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Professionally, I’m a retired professor of accounting and former chair of the School of Accounting at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. My academic work explored how people make decisions in complex systems, especially when information is imperfect or overwhelming. I’ve published in a fair number of journals that few people read voluntarily, and I spent decades thinking about how technology shapes human behavior. These days, my time is divided between managing a small flock of chickens, herding goats, chatting on amateur radio (KO4LMP), and living just on the edge of the grid—literally and metaphorically. I’m a father to five daughters, a grandfather to 17, and a great-grandfather to three. Somewhere along the way, I realized that what I enjoy most is simply talking about the world we live in—and how to make sense of it.

🗲Testing Electric Fences: Animals versus People

Today I needed to cross my electric fence, but I was a long way away from the power source and I couldn’t remember if I had turned the power off. So, I picked up my dog and touched her nose to the wire. Nothing happened. So apparently, I’d turned it off.

Brad, I have to admire the experimental design while questioning the choice of test equipment. 😄

Your reasoning was impeccable. The flaw is that the test instrument has feelings—and may someday figure out who was holding her. I recommend investing in a $10 fence tester.

I have a $10 fence tester but it’s light is so dim I cannot tell one way or the other.

Ah. That materially improves your defense. 😄

There is also something wonderfully backwards about a $10 electronic device being unable to answer the question, while Tazzi provided an immediate, unambiguous reading: no yelp = no volts.

I would still suggest replacing the tester. Tazzi is considerably more expensive, and her warranty probably specifically excludes this application. And knowing what you’ve told me about her opinion of thunderstorms and other startling noises, I’m not sure I’d want to be holding her when the test came back POSITIVE.

Actually, I didn’t use the dog, but I thought about.

Oh! That changes the story considerably—and rescues my opinion of your experimental ethics. 😂

So Tazzi was not actually a canine voltmeter. She was merely considered for the position.

And I think the fact that the thought occurred to you is actually funnier than doing it. That is exactly the sort of thought people have but usually possess enough judgment not to act upon—and enough judgment not to admit afterward that they considered it.

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