bookofjoe

'Your cat's collar is too tight'

Long response short: No, it's not.

About once a month the statement in the headline up top appears in my YouTube channel's Comments section.

For those unaware of my YouTube channel, about 99% of the videos feature my beloved 2.5-year-old calico cat Vanta. 

The first time her collar size came up was in late 2022 and as the channel's gotten more subscribers (it should hit 10,000 this year at the current rate) this issue is raised on a regular basis.

I finally tired of writing a detailed reply to each viewer who remarked on her collar fit and made a video (top) demonstrating the fact

I made a second one (below) late last year.

Now whenever a viewer raises the point, I simply send them links to these two YouTube videos.

I haven't heard back from anyone who's received them so I have no idea if they're now satisfied my cat's collar is fine as it is.

Nirvana Before They Were Nirvana: Watch Their 1988 Performance Recorded in a Radio Shack

From Open Culture:

Here's a strange home video of Nirvana when they were unknown, playing inside a Radio Shack in the band's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington.

The video was recorded on the evening of January 24, 1988, after the store had closed.

In those days the group went by the name of Ted Ed Fred.

Only the day before, the band had recorded its first demo tape at a studio in Seattle.

Guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain asked his new friend Eric Harter, who managed the Radio Shack, to videotape the band playing "Paper Cuts," one of 10 songs from the demo.

Along with Cobain, the video features Nirvana co-founder Krist Novoselic on bass and Dale Crover of the Melvins on drums.

The video below includes footage of Harter talking about the Radio Shack video and giving a copy of the tape to Cobain's grieving widow Courtney Love, who is shown with her friend Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland.

At one point, Harter mentions a "Ted Ed Fred" concert at the Community World Theater in Tacoma.

To see a full video of that show, which was staged the night before the Radio Shack taping (and only hours after the studio demo session), click here.

Seed Guard

From the website:

Trying to grow your own seed?

Help is on the way!

Stick the seed right in the middle of the lifebuoy and let it float away in a jar full of water.

Plants ahoy!

$12.99 (seed not included).

Covert Tools of Espionage Masters

[In 1965, a U.S. checkpoint in West Berlin uncovered a discreet and lethal tool: a KGB-issued single-shot weapon camouflaged as a tube of lipstick.]

I clicked on this Rare Historical Photos link thinking it would consist of things I've seen and heard of previously.

[The CIA equipped some operatives with eyeglasses designed to hide a cyanide pill within their frame. In the event of capture, agents could discreetly chew on the end of the glasses to take their own lives. This grim innovation allowed operatives to maintain control over their fates, even under the most extreme circumstances.]

Boy, was I wrong.

[This CIA-designed gun could fire a dart containing frozen shellfish toxin, which dissolved quickly upon entry into the body. The result was a nearly undetectable death, mimicking a heart attack. It was silent and accurate up to 100 meters.]

I'd not previously known of around 2/3 of the pictured weapons and gadgets.

[Developed in the late 1960s, the T-1151 transmitter was cleverly disguised as animal feces to evade detection. This homing device, nicknamed "monkey turds" by those who used it, was designed for field agents who needed to signal their location for rescue or extraction. Its unassuming appearance made it an effective tool in high-stakes operations.]

It's likely what's shown here is only the tiniest tip of the iceberg of things we'll never see or know exist..

[The Sedgley OSS .38 Glove Pistol was a concealed weapon integrated into a glove, featuring a single-shot .38 caliber pistol.]

The CIA has a museum which is only open to people invited by past or present members of the agency.

[This ingenious letter remover device was created to extract letters from envelopes without breaking their seals. Its pincer-like head would carefully slide into the envelope, enabling the letter to be wound up and removed without leaving a trace of tampering.]

You could look it up.

[A single-shot miniature gun was concealed inside this pipe, offering a discreet self-defense tool for agents in critical situations.]

Dolní Vĕstonice Head: The oldest known human portrait in the world

[A portrait of a Stone Age woman carved out of mammoth ivory.]

From LiveScience: 

This sculpture, discovered at the archaeological site of Dolní Vĕstonice in the Czech Republic in the 1920s, is considered the oldest surviving portrait of a person anywhere in the world, at 26,000 years old.

It was made about 24,000 B.C.

Carved with stone tools out of mammoth ivory, the tiny head measures just 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters) tall and 1 inch (2.4 cm) wide.

The sculpture appears to represent a woman's face, with engraved eyes, a dimpled chin, and a raised nose and mouth.

She may be wearing her hair in an updo or under a hat.

Unlike other objects from the site — such as the Venus of Vĕstonice, which lacks facial features — this face seems to be individualized, making it the earliest known depiction of a specific person.

During the Upper Paleolithic period, a band of mammoth hunters set up camp at Dolní Vĕstonice, which is now a small village near the southern border of the Czech Republic.

