h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...more on H.G. Wells, there is quite a strong anti-vivisectionist statement embodied in "The Invisible Man", an issue not unrelated to the period controversy on human dissection and 'Burkeing', Burke being a murderer who murdered to the purpose of procuring bodies for dissection for the medical colleges, which in turn is related in the ethics to the later WW II era medical atrocities.

His invisible man is a rather chilling character, a bona fide psychopath.

I've liked some of the other treatments on the theme rather better, for example the Marlene Dietrich film, related against wartime espionage needs.

In that one I particularly enjoyed one of Marlene Dietriches' disguise sequences, in which, in 90 seconds or less, she so completely altered her appearance as to be unrecognizable.

I also thought Salvador Dalis' painting, "To See The Invisble Man" amusing.




More on the ethics of vivisection, the original process for producing insulin for the treatment of diabetes involved vivisection of the sheep that supplied it.

It took a sheep a month to keep a sufferer from diabetes mellitus alive.

Development of alternative and bacterial or herbal sources for the insulin was among the first applications of recombinant DNA technology.




A current traffic rather less controversial is the far east traffic in bear gall.

Gall is an essential for absorption of fats by the mammalian digestive system.

If the fats are not first emulsified with gall, they are not absorbed from the intestine.

This can become a life threatening problem with people who have had their gall bladders surgically removed, for which reason they are supplied with bile salts, which in the western market are typically derived from swine, sheep or cattle.




The far east traffic in bear gall is rather differently founded, on cosmetic needs, since in the cultures where the traffic is current, obesity is an important self-esteem issue.

The bear gall is supplied either by hunting and removal of the dead bears' gall bladder, or by means of vivisection, illustrated in a National Geographic article of the past couple of years, where the gall is extracted from the gall bladder of a sedated captive bear by means of a needle and catheter.

With this process the bear doesn't have to die.




Hunting for the purpose may have contributed to the extinction of the American brown bear population in the state of Colorado over the past decade.

The brown bear was still established there as late as the 1990s and is extinct in the state of Colorado now.

The last California brown bear was killed in 1915.

Precise date of the extinction of the Colorado grizzly is unknown.

The extinction of the Colorado grizzly is also related to Colorado state timbering operations.

Thanks for your knowledgeable contributions, ITIWBS and jwf. It's as if we have two very good threads, almost, on the same subject. I'm enjoying both aspects of the subject.

The alternative point of view on the moral argument:

Animal experimentation can lead to cures and a diminishment of human suffering.

How would you feel if your own child was suffering and dying before your eyes as a result of, say, a ban on animal experimentation? (An emotive argument, but no more so than the usual anivivisectionist argument).

Yes, an emotional case can be built on a very personal level.
But the average Joe with a sick child will generally not have
the knowledge or skills or equipment to experiment with animals.

So like it or not such research is carried out by disinterested
third parties working for a profit motivation with no personal
regard for anybody's children.


~jwf~

I wouldn't discount the prospect and contribution of 'magnificent obsession' to advances in medicine and for that matter, social institutions, people driven by the hardships and sufferings of loved ones', or occasionally their own situations.

For example, Alexander Graham Bells' telephone research began over problems in his family with deafness and eventually led to the development of the modern hearing aids, by way of miniaturization of apparatus that initially provided at least for amplification of sound, making it more audible for the hearing impaired.

The "March Of Dimes" program that led to development of the polio vaccine began over FDRs' problem with the disease and was pursued by Dr. Jonas Salk on account of the experience of a family member with the disease. After the success of the polio program, the program was expanded to include other childhood diseases.

The diabetes research that led to development of the insulin treatment began over a similar situation involving a family member...

Your point is well taken, sir.

~jwf~

"Animal experimentation can lead to cures and a diminishment of human suffering"

I agree that there are two sides, but! what would "we" feel like if "we" were the subjects of experiments by a higher intellectual species.
We talk of acts torture in certain countries (inc our own).
Animal experimentation is nothing less, no matter what the benefit to humans

"We talk of acts [of] torture in certain countries (inc our own). Animal experimentation is nothing less, no matter what the benefit to humans"

That's a point well-taken, prof. To me, the term "torture" necessarily involves pain or severe discomfort. I have a hard time believing that workers in a scrupulous lab would let rats or mice feel pain when they had to kill them for dissection. More likely, the animals would be put to sleep. Probably the animals that were bred for cancer or other conditions would feel pain. I don't know if they would be given pain-killers to ease their suffering.

