Monthly Archives: January 2015

Hello friends. My name is Higgs and I am a male mammal of the species felis catus. I have previously written for Philly.com, Parade.com and other news outlets. I am pictured below.

My favorite topics include evolution, philosophy, and particle physics. Ive also traditionally been tasked with keeping track of reader responses, and I was particularly intrigued by this question:

Heres a good topic: The dangers of sleeping with pets in ones own bed and other close encounters with them. I gave up dog sitting for friends after I came down with Lyme disease. These dogs were spoiled in my care, being allowed to sniff as much as they wanted on their walks and to sleep on my bed.. after getting Lyme disease, which may or may not have been the result of taking care of these animals, I decided to give up this fun activity. Was I wrong? What other possible dangers exist in being too chummy with pets?

Thank you for being a reader and for sending this very interesting query on the safety of sleeping with animals of other species.

As it turns out, there has been research directly addressing your concern, but the experts are divided on how to interpret the results. The most widely cited research paper was published by the Centers for Disease Control in 2011. The main author, Bruno Chomel, a professor at the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine, warns that after sleeping with companion animals, people can acquire so-called zoonotic diseases (i.e. diseases that come from other animals). There have been cases of cat scratch fever, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and even bubonic plague (from fleas).

Dr. Chomel has been widely quoted saying he does not recommend that humans share a bed with non-human animals.

Other experts are not convinced the risk is so dire. While this seriousness of the diseases can sound alarming, cases of transmission by this route are pretty rare. I thought this New York Times story helped balance the risks with the potential benefits of warm blooded creatures sleeping together. Slumbering the night away together can be pleasant and may offer psychological benefits for everyone. Also, its considerably warmer in the human bed than in my cat bed on the floor.

In Dr. Chomels paper, he notes that the bacterial diseases, such as MRSA, tended to come from animals with the habit of licking as a sign of affection. I would never show affection this way. As a cat, such behavior is not my style.

It should also be noted that since the disease research is conducted by a human animal, it is rather one-sided in that it does not properly address the risks I may face. I live in an urban environment and stay indoors. The humans Im exposed to are indoor-outdoor animals and I dont know what germs they may pick up traipsing around outside. My human friend goes out and sometimes pets d*gs. If fleas or ticks are introduced to our home, I should not be blamed.

Read more from the original source:
Guest Post: The Health Risks (And Benefits) Of Sharing A Bed With Non-Human Animals

Five times a week, Bullet Man Ruben Mariani is fired from a cannon to entertain the crowd at Circo Mundial, one of Portugals largest circuses. Photographer Francisco Salgueirocaptured the exciting moment forCircus Life, an ongoing project that takes us back stage at Portugals25 traveling circuses.

Mariani is the only human cannonball in the country, and has been performing the tricksince 2010. Hes flown through the air some 1,200 times since then. Though he makes it seem routine, the dangers are endless.

Ruben is being shot at around 75 mph and the cannon must have the correct elevation and angle. At the end of the tent there is a net held by circus personnel. If the angle and elevation arent right he might miss the net. This is danger number one, Salgueiro explains. Danger number two: As soon as he touches the net he must do a perfect somersault, then roll down about 30 to 50 feet until he reaches the ground. Danger number three: If the button for him to be shot out of the cannon doesnt work, he cant climb off the cannon because if there is a malfunction, the mechanism could jump start and break his legs or worse.

Marianis never been seriously injured, which is somewhat abnormal in the circus biz. Salgueiro says many performers suffer dozens of broken bones falling fromropes and trapezes.

While attempting to make the perfect pictureof Marianis spectacular but brief flight, Salgueiro found itdifficult to successfully capture himin the frame. Beyond the speed with which the human cannonball flies, the timing of his ejection from the cannon isnt always exact. There is a countdown to Marianis exit, but sometimes its as many as five seconds off. Since Salgueiro was shooting raw files in burst mode and could make just six photos at a timethe difference of a few seconds could easily mean missing the moment. Salgueiro barely managed to capture the frame seen above,as it was the last of the six in his camera.

In the last year, Salgueiro has made 70 trips documenting life under the big top, but still finds he has more to explore.

Although I have visited all the circuses that operate in Portugal, this is an ongoing project because every time I visit a circus there is always a new story to be told, he says.

More here:
What Life Is Like as a Human Cannonball

Z for Zachariah, just your ordinary every day post-apocalyptic love triangle flick, is one of those Sundance entries thats all subtext and lingering glances and atmospherics and call it Z for Zzzzzz.

This dull, slow movie represents a major step back for director Craig Zobel, who looked like he was ready for the big time with his deeply unsettling Compliance a couple of years ago. The new one is, Im afraid, though competently executed, pretty much a waste of time.margo

But its a step up for the hugely talented 24-year-old Australian Margot Robbie, by far the best element of Wolf of Wall Street, who this time does an Appalachian accent as a farmgirl living alone in a valley that is naturally insulated from the effects of a nuclear disaster that seems to have wiped out nearly all of humanity.

She gets by setting traps and farming a bit, but she has no electricity and seemingly no prospects for storing enough food to get her through a winter.

A drifter named Loomis (Chiwetel Ejiofor) happens by, and she saves him from the effects of taking a bath in a radioactive waterfall (you can scrub radiation right off your skin, like coal dust? I did not know this).

Hes harboring a secret, plus hes literally the last man on Earth, so the two fall in love. Except they dont; shes mad for him, but he keeps her at a distance.

When a second wanderer, Caeb (Chris Pine) comes by (both men happened to be underground when the nuclear event occurred), the way seems to be clear for her to hook up with Caleb, and Loomis even tells her its okay with him. Yall be white people together, he says, in virtually the only witty line in the script.

It turns out that her fathers church has to be ripped apart in order for Loomis, an engineer to make a mill thatll provide hydroelectricity and get the lights turned back on, and the chief dramatic energy of the film comes from her holding onto, then finally letting go of, her fathers legacy in order to save her life.

The love triangle, though, is a wet firecracker: Ejiofor is a good actor but hes miscast here; he isnt a romantic lead, and at no time does Loomis (who has a bizarre and pointless drunk scene) seem particularly interested in her, though Robbie does a very sensitive portrayal of a woman desperate for a human connection.

The ambiguous and unexplained final minutes essentially amount to a giant shrug that leaves the audience walking out of the theater wondering what the point of it all was. Well, the point is that Robbie is a major star in the making, but we already knew that.

Here is the original post:
Z for Zachariah is a post-apocalyptic snoozefest