Thank Goodness for Pet Psychics:
Photo caption I stumbled across: "Tinker Bell, a six-pound Chihuahua, rests in her owner's arms after a happy reunion. The dog was blown away by a 70-mph gust of wind on April 25 and lost for two days. Dorothy and Lavern Utley of Waterford Township, Mich., said a pet psychic helped them find Tinker Bell."
I wonder who this pet psychic is? Maybe he can get me in touch with my dear departed tabby? (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)
Cheers,
Tho, I must say, it's an ill wind that blows no yapping lapdog.
But psychics are good too. In any case, poor chihuahua...
Temple Grandin could call herself a "cow psychic" if she wanted to.
Self-taught or not. I see a trend. "Eugene Volokh, First Amendment psychic!"
Pet psychics vote for Democrats in disproportionate numbers, and Obama will need Michigan's electoral votes in the next election.
Doggone.
"It's not unlikely that a self-taught cat behavioral expert will be more successful marketing his or her services as a 'cat psychic.'"
I've thought of advertising myself as a quantum mechanic, but I guess I have too many qualms.
Learn from my name, David M. Nieporent. It is my gift to you.
Well, it could be true. Notice they didn't say the psychic used psychic powers to find Tinker Bell. Maybe the psychic just walked around yelling, "Here, Tinker Bell," and eventually the dog heard and came running.
Could be. Or not.
This isn't a bad explanation for psychics in general. I saw a pet psychic at work once, and virtually all of what she said was either: a) something that could be picked up from educated observation of the pet and its owner, or b) totally unverifiable, making no difference to the pet owner's future actions. I've seen interviews with ex-regular-psychics, too, where they pretty much admitted they were just going off careful observation.
How can you be so incapable of grasping the obvious?
Question your assumptions. My handle is intended as a challenge to those who, like Nieporent, post complaints about DB instead of just ignoring him.
It's clearly not an indication that I refuse to read him. Obviously I read DB, because here I am.
The smaller an animal is, the less damage it suffers from falling (or being blown away). Injury is caused by the force of impact, and force = mass*acceleration, so less mass means less force. For example, a fall that would kill a man would only discombobulate a cockroach.
Ah. Well, that does make sense and goes to the 'animal physics' idea. Still, blown into a culvert and lived for 2 days?
Call me a sceptic.
(Love the handle, by the way.)
Two approaches fall out of that: terminal velocity in still air is lower for a smaller animal falling; and ratio of bursting strength of skin (or fracture strength of bones) to stress due to impact at any velocity is greater for smaller animal.
Quick top of the head algebra tells me that in both approaches, advantage is inversely proportional to R, the animal's "radius". But the top of my head could be wrong, as it is sometimes very small.
Hey, I'm no physicist, but I do think the 'living organism' (aka, samll doggy) factor needs some consideration.
Not all 'bodies in motion' are created equal - or, blown away equal.
If that's your joke, I'm forced to suggest that you learn what humor is.
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