In a study as amazing as it is probably unsurprising, a team of biologists and researchers using machine learning tools discovered that elephants call each other by names. For an animal that is known to perform deeply social acts like grieving, raising children collectively, and communicating across miles of countryside using complex low-frequency vocalizations, the […] The post Elephants Are the First Non-Human Animals Now Known to Use Names, AI Research Shows appeared first on Good News Network.

The post Feline Fine: Acupuncture in Cats, Part Two by Dr. Lauren Demos DVM (Veterinarian) appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Hi, I’m Dr. Lauren! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my two adventurous cats, Pancake and Tiller. I first encountered acupuncture in cats while working as a veterinary technician. One of the vets I worked with in Alaska used the technique on multiple species, to help with arthritis issues. I was interested, but never really delved into the process until much later. In vet school, we were very lucky to have the late Dr. Bruce Ferguson, a pioneer in veterinary acupuncture from Chi University in Florida, and I was privileged to spend time learning from him, in great detail. This led to a few externships where I participated in feline acupuncture. I was amazed to find cats sitting in their bed, in the exam room at a clinic, calmly purring for an acupuncture session. And their owners sat, singing the praises, and how it improved their cat. And that’s how I found myself, sitting with an acupuncture needle in my own foot at a veterinary conference a few weeks ago, wondering, could I help patients, too? What benefits did acupuncture have? In this article, I’ll look specifically at that with regard to cats, and how it may help your favorite feline to feel fine (or feline fine, to play on the words!). Missed part one? Click here to read the first article in this series! Acupuncture needle in my foot – it helped! The Use of Veterinary Acupuncture Acupuncture has a history of originally being used in working or production animals—basically the animals that had a higher monetary value in society. So horses were a common acupuncture patient, far before cats and dogs. Today, things have changed, and even pet chickens have been known to receive acupuncture. There are lots of reports and publications about the use of acupuncture in humans and animals, and you may be surprised at the variety of medical conditions in which acupuncture treatment may complement traditional Western medicine. They include but are not limited to: Arthritis Chronic skin issues Acute respiratory collapse or CPR Feline hyperesthesia Gingivostomatitis Rectal prolapse Dental pain Anesthesia Osteochondrodysplasia Fever Cryptorchidism Diabetes Cancer adjunct Inflammatory Bowel Disease Urinary Incontinence Constipation Chronic otitis These little needles can potentially make a big difference: Acupuncture needle vs pen for size comparison So, if you sign your cat up for acupuncture, what can you expect? Many acupuncture treatments are around 20 minutes or so, but can vary. Theoretically, even stimulating a point for a very short time may have marked benefits Generally, expect a first visit to be longer, as it will include history, exam, and planning for the treatment. Treatment may or may not happen on the day. Most acupuncturists recommend weekly treatments, less commonly twice weekly. Rarely would they occur more often Expect to see full effects of the treatment after a month; don’t dismay if you don’t see anything immediately after the first one (though some patients will respond very impressively) Many courses of treatment will enter a maintenance phase once the cat is doing well; this may mean acupuncture every 2-4 weeks, or less. Check your country’s laws for who can perform veterinary acupuncture as well; I generally recommend using one of the professional organisations to find members that are certified or approved to practice on animals. In the final article in this series, we will take a more in depth look on how acupuncture is actually believed to work, in general, and in some of the specific conditions. The post Feline Fine: Acupuncture in Cats, Part Two by Dr. Lauren Demos DVM (Veterinarian) appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Books shared universes Five Classic SFF Works Set in a Shared Universe A bunch of your favorite authors all playing in the same speculative sandbox… what’s not to love? By James Davis Nicoll | Published on June 12, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Shared universes! The practice of having multiple authors write works in a common setting is a well-established one. No surprise, because shared universes offer a variety of benefits to participating publishers and authors, from being able to farm out specific creative tasks to those most suited to them, to providing a backdrop for series whose commercial value is proven1. Oh, and I should also note that humans have been riffing on plots/characters/tropes that they didn’t create for millennia. Think of all the versions of “Cinderella” out there. SFF has done this too—fantasy, in particular, seems to have long been fond of riffing on common fairy tales and folklore. SF was slower to adopt shared universes, though the 1952 Twayne Triplets, discussed here, bordered on the concept. Shared universes eventually took off and enjoyed a golden age from the late 1970s through the 1980s2. Here are some examples, starting with the 1970s… A World Named Cleopatra, edited by Poul Anderson, produced by Roger Elwood (1977) Master worldbuilder Anderson provided contributors with a setting, a planet both surprisingly Earth-like and inconveniently alien, scribed an introductory tale himself, then invited Michael Orgill, Jack Dann, and George Zebrowski to enjoy the playground he’d created. Together, they document the rise and fall (and hope of renaissance) of the human settlement on Cleopatra. No surprise to see Anderson’s name here, although his editorial role was an unusual one for him. He contributed to a number of shared worlds, including the Twayne Triplets. Clearly, the form appealed to him. While A World Named Cleopatra shows something was in the water where Disco Era shared world prose anthologies were concerned, Cleopatra was a one and done. Perhaps no further volumes were planned. Perhaps the unattractive cover failed to catch readers’ eyes. Perhaps it was because the mid-1970s were a particularly gloomy time for Anderson and the anthology reflects this, beginning with the Carlyle epigram at its beginning: “A sad spectacle (the stars). If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly.” Ah well. That’s still more upbeat than Anderson’s story “The Pugilist.” Medea: Harlan’s World, edited by