blogging – Leonberger Life

I Promise Not to Post AI Generated Comments

Esther’s writing prompt: December 3 : Promise

This post is not about Leonbergers but about a phenomenon that seems to be spreading like wildfire in the blogosphere, AI generated comments. If you are a blogger that has been blogging lately, I am sure you have seen them. Well written, seemingly creative, flattering and detailed comments that give the impression that the commentor, who appears to be an extremely articulate writer, has read your post really well and understood it, and has spent a long time perfecting the comment. Unfortunately, he/she didn’t write anything and has probably not even looked at your post. He/she might have, in a very short time, generated hundreds of comments automatically for hundreds of blogs he/she has never looked at and knows nothing about.

When I started getting the AI generated comments I was really flattered at first. Someone really took the time to read my often lengthy and complicated posts and not only understood them well but loved them for all the right reasons. As the Devil in the Devil’s advocate said, “vanity is my favorite sin”. However, I eventually realized that these comments were inauthentic. I still say thank you when I get an elaborate and flattering comment that does not look genuine or seems to be too good to be true. First of all, it is difficult to know for sure whether the comment is AI-generated and secondly, they did make some effort even though it was minimum. I don’t know if that is right or wrong of me.

To generate an AI-comment you can, for example, use a website such as Postiz. You copy and paste the content of a blog post into the edit box “Original Post Content”, then select the tone, for example, “friendly”, and then you press the button. Then copy and paste the comment in the blog.

There are many other tools for generating comments, blog posts, and other content including HyperwriteAI, which also can make the content sound genuine using your writing-persona. It trains the AI to mimic your unique writing style (you provide examples) ensuring the output sounds like you.

My Murder Moose Example

I am not going to post examples without the consent of the non-authors, so I am giving my own example based on my recent post “What are your Favorite Animals Not Murder Moose Anymore“. I used Postiz, which generated the following comment for me.

Wow, that’s such a cool journey from the Murder Moose to loving dogs!

I love how you turned your childhood memories into a drawing.

And writing a book about Leonbergers is amazing!

Dogs really do bring so much joy and companionship.

Rollo sounds like a great buddy too!

Below is the drawing that Postiz is referring to:

A moose with big antlers and giant sharp teeth. — The murder moose in my second grade story. The picture was generated by ChatGPT.

I posted an AI-generated comment above, which makes it seem like I already broken my promise not to post AI generated comments. However, the comment was not posted in anyone’s comment section but here in my post for illustration purposes. What I promise is to not post AI generated comments on anyone’s blog post without telling them it is an AI generated comment, unlike a lot of bloggers. The picture above is also AI generated but I am stating that it is.

In my opinion, leaving AI generated comments on people’s posts without telling them it is AI generated is dishonest and the same is true when someone posts an AI generated blog post without mentioning that it is AI generated.

The Death of Internet

AI generated comments, bots posting comments, bots arguing with people in the comment sections, bots arguing with other bots in the comment sections, and bots “clicking” massive amounts of reactions (like, love, angry, laughter, etc.). Not to mention the spread of deep fakes These are phenomena spreading like wildfire.

Not all AI generated comments and comments by bots are innocent flattery. Bots frequently spread false information, false narratives, division and anger. AI generated comments and bots are ruining the comment sections in various ways. Before you get into a lengthy argument with someone on internet, here is some expert help to determine whether you are arguing with a bot, or not. On my second blog I posted about the fact that “more than half of Internet Traffic is Bots”. Most of the bot traffic is malicious by the way.

A picture of giant computer screen with a red warning triangle containing an exclamation mark. Underneath the triangle is the text “System Hacked” — Warning of a system hacked. Virus, cyber-attack, malware concept. Asset id: 1916985977 by Sashkin

This makes me wonder if the internet is dying. With that I am not referring to the Dead Internet Conspiracy Theory that claims that Internet is already dead and entirely governed by bots that are controlling us. I am referring to something more realistic, that our internet experience is ruined first by people using AI generated content (comments, posts, etc.) without telling readers, and secondly by bots. Is Internet losing its authenticity and value?

And to reiterate, I promise not to post AI-generated comments on people’s blogs.

