Professor Jenny Morton from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge says "Our tests showed they can do what is known as executive decision making".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12521541
Executive decision making eh? Sounds about right.
John
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Managers are people promoted to their level of incompetence.
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>> Executive decision making eh? Sounds about right.
"In a more complex task the sheep had to learn where the food was according to coloured shapes and were able to learn the new rules within 32 attempts."
QED :)
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My labrador can find food in .32 steps. That makes a dog 100 times brighter than a sheep (or my ex manager)
Still sounds right to me.
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Or so the sheep said when they were asked
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We had a sing song in the pub on Sunday one of the songs was a Welsh poem about the sheep from the other valley (Ogwen) and how wise they are. The sheep in this valley are pretty dumb - even by sheep standards.
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Those spivs were lining up eating grass and making cleft hoofprints in the wet, muddy croquet lawn again today. Later they resumed their usual positions leaning against the corners of the house with their legs crossed smoking cigarettes and looking sideways through narrowed eyes. Damn yobbos.
We did eat rather a good leg off one of their friends a couple of hours ago though. Perhaps they aren't all bad, especially with a bit of jam and gravy.
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That's almost as funny as BBD's top hat and stick routine. Those sheep will have migrated from Wales and stolen the locals' jobs.
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Conjours up a marvellous picture AC! Jam with lamb? What is that about - mint jelly perhaps?
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Some sort of red jelly. One might have it with venison too.
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Cranberry by the sound of it, I haven't tried it with lamb but an experiment might be worthwhile!
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They are stupid enough that you can fly a microlight over a field full of them at about four feet, zigzagging from side to side, climb out, and see a perfect trace of the route you just took across the field.
Allegedly.
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Well I'd get out of the way if you did that to me so I don't see how that makes them dim.
John
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Not so much that they get out of the way. The fact they run four feet and then stop. And don't move again.
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Or red currant I suppose!
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Cranberry is what Americans eat with turkey. Red currant sauce or jelly is traditional with venison or lamb.
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Thanks CGN - I thought cranberry didn't sound right, but before I could edit it innit?!
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Sheep aren't stupid say prof.
Then another professor says the same, and another one, and another one....
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And before you know it you are taxed for sheep, (sorry, the global climate).
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>> AC's sheep.
Heh heh... spot on for the behaviour, but the ones here aren't innocent and bucolic looking like those. They have a narrow-eyed racing-fraternity look about them. They wear nasty cloth caps and hold their butt-ends between thumb and forefinger toerag style. The cloven hoof is made for that.
Did you do it yourself PU or just find it somewhere?
In the interests of strict accuracy, I would remind you that they aren't my sheep. They just think they own the place.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 23 Feb 11 at 18:42
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No it was on the website of a group I'm interested in helping out with. Get out into the fresh air, rain, snow, mud and sheep pooh...! Seems more interesting to walk with a purpose without having to carry golf clubs !
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None of our business of course PU but it has to be said that you having only lived in Wales for a while you do seem to be taking an uncommon interest in sheep...Suppose there isn't a great deal else to do but y'know it should be a bit of a worry shouldn't it?
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Ah, no foreplay then? Brace yersel Agnes...
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...I'm 1/16th Scottish...
Fifteen out of 16 ain't too bad.
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I just worry where the other 15 came from !
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There are 9 sheep for every person in Wales which puts them in a considerable majority. Lucky they don't have the vote perhaps?
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>> There are 9 sheep for every person in Wales which puts them in a considerable
>> majority. Lucky they don't have the vote perhaps?
Its the only thing raising the IQ of the country.
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Careful Zero, PU might bah you...
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>> Cranberry by the sound of it, I haven't tried it with lamb but an experiment
>> might be worthwhile!
>>
Red currant I think is traditional, as an alternative to mint sauce.
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The sheep around here are quite advanced - they're bah coded !
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Rubbish, I think you've been fleeced.
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>> Conjours up a marvellous picture AC! Jam with lamb? What is that about - mint
>> jelly perhaps?
>>
Redcurrant Jelly Jam. Mrs. MD puts it in most Gravies or should it be Gravy's Iffy?
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...Mrs. MD puts it in most Gravies or should it be Gravy's Iffy?...
'Mrs MD puts it in gravy' would be a simpler way to put it.
If you wanted to use the plural, it is 'gravies', but no capital because it's an ordinary noun.
Last edited by: Iffy on Thu 24 Feb 11 at 18:54
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A few years ago we rented a farmhouse just outside Aviemore.
Arrived quite late and next morning Mrs K. and the other girls decided they would go for an exploratory walk while we went to fetch stuff for breakfast.
While out on their walk they had come across two dead sheep. They were laid in a field, abdomen ripped open with their unconcerned brethren still munching away around them. Thinking that they'd been attacked by dogs or wild haggis they had gone to tell the farmer.
"Och aye lassie, dinnae be feart, it's the neeps."
Apparently he'd dumped some old turnips in the field, the two dead sheep had overindulged and suffered terminal intestinal gas.
I'm still not sure if he was taking the P or not.
Kevin...
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...I'm still not sure if he was taking the P or not...
Me neither, but sheep can suffer from intestinal gas.
Eating clover is another cause, I think.
I've never seen it done, but at one time shepherds released the gas by puncturing the side of the sheep.
No vets when you're miles from anywhere on a hill farm.
