At night, it's not uncommon to see a slug along one of the baseboards in my kitchen. I don't think I've ever seen more than one, but it's not always the same slug because sometimes I'll see a really little one and sometimes I see a big one. I guess they have a rotation set up. I don't know exactly where they're coming in, or why, but it might have to do with my trash can? I haven't really investigated too thoroughly.
The annoying things about slugs is that I can't kill them like other pests. If I see a spider, I step on it. If I see a wasp, I spray it from as far away as possible. If I see a mouse, I put out a trap. But what do I do with a slug? Sometimes I just throw them outside, which probably does more to frustrate the slug than it does to deter him. (I say "him", but that's not really accurate. Turns out, slugs are either hermaphrodites or females, depending on whether they've ever had their penises gnawed off.) I've heard you can set out a slug trap bated with beer, but when I tried last summer, I caught a grand total of zero slugs. I would try it again out of desperation, but we don't really drink beer, so I'd have to go to a liquor store 8 months pregnant to get a Pabst (I'm assuming slugs aren't beer connoisseurs). Plus, I don't like the idea of leaving beer out in the yard with my dog as I don't know whether she is genetically predisposed to alcoholism.
This morning when I went outside to feed my dog, there was a huge slug on the side of the house, along with two big slugs on the outer rim of my dog's food bowl. I already have an outer pan of water that the dog's food bowl sits in, but the slugs were so long and adhesive, they'd managed to cross the moat. This was the final straw. I used a stick to gather the slugs together, then went looking for the Morten girl. As soon as that salt hit the slugs, they immediately recoiled to about a third of their size. I guess this is the worst thing you can do to a slug. When I got home, they hadn't moved from their original locations, so it looked like some sort of slimy slug death camp right there on my back deck. I left the slugs where they'd died just to serve as an example to the others, but I'm not sure slugs have attained the sort of cognitive abilities required to appreciate the weight of the threat against them. I'll just have to wait and see.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Rabid Velociraptors - Knowing is Half the Battle
Last week someone at work sent me a link to a webpage explaining the dangers of velociraptors. According to the website, "velociraptor attack is the 3rd leading cause of death for men age 27-29." And this whole time I've thought the 3rd leading cause of death for that age group was scurvy (right behind "stupid bicycle tricks" and heart disease).
After calculating the risk of death by velociraptor, I got to thinking about what other under-publicized causes of death might be lurking in the shadows of ignorance. The first thing that came to my mind was rabies. Most people don't realize how serious rabies is, but you really have to be careful. For instance, you may think that rabies can be cured by a little shot, but that's only if you seek early treatment. Once the rabies virus has reached the brain and symptoms begin to appear, treatment is useless. You can count on one hand the number of documented cases of people surviving symptomatic rabies. This is serious business!
While I was thinking about this, it occured to me that there was a potention overlap in these two dangers. I can't find any research on the subject, but can you imagine the damage that could be spread if velociraptors can carry rabies? I've only ever heard of rabies infecting warm-blooded mammels, but if velociraptors have evolved to be able to open doors, what else are they capable of???
I suppose it's a moot point as to whether velociraptors can transmit rabies, because what are the chances of surviving a velociraptor attack in the first place? However, have you seen the amount of saliva those thing produce? Consider the dire situation you'd be in if you survived a velociraptor attack with only cuts and scrapes, only to find out later that the infected raptor spit got into one of the cuts and left you with a raging case of rabies? Talk about raining on your parade.
Please, dear readers, I don't write this to scare you. In fact, I hope, if nothing else, this post will empower you. Know your enemy (whether it be velociraptors, rabies, or both) and know how to combat them. If you fear you may be exposed to any of these threats in the future, please keep a tire iron handy and talk to your doctor about vaccination.
After calculating the risk of death by velociraptor, I got to thinking about what other under-publicized causes of death might be lurking in the shadows of ignorance. The first thing that came to my mind was rabies. Most people don't realize how serious rabies is, but you really have to be careful. For instance, you may think that rabies can be cured by a little shot, but that's only if you seek early treatment. Once the rabies virus has reached the brain and symptoms begin to appear, treatment is useless. You can count on one hand the number of documented cases of people surviving symptomatic rabies. This is serious business!
While I was thinking about this, it occured to me that there was a potention overlap in these two dangers. I can't find any research on the subject, but can you imagine the damage that could be spread if velociraptors can carry rabies? I've only ever heard of rabies infecting warm-blooded mammels, but if velociraptors have evolved to be able to open doors, what else are they capable of???
I suppose it's a moot point as to whether velociraptors can transmit rabies, because what are the chances of surviving a velociraptor attack in the first place? However, have you seen the amount of saliva those thing produce? Consider the dire situation you'd be in if you survived a velociraptor attack with only cuts and scrapes, only to find out later that the infected raptor spit got into one of the cuts and left you with a raging case of rabies? Talk about raining on your parade.