This cluster of settlements, sometimes called the "Stone Age Pompeii," has yielded tens of thousands of ceramics, stone tools, and bone objects over the past century of excavations, along with numerous burials.

In one of these burials, covered in red ocher and arrayed with 10 drilled fox teeth, excavators discovered the skeleton of a middle-aged woman in 1949.

Her skull was asymmetrical, potentially due to a traumatic childhood injury.

When researchers used forensic techniques to reconstruct the woman's face from the skull in 2018, they discovered it was very similar to the tiny ivory carving, whose left eye is significantly smaller than the right.

Dolní Vĕstonice is unique in Europe for its abundant artifacts dating to the Late Gravettian period (29,000 to 24,000 B.C.), including some of the earliest kiln-fired pottery in the world, so it is unsurprising that this little head carved from mammoth ivory is likely the earliest personal portrait in the world.

Many artifacts from Dolní Vĕstonice, including this sculpted head, can be found on display at the Anthropos Pavilion, a museum in Brno, Czech Republic.

Below,

a reconstruction of the Dolní Vĕstonice head using modern technology.

Monk Eraser

From the website:

This creative eraser was designed by Ishikawa Kazuya.

The fun eraser features a monk who balds as you use the eraser.

The more you use the eraser, the more bald the monk becomes.

Dimensions: 16mm x 16mm x 64mm.

$7.89.

Constant readers may recognize the name Ishikawa Kazuya: he also created the Japanese salaryman eraser featured here earlier this year.

Paul Wittgenstein plays Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major

This took place at Salle Pleyel in Paris on January 17, 1933.

A budding concert pianist when he lost his right arm to a Russian bullet in World War I (it was amputated in a Russian prison hospital in 1914), Wittgenstein commissioned the work from Maurice Ravel, who composed it between 1929 and 1930.

Wittgenstein performed the premiere with Robert Heger and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on January 5, 1932.

This excerpt shows Wittgenstein's piano technique.

Anthony Gottlieb's New Yorker article about the remarkable Wittgenstein family pulled me in and wouldn't let go.

LiveTV Wall

Res ipsa loquitur.

Fair warning: there goes the day.

Atari 2600 My Play Smartwatch

From TheGreenHead:

If you love retro gaming or just miss the fun and simplicity of video games from your youth and want to get off the couch and get in shape as well, then strap this cool-new-yet-quite-1977-inspired Atari 2600 My Play Watch onto your wrist.

Unlike most modern smartwatches that distract you with endless notifications and track you everywhere, this one has no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, and absolutely no updates.

It tells the time, has a built-in fitness tracker to monitor your heart rate, steps, and calories burned, and includes 4 playable Atari games: Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, and Super Breakout.

That's it!

Instead of a traditional crown, this one can be used like an old-school paddle controller and the button can be used like the classic joystick controller.

It features a 2.02" TFT touchscreen display, original game sound effects, IP68 water-resistance, and includes 2 interchangeable bands with graphics on both sides.

Check out the videos here to see some classic Atari 2600 commercials to stir up some Atari nostalgia. 

$79.99.

FaceAge — 'Decoding biological age from face photographs using deep learning'

From the website:

Because humans age at different rates, a person's physical appearance may yield insights into their biological age and physiological health more reliably than their chronological age.

In medicine, however, appearance is incorporated into medical judgments in a subjective and non-standardized fashion.

We developed FaceAge, a deep learning system to estimate biological age from face photographs.

FaceAge was trained on data from 58,851 healthy individuals, and clinical utility was evaluated on data from 6,196 patients with cancer diagnoses from two trans-Atlantic institutions.

We found that, on average, cancer patients look older than their chronological age, and looking older is correlated with worse overall survival.

FaceAge demonstrated significant independent prognostic performance in a range of cancer types and stages.

We found that FaceAge can improve physicians' survival predictions in incurable patients receiving palliative treatments, highlighting the clinical utility of the algorithm to support end-of-life decision-making.

FaceAge was also found to be significantly associated with molecular mechanisms of senescence through gene analysis, while age was not.

Our results demonstrate that deep learning can provide a means to estimate biological age from easily obtainable and low-cost face photographs, improving prognostication across a spectrum of cancer diagnoses.

These findings may extend to diseases beyond cancer, motivating using deep learning algorithms to translate a patient’s visual appearance into objective, quantitative, and clinically useful measures.

Today's Guardian article features the app.

Experts' Experts: What To Do If You Come Face To Face With An Alligator

Florida readers may want to rouse themselves and pay attention.

Johnny Diaz of the New York Times interviewed experts for an excellent and potentially life-saving article which appeared yesterday in the New York Times.

tl;dr?

I hear you.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been urging people to exercise caution in or near the water during alligator mating season, which runs from early April to June.

