Science!

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.”

Post by **Shirley** » Sun Apr 28, 2013 4:46 pm

That is incredible. A little scary, actually.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Apr 28, 2013 4:48 pm

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

Post by **Shirley** » Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:24 pm

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).

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:35 pm

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).

I was sort of kidding, sort of serious. On the serious side, my dog definitely has a time based routine based on our regular comings and goings, so I could see something like that happening on the trains, because the dogs do have to (or maybe they don't and we're giving them a bit too much credit) figure out which train to get on in the first place.

ABC News report on the behavior:

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 4:01 am

In a couple of hours, I'm going to walk across town and pay a visit to Wren Library at Trinity College. It looks like this:

What I'm most excited about though is that the library has a first edition of Newton's Principia, quite possibly the greatest work of math and science ever produced. Oh, and not just any first edition. This one was actually Newton's personal copy, and one he filled with hand-written notes to use in making the improved second edition. Pretty cool, no?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:19 am

Try not to spill your coffee on it, Shirley.

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:42 am

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 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 10:20 am

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

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:08 am

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.

That's awesome. I walked the grounds of Oxford last week. We would have preferred to go to Cambridge since my wife spent some time studying there, but it wasn't on the bus tour with Stonehenge and Windsor Castle.

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:28 am

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.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:38 am

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.

Don't know. My dad helped push him across a bridge years and years ago when his chair died and aid was having trouble.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:51 am

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:17 am

First trailer for the new Cosmos...

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:59 am

Jerloma wrote:

The best thing was him explaining why the Mariners couldn't hit his sick 12-6 Uncle Charlie.

Post by **Shirley** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:40 am

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

Wow.

Better be a helluva show to live up to that trailer. I think they can do it.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:58 am

- 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?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 11:07 am

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?

Duh. Who else ascended into the heavens?

(two people, but they don't merit that, probs.)

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:27 pm

Optical Calibration Target Plate . . . on your way out. (Redux!)

Original thread from unswamp

Okay. This time, this time Elvis has really left the building: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.

Today's announcement from NASA

It still amazes me how incredible an accomplishment this is. It still appalls me how little attention it receives.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:02 am

There's probably some sentient society out there that is all "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!?!?!?"

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:05 am

It's about time, Voyager!

Baloney · Post by **Baloney** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:27 pm

In interstellar space but still in solar system

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/stop-s ... lar-system" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Post by **Sabo** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:05 am

It would take a lot of energy to completely vaporize a human being.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:35 pm

So I was reading an article about my high school and ended up reading the Wiki page. Of the four named "famous" alums, I saw a good friends older brother listed. He was 2 years older, so I didn't know him all that well, but he was part of the team that created the first fermionic condensate. For those ignorant dullards out there, that is the 6th state of matter. Who the hell knew there was more than just gas, liquid and solid?

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:44 pm

Plasma. And Bose-Einstein. I only got to five.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 9:12 pm

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

Right, I did know plasma. Fermionic is apparently very similar to Bose-Einstein. At least according to the interwebz.

howard · Post by **howard** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 12:41 am

I remember bose because of bosons. And those, I remember only because of this:

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:46 am

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

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:55 am

There's a new disease killing a shitload of starfish in the Pacific that gives them legions that cause their arms to twist into knots until they rip off of their bodies and then walk away in the opposite direction.

ZMan · Post by **ZMan** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:16 am

Poor Patrick. :(

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:43 pm

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

Great for Middle Eastern geography as well.

howard · Post by **howard** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:18 pm

U.S. regulators plan car-to-car communications to prevent accidents

I had to run up to Boston on Friday afternoon to meet my business partners. I drive pretty fast on the highway. As I was coming back Saturday night, doing about 90mph, it occurred to me that the days of speeding like this are numbered. I think 2017 is way optimistic; it will take longer than three years, even if Google does it.

Good to set standards and for the FCC to set aside some bandwidth.

Edit: linked to a better article. And to add words.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:58 pm

Car One: "I am a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan travelling Northeast at 95 MPH weaving in and out of traffic. Warning: I am a stolen vehicle that is being operated by a severely intoxicated unemployed Russian attempting to escape the mafia."

Car Two: "I am a 1998 Honda Accord being driven by a Chinese female."

Car One: "Oh, shit!"

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:11 pm

Speeding 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.

Post by **brian** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:14 pm

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.

Hey, all that efficiency comes at a price.