School posts missing N for all to see
On Friday, Sideswipe posted this picture of the sign (below) outside Parnell District school with the caption: "Pssst. Parnell School ... You missed an N." Yesterday, this is how the school responded to the swipe.
Polar bear 'patting' dog misinterpreted by gullible humans
A video of a polar bear "patting" a dog on its head in Churchill, Canada has been making the rounds on the internet - with people cooing over the cuteness factor. A Facebook commenter said, "We are fortunate to be able to see with our own eyes how animals of all kinds are capable of love." But animal behaviour experts have criticised the interpretation, saying the polar bear isn't expressing love for the dog. It's playing with its prey and shows the dangers of anthropomorphisation: the projection of human personalities on animals. "People have only recently begun to recast vicious predators as furry extensions of humanity, according to an analysis by NPR. As nature content has shifted from informative [science documentaries] to entertaining [YouTube videos] over the past decade, our impressions of wild animals have been removed from narrative context. And so we readily accept stories spun to showcase naturally violent animals as surprisingly sweet - perhaps because that's how we wish the world worked for us," writes Ali Underman on Quartz.com.
