If these are scientific peer review journals, Whippet, and you incorporate the concept of neoteny in your article, you're going to get creamed by your peers. You haven't shown a true understanding of the concept, just your own interpretation, based on a cursory glance at the subject. If you think that's adequate, and you have gathered enough evidence, in other areas to support your hypothesis, then bravo. Good luck!
MERCURYgirl--Sorry about your cat dying. When I was free-flying my cockatoo, I had a highly detailed dream about a goshawk pursuing him. I decided not to fly him for a couple of days, as a result of the dream. The dream actually unfolded 2 days later with a goshawk doing the exact same maneuvers right outside my front window, as in my dream, but in pursuit of a crow, rather than my cockatoo. I got the distinct impression that had my bird been flying around, he would have been the likely target. The white birds always get nailed first.
I dreamed about my dog falling to his death, and just barely saved him from doing so, a short time later, as well.
So I can easily credit your story of sensing your pet's demise, or of your cat's ability to signal this and you to recieve the signal. What book were you reading at the time, if you don't mind me asking.
PeakOil is You
I want a dog.
Re: I want a dog.
by threadbear » Mon 13 Nov 2006, 18:19:46
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Re: I want a dog.
by WildRose » Mon 13 Nov 2006, 19:06:28
A husky-shepherd cross we had a number of years ago signalled to us that his demise was near with his behavior. It was a cold February, and we knew he was ill with an autoimmune blood disorder which would have required regular, expensive blood transfusions to buy him more time. What he did for about a week before his death was ask to be let outside, then he'd go out and curl up in a ball in the snow and we'd have a heck of a time getting him back inside, to the point where near the end I'd literally drag him in. Then, finally, he went out one last time and we found him on the back step a few minutes later, having died from shock.
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Re: I want a dog.
by mercurygirl » Mon 13 Nov 2006, 19:07:14
Threadbear, I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of the book, 15 years have passed. Perhaps a library book. I read everything that comes within reach. But it was quite an odd experience, so I remember that part of it. I conclude that the reading immersion helped me be "mindful" or "in the now" in some way. I have periodic extrasensory abilities and I think lots of others do too. But I distinctly remember it as if she "told" me.
Those are some wild dreams you had! It really makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Those are some wild dreams you had! It really makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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Re: I want a dog.
by threadbear » Mon 13 Nov 2006, 19:50:55
Wild Rose, That's a sad but interesting story. It reminds me of the story of the old eskimo leaving his village and lying down on the ice to die. If he was an old dog, they can become disoriented, a bit like old people and just not know what they are doing or where they are. But your dog appears to have wanted to die, for sure.
Mercurygirl, "Gifted" with a sixth sense, are you? It's a curse as much as a blessing, isn't it?
Mercurygirl, "Gifted" with a sixth sense, are you? It's a curse as much as a blessing, isn't it?
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Re: I want a dog.
by WildRose » Mon 13 Nov 2006, 19:56:53
Hi, Threadbear. He was eight years old, which apparently is getting "up there" for a large dog, but not really old. I think he was really preparing to die.
The dog I currently have, a Shepherd, is 15 years old and definitely has some dementia! My kids have been quite perplexed with her behavior of late.
The dog I currently have, a Shepherd, is 15 years old and definitely has some dementia! My kids have been quite perplexed with her behavior of late.
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Re: I want a dog.
by BlisteredWhippet » Tue 14 Nov 2006, 17:44:51
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I')f these are scientific peer review journals, Whippet, and you incorporate the concept of neoteny in your article, you're going to get creamed by your peers. You haven't shown a true understanding of the concept, just your own interpretation, based on a cursory glance at the subject. If you think that's adequate, and you have gathered enough evidence, in other areas to support your hypothesis, then bravo. Good luck!
You must have missed my sarcasm:
As far as neotany goes, it matters little to my argument. I think my understanding of neotany is sufficient in that I can integrate it into my conclusions about human pet ownership. Gould can kiss my ass, and my peers, if I have any, can do so as well.
Neotany: a hypothesis about primate development and socialization, largely self-explanatory. Big brained people might have spent their entire lives proving this simplistic concept, just to get their names placed in the canon of great anthropological achievement, but I could care less. When I was a student of Physical Anthropology, I produced my own theories on the origins of bipedal locomotion that were dismissed as simply "interesting theories", only later "proven" to be "true" by someone with a far higher Wonk quotient than I. Fine.
Frequently, I have found that the modern "professional" intellectual is lacking in simple curiosity, and over-reliant on methodology and process and too focused on their discipline ahead of philosophical considerations. They seem to forget there are other ways of knowing things, or they restrict their thinking simply for the sake of efficiency, or a belief that the intellectual sphere will serve its own needs by drawing together various fields of inquiry in forming new interesting insights. But whatever.
Anthropology, in particular, I've noticed, is full of a bunch of stuffed-shirts. Probably something to do with the lack of positions available for all those fossil-polishers and missing-link finders. Only the biggest, most simple-minded nerds get the big paycheck positions and the notoreity of publication. The rest inflict mental damage on college students. I remember my instructor, he came to class dressed like Indiana Jones complete with fedora and suede leather bomber jacket. Sweet. I always kind of considered the class to be fairly lightweight. Something about sitting in a room being lectured at about the technicalities and theories of primate-hood while being a primate struck me as kind of absurd... a discipline in which you can waste tons of time coming to conclusions that even a child can recognize. Being shown video of primate groups socializing, and a couple of videos of Koko, and you have everything you need to understand about anthropology that is useful and applicable, unless you want to work in Creation Sciences or a Zoo.
