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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

XBergMann said:
My cat sat completely still staring up at the same spot on the ceiling in the corner of my lounge for about 10 minutes yesterday evening which I found a bit weird. Anyway I paid a brief visit to the toilet (bathroom if you are American) and returned to find my 2 year old daughter sitting next to the cat, staring at exactly the same spot on the ceiling with wide open eyes.

Called to daughter, she left the cat and came over to me and asked for some milk. I went to the kitchen to make her a bottle of milk and on returning she was sat next to the cat again, both of them staring at the same place on the ceiling.

Gave her milk and everything was back to normal except for the cat still staring at the ceiling. I had to go to the kitchen and shake a box of cat biscuits around at which point the cat came running into the kitchen for some munchies and everything was back to normal.

I think I was briefly transferred from this reality into a Stephen King novel for a few minutes.

There was nothing there on the ceiling I would love to know what the 2 of them were staring at
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We have had two cats who quite independantly on occasions stared transfixed at the same corner of the lounge ceiling. Quite eerie to watch.
 
PeteS said:
We have had two cats who quite independantly on occasions stared transfixed at the same corner of the lounge ceiling. Quite eerie to watch.
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I've occasionally seen cats and / or dogs do this over the years. In my experience, it almost always involves a corner or similar intersection / collection of objects - usually with planar surfaces.

To the extent I've given the phenomenon any thought, I keep circling back to the facts that both types of pets have sensitive hearing, and the typical setting for such 'sit and stare' episodes affords a reasonable facsimile of a corner reflector setup - i.e., an arrangement that could concentrate and focalize ambient sounds so as to give the impression of a phantom sound source if a listener is in a certain location / position.

As such, I suspect the animals are 'listening' rather than 'staring'.
 
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EnolaGaia said:
I've occasionally seen cats and / or dogs do this over the years. In my experience, it almost always involves a corner or similar intersection / collection of objects - usually with planar surfaces.

To the extent I've given the phenomenon any thought, I keep circling back to the facts that both types of pets have sensitive hearing, and the typical setting for such 'sit and stare' episodes affords a reasonable facsimile of a corner reflector setup - i.e., an arrangement that could concentrate and focalize ambient sounds so as to give the impression of a phantom sound source if a listener is in a certain location / position.

As such, I suspect the animals are 'listening' rather than 'staring'.
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Interesting post. You could well be right, Tom the Yorkie was quite mad and would yap himself hoarse at anybody just walking past the gate.
The only thing I would say is that he clearly turned his head, and certainly gave the impression he was watching something, still, food for thought.
Oddly, The Beatles may help us here, I've read Sergeant Pepper has a note only audible to dogs, and possibly cats. Anybody know if this is true or have had pets reacting to it?
 
smokehead said:
Interesting post. You could well be right, Tom the Yorkie was quite mad and would yap himself hoarse at anybody just walking past the gate.
The only thing I would say is that he clearly turned his head, and certainly gave the impression he was watching something, still, food for thought.
Oddly, The Beatles may help us here, I've read Sergeant Pepper has a note only audible to dogs, and possibly cats. Anybody know if this is true or have had pets reacting to it?
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I couldn't tell you about a Sergeant Pepper connection but I did once read that The Beach Boys named their 'Good Vibrations' song because Brian Wilson's Mum once told him the family dog was picking up good vibrations .. both The Beatles and The Beach Boys were popular 60's acts and the word 'vibes' became part of hippy speak so perhaps there's a counter culture cross connection between the two bands and the fans there?.
 
smokehead said:
Interesting post. You could well be right, Tom the Yorkie was quite mad and would yap himself hoarse at anybody just walking past the gate.
The only thing I would say is that he clearly turned his head, and certainly gave the impression he was watching something, still, food for thought.
Oddly, The Beatles may help us here, I've read Sergeant Pepper has a note only audible to dogs, and possibly cats. Anybody know if this is true or have had pets reacting to it?
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It's the outro to "A Day in the Life", starting at around the 5:00 mark.
Cats are supposed to have a hearing range at least as great as dogs, so I just tried the following video on Puss, but no reaction whatsoever, even on maximum volume.
All I could hear was faint static as the song faded:

http://www.dogingtonpost.com/video-a-beatles-song-that-only-dogs-can-hear/
 
Today we were out on a longish bike ride and I wanted a pitstop so Techy suggested Morrisons. He said 'Get some cheap cakes while you're there!'

So I popped in, did the deed and spotted someone reducing the prices on cakes. Picked up a load of assorted sugary goodness (Danish pastries, muffins, iced fingers etc) at 9p each/pack.

Couldn't have timed it better.

:eek:
 
This afternoon, I had to make a trip to Halfords. In my car stereo, I have a USB stick loaded with approximately 8000 songs that are set to play at random. As I pulled into the car park, Encore Une Fois by Sash was playing. A tune I don't think I've heard for years. My stereo was playing it as a random selection. When I went into Halfords, the same exact tune was playing on Radio One from the display of car stereos.
 