100000

At about 8:00AM Central Standard Time my Leonberger blog surpassed 100,000 views. At the moment of this writing, I have 55,000+ visitors, 10,600+ comments, 16,800+ likes, and 326 posts. I am very grateful for all of your visits, likes and comments. Thank you so much!

I started this blog to promote my Leonberger book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger” (see picture below). That was a bit more than three years ago. I can add that the three-year anniversary of the release of my book is coming up in July. Click here to read more about my book.

Since the launch of my blog, my blogging has evolved and in addition to Leonbergers my blog has become a personal blog featuring book reviews, travel stories, and other topics. In other words, I am using my blog for my personal entertainment, in addition to on occasion promoting my Leonberger book.

The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Lowenhohle

The gold and beige book cover features the face of our Leonberger Bronco and the text "The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle. Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger." — This is the front cover of the book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. It is the original reason for launching my blog. Click here or on the image to go to the United States Amazon location for the paperback version of the book.

The back cover in gold and beige features a photo of a Leonberger in a snowy forest and an introduction to the book. — This is the back cover of the book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. Click here or on the image to go to the Amazon.com location for the kindle version of the book.

These are the endorsements for the book. Click here or on the image to go to the Barnes and Noble location for the book.

Three Leonberger Photos

A photo of a Leonberger puppy wearing a red scarf. — This is a photo of our Leonberger Bronco when he was three months old. It is the photo I’ve used the most throughout this blog. Click here to visit the blog which organizes and lists all of my 300+ posts.

A Leonberger is lying on the floor, and my book is leaning against the dog. — Hachi a Canadian Leonberger featured with my book. He was one year old when this photo was taken by Brenda Saito and her husband. Click here or on the photo to visit the paperback version for the book on Canadian Amazon.

A Canadian Leonberger called Mak with my book. Photo by Debbie Ireland. Click here or on the photo to visit the page for the book on Chapters Indigo.

Good News Highlight

Today’s post is a highlight of Good News from my super fact blog, which I call Superfactful. I am listing eight posts, seven of which are what I call super facts. A super fact is a fact that is important, not trivia, and that is known to be true and yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many. The super facts included with this post are what you can call Good News. Surprising news, perhaps shocking news, but still good news.

Peace Is Boring News

The first and my most recent post is not a super fact but my musings on the fact that good news tends to be boring news and therefore forgotten.

To visit the Peace is Boring News page click here

Black and white photo showing a young girl crossing the street as an armed soldier is hunkered down behind her. There is big wall with text written on it saying, “Dangerous Wall keep Clear.” — West Belfast, Northern Ireland,UK; February, 1994; Girl running with plate of chips past wall where two IRA Volunteers were killed by British soldiers Shutterstock Asset id: 1951602385, Editorial credit: RORY NUGENT.com

Emissions of ozone-depleting gases have fallen by 99 Percent

Super fact 41 : Largely thanks to the Montreal Protocol in 1987 the emissions of ozone-depleting gases have fallen by more than 99%, 99.7% to be exact, according to Our World in Data. This has resulted in halting the expansion of the ozone holes and the reduction in emissions of ozone-depleting gases is saving millions of lives every year.

To visit the page for Emissions of ozone-depleting gases have fallen by 99 Percent click here.

Gases visualized in the diagram are CFCs, Halons, HCFCs, Carbon Tetrachloride, Methyl Bromide, Methyl Chloroform. The diagram shows a peak around the end of 1980’s. — The phase out of six ozone depleting gases. Data source UN Environment Program (2023).

Natural Disasters Kill Less People Now Than 100 Years Ago

Super fact 35: Natural disasters kill a lot less people now compared to 100 years ago. That is despite a larger population and despite the fact that climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of many types of natural disasters.

The explanation for this is that we have become much better at warning people, preventing deaths and rescue people.

To visit the page for Natural Disasters, Kill Less People Now Than 100 Years Ago click here

The graph shows 300 to 400 thousand annual deaths at the beginning of the 20th century, then 971 thousand annual deaths in the 1930’s, then it continuously gets lower until the annual deaths in the 2010 to 2016 period is 72 thousand deaths per year. — This graph from the Gap Minder article shows the annual deaths from natural disasters in ten-year intervals starting with 1930. The trend is down.

