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Previous work conducted by the Japanese team established that cats predict the presence of invisible objects based on what they hear. In the present study, the researchers wanted to find out if cats use a causal rule to infer if a container holds an object, based on whether it is shaken along with a sound or not. The team also wanted to establish if cats expect an object to fall out or not, once the container is turned over. Thirty domestic cats were videotaped while an experimenter shook a container. In some cases this action went along with a rattling...

Jackson police arrested an allegedly intoxicated man who was accused of racing riding lawn mowers with an associate Saturday night. Jeremy Tyson Cook, 35, of Jackson is charged with felony driving while intoxicated as a chronic offender. His bond was set at $35,000 cash or surety. Police responded about 1:30 a.m. to the area near the intersection of Greensferry Road and Maryland Street. A caller said two subjects were operating four-wheelers in a public roadway and being “extremely loud,” according to a probable-cause statement filed by Jackson police officer Jason Wilhelm. Wilhelm stated he saw two people in the roadway...

The number of species that can exist on Earth depends on how the environment changes, according to new research led by the University of Southampton. By analysing the fossil record of microscopic aquatic creatures called planktonic foraminifera, whose fossil remains now resemble miniaturised popcorn and date back millions of years, the research provided the first statistical evidence that environmental changes put a cap on species richness. Dr Ezard added: "We used mathematical models to reveal how environmental changes influence both the rate of diversification among species and how many species can co-exist at once. Our results suggest that the world...

Philanthropist Bill Gates to donate 100,000 chicks to fight poverty By Reuters Published: 15:49 EST, 8 June 2016 | Updated: 15:49 EST, 8 June 2016 By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK, June 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, speaking in front of chickens pecking and clucking in a New York City skyscraper, announced plans on Wednesday to donate 100,000 chicks to poor nations in an effort to end extreme poverty. The chicks will go to rural areas in two dozen developing countries from Burkina Faso to Bolivia, where the Heifer International charity manages breeding operations and distribution, according...

The owners of a vegan cafe in the country of Georgia say group of neo-Nazis started throwing grilled meat at patrons. It happened over the weekend at the Kiwi Cafe in the capital city of Tbilisi. The cafe was holding an English-language movie screening when the group came in and started the violence. They pulled out grilled meat, sausages, fish and started eating them and throwing them at customers before starting to smoke, which is forbidden at the cafe. When the owners tried to get them to leave a fight started and spilled into the street. The cafe owners say...

Florida can now add man-eating crocs to its growing list of invasive species. Researchers from the University of Florida have confirmed that three Nile crocodiles were captured near Miami, and there may be more out there in the wild. University of Florida herpetologist Kenneth Krysko and his co-authors recently published a paper revealing that DNA testing from three crocs captured in 2009, 2011 and 2014 proves they are Nile crocodiles, a species native to sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the southern Mediterranean coast that can grow over 16 feet long and weigh more than 1,600 pounds. It’s also known to...

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – The Nuisance Wildlife Agency continued to search for a possible rabid squirrel that attacked some residents Tuesday afternoon in North Myrtle Beach. According to incident reports from the North Myrtle Beach Department of Public Safety, law enforcement responded to a home on Causey Drive, where a woman said a squirrel attacked her while she was walking to her car. Responding officers indicated the woman showed them scratch marks on her right arm and upper back, the report stated. A little more than an hour later, officers were sent to a Watson Drive address. There,...

Let’s finish out the weekend with a story about Californians being Californians, because… California. Terces and Matthew Engelhart have made quite the life for themselves out on the left coast over the past decade, having established a small chain of “organic, plant-based” restaurants which specialize in completely vegan food. They apparently attract Hollywood celebrities who are impressed not only by the business ethic of their eateries, but the “Love Farm” where they raise much of their produce, presumably in a Gaia approved fashion. They’ve published a book which explains the tenets of their “sacred enterprise” which is a must read...

The southeastern United States has been hit by a series of strange unexplained quakes - most recently, the 2011 magnitude-5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia that shook the nation's capital. Researchers have been baffled, believing the areas should be relatively quiet in terms of seismic activity, as it is located in the interior of the North American Plate, far away from plate boundaries where earthquakes usually occur. Now, they believe the quakes could be caused by pieces of the Earth's mantle breaking off and sinking into the planet.

The entire month of May is International Respect for Chickens Month! Please do an ACTION for chickens on or around May 4. Ideas include leafleting on a busy street corner, holding an office party or classroom celebration, writing a letter to the editor, doing a radio call-in.... (interrupted by my cackling and chortling)

I was introduced to this old song by a WWII-era Veteran friend of mine just last night. Perfect timing, I'd say. ---------------------------------- Those who are less than 100% fans of Donald Trump may consider voting for him to be Russian Roulette. BUT voting for the OPPOSITION means you shoot yourself and Lady Liberty FOR SURE...

The Large Hadron Collider suffered a power outage last night, after a luckless weasel decided to chew on a 66-kilovolt power cable. It’s not the first time the LHC, a 17-mile superconductor that smashes atoms together at close to the speed of light, has run into trouble because of something small and cute. In 2009, the power went down after a bird dropped a baguette onto a critical electrical system. Although the incident was widely reported and confirmed at the time by sources at the LHC, CERN is apparently now telling folks it may be apocryphal. “This was a story...

Police in Texas said a man accused of stealing steaks from Walmart led officers on a high-speed chase and struck a police car with meat tossed from his window. Authorities said the suspect stole an undisclosed number of steaks from the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Longview just after 11 a.m. Wednesday. The ensuing police chase reached speeds exceeding 100 mph and crossed two counties before the man was apprehended by Upshur County sheriff's deputies and East Mountain police. East Mountain police Sgt. Marc Nichols said the suspect attempted to get rid of some of the pilfered meats while fleeing police....

The struggle is real... by IfIthoughtyoumatteredIwouldntignoreyou · 1 day ago 1,080 points 95,577 views

Whiteness takes over the 17th Annual White Privilege ConferenceA specter is haunting America. The specter of white privilege, white supremacy and whiteness. What is whiteness? If you ask the radical education activists at the 17th Annual White Privilege Conference,”whiteness” is the source of all human evil. Also it’s the race of the majority of the country. The conference with its 2,500 teachers, school administrators and counselors is a bizarre throwback to National Socialism’s ideological indoctrination of every part of society on the evils of one single race. Attendees wore the conference’s version of Nazi armbands with wristbands reading “Got Privilege”....

If you're a proud grammar snob, the leftwing Guardian's Mona Chalabi wants you to know that you're simply a wealthy, white racist trying to silence minority voices like hers in order to maintain your wealthy, white, racist power imbalance. In the short video above, Chalabi attempts to suggest that grammar rules don't even exist in the real world, only in the condescending minds of wealthy, white racists.  She acknowledges the "grammar snob's" argument that everyone needs a common set of rules that everyone can understand, but attempts to rebut this by saying such rules aren't commonly held at all -- "they're just their rules." This is the linguistic equivalent of...

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At least 10 militants were blown up by their own explosives as they were busy making an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in southeastern Ghazni province. According to the security officials, the militants were busy making the IED inside a mosque in Andar district. The officials further added that the explosives went off prematurely, leaving all 10 militants dead.

This is a test of the institutional memory of FReeperdom. My query is first about the tasty canned meat, but also to learn if the current common slang regarding undesirable e-mail is in anyway related, or if that term has it's own independent basis in origination.

Lawyers for a reporter demanding access to email messages and files the FBI has reportedly retrieved from Hillary Clinton's private server are objecting to a secret filing the Justice Department submitted to a federal court last month as part of a bid to keep those messages under wraps...