Tuesday 15 October 2024
Research confirms a link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers
Wednesday 4 September 2024
Gifted word-learning dogs can remember the names of their toys for years
"After two years, we had a hard time remembering the names of the toys but just the dogs. They did not seem to struggle."
"We know that dogs can remember events for at least 24 hours and odours for up to one year, but this is the first study showing that some talented dogs can remember words for at least two years."
"The findings are our current study cannot be generalised to other dogs because we only tested gifted word-than dogs i.e. individuals that show a special talent for acquiring object words."
Saturday 17 February 2024
AI-generated scientific paper illustration of a rat with a giant erect penis shocks the scientific community
AI-generated scientific paper illustration of a rat with a giant erect penis shocks the scientific community. The words of the labelling is rubbish. The words are made-up. Image: The Telegraph. |
Thursday 18 January 2024
Middle-aged women can be happier if they eat more plant-based protein!
"Consuming protein in midlife was linked to promoting good health in older adults at. We also found that the source of protein matters. Getting the majority of your protein from plant sources at midlife, plus a small amount of animal protein seems to be conductive to good health and good survival to older ages."
“Dietary protein intake, especially plant protein, in midlife plays an important role in the promotion of healthy aging and in maintaining positive health status at older ages,” Ardisson Korat said.
Thursday 11 August 2022
Small dogs beat cats when looking for love
I am afraid that this is something that domestic cats can't really do very well or hardly at all: walk on a lead with a man! How often do you see that? Almost zero is the answer but research from the University of Jaen in Spain indicates that men who are unlucky in love might have a solution in the shape of a pint-sized pooch.
Orlando Bloom looks safe to women! Photo: WireImage. On July 16th 2020 it was reported that he was heartbroken about the loss of his dog. |
Scientists in Spain found in a study involving 300 women that when they looked at men with small dogs, they were perceived as being less intimidating and threatening. The women said that they felt "more in control, safer, and calmer" when around men with small dogs. It appears that big dogs don't do the same thing which is unsurprising seeing as the kind of men who like big dogs are probably quite big (or aggressive?) themselves and, in any case, big dogs are intimidating.
The female participants in this study were showed a range of photographs of men and women on their own or with a small dachshund dog or a medium-sized Portuguese podengo-like mixed breed dog.
They were shown two types of photograph. In one, the context was positive i.e. a well-lit urban space in the daytime. In the other the context was negative being a dimly lit quiet street at night. The participants were asked to imagine they were alone and that the person was walking towards them.
When those people who were walking towards them were accompanied by a dog, either small or medium-sized, the participants responded more positively than when they were alone.
The researchers said that:
"The small dog prompts more positive emotional reactivity and higher levels of safety than the medium-sized dogs in most emotional contexts, pointing out that emotional and safety benefits from dog presence might also be related to size."
One of the study authors, Raphael Delgado, suggested that the presence of a dog would indicate that a man was nurturing and capable of caregiving which made them less threatening in the eyes of the female participants.
He also said that a dog's presence "promotes a sense of safety". And even in intimidating and frightening settings such as a dimly lit street the presence of a dog had a soothing effect.
Sadly, this is where dogs outdo cats. As I recall, when women see men with cats, they think they are gay or weak. Perhaps I have exaggerated but it is something like that.
Hannah Betts of The Times writes amusingly about her boyfriend's experiences when walking with their whippet. She says that their whippet increased her boyfriend's allure from their very first outing. She said:
"As she danced around the park like a tiny gray form, women of all ages charged from every corner, shouldering me out of the way to pay homage to man and pup. Later, when she became tired, Terence had to carry her up the Kings Road tucked into his Barbour. Cue a conga line of fainting Sloanes."
Clearly, for Hannah Betts's boyfriend, Terence, the small dog works wonders if a man is looking for love.
Sunday 18 July 2021
Millions of UNUSED research animals killed in Germany including cats
A report which was discussed in April 2020 in the news media revealed a shocking statistic namely that in Germany 3.9 million animals died at research laboratories and these animals had never been used in research. I'll restate that because it is so shocking. Animals brought into research laboratories or bred there and which were not subsequently employed in the research were killed nonetheless and the number of these animals stands at 3.9 million. The figure relates to 2017 in Germany.
Animals not used but killed in Animal research in Germany amounted to 3.9 million in 2017. Photo: Image by Tibor Janosi Mozes from Pixabay. |
The information was released after the Green party requested the information. Perhaps more shockingly, across the entire European Union 12.6 million animals were killed under the same circumstances. I find that number hard to digest. Is it really true? It is saying that almost 13 million animals were killed for no reason! No reason whatsoever. This is mass animal cruelty but entirely legalised.
Initially the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to sugarcoat the statistics by releasing the number of animals killed after they were experimented on. That number is high enough at 2.8 million in Germany in 2017. Apparently 2017 saw the highest number of animals ever bred for research in Germany. They included 718 cats, monkeys, fish and over a quarter of a million rats.
About 50% are used for basic research experiments, 27% used in testing for new medicines, while 15% were tested in respect of specific diseases. Across Europe animal experiments are banned to research cosmetics. The same applies to the UK.