EV Cars Indeed Emit Less Carbon Pollution

Super fact 29: EV Cars emit less pollution than Internal Combustion Engine, even considering manufacturing, disposal and EV Cars being charged by dirty grids.

To visit the page for EV Cars Indeed Emit Less Carbon Pollution click here

The histogram graph shows that if you consider construction of facilities, manufacturing of vehicle and battery, production of fuel, vehicle operation as well as disposal the total average greenhouse gas emissions from EV cars is 52% less. — Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions comparison of average gasoline car and 300-mile range EV.

Smallpox Killed 300 million People in the Last Century Before Eradication

Superfact 24: Smallpox killed 300 million people in the 20^th century. However, there have been no naturally occurring cases of smallpox since 1977, and the world was declared free of smallpox on May 8, 1980, by the 33rd World Health Assembly.

To visit the page for Smallpox Killed 300 million People in the Last Century Before Eradication click here

The picture is a world map showing countries in different colors. The colors indicated when smallpox was eradicated in that country. Dark blue indicates that it was before 1900 and that is Sweden and Norway. Light beige indicates it was eradicated in the 1940’s, which is true for the United States. Dark brown indicates that it was eradicated in the 1970’s and that represents, for example, India, Brazil and many African countries. — This world map shows when smallpox was eradicated from different countries. The source is Our World in Data , originally Fenner et al. at CDC.

We are living in relatively peaceful times

Superfact 9 : Despite all the wars going on, the world was filled with a lot more war and violence in the past. Despite the grim news reports we are living in relatively peaceful times.

To visit the page for We are living in relatively peaceful times click here

The graph is in histogram format with the biggest bins 1946 to 1952, then a couple of more upticks with smaller bins in more recent times. — Death rate from wars since 1946. The uptick in 2022 is largely due to the Ethiopian Tigray war with 162,000–600,000 killed and the invasion of Ukraine, which US and BBC estimates at more than 200,000 deaths (but estimates from most other sources are less).

US Violent Crime Nearly Cut in Half Since 1990

Superfact 8 : Despite all the news reports about rampant crime, the US violent crime rate has fallen to half of what it was in the early 1990’s.

To visit the page for US Violent Crime Nearly Cut in Half Since 1990 click here

The first graph shows that violent crime per 100,000 people (FBI) has gone from 747.1 in 1990 to 380.7 in 2022. The next three graphs show the same trends. — The four graphs show that both violent crime and property crime have declined since 1990. Visit the post to see the Pew Research article it is taken from.

Poverty and child mortality has been sharply reduced worldwide

Superfact 7 : Extreme poverty as well as child mortality has been sharply reduced the world over. The countries that are the worst-off today are still better off than the countries that were doing the best at the beginning of the 19^th century. Over the last 50 years extreme poverty and child mortality has continued to decline sharply.

To visit the page for Poverty and child mortality has been sharply reduced worldwide click here

The graph shows share living in extreme poverty in brown and share not living in extreme poverty in purple. The graph begins in 1820 at ends in 2018. — This graph from Our World In Data shows a steep decline in extreme poverty over time. Click on the picture to visit the original article.

If you have not subscribed to my super fact blog you are certainly welcome to.

Sunshine Blogger Award

I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Laura, from Black Moon Lilith Thank you for the nomination, Laura! It was a nice birthday gift.

Check out her blog for lots of great posts which feature poetry, short stories, very cool pictures, and other interesting things!

Without further ado, here are the rules which I’ve copied from Lauras’s blog:

Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
Thank the person who nominated you.
Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
Answer your nominators’ questions.
Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
Ask your nominees 11 questions.
Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Eleven Questions for Me

Below are my answers to Lauras’s eleven questions. I have not yet learned how to create the kind of pictures that Laura creates. That’s for another time.

Question 1 : What’s your favorite brand of coffee? If you don’t drink coffee, what do you like to drink? (Tea, etc)

I drink Green Mountain Nantucked the most, but I really like Gevalia the best.

Question 2 : What’s the most creative lie you’ve ever told?

I never lie. Well, that’s my most creative lie.

