What's That Wednesday?

Recently The Queen and I were driving home from work and saw a sign that said something to the effect of "spay or neuter your pets." The Queen commented "you get to choose?" Which led to a discussion on what the difference was and why there were two words (I know, I know the are for the different sexes of animal) when only one really would work, I would think. So, today's What's That Wednesday discusses the differences between the two words and hopefully will provide an understanding of why two are needed when only one, say "de-sexify" or "eunich-ize" would do.....for that matter can there be female eunuchs?

Question 1 - What is spaying? It is an ovario-hysterectomy or the surgical removal of the reproductive organs (ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes) of the female animal.

Question 2 - What is neutering? It is an orchectomy or castration) or the surgical removal of the reproductive glands (testes) of the male animal. The outer is left, only the testes are removed.... Interesting how for the female it is the actual organs but with the male only the "glands" are removed.

So, with these two answers and since they refer to the specifics of the male and female animal anatomy, I guess they can't be interchangeable. Of course, that just means that I'm going to push for people to start using "de-sexify" when they talk about taking their pets in to get the "fixed" (because I don't really think removing pieces and parts from a pet should be considered "fixing" them...although I am all for "de-sexifying").

Question 3 - Can a female be a eunuch? Turns out that based on the official Wikipedia definition a eunuch is a castrated man, usually one castrated early enough to have major hormonal consequences. However, in 1970 a book entitled The Female Eunuch was published became a key text of the feminist movement. The book's main thesis is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually, and that this devitalizes them, rendering them eunuchs.

So there you have it. Spay and neuter are gender specific and females technically cannot be eunuchs..... What do you want to know now?

What's That Wednesday?

This week's What's That Wednesday is: Javelina

I was mentioning to the Queen about some of the wildlife that could be found in the Davis Mountains, where I spent my vacation last week, and one such beast was the Javelina.

Javelina, also referred to as a peccary or skunk pig. Javelinas are medium-sized animals with a strong superficial resemblance to pigs. Like pigs, they have a snout ending in a cartilagenous disc, and eyes that are small relative to their head. Also like pigs, they use only the middle two digits for walking, although unlike pigs, the other toes may be altogether absent. Their stomach is non-ruminating, although it has three chambers, and is more complex than that of pigs.

Javelinas are omnivores, and will eat small animals, although their preferred food consists of roots, grass, seeds, and fruit. Pigs and javelinas can be differentiated by the shape of the canine tooth, or tusk. In European pigs the tusk is long and curves around on itself, whereas in javelinas, the tusk is short and straight. The jaws and tusk of javelinas are adapted for crushing hard seeds and slicing into plant roots, and they also use their tusks for defending against predators.

By rubbing the tusks together they can make a chattering noise that warns potential predators not to get too close. Javelinas are aggressive enough in temperament that they cannot be domesticated as they are likely to injure humans.

Check out Wikipedia for more information.

What's That Wednesday?

I need to come up with a standing graphic....Queen - Work on that for me.

I started this series last week with What Is... and have now changed the name officially to "What's That Wednesday?"

Today we are going to discus "corpuscles". Again, this came out of a conversation (or rather an IM discussion) with The Queen. Following is a re-enactment:

ABBA: How's your afternoon?

Queen: Good. I'm in a meeting...again.

ABBA: Do we have an ETD? {Because The Queen and ABBA carpool and ABBA is usually finished before The Queen since The Queen's team tends to want to start working and meeting at 4:30 in the afternoon....isn't that the END of the day?!?}

Queen: Soon. Things wrapping up. How's your afternoon?

ABBA: I think corpuscles are exploding in my head.

Queen: Huh?

ABBA: My head is killing me...

Queen: Ah...What's a corpuscle?

So, here is the Wikipedia information on what a corpuscle is:

Corpuscle may refer to: A small free floating biological cell, especially a blood cell, but not a fat cell.

I was a little off on what I initially thought it was. I thought a corpuscle was sorta like a capillary but in the opposite direction, you know how veins and arteries take the blood in opposite directions from the heart, I thought corpuscles were just smaller versions of these. But at least I was correct in knowing that they have something to do with blood.

What Is..... A Gibbon

I made a reference today during carpool to a Gibbon. The Queen asked, "What is a Gibbon?" I bumbled through trying to explain what a gibbon was "...something, something, larger than a monkey, not as smart as a chimpanzee, something, something..."

She then challenged me to have a weekly "What Is...." blog, so here is the first (of course she is going to have to challenge me each week with asking "what is...").

Here is a picture of a pair of Gibbons.

Gibbons are not actually monkeys, but rather members of the Ape family. They differ from great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, and humans) in being smaller, not making nests, and in certain anatomical details in which they superficially more closely resemble monkeys than great apes do. Gibbons also display pair-bonding, unlike most of the great apes. Gibbons are masters of their primary mode of locomotion, swinging from branch to branch for distances of up to 50 feet, at speeds as high as 35 mph. They can also make leaps of up to 26 feet, and walk bipedally with their arms raised for balance. They are the fastest and most agile of all tree-dwelling, non-flying mammals.

{Thank goodness for Wikipedia!!}