The Bluestocking - the one with the Christmas stocking

[lcakethereforeIam]

New thread here.

Former thread here

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5218621-bluestocking-the-one-where-boiled-gets-to-the-bar-first?page=1

He is definitely a silly scardeypuss, he won't even eat off a red plate. Even if it is his favourite salmon mousse.

That's very interesting - scientists are always puffing away about cats (and other animals) not being able to see colours. Silly scientists. It's like the claim that cats don't like sweet foods. Darling Emily Grey ate almost all the icing off a Christmas cake one year before she was detected (it was covered with a clean cloth to retain its beautiful whiteness until The Moment we cut it).

I realise the irony of saying this in the Bluestocking, but I'm fairly sure Errol and I are reasonably sensible scientists, @DeanElderberry! Possibly @DrBlackbird too, I don't know what she's a doctor of...
Mind you, I'm a doctor of plants so I don't discuss cats' colour perception professionally.

As sensible scientists, you must be even more aware than most about colleagues who puff away about things they believe but don't actually know. Such as what cats think about royal icing.

It even happens in archaeology. Not re cats and royal icing specifically, but - stuff . . . .

That's very true, some of them do get a bit carried away with their own cleverness.

I feel like royal icing is one foodstuff that really should preserve well in the archaeological record. It would probably fossilise well, given half a chance!

Okay in a dry environment, probably not in a wet one, and fire would probably make it burn too hot be identifiable. Unlikely to the star of a sieve full of stuff dug out of a cesspit. Other cake bits - the fruits, the nuts, the eggshells - more fun.

I don't think anyone says they can't see colours - cats and dogs are reckoned to be dichromats. My reading of it is they can see red but it's probably a dull ugly colour rather than nice blue, greens and yellows. So, I think this is proof of @AlisonDonut having a cat with offended aesthetic sensibilities.

As to the icing - why wouldn't a cat like egg white even if it is sweet?

dichromat - thank you Errol for managing to squeeze in one more learning oppo for me in 2024 - every day a schoolday here, right up to Dec 31st

Quite a lot of birds are tetrachromats, and it's thought some women may be too.

Two different reds, isn't it Errol? Or am I thinking of something else?

The example on the wiki page has finches with a UV cone. I think quite a few insects have UV markings.

I have no idea about my lad's colour differentiation, he had been hit we think by a vehicle long before he found us as his right eye is slightly cloudy and he limps on that side. He had however not leapt out of his skin today at my lovely new slippers, and is currently snoozing on my knee. He likes gazing into the woodburner if that helps.

I've seen loads of twitter activity on Grok today, trying to TERF it up. Well, not that's I've spent alot of time on twitter today as I've been glazing more pottery.

Happy après Christmas to all.

Life at Face Towers continues to be complicated.

I need, and shall have, a drink. I am many chocolate biscuits to the good, though.

tetrachromats - that's two in one day - Ambassador, you are spoiling us

Too much food yesterday!!!!

I've had a food hangover all day!

That's an amazing onesie though, Boily! I'm in dungarees for much the same reason, after a swishy dress yesterday. Waistbands are the enemies of Christmas!

AI thinks I have a whole Christmas range of them!

Turns out I have one too!

Greetings, fellow AFABs! I had to google tetrachromats & it gave me this:

'Tetrachromacy is a rare ability that gives people assigned female at birth (AFAB) extraordinarily sensitive color vision. People with tetrachromacy have four types of cones and can tell apart hundreds of millions of colors. Cones are a type of photoreceptor, light-detecting cells in your retinas.'

So if you A a male baby FAB he'll have a 12% chance of being a tetrachromat instead of a 0% chance?

Am taking a break from a beautiful Elena Essex 1000 piece jigsaw which DH & I are doing together. I've managed not to kill him but he does keep putting his arm over the exact bit I'm about to work on, or picking up a board of pieces & shading the colours I'm trying to match. Still, it's nice to work together on something. And I've just broken into a new bottle of Baileys.

Christmas Day was lovely. He made a perfect traditional lunch while I did the table. I made what was supposed to be a neat oasis wreath of holly & ivy from the garden with tiny red baubles in it & some pillar candles in the middle, but it got out of hand & is so big it takes up 1/3 of the dining table & the candles are barely peeping over the foliage. It's a monster but it matches in with the tablecloth & embroidered runner, & it does the job. DH says it's a substitute for a tree.

Relaaaaax.

Elasticated ones are your friend.

Thank you so much. I'll just have a slurp of my cider.

Everyone looks extremely comfy tonight. Impressive.

We had a fun day ID'ing fungi in a nearby wildlife trust reserve, having just found the Seek app. I don't know how it compares with other wildlife identification apps but it seems quite good. I clocked up 11 - most with wonderful names.
No tribbles, probably just as well.