waves worry. sand shrugs. birds laugh.

sky’s blush brighten’s fast.

Ouch, score one for the rat king! Totally unrelated photo.

Mice suspected in deadly cat fire
Story from BBC NEWS  |  2008/12/19

Mice may be responsible for a blaze that killed nearly 100 cats at an animal shelter near the Canadian city of Toronto, officials say.

The fire at the humane society shelter in Oshawa also killed three dogs and some rats that were up for adoption.

An initial report from the fire marshal says mice or rats chewing through electrical wires in the ceiling are likely to have sparked the blaze.

Offers of help have been pouring in from animal lovers across Canada.

“It’s unfortunate and ironic that mice caused the fire that killed the cats,” Toronto Humane Society spokesman Ian McConachie told the BBC News website.

“Unfortunately, the mice probably perished in the fire as well,” he added.

The $250,000 (£137,000) fire is still under investigation by the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office.

Mr McConachie said it would be some days before a final report would be released.

In all, only nine dogs, two cats and one rat were rescued in Wednesday’s early morning blaze.

They are being housed in a nearby municipal shelter, while volunteers rebuild the burnt-down shelter for the Humane Society of Durham Region.

Throwing tinsel at the tree is no where near as fun as a finding the lil pooping guy in the nativity scene. Cultural awareness is fun! Apparently in some cultures the lil pooping guy is as much of a holiday tradition as a meal with family. This year the pooping Obama  is hot. The Pope is a perrenial favorite as are political figures of all sorts. This seems to be the main source for buying theses specialty items, www.caganer.com.

Huh? Pooping Guy? Christmas?

From wiklpedia.
“In Catalonia, as well as in the rest of Spain and in most of Italy and Southern France, traditional Christmas decorations consist of a large model of the city of Bethlehem, similar to the Nativity scenes of the English-speaking world but encompassing the entire city rather than just the typical manger scene. The caganer is a particular feature of modern Catalan nativity scenes, and is also found in other parts of Spain and southwestern Europe, including Salamanca[1], Murcia (cagones), Naples (cacone or pastore che caca) and Portugal (cagöes)[2]. Accompanying Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds and company, the caganer is often tucked away in a corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene. There is a good reason for his obscure position in the display, for “caganer” translates from Catalan to English as “pooper”, and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating.”

Pooping Obama is a best-seller
www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3118788.html

Tiny plastic figures of Barack Obama and Gordon Brown relieving themselves in public have become online bestsellers.

They are among a host of politicians, sports stars and celebrities to be given the dubious honour of being turned into a ‘caganer’.

Catalonians traditionally celebrate Christmas by placing a caganer, which translates as pooper, in a nativity scene.

People find it fun to try to spot the tiny defecating figures which are supposed to bring prosperity and a good harvest.

Traditionally, caganers would be small bearded men in full Catalan costume but these days, it’s more likely to be a celebrity. Last year, Barcelona footballer Thierry Henry was the most popular figure sold.

But this year, internet orders from the rest of the world, especially the US, have made Barack Obama the best-seller.

Others immortalised into the mini figures include Mr Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni, plus Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal.

Here are the Top 10 oddballs of the animal world:
undated  |  www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25576785

1: Introduction
From the outside, the platypus looks like a grade-school art project assembled by a kid too busy making spitballs to pay attention in class. The creature, which is classified as a mammal, has a duck’s bill and webbed feet, lays eggs like a reptile, but has fur and rears its young on milk.

Researchers say the platypus genome is equally cobbled together from bird, reptile and mammalian lineages. One more oddity: Males can deliver venom from tiny spurs on each hind limb. Click on the “Next” arrow above to learn about nine more oddballs in the animal world.

2: Colossal squid has plate-sized eye
In April 2008, scientists in New Zealand looked a thawing colossal squid in the eye and discovered that the eye is, well, colossal - about the size of a dinner plate. That makes it the largest animal eye on Earth. Fishermen caught the 1,000-pound creature last year in Antarctic waters and froze it intact for scientific study. Colossal squids can reach 46 feet in length and have tentacles equipped with suckers and hooks. Scientists believe the creatures can descend to 6,500 feet and are active, aggressive hunters.

3: Aye-aye gives grubs the finger
The aye-aye is a bushy-tailed primate from Madagascar with big eyes and bat ears. But call it funny-looking and it just might extend its extra-long middle finger in your general direction. The member of the lemur family otherwise uses the extended digit to fish out grubs from the crevices of trees. Captive aye-ayes such as the one shown here from Duke University are teaching scientists about the evolution of color vision.