Please, dear readers, I don't write this to scare you. In fact, I hope, if nothing else, this post will empower you. Know your enemy (whether it be velociraptors, rabies, or both) and know how to combat them. If you fear you may be exposed to any of these threats in the future, please keep a tire iron handy and talk to your doctor about vaccination.
Baby room update
For those of you interested in baby updates...this one's for you.
We got the replacement leg for the crib so Daniel finished putting that together. We've since added a glider, which is amazingly comfortable. The one we got not only glides, but reclines, which I think means if it were a decorating component on The Sims, the "comfort" stat would be a solid 9.
In other baby-related news, this week marks the transition from second to third trimester. Still smooth sailing up to this point, so no complaints. I have a check-up with my doctor tomorrow afternoon, but I think it's just going to be a quick one. No ultrasounds and no drinking glucose laden orange soda this time.
We got the replacement leg for the crib so Daniel finished putting that together. We've since added a glider, which is amazingly comfortable. The one we got not only glides, but reclines, which I think means if it were a decorating component on The Sims, the "comfort" stat would be a solid 9.
In other baby-related news, this week marks the transition from second to third trimester. Still smooth sailing up to this point, so no complaints. I have a check-up with my doctor tomorrow afternoon, but I think it's just going to be a quick one. No ultrasounds and no drinking glucose laden orange soda this time.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
My neighbors called the police and all I got was this lousy blog post
Up until recently, the house next door to us and the one across the street have been unoccupied. They've been this way for quite some time, but in the course of a month, both have sold and had people move in. It's nice to have neighbors again, but we haven't really gotten to know them very well yet. I haven't had time to notice things like whether they like to sit out on their deck, how often they mow their lawns, or when they tend to come and go. Likewise, they haven't had time to notice that some weeks we forget to put our trash out, and on occasion, our garage door likes to pretend it's going to close, then wait until our backs are turned, open back up and leave the garage light flashing. As a result, when our new neighbors noticed that when most of the lights in our house were off, but our garage door was up and the light had been flashing frantically for over 2 hours, they decided to be on the safe side and call the police.
It doesn't really bother me that someone called, because I'm sure they were just trying to make sure my house wasn't being burgled. I just wish I knew what the criteria or theshold is for "suspicious activity" these days. For instance, the officer mentioned that the light had been that way for two hours, so whoever called had been paying attention for that long. If you think your neighbor's house had been broken into, perhaps giving the perpetrator a 2 hour head start is not a good idea. In two hours time, the majority of my worldly posessions could have been carted out the back door and sold on the black market. (Is there a black market for old NES cartriges and a stockpile of Life cereal? I may never know) I just wish that if there's to be an unofficial neighborhood crime watch, I would at least know who's in charge so I can tell them about my glitchy garage door and how running the dishwasher and the microwave simultaneously sometimes trips a circuit breaker. I don't want to be trapsing out to the fuse box with a flashlight some evening and end up in handcuffs.
It doesn't really bother me that someone called, because I'm sure they were just trying to make sure my house wasn't being burgled. I just wish I knew what the criteria or theshold is for "suspicious activity" these days. For instance, the officer mentioned that the light had been that way for two hours, so whoever called had been paying attention for that long. If you think your neighbor's house had been broken into, perhaps giving the perpetrator a 2 hour head start is not a good idea. In two hours time, the majority of my worldly posessions could have been carted out the back door and sold on the black market. (Is there a black market for old NES cartriges and a stockpile of Life cereal? I may never know) I just wish that if there's to be an unofficial neighborhood crime watch, I would at least know who's in charge so I can tell them about my glitchy garage door and how running the dishwasher and the microwave simultaneously sometimes trips a circuit breaker. I don't want to be trapsing out to the fuse box with a flashlight some evening and end up in handcuffs.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Does my car know the three laws?
We bought a new car this past weekend. Today, I spent some time reading through the owner's manual, and I'm convinced that cars will be driving themselves within a decade. I present this evidence for your consideration:
Power steering - A long time ago, when you turned the steering wheel, that turned something else, which turned something else which eventually turned the tires. Sort of an "arm bone connected to the wrist bone" type situation. Now, the effort I expend turning the steering wheel is no where near strong enough to turn the tires, but I get help from the car to make it easier. If you've ever had the power steering go out on your car or you've driven a car old enough not to have this feature, you'll know what a miracle power steering is.
