The weekend is here at last: time to kick back and (in my case) buy groceries and wine, and catch up on some reading, including Nick Lane’s Life Ascending (popular science) and Julien Masolino’s new Soul Fallacy (naturalism). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is enjoying a bit of milk, and Leon is investigating an endangered plant. This is the first day that both cats have biology lessons for us!
A: Isn’t this milk harmful to you?
Hili: Of course not. For thousands of years pastoral tribes were serving my ancestors. We adapted.
I presume that Hili’s ancestors, like milk-drinking human groups, evolved an active adult lactose tolerance. (See WEIT for more details.)
Ja: Nie szkodzi ci to mleko?
Hili: Oczywiście, że nie. Przez tysiące lat ludy pasterskie służyły moim przodkom. Zaadaptowaliśmy się.
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Apparently I was wrong yesterday about Leon’s return to the city: the Dark Tabby and his staff are still hiking in the Polish mountains. Here’s his latest monologue:
Leon: What is so unusual about wolf’s-foot clubmoss that it is a protected species?
Leon is undoubtedly referring to Lycopodium clavatum, which, though not uncommon, is endangered in many places because of habitat loss (it grows only in areas undisturbed by humans).
I think Leon may find that moss tasty.
Club mosses are one of my favourite plants. I wish they were offered for sale at greenhouses. I think people would buy them, if they were promoted well.
I wish we could recreate Carboniferous club moss trees that would grow 100-150 ft tall.
gorgeous moss!! I’m partial to mosses in general, but this one is really special.
Most cats are lactose intolerant, and milk is actively bad for them. You can buy low-lactose “cat milk” in most pet stores, at least in the UK.
Hili, however, is lactose tolerant.
I haven’t tried giving Baihu significant quantities of milk products, but he enjoys licking beaters after I whip cream, licking the pan after I make cheese sauces, a pat of butter here and there, that sort of thing. No signs of resulting gastric distress.
b&
There is a humorous commercial on the tube, I think it is Progressive Insurance and this guy is drinking milk. The woman says- aren’t you lactose intolerant and the guy says – This isn’t lactose, it’s milk.