These are just too cute!
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So on the plane last night I finally finished reading the Nim Chimpsky. For some reason recently I have been drawn to reading books about animal consciousness and our relationships with non- human beings. The book I recently finished before I picked up this one was called Animals Make us Human by Temple Grandin. While she touches on the consciousness of cats, dogs, avians, and horses, what Grandin is known for is her commentary on the relationship of humans with food animals and the slaughtering process. I found it fascinating how she developed more humane ways for slaughter industries to employ certain techniques that didn't cause undue stress on the animals. Something as simple extending the floor beneath the cow as it is hoisted up on a conveyor belt solved tons of issues and mental distress on the animal- thus striving ever closer to be more conscious of our decisions and how we treat the animals around us makes us more human in the fact that we acknowledge suffering, even among members of other species.
I would be a vegetarian if I could, I like the concept, but those of you who know me also know that is incredibly unlikely, for the sole fact that I just LOVE bacon.
I maintain that if there were 4 incredibly sentient species on earth, Humans, Chimpanzees, Dolphins, would likely be the first three; and Pigs would be the fourth.
Anyway, the book is called Nim Chimpsky after the chimpanzee that bore that name. His name, as you may have guessed, was a play on the ever famous Noam Chomsky, who believed and argued that language was a solely human trait- and no other being could use language to communicate. Chomsky said many things, and is beloved by many linguists, anthropologist, political activists and philosophers, but i think Chomsky is homo-centric on this issue- meaning biased; and that in itself is a four-letter word in anthropological circles.
Arguments are made that language can mean many things, but as dear old Noam defines language acquisition:
children are able to learn the "superficial" grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a "deep structure" of grammatical rules that are universal and that correspond to an innate capacity of the human brain.
Chomsky directly refutes that any other species is capable of use or understanding language. Anyone who owns a dog of even mild intelligence has cause to be skeptical. What Project Nim, although deemed a failure by its creator, set out to do was to prove Chomsky wrong; that non-human species can communicate with humans, and in our own language no less.
Oversimplified, Nim was deemed incapable of language because he couldn't form proper English syntax. Neither can my 3 year old niece. Would she consider her incapable of language?
While Project Nim (Nim as a baby in NY on Left) was a failure, and incredibly sad in hindsight when you look at the experiment through a modern perspective, the creator of the experiment wrote another anecdotal book about his experiences with Nim, which all but confirm that Nim indeed could use language to communicate his wants and desires.
It is a fascinating story, not just about Nim, but about how the pharma and scientific community treat their research animals. And when you realize that these animals have the same fears, wants, desires, emotions, and needs as you do, it becomes a very sad and painful story.
I don't think I ever really realized how sentient other beings really are. I always thought my dogs understood much more than they could communicate back to me- but scientifically how do you separate anthropomorphism from actual communicative ability in an animal that cannot communicate in English with you. ( I secretly think Duff speaks Norwegian) When you realize how 'human' they can be- with all anthropomorphism aside- straight from the lips of the chimp in question when he tells you he doesn't like watching that tv channel, or using sign language and pointing at a picture in one of his albums of a girl he knew from his childhood signing, 'she smelled like apples' you have to second guess your standing in this world.
Nim's is a sad story, but one to be learned from. Grandin also i believe has a chapter about Chimpanzees that have 'outlived their usefulness".
Her stories of "chimps who have outlived their usefulness' is interesting in that she also recounts stories of these chimpanzees and where they are now living in hybrid situations. Not entirely comfortable being a chimpanzee, and not entirely comfortable being a human, these pseudo chimps (the lucky ones) live in refuges where they have their own rooms with television sets they operate on their own, and access to the outside where they can manifest their more 'chimp' like nature.
The one story that sticks in my mind is of Cheetah from the Tarzan m
ovies. Chimpanzees after about age 4-5 become much too strong and often aggressive and are usually discarded at this point because they cannot be used for tv and movies- that often means to medical laboratories who have ways of handling adult chimps. Cheetah however managed to land himself a nice hybrid situation like the one described above. He knew how to switch cassettes in the vcr and would often put in movies of himself and get excited when he came on screen- and show these scenes to guests when they came over. Sounds like something any actor proud of his work in his first film might do.
anyway, i recommend both Nim Chimpsky and Temple Grandin's Animals make us Human. If you have read Michael Pollen's Omnivore's Dilemma, this is the next logical step.
By the way I always found it amusing that Pollen wrote a book called Botany of Desire. How fitting
I also found this post on the institute for humane education
Read more
I would be a vegetarian if I could, I like the concept, but those of you who know me also know that is incredibly unlikely, for the sole fact that I just LOVE bacon.
I maintain that if there were 4 incredibly sentient species on earth, Humans, Chimpanzees, Dolphins, would likely be the first three; and Pigs would be the fourth.
Anyway, the book is called Nim Chimpsky after the chimpanzee that bore that name. His name, as you may have guessed, was a play on the ever famous Noam Chomsky, who believed and argued that language was a solely human trait- and no other being could use language to communicate. Chomsky said many things, and is beloved by many linguists, anthropologist, political activists and philosophers, but i think Chomsky is homo-centric on this issue- meaning biased; and that in itself is a four-letter word in anthropological circles.
Arguments are made that language can mean many things, but as dear old Noam defines language acquisition:
children are able to learn the "superficial" grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a "deep structure" of grammatical rules that are universal and that correspond to an innate capacity of the human brain.
Chomsky directly refutes that any other species is capable of use or understanding language. Anyone who owns a dog of even mild intelligence has cause to be skeptical. What Project Nim, although deemed a failure by its creator, set out to do was to prove Chomsky wrong; that non-human species can communicate with humans, and in our own language no less.
Oversimplified, Nim was deemed incapable of language because he couldn't form proper English syntax. Neither can my 3 year old niece. Would she consider her incapable of language?
While Project Nim (Nim as a baby in NY on Left) was a failure, and incredibly sad in hindsight when you look at the experiment through a modern perspective, the creator of the experiment wrote another anecdotal book about his experiences with Nim, which all but confirm that Nim indeed could use language to communicate his wants and desires.
It is a fascinating story, not just about Nim, but about how the pharma and scientific community treat their research animals. And when you realize that these animals have the same fears, wants, desires, emotions, and needs as you do, it becomes a very sad and painful story.
I don't think I ever really realized how sentient other beings really are. I always thought my dogs understood much more than they could communicate back to me- but scientifically how do you separate anthropomorphism from actual communicative ability in an animal that cannot communicate in English with you. ( I secretly think Duff speaks Norwegian) When you realize how 'human' they can be- with all anthropomorphism aside- straight from the lips of the chimp in question when he tells you he doesn't like watching that tv channel, or using sign language and pointing at a picture in one of his albums of a girl he knew from his childhood signing, 'she smelled like apples' you have to second guess your standing in this world.
Nim's is a sad story, but one to be learned from. Grandin also i believe has a chapter about Chimpanzees that have 'outlived their usefulness".
Her stories of "chimps who have outlived their usefulness' is interesting in that she also recounts stories of these chimpanzees and where they are now living in hybrid situations. Not entirely comfortable being a chimpanzee, and not entirely comfortable being a human, these pseudo chimps (the lucky ones) live in refuