Day: February 25, 2009

INTERESTING: Elephants in “love” communicate

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/02/15/when-it-comes-to-elephant-love-calls/#more-26717

February 15th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
When It Comes To Elephant Love Calls
in: Animals, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, analysis

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Elephants, however, have two highly developed additional sensory systems at their disposal, both of which can be used for detecting the potential mate’s seismic signals (humans have both, too, just not tuned to using vibrations as communication). One system is bone conduction, in which the vibrations travel from the toe tips into the foot bones, then up the leg and into the middle ear. The other, somatosensory reception, involves vibration-sensitive cells in the bottom of the foot that send signals to the brain via nerves.

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Interesting how animals are “more in tune” with each other than humans are?

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RANT: Captive Primate Safety Act

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0209/Fast_action_on_the_Hill.html

February 24, 2009

Fast action on the Hill; Forget the stimulus — this one moved really fast.

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From the Humane Society:

   U.S. House of Representatives Passes Captive Primate Safety Act

   WASHINGTON (Feb. 24, 2009) — Eight days after a chimpanzee kept as a pet attacked and critically injured a Connecticut woman, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 80, introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to stop interstate commerce in primates as pets. The bill passed by a vote of 323 to 95. The bill now moves for consideration to the U.S. Senate, where the effort to pass the legislation is being led by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La.

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Well, at least they are NOT wasting their time on investigating waste, or anything important.
There’s no voting bloc to oppose it.
I’m sure that there won’t be any problems. Right! Just wait until two zoos want to breed them. Heaven help them if they are international zoos.
You just have to shake your head.
Couldn’t the free market been allowed to handle this without politicians grandstanding.
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe insurance companies could exclude this risk? States, (you remember those forgotten entities), might have addressed it. But, no we need a FEDERAL law.
Argh!
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