Friday, January 30, 2009

Aw, do we haf'ta?


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It's that time of year again. The holiday ornaments cannot possibly stay up even one day longer. The lights are back in their cartons, the elves and glass balls all gathered in their box, to be put away in the back of a closet.
They're waiting quietly for that fun fun day next December when the box comes out and we get to decorate again. Yea!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

On the importance of having a cape

Additional tests showed that the following end position occurred in 86 % of trials*:
Leading to the unbecoming and unprofessional conduct of certain researchers.

Sure, they may explain that it's just like toast landing butter&jam side down. But it's an affront to the dignity of rabbits everywhere to have their soft cottontails mocked in return for sacrificing themselves for the greater good and advancement of knowledge.
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Which brings me to the theory that superhero capes are an adaptive response common in flying heros. The hero who controls his descent adroitly and lands lightly on his feet is far more likely to get the girl** than the hero who flies like a brick through the air and finishes button-nose to the ground.
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With the cape thus lending a practical advantage to the landing hero, its use became established. This led to a secondary adaptive response: that of decorating one's cape. Looking good is a well-established critereon for proliferative advantage, and the cape providing such an obvious and observable surface for display it has naturally come to participate in this. Strategies for Looking Good may stress visibility and individuation (ex: Superman), understated but irresistible style (ex: Batman) and other variations.
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For these reasons, and for the additional advantage procured through the reduced probability of getting mud on oneself, a superhero cape is being special-ordered for a second phase of experimentation.
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* The remaining 14 % consisted of side-landings, evenly divided between the right and left side. No example of a correct, ears-up, landing was observed. Trials culminating in becoming stuck in tree branches were excluded from analysis.
** One may observe a more immediate utility in not be defeated by the bad guys, but that is only useful if followed by getting girls and the attendant reproductive opportunities. As we rabbits know, it is this ultimate, not the proximate, result that gives one an evolutionary advantage.

Monday, January 26, 2009

SuperBunny

It has been pointed out by a reliable source (http://dreadtomatoaddiction.blogspot.com/) that there is evidence that rabbits can fly.
Hmmm.
That would be cool. I'll have to check it out.
Jerome has been recruited to help with the liftoff phase of the operation. Several tries without some kind of propulsive aid resulted in me just, well, sitting there on the ground. That's been done. Scientists already knew that rabbits could sit on the ground.
I'm flying!!! I'm up there in the trees with the birds, who seem perturbed and have all headed for a different bunch of trees.
Landing is not so easy. I'll have to work on that part. Perhaps that is why so many flying superhero types wear capes. An aerodynamic aid which is not only quite useful but adds to one's mystique.
I realise that this single test is insufficient to confirm the hypothesis that rabbits can fly, being more of the anecdotal sort of evidence than anything approaching statistical significance. The results, though partial, are encouraging, and will be repeated to establish their repeatability (it's just that we're out of battery power right now, and also need to get back to work). And of course, there may need to be some refining of the term "flying". Preliminary work shows that "getting off the ground" and "landing on one's feet" may be separate functions not to be amalgamated with the "moving through the air" aspect.
None of this, of course, has any bearing on the migratory capacities of various tropical seeds.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

No more film

Nancy at last has her new toy. She's showing me how to use it so I can take pictures of Laars and me having fun.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Monday, January 5, 2009

Denmark

HI hi and Happy 2009!
Just a couple of pix from a trip to Denmark some time ago, just to say I'm still around but Nancy hasn't taken my picture lately!