This just seems like a Beauty and the Geek/Surivior mash up.

Ah yes, but wolves won't have undergone domestication. They may have been tamed, but not domesticated.

Yes I understand all this, hence my first post. Supposedly this selection continues today and will result in super-smart automatic shoe fetching dogs or whatever. What I don't understand is how this selection pressure can be so direct in dogs which are bred accidentally.

Isn't it awful that we have to be "fuck you" about it, just to not buy something we don't want or need? Which I guess means they just have to be pushier, which means we have to be ruder. I wish sales wasn't about pushing people to either be a rude bastard or buy something they don't want. It's lose/lose.

No. No I don't.

I'm in NZ. :)

So would I, perhaps, if I wasn't vegetarian... :P

Thanks - it is hard not to react, but normally with street harassment it's just an immediate thing, and the person is gone before you can say anything. This particular time was different as he was behind his stall and I could go back and give him a piece of my mind.

Arg! I've also had some people on the same stretch of road hassle me to buy a hot dog that they are selling for fundraisers - actually, no, scratch that, hassle me for having already purchased Subway, and then daring to walk past them with it. I always get some smart arsed "How much was that? These are only a…

I've done some collecting for charity and stuff like that, but I've always made sure to take no for an answer and spend my energy moving on to the next person. I know when I'm wasting my breath! This guy did NOT know and I actually think that could be bad sales tactics.

Jezzies - is it street harassment if the person in question is trying to sell you something or is collecting for charity? I feel like this is a tricky grey area.

That isn't their "nature" though. It's the result of generations of selectively breeding, that is, domestication. There has been a very interesting study in Russia done with foxes to recreate the domestication process by breeding only from the nicest, most easy to handle foxes. Before you know it, they're wagging…

This isn't selection for "niceness" though. This is selection for cognitive ability. Plus, if the shelter is doing it's job, ALL the dogs leave sterilized and unable to breed. So the selection is halted at that point.

Yes I agree there will be selection going on but it won't be human mediated, so the selection won't necessarily be for dogs who are capable of performing chores unbidden? I think I am extra confused because the title =/= what the research is talking about in text.

I am really confused by this article. If dogs are becoming more cognitive with every generation, then some kind of selection is going on, either intentionally or unintentionally, we are breeding from our best and brightest canines. But then the comment about shelter dogs confuses me, because many of those dogs are the…

It must have been a relief to you to find you were not carrying a fetus you did not put there, and that your appendix had not grown back with a vengeance.

I have suffered abdominal pain quite a bit in my life since surgery as a teenager - they always ALWAYS make me do a pregnancy test. Even when I KNOW I'm not pregnant and insist it's not necessary because I know what is causing the pain.

I read also on Wikipedia that the historical figure was known for his secret gift giving.

Nah, the lowest set of six bottles is the base. There was also glue where bottles were resting on the bottles below. Probably not the feat of engineering that it appears to be. :)

It's just a bit of hot glue sticking them together at the lids. I did get a few of these bottles from friends - I can't take all the credit for drinking them... ;)