I hear the airbags being deployed for the 18 year old. She hit one of life's big road blocks. Glad everybody walked away.

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As John Wayne so famously said (paraphrase) "You don't have to be tough to be stupid, but it helps." Hopefully she will learn from her experience and not become one of those perpetual 'victims' of life.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

What would the world be without the dumb that keep us entertained

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

What would the world be without
the dumb that keep us entertained

Hmmmm....

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What would the world be without the dumb that keep us entertained

Yeah, sometimes they can be stupid, mean and stingy too, yeah I've run across a few like that.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

What would the world be without the dumb that keep us entertained

Yeah, sometimes they can be stupid, mean and stingy too, yeah I've run across a few like that.

Hehehe.
Our dog Tosca agree:)
Arf Arf.

Now she want to go out...

Ricky Gervais Looks Like Cats:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk2bMaz84Cw

New species of rat discovered in Indonesia - Hog-nosed Rat



Story: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/meet-hog-nosed-rat-new-species-mammal-discovered-article-1.2387153

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~Sue~

A rat eating Cheese.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Just catching up a bit. Love the deer and rat photos and the story about Pumpkin. Regarding the car accident, I'm so glad it was not worse. Driving is a privilege, not a right. Hope the teenager year old realizes that as she rides the bus for a few years.

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I got an offer of help, if I need it next month on repairing My gas heater for the mobile home from a lady friend here in the park, it must be from Me helping Her out w/My car, that and feeding Her breakfast one morning. So far it's looking like at least $225.00 for repairs from Aace's, $25.00 deposit/trip charge and at least $200 for the repairs, hopefully it won't be this high, but a relative had Her heater repaired at one time and that was $400.00. I'd called 3 places, 2 in Barstow(12 miles from here) and 1 in either Victorville or Apple Valley(about 50 miles from here), one in Barstow said they don't work on residential places, so that left one of each, the one in Barstow wants $68.00 just to come out here, so I'm not calling them, not unless I can help it at least.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Damn.

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~Sue~

whats wrong with the heater?

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

whats wrong with the heater?

I think the switch that controls the burner and powers up the blower died, of course the place I called deals in Mobile Homes(Aace's), but then the mobile home is 28 years old, I doubt it's the low voltage thermostat or the breaker and I know the pilot light can't be broke, that's impossible. The breaker will be replaced, but as long as the cover for the panel is screwed down, the breaker is held down good enough, the breaker broke its hold down, probably when I moved the place from N. Las Vegas NV to Yermo CA.

One day I hope to move the mobile home to a lot of its own about 55 miles from here, but that might take $25,000.00 to do, $9,000.00 to 10,000.00 is just for the lot, the rest is for tear down, a city building permit, moving, misc moving expenses and setup of the mobile home, yeah I did this once before in late 2006, I just didn't have the money to go any farther than here.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Crow snowboarding

Ok Critter People, what do you think of this?

When raccoon kits play, they appear to be establishing dominance. When my cats play, they appear to be honing their hunting skills. When a trained dog rides a bicycle, it appears to be learned behavior reinforced by doggie treats.

This crow, however, appears to be snowboarding for purely recreational purposes.

I knew that crows and ravens were smart, but dang!!!! I didn't know they were THAT smart!!!

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I wish to direct you to the works of B. F. Skinner.
'SUPERSTITION' IN THE PIGEON:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uPmeWiFTIw

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/

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Yes, I am familiar with Skinner's pioneering work in learned behavior. Stimulus - response - consequence. I totally get it. That is how we teach dogs to ride bicycles.

The crow snowboarding just seemed to be quite different to me. As far as I can tell, nobody shaped this behavior in the crow. Even if the crow figured it out totally by accident, the only reinforcement the crow appeared to be getting was pure enjoyment of the "sport", and that appeared to be enough to make it want to snowboard again and again.

You've got to respect the brain-power it takes to hunt, eat, nest, preen, reproduce and still have a neuron or two left over for purely recreational behavior.

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the only reinforcement the crow appeared to be getting

I only politely would like to point out that the reward
the bird was getting may have been missed by the person
who took the clip.


edit:
I was just politely pointing it out...

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the only reinforcement the crow appeared to be getting

I only politely would like to point out that the reward
the bird was getting may have been missed by the person
who took the clip.


edit:
I was just politely pointing it out...

Yes. I suppose that we could be looking at a trained crow who was getting a tasty treat from a human trainer.

But what if we are not???!!! That is the part that makes my brain explode!!!

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I saw two repeated cases of crows apparently playing just for the heck of it, when I lived on Vancouver Island.

1. Our new house, on the edge of town, backed on a large group of old growth trees that were home to a flock of crows. Every night, just before it got dark, the crows would fly around in the trees, at about half the height of the trees, as fast as they could. I could never see any benefit of this behaviour, but it sure looked like fun.

2. My wife's office overlooked an inflatable tennis court cover. Right after a rain, the plastic bubble would be very slippery. Groups of crows would land near the top, where the bubble was more or less flat, and then slide down the bubble, which got steeper and steeper the further down you got. They would partially spread their wings for balance, and then finally fly away just before they lost control. They would do this repeatedly until the bubble started to dry off. Again, can't see any benefit from this behaviour, but it was probably a lot of fun.

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