Real-Life Weirdness

[Flyndaran]

Kid eaters as in goat kids would be just as devastating to such herders. But anything from occasional big bobcats to coyotes on up would be a threat.
That must be unnerving having to fear predators that are no direct danger to any human.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That must be unnerving having to fear predators that are no direct danger to any human.

Everyone who keeps chickens has to worry about that. Foxes and hawks love them.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Kid eaters as in goat kids would be just as devastating to such herders. But anything from occasional big bobcats to coyotes on up would be a threat.
That must be unnerving having to fear predators that are no direct danger to any human.

I suppose people just adjust to dangers that are inherent to their environment. I don't fear traffic much and while I don't go out at night and take otherwise reasonable caution I don't exactly worry about thieves.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Everyone who keeps chickens has to worry about that. Foxes and hawks love them.

In rural areas, raccoons are known to prey on domestic cats. Coyotes can be a threat, too.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

In rural areas, raccoons are known to prey on domestic cats. Coyotes can be a threat, too.

As I understand coyotes are a bother out in rural areas. They are intelligent and good survivors and breed faster then wolves, and if you can be objective about your own loss of stock, they are worthy opponents. One can see why they fit a place in Indian folklore analogous to foxes in England.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

As I understand coyotes are a bother out in rural areas.

Coyotes are also a bother in urban areas. They're being more cautious in expanding into towns than foxes, but coyotes have the benefit that they can be mistaken for dogs - particularly when a lot of them are actually coydogs anyways.

We're getting pure coyotes in city even all the way up here. They don't have a good grasp on if there are coydogs yet because they're less blatant, but they suspect those are already kicking around... if they weren't actually here longer.

[Daigoro]

Interesting insight into the mind of a (Go-playing) AI.

The AI That Has Nothing to Learn From Humans
DeepMind’s new self-taught Go-playing program is making moves that other players describe as “alien” and “from an alternate dimension.”

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Coyotes are also a bother in urban areas. They're being more cautious in expanding into towns than foxes, but coyotes have the benefit that they can be mistaken for dogs - particularly when a lot of them are actually coydogs anyways.

We're getting pure coyotes in city even all the way up here. They don't have a good grasp on if there are coydogs yet because they're less blatant, but they suspect those are already kicking around... if they weren't actually here longer.

We occasionally have coyote encroachments into a Denver suburb, of enough animals to create problems. They're really tough to get rid of, too, because stress alters their behavior, significantly, and they become incredibly difficult to eradicate.

Essentially, if the people in Animal Control don't do the right things, really fast, their jobs become phenomenally more difficult. For instance, if coyotes detect hunters, the females will split their litters and hide the pups in two or three different dens.

Also, a pack usually has an alpha male and no more than one or two alpha females, plus immature pups. In that pack, the male breeds with only one or two females, and those are the only matings.

However, if the alpha females and alpha males die (or get killed), the pack scatters and all the maturing pups create their own family packs -- so, where there was once only one or two breeding pairs, there can now be up to a dozen.

And all of that is on top of the fact that coyotes are frequently smart enough to compare reasonably well with a really bright, Frisbee-chasing border collie.

We get foxes all the way into the center of town, but that's in large part because just within the City and County of Denver, itself, we have a really large number of parks (about 20,000 acres worth, IIRC) scattered all around. Many are connected with bike trails and other paths to the Platte River, Cherry Creek and other waterways that bring animals in from the countryside.

Foxes aren't nearly so aggressive as coyotes can be, and generally do a better job of staying out of sight of people. As such, nobody much minds if they're around. Bring in your cats and small punting dogs, at night, though.

[William]

An old idea for a spiritual telegraph:

Originally Posted by nytimes

Before the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, Davis proposed that the quickest way to send messages across the ocean would be through a system of spiritual switchboards, in which the living in New York would convey a message to the American dead, who would pass it on to the dead of England, who in turn would make reports to the living of London.

Sounds like a method that would be appropriate for a 19th-century fantasy game in line with Victorian spiritualism.

This is a little similar to another method that was proposed centuries earlier for finding longitude: the wounded dog theory. A quack medicine called powder of sympathy, if applied to something related to a wound -- such as the weapon, or a bandage -- would hasten the healing of the wound. However, the cure was not painless. Therefore, a ship's captain could take a wounded dog aboard his ship, whereupon a centralized timekeeper in London would dip the dog's bandage in powder of sympathy at noon sharp daily, causing the dog to yelp with no other visible reason. Knowing that it was noon in London, a simple calculation from the visible angle of the Sun would give him his longitude. The dog's wound might have to be carefully maintained throughout the course of the voyage.

A collection of 18th and 19th-century American and Victorian superstitions, legendry, and spiritualism could make a very nice and not widely used flavor of magical system for a game, I think.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Using global statistics of all humanity is rather deceitful in this context. Because odds drastically change based on specifics.
People living near wild lions would be stupid to ignore even a rumor that one attacked a person nearby. It's not paranoia to take aggressive precautions when it's your family members' lives on the line.
I didn't misunderstand you, Bruno. I got you, fam. ;)
(Okay, that was my attempt at being youthful and hip for the week.)

Even the statistics for attacks by sharks vs all persons on californian beaches alone are pretty much "Not a worry one should have." At least so long as one isn't spearfishing alone from a surfboard.