horse and plow farming makes a comeback

from the Yahoo headlines this morning comes an article on horse and plow farming.

Goats hired to ease wildfire dangers

Tue Jul 12, 7:32 AM ET. From Yahoo News.

LOS ANGELES - Goats grazing on 12 acres of brush at San Pedro's Peck Park Canyon for the past two weeks should have the wildfire danger eliminated this week. "The goats were happy, the city was happy and the park looks beautiful. We look forward to welcoming them back," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. More...

Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero

July 2, 2005
Special to World Science

Researchers are exploring whether a parrot has developed a numerical concept that mathematicians failed to grasp for centuries: zero.

Oddly, it seems he may have achieved the feat during a temper tantrum, the scientists say.

Although zero is an obvious notion to most of us, it wasn’t to people long ago. Scholars say it came into widespread use in the West only in the 1600s; India had it about a millennium earlier.

Yet Alex, a 28-year-old Grey parrot, recently began—unprompted—using the word “none” to describe an absence of quantity, according to researchers at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

Alex thus possesses a “zero-like concept,” wrote the scientists. More...

a page on sericulture

here is an interesting page about sericulture, or silkworm cultivation.

tags: forage, mulberry, virginia, south carolina, gypsy moth, introduction, acetate, replacement, industry, light, fiber, filter, cultural entymology, cottage industry, monopoly, china, silk road, confederate cotton, textile, wool, thread, felt, demand, model, map, cocoon, string theory, reverse engineering, intellectual property

a new dolphin!

hi folks! I just found this on Yahoo.
apparently a new species of dolphin--the Australian Snubfin--has been discovered living off the coast of Australia.

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SYDNEY (AFP) - The first new dophin species to be identified in 30 years has been found in Australian waters, researchers announced.

The shy Australian snubfin dolphin lives in shallow coastal waters in northern Australia and possibly Papua New Guinea, said scientists Isabel Beasley and Peter Arnold.

The snubfin was initially thought to have been an Irrawady dolphin, usually found in Asia and Australia, but DNA tests proved that it was a different species, said Beasley of James Cook University in Townsville.

The dolphin has been given the scientific name of Orcaella heinsohni in honour of earlier research in the 1960s and 70s by the university's George Heinsohn.

Because the snubfins live in coastal waters "they are susceptible to many human threats including accidental catch in shark and fishing nets as well as effects of coastal development," Beasley said.

"Human threats on Irrawaddy dolphins in Southeast Asia are even more severe. Five Southeast Asian dolphin populations were recently classified as 'critically endangered' by the World Conservation Union. More...

fuzzy searching

Dear Nantoka,

After a few minutes on the Internet, I feel kind of spacey and easily distracted. I can’t remember a thing.

What are some keywords I might use to learn more about the science behind this?

Sincerely,

Henrietta Kittyson
201 Dogs on Trucks Boulevard
Colorado, Virginia.

Hi Henrietta,

There is no scientific proof yet that surfing the Internet rots your brain, but some interesting findings have been reported in this area.

Researchers have apparently found that performing a few relatively simple tasks on the Internet leaves the subject as incoherent as someone who is suffering from sleep deprivation. I can't remember who did the research, but there is a link somewhere in my notes.

Anyway... Fuzzy Searching might be a handy search term for you to start with.

Other good search terms might include information architecture, built-in obsolescence, overhaul, makeover, knowledge management, multitasking, variability, behavioral programming, noise, pattern recognition, and binary systems.

And for some general inspiration about the magic of design science, look up the Late Great Buckminster Fuller.

Surf safely!