cafecuriosity

Great Boot, Shame About the Grill!

OK, time for a confession. I'm one of those sad creatures who anthropomorphize their cars (and motor bikes for that matter). My much-loved Ducati SSD900 was the 'Beast'. He (it was definitely a he) was big, black, fast and bad! My Jaguar (The Boy) was a refined old gentleman, all refined leather and wood, while the Alfa Spider (The Toy) was all flash (and limited go). My current car a Chrysler 300C is all squat power - a 5.7l V8 will do that for you. I love its angry growl when i turn the ignition and the way it snaps my head back when I put my foot down on Sheik Z Road. I get when Now a team Florida State have established that car design imbues our vehicles with a discernible personality all of their own and in the process, proved once and for all that academics really do need to get out more. Now researchers have long asserted that we gain 90% of our information from faces. It seems evolution has configured our brains to examine faces to detect threats, assess social relationships and intuit emotions and personality traits. This explains why I always thought my Alfa Spider was 'hot'!   http://www.fsu.com/pages/2008/11/26/cars_have_personality.html   Image: 1. Alfa Spider, author, 2. Chrysler 300C, www.autoexpress.co.uk

As Different As Cats and Dogs

Time for a confession. while I quite like dogs - particularly big boofy dogs, I'm basically a cat person. For years I put that foible down to cats like independence and general insouciance. Thanks to the U.s. National Science Foundation and some ex-Duke dudes, I realize its really because cats are curious and creep up on objects of interest. According to the study; 'Dogs Chase Efficiently, But Cats Skulk Counterintuitively', cast have just trashed the assumption by biologists that natural selection is all about energy efficiency. Here I was admiring my cats' ability to sleep 20 hours a day (2 hours play, 2 hours snacking) when in reality they were following their evolutionary path to success! While dogs are all balanced if bouncy kinetic energy, cats have traded off efficiency in exchange for the ability to slink along before pouncing on an unsuspecting cloth mouse and give it a good pummeling. Dogs like humans, have a gait that reduces their muscular workload by 70% while your cat manage only 37% at best. This explains why cats operate in short bursts and need so much sleep to recharge the batteries - here I was putting it down to pure laziness!  So te next time your feline has their paws up, remember they're only skulking counterintuitively! http://news.duke.edu/2008/12/catwalk.html   Image: Seti demonstrating counterintuitive skulking!, David Rymer, 2008