Month: February 2006

All green and go

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 21, 2006

I thought it was time to provide an update on Zoë, otherwise known as the little princess.

She passed through her radiation treatment with flying colors, and seemed fine just after she got home. Then she got very quiet, and would spend most of her morning in my roommate’s closet. She played rarely, and wouldn’t snuggle with me much, probably because I’ve been the one to take her into the vet.

We knew that Zoë would be less playful after the treatment, because much of her playfulness was due to her hyperthyroidism. Chances are she would act a little less like a kitten, and more like an elegant lady of 13. It was discouraging though, to see the change in her. What was worse, after putting her through all what we did, after after a warning from the vet’s office where Zoë received her treatment, we had to stop giving Zoë her favorite treats: Greenies.

Greenies are crunchy, hard dental treats for dogs and cats. They’re manufactured in Kansas City, Missouri, from natural ingredients including chlorophyll. I picked this up as a treat for Zoë because of the chlorophyll, since she’s not an outdoor cat and doesn’t have access to grass. Zoë loves Greenies. She doesn’t meow when I call out ‘Treat!’, she squeaks with excitement. Animals absolutely love these treats.

When I was at the vet’s getting her two-week radiation test, I mentioned Greenies to the assistant and she looked at me, startled, and said the vet who treated Zoë, Dr. Hause, had just finished writing a report about the possible harmful effects of Greenies. I was stunned, thinking I had given something to Zoë that could harm her. When I came home, I threw out the Greenies and returned to some other treats she used to get.

I also started doing research on Greenies and discovered that there have been reported deaths of dogs– some mention 13, others over 44–over the years from Greenies. What happens with each is the dog doesn’t chew the treat enough and it lodges in their throat or stomach and can cause an obstruction; especially if they’re swallowed whole. This obstruction could cause infection, blockage for breathing, and any number of potentially deadly problems.

The controversy is enough that a site was created, The Truth About Greenies. This site, run by the Greenies company, answers some of the issues related to Greenies–providing positive reviews and customer and vet reports. The company has also issued an in-depth response to the concerns. There’s also an Urban Legend entry on Greenies. Though it doesn’t give credence that Greenies are foam rubber, it does mention that the cause and effects associated with Greenies and dog obstructions is still under investigation.

In all cases, there’s never a denial that Greenies can harm or injure a dog; however, as the company maintains, any hard, dental treat can injure a dog if the treat is the wrong size for the dog, or the dog doesn’t chew it properly. I gather that some dogs are ‘gulpers’, and as such, should never be given these treats. For other dogs, there are different sized treats for the different dogs.

I’ve always been aware of dogs and how they can have problems by swallowing too large a dog biscuit, or bone, or any hard matter. When I’ve had dogs in the past, we were always careful to make sure they got the right size of biscuit, they never had access to bones, and we monitored their eating habits. When I visited my mother last year, she told me never to give broken dog treats to her dogs, as they’re too small and could choke the dogs. She’ll only give them the whole treats, big enough to force the dogs into crunching them down.

There is one lawsuit against the company for a dog death. In this case, the dog was cremated and the treat destroyed, so it’s unsure how far this suit will go.

My vet’s report was in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In the story, Dr. Hause stated, “Don’t give small dogs Greenies. Small dogs or cats.” This echoed what his assistant had told me.

However, when I checked with my regular vet’s office, a cat-only clinic, their response was that they had not heard of one negative incident related to the cat treats. Cats don’t have the same problems that dogs do with dental treats. They’re not gulpers, and even if they were, they would most like upchuck the unbroken treat. I know that Zoë does this with the hard, dental food the vet prescribed because her teeth have problems. However, feline Greenies are a relatively new product, too.

Are Greenies somehow harder than other treats? According to the company, they’re manufactured in a manner similar to other dog biscuits. As for the rumor that Greenies are toxic, this is balderdash; the same with the claim that these “aren’t 100% digestible, and as such are harmful”. As the company has asserted, there is no such thing as a 100% digestible food; if there were, there would be no waste. What the company asserts is that they are 100% edible. What is used in Greenies is the same ingredients used in most hard dog foods.

As for the cat treats, they’re no harder than Zoë’s dental food, and there has been no reported problem with Greenies and cats. Based on all this research, I started giving Zoë Greenies again.

Within three days, she was snuggling with me.

Today, she played her favorite game: tear up the back of Mom’s office chair.