Question 3 : What’s the last dream you had (that you feel comfortable sharing)? If you’re in the “don’t dream” camp, what would you like to dream about?

I dream about traveling a lot. My last very memorable dream was about traveling on a big boat. On the boat I met several people from my youth in Sweden. Then I needed to go to the bathroom, but I could not find it. Every boat should have well-advertised good bathrooms but the boat in my dream didn’t.

Question 4 : What was the most favorite job you’ve held in your lifetime?

I think that was when I was a robotics research assistant at Sandia National Laboratory the summer of 1993. I was new to the United States, I had just received a green card, and I was working at a well-regarded national laboratory located inside a major US Airforce base. Everything was secret. The lab next to us received a Soviet satellite carrying a small nuclear power reactor that summer. The US did not know how to build a mini nuclear reactor at the time so reverse engineering this reactor was a big deal. I would like to point out that I was not part of that. I only heard about it. Another fun job was when I designed the portion of the electronics for a Swedish fighter jet called JAS Gripen.

Humanoid robots and several orange industrial robots. MLP Mechanized industry robot and robotic arms for assembly in factory production. Concept of artificial intelligence for industrial revolution and automation manufacturing process. — Mechanized industry robot and robotic arms for assembly in factory production. Shutterstock Asset id: 2459375613 by Summit Art Creations.

Question 5 : What motivated you to start blogging?

I wanted to start a blog to advertise my upcoming dog book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. I asked my friend Alex Diaz-Granados for advice, and he helped me get started on WordPress.com. Later on, I continued blogging mostly because it became a hobby and I started a second blog superfactful, which has nothing to do with my book. The goal of this blog is to create a long list of facts that are important, not trivia, and that are known to be true yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many.

Question 6 : What are you grateful for?

I am grateful for my wife and kids, my whole family, my dog(s) current and past, and what they gave me. I am grateful that I am alive and that I can experience our beautiful nature, the night sky, and everything there is to know and understand.

Question 7 : What’s something nice you did for yourself recently?

We went on a great ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. I skied the Imperial Bowl, which is served by the highest ski lift in the western hemisphere. The Imperial Bowl is big and wide and mostly empty and there was a lot of powder snow. We had a very good time together as a family.

Question 8 : If you could partake in any new endeavor, experience, or hobby, regardless of time constraints or money, what would it be?

I would like to get a degree in Astro Physics as a retirement project, but not for a future career. That would be a huge time commitment and probably expensive and maybe weird too, considering my goal is not a career in the field. However, I like to know things about how the world works and I like to know things about the Universe.

Question 9 : What do you like to do to keep your brain active?

When I was still working as a software engineer / robotics engineer I kept my brain active because of my work. Since I took my early retirement, I need to keep my brain busy in other ways. I read a lot of books, I wrote a book, I blog, I am learning French, I am a volunteer for an organization called Citizens Climate Lobby, which focuses a lot on specific legislation that I need to study, I brew beer, and well OK drinking beer may not be keeping my brain active but it is a hobby as well.

Question 10 : What do you like to do to keep your body active?

I jog and I like to swim in my in-law’s pool. My wife and I used to go bicycling a lot. We have not done that for a while, but I think we’ll soon pick that back up again.

Question 11 : What is your favorite thing about spending time out in nature?

I love a lot of things about nature. I cannot pick one specific thing. I love the forest. The quiet, the solitude, the tranquility, the berries, the birds singing, the beautiful trees and the vegetation, the smell, the hills, the scenery, and seeing some animals too. I just don’t like to encounter a bear.

Shafts of sunlight filter through a misty forest, casting a warm, golden glow along a peaceful trail. Ethereal morning atmosphere creates a serene environment, which radiates tranquillity and beauty — Forest in the mist. Shutterstock Asset id: 2525988579 by Flystock

Here are my questions for my nominees:

Question 1 : What’s your favorite movie(s)?

Question 2 : What is something you’ve done or experienced that is unusual?

Question 3 : What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

Question 4 : What’s something you’re really passionate about?

Question 5 : If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Question 6 : What’s your favorite way to spend a weekend or a day off?

Question 7 : What’s something you wish more people understood about you?

