animals, Media, Nature, Science, Uncategorized

Polar Bear Glue

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I was quite amused to read in the Fargo Forum the other day an  article about the problem tracking male polar bears in the Arctic.  Scientists who track animals typically track them with collars. Female polar bears have  have large heads and small  necks. Their collars stay on.   Male polar bears have small heads and large necks.  The smaller heads on the male polar bears means that their tracking collars slip off, rendering the tracking collar useless.   Leave it to 3M, and the lead researcher from White Bear Lake (how appropriate), to solve the problem.

3M developed Polar Bear Glue to stick tracking devices on the male bears’ fur that would track the bears until they shed their fur in the Spring.  The tracking devices could then be retrieved from their radio signals, and the bear travels documented. The test bears would be Churchill, Manitoba polar bears.  I have a soft spot in my heart about anything from Manitoba. Taking the Polar Bear Express from Winnipeg to Churchill is on my bucket list.

What are some inventions you would like to see for what P. G. Wodehouse referred to as “our dumb chums” to make their lives easier?  What are some of your favorite recent news items?

31 thoughts on “Polar Bear Glue”

      2. I am pretty sure that Bloom County had every dog thinking “do they taste like chicken?” And I have always been sure the dogs are always saying “throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball!”

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        3. Manitobans: 45 years ago I was with two small children in the Brookdale Mall waiting for my wife and m-i-l. Manitoba was set up right by me as part of travel event at the mall. They were not very busy so one of the two covering that booth came over to talk to me and the kids. We got to talking about Manitoba. I said I wanted to drive up to The Pas. He said he grew up there. He gave me his parents address and phone number and said we could camp in their large back yard. I never did, nor never would have, being a Minnesotan and all.

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  3. Favorite recent news item: this morning I mailed a link to a friend who adopted a girl who suffers from sickle cell anemia. The key word here is “suffers.” This condition is extremely painful. It isn’t well known, probably because it mainly afflicts people of color. There is an exciting breakthrough in treatment, which I hope applies to my friend’s daughter.

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    1. Friends here just adopted a kitten, and I think they’re in over their head… didn’t remember how “invasive” they can be, how much time, how much climbing, biting, and scratching… Some people get a second kitten to keep #1 occupied, but I believe what they need is a robot kitten to keep the first one company.

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  5. I heard an extended bit on the polar bear glue on mpr the other day it was very interesting they talked about the fact that the transmitters just a couple of bucks and that he used to take and stick it to the Bears for with makes it so much more affordable and easy than the problems that they had to go through with the cone shaped head and shoulders Renee mentioned
    When the monitors fall off all they have to do is go pick them up before they stop beeping and they have all the information that they’re looking for the money left over because of this program will allow them to do lots of other things that they weren’t able to do prior

    I invent lots of stuff in my brain just driving down the road but it hardly ever happens that I’m focusing on a particular group or thing it just occurs to me one day that this particular idea is one that would be a better way to do something in the way that it’s being done now

    The big one that I’m working on today is called the two-minute shower that dawned on me when they were talking about South Africa being in a water crisis and the essence of the invention is basically just to take the water that you’re showering in and re-circulate it so that you’re only using 15 or 20 gallons that are running through a filter so you’re washing yourself off with the water that you used 30 seconds ago that has been run through a filtration system
    When you’re done with your shower you flush the filters and it’s ready for the next guy
    I hope to get that one up and running in the next year

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  6. I have a honeybee project on my to do list after talking with a B producing company that basically looks at B genetics and rather than shipping the Texas or Florida or North Carolina be into Minnesota and expecting it to live they have found that there are northern climate hardy bees that will make it through a Minnesota winter and the genetics get passed on so that the hive becomes a Minnesota hive my concept is to place beehives in public places like a long roadways or Near airports or public buildings where bees can propagate you can harvest the honey and increase germination through the bees pollinating nearby plants kind of a fun project

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  7. Come to think of it I do have an improvement on a dog walking leash that’s in my patent pending design studio it basically has components that can be interchanged on that roll up dog leash that everyone has that everyone breaks once a year or twice a year the fix on that is really really simple and I’ve talk to Chinese manufacturers about it and the cost of the product goes from $2.40 to $2.90 and makes it a lifelong product I’ll introduce that one of these days as well

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  8. Here’s a somewhat offbeat news item from the NY Times:

    “Everyone Gather Round the Squirrel Table. (Chipmunks Too!)

    Enticing wildlife to the backyard, with tiny furniture and elaborate meals, has consoled some Americans in quarantine.”

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    1. Husband has several squirrel feeding stations in our back yard, strategically positioned so he can see them from the dinner table. They can also see him, and especially in the morning, make quite a production out of letting them know their bowl is empty.

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  11. I like today’s Andy Borowitz news headline, “McConnell congratulates Neil Armstrong on walking on moon” – some of you saw this already because I shared it on Facebook. I laughed for a long time when I saw it.

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