: “Just as was the case in August 2022, we’ve got away with it for now – but we might not be so lucky next time.”
I am giving a talk, The Next Ten Years, next Saturday to our local Freethinkers group in Grants Pass. Close to the start of the presentation I say: “The Global Temperature anomaly, as of last year, 2023, is 1.17 C, 2.11 F, above the long-term average from 1951 to 1980. The 10 most recent years are the warmest years on record.“
Finally, I am getting on in age and part of me wants to die, hopefully naturally, before more climate extremes are reached, but then another part of me would like to experience it!
More gorgeous pictures, and a saying, from Jess.
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This last saying has an ‘ouch’ to it.
Learning from Dogs 