If Looks Could Kill - Graphic Art & Design

Found this analogy interesting: “The meaning of life. A unified field theory. The big reason why.”

The earth, he’d say, is just a big machine. A big processing plant. A factory. That’s your big answer. The big truth.

Think of a rock polisher, one of those drums, goes round and round, rolls twenty-four/seven, full of water and rocks and gravel. Grinding it all up. Round and round. Polishing those ugly rocks into gemstones. That’s the earth. Why it goes around. We’re the rocks. And what happens to us - the drama and pain and joy and war and sickness and victory and abuse - why, that’s just the water and sand to erode us. Grind us down. To polish us up, nice and bright.

Cleaning out the toy room(s). Below is a sampling of the collectibles I’m horking on Ebay. Naturally, I’m keeping the most cherished ones.

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The Double-Nosed Andean tiger hound, Xingu is said to be intelligent and fond of salty biscuits.

“Other dogs snarl at Xingu, because they can sense he’s different. He’s the smallest dog there but he sees the other dogs off,” Colonel Blashford-Snell said.

“He’s very intelligent and with a wonderful sense of smell, as you might think.

They say he “[isn’t] a terribly handsome dog,” but I beg to differ, I think he’s a cutie! I bet he makes sniffy-sounds galore, at twice the power of your average dog! :D

I don’t know that I agree with ongoing breeding to perpetuate the double-nose, especially since the article mentions a majority of double-nosed puppies in one litter dying.

Breeding strikes me as an odd thing to inflict upon animals, especially having experienced it firsthand with my purebred cat. It’s unnatural, as in, this is not how it would transpire in nature, if they were left to their own devices.

While they have the desired traits specific to a breed, they also have increased odds for afflictions, sickness and mental disorders, also specific to that breed - all from the limited gene pool they’re drawing from.

It’s an odd form of genetic racism, inflicted upon animals by humans. I can see why it’s done, as characteristics and personalities vary wildly across breeds, but it’s still weird.

(Source)

Angry men are admired in the workplace while volatile women are seen as incompetent, unless she expresses a just cause for her fury. Even then, she’s not viewed nearly as capable as a similarly dispositioned man. (Source)

Reading subtle clues in faces can guide the brain, resulting in unconscious warnings, a new study suggests. I’m convinced this is what creeps me out about many ppl, conflicting micro-expressions, insincerity in general. (Source)

Perhaps it’s the 2nd coming? ;)

Virgin Komodo Dragon gives birth (Source)
Captive Shark has ‘virgin birth’ (Source)

Now possible in humans via science! Women could feasibly create artificial sperm from bone marrow to impregnate others (Source)

Look lively boys, better make yourself useful. This doesn’t bode well for men in light of recent data.

Article on the similarities between rats and humans. Interesting bits:

• They laugh when tickled, especially when they’re young
• Rats dream as we dream, in epic narratives of navigation and thwarted efforts at escape
• Look forward to good sex, “They wiggle and paw at their ears, hop and dart, stop and flash a come-hither look backward.”
• One study showed that rats accustomed to good times tend to be optimists, while those reared in unstable conditions become pessimists.

(Source) - NYTimes free signup required

Brings this documentary, on animal emotion, to mind.