Whether Zoë’s increased activity is due to the fact that time heals all, or due to Greenies, I don’t know. I do know she loves them and I love her, and if they’re not harmful and can help her teeth, I’m going to continue giving them to her.

As long as the company doesn’t go out of business that is. Rumor is about as deadly to a company, as a badly chewed hard biscuit is to a dog.

Technology Weblogging

We interrupt this commercial break with a word about RSS

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 19, 2006

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

It had all the makings of a true Real Life Drama:

In an effort to defuse what could only be termed mutiny in the ranks, otherwise known as the ‘Atom Effect’, Dave Winer turns the copyright of the RSS 2.0 specification over to Harvard, attaching a Creative Commons License reflecting something about share and share alike. The nobility of the act stuns people–well other than those who questioned how much of the specification he was entitled to claim as his copyright. Oh, and those people who kept insisting that Creative Commons licenses were not designed to cover something such as software or specifications.

Accepting the accolades as only what he was due, the Big Dog then anoints a committee of three to watch over our sleeping beauty, the little syndication feed that was. But these caretakers take little care and run for the hills–whether of gold or sanity, only they can say. Poor little feed lies there, alone and vulnerable, while its bastard cousin, Atom, is fed care and attention and grows up to be a big, strapping specification that can bite through ambiguity and confusion, like Jaws bit through surfer girls.

It is then, when our precious little orangy bundle of joy is at its most aloneness that even Bigger Dogs enter the picture: Apple and Microsoft, seeing the light (or, more likely, seeing a potential new profit stream) embrace RSS and in the process, fracture, bruise, and even somewhat maim it. “The problem is,” the masses cry out, “the specification is too open, too ill-defined.”

Enter now, a new hero: Rogers Cadenhead. Stalwart defender of Popish dignity and bearer of thick, wavy, locks of silver. Big Dog taps Rogers on the shoulder with his sword and says to him, “You shall be my defender, the RSS Champion”.

–curtain closes for intermission, while scenery is changed–

Now enters the story a host of new players: 8 new keepers of the RSS flame to support our champion. Their task? They come not to destroy RSS 2.0 but to praise it. They seek to clear the confusion, to cut away the darkness that surrounds this neurotic little bundle of joy. Where before there were endless questions of interpretation, and breaking tools right and left, the Nine Champions of the Rin…urh, sorry, wrong movie, scratch that….the Nine Champions of the Specification will make it all better!

(Loosely translated for the prop department: They come to change little RSS 2.0’s diaper, because it had done a doo-doo and now stinks to high heaven. )

But hark? What’s this? What’s this rumble in the distance. Oh, no! It’s Big Dog, and he’s got his lawyer!

But the Lawyer brings no books or suits or habius or even corpses. He opens the door long enough to make statement and then moves on to other things that come ten by ten. The statement? Nothing has changed on RSS 2.0. Harvard still owns it, but the community may do what they will within the bounds of a Creative Commons license. Leading to, (now pay attention, this is going to go fast)…

A community, which now it seems, must absorb the Nine Champions of RSS 2.0, because they have been banished from the round table that was the RSS Advisory Board. A Board that is no more, created by a man who resigned from it, and who gave up any intellectual ownership of the specification, but still retains ownership of the specification, to wit, making decisions about who is or is not on a board that no longer exists for a technical specification given intellectual property rights by a University that had little or no involvement with the specification, under a license that has little or no applicability to specifications, mainly created for songsters and photogs and other artsy types AND which has little or no legal standing within the rules of the land because there are no rules of the land when great bodies of water separate most of it.

Have no fear, though, as our hero, the RSS Champion can see his way clear through this confounding maze. I will not waiver he cries. “While my heart beats and I draw breath, I will not be swayed from my sacred duty. Nay! Though you may torture me with unclosed tags and malformed dates, I will hold true to my task. To the end. To the bitter end!” His dedication shines so brightly, members of the advisory board are heard to murmur “What?”

His passion even moves former foes–those who had vowed to pull RSS 2.0 from its throne and install one of their own choosing (see reference re above: Atom, Effort of). They are so moved, they pull their validators from their leather sheaths and hold them high in support and salute, crying out, Hey, cool.

All are not in one accord, though, for Big Dog is angered, mightily angered. Why? To know this is to know one of the universe’s least interesting facts. All we need know is that Big Dog is angered at the Champion and the Nine defenders of RSS 2.0, and so he sends out of the darksome mists an imp to torment both our hero and his new allies.