Last edited by: Iffy on Wed 23 Feb 11 at 20:02
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I was told you never call a vet for a sheep, the charge is more than the beast's worth.
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Our vet's has a special sheep-entrance. Farmers reverse their vehicle or trailer right up to the doors to the Ovine Clinic, for difficult lambing etc.
Not joking - my daughter has just done a week's work experience there.
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>> I was told you never call a vet for a sheep, the charge is more
>> than the beast's worth.
Certainly for a city dog vet,
Country farming vets don't charge anything like the same fees. Unless its your race horse, then you will know what vets bills are!!!!
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...released the gas by puncturing the side of the sheep...
Known as a rumenotomy:
"Some people will actually use a rumenotomy (puncturing the rumen-located high on the left side of the lumbar region in severe bloat cases) in severe, life-threatening situations.
"This procedure is not for the weak stomached, as the pressure will result in the expulsion of a significant amount of the rumen contents."
www.sheepmagazine.com/issues/27/27-2/Laurie_Ball-Gisch.html
The procedure is mentioned in Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy:
"Gabriel was already among the turgid prostrate forms. He had flung off his coat, rolled up his shirt-sleeves, and taken from his pocket the instrument of salvation.
"It was a small tube or trochar, with a lance passing down the inside, and Gabriel began to use it with a dexterity that would have graced a hospital surgeon.
"Passing his hand over the sheep's left flank, and selecting the proper point, he punctured the skin and rumen with the lance as it stood in the tube; then he suddenly withdrew the lance, retaining the tube in its place.
"A current of air rushed up the tube forcibly enough to have extinguished a candle held at the orifice."
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They've been driving me mad today. Every now and then one of them wails: 'Maaaan!', then another replies five minutes later: 'Man, oh maaan!'
Either they've all got stomach aches or (perhaps more likely) they've discovered a healthy patch of those plants PU keeps going on about, and are commenting on their quality.
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Quite right AC, they like their grass. Pretty quiet here today come to think of it - despite having sheep in fields to the front and on rougher ground to the rear. Bet they're all in the maternity sheds.
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AC?
I think you need to get back up to the smoke mate, the country air has done for you.
You'll be saying they all have rasta haircuts next...
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 24 Feb 11 at 17:55
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What could you mean Zeddo? I'm as well as can be expected, a bit better even. The nurse told me today that my blood pressure was 'perfect'. Her smile didn't even slip when we established that I drink on average, ahem, 13 units a day, and am on 15 snouts as well...
Perhaps I should start lining lawyers up to sue for lack of proper care if I suddenly fall ill with an alcohol or tobacco-related condition. Will throwing my shoes at the Minister of Health during a public meeting strengthen or weaken my case for exemplary damages I wonder?
Perhaps I will have to consult Mr Assange on that one.
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Well if you told your local Health Care professional that you think the rasta pot smoking sheep are talking to you...?
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How often do I have to tell people that they aren't Rastas? I would feel at home with those.
These sheep are British, and in some cases perhaps Irish or Roma, to the core. Newmarket, Dublin, Essex fringes, East End, yes; Notting Hill even in the great old days, no way!
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>> How often do I have to tell people that they aren't Rastas? I would feel
>> at home with those.
Can you take the word of a 13 units a day man?
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>>I drink on average, ahem, 13 units a day, and am on 15 snouts as well...
I understand the medical profession believe us, the great unwashed, to be inveterate liars and will always, at least, double the admitted intake of anything we enjoy.
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Let me see
I drink on average probably two 330ml bottles of a 5% lager per evening, with a large tot of Limmoncello or port every other night
At weekends I probably consume 1 bottle of wine.
SO that puts me on about 30-35 units a week.
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30-35 a week. Interesting.
Last time I had alcohol I had 15 units in one go and it wasn't a good idea. I've not had any units since. Mind you it might have worn off by now, as it was 31 years ago.
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...Mind you it might have worn off by now, as it was 31 years ago...
You should be OK to drive, but it might be safer to wait until morning.
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What's a unit? He said, displaying total contempt for medical theories which seem to change each week.
John
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What is a unit of alcohol?
One unit of alcohol is 10 ml (1 cl) by volume, or 8 g by weight, of pure alcohol. For example:
* One unit of alcohol is about equal to:
o half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider (3-4% alcohol by volume), or
o a small pub measure (25 ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume), or
o a standard pub measure (50 ml) of fortified wine such as sherry or port (20% alcohol by volume)
* There are one and a half units of alcohol in:
o a small glass (125 ml) of ordinary strength wine (12% alcohol by volume), or
o a standard pub measure (35 ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume)
Last edited by: Perky Penguin on Fri 25 Feb 11 at 09:15
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Thanks PP but relating that to one of Zero's 330ml bottles or a 440ml can, allowing for the actual alcohol content (cider tends to make you smile sooner) needs a calculator. So I now know what a unit is but in practical terms I shall remain happily ignorant of how much I'm consuming. It's generally one can a day plus the occasional pint from the bar, sounds like something just over 2 /day.
John
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I don't seem to get on with alcohol these days. I sometimes fancy a drink although very rarely now. When I do have even just a couple it just puts me to sleep and ruins the rest of the day / evening. I'm better without it in the main.
So if a doctor asks me how many units a week I consume I have to answer that it depends which week, indeed which year sometimes. That confuses them.
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