Feel down? It may be better to talk to the dog

My pug Millie (shown here) is a great listener. She’s also a great therapy dog. I better watch out here – she isn’t a licensed therapy dog and I don’t want some therapy dog activists getting upset thinking I’ve don’t know the difference.

In one of my recent columns I talked about therapy dogs: 

What do dogs, cats, and PTSD have in common?

When the column came out most people enjoyed it, but there were some therapy dog trainers with organizations that felt I was misleading the public when I said my pug Millie is my therapy dog (in the column). I was being light-hearted about it, but some people just didn’t get it I guess.

Anyway…let’s segue into today’s article on pets and people:

Many married couples say they share their troubles with their pet, poll finds

Excerpt:

“A third of pet-owning married women said their pets are better listeners than their husbands, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll released Wednesday. Eighteen percent of pet-owning married men said their pets are better listeners than their wives”

‘Sunset Daze’ reveals bawdy reality of seniors

Retirees display dirty mouths, sense of adventure on new reality program

“Sunset Daze,” which makes its debut tonight, pushes the button as it tries to hold its own in the boozy, oversexed reality TV genre. The first episode has commentary on vibrators and going “commando,” slang for not wearing underpants. WE positions the series as “The Golden Girls” meets “Jersey Shore,” the ribald MTV series that spawned Snooki.

Mexico warns citizens in Arizona

Turnabouts fair play I’d say. How many times have we issued warnings to our citizens traveling in Mexico?

This is an issue that’s growing bigger by the day as November elections loom nearer. We’re already seeing plenty of grand-standing, but folks…we ain’t seen nuthin yet! 

Critics decry new immigration law as discriminatory

“Mexico warned its citizens living in or traveling to Arizona that they could be "harassed" there after the state passed one of the toughest immigration laws in the United States last week.”

Newborn diminutive pinto stallion may be a record-breaker

Four-year-old Garrett Mullen watches three-day-old pinto stallion named Einstein in Barnstead, N.H., Sunday, April 25,2010. The diminutive horse born in New Hampshire could lay claim to the world record for lightweight foal. The pinto stallion named Einstein weighed just 6 pounds and measured 14 inches in height when he was born Friday in Barnstead, N.H. Those proportions fit a human baby just about right but are downright tiny for horse, even a miniature breed like Einstein.

Go here to see more photos of Einstein.

Are Tea Partiers Racist?

A new study shows that the movement's supporters are more likely to be racially resentful.

Since the Tea partiers emerged there has been accusations that they are racist. There’s been no empirical evidence to support those claims…until now:

Excerpt:

“A new survey by the University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race & Sexuality offers fresh insight into the racial attitudes of Tea Party sympathizers. "The data suggests that people who are Tea Party supporters have a higher probability"—25 percent, to be exact—"of being racially resentful than those who are not Tea Party supporters," says Christopher Parker, who directed the study. "The Tea Party is not just about politics and size of government. The data suggests it may also be about race."

Vintage ads - What are these people doing?

What are they doing? Apparently, the girl on the left is choosing a modern-styled lamp, and the couple on the right is preparing to drill and paint things (and can barely contain the excitement).

If you like this kind of vintage advertising go here to see more.

CCLE advancing freedom of thought

The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought. Their mission is to develop social policies that will preserve and enhance freedom of thought into the 21st century.

The CCLE is dedicated to protecting and advancing freedom of thought in the modern world of accelerating neurotechnologies. Their paramount concern is to foster the unlimited potential of the human mind and to protect freedom of thought.

The CCLE supports technological advances, and believes that the application and regulation of new drugs and neurotechnologies are best channeled by a renewed allegiance to the fundamental right to freedom of thought. Their guiding principles are privacy, autonomy and choice.

image source

Betting on Ruin – threats abroad and at home

Image source

Do space aliens pose risks to Earth? One genius thinks so

Growing up I watched every Sci-Fi movie that came out. The majority of the space aliens depicted during the fifties and early sixties were threats to mankind.

But things started to change in the late seventies and early eighties and space aliens got a makeover. Instead of being threats, aliens were friends with earthlings. Think E.T., and it’s popular spawn of good space aliens that followed on the big screen.

A noted Astrophysicist, Stephen Hawkins, recently told his peers (and the press) that earthlings better avoid contact with space aliens because he doesn’t think they are going to be nice to us.

Shoot…Hawkins even suggested that if space aliens discover our world that they will probably want to colonize it.

I’m not sure how this genius (and I’m not being rude because he is a real genius) came to the conclusion he did, but the way I figure it there was always a 50-50 chance of extra terrestrial’s being good or bad. Call it universal odds. The fact is we can speculate all we want about visitors from space. Until contact is made the story won’t be told. If anyone’s still around to tell it that is!

Should the military intervene in civilian crime?

I think calling in the military to fight the violence in Chicago would be a mistake. There’s enough people angry at the federal government right now, without giving them fuel like this.

The growing violence is a problem, but the local politicians need to address it at the state level and not incite people by bringing in the military. I can see no good coming from that arrangement. 

Lawmakers: Military could quell Chicago violence

Excerpt:

“Two Illinois lawmakers say violence has become so rampant in Chicago that the National Guard must be called in to help.

Chicago Democratic Reps. John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford made a public plea to Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday to deploy troops.

The request comes amid a recent surge in violent crime, including a night last week that saw seven people killed and 18 wounded, mostly by gunfire.”

What's therapeutic, affects moral judgment, and confuses crocks?

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 04/25/2010 01:27:24 AM PDT

It's a comic villain's dream. The good guy is strapped down and bombarded by a powerful beam that can alter his sense of morality. It's also reality, according to a recently released report on magnets by the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists from MIT, Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center got together and scrambled the moral center of some willing subjects, using magnets. No, really. It does sound kind of sinister, but these respected neuroscientists suggest just the opposite. They believe the research has useful applications that may, for example, benefit the courts.

The researchers reported they affected the “moral decision-making process” with magnetic fields. The study discovered the part of the brain that changes people's moral judgments. I don't think this new study will change our legal system soon. It's a big, clunky setup involving huge magnets. It sounds scary to me, and I hesitate to consider all the nefarious applications if it ends up in the wrong hands. That's assuming it hasn't already.

Go here to read the rest. 

PHOTO: Florida wildlife managers have taped magnets to the heads of crocodiles to try and stop them from returning to residential areas. The temporary headgear is thought to disrupt their ‘homing’ ability because the reptiles are thought to rely on the Earth’s magnetic fields to navigate. Researchers at Mexico’s Crocodile Museum in Chiapas reported they had some success with the method, using it to permanently relocate 20 of the reptiles since 2004.”                                                                     Photo source