Question 8 : What’s your go-to comfort food or favorite meal?

Question 9 : If you could have dinner with any three people (dead or alive), who would they be?

Question 10 : What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Question 11 : What kind of music are you into?

Eleven New Victims

Alex Diaz-Granados from A Certain Point of View, Too

Denise from Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old

Robbie Cheadle from Robbie’s inspiration

Jacqui Murray from Worddreams

James Viscosi from Viscosity

Dawn Pisturino from Dawn Pisturino’s Blog

Debbie D. from The Doglady’s Den

Miriam Hurdle from The Showers of Blessings

Jeanne from A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Barbara from teleportingweena

da-AL from Happiness Between Tails

Wolves and Dogs and Leonbergers

Image above by Kevin from The Beginning at Last

This is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Canis Lupus Familiaris

Canis Lupus Familiaris, the dog, is a close relative of the grey wolf. Dogs and wolves share a high percentage of DNA and are in fact the same species. They can mate and produce offspring referred to as wolf dogs. However, keeping wolves or wolf dogs as pets is not recommended. Our late Leonberger dog Bronco was in fact accused of being a wolf by a little boy and he was accused of being a bear by a neighbor. The boy was very close to being right.

The left-hand side of the picture shows a grey wolf looking into the camera and the text underneath says : Canis Lupus, the grey wolf is a fearsome and courageous hunter in nature. The right-hand side of the picture shows our Leonberger dog Bronco looking into the camera and the text underneath says : Canis Lupus familiaris, a close relative of the grey wolf, is sometimes also brave. This specimen bravely protects the life of smaller dogs and hamsters. — Leonbergers are big dogs, and little boys may think they are wolves, but Leonbergers are very friendly.

Are Big Dogs Wolves ?

The short stories below are from my book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger”. A Leonberger is a large type of dog, a so-called giant breed, closely related to Saint Bernards, and allegedly also Great Pyrenees dogs Newfoundland dogs. Bronco weighed 140 pounds when he was not overweight.

Bronco was a big dog. Once when I was walking Bronco around the neighborhood, a neighbor who always let his black Labs run loose saw us. He shouted to his wife, “Honey, get the dogs inside! Someone is walking a bear out here.” I guess letting your large dogs run loose isn’t a problem until someone walks a dog much bigger than yours.

On a number of occasions, we’ve met people who said to us that Bronco is the biggest dog they’ve ever seen. However, there are bigger dogs. We’ve met bigger English bullmastiffs and bigger Great Danes.

One day I took Bronco into PetSmart, and after I did my shopping, he and I were standing in the checkout line. Bronco was very quiet and well-behaved, but a boy ahead of us in line became quite alarmed when he saw us. He shouted, “Look! A wolf, a wolf, a wolf!” He pointed his finger at Bronco. His mom tried to calm the boy, but he would not stop shouting. He didn’t seem to be afraid of Bronco, but he was really concerned that there was a big wolf in the pet store. I tried to explain to the boy that Bronco was not a wolf. He was just a big dog.

Since our neighbor called Bronco a bear, I am including a second image from Kevin’s post that I think illustrates what our neighbor saw as I walked passed his house. Well, I had only one Leonberger/Bear and I don’t have antlers or a beard, and our neighborhood does not have that many trees. Other than that, it is spot on.

AI generated image showing an old man with a long beard wearing antlers as he is walking his two Grizzly Bears through a dense coniferous forest. — Walking my bear through the neighborhood. Image from Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Nordic Wolf Lullaby

Finally, a beautiful Nordic Lullaby sung by Jonna Jinton. Jonna Jinton is a Swedish singer who lives nearby Örnsköldsvik in northern Sweden, which is the town where I am originally from (now I live in Dallas, Texas). So, if you watch the video, the nature you see is from my old neighborhood.

The Lullaby is about a wolf who is hungry and cold, but he can’t have the singer’s baby for dinner. But she could offer a pig tail. What some may find remarkable about the Lullaby is that the mother being threatened by the wolf shows the wolf empathy. The existence of the stomach creates conflict between us creatures. To see the English translation turn on subtitles.

