Interesting article about how some Republicans are switching sides because of their dissatisfaction with Bush. The NC Veterans for Kerry group has a number of Republicans who are saying the same things, and choosing Kerry.
Bush is his own worst enemy.
Interesting research shows that ground squirrels emit ultrasonic warnings when threatened. The chirps the squirrels make are in the 50-kHz range, far above the typical 20-kHz height of human hearing. The researchers speculate that this may apply to all squirrels, as well as birds and other species previously not considered to use ultrasound.
There could be practical uses for this research. For instance, with the availability of DSP chips, it is easy to build a gadget which could be a highly effective squirrel repellent. Unlike the usual scent-based methods, a good squirrel scream could be reproduced artifically with ease. Put a motion detector on it and you’re in business! My only question is whether the PCM coding of the waveform would be accurate enough to fool them, since even we dumb humans aren’t fooled into thinking that music from a CD is live.
On a different note, researchers have made progress on a useful shark repellant. This only makes me wonder … would a shark scream scatter squirrels?
