Happy #Caturday to all who celebrate. Here's our sweet Caroline happy that we're back after 9 days' travel. Though she- shyest one- did allow our long-term catsitter some light touch this time! #cats
Профиль
Barbara J. King
Профиль VivelyAnthropologist; animal advocate; science writer, next book coming on cats; caretaker of aging cats. Books include How Animals Grieve; Animals' Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Animals; see www.barbarajking.com for more.
Had mammogram, Dexa scans at hospital today. Got excited when among patients and staff I spied ONE other person masked...'til I saw it was below her nose...oh well. Onwards. What I'd do without @michael-hoerger.bsky.social's data, encouragement, #CovidCautious community, I don't know. #stillmasking
This article and video about Julie, an elephant formerly forced to perform in a circus and now residing at the expansive Pangea Elephant Sanctuary in Portugal, brought tears to my eyes. These are good people, helping her, and soon, others. #elephants #animalwelfare #animalrights #Portugal
After 40 years in a Portuguese circus, elephant retires to become the first resident of a new sanctuaryJulie the elephant starts a new life.www.good.isWhen this NY school decided to deploy an AI-powered robot in (....wait for it) robotics class, "unionized teachers took aim at Realbotix's sex doll sister company." I'm no great fan of #AI in high schools overall but..robotics class? With the central worry about..sex dolls? Huh? #education #robotics
New York school pauses plan to deploy humanlike AI robot teacher after backlashA school district in upstate New York is pausing plans to deploy an AI-powered, humanoid robot in the classroom after state education officials, teachers and local residents raised concerns.www.npr.orgOh no- save all the primates from AI?! #primates #primatology #Anthropology #animalcognition #AI
In This Costa Rican Forest, Monkeys Come Face-to-Face With A.I.CapuchinAI, a portable testing station equipped with a touch screen and facial recognition software, could help scientists study primate intelligence in the wild.www.nytimes.comFeeling joy at the news that corporate Nueva Pescanova's plans for a large-scale octopus farm in Gran Canaria, Spain, are finally shut down. This follows years of international global activism (my role was small to be sure but done with love for octopuses)!! #octopus #animalwelfare #animalrights
Victory! Plans for World’s First Octopus Farm AbandonedHundreds of thousands of octopuses will be spared from a life of misery.www.peta.org.ukWhen House Republicans say some words about the Smithsonian and then quite spectacularly fail to understand anything about them: "in the museum's current telling, history is just an ongoing power struggle between oppressors and the oppressed." #museum #museumstudies #anthropology #Smithsonian #DOGE
Smithsonian too focused on 'oppressors and the oppressed,' say House RepublicansIn a House DOGE subcommittee hearing, GOP representatives excoriated the director of the National Museum of American History, following a White House report earlier this month that also criticized her...www.npr.orgOrangutan moms in the wild actively plan meet-ups for their kids with other orangutan kids #orangutans #apes #primates #anthropology #nature
Orangutan mothers ‘arrange jungle playdates for their young’A 15-year study has revealed how famously solitary apes plan meetings, and skip meals, so their babies can romp with other orangutan infantswww.thetimes.comHey colleagues and friends in the animal-ethics sphere, these pieces coming out of @panworks.bsky.social (where I'm a Fellow) make for great reading, most recently this one from Emily Major. #animals #possum #nature #wildlife #animalcruelty #ethics #conservation #NewZealand
PAN WorksWe're back this week with another important contribution from Emily Major, PhD. In her newly published article, Emily explores the concept of a "boogeyman" as it is applied to nonhuman animals, inviting readers to question how this framing has been used to justify violence against our fellow beings.
Do birds enjoying flying? What a great question, and here, a basically non-invasive experimental approach to provide an answer. Research by Jorg J.M. Massens et al. #birds #birding #animalemotion #animalemotions #animalstudies #anthrozoology
brill.com#wildfire #smoke #climate
Jacquelyn Gill“The tornadoes were canceled by the wildfire smoke” is a particularly apocalyptic phrase. I’m not home in Maine right now (where this was happening), but I’m feeling the climate crisis in my body today, as I grapple with a bad flare from the Ontario wildfires while at a conference outside of Boston.