Super Fact Page Added to Superfactful

Some of you know that I have a second blog. The goal of this blog is to create a long list of facts that are important, not trivia, and that are known to be true yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many. I’ve created a list of super facts, which I keep updating as I add new super facts. So far, I’ve been posting and updating this list on every super fact post. As the number of super facts increases, this becomes a lot of work and in addition it is not good for SEO to repeat a large number of the same links over and over.

Therefore, I’ve created a new page featuring the super fact list as well as a new menu item “super facts” that opens this page. Below every super fact post I am adding the text “To see the Super Facts Click the Super-Facts menu above”. I am curious whether this menu and the page are easy to find. Please visit the superfactful blog and see if you can find the “super facts” menu item and the page. I have pasted the current content of the page below.

Image showing a disintegrating brain — Smashing our old beliefs with new surprising facts, super facts. Expand your mind and teach me some unexpected truths. Click on the image to visit the super facts blog. Shutterstock ID: 1685660680 by MattL_Images.

(1) We Know That the Earth is Billions of Years Old – click to visit
(2) Some Things Cannot be Known – click to visit
(3) Economic Externalities Are Spoilers of Free Markets – click to visit
(4) The Speed of Light In Vacuum Is a Universal Constant – click to visit
(5) Two events may be simultaneous for some but not for others – click to visit
(6) Radon Represents our Largest Exposure to Ionizing Radiation – click to visit
(7) Poverty and child mortality has been sharply reduced worldwide – click to visit
(8) US violent crime nearly cut in half since 1990 – click to visit
(9) We are living in relatively peaceful times – click to visit
(10) We are Star Dust – click to visit
(11) United States Europe and the Pacific Ocean Are Bigger Than You Might Think – click to visit
(12) The United States is a Republic and a Democracy – click to visit
(13) The Strange Worlds of Exo Planets – click to visit
(14) The vastness of space and the beginning of infinity – click to visit
(15) The Bizarre Reality of Black Holes – click to visit
(16) Wind power is providing more than a quarter of Texas Power – click to visit
(17) Wind power is not a major cause of bird death – click to visit
(18) Accents are very difficult to lose – click to visit
(19) An account impersonating you on Facebook does not mean you have been hacked – click to visit
(20) There are flying Turkeys – click to visit
(21) Neutering or spaying a dog at 6 months old can be dangerous to their health depending on breed – click to visit
(22) The Surprising Monty Hall Problem – click to visit
(23) GPS uses relativity for accuracy – click to visit
(24) Smallpox Killed 300 million People in the Last Century Before Eradication – click to visit
(25) Global Warming is Happening and is Caused by us – click to visit
(26) The hockey stick curve is accurate – click to visit
(27) EV Cars Indeed Emit Less Carbon Pollution – click to visit
(28) Eating local is not necessarily ecological – click to visit
(29) Many Popular Actions for the Environment Are Useless – click to visit
(30) 10 Times more people died from natural disasters a hundred years ago – click to visit
(31) By 2018 the emissions of ozone-depleting gases had fallen by 99.7% – click to visit
(32) The United States and Europe are minor contributors to the plastic waste problem – click to visit
(33) Developed nations has successfully reduced carbon emissions since 1990’s – click to visit
(34) The US is the largest cumulative emitter of carbon – click to visit
(35) There are many environmental success stories – click to visit
(36) Human behavior initiating a sixth extinction – click to visit
(37) Sulphur dioxide pollution has fallen by 95% in the US since the 1970’s – click to visit
(38) Entropy Always Increasing Does Not Contradict Evolution – click to visit
(39) Early homo sapiens lived at the same time as many other human species – click to visit
(40) Evidence for evolution is strong and evidence against it is weak – click to visit
(41) We know something about the evolution of whales – click to visit
(42) Evolution is a fact – click to visit
(43) Modern farming techniques have greatly increased cereal yield per acre – click to visit
(44) Animal Biomass has increased Wild Animal Biomass has decreased – click to visit
(45) Industrial Farming has condemned billions of animals to brutal and often short lives – click to visit
(46) You Choose Before You Know You Do – click to visit
(47) We know that homeopathy does not work – click to visit
(48) Astrology is not science and lack predictive power – click to visit
(49) Vaccines do not cause autism – click to visit
(50) The Average Lifespan More Than Doubled Since 1800 – click to visit

Menu Update

Above this post there are Menus “About Me”, “Home”, “History”, “All Posts”, “The Book”, “Contact”. Today I updated the content of the menu called “All Posts”. This page lists all my blog posts that I’ve ever done. I added headers to the nine categories as well as a banner style image to every category. Below I am illustrating the first category “The Adventures of Bronco and his Dog Friends”. Please check out the new page – click here. What do you think?

