Thursday, December 12, 2019

Episode #125: Serpent in the Sky - Part 3

After we catch up on space weather news and listener emails, we read an excellent article on an ongoing experiment to "domesticate" foxes, as remarked upon by many astute listeners in response to Russ talking about "no modern analogues" of animal domestication.

We were wrong, as we often are! But this story still holds interesting implications re: ancient domestication of animals.

After that, we dive back into the final parts of John Anthony West's "Serpent in the Sky", finishing up with the Sphinx, and finally reading about how skerptards are still skerptards and no one can seem to do anything about that.


2 comments:

  1. National Geographic did a magazine spread and a video about the foxes that showed more about the selection and the lines that were bred. The people doing the selection tapped the front of the cage and selected two groups, one that was least afraid or agressive and one that was most. The agressive got more agressive as the less aggressive got tamer. That was the only was they were salected, not for physical appearance. The coat colors of the tame line started showing patterns totally new.

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  2. The electric cables in N. California can't be buried because the rock is granite, hence the towers and the fires. If we could get some of that ancient rock cutting tech it would have practical implications. Financial too, as PG&E will have to fork out $25 billion for the latest round of fires.

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