Archive for the Audio Updates Category

Emily Dickinson is my favorite poet and my favorite poem by her is 1212:
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
Even though we humans like to use our written and spoken language as evidence of our superior brain-power, like all animal displays words [...]

Between Two Worlds II
After I did last week’s podcast, I kept thinking about  animals who live between two worlds, either by their own choice or those imposed on them by humans.  When I did that, I came up with other examples and the feeling that there were even more. In fact, by the time I [...]

Between Two Worlds
Because nature isn’t linear, it’s only natural to expect there to be individuals and species which don’t quite fit into the little boxes we humans create for them. When these animals occur in the wild, their ability to span two worlds is a source of amazement to us. Who can deny what such [...]

Driving Down the Rabbit Hole
One of the many things I enjoy about working with animals is that their behavior is so understandable. This isn’t to say there aren’t any surprises. There are many. But once you understand the basics, there’s a certain logic and elegance that underlies it. Because even we humans who say we [...]

Getting the Big Picture
Something else about the gift magazine that serves as the jumping off point for this podcast: the issue I received was 2 years old!  There was something about getting a brand new copy of a 2-year-old magazine for my waiting room that struck me as incredibly funny. I mean, what better place [...]

Of Colors and Genes
This podcast was the result of spending—or wasting as the case may be—weeks trying to select new colors for my website redesign, only to get blindsided by a quirk of computer and human perception. On the other hand, the collapse of my naive belief that, given the same color code, computer systems [...]

Those Little Things that Mean a Lot
Remember the childhood rhyme “For Want of a Nail”?
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And [...]

When Exact Isn’t Good Enough
I’m writing this at a time that some of you may have never experienced. It’s not in the wee hours of the morning or in some exotic time zone. I’m writing this at approximately 10:40 a.m.  Not exactly 10:38 or 10:41 as your digital clock, watch, computer, or iPhone might tell [...]

Mirror Images
As I was reading various articles about the mirror test for self-awareness that’s supposed to prove human superiority (click here for one such article), I couldn’t help thinking about termites.  Specifically, I was thinking about an African species called the bellicose termite. They build huge mounds that include chambers in which they eliminate their [...]

Post-Holiday Pet Let-Down
For most of us the beginning for a new year is a time of regrouping. Regular schedules return, sometimes complicated by having to play catch-up on tasks we let go over the holidays. Then there’s atonement for all we ate–Christmas cookies for breakfast even!–and how little we exercised. Unwrapping presents does not count [...]