There are 40 posts filed in Audio/Video (this is page 3 of 4).
I love it when two great (but unrelated) things get mashed together. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jane Austen’s Fight Club.
It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn close. (For those of you who need some context: Fight Club is one of my favorite movies, and not because of the fighting — it’s about much much more than that. I think you can figure the Jane Austen stuff out for yourself.)
My cat Max is gigantic. He’s huge. First of all, he’s been eating his sister’s food. Because Toto is slowly dying, we’re indulging her by feeding her ocean whitefish and tuna, her favorite canned wet food. But her appetite is declining — and Max is pushy — so that big meatball is getting a lot of her food. Plus, I think maybe he’s eating at another house in the neighborhood.
Whatever the case, Max is fat. Like a hippo.
Speaking of hippos, here’s a crazy story about a domesticated hippo, one who thinks she’s a member of the family:
That story is crazy! From everything I’ve ever heard, hippos are Not to Be Messed With. They’re big, mean, and ugly, and they’re perfectly happy to squish you to a pulp. But apparently not Jessica. She just wants to be fed.
Too bad Jessica doesn’t live around here. I could introduce her to our hippo, Max.
Here’s a typical morning at Rosings Park: I get up at 5:30, spend a few minutes checking e-mail and blog comments, pull on my workout clothes, and then head out the door for the gym. At the gym, I strain and sweat, and then I drive home to take a shower. After the shower, I have a bite to eat.
And through it all, there are cats. Okay, there aren’t any cats at the gym or in the car, but the rest of the time, there are cats. Too many cats. And often the cats are being bad. Here, for example, are Toto and Max demonstrating their favorite badnesses:
Yes, Toto loves to be on Kris’ computer. Usually she just sits upright on it, in classic cat pose. Apparently she’s decided it makes a nice bed, too. And Max? Well, he loves to jump into the window box, stretch against the screen, and then stare at us as we work in the kitchen. What a meatball.
No wonder I leave home as soon as possible so I can go get some work done at the office.
It’s been nearly two years since I posted something new at Animal Intelligence. One of my goals is to share that stuff here Foldedspace. I’ve done a pretty poor job of that, but I want to change that. I’ll try to make it a habit to share things as soon as I see them instead of putting them off.
Let’s start with the story Tarra and Bella, a dog and an elephant who are best friends:
For those who are new to my obsession with animal intelligence, I’ll summarize: I think animals are, on the whole, far more intelligent than we give them credit. I think they’re capable of a wide range of emotion, psychological, and, yes, intellectual activity. No, there are no dolphin cities (to quote Rush Limbaugh), but since when are cities a measure of intelligence? Anyone who believes that animals are only acting on instinct has never spent a lot of time with them.
Anyhow, one of my favorite aspects of animal intelligence is interspecies friendship. That is, stories like this one about Tarra and Bella, when two different kinds of animals work together or form close bonds. There are plenty of these stories to be found, and I think they’re great.
If you find a good story about animal intelligence, please send it my way. I promise to post it here in a timely manner instead of waiting to revive my animal intelligence blog…
There are some things I treasure from my youth that kids today will just never get to experience. Film strips in school, for one. Buying your favorite song on a 45rpm vinyl record, for another. And, most of all, those book-and-record sets you could get from the local department store.
When Dave gave me his hi-fi record player recently, one of the first things I listened to was my book-and-record set of The Hobbit. I love it still after all these years.
While browsing at the Marvel Masterworks forum (where I’ve been mostly a lurker for over five years, though I visit it every night), I discovered a lost treasure. Apparently some enterprising folks have taken it upon themselves to actually record some of these old book-and-record sets and upload them to YouTube.
For example, here’s Spider-Man and the Invasion of the Dragon Men, a set I actually owned as a boy:
While listening/watching, I was grinning from ear to ear. I remember this distinctly, and have thought of it many times over the years. I never thought I’d have a chance to hear it again, though.
There are other book-and-record sets on YouTube, including:
If you’re a fan of these recordings, too, then hold onto your seat because I’m going to let you in on the mother lode: Check out The Power Records Pages, which has audio files and image files on separate pages. Wow!
This is awesome.
[via Andy]
I suspect that many of you have seen this before, but it’s new to me. I drove out to Custom Box Service the other day, where Nick and Jeff just had to show me this animal intelligence video.
What happens if you’re a penguin being chased by a pod of killer whales? How do you escape? Well, if there are a bunch of tourists in a nearby boat, the answer’s pretty obvious:
Very funny stuff. I particularly like how the penguin is cuddling up next to one of the passengers near the end of this.
Now that I plan to write more at Foldedspace in the future, one topic I’ll expore over and over is animal intelligence. As many of you know, I’ve long been fascinated by animals and their cognitive powers. Though I don’t think they have human intelligence, I think they’re much much smarter than most people give them credit for.
I actually kept a blog called Animal Intelligence for a number of years, but it wasn’t something I could maintain; it was just too much work. Over the next few months, I’ll gradually incorporate some of my favorite pieces from that old site here at jdroth.com. But I’ll also introduce new stuff, too, such as this video from National Geographic:
Surya the orangutan loves Roscoe the dog. These two spend a lot of time playing together. This is a great example of inter-species friendships, one of my favorite animal intelligence sub-topics.
(By the way, did I mention that one of my goals is to actually befriend a crow? I think it must be possible; I’ve just got to figure out how.)
While browsing the Internet Archive the other day, I came across a 12-minute film called A Visit to Santa. Usually, I love these old films (Kris and I spent a week this past summer digging through the good ones), but this? This is an abomination. See for yourself:
Are you in the Christmas spirit now, kids? Then sing it together: “Let’s give thanks to the Lord above ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight!”
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, my friends. But before I reach the light, there’s still a bit of work to accomplish.
