A spoon playing world record, pets in apartments and animal hoarding

We need to focus on living well with companion animals. This is Chiana enjoying the dog park.

SAT interviewee Deb “Spoons” Perry is an animal lover but also plays stainless steel spoons. Today she will be attempting to smash a world record. She’s been invited to play at the TEDx Sydney Event in the main Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. The current world record for people playing spoons is 1800. That’s 1800 people making music with spoons.

This afternoon, 15 minutes before afternoon tea, Deb will perform to “Lonely Boy” then proceed to teach 2500 (hopefully more) TEDx delegates how to play “Dumb Things” by Paul Kelly.

If you’re at TEDx, make sure you’re in the audience equipped with your spoon. We wish Deb the very best in her world record attempt.

This week is the last week to register your support for the proposed NSW Strata Regulations. Urban cultural geographer Emma Power explains why this is a good idea in this article for The Conversation.

Animal hoarding is a serious animal welfare issue, one for which there is no easy solution. The University of Sydney worked with the RSPCA to identify key characteristics of persons convicted for hoarding relatedoffences.

This week, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald mentions new findings by Drs Rosemary Elliot and John Snowden. This article is particularly insightful as it contains a first person account of animal hoarding from someone who proactively sought help, and who obviously had a great GP. Read more here.

Take your dog to work, cross-species empathy, Valentine's Day for cat loves and free parasitology course

Phil assisting a veterinary intern. Not only does he reduce stress - he also keeps a good lookout while you're writing up your cases.

Feeling a bit stressed today? The Sydney Morning Herald has offered some tips for preventing burn-out and maintaining your mojo, one of which includes bringing your dog to work.

Do dogs feel empathy towards those who aren’t members of their own species? Do they care when a human baby cries? Min Hooi Yong compared the human and canine response to an infant’s cry to try to unravel the puzzle of cross-species empathy.

If you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day gift for the cat lover in your life – including your cat - check out Liza and Archibald’s feline picks. Those cufflinks are hard to beat.

And for those of you needing some parasitology action in your life (don't we all?), Coursera has just kicked off a FREE course on Tropical Parasitology. The specific parasites and parasitic diseases that will be covered include malaria, trypanosomiasis, toxoplasmosis, cestodes (Taenia saginata, Taenia solium, Echinococcus spp), trematodes (Schistosoma, Fasciola), nematodes (Ancylostoma/Necator, strongyloides, filariasis and ascaris), and ectoparasites.

The budding parasitologists reading this will note that the topics don’t have a monopoly on many of these species and in fact we host a number of them in Australia. They’re still taking enrolments, so visit the Coursera Tropical Parasitology Course Page here.