The future of robots is rat-shaped
Psikharpax — named after a cunning king of the rats, according to a tale attributed to Homer — is the brainchild of European researchers who believe it may push back a frontier in artificial intelligence.
Read the whole article HERE.
Sorry I’ve not updated in so very long.
I’ve actually had a very very VERY hard time adjusting to the passing of Ezri. I’m still not used to her not being in their cage, running up to me and making happy rat noises when I walk in the room.
Nibbitz and One are both lovely girls, and sweet, but they don’t make happy rat noises when they see me. Or when I play with them. Only once or twice have I heard one of the brux, and that when when I had One of Two out on the book shelf taking pictures of her.
I miss my super loving happy rat.
Nibbitz
One of Two
FUN RATTIE EVENT
Rat Chick Rat Rescue and Advocacy Group are pleased to host the Seventh Annual Fab Rat & Animal Friends Festival.
This family-friendly event will take place from 12 pm to 4 pm on Saturday June 6, 2009 at The South Philadelphia Older Adult Center located at 1430 East Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19147.
The theme for the Fab Rat festival this year is “The Rat Pack Is Back!”
The event will showcase domestic companion rats including rat information and displays, funny rat videos, a rat art show, rat adoptions, rat raffle, a light hearted rat beauty pageant and the A-Rat-Emmy Awards.
There will also be booths for other great animal welfare, rescue and adoption groups. You can learn about other animals in need and what you can do to help them or find that special animal friend you have been looking for. We will have adoptions of cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and birds, all of which are rescues.
There will be live entertainment, food, and crafts for sale.
Our goal is to dispels the false beliefs and educate the public about these misunderstood creatures. Come meet a companion rat and watch our happy rat videos and find out how lovable rats really are.
The event is indoors in the main hall at the center. There is parking on site and ample parking nearby.
The event is open to the general public and admission is free.
Contact the Rat Chick at 215-467-5206 to be part of this event.
http://www.ratchickratrescue.com/Fab_Rat_2009.htm
So, when I ran a tub full of bubbles today my dogs thought they were going to get a bath.
Nope.
Neither was I going to get a relaxing soak in a tub of bubble.
Nope.
It was my bi-weekly rat cage scrub down:
And, I downloaded the videos from from hubbys camera last night, and goign through them found one of Ezri on the sofa with me. It was a few weeks before she went donhill and we lost her.
Its a little dark, but here is my Much Missed fat rat Ezri Belle
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EDIT While I was writing the post below, Ezri passed. I went to check on her and she was gone
Got home last night and Ezri had abandoned her sisters to lay in a corner of the bottom of their cage….alone.
In my experience, this does not bode well for an old rat.
I moved her to the aquarium I usually put the girls in when I’m cleaning their cage, and she is alone right now, sleeping A LOT. She did eat some green beans when I gave her some last night, and is drinking a little.
She’s also biting at the air, chewing on the bedding, and nipped at me when I tried to pull a wad of bedding out of her mouth this morning (right before I took these pictures.
My poor old lady, Ezri, is feeling her age.
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I’m trying to get pregnant.
What does that have to do with pet rats?
Well, a lady I work with recently asked me, in all seriousness, “So, you’re going to get rid of you rats, right?”
When I told hubby he said, “Does she think we should get rid of the dogs too?”
I just asked the girl, “What does my baby have to do with my rats? What could my rats POSSIBLY do to hurt my baby?”
I mean, I know there are horror stories of poor people in squalid condition who have had their infants nibbled on by wild rats. But those rats are wild, and living in the same squalid conditions as the people. My rats are fat, sassy and PETS for crying out loud.
Rattie prejiduce is everywhere.
Sure, I’m going to get rid of all my furry babies just becuase I have a human baby, because they are soooooooo replaceable!
NOT!
My children are not going to be raised with such prejudice.
I mean, I’m not going to be putting my girls in the newborns crib. However, as soon as he or she is old enough to be considered a human (just a joke there) I’m going to introduce him/her to the rats, as they are members of the household just like the dogs.
Meanwhile, he’s far from babyhood, but here is a couple of pictures of my Nephew Jon with a couple of my girls.