Harlan Ellison (1985) With roots in a 1975 UCLA seminar (“Ten Tuesdays Down a Rabbit Hole”), Ellison’s project was in all ways more ambitious than Anderson’s. Where Cleopatra made do with one worldbuilding essay, Ellison commissioned four essays to paint his gas giant’s moon setting. The essayists were Anderson, Clement, Niven, and Pohl. There was also considerable ancillary material. Where Cleopatra had four authors, Medea had eleven: Jack Williamson, Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Frederik Pohl, Hal Clement, Thomas M. Disch, Frank Herbert, Poul Anderson, Kate Wilhelm, Theodore Sturgeon, and Robert Silverberg. Cartography was by Diane Duane, with illustrations by Frank Kelly Freas. No surprise that the tome weighed in at over five hundred pages. What prevented Medea from kicking off the shared world universe boom likely boils down to the publication date. Inexplicably for an ambitious Ellison anthology, progress between inspiration and final product appears to have been glacial… Many of the stories saw first print in magazines long before Medea appeared on bookshelves3. Delay appears to have cost Ellison his chance to inspire the shared universe golden age, as dangerous a vision as that seems. Nevertheless, Medea is worth tracking down just for the essays. Thieves’ World, edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey (1979) Thieves’ World (fantasy rather than science fiction) introduced readers to Sanctuary, a once-great trading community whose decline and isolation made it an ideal destination for refugees and rogues, as well as a convenient oubliette in which to immure superfluous royals. Thieves’ World didn’t offer the same obsessive meticulous world-building as did Cleopatra or Medea; the editors made a point of keeping details vague in order to provide authors with greater scope for creativity. It did feature a cross section of respected names of the era: Robert Asprin, John Brunner, Lynn Abbey, Poul Anderson, Andrew J. Offutt, Joe Haldeman, Christine DeWees, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. In addition to the SFF Who’s Who in the table of contents, Asprin and Abbey made a couple of judicious decisions. First, their setting was fantasy, at a time when fantasy’s popularity was soaring. Second, while the stories were often grim, the essays convey infectious enthusiasm about the project. Third, perhaps most importantly, the pair immediately followed up the first volume with further volumes to capitalize on the success of the first. It’s hard to put a firm number on the quantity of follow-up volumes. There were twelve anthologies in the original 1979–1989 series, in addition to which there were two anthologies much later, in the 21st century. There were seven official novels, at least nine collections and novels related to greater or lesser degree, and a roleplaying game adaptation. And now, let’s turn to the 1980s… Success invites imitation. Much to the irritation of editor/anthologist Gardner Dozois, who often took page space in his annual Best SF anthologies to complain about the phenomenon, a golden age of shared universe anthologies followed. Examples include Temps, The Weerde, Villains, Liavek, The Fleet, Heroes in Hell, Merovingian Nights, Man-Kzin Wars, and many more. So many more. Some of these efforts were good. Others possessed positive qualities too subtle to easily summarize or in some cases, detect at all. There were sufficient shared world projects for every taste and age. For an idea of the range, consider these two series. Borderland, edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold (1986) Having absented itself from the human realm for centuries, Faerie re-impinges on the mortal world at the Borderland. Neither magic nor technology work reliably in the Borderland. Governance and law enforcement are likewise unreliable. Thus, it’s a perfect refuge for people from both Faerie and America, as detailed by Steven R. Boyett, Terri Windling (writing as Bellamy Bach), Charles de Lint, and Ellen Kushner. Unlike most of the other series of the time, Borderland was aimed at teen readers. While the series was not as voluminous as some (four volumes in the main series, as well as three novels, and even an RPG!), subsequent volumes attracted such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Patricia A. McKillip, and Jane Yolen. These days, it’s easy to find testimony from readers young at the time for whom the Borderlands series filled an important need. Wild Cards edited by George R.R. Martin (1987) As documented here, Wild Cards is ultimately the late Steve Perrin’s fault. Having invested creative energy playing Perrin’s Superworld tabletop roleplaying game to the exclusion of other (paying) projects, editor George R.R. Martin prudently monetized his hobby by turning it into a shared world. Edward Bryant, Leanne C. Harper, Stephen Leigh, George R.R. Martin, Victor Milán, John J. Miller, Lewis Shiner, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Howard Waldrop, Walter Jon Williams, and Roger Zelazny painted a vivid four-colour picture of a world transformed by an alien bioweapon, in which uncanny abilities are used for good and ill. Two things stand out in these volumes. Having been provided by Martin with a single source for all superhuman abilities—transformation by alien virus—Martin’s contributors cheerfully proceeded to create heroes4 whose abilities were not drawn from the virus: aliens, an android, superlatively trained warriors, and the unpowered Jet Boy, who died just as the virus was released. Also, the series’ longevity is astonishing: more than thirty volumes over the course of five decades. A hat tip to the upcoming Tales from the Silence shared universe project, the appearance of whose Kickstarter in my inbox made me reflect on the many shared universe series currently clogging my book shelves. The works named above are a few of my favorites. However, I read only a very few of the available series. Which noteworthy examples were overlooked? Let us know in the comments below. Technically, I suppose authors sharing a house name to write series (such as Nancy Drew or Doc Savage) could constitute a shared universe, but that’s not something I will discuss here. ︎Star Trek deserves more space than I can give it, here. There were a few shared world anthologies such as Myrna Culbreath and Sondra Marshak’s 1976 ︎Fred Pohl’s Jem seemed to owe not a small fraction of its worldbuilding to Medea. ︎Well, let’s say “protagonists” rather than heroes. It is a Martin project, after all. Everyone is grey. Also, I should note that there’s an alarming frequency of sexual violence as plot parsley. ︎The post Five Classic SFF Works Set in a Shared Universe appeared first on Reactor.

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