Something You Should Know
The Surprising History of the 7-Day Week & How and Why Cats Evolved into Pets - SYSK Choice
Sat, 31 May 2025
How does tickling work? You can’t tickle yourself. But if you are the ticklish type, you’ll start laughing if you know someone is about to tickle you even though they haven’t touched you yet. This episode begins with the weird ways tickling works. http://www.livescience.com/3882-tickle.html You know what is interesting about our 7-day week? It is totally artificial. In other words, the other ways we measure time - such as days, hours, months and years – those are based on the sun, the moon, the rotation of the earth and other things – but the week is just made up. Still, it seems to work very well. Imagine life without the week. Keeping a schedule would be extremely difficult. Here to discuss where the 7-day week came from and why it is so important is David Henkin, a professor of history at the University of California at Berkley and author of book The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are (https://amzn.to/3InCDwl) There are a lot of cat lovers in the world. So, how did cats become household pets in the first place? They haven’t always been. In fact, having an indoor cat didn’t become a normal thing until the 1930s. There is an interesting story here and here to tell it is Jonathan B. Losos an evolutionary biologist at Washington University and author of the book The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from The Savanna to Your Sofa (https://amzn.to/41PpAe1). If you have valuables in your home, where do you put them, so a burglar won’t find them? Maybe in the freezer? In the closet? Well, you could but there’s a place burglars almost never look. Listen and I will tell you where that is. https://www.rd.com/list/where-do-burglars-look/ PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! MINT MOBILE: Ditch overpriced wireless and get 3 months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month at https://MintMobile.com/something ! FACTOR: Eat smart with Factor! Get 50% off at https://FactorMeals.com/something50off TIMELINE: Get 10% off your order of Mitopure! Go to https://Timeline.com/SOMETHING ROCKET MONEY: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster! Go to https://RocketMoney.com/SOMETHING QUINCE: Elevate your shopping with Quince! Go to https://Quince.com/sysk for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns! INDEED: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at https://Indeed.com/SOMETHING right now! DELL: The power of Dell AI with Intel inside is transforming the world of pro sports! For the players and the fans who are there for every game. See how Dell Technologies with Intel inside can help find your advantage, and power your wins at https://Dell.com/Wins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why can't you tickle yourself?
And so it's understandable in a way that there is this instinct of cats to be wary of dogs. And some dogs, some more aggressive dogs can be very, very aggressive towards cats. So there is that. On the other hand, in many households, dogs and cats get along very well. And often a trick to that is when they're introduced when they're young.
And so it's quite common that people can have dogs and cats and they do quite fine together. One interesting thing is that dogs and cats are able to understand each other's signals that like many animals, dogs and cats communicate with body postures and so on, but they sometimes have signals that differ between species.
The most obvious one is what they do with their tail, that a dog whose tail is moving back and forth wagging its tail, that's a friendly gesture. A cat that's wiggling its tail back and forth, that's a gesture. I'm nervous. I'm upset. Something not good is happening here. And nonetheless, the dogs and cats are able to figure out what each other mean.
Another example is that a common behavior, a friendly behavior of cats is to touch noses. Anyone who's had multiple cats in their house has seen that. Dogs don't do that, but when dogs and cats live together, sometimes the dog will figure it out and will engage in nose touching with cats as a friendly gesture.
So the bottom line is there are reasons why sometimes dogs and cats don't get along, but oftentimes they can live together amicably.
Well, you certainly know your cats. I appreciate you sharing all this information. It's fascinating. I've been speaking with Jonathan Lawsus. He is an evolutionary biologist at Washington University and author of the book, The Cat's Meow, How Cats Evolved from the Savannah to Your Sofa. And there's a link to that book in the show notes. And that's it, Jonathan. Appreciate you being here.
Well, you're very welcome. It's been a pleasure talking with you.
You probably have some valuables in your home that you would like to keep safe from burglars should they break in and start looking for stuff. If you stash your valuables in a closet, a dresser drawer, or a freezer, you're actually making a burglar's job a lot easier because that's exactly where they'll look.
According to Michelle Boinkens of the National Crime Prevention Council, the best place to hide stuff is in the laundry area because most crooks forget to look there. And burglars are also less likely to spend a lot of time checking hard-to-get-to places that are above eye level.
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