Comment: there are many instances when animals that have been tested on for scientific purposes are still viable as domestic pets but they are invariably killed. But, in the EU, when they are not even used, abused, exploited and injured by scientific researchers they are still killed and thrown away. You just can't fathom it can you?
The German Animal Welfare Act allows the use of animals in research despite the fact that the law provides extensive and far-reaching protection. Interestingly, animals under the law in Germany are regarded as "fellow creatures". Hardly true. In order to justify experiments on animals in Germany the researchers must always show that the goal of the experiments cannot be reached using any other methods or techniques. Specifically, experiments can only be carried out if at least one of the following criteria is fulfilled:
- The experiments serve the purpose of prevention, diagnosis or treatment of diseases in humans and animals;
- They help recognize environmental hazards;
- They are part of safety testing for materials or products;
- They are necessary for basic research.
Note: I've taken those words verbatim from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics webpage in the interests of complete accuracy.
Friday 16 July 2021
Increasing the life of cats from 15 to 30 years - a cure for feline kidney disease
Professor Miyazaki believes that he might be able to double the expected lifespan of domestic cats to 30 years using a treatment he is working on.
Toru Miyazaki, 59, professor at the Graduate School of Medicine of the University of Tokyo. Picture: the University. |
His extensive research found a new protein in the blood of humans and animals. He calls it AIM which stands for "apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage". Yes, I know that doesn't help!
He says that feline kidney disease is caused by dead cells piling up in the urinary tract which blocks the passageway like a clogged drain. This leads to kidney damage.
He says that AIM acts as an agent to unclog the pipes. AIM "goes to the problem area through the blood and flags exactly where the waste is. AIM itself does not dissolve the problem cells; rather other cells like macrophages come along to eat them". Macrophages are cells which destroy harmful organisms. They are also described as a "type of white blood cell that eats and digests foreign material inside the body."
He wants to administer AIM to cats via a vaccine as a preventative medicine and perhaps in other ways (orally or in a capsule?). He's started clinical trials in 2020 (reported). He wants the treatment to become a commodity i.e. a useable product by 2022.
My cat died on CKD. Photo: MikeB |
He's excited by the possibility of AIM extending the lives of cats dramatically. He's correct in saying that feline kidney disease is a mass killer, shortening the lives of domestic cats in huge numbers.
His work is reactive essentially. I hope that he is successful but what about researching the reason why feline kidney disease is so disastrously prevalent in the domestic cat population? Is it the food? It might be. Why do domestic cats die of kidney far more often than humans? We need to address that question with more vigour.
No one comes up with a satisfactory answer as to why domestic cats are so predisposed to kidney disease. The situation indicates an underlying but as yet unknown environmental reason. My best bet is the commercial foods that we feed them. It might be the dry foods which have gained in popularity tremendously over the past decades.
CKD affects 8+ percent of cats of 10 years old and older. One well-known vet, Dr Elizabeth Hodgkins believes that dry cat foods are the culprit and feeding high quality wet foods can help dramatically plus a powdered phosphorus binder. One cat, Georgia, did very well on "fluids, a phosphate binder and a commercial high-protein diet. Read her book Your Cat to find out more.
Cat owners should also wish the best of luck to the professor in his quest to increase the life of domestic cats from 15 to 30 years.
Thursday 18 June 2015
Five Female Wildcats Are the Ancestors of All Today's Domestic and Feral Cats
It seems extraordinary but based upon DNA research five female North African wildcats (felis silvestris lybica) are the ancestors of the entire world's approximate 500,000,000 house cats. To reiterate; the research tells us is that all of today's domestic cats come from just these 5 female North African wildcats.
The researchers concluded that five females of this species of wildcat made the transition from being wild to being semi-domesticated within settlements where they were safe from predators and where they had a ready supply of rodents as prey which infested the settlers' homes and granaries.
As all the feral cats in the world today come from domestic cats then we have to say that all of the domestic, stray and feral cats on the planet today are descended from five female cats of the species felis silvestris lybica.
The research was carried out by Carlos Driscoll of the US National Cancer Institute and colleagues including David MacDonald of Oxford University. They spent more than 6 years analysing the DNA of wildcats, purebred cats and house cats.
They discovered that the DNA of all house cats (including of course purebred cats) fall within the DNA cluster of the Near Eastern wild cat. This made this subspecies of wildcat the ancestor of the domestic cat.
Source: NY Times June 29th 2007. The photo is of my tabby cat in whom you can see the North African wildcat ancestor!
Featured Post
i hate cats
i hate cats, no i hate f**k**g cats is what some people say when they dislike cats. But they nearly always don't explain why. It appe...
Popular posts
-
The big Maine Coon cat (MC) is very impressive and the biggest purely domestic cat in the world (I am excluding the wildcat hybrids ) but no...
-
Photo of Nebelung Cat Lovenblues Mozart Bronikowski copyright © Helmi Flick – please respect copyright. The Nebelung has a medi...
-
Russian Blue Kitten photograph by Sensual Shadows Photography Before you go in search of Russian Blue Kittens have a look at these and h...