The NYTimes “Well” blog reports on “The Look of Love“:
… Japanese researchers found that dogs who trained a long gaze on their owners had elevated levels of oxytocin, a hormone produced in the brain that is associated with nurturing and attachment, similar to the feel-good feedback that bolsters bonding between parent and child. After receiving those long gazes, the owners’ levels of oxytocin increased, too.
The dog’s gaze cues connection and response in the owner, who will reward the dog by gazing, talking and touching, all of which helps solder the two, the researchers said. They suggest that dogs became domesticated in part by adapting to a primary human means of contact: eye-to-eye communication…
Dr. Chang, who studies oxytocin in animals, noted that through domestication, dogs came to regard humans as their “key social partners,” while humans also came to view dogs as social partners.
“In a way, domesticated dogs could hijack our social circuits, and we can hijack their social circuits,” he said in an email, as each species learned how to raise the other’s oxytocin levels, facilitating connection…
… Evan L. MacLean, co-director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center and a co-author of a commentary accompanying the study, said, “We don’t know what the dog’s gaze means. When you look at a human baby, it feels good. Maybe dogs gaze at you because it feels good. Maybe the dogs are hugging you with their eyes?”
But Dr. MacLean, an evolutionary anthropologist, said that fundamentally, for dogs, human behavior is “the telltale of everything that is about to happen.” Are we going to stand or sit? Leave the room? Bring food?…
“If I was dropped on Mars,” Dr. MacLean said, “and everyone was speaking a language I didn’t understand, and I knew I could never acquire their language, I’d just give up. But dogs don’t. They’re not reluctant to tune in to us at every moment.”
Much more detail at the link. The feedback loop doesn’t work with wolves raised with humans; among pack-based predators, a fixed gaze is liable to be perceived as a challenge — a threat. Maybe our protocanine companions were domesticating us pack-apes in parallel to our domestication of them. And maybe, when we go forth in search of Martians, we should take them with us, to help explain our pecularities?
***********
Apart from gazing with love at our personal wolf-analogs, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another long week?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m pissed. I’m trying to set up a WordPress blog at my domain, melancholy-donkey.com, but my hosting company isn’t answering my requests for help and hasn’t responded to the request I put in for a WordPress installation a week ago.
Does anyone know of some way to set something up quickly and cheaply? All I really need right now is just a page to post first the prologue of my novel and then add the first chapter when I get it back from my editor, so I can link to it from my Kickstarter. I can’t launch that until I can create that link. It’s the only thing left to do.
raven
From a review of Dogs Decoded
Daniel Mills (Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine, University of Lincoln, England) has used eye tracking software on dogs to prove that they do, in fact, read human faces in the same manner that humans do, i.e., with a left-to-right gaze (meaning that they view the right side of the face first). Research has shown that human facial expressions are not symmetrical and manifest differently on each side of the face, and that the right sight is usually the truest to that emotion. Dogs appear to have figured this out all on their own.
Mills speculates that dogs have evolved to read human emotion, as there may be a biological advantage to it for them, living as closely with humans as they do. If they can recognize the expressions a human displays when (s)he is acting aggressively, the dog will know to avoid the human when they are displaying those emotions in the future. The converse is also true; when a human is displaying pleasant or happy expressions, the dog knows that it is safe to approach, and that affection is likely.
otmar
A new twist in Fort Smith’s PD war against whistle-blowers: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/apr/14/lawyer-malware-located-on-drive-2015041/
geg6
For those who are wondering and speaking of dogs, Lovey is settling in nicely.
Amir Khalid
@geg6:
Yay Lovey! And yay you! Of course, you know we still want photos and video.
Tommy
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I do high-end WordPress sites for a living. I can help :). Let me first ask what hosting company do you use and are you “stuck” with them, meaning would you change? Honestly in 2015 with any hosting companies worth two cents you should be able to install WordPress with a few mouse clicks and in under five minutes.
Also, does your hosting company use cPanel?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m using Runbox.com. And they say you can install WordPress in just a few clicks; they say to use the Fantastico De Luxe on the main cPanel page. Except that there’s no mention of Fantastico De Luxe on that page or anywhere I could find. I did manage to find something through a different link that had me fill out some basic information and then submit it. That’s what I did last Friday. I haven’t heard anything from that.