To be honest, I think we humans are much more barbaric when we torture other humans. Pain is the whole *point* of torture. Water-boarding is particularly inexcusable.

One signifcant difference betwene humans and mice is that mice are prey for many species of predators -- cats of all sizes, predatory birds. even wolves. Adult humans rarely have to seriously worry about being eaten, though toddlers have been seized by dingos and coyotes. I've seen the way cats play with mice and bunnies before they finally kill them. I think cats are quite cruel in this way.

of course, there are (or have been) experiments in which rats or mice are trained to choose certain options by means of electric shocks. This seems cruel to me, but what do I know? When I was in school, my teachers would sometimes give a misbehaving student a rap on the wrist with a ruler. This is exactly the same principle: change the subject's behavior so that the student associates proscribes behavior with pain, though the pain is neverlife-threatening.

This threads drift into the Island of Doctor Moreau
is probably as good a place as any for my current rant
about a dog biscuit commercial now playing far too often
for my comfort.

The biscuit is supposedly designed to help dogs keep their
teeth clean and cavity free as well as keep their breath fresh.

Through the miracle of computer graphics a series of dogs
is seen facing the camera in close up and then they 'smile'
revealing a gorgeous set of idealised white teeth such as
one might expect from movie stars and beauty queens.

Perfect rows of gleaming white human teeth in the mouths
of dogs is probably mildly humourous to the masses but I
confess it distresses me greatly. The CGI is so well done
that it takes some effort to realise that what I'm seeing
is just a digital photo effect and not real. It is still quite
disturbing and elicits my great sympathy for the dogs and
my great antipathy for the product and its ad agency.

End of rant.
Carry on.


~jwf~

I agree with you entirely, jwf. It's cruelty of a mental sort, just as it would be cruel to laugh at anyone with a mental or physical disability. It doesn't show these fellow creatures the respect and fellow-feeling they deserve. And it's done for profit - i.e. greed.

Jabs

It would be nice to know if real (as opposed to CGI) dogs liked the biscuits. If they do, then there's a useful purpose in advertising them. Advertising agencies do strange things that their clients would never have thought of.

Curiously, another brand of 'dental doggie bones'
has begun a competitive series of ads showing only
very handsome dogs bounding outdoors in natural environs.
It uses charts and diagrams to show how the product
actually works. Some sort of 'gripping action', like a
gummy abrasive texture in the biscuit, gets between
the teeth and lifts away the offending bits.

It's all presented in a very serious way, animated
but not cartoonish, and the dogs are all quite doggy
and never cutsie as they go about their business.

The two ads reflect two entirely different approaches
to dog ownership. The first is 'fun' and 'silly' and
cartoonish and features lap-dog characters while the
second is serious and realistic with larger work dogs
and 'science', presented like text book illustrations.

It's Scooby-Do versus Rin Tin Tin all over again.


~jwf~

Dog owners are usually the real targets of these ads. If the dogs enjoy the product(as one hopes they will), the owners will buy more and maybe tell their fellow dog owners about the product.

There are many ads that make me wince.I suspect (but can't prove) that the lamest ones come about because the clients are so desperate that they don't nix the advertising agencies' bad work. This is sad. I love clever ads, whether I buy the product or not. There are great ad agencies, mediocre ones, and cringe-worthy ones.

Yes I think the ads are targeting people not dogs.
(In spite of those 'news' bits we sometimes see about dogs
watching and reacting to television images.)

The first one is aimed at children and little old ladies
with lap dogs - putting much emphasis on sweeter breath
and smiles as the dogs focus attention on the camera.
If the kid in the family has a say at the supermarket
this is the brand they will buy.

The other is aimed at an adult audience with flow charts
and diagrams and all the pictures of dogs show them acting
indifferently to the camera - off doing their doggy thing
like they've just been let off the leash for the first time
in days.

Mind you, my dog always got shank steak with a big marrow
bone every day. He didn't smile much and his breath was bad,
real bad, and the only time he ever had a leash on was when
I had to drag him to the vets to get porcupine quills removed
from his big wet snout.

Gave up buying biscuits for him because he just swallowed them
whole - even the biggest ones were two bites, two swallows, gone.
He did enjoy bones though. Pork and beef ribs and ham joints kept
his teeth clean.