—

See? You can’t make this stuff up. And a few years ago, the battles between these opposing forces would have received much attention and the thundering of the post and counter-post would have shaken even the political webloggers who might–might–take time out from verbally eviscerating each other to take notice.

But there was a party put on by a player, to celebrate a book authored by other players, with words about how to become players, sponsored by other groups hoping to become players, drinking wine pushed by a hopeful, attended by 500 or so close friends, each with a startup, a product, an agenda or, at minimum, a weblog.

And no one cared about old enemies and ancient battles, the hard work of our hero and his allies, other daring do and RSS 2.

The end.

Tags RSS

Critters

Pets on parade

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 19, 2006

I and my roommate attended the Mardi Gras Pet Parade in the Soulard district today. It was cold, about ten degrees with the wind chill. As such, the numbers were down, but those that attended, two legged and four, had a great time.

This was my first time in this district and I loved it. You can see the same French influence in this neighborhood that defines New Orleans, which most likely explains why the Mardi Gras in St. Louis is the third largest in the country.

I imagine if the weather was warmer, there would have been many more parade members and onlookers. There is an advantage to going to events when the weather is harsh–the event becomes more intimate.

In addition to the show, I also added some of my favorite photos to the end of this post. I had a wonderful time, even if I did freeze from the toes up. I hope I communicated some of my pleasure and fun to you through the photos.

This dog was as cool as his shades.

The participants cared very deeply for their pets, and this was reflected in the face of this man, holding his dog before the parade.

A magnificent dog, but not one that liked to be approached by other people or dogs.

Many of the dogs had beads or only a few odds and ends tucked about their sweaters. Others, though, were dripping with Mardi Gras beads and feather boas, and so on.

A quiet moment of reflection.

There were two cats in the parade. Two very brave cats. And one brave owner to be holding her cat.

I think the reason this is my favorite is self-explanatory.

Specs Standards

We Interrupt This Commercial Break with a Word about RSS

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 19, 2006

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

It had all the makings of a true Real Life Drama:

Accepting the accolades as only what he was due, the Big Dog then anoints a committee of three to watch over our sleeping beauty, the little syndication feed that was. But these caretakers take little care, and run for the hills–whether of gold or sanity, only they can say. Poor little feed lies there, alone and vulnerable, while its bastard cousin, Atom, is fed care and attention and grows up to be a big, strapping specification that can bite through ambiguity and confusion, like Jaws bit through surfer girls.

–curtain closes for intermission, while scenery is changed–

Now enters the story a host of new players: 8 new keepers of the RSS flame to support our champion. Their task? They come not to destroy RSS 2.0 but to praise it. They seek to clear the confusion, to cut away the darkness that surrounds this neurotic little bundle of joy. Where before there were endless questions of interpretation, and breaking tools right and left, the Nine Champions of the Rin…urh, sorry, wrong movie, scratch that–the Nine Champions of the Specification will make it all better!

(Loosely translated for the prop department: They come to change little RSS 2.0’s diaper, because it had done a doo-doo and now stinks to high heaven. )

But hark? What’s this? What’s this rumble in the distance. Oh, no! It’s Big Dog, and he’s got his lawyer!

But the Lawyer brings no books or suits or habius, or even corpses. He opens the door long enough to make statement, and the moves on to other things that come ten by ten. The statement? Nothing has changed on RSS 2.0. Harvard still owns it, but the community may do what they will within the bounds of a Creative Commons license. Leading to, (now pay attention, this is going to go fast)…

A community, which now it seems, must absorb the Nine Champions of RSS 2.0, because they have been banished from the round table that was the RSS Advisory Board. A Board that is no more, created by a man who resigned from it, and who gave up any intellectual ownership of the specification, but still retains ownership of the specification, to wit, making decisions about who is or is not on a board that no longer exists for a technical specification given intellectual property rights by a University that had little or no involvement with the specification, under a license that has little or not applicability to specifications, mainly created for songsters and photogs and other artsy types AND which has little or no legal standing within the rules of the land because there are no rules of the land when great bodies of water separate most of it.

Have no fear, though, as our hero, the RSS Champion can see his way clear through this confounding maze. I will not waiver he cries. “While my heart beats and I draw breath, I will not be swayed from my sacred duty. Nay! Though you may torture me with unclosed tags, and malformed dates, I will hold true to my task. To the end. To the bitter end!” His dedication shines so brightly, members of the advisory board are heard to murmur ” “.

—

And no one cared anymore about old enemies and ancient battles, the hard work of our hero and his allies. and other daring do and RSS 2.

The end.