Shady said:
@XBergMann did you not ask her?
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Yes but she is 2 so I didn't get much of a sensible response, I might add that, although I am British I live in Ukraine and my daughter hears Russian from Mummy, Ukrainian from the Nanny and English from me so her responses tend to come out in all 3 languages at once making the answers hard to decipher.
 
Swifty said:
I couldn't tell you about a Sergeant Pepper connection but I did once read that The Beach Boys named their 'Good Vibrations' song because Brian Wilson's Mum once told him the family dog was picking up good vibrations .. both The Beatles and The Beach Boys were popular 60's acts and the word 'vibes' became part of hippy speak so perhaps there's a counter culture cross connection between the two bands and the fans there?.
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Many thanks to blessmycottonsocks for the info and the cat based experiment.
Perhaps a Stones fan, still made a nice change from being put in a box with a lump of plutonium.

I read that Pet Sounds was a big influence on the Beatles, perhaps the vibe sensitive dog was a factor in the albums title. And a subsequent in joke by the Beatles as a nod to it.
I will avoid rushing to a Beatles forum with this new insight. Forteans on other forums tend to provoke the reaction "wha......?" in my experience.
 
escargot1 said:
Today we were out on a longish bike ride and I wanted a pitstop so Techy suggested Morrisons. He said 'Get some cheap cakes while you're there!'

So I popped in, did the deed and spotted someone reducing the prices on cakes. Picked up a load of assorted sugary goodness (Danish pastries, muffins, iced fingers etc) at 9p each/pack.

Couldn't have timed it better.

:eek:
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The pecan ones are particularly nice imho. I also raid the fruit section for the markdowns and stick whatever I get in the nutri ninja.
 
XBergMann said:
Yes but she is 2 so I didn't get much of a sensible response, I might add that, although I am British I live in Ukraine and my daughter hears Russian from Mummy, Ukrainian from the Nanny and English from me so her responses tend to come out in all 3 languages at once making the answers hard to decipher.
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Thank you and wow, i find that quite cool
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
It's the outro to "A Day in the Life", starting at around the 5:00 mark.
Cats are supposed to have a hearing range at least as great as dogs, so I just tried the following video on Puss, but no reaction whatsoever, even on maximum volume.
All I could hear was faint static as the song faded:

http://www.dogingtonpost.com/video-a-beatles-song-that-only-dogs-can-hear/
Click to expand...

Well, reading the link, it says that the tone recorded was around 15kHz. If that's the case, then chances are it never would've made it onto the final record.

Sergeant Pepper was recorded on a 4-track, by mixing tracks down together multiple times for all instruments. Each time you do that, you lose a bit of high end and low end frequency. That added to the fact that most vinyl in those days filtered anything over 12kHz out would mean that it wouldn't be on the original record at all.

There's an outside chance that there may be a trace of it on a remastered CD, I suppose, but whether or not it could be detected would depend on a lot of factors (those above, plus how it was mixed etc.) but it's a long shot. Certainly, anything off a video's unlikely to do anything.
 
emina said:
Well, reading the link, it says that the tone recorded was around 15kHz. If that's the case, then chances are it never would've made it onto the final record.

Sergeant Pepper was recorded on a 4-track, by mixing tracks down together multiple times for all instruments. Each time you do that, you lose a bit of high end and low end frequency. That added to the fact that most vinyl in those days filtered anything over 12kHz out would mean that it wouldn't be on the original record at all.

There's an outside chance that there may be a trace of it on a remastered CD, I suppose, but whether or not it could be detected would depend on a lot of factors (those above, plus how it was mixed etc.) but it's a long shot. Certainly, anything off a video's unlikely to do anything.
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Given the audio compression inherent in YouTube videos, I too was suspicious that any such high frequencies would be reproduced. Will dig out my old vinyl copy of Sgt Pepper for a listen later - I have a reasonable quality turntable plugged through a 5.1 home cinema system, but acknowledge that your technical notes suggest strongly that the dog whistle is unlikely to have made it onto the original vinyl either.
 
I read there was an 8 track machine at Abbey Road the Beatles purloined, but that was a later album I think. George Martin and the studio guys get a lot of kudos for the sounds they created, given the technology of the time.
I do wonder, as per Lennon's request, exactly how they would have gone about making one of his songs sound like an orange, but if anybody could make a song sound like a piece of fruit it would have bern George and the crew.
Or maybe it was the colour orange? I'll never know.
Anyway, back on topic. This doesn't seem that rare a phenomenon. Over to the tech guys. What common electronic appliance can randomly produce sound frequencies high enough to entrance pets?
 
smokehead said:
I read there was an 8 track machine at Abbey Road the Beatles purloined, but that was a later album I think. George Martin and the studio guys get a lot of kudos for the sounds they created, given the technology of the time.
I do wonder, as per Lennon's request, exactly how they would have gone about making one of his songs sound like an orange, but if anybody could make a song sound like a piece of fruit it would have bern George and the crew.
Or maybe it was the colour orange? I'll never know.
Anyway, back on topic. This doesn't seem that rare a phenomenon. Over to the tech guys. What common electronic appliance can randomly produce sound frequencies high enough to entrance pets?
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Cant answer the tech question unfortunately- failed physics O level. Interesting point though that cats are listening rather than looking. Our current cat is not quite "all there" - read quite dumb actually, apparently according to the vet due to receiving insufficient nutrition in the early weeks of her life causing poor brain development. When you talk to her(yes I know!) she comes up very close and stares right into your face. Its clear that she is "listening" but some find it a touch disconcerting.
 