Speed sensitive controls - I'm excited to be driving a car with speed sensitive volume. If I start going faster, the radio gets louder so that I don't have to adjust the volume when getting on and off the freeway. Turning that little nob is such a hassle, right? Daniel's truck has this feature, and I love it. On our new car, not only can the radio volume alter itself based on my speed, but the windshield wipers do the same. My last car had variable speed intermittent wipers, but this takes it to a whole new level.
Anti-lock brakes - At one point, it guess it was common knowledge that if you're trying to stop your car on a slippery surface, you should pump your breaks repeatedly in order to keep them from locking up. Those days are no more. The concept still works, but no manual pumping necessary with ABS. Now, the cars do the pumping automatically whenever they sense that it might be necessary. I don't know how they know to do this, but it's probably more reliable than me trying to remember to do it myself.
Vehicle Stability Assist - This was a new one on me. I think it's a combination of traction control and electronic stability control. Basically, if the car starts skidding, it will take over and apply breaks to individual wheels in order to correct an over or under steer. In addition, the car might reduce or increase the engine power in order to attain the overall goal of me not wrecking.
In addition, my car locks and unlocks itself, turns on the headlights when it gets dark, and re-programs my radio presets if I drive outside the range of my usual stations. Mine doesn't, but a lot of cars offer a navigation system that gives you directions and keep you from getting lost. I've even heard of cars that can park themselves. Don't get me wrong though. I don't mind that the cars are starting to drive themselves. All I ask is that when they finally take over, the ride be smooth enough that I can do a crossword puzzle and not spill my drink.
Power steering - A long time ago, when you turned the steering wheel, that turned something else, which turned something else which eventually turned the tires. Sort of an "arm bone connected to the wrist bone" type situation. Now, the effort I expend turning the steering wheel is no where near strong enough to turn the tires, but I get help from the car to make it easier. If you've ever had the power steering go out on your car or you've driven a car old enough not to have this feature, you'll know what a miracle power steering is.
Speed sensitive controls - I'm excited to be driving a car with speed sensitive volume. If I start going faster, the radio gets louder so that I don't have to adjust the volume when getting on and off the freeway. Turning that little nob is such a hassle, right? Daniel's truck has this feature, and I love it. On our new car, not only can the radio volume alter itself based on my speed, but the windshield wipers do the same. My last car had variable speed intermittent wipers, but this takes it to a whole new level.
Anti-lock brakes - At one point, it guess it was common knowledge that if you're trying to stop your car on a slippery surface, you should pump your breaks repeatedly in order to keep them from locking up. Those days are no more. The concept still works, but no manual pumping necessary with ABS. Now, the cars do the pumping automatically whenever they sense that it might be necessary. I don't know how they know to do this, but it's probably more reliable than me trying to remember to do it myself.
Vehicle Stability Assist - This was a new one on me. I think it's a combination of traction control and electronic stability control. Basically, if the car starts skidding, it will take over and apply breaks to individual wheels in order to correct an over or under steer. In addition, the car might reduce or increase the engine power in order to attain the overall goal of me not wrecking.
In addition, my car locks and unlocks itself, turns on the headlights when it gets dark, and re-programs my radio presets if I drive outside the range of my usual stations. Mine doesn't, but a lot of cars offer a navigation system that gives you directions and keep you from getting lost. I've even heard of cars that can park themselves. Don't get me wrong though. I don't mind that the cars are starting to drive themselves. All I ask is that when they finally take over, the ride be smooth enough that I can do a crossword puzzle and not spill my drink.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Cute as a function of familiarity
A while back, I read an article on the internet about how real was too real when it came to artificial intelligence, robotics and CGI. I remember the page had charts and a write up about it, but I can't remember what it was called or even if it was an actual scientific study or just a joke on xkcd*. Either way, the idea was that anytime you see a human-like representation of something that isn't actually human (anything from a robot to Gumby to Tom Hanks in Polar Express), as the realism increases, the emotional attachment increases to a point, then drops off. In other words, as it becomes more realistic, it reaches a peak cuteness, then just becomes creepy. It was meant to explain why you feel an emotional response to characters in Wall-E, but not the ones in Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within.
vs 
The reason I got to thinking about all this was because I saw this picture of a cute baby:
When I see a picture like that, there is a definite emotional reaction - an internal "squee" of sorts. This might just be because I'm 6 months pregnant, but I think it's more than that. I suspect most people would have have an emotional reaction to this picture, although some might be more effusive than others. With this picture, my attention is especially drawn to the baby's eyes. This is because, when a person is born, their eyes are as big as they will ever be, even though their head starts out small. This results in baby's eyes being disproportionately large compared to the size of their faces. Supposedly this is part of the reason why people have that automatic emotional response to babies and tend to perceive them as "cute". From there, I got to wondering if you could plot a baby's "cuteness" as a function of how similar they look to a full grown adult similar to the way you can plot the emotional reaction to human-like representations as a function of their realism
If you were to plot such a graph, on one end you'd have babies that look the least like adults. This would include babies that have some sort of physical deformity, but I think it would also include newly born babies. I'm not talking about newborns that have been cleaned up and had cute hats places on their heads, I'm talking about babies moments after they're born. At first sight, there is no doubt a strong emotional reaction from the parents of this child, but I don't think an objective observer would judge these babies as "cute". They're sort of slimy and gross looking and would probably score low both on "cute" and "adult-like":
Further along on the graph would be babies that have grown a little and are starting to look more like adults. Take the baby pictured above, for instance. He's been cleaned up, can hold eye contact and probably smiles a lot. These babies exhibit many characteristics of an adult, but they're still disproportional in the way they look and awkward in the way they move. I think this puts them at the height of their cuteness and gives them the innate ability to elicit a strong emotional response. If you don't think so, just take another look at that baby up there. Can you think of anything you could change to make this baby cuter? I can't think of anything. Maybe a puppy in the background, but I think that just reinforces my point.
As for the far end of the "adult-like" spectrum, I can only speculate on what would cause a baby to score high in adult qualities. Perhaps one of those children with the rare disorder that causes them to age incredibly fast? I can't find a picture of a baby who has that to determine how early that becomes noticeable. The only real-life example I can think of is less specific, but if you've ever seen a baby that looks like an old man, you'll know what I'm talking about. I can't put my finger on exactly what gives a baby this look, but they just tend to be bald, have less baby fat and generally look like they're scowling:
VS 
In closing, I'd just like you to ear in mind that any information seen in this post is not based on any scientific study, double blind study groups, or statistical analysis. Unfortunately, until I can either find or become a wealthy benefactor, this whole hypothesis will remain complete conjecture. In the mean time, I did make a graph to represent this jist of my theory and hopefully lend it some credibility:
* EDIT: Thanks to the help of an astute reader, the mystery has been solved. The original theory plots what is known as the "Uncanny Valley".
vs 
The reason I got to thinking about all this was because I saw this picture of a cute baby:
When I see a picture like that, there is a definite emotional reaction - an internal "squee" of sorts. This might just be because I'm 6 months pregnant, but I think it's more than that. I suspect most people would have have an emotional reaction to this picture, although some might be more effusive than others. With this picture, my attention is especially drawn to the baby's eyes. This is because, when a person is born, their eyes are as big as they will ever be, even though their head starts out small. This results in baby's eyes being disproportionately large compared to the size of their faces. Supposedly this is part of the reason why people have that automatic emotional response to babies and tend to perceive them as "cute". From there, I got to wondering if you could plot a baby's "cuteness" as a function of how similar they look to a full grown adult similar to the way you can plot the emotional reaction to human-like representations as a function of their realism
If you were to plot such a graph, on one end you'd have babies that look the least like adults. This would include babies that have some sort of physical deformity, but I think it would also include newly born babies. I'm not talking about newborns that have been cleaned up and had cute hats places on their heads, I'm talking about babies moments after they're born. At first sight, there is no doubt a strong emotional reaction from the parents of this child, but I don't think an objective observer would judge these babies as "cute". They're sort of slimy and gross looking and would probably score low both on "cute" and "adult-like":
Further along on the graph would be babies that have grown a little and are starting to look more like adults. Take the baby pictured above, for instance. He's been cleaned up, can hold eye contact and probably smiles a lot. These babies exhibit many characteristics of an adult, but they're still disproportional in the way they look and awkward in the way they move. I think this puts them at the height of their cuteness and gives them the innate ability to elicit a strong emotional response. If you don't think so, just take another look at that baby up there. Can you think of anything you could change to make this baby cuter? I can't think of anything. Maybe a puppy in the background, but I think that just reinforces my point.
As for the far end of the "adult-like" spectrum, I can only speculate on what would cause a baby to score high in adult qualities. Perhaps one of those children with the rare disorder that causes them to age incredibly fast? I can't find a picture of a baby who has that to determine how early that becomes noticeable. The only real-life example I can think of is less specific, but if you've ever seen a baby that looks like an old man, you'll know what I'm talking about. I can't put my finger on exactly what gives a baby this look, but they just tend to be bald, have less baby fat and generally look like they're scowling:
VS 
In closing, I'd just like you to ear in mind that any information seen in this post is not based on any scientific study, double blind study groups, or statistical analysis. Unfortunately, until I can either find or become a wealthy benefactor, this whole hypothesis will remain complete conjecture. In the mean time, I did make a graph to represent this jist of my theory and hopefully lend it some credibility:
* EDIT: Thanks to the help of an astute reader, the mystery has been solved. The original theory plots what is known as the "Uncanny Valley".
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