Big Question: Will we Talk to Animals

Discovery News is currently running a series of articles about the “Big questions for 2012”. On the 15th of December, the big question was “Will we talk to the animals?”.

If I could pick a superpower, this would be my superpower.

Studies have already shown that dolphins and humans use the same mechanics to create sound (Ie: the blowhole functions shockingly like a larynx). Studies indicate that children, in particular, are keyed in to understand dog barks (though I’m a part of this club, still. I can identify different types of barks from my dogs, and associate those with the correct meaning much as a parent works out what different sounding crys from their infants mean). Strides have also been made with our closest relatives, the Bonobos, in understanding how their vocalizations communicate information about the food they eat.

Jennifer Viegas, who wrote the original article goes so far as to speculate that their might be a primitive communication method that lies under the surface in all mammals, including linking to an article about the subject from 2006.

I hope this gets worked out in 2012. Nature won’t give me a superpower. I’d love to be able to buy the one I’ve always wanted…

Kitsu Got a Kindle

As of the 18th I acquired a Kindle Touch 3G (with special offers) for Christmas from my father.

So far I’ve enjoyed the device, finishing up a book I had started on the iPad’s Kindle App on it, and the whispersync between devices has worked phenomenally. I’m really liking the eink screen, and find it easier to read from for long periods than an LCD like the iPad.

It charged quickly, and the user interface came to me (though I am a techy type person) very very easily. I figure there will be followup comments as I adapt and develop a closer relationship with the device, but we shall see. Nothing like being able to bring your entire digital library on vacation without a fight, though. And once summer dawn’s again I’ll really put the eink to the test in full sun, I promise.

Invisibility Cloak: A Reality?

Just when you thought you’d heard or seen everything, the invisibility cloak is on its way to reality. That’s right… Reported by Tracy Staedter of Discovery News on 5 October 2011 a team from the University of Texas at Dallas have created a carbon nanotube float that visually hides objects, as shown in the video below.

A Brand New Day

I decided that it was time for a brand new day here at Kitsufox.com . I’ve lost interest in the LOL-posting and just… haven’t been able to make myself do it. So I think I’m doing to start making myself sit down and… You know… write real stuff for blog entries every day.

I don’t know what the topics will be, but I’ll be shooting for an entry a day. It might be works I like on dA, it might be a book review… It might be anything that takes my mind, even rehashing news stories. I might even do the occasional LOL post, though for the sake of everyone who wants to skip those, I’ll start buying them under cuts.

Thus, see y’all tomorrow, with the first of these new fangled posts.

Horses

I haven’t been a horse in years.

The person who taught me to ride them, Marge, passed away of late. Horses have been on my mind since. Even worse since I went to the auction at her place on Saturday.

I wish I had an opportunity to ride. Really ride. Not get up on a trail ride horse whose so sick of the incompetents who have no business on a motorbike (let alone something with a pulse and a brain) who flop around like dying fish and flap about like clothes drying on a line. I want to get on a horse with a clever mind and dancing hooves and have it keen to rise to what I ask of it.

I want to finish learning to do a flying change.
I wand to finish what Marge and I started.