The Adventures of Bronco and his Dog Friends

Illustrations and photos of our Leonberger Bronco

Again check out the updated page and any opinions are welcome. Click here to see the page.

Holiday Book Promotion and the Leonberger Health Foundation

The Price Has Been Reduced

Amazon lowered the price of the paperback version of my book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” from $19.95 to $17.95 some time ago and I cannot set it back to $19.95. I am guessing that it is because of Amazon’s lowest price policy and that another bookstore somewhere is selling it for $17.95. So, I am thinking, why not roll with it and have a holiday promotion. I also just lowered the price of the Kindle version from $4.95 to $2.99. The prices in all other countries, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Australia, etc., are likewise lowered by the same amount.

I would like to add that the reason I tried to set the price back to $19.95 is not because I want more money. I am donating all royalties to the Leonberger Health Foundation International, which is a great organization that supports health related breed-specific research. However, the research frequently improves the health of other dog breeds as well. You can read more about the Leonberger Health Foundation International below.

The endorsements say “A wonderful tribute to the author's beloved Bronco. The stories are heartwarming as well as informative - a true glimpse into life with a Leonberger. D'Nae Wilson, President, Leonberger Health Foundation International.” and “A lovely tribute to Bronco, with lots of resources for general Leonberger information. Julie Schaffert, LCA breeder since 1992.” — These are the endorsements for the book. Click on the image to go to the Barnes and Noble location for the book.

In this book you’ll read about some of Bronco’s amazing feats: the night he scared away a prowler; the day he performed a hamster search and rescue; the time he stumped the Geek Squad; and the late night he snuck into the kitchen and ate a two-pound bag of dog treats, a box of pastries, a loaf of bread, a grilled chicken, and a Key lime pie, all in one sitting. You’ll also read about his unflappable calm during a north Texas tornado and his stoicism as he endured health challenges in his later years.

In addition to entertaining stories, these pages contain a wealth of practical guidance, including:

a history of the Leonberger breed;
advice for the care of very large dogs;
breed-specific health and genetic information;
training and feeding tips;
suggestions for finding a breeder;
the official breed standard; and
an extensive resource guide.

Below is a list of places where you can get my book.

The Leonberger Health Foundation International

The Leonberger Health Foundation International is an organization that supports science and research impacting Leonberger health, longevity and breed preservation. Examples of research they’ve supported include research on Addison’s Disease, Inherited Leonberger Polyneuropathy (LPN), LEMP research, the Rabies Challenge Fund, Osteosarcoma, Hemangiosarcoma, genetic causes of male (dog) infertility, Cryptorchidism, study of cruciate ligament repair, Glaucoma, cardiac diseases, thyroid disease, neurological disorders, longevity & aging, population diversity, juvenile renal dysplasia, anal furunculosis, the EGFR Immunotherapy Project, and Leonberger inherited Arrythmia. As mentioned above, a lot of the progress applies to other dog breeds as well.

LHFI’s global biobank contains DNA samples from more than nine thousand Leonbergers. Among the organization’s notable achievements are the eradication of Addison’s disease among Leonbergers and the raising of more than $650,000 for research into conditions that affect canine health. Another success is the fact that since 2011, no Leonbergers with two copies of the LPN1 gene mutation (which causes Leonberger polyneuropathy) have been recorded in LHFI’s biobank. LHFI does other things as well. LHFI grants an award called the Grey Muzzle Award to Leonbergers who reach the impressive age of 12 years. Leonbergers and other giant breeds tend to live short lives, something LHFI is trying to solve and they have made progress. One of the recipients of the Grey Muzzle Award was our Leonberger Bronco.