I like your cat PeteS. I would have welcomed her into my house on the basis she would have been the only member of the family who actually listens to me.
I think everybody talks to their pets. As the first one up I was going "all right! hang on a bleedin' minute!" to Tom, who desperate to get outside would repeatedly headbutt the door.
My last memory of him before he died was the usual frantic ritual. When he came back in he parked himself on the carpet next to me. Then almost as an afterthought he licked my big toe as if to say thanks.
 
smokehead said:
I like your cat PeteS. I would have welcomed her into my house on the basis she would have been the only member of the family who actually listens to me.
Yes she is definitely the only one in this house who even pretends to listen to me!
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There's a rosebush near my bedroom window. About a week ago I noticed the that one branch had been flattened to the ground, and its two roses completely smashed, in a spell of very windy weather. I assumed that the gardeners would just cut it off and take it away on their next visit.

But yesterday I noticed the branch had picked itself back off the ground, and was showing a brand new rose too! :)

Ain't nature wonderful!
 
I've got a buddlea, started out in a pot and despite being warned it now rivals the Amazon rain forest in dimension and impenetrability.
T'other day I noticed a cat, almost certainly not the one belonging to PeteS, lurking beneath it, possibly lying in wait to ambush any birds pecking about on the lawn.
I like my buddlea, it fills a big gap that would otherwise be filled with dandelions and ivy. Yes nature is wonderful. But as the cat showed, also red in tooth and claw.
 
We had an electrician in yesterday (the metal strip around our induction hob was live at 120v - thanks to the electrician who recently installed our kitchen. Not impressed). But the minor strangeness was after he turned the mains back on, the electric clock in the living room - mains powered analogue from, I guess, the 60s - was going backwards, like a cheap version of The Time Machine. The going-backwards second hand really freaked out my wife.
 
I'm not generally impressed with 'professional' electricians, having seen plenty of dodgy samples of their handiwork.
 
smokehead said:
I've got a buddlea, started out in a pot and despite being warned it now rivals the Amazon rain forest in dimension and impenetrability.
T'other day I noticed a cat, almost certainly not the one belonging to PeteS, lurking beneath it, possibly lying in wait to ambush any birds pecking about on the lawn.
I like my buddlea, it fills a big gap that would otherwise be filled with dandelions and ivy. Yes nature is wonderful. But as the cat showed, also red in tooth and claw.
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No if it involved any intelligent thought process it was definitely not the cat belonging to PeteS.
 
smokehead said:
I've got a buddlea, started out in a pot and despite being warned it now rivals the Amazon rain forest in dimension and impenetrability.
T'other day I noticed a cat, almost certainly not the one belonging to PeteS, lurking beneath it, possibly lying in wait to ambush any birds pecking about on the lawn.
I like my buddlea, it fills a big gap that would otherwise be filled with dandelions and ivy. Yes nature is wonderful. But as the cat showed, also red in tooth and claw.
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Not that cats are native or natural . . . (hides)
 
The Strange Tale Of The Best Selling Quality Of The Santon S1167 Thermal Cut Out.

Electricians. We sold loooooads of these. It protects the heating element from burning out when heated dry in an oversink water heater.
So, yon sparky drills his holes, puts up water heater, connects to the mains, switches it on and bang! The thermal cut out goes.
The clue is in the words water heater. Even a 5 year old knows not to let a kettle boil dry.
One guy got thrown out of the office by our resident bulldog Wendy. Back in the days of yore before mobiles.
Could he just check something with the manufacturer? By all means sir, come on through.
15 minutes later he left in a huff. Wend said he was actually going through the entire process of fitting whatever it was he had collected. From start to finish. A qualified electrician.
Reg Greenfield, Santon rep and good guy was my hero. I rang him in a panic after being threatened with being sued after a water heater had exploded and flooded a shop.
He was eating a sandwich and seemed utterly nonchalant about the whole affair. He asked for the contact details and I never heard any more.
Later on after years of experience I knew what had happened. You can't fit a water heater direct to a normal tap. It has to vent excess water which expands when heated, hence Santon also offer a vented tap.
Electricians.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I'm not generally impressed with 'professional' electricians, having seen plenty of dodgy samples of their handiwork.
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smokehead said:
Electricians
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Exactly. If electrians were doctors or nurses, we'd all be dead. They (by which I mean 98.99% of them) have almost no regard as to safety.

Some are scarily-messy in their workmanship, but I fear the OCD tidy ones most of all, who do things confidently, neatly and WRONG.

They'll rewire a house such that it looks like a Cubist masterpiece, but then you can find-out the damn place has no earth bonding at all. Lovely but lethal (I have seen this twice...I suspect given half a chance they'd all test nothing, just zoom off to stiff their next victim). Modern-day werewolves....
 
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