So I tried to just install WordPress manually. I found the instructions to do so and uploaded all of the files to the folder I wanted the blog in. Then I was supposed to point my browser at that folder and run the install script. Except that I can’t point my browser at it. There is no conceivable URL that it could be that doesn’t return some sort of error. Two and a half days ago I opened a ticket about the problems I was having and I haven’t heard back.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Addition: I have no idea what I’m doing; all I can do is follow instructions by rote because I don’t know any of this stuff.
satby
Good morning!
Woke up at 4AM and have a full day after a very full week of work. Did my taxes this Monday because I thought I was going to have to pay and found out I get a refund (I hope, as long as there’s no garnishment on it for the PLUS loan I took out for one kid’s schooling at one of the places the Department of Ed is fighting with). I’m really looking forward to that refund, it will catch me all the way back up so I stay out of foreclosure.
And then maybe I can sleep all night again ;)
satby
@geg6: That’s wonderful geg6!
Ramalama
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Did you also buy your domain name with Runbox? Sounds like you might have to point your domain to your server. Look for DNS management links on your cPanel page.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Ramalama: I’ve tried pointing it to every server I can associate with it: runbox.com; runbox.net; host01.runbox.neet; host02.runbox.net. I’ve put all of the various permutations of my user name and my oen domain after those, such as host01.runbox.net/eeyore/home and so on.
Tommy
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: So hard to help not being able to see your desktop and what you are seeing. With that said a “hosted” WordPress site, where WordPress is hosted on your hosting account is ALWAYS the best option. But there is another option that should work well for you, less powerful, but from the little I know about your needs, it would seem to do everything you need (and more).
WordPress.com is WordPress version that is like a Squarespace or Blogger. They host it. Not as powerful as what you are trying to do, but again still an amazing site-building tool. It is also free. It is a little bit of a pain to use your own domain name, but it is possible and sounds like from your comment you can follow instructions if they are clear, so you can get it done.
That would be my suggestion to you.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Tommy: Thanks. I’ll give it a try when I’m back on my own computer.
Tommy
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Never heard of that hosting company, but there are so many of them that isn’t strange. I know folks hate GoDaddy because the former CEO is a total asshole. Now owned by some terrible private equity firm.
But it is who I use with clients 24/7 because they have, bar none, the best customer support I’ve ever used with a tech company. Free, 24/7, US-based customer support. You could call them and say you can’t turn on your computer and they’d help.
Plus they are like the Wal-mart of hosting. You can buy a domain or hosting, or you can run a billion dollar company (Dell uses them) off of their services.
If you can cancel and move I would strongly suggest that. Just in the time we’ve been talking here your site would already be up.
Aleta
Though not an adaptation to humans during domestication (cause I think wolves also do this), I’m thinking that dogs’ way of giving good greeting, and the way they remember individuals and greet them accordingly, would be similarities to humans that led naturally to social interactions between us. Our dog has lived with us/ our neighborhood for around a year, and before that had not ever experienced going for walks, meeting dogs and people in the street, or adapting his behavior to another. (For 7 years he was a stud in a rural puppy production, usually separate in his own pen.) After coming here, he set about trying to greet and make friends with most of the people/dogs he would meet on walks. At first it seemed like he was just trying to join or form a bigger pack, without individual discretion…. but by now he has a heap of familiar friends in the neighborhood to greet, and his manner is adjusted differently to each individual mammal. (He’d still like to have a big happy pack — to get the band back together, so to speak.).
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Tommy: I’ll look into it. Half of my email uses a runbox.com address so it’ll be trickier but I’ll look at GoDaddy. Hopefully I don’t get hit with some hideous Danica Patrick ad.
Ramalama
@Tommy: I’ve worked with GoDaddy too and I couldn’t agree more about loathing and loving the company. I’ve had mostly pretty good service with maybe 2 fails in the last 10 years or so with clients. But no other hosting co has the ease and willingness of support, as long as you’re ready to bat down their constant friendly upsells.
Aleta
@geg6: oh, cool. Thanks for mentioning.
Tommy
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
You might and/or will :). Look I do WordPress sites for a living so I think it is the best software out there. But to build what I’d call an elegant site, lots of white space, wonderful/bold images, lets call it a beautiful site, well that takes some effort with WordPress, which is why I can charge at least $100/hour (often more) for what I do.