4: Star-nosed mole sniffs out food, fast
The fleshy appendages that ring the snout of the star-nosed mole, shown here, make it one strange-looking creature. But when it comes to eating, those 22 tentacles help the mole detect and devour food faster than the human eye can follow - in a fraction of a second. Researchers say the speedy feeding allows the mole to prey on small insect larvae that would otherwise be too energetically costly to eat. The creature lives and forages under the cover of marshes and wetlands along the east coast of North America.

5: Mexican burrowing toad is genetically different
For an amphibian, the stocky and squat Mexican burrowing toad doesn’t look all that strange, but it’s actually unique. A global conservation program called EDGE of Existence ranks the toad as the most “evolutionarily distinct” amphibian in the world. A fruit bat, polar bear, killer whale, kangaroo and human are all more closely related to one another than the toad is to any other species, according to the program. The Mexican burrowing toad, as its name suggests, spends most of the year underground, coming out only after particularly heavy rains to breed in pools of water.

6: Yeti crab lurks on the ocean bottom
Named after the legendary shaggy man-beast that tromps through the snows in some of the world’s tallest mountains, the Yeti crab blindly scurries about hydrothermal vents along a ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. First observed in 2005, the crab, officially named Kiwa hirsute, sports a carpet of pale yellow hairs on its arms. Scientists suspect the crab uses those hairs either to farm bacteria or to feel its way around the seafloor for food and potential mates.

7: Narwhals, the ‘unicorn’ whales
Unicorns are purely mythical creatures, but the myths may have been inspired by narwhals. Most males and some females among the 2,200- to 3,500-pound whales sport an 8-foot-long appendage that emerges from the left side of their upper jaw. Scientists recently discovered that the elongated tooth is packed with nerve endings, making it extraordinarily sensitive. The whales may use it to determine the salinity of water and search for food. Male narwhals are also known to rub their tusks together, presumably because it gives off a unique sensation.

8: Sucker-footed bats stick to Madagascar
In January 2007, scientists announced the discovery of a new species of bat that uses suckers on its thumbs and hind feet to stick to broad-leafed plants such as the traveler’s palm. The new species, Myzopoda schliemanni (left image), was found on the dry, western side of the African island nation of Madagascar and is closely related to another sucker-footed bat called Myzopoda aurita (right image) that lives in the humid eastern forests. Conservationists were heartened by the discovery because it suggests the bats can adapt to pioneering broad-leafed plants in deforested areas. Only about 8 percent of the island’s original forest cover remains.

9: Long-eared jerboa hops onto the screen
In December 2007, conservationists released the first known footage of an endangered rodent they’ve nicknamed the “Mickey Mouse of the Desert.” Known more formally as the long-eared jerboa, the little critter has ears about one-third larger than its head, and legs that allow for hopping like a kangaroo. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as endangered. One threat: the domestic cat.

10: Ligers, wholphins and grolar bears, oh my!
Every now and again, trysts between two different species result in oddball offspring that capture the public’s fascination. Ligers, which are a cross between a male lion and a female tiger, were immortalized in the 2004 cult movie “Napoleon Dynamite”: The main character of the 2004 cult movie, played by Jon Heder, describes it as “pretty much my favorite animal.” (A real one is shown above.) Other popular hybrids include wholphins, which are a cross between false killer whales and Atlantic bottlenose dolphins; and the “grolar bear,” a cross between a grizzly bear and polar bear.

Watch NBC video of a liger:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/6992800#6992800

Whale-dolphin hybrid has baby wholphin:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7508288/

Hairy hybrid: Half grizzly, half polar bear:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12738644/

Stanley Milgram

WOW, this is kinda eerie. The Milgram experiment’s original findings are still valid. When told to do so by an authority figure normal everyday people will physically torture someone. Happy New Year.

Jerry M. Burger, PhD

Most People Will Administer Shocks When Prodded By ‘Authority Figure’
www.sciencedaily.com  |  Dec. 22, 2008

Nearly 50 years after one of the most controversial behavioral experiments in history, a social psychologist has found that people are still just as willing to administer what they believe are painful electric shocks to others when urged on by an authority figure.

