Duck Politics An additional story related to ducks and alarm calls: Several years ago, I previewed one of Ken Goddard’s wonderful animal forensics adventure/thrillers. In this he used the code word “merganser”, the name applied to fish-eating ducks who belong to the genus Mergus as an alarm call. When one of the members of his [...]
Archive for May, 2010
Meandering With Myrn – Episode 89
Maslow’s Hammer Speaking of hammers, you may notice what sounds like mice or some other small creatures armed with small tools periodically doing some construction work during this podcast. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what that was. Frica was on the rocker next to the woodstove; Ollie was hiding his ball [...]
Meandering With Myrn – Episode 88
Applied Ethology Lessons from Father Brown What do one of English literature’s most beloved detectives and companion animal behavioral problems have in common? As it turns out, a lot more than I thought. I just didn’t realize this until I reread The Secret of Father Brown to which I, in a recording stupor, alas referred [...]
Meandering With Myrn – Episode 87
Spinning Into Control This podcast was precipitated by an email with this link which those of you with high-speed connections will hopefully be able to open. Here in the dead zone, I could not, but the person who sent it to me included a verbal description of the depicted canine subject’s spinning behavior. Although this [...]
May, 2010 Commentary Now Available
Blasphemous Thoughts The nice thing about being an independent scholar is that I’m not bound by the culture and limits of a particular discipline. Because of this I’m free to think about a lot of subjects that would be unthinkable to others. Add that I’m blessed with friends and colleagues with whom I can freely [...]