In this first one he has One of Two on his shoulder.
And in this next one he’s cuddling with Ezri.
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Rats are one of the top animals tested on for medical experiments. I’ve always been torn by this knowledge.
Part of me realizes its necessary. That modern medicine gets better in leaps and bounds by this experimentation.
A bigger part of me is horrified. Horrible, horrible HORRIBLE things are done to these animals in the name of science.
Some of it is cosmetic science as opposed to medical science. That’s even worse.
While the possibility of finding a cure or better treatment for painful and life threatening diseases might be worth some experimentation, the better quality of your makeup is not worth a rats pain and suffering. Its just not.
So I’m not 100% for animal testing, nor am I 100% against it, but I am 110% for them trying to lessen the cruelty a little. Its not necessary to grow an ear out of a rats back, its not necessary to kill baby chickens to study whether they possibly used to be dinosaurs (saw that one on the discovery channel), its not nessary to spray hairspray or perfume in an animals face to see if it might hurt some. Its NOT!
If you want to buy things that are not tested on animals, visit Caring Consumer and do a search or two.
Here is the video that made me start writing this blog entry:
But, if you still dont care one way or another what happens to the poor rats, remember that animal testing is done on more “socially acceptable” animals as well. Bunnies, monkey, even cats and dogs and more are tested on.
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I logged on to my gmail today to see that one of my answers at Yahoo! Answers had been chosen as best answer.
The question had been:
My answer was:
Yes, they can. I’ve had mites on my rats before. The small red ones. They also got into my clothes, and bit me mostly around the waistband of my jeans and in my socks.
Treat the mites for the sake of your pets!
Ask your vet how to treat the mites on your rodents. I’ve gotten rid of mites on my rats before by giving them a series of baths with warm water and baby shampoo, but the vet might have a medication as well.
Then clean their cage very well, soaking it in a bleach/water solution including their toys and food dishes and water bowl. Wipe down all surfaces near and around the surface with a bleach/water solution. If there is any carpet in the area vacuum it thorougly every day until you’re sure the mites are gone.
Find out where they came from. Sometimes mites can come in on their bedding or in their food! If they came from either of those sources then FREEZE THE SOURCE. The intense cold should kill off any remaining mites and keep them from coming back.
I was voted best answer, mainly because the only other answer was:
yea
a bomb those things, they are bad news bears
What really got me was that while I was chosen best answer I was given one star and the comment that:
Diddnt help very much sorry
My god! What else could I have said?
Granted, they asked for pictures, but I couldn’t find a good picture of rodent mites, or particularly rodent mites on human skin. But I thought I answered their query of “can they spread to me”. It doesn’t get much more clear than my first sentence, YES THEY CAN!
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Big rats, Super Rats and Giant rats are all in the top 5 search words that bring people here, because of my old post titled Giant “Super” Rats and Rat Kings. It was because of a Monster Quest episode about giant rats that I wrote it to begin with.
Since so many people seem to be intererested in the idea of GIANT rats, I just had to share this news story I got in an e-mail.
Hows that for a big rat? Weighing in at 6 pounds, it was found in a residential area in China.
Mr Xian, who caught the rat, was last seen swooping it, still alive (HORRAY FOR LIVE CAPTURE) into a bag.
“I did it, I caught a rat the size of a cat!” he shouted out afterwards, according to the reports.
The kitty sized rodent has been identifyed as being a Bamboo rat.
From the wikipedia article on the species:
Bamboo rats vary in size, from the Lesser Bamboo Rat which is typically 15 to 25 cm long (head and body: tail length is 6–8 cm), and weighs from 500 to 750 g, to the Sumatra Bamboo Rat, which can reach lengths of nearly 50 cm with a 20 cm tail, and weighs up to 4 kg. However they are all bulky, slow-moving rodents that live and forage in extensive burrow systems and rarely spend much time above ground. They feed on the underground parts of plants. They live at altitudes of 1200 to 4000 m and, except for the Lesser Bamboo Rat, feed principally on bamboo and live in dense bamboo thickets. The Lesser Bamboo Rat is more variable in its habitat, living in grassy areas, forests, and sometimes gardens, and eats a wider variety of vegetation.
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