The risk of an attack is higher, it said, because alligators tend to be more aggressive, active and visible during this time.

Below, the most salient points from the commission.

• Be Alligator Aware

If you encounter an alligator on land you can simply back away from it.

Alligators will also hiss if they feel someone is too close and they can't get away.

People should be wary of any alligator that approaches as it may be a sign that it has been fed and associates humans with food.

They rarely chase people, but they can outrun or outswim the fastest person for the first 30 feet. Alligators can sprint up to 35 miles per hour for short distances on land.

• Watch Your Children and Dogs Closely

Alligators prefer to pursue prey they can easily overpower.

Pets often resemble alligators' natural prey.

People should keep their pets on a leash and under control, and not allow them to swim or exercise in canals, ponds, or lakes that may have alligators.

The sound of dogs barking and playing may draw an alligator to the area.

• Be Careful Where You Swim

Wildlife agencies suggest that people swim only in designated areas during daylight hours, and without a pet.

Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn.

• Don't Feed Them

It is illegal, and dangerous, to feed alligators in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas (except during that state's hunting season).

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said that people should not throw fish scraps into the water or feed other wildlife in areas where alligators congregate.

Donald Houser, the general manager at Gator Park, which is just south of Miami and features shows with alligators, noted that an alligator loses its fear of humans after three days of a person feeding it.

Just don't do it, he said.

• How to Fight Back

You should fight back against an alligator if it gets hold of you, officials said.

"In that case, aim for its eyes, nose, or throat, which are its most sensitive areas," according to Everglades National Park in South Florida, adding that people should "hit, kick, or jab with as much strength as you can muster to try and force the gator to release its grip."

Still, if you are grasped in an alligator's jaws, there is a slim chance that you would be able to escape, Mr. Houser said.

"You better have someone close that knows what they are doing," he said.

"Alligators don't eat people," he said, but they may bite someone and then spit the person out. By then, it may have held the person under water too long, he said, "and it may be too late."

Cat Butt Meowing Pencil Sharpener

From websites:

It kind of freaks us out that it "meows."

This is a bold statement, but I think we can go so far as to say that this is the silliest and doubtless the most tasteless piece of desk paraphernalia that we have ever encountered here.

Two attributes, of course, that make showing it to you an absolute necessity.

Sigh.

There are no words that readily spring to mind to soften the blow.

It's a cat, you stick your pencil in its derrière, it meows, and it sharpens your pencil.

Your feline friend stands in his own litter tray which catches your pencil shavings.

Of course, not many people use pencils much these days, but this is perhaps the best reason there has ever been for going out and buying one right now.

A "meowing" sound chip is activated as you sharpen.

The cat is made of plastic.

No animals were harmed in the making of this product.

Don't try sharpening your pencil in a real cat if you value your life.

Or even if you don't, come to think of it.

A necessity for that boring office cubicle.

Sure to get a few laughs and a few looks of disgust.

The most unusual pencil sharpener you will find on anyone's desk.

$28.49.

On the fence?

Watch — and listen to —

the video.

But isn't crossing paths with a black cat bad luck?

I hear you.

How about 

a

white one?

$50.99.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Why a dog is better than a wife

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A nice variation on something someone said to me a few years ago, to wit: Why is a dog better than a wife?

Three reasons:

1. When you go out, a dog never asks where you're going.

2. When you return, a dog never asks where you've been.

3. The longer you've been gone, the happier the dog is to see you.

[photo and trunk experiment via Delaney M.]

Betty Boop Uses Nitrous Oxide, Prompting 1934 Ban

True.

Is that a bowl in your pocket or...?

From websites:

Squishy Bowl Set — Pocket Food Support

Our favorite thing to eat is food and our favorite things to drink are liquids.

Sometimes it's hard to eat and drink at work because people use up all the paper cups and don't tell anyone.

And if you want a nice bowl of cereal, forget about it (unless you've brought a bowl from home).

We have the solution: the Squishy Bowl Set — two bulbous pieces of food-grade silicone that will rock your world forever.

The key to the Squishy Bowl set is this: the bowl and cup are squishy (we think that's how they got their name).

You can shove them in a pocket, backpack, laptop bag, belly button (if it's big enough), and more.

They pop back into shape and are ready to go.

And the best part is how you clean them — to quote Backpacker magazine, "just turn it inside out and lick it."

Or let a cat or dog do it.

Either way, these highly portable, highly adaptive, microwave- (temperature-resistant to 400°F) and dishwasher-safe bowls and cups will make sure you never go hungry or thirsty again (food and beverage not included).

Cup capacity: 6 oz.; 3"Ø.

Bowl capacity: 16 oz.; 5"Ø.

Blue, Red, Tangerine or Black.

Cup & Bowl Set: $26.98-$33.11.

[via TheGreenHead]