life
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which animals are the cleverest of all?
Sometimes the scientific community, requiring as it does laboratory evidence for most things before declaring them ‘real’, seems way behind when it comes to recognising what goes on in the real world. The latest news is that magpies have joined humans, apes, elephants and dolphins as animals officially declared capable of recognising their own reflections in mirrors, and knowing them for what they are. But I am surely not the only cat owner in the world who has identified through real experience that while the majority of cats show no interest in mirrors, some do—and, by observing them observing themselves, we are capable of discerning, with absolute certainty, that some cats most definitely recognise their own reflections for what they are.
tags: animal intelligence, apes, birds, cats, dolphins, elephants, experience, faith, humans, laboratories, magpies, mirrors, religion, science, self-awarenessCourt imposes ban on noisy sex
A man has been fined £200 and banned from having sex at his girlfriend’s flat, after her neighbours endured two years of shouting and, um, banging. Some of them were even rehomed by Brighton council. But, one has to ask, wouldn’t a gagging order—literally, of course—have been more appropriate?
If the man’s been roaring like an enraged bull, couldn’t his girlfriend have stuffed something close to hand into his mouth—a load of tissues, perhaps, or a pair of knickers?
I have every sympathy for the neighbours, and well done to the council for, er, coming to their rescue. Some may think that making lots of noise during love-making is somehow indicative of sexual prowess. It isn’t.
tags: bans, Brighton, court orders, fines, noise abatement, noise pollution, sex