The supreme pleasure of philosophy is that you rely on logic and reason to reach conclusion and gain insight, instead of the insular world of a bunch of "experts" and their cronies and publications. Peer review, my ass.
I can only think of one instance where an expert echoed my theories about pet ownership, but I didn't read his stuff and just heard it in passing. You could probably look up his theories on the Google. I recall that he characterized the pet-owner relationship as "parasitic". I'll bet his career didn't go anywhere after that, but you never know, he might have been paid money to research and form that hypothesis. Maybe my theories share a certain sympathy, I don't know. If he's a big shot anthropologist with credentials, maybe you'll have an easier time of digesting his theories.
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Re: I want a dog.
by threadbear » Tue 14 Nov 2006, 17:57:15
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I')f these are scientific peer review journals, Whippet, and you incorporate the concept of neoteny in your article, you're going to get creamed by your peers. You haven't shown a true understanding of the concept, just your own interpretation, based on a cursory glance at the subject. If you think that's adequate, and you have gathered enough evidence, in other areas to support your hypothesis, then bravo. Good luck!
Frequently, I have found that the modern "professional" intellectual is lacking in simple curiosity, and over-reliant on methodology and process and too focused on their discipline ahead of philosophical considerations. They seem to forget there are other ways of knowing things, or they restrict their thinking simply for the sake of efficiency, or a belief that the intellectual sphere will serve its own needs by drawing together various fields of inquiry in forming new interesting insights. But whatever.
Seeing as that is the case I wonder what you think of the idea that other civilizations from elsewhere in the universe are visiting Earth. And I'm not being sarcastic. Seeing as it's a subject that has been cartooned and caricatured, to death, let's see if you can talk about it, without pathologizing me, or similarly reducing me to a cartoon. How open minded are you?
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Re: I want a dog.
by BlisteredWhippet » Wed 15 Nov 2006, 17:26:48
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')Seeing as that is the case I wonder what you think of the idea that other civilizations from elsewhere in the universe are visiting Earth. And I'm not being sarcastic. Seeing as it's a subject that has been cartooned and caricatured, to death, let's see if you can talk about it, without pathologizing me, or similarly reducing me to a cartoon. How open minded are you?
')Seeing as that is the case I wonder what you think of the idea that other civilizations from elsewhere in the universe are visiting Earth. And I'm not being sarcastic. Seeing as it's a subject that has been cartooned and caricatured, to death, let's see if you can talk about it, without pathologizing me, or similarly reducing me to a cartoon. How open minded are you?
Let me guess, you hold the belief that we are descended from space travellers from the Sirius (Dog star) system who crash-landed here eons ago and found the women comely and the atmosphere agreeable? J/k.
I do not think that alien lifeforms "visiting" Earth is outside the realm of possibility. Certainly there is some evidence that it is possible, if not probable that alien, inorganic and possible organic life travelled through space freeze-dried on an asteroid.
But I remain skeptical as far as its application to human experience. I have heard it argued, for instance, by otherwise rather intelligent people, that alien life must have interceded with our primate anscestor to create homo sapiens sapiens. The scenario is imaginative but irrelevant to the natural development of our species. Is our large brain any more miraculous than the intricate folds of permeable breathing membrane on the top of a Saimese Fighting Fish's head? These arguments, to me, don't hold much water in the absence of any real evidence. For one thing, they are not necessary to explain human evolution.
I see these types of arguments as motivated by a doctrine of partiality or exceptionalism, i.e. "We" are too special to simply have evolved from nature, not from a real scientific or philosophical basis, at least not a defensible one. If you have a personal experience I will not try to talk you out of a belief, unless you argue that I remove my very well thought out theory of natural human evolution for the substitute reality that I am evolved from space monkeys instead.
As for random alien encounters and other such phenomena, I regard them as possibilities, but so what? How is it relevant to anyone's experience of life? Even if alien life (is or was) visiting Earth, the contact remains effable, ephemeral, largely devoid of larger meaning. Until there is an experience which transcends a shadow of doubt, it remains in the realm of myth and mesmerization. Look at the flocks of Christians worshipping at tearing Madonnas or the face of Jesus in a rainbow oil patch or in the clouds or whatever. The human mind is completely capable of fooling itself, and groups of people are known to enhance this effect for each other. So yeah, it is a poor subject to bring to the table if your intention is for me to take you seriously. I don't particularly find Jesus tortillas or alien sightings interesting for similar reasons, but I do find alien sightings categorically more possible than religious ones, which still isn't saying much.
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![[smilie=binkybaby.gif]](https://udev.peakoil.com/forums/images/smilies/binkybaby.gif "binkybaby")
but that's cool, I think she's one of the best things in my life. It's done wonders for my PO depression let me tell you. She's fairly intense, like having a canine child! Helps keep me from dwelling too much in my head and I find I'm laughing a lot more. Anyone who's wondering if they should get a dog I would highly recommend it, just choose the right breed for you and your personality - it makes all the difference.