Marketplace

$20 per issue

For Black & White ($30 for Color) 16 issue minimum

Auto Dental Services

Gunsmithing Senior Housing

Get Noticed in the Tidbit’s MARKETPLACE

For more information, contact your Account Representative!

$20 per issue

For Black & White ($30 for Color) 16 issue minimum

DOGS— (continued) • In a similar experiment, real people were positioned in front of dogs, either crying or humming. When the dogs were released, they investigated the crying people far more often than the people who were humming.

Furthermore, when dogs were given the choice of approaching either a crying stranger or their owner who was crying, they generally chose the crying stranger. • A team of researchers trained dogs to lie still while inside an MRI so scans could be taken of their brains. They discovered that the area that lights up when humans are exposed to something pleasurable is duplicated in a dog’s brain. Next they wanted to find out what sort of items a dog found most pleasurable. They exposed each dog to a series of cloths that smelled of different things: its own body smell, the odor of its owner, the smell of a stranger, a familiar dog, and an unfamiliar dog. The answer was invariably that the dogs preferred the cloth that smelled like their owner. • The bones of a dog uncovered a century ago in a quarry near Bonn, Germany, were carbon dated at 14,223 years old. This may be the first instance of a domestic dog rather than a wolf, because the state of the enamel on the dog’s teeth showed that the creature had suffered from the disease called distemper,

and had survived the illness. This could only have happened if it were being cared for by humans. • Researchers analyzed the

DNA of 912 domestic dogs and 225 wolves, searching for genetic differences.

They isolated a set of three genes responsible for social traits including extreme gregariousness.

Domestic dogs had one, two, or all three of these genes, and their friendliness correlated to the number of those genes that they had. Wolves, however, had none of these genes. Wolves removed from their mothers at the earliest possible time after birth and raised by humans will not bond to humans in the same way a domestic puppy

bonds with its owners, because wolves are missing these genes. Interestingly enough, humans are sometimes born with these three genes, which cause a genetic disability called Williams syndrome. One of the symptoms of Williams syndrome is extreme friendliness. • A tombstone some 4,000 years old uncovered in Egypt in 1935 was dedicated to a dog. It said, “The dog which was the guard of His Majesty. Abuwtiyuw is his name. His

Majesty ordered that he be buried, that he be given a coffin from the royal treasury, fine linen in great quantity, incense. His Majesty gave perfumed ointment and ordered that a tomb be built for him by the gang of masons.

His Majesty did this for him in order that he might be honored.” • This tombstone represents one of the earliest documented domestic animals whose name is known. The dog is believed to have lived in the Sixth Dynasty (2345–2181 BC), and received an elaborate burial in the Giza

Necropolis at the request of a pharaoh whose name is unknown. Abuwtiyuw was likely a sighthound, a hunting dog similar to a greyhound. His tomb and his mummy have never been found. The tombstone was discovered near the Great Pyramid of

Giza in a heap of stones scavenged from old projects to be used in new projects. • Off the coast of Melbourne, Australia, there’s a small island that’s home to a species of penguin called little penguins, because they stand only a foot tall. The colony is located just 60 feet (18 m) offshore. Normally there’s 60 feet of water protecting them from mainland predators, but sometimes shifting sands form a sand spit allowing predators to cross to the island. In 2004, marauding foxes plundered the island, killing all but six of the 800 birds. The locals were upset. Then a farmer mentioned that

HOCUS-FOCUS

Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:4-5 KJV Brought to you by Roger Davis Continued on Page 4