Jerry M. Burger, PhD, replicated one of the famous obedience experiments of the late Stanley Milgram, PhD, and found that compliance rates in the replication were only slightly lower than those found by Milgram. And, like Milgram, he found no difference in the rates of obedience between men and women.

Burger’s findings are reported in the January issue of American Psychologist. The issue includes a special section reflecting on Milgram’s work 24 years after his death on Dec. 20, 1984, and analyzing Burger’s study.

“People learning about Milgram’s work often wonder whether results would be any different today,” said Burger, a professor at Santa Clara University. “Many point to the lessons of the Holocaust and argue that there is greater societal awareness of the dangers of blind obedience. But what I found is the same situational factors that affected obedience in Milgram’s experiments still operate today.”

Stanley Milgram was an assistant professor at Yale University in 1961 when he conducted the first in a series of experiments in which subjects – thinking they were testing the effect of punishment on learning – administered what they believed were increasingly powerful electric shocks to another person in a separate room. An authority figure conducting the experiment prodded the first person, who was assigned the role of “teacher” to continue shocking the other person, who was playing the role of “learner.” In reality, both the authority figure and the learner were in on the real intent of the experiment, and the imposing-looking shock generator machine was a fake.

Milgram found that, after hearing the learner’s first cries of pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks; of those, 79 percent continued to the shock generator’s end, at 450 volts. In Burger’s replication, 70 percent of the participants had to be stopped as they continued past 150 volts – a difference that was not statistically significant.

“Nearly four out of five of Milgram’s participants who continued after 150 volts went all the way to the end of the shock generator,” Burger said. “Because of this pattern, knowing how participants react at the 150-volt juncture allows us to make a reasonable guess about what they would have done if we had continued with the complete procedure.”

Milgram’s techniques have been debated ever since his research was first published. As a result, there is now an ethics codes for psychologists and other controls have been placed on experimental research that have effectively prevented any precise replications of Milgram’s work. “No study using procedures similar to Milgram’s has been published in more than three decades,” according to Burger.

Burger implemented a number of safeguards that enabled him to win approval for the work from his university’s institutional review board. First, he determined that while Milgram allowed his subjects to administer “shocks” of up to 450 volts in 15-volt increments, 150 volts appeared to be the critical point where nearly every participant paused and indicated reluctance to continue. Thus, 150 volts was the top range in Burger’s study.

In addition, Burger screened out any potential subjects who had taken more than two psychology courses in college or who indicated familiarity with Milgram’s research. A clinical psychologist also interviewed potential subjects and eliminated anyone who might have a negative reaction to the study procedure.

In Burger’s study, participants were told at least three times that they could withdraw from the study at any time and still receive the $50 payment. Also, these participants were given a lower-voltage sample shock to show the generator was real – 15 volts, as compared to 45 volts administered by Milgram.

Several of the psychologists writing in the same issue of American Psychologist questioned whether Burger’s study is truly comparable to Milgram’s, although they acknowledge its usefulness.

“…there are simply too many differences between this study and the earlier obedience research to permit conceptually precise and useful comparisons,” wrote Arthur G. Miller, PhD, of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

“Though direct comparisons of absolute levels of obedience cannot be made between the 150-volt maximum of Burger’s research design and Milgram’s 450-volt maximum, Burger’s ‘obedience lite’ procedures can be used to explore further some of the situational variables studied by Milgram, as well as look at additional variables,” wrote Alan C. Elms, PhD, of the University of California, Davis. Elms assisted Milgram in the summer of 1961.

Journal references:

1. Jerry M. Burger. Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today? American Psychologist, Vol. 64, No. 1
2. Arthur G. Miller. Reflections on ‘Replicating Milgram. American Psychologist, Vol. 64, No. 1
3. Alan C. Elms. Obedience Lite. American Psychologist, Vol. 64, No. 1

Adapted from materials provided by American Psychological Association.

Oh dear, it sounds like this story bears watching. Alaskans are independent minded and it sounds like Mr Powers is not abiding with the Cease and Desist order. Since it’s so near the solstice and the darkest time of year for Alaskans, they may be a bit, um, on edge. Personally, I think snowzilla is extremely well done and handsome, but a bunch of Russians aren’t parked in my yard gawking at him.

City code officer slays Snowzilla
Giant snowman deemed a public nuisance, safety hazard

By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK, ebluemink@adn.com  |  December 21st, 2008 01:43 PM  |  www.adn.com

Anchorage’s famous giant snow man, Snowzilla, finally met its match.