~jwf~

...oh yes, relevant something from another thread on the point people accustomed to far east languages often have trouble with 'L's, mispronouncing them as 'R's...

If one pronounces 'le-mao' that way, especially if one rolls the 'R', that makes 'rrre-mao', even more onomatopoeic for cat than 'mao'.

Also, some dogs are targeting people

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=Liger,+images&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&biw=1277&bih=624&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=t9jdKaRF_rUxAM:&imgrefurl=http://drchrissy.deviantart.com/art/Jendayi-the-Liger-19404211&docid=Cnhv_gfOnk_9BM&imgurl=http://th05.deviantart.net/fs7/PRE/i/2005/164/b/2/Jendayi__the_Liger_by_DrChrissy.jpg&w=779&h=1026&ei=hKIPT-f8JsmUtwf2tejJAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=645&vpy=253&dur=4298&hovh=258&hovw=196&tx=103&ty=233&sig=109669542061124015638&page=2&tbnh=127&tbnw=96&start=19&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:19

Oops, not that one, here we go!

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=Liger,+images&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&biw=1277&bih=624&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=c3l6COmFy3YqgM:&imgrefurl=http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_liger_hercules.htm&docid=2EMtfFYx1iZ0KM&imgurl=http://0.tqn.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/v/B/liger1_sm.jpg&w=375&h=250&ei=TKMPT_jtB4a5tweL8aSOAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=490&vpy=291&dur=1498&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=137&ty=102&sig=109669542061124015638&page=1&tbnh=132&tbnw=202&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0

The Liger is definitely not spurious, is the product of a natural hybrid of the African lion and the Indian tiger, stands as much as 8 feet in height, by comparison with the African lion at 5 feet in height.




For all that, it might fit in very well in a recombinant DNA ecology including things like the giant electric bull frog.

On that, concept, starting with an electric eel, since many tadpoles, for example, that of the leopard toad, go through an initial eel-like phase before metamorphosing into a bulbous headed tadpole, one will first splice the DNA coding for that metamorphic change into that of the electric eel*, so that it operates when the electric eel reaches maturity, triggering a transformation into a giant tadpole.

Next, the tadpole, on its second metamorphosis, is changed into a giant bull frog, maturing about the size of a Volkswagon, with care being provided all through this to retain and amplify the electrical properties of the electric eel.

The giant electric bull frog is too big to comfortably leave the water and will therefore lurk in pools it excavates along the waters edge near places where the animals go to drink.

The liger is intelligent enough to profit by instruction, so before releasing it in the giant electric bull frogs' environment, it'll be shown a film of the metamorphic stages of growth of the giant electric bull frog, taken on a tour of the breeding facility where its allowed to dip a paw in the tank with the eel and get knocked on its can, shown the tadpole stage and bull frog stage, where, having learned from experience, it refrains from dipping its paw, and finally, immediately before release, its shown a mature giant electric bull frog feeding, shocking a gazelle that's gone down to the water to drink with the effect that the gazelle convulses and does a back flip, while the giant electric bull frog catches it on its tongue mid-air and gulps it down.

One doesn't want any liger casualties at the waterhole.

Another possibility for the recombinant DNA ecology might be hybrids of glass snakes and humming birds in a carefully designed and maintained environment, a marble chips ground for grist to maximize the potential for iridescent diffraction color effects.




More Liger pictures:

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Liger,+images&hl=en&lr=&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=eKIPT8ntBMTEtwfEtpHmAQ&ved=0CCMQsAQ&biw=1277&bih=624#q=Liger,+images&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=fc22abbf26ea13e7&biw=1001&bih=188




The next round of images is spurious;

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&lr=&biw=1277&bih=624&noj=1&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=jackalope&oq=jacka&aq=2&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=36213l65162l0l70185l13l8l0l0l0l0l565l2416l4-4.1l8l0

and, another of those;

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=giant+hare&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&biw=1277&bih=624&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=x8CPKJ65d22gPM:&imgrefurl=http://io9.com/5786186/the-weirdest-and-most-disturbing-giant-rabbits-in-speculative-fiction&docid=9CyfLpFmNj3NWM&imgurl=http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2011/03/jiwxhrbgyb4.jpg&w=480&h=360&ei=5bYPT6yfMaGxiQK_gam8DQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1050&vpy=407&dur=1482&hovh=139&hovw=186&tx=111&ty=88&sig=109669542061124015638&page=4&tbnh=113&tbnw=132&start=57&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:57