So when I say you should really spend an hour or so looking at Squarespace (also pretty much free) that is high praise for/from me. I could envision some amazing ways to promote a book on it and willing to bet they even have a “canned” template just for that purpose (or for CDs/DVDs — that could be easily tweaked to promote a book) that will just take a few mouse clicks to start using once you set-up your free account.
BTW: This isn’t a WordPress site, just straight-up HTML/CSS site to promote a book my father wrote. Nothing close to my best work, but what dad wanted and he was the client, although I never got paid :).
Ramalama
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Another thing to try is to tweet runbox.
I had a client who was charged for his domain renewal but then because his contact info had changed or he forgot his password, had his whole website taken hostage. The domain co said he’d have to get a lawyer to prove he was who he said he was (his name was his domain). Despite all the proofs client sent the company they wouldn’t let him use his domain. And yet they charged him for renewal.
So I began to send out carefully worded tweets to this company asking them why they wanted to destroy my client’s business (he was an artist). After 4 months of being in limbo before the tweets, the tweets got everything cleared up in a day. I had to send out 7.
You likely won’t have to send that many.
Aleta
@raven:
Do you think it’s possible that in addition to reading faces, dogs also mirror our posture, and that might be why they say dog/human pairs sometimes resemble each other? (Beyond, of course, the possibility that humans select dogs that coordinate with themselves in appearance or manner.).
Baud
I volunteer for the study on how dogs respond to tummy rubs.
Tommy
@Ramalama: Yeah their former CEO was like to the right of Rush. Liked to kill elephants and post the pics on the GoDaddy corporate blog he ran. Gave money to terrible, terrible causes.
In the 7+ years I’ve been doing this I’ve only had two clients refuse to use them. One was a person running the CA Senate and the other a non-profit, environmental group.
When push comes to shove my liberal clients, and I fall right into this group, care more that their site works, they get value for what they pay for hosting, and when they need help they can pick up the phone and you know talk to an actual person.
That is NOT always the case with hosting companies. I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of them where I couldn’t even find a phone number. Just sent off an email and hoped somebody gets back to me, and often they didn’t.
In fact a few years ago I changed my estimates to note that if they didn’t use what I’d call a top-tier hosting company (and list them), if they turn out to me “Mickey Mouse” then anytime I spend doing something I shouldn’t even have to do, I charge that by the hour on top of my estimate.
Yes it is that bad at times. Many, no most hosting companies suck!
JPL
@geg6: That’s good news indeed.
Ramalama
I am such a dog person and loved Annie Laurie’s quote and link on teh dog and yet here I am talking about web hosting…zzzzz.
Sidenote: My mom is also a dog person and has been writing letters to various Catholics like Fr Richard Rohr about a book about dogs and God. He wrote her back thanking her for the book. She found out later he since got himself a dog.
Flatlander
This helps explain why some dog owners are so screwed up in the head that they put their dogs above other people’s children, e.g. by letting their dogs loose in parks and playgrounds.
raven
@Aleta: I bet they do.
raven
@Flatlander: And “some” parents are fucking idiots.
ThresherK (GPad)
@raven: Is it true for lefthanders that the right side of the face “shows” more honestly? Cos I am used to having to switch sides on a lot of other things too.
geg6
@Amir Khalid:
I have sent Cole photos so hopefully he’ll put them up one of these days. No video because I just barely have the agility to get a photo before she darts off. The best photos are of her sleeping.
@raven:
Seriously.
Flatlander
@raven: Guilty on both counts. The brilliant and involuntarily celibate have much to disparage in parents. But at least their dogs’ gaze is a consolation.
bemused
A study of cats’ eye contact with humans would be, um, quite challenging but it would be amusing to learn what such a study would find. The longest eye contact our cats and all previous cats have had with us is when it’s meal time. They are sweet, cuddly kitties but looking deeply into their eyes results in them quickly blinking, looking away and suddenly finding they need to groom themselves.
geg6
Damn, this is either the best thing ever or ruining something I love. I really like the Lily Pulitzer look for summer and have purchased some at bargain basement prices but not many because these clothes are not easy to find at a price I can afford. I just saw a commercial that tells me that Target is going to be selling a Lily Pulitzer line. I am now forced to go to Target to see if they are worth even the low prices there. This pisses me off.