It wasn’t the weather. It wasn’t angry neighbors bearing shovels and pick axes.

It turns out Snowzilla’s biggest foe — the one who felled the controversial but much-loved giant — was a notice-bearing city code enforcement officer.

That’s right, Snowzilla was abated.

It was just a few years ago that 16-foot-tall Snowzilla arose in a residential yard in Airport Heights, launching an annual procession of local gawkers and an international media blitz.

Camera crews came from Russia and Japan.

But Snowzilla attracted a lot of naysayers too.

Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors.

So, city officials have deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard.

A few weeks ago, city code enforcers left three red signs at Snowzilla’s bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist.

The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers family home at 1556 Columbine St. The Powers family and some of their neighbors have been building Snowzilla in the Powers’ front yard since 2005.

When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn’t have a full torso or head.

“The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it,” Billy Powers said on Sunday.

City officials involved in the cease-and-desist order could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

But on Dec. 11, the city notified the Airport Heights community council about its decision to abate Snowzilla, telling council members that the two-story snowman caused increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the structure itself was unsafe.

The city also asked council members to watch out for continued construction and to consider weighing in on Snowzilla at an upcoming, council members said.

At last Thursday’s community council meeting, no one offered a Snowzilla-related motion. “We’re not really a policing agency,” said Becky Kurtz, the council president.

Now, Snowzilla is just a big pile of snow rubble.

Powers said he doesn’t plan to rebuild.

He can’t.

Under the city’s nuisance abatement order, if he tries, he could get arrested.

“Eventually, Christians decided that a broader Christmas celebration would help compete with pagan December festivals.” Merry Christmas, Yule or Feast of Saturnalia to one and all!

Ancient winter festivals contributed to our holiday customs
December 17, 2008  |  The Herald-Dispatch  |  Jay O’Dell

The word Christmas originated as a compound word meaning “Christ’s Mass,” referring to a gathering of people to worship Christ (Jesus). The Roman letter X was used as an abbreviation for Christ, hence Xmas is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas today.

But many Christmas traditions were celebrated for centuries before Christ was born. Many of the Christmas traditions originated in ancient Mesopotamia within Asia (present day Iraq and Iran).

Celebrations before Christ included traditions such as the 12 days of Christmas, yule log, giving of gifts, parades, songs, holiday feasts and church gatherings.

The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, the chief god being celebrated in a winter festival for 12 days. The Persians and Babylonians celebrated similar festivals. Special winter celebrations also were held by the Europeans. The Scandinavians held a large winter festival called the Yuletide with bonfires and a feast. In English, the Yule celebration and word Yule mean the same as Christmas. Apples were tied to branches of trees during Yule as a reminder that spring and summer would return.

The ancient Greeks and Romans also held winter festivals to celebrate the Greek God, Kronos, and Roman God, Saturn. The Roman festival called Saturnalia lasted two weeks and included large meals, exchange of gifts and visiting friends, similar to the present Christmas.

Christians thought it was wrong to honor pagan gods as with the Romans, Greeks and other cultures. The Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ as a solemn religious holiday.

Eventually, Christians decided that a broader Christmas celebration would help compete with pagan December festivals.

Dec. 25 was sacred to the Romans, Persians and Greeks since their festivals were held during this time. The Christian church eventually used the tradition of lights, gifts and merriment in starting a celebration of Christmas. In 137 A.D., the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of Christ to be celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 A.D., another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, chose Dec. 25 as the observance of Christmas. Our current Christmas date is, therefore, more than 1,600 years old.

The exact day of Christ’s (Jesus) birth has never been determined. One reason is that the calendar has been changed with a time adjustment. Christ’s birth has been celebrated since around 98 A.D. The actual season of Jesus birth is thought to be in the spring.

Christmas was slow to catch on in America. The early settlers in the colonies considered Christmas to be a pagan ritual. The celebration of Christmas was banned by law in Massachusetts during colonial days (1600s and 1700s)

But eventually, Christmas, with its inherited traditions such as a tree, ornaments, feasts, exchanging presents, visiting relatives, use of holly and other symbols, became a widely celebrated holiday on Dec. 25.

Jay O’Dell is a former teacher of history and other subjects in public schools and college. Suggestions for column content or other inquiries can be sent to him at: P.O. Box 469, Lavalette, WV 25535.