The jackalope legend is inspired by the California central coast giant hare;

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=California,+giant+hare&hl=en&lr=&noj=1&tbm=isch&tbnid=ucjOF7GXqjBteM:&imgrefurl=http://www.daviddarling.info/archive/strangenews/strangenews_2006_2.html&docid=9VO_1TYZ3RKgjM&imgurl=http://www.daviddarling.info/images/giant_rabbit.jpg&w=203&h=152&ei=haUPT6ncBIjUiAL-6Y3NDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1077&vpy=182&dur=3859&hovh=121&hovw=162&tx=83&ty=74&sig=109669542061124015638&page=5&tbnh=121&tbnw=162&start=79&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:79&biw=1277&bih=624

Which is definitely not spurious.

I've seen one in the height of hunting season that topped forty pounds in weight being pursued but an eight point mule deer buck with its antlers down and muder in its eye, apparently intent on avenging a past season of insults, while the giant hare was running bipedally, in order to avoid dragging its paunch, pumping its fore legs like a human runner.

The mule deer of California's central coast, though they may top 300 pounds in the deserts, are frequently dwarfs. I've seen a mature and matronly doe that weighed no more than 40 pounds in company with her first season daughter, who weighed no more than 30 pounds.

The eight point mule deer buck mentioned weighed no more than 50 pounds without its antlers.

God! I wish I'd had a camera. I could have placed that photo with any hunting magazine in the nation.

Other 'jackalope' or giant hare, sightings.

Driving early in the evening along a remote country road, I saw several small animals dashing across the road at incredible speed.

I couldn't tell at first just what kind of small animals they were.

Finally I got a clear look at one and it turned out to be a California ground squirrel;

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/photos/mammals/ca_ground_squirrel_967tfk.jpg&imgrefurl=http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/facts/california_ground_squirrel_712.html&h=600&w=900&sz=178&tbnid=wkWv9Q9QcHUTlM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=164&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCalifornia%2Bground%2Bsquirrel%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=California+ground+squirrel&docid=srSGvdK6Gjj9iM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ELAPT7HCD-mXiQLBi5SkDQ&ved=0CE0Q9QEwBQ&dur=1472

Next, I was flabbergasted to see a mature first season jackalope, weighing about 30 pounds, running on all fours, coming up even faster from behind, the light of the chase aflame in its eye.

They don't start running bipedally until they get a mature paunch.

It probably caught that ground squirrel.

Final jackalope story:

I was working on a military training range with one of the sergeants from my unit.

I saw a jackalope periodically standing and peering over the top of a small shrub at about fifty meters distance.

When I pointed it out to him, the sergeant looked at it, blinked, then remarked, "That's no rabbit! Thats a kangaroo!"

They are about the size of a wallaby.




*On the electric eel, some purist may point out that it is properly a cat fish, though it is very eel-like in appearance.

That is irrelevant and immaterial.

This one came up on 'google image search' for "foxes' eyes", closeups.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=lurking+fox&hl=en&biw=1277&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=m44UKAlKzjxJ0M:&imgrefurl=http://diverfox.blogspot.com/&docid=2k8iGYA9ajUTXM&imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Vx38twZ0kI4/TNa4cxglhiI/AAAAAAAAAk4/K5R5f4Ca0Rw/s1600/Hairy%252BFrogfish%252B08.jpg&w=1200&h=1600&ei=9IgRT5XEEMGdiAKZ6ICnDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=954&vpy=287&dur=2630&hovh=259&hovw=194&tx=96&ty=189&sig=117068045871536473988&page=10&tbnh=141&tbnw=146&start=211&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:22,s:211




Nearly done with the re-reading of H.G. Wells' "War Of The Worlds".

Next, "First Men In The Moon".

That "California ground squirrel" looks a lot like the grey squirrels we have in New England.

I was surprised to hear that the giant hare would eat other animals. I thought hares were vegetarian,no?

For sheer terror, gore, torn flesh
and rabbit-on-rabbit murder and mayhem
ya can't beat Watership Down:

http://youtu.be/dR07FOF7i1A


~jwf~