THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT US

This is from July, but I just came across it last week and "squirreled" it away. It seems that "Richardson's ground squirrels," which seems to be a kind of gopher, "emit an ultrasound squeal to warn other animals that a predator is approaching." Researchers had noticed that upon the approach of humans and other potential predators, "the animals made audible alarm calls, opening their mouths wide and thrusting their bodies forward. But occasionally, a squirrel would do this but make no sound, its open mouth producing only a faint whisper of rushing air." The researchers recorded these whispering calls and found they contained pure ultrasound tones too high for people to hear. And "when they broadcast pure tones of this frequency to other ground squirrels, the animals recognised them as a warning and became more vigilant than usual, tilting their heads to listen and look for predators." Some would say this shows how animal intelligence and communication is more prevalent than we can measure so far, but others would point out how silly the ground squirrels must have felt when they realized the ultrasound tones were recorded, and that they'd been punk'd by us humans! Yesssss!

BACK FROM THE BALLOT BOX

I was completely consumed with the election, as you might have noticed. But I'm back now. I'll be catching up and filing some items that are older than usual, though the immediately following one is wayyyy older. Thank you for your patience.

Let's all note one thing, though, before we move on: John Kerry's pathetic pandering to Ohio voters by shooting a goose while dressed up as a hunter did not succeed in swinging that state to him. He could've stayed home that day with the same electoral result, and the goose would still be alive.

VEGAN OF THE MONTH

Norm Mason is a telephone company CEO who has instituted a free vegan cafeteria for his employees. "Soy steaks and soy sloppy joes, veggie burgers, nachos and other meatless, eggless, butter-free delicacies are cooked daily." Mason an "animal lover," is hoping to get his workers used to meat-free tastes, so he's "giving them all the fresh vegetables, meat substitutes, cakes and drinks they could ever want."