Dumb Questions.
 

Hey. I have a lot of dumb questions, and some of you smarties might have answers. I know I can go to ask.com. But sometimes my queries end up with a big fat nothing.

So. How do insects that fit in with their natural environment know what they look like, enough to use it as a defense mechanism for survival? I mean, I like the leaf bugs that hang around the house, but how do they know that they look like a leaf? It's not like they look in a mirror one day, and say, "honey is it me or do I look like a leaf"?

How do they know that they look specifically like a stick or something, and hang in stacks of sticks? Is this some sort of natural instinct?

I mean, what the hell? Are they that self-aware?

They probably have no idea they look like a stick, or a leaf, or whatever. It's just that all the ones that didn't look like a stick got eaten, so only the stick looking ones are left. That's basically how natural selection works.

Hmm...A better example might be a chameleon.

Cicero, you are one quirky girl.

But it's a good question. My question has always been about birds. We know birds of a feather flock together, but within those flocks are there friendships? Like when you see a bunch of birds flying around, are they bird friends or do they just fly around with any bird that looks like them? I know some bigger headed birds even mate for life, but what about your, say, sparrows? Do they have the cool clique and the hood clique and the sporty birds and the nerdy birds?

I have always wondered this. Thanks for a venue in which to ask. ;)

I've recently observed magpies hanging out with crows. They were playing with a big box in the back yard. I wondered if they are able to cross-breed.

Wait wait wait...what do you mean they were "playing" with a "big" "box"? ;)

Seriously, what were they doing?

If they mated you'd get crow-mag-nons.

http://www.hemmy.net/images/animals/...iendship10.jpg

http://www.hemmy.net/images/animals/...iendship01.jpg

Two of my kitties seem to have a close relationship, more so than any of the other cats I've had. They're always together, snuggling, tails intertwined, head bumping. We assume they're a married couple by now, in as much as they can be, having been spayed & neutered.

Juniper - those aren't cats!

I was a long way away and couldn't see the details, but they were taking turns jumping from the grass to the top of the box and back down, and seemed to be trying to open it. There were two crows and a magpie. Other birds were walking around the yard, looking under the deck, digging in the grass, and doing other bird things.

P.S. crow-mag-nons - that's a good one.

Looks like we got ourselves a condorvoy.

HLJ...you always make me lol.

Oh, wow! I did not know that! Thanks Juniper!

(sigh)

I just thought they were cute interspecies love pictures, sheesh. You're such a clown.

lol! I think they're great! If I had a tail it would be wagging.

what--you've never heard of "pecking order?"

We got our second cockatiel when friends of ours ended up with unepected baby cockatiels. Of the four who survived, they kept one and gave the other three away. We got one, and another family we know got another. We usually bird-sit for each other during vacations. And the two brothers just go crazy as soon as they're close enough to hear each other. They definitely show a preference for hanging out with each other instead of our other tiel, who doesn't seem particularly excited about the guest.

My boys adored eachother. Sob.

What I want to know is why my body rejects my hair. I can have a cat hair on me and not notice it. Even on the inside of my clothes. But the second it's one of my hairs it itches and bugs me until I fish it out.

I understand they are two very different textures, but it makes no sense for my own hair to itch like buggery, given that some of it will fall out every day.

Could be the dye. ;)

Nope, I don't let my cats dye their hair...

Consequently, they won't let you lick your hair ... hence your problem.

:sniff: No, Dylan used to try to groom me, Diz doesn't.
So if I hadn't lost my lovely cat, I'd have cat spit hair, but at least I wouldn't have hairs itching down my top.

Aaah. My puppy gets to visit it's old family from time to time, and definitely prefers their company to other dogs. She gets so excited.

Yes I do think birds have preferences, especially in their choice of mates. I have seen some male birds get ridiculous after being selected as a mate. I am not going to go into the details of the "honey I'm home" nest interaction, but yea, I think birds do have preferences. These preferences are usually based on instinct and practical needs.

There are some peculiarities that I can't figure out though, and why it would be instinctual or practical like:
Did you know that some (male) birds steal nest materials to build up a better nest, to attract the initial nest owner's mate? oh yea. They get wicked. And sometimes it works!

Why not pick a female bird without a mate instead of attracting the neighbors wife, and stealing a portion of his house to do it? Odd. Birds are odd. The more I find out about them the more seriously disturbed I get.

"Your birdy wife is leaving you for me." "And I stole your kitchen and garage." Sucker!!

It's good old evolution again.
She was good enough for him, therefore she must be fertile.
That nest was good enough to get a fertile mate, therefore if I have a bit of it, it will improve my chances.

Or maybe it's just good old peer pressure - if she already has a mate she must be hawt...

The mag-pies around here seem to hang out with my cows, if they crossed would they be called cow-pies? :p

i haven't read any of the above. why do we have to qualify questions as dumb? maybe they aren't dumb maybe they are just borned wrong.

Beacause everyone else knows the answers, and I am the dumb ass that doesn't.
:)

I'm not so smart, as to not qualify my questions, with the word dumb.

There are no dumb questions, only dumb people.

Say, over in the make-up thread (I only clicked on it because I thought it said make out) people are talking about a "cutter", which seems to be something like a goth/druggie/loser/emo/skank/bogan etc etc. What exactly is a cutter?

someone who self harms?

In "Breaking Away" a cutter was a person who worked in the local quarry, cutting slabs from the rock. There was tension between the cutters and the college community.

But in the thread in question, a cutter is clearly someone who is trying to go directly to the front of the line ("queue" for you crazy foreign types) without waiting like everyone else.

Or maybe it's someone who cuts themselves for any number of psychological reasons, but I don't see what that has to do with goth/druggie/loser/emo/skank/bogan types.

Dark, disaffected, troubled teenagers, who engage in sub cultural coping methods to deal with a hostile world?

Cutters cut, yes, but what? Cut themselves? cut other people? cut class? cut into queues? cut drugs? cut back? cut it out? cut across? cut'n'paste? cut off? cut a rug? cut dead? For the love of cut, someone tell meeeee!!!!

Cutting paste.
Teenagers who take God's clean paste - like Sardine and Tomato or Chicken and Ham, and cut it with an inferior substance, fo example margarine.

Those crazy kids.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cutter

Urban Dictionary is one of the premier resources on the Internet.

Spare us the cutter
Spare us the cutter
Couldn't cut the mustard

Kids (and adults) that self-mutilate are "cutters". Adults do it too. Opposed to the ones that pierce theirselves 20 times, thats cool and not self mutilation somehow. My friend's daughter was a cutter. She was in and out of the psych ward several times while I knew that friend.
The only people that will hang out with them (cutters) are goth, emo, or punk. Or they are goth,emo, or punk. Which is why they are lumped in.

They feel as if they can heal theirselves of something psychologically, by cutting and bleeding it out. It's a rough condition. ;( Or they are trying to commit suicide....Come to think of it, I knew some pretty successful adults that had this problem(became depressed and cut). So really it's unfair to judge too harshly. They just need to keep up with their meds or go back to counseling.

or just do it right once and be done with it -
this "lil nip here" and a "lil stab there" isn't cutting it.