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  dorpus, 25 Jan 2006 @ 8:54pm

  
  

  Dogs raise your blood pressure

  I'm about to turn in an assignment tomorrow, analyzing NHANES data of over 20,000 Americans evaluated for blood pressure and social variables. Our analysis found that owning a dog raises heart rate by about 0.5 beats per minute, with a p-value of .01 and a variance inflation factor of 1.03.
  
  In the interests of public health, people should get rid of their dogs. ;-)
  
  Or not. It's likely an artifact correlated with personality, income, or other factors not recorded in the study.
  
  

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  Rickler, 25 Jan 2006 @ 9:22pm

  
  

  Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

  Or heart worms you can get from dogs licking you in the face; however, that's quiet rare.

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  Shelby, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:40am

  
  

  Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

  You're an idiot if you think you can get heartworms from a dog licking you. You MIGHT get an intestinal variety of parasite from a dog if they have recently licked their anus (where your head is located) and they have the larvae in their mouth area. Heartworms are transmitted by a intermediate carrier called the mosquito and only the mosquito can trasmit the heartworm larvae and then it has to go through another stage in the dog before it develops into heartworms. You get heartworms from mosquitos and yes cats carry them and people can get them FROM MOSQUITOS!

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  Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:36am

  
  

  Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

  P value too low to verify that claim, don't you think?

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  Shelby, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:42am

  
  

  Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

  In other words, your study is not validated and remeber, correlation does not mean causation. You must be a first year student ;0)

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  dorpus, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:48am

  
  

  Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

  Or you're an uneducated person who has a knee-jerk reflex of repeating the cliche that "correlation is not causation". There is a complex art of showing that correlation, odds ratios, and other associations can, given sufficient supporting evidence, imply causation -- but that is beyond the scope of techdirt.
  
  

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  Saucy Del Mar, 25 Jan 2006 @ 10:17pm

  
  

  No Subject Given

  I wonder how a pet rock would measure up...

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  blorpus, 25 Jan 2006 @ 11:51pm

  
  

  Re: No Subject Given

  I wonder how a pet rock would measure up...

  About as well as a pet dorpus.

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  Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2006 @ 2:04am

  
  

  Re: No Subject Given

  a pet rock wouldnt be as anoying.

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  m0u5y, 25 Jan 2006 @ 10:58pm

  
  

  No Subject Given

  no poop no pee... no attitude.. maybe.
  No fur, now if it can fetch the paper and kill the next door kid... whahah.

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  Andrew Strasser, 25 Jan 2006 @ 11:31pm

  
  

  They may not be as comforting.

  The technology may however be completely comforting. I am very comforted in knowing that they can now teach a robots brain to work like a dogs. Let's never forget Furby though, he who changed the face of the world. Not even allowed in a govt. facility.

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  giafly, 26 Jan 2006 @ 2:36am

  
  

  Existing Pet Replacements

  There are already lots of pet substitutes, such as soft toys, plushies (NSFW) and security blankets. So presumably a lot of already people benefit from these things.

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  dorpus, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:48am

  
  

  Robotic dogs extinct

  Incidentally, Sony is going to stop making aibo dogs in March. Yeah yeah, some people will have a hissy fit because the article isn't in English.
  
  http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/today/news/20060127k0000m020125000c.html
  

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  Dazey, 26 Jan 2006 @ 9:12am

  
  

  Re: Robotic dogs extinct

  For those who want to avoid a hissy fit:
  http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-11065-AIBO+%3D+Game+Over.+Sony+ceases+the+production.html
  

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  Anonymous Female, 26 Jan 2006 @ 9:39am

  
  

  No Subject Given

  Electronic replacements for real flesh have their place and time but can never fully supplant the inherent benefits that come from getting the real thing.
  
  

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  Hamid, 26 Jan 2006 @ 9:18pm

  
  

  Robot Dogs

  Excellent idea. But would they have the same sense of smell.

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