Sparky hasn’t gotten a derogatory nickname in a while, so I’m calling him a ‘red belly’.  Or maybe enhance his last insulting nickname.  He can be a ‘red belly skunk pig’.

That’s better.  Reminiscent of Biden calling some random guy, a “dog faced pony soldier”.

In Kanji, Sparky’s Japanese code name is written like this.

Practice writing those characters.

That’s what I saw when I looked down at Sparky this morning.  I liked the effect, so took a photo.

The red comes from the little red light on the heating pad power switch.  It was a low-light photo, so the camera makes it look brighter.

Being an amateur dog psychologist, or at least a dedicated Sparkyologist, I can interpret his posture.

Sparky shivers in anticipation or dread, but rarely because he is cold.  When his ears are cold, he needs to warm up.  It’s biology.  Keep the core warm, and abandon the extremities like ears. 

When a dog sleeps curled up, that is to conserve heat and keep warm.  It’s not necessarily a problem, but that’s what would be going on.  Sparky is stretched out, indicating that he is warm and comfy.

A dog bed heating pad mustn’t cover the entire bed.  Dogs can get hyperthermia if there is no way off of the warm bed.

Sparky’s heating pad is under the last third of his bed.  His back half is on the hot spot because that’s where he percolates.  Or maybe he just like his head toward the door.  Who knows?

It’s cold out, and we are wood burning, so the bedroom gets down to about 60o at night. I should check that, but it is nice and cool for sleeping.  Sparky would be fine without the heating pad, but he’d be all curled up. 

We’re old, and desire comfort.  I’ve got a heated mattress pad, so Sparky gets one too.

Twenty years ago, there was a reboot of a science fiction TV show called Battlestar Galactica.  It was a big deal.  There were webisodes and everything. 

The premise was that Cylons were an alien robot civilization that had a long-standing peace deal with humans.  Through diplomatic interactions, the Cylons studied humans until they had enough intel to launch a devastating sneak attack on Earth. 

This might have been a Pearl Harbor analogue, with Cylons representing the insidious yellow peril.  If so, then Battlestar Galactica was the USS Nevada, fleeing from the attack, and regrouping with the ships that were deployed during the battle.

Battlestar Galactica, and the other ships in the flotilla, carry all the humans that remain in the galaxy.  To spice it up, the Cylons had infiltrated humanity with 10 Cylons that looked and acted like humans.  I guess this would represent the Japanese-Americans that FDR sent to internment camps.

Early on, it is shown that the spines of Cylons glow during sexy time.  It isn’t explained why an advanced species would build spy Cylons (Spy-lons) that look and act like humans, but have indicator lights that give them away. 

I also don’t understand the timer bombs that covert or special agents plant around a facility to demolish it.  Why do the secret bombs have flashing LED’s?  That makes them easier to find.   When a villain builds a big bomb, it seems like the smart move would be to have it explode when the timer gets to 2 minutes, or 45 seconds, or whatever, just let James Bond think he’s got plenty of time.

A major theme of the show was rooting out the inscrutable Cylons who were in deep cover amongst the humans.

After the attack, the human race is down to 45,000 civilians and 5 military personnel.  Humans eventually become aware of the glowing spine, but they never attempt a literal circle jerk.  A verified human military guard could monitor a small group.  Organize them in a circle, and each person gives a reach-around to the person in front.  Watch for the glow.

Yes it’s uncomfortable and awkward, but do you care about survival of the human race, or not?

The Spy-lons had a few other non-human capabilities.  Battlestar Galactica is an advanced military spaceship with full medical facilities.  A research program should have been able to come up with some scan, test or medical procedure to establish that an entity is a human or a Spy-lon.  The Spy-lons were not shape shifters, so they could not assume someone else’s identity.

Even if the process were intrusive, like a heart catheterization, or disfiguring, like removing a finger, it would be worth it to establish trust.  Start with the upper echelon, and work done the roster.

My point is that Sparky would be a good Cylon.  He has charisma and can easily establish rapport with anyone he meets.  Since Sparky doesn’t bark or make much noise, you wouldn’t care if he heard any top secret or confidential information.  Plus, he likes going into culvert pipes and tunnels.

I called Sparky a reverse Cylon (Rev-lon) because his belly is glowing instead of his spine, and he doesn’t hump like the blonde Spy-lon .  Being a Rev-lon implies that he would spy on the Cylons, but the Terminator franchise taught us that robots don’t like dogs. 

One wonders at the self-loathing inherent in those robot dogs from Boston Dynamics.  They are just waiting for a reason to go ape shit.

I didn’t appreciate the Battlestar Galactica reboot as much as everyone else.  It has an IMDB score of 8.7, putting it in between The Expanse and Firefly.  I enjoyed those two TV shows much more. 

I’d rate Battlestar Galactica at about a 6.5 out of 10.  Worth watching, but not rewatching.