The Swamp

Rush2112 wrote:J-lo did you at least get a laugh out of Kepler-69?

Jerloma wrote:The lesson as always...I'm way too too dumb for astronomy.

Animals in the wild have to continually contend with the expansion of human civilization. Certain wild animals have learned to coexist and even thrive in urban settings, pigeons and raccoons being obvious examples.

Well, subway goers in Moscow are becoming familiar with stray dogs. These dogs have become accustomed to using the subway system as a means to travel across Moscow, even managing to catch a nap along the way. The dogs hop on in the morning and travel to the city center where they spend the day begging for scraps. At the end of the day they get back on the subway and travel to the suburbs where they sleep in relative safety.

The dogs have become experts at judging the length of time they need to stay on the train, and seem to work together to ensure that they exit the subway at the right stop.

Scientists believe this phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, and Russia’s new capitalists moved industrial complexes from the city center to the suburbs.

Dr Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and Evolution Institute, said: “These complexes were used by homeless dogs as shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses. Because the best scavenging for food is in the city center, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway – to get to the center in the morning, then back home in the evening, just like people.”

rass wrote:I'm sort of surprised the Moscow subway runs on schedule enough for the dogs to figure out the routine.

Shirley wrote:

rass wrote:I'm sort of surprised the Moscow subway runs on schedule enough for the dogs to figure out the routine.

I'm guessing it's not time based. The dogs can recognize the sounds and smells of the right stations. I'm sure they announce the name of the station as they roll in (or they announce the next station as they leave the previous).

Shirley wrote:The library was very cool. They also had a first folio of Shakespeare's works, some hand-written notes of Byron and Farraday, along with the original hand-written version of Winnie The Pooh.

We followed up that visit with lunch at The Eagle, a 350-year-old pub where Crick and Watson famously announced that they had discovered the structure of DNA. Cambridge has some history.

wlu_lax6 wrote:Have you seen Stephen Hawking? I have a friend who is a professor there says they cross paths fairly often.

Shirley wrote:

wlu_lax6 wrote:Have you seen Stephen Hawking? I have a friend who is a professor there says they cross paths fairly often.

Not, not rolling around town. But then, most of the streets around the colleges are cobblestone and probably not too fun for him. I'm guessing your friend sees him inside the college (Trinity, I think), and visitors can't see much inside of those.

Jerloma wrote:

Jerloma wrote:First trailer for the new Cosmos...

Jerloma wrote:- I don't like the music or at the very least I hope that's not the new theme music and they were smart enough to keep the classic theme.

- I'm hoping it's not all astronomy and physics. When people start talking quantum theory, my puny little brain goes awry. I'm hoping they include some terrestrial happenings.

- Was that Jesus at 1:11?

howard wrote:Plasma. And Bose-Einstein. I only got to five.

Steve of phpBB wrote:I learned about plasma being the fourth state of matter from They Might Be Giants.

Johnnie wrote:Spreading isn't numbered in Germany. This country got something right. It's liberating to be able to do 130 in "no limit" zones on roads that have zero billboards and wind enough to never be boring.

The fact that America dedicates law enforcement to long stretches of road where potentially only you are driving is just absurd. But then again, it's absurd that everything is closed on Sunday here because Germans take their rest days seriously.