Cckids
On the dog front, I’m sitting up with my aging Pom, who has had the runs all night. Bloody & all. We are doing lots of eye gazing, but I don’t think that the endorphins are spiking for either of us. Just waiting till the vet opens at 7:30.
Besides the worry about him, the worst part is he obviously feels so guilty when he can’t make it outside. Poor guy.
Gin & Tonic
@Ramalama: Maybe a little late here, and not sure who’s still reading, but I use runbox for e-mail and for running a hosted WP site and have had no issues. They do not always respond quickly to e-mail, but they do respond quickly to tweets.
I can’t really stick around and discuss for now, unfortunately. But my cPanel-based installation of a default WP was pretty trivial. You do have to make sure your DNS points to them.
Baud
@Cckids:
Poor baby.
debbie
@geg6:
You can thank Isaac Mizrahi for starting that trend. I’d bet Lily Pulitzer’s offerings won’t be as good as you’ve seen elsewhere, but it’ll still be miles better than Target’s standard clothing.
raven
@ThresherK (GPad): Dunno, it actually seemed goofy to me when I saw that show.
geg6
@debbie:
Might work for just hanging out at my sisters’ pools this summer and as accent pieces. I just hate having to go to a big box store. I buy almost everything clothing-wise online now. I can get stuff I love (Lily P, Banana Republic, JCrew, Coach, etc.) at ridiculously low prices. I don’t mind buying gently used, so I get really good bargains.
rikyrah
this is who the GOP is all the way
two hundred million over FOUR YEARS?
FOR YEARS?
………………….
College of DuPage backers with exclusive deals rake in millions
Officials at the College of DuPage have a long list of items to turn over to federal investigators by next week, including a trove of documents related to contracts with companies tied to board members for the school’s fundraising foundation.
Here’s what those records will show: Nearly half of the College of DuPage Foundation’s 22 most recent board members are executives at companies doing business with the publicly funded school, and many of those companies have been awarded jobs without going through a competitive selection process, according to a Tribune investigation.
Those businesses have billed the college for nearly $200 million since July 2010 — while also ranking among the foundation’s most generous donors. The Tribune’s investigation, examining many of the same documents now being sought by federal authorities, raises questions about the confluence of business dealings and fundraising at the state’s largest community college.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-college-of-dupage-foundation-contracts-20150416-story.html#page=1
debbie
@geg6:
Target’s online, just like the others. Or you could sneak in quickly to feel the merchandise, and then go to Target’s Web site to order.
Dupe70
Cats on the other hand are just waiting for us to keel over so they can snack on us…
Big ole hound
@raven: I concur. I think that dogs are the only animal with white around the pupils of the eye like humans and are also the only animal that will look where you point. Their forebearers, wolves, do not have this trait and will not look where you point so maybe the development of domestic dogs is a great example of Darwin’s theory.
raven
@rikyrah: I went to Dupe U for a semester after I got booted out of the U of I!
geg6
@debbie:
I can’t be certain that Target clothes fit. I know how JCrew, Banana Republic, etc. fit me, so I have no problem ordering online. I’ll have to go to the store to see what fits and what doesn’t. Knowing how difficult fit is for me, I’m not optimistic. I’m not complaining, but although I am lucky in having taken after my father and being naturally thin, I am notoriously hard to fit due to multiple issues: larger bust, boyish waist and hips and a very short torso fitted on top of very long legs. I’m only 5’5″ but wear a 34-36 inch inseam. Weird, I am.
debbie
@geg6:
We’re all weird in our own special ways. Hope those clothes turn out to be better than you can imagine! (I’m still wearing the Mizrahi jacket I bought at Target many years ago.)
Interrobang
@bemused: My one cat makes crazy eye contact with me. She loves to gaze into my eyes. When I met her in the Humane Society, she first attracted my attention by making strong eye contact with me and then yelling “pr-KOW! pr-KOW! pr-KOW!” until I went over to her cage and started interacting with me.
So like everything, I figure it probably depends on the cat.
Matt McIrvin
@bemused: Cats show affection by squinting and closing their eyes. A steady gaze just freaks them out. That’s why cats in a group of people will often gravitate toward the person who hates cats, or is allergic: that’s the person who doesn’t look at the cat.
I recall reading somewhere that cats seem to regard their humans as basically big, stupid cats. If you’re lucky, you’re accepted as family. With dogs there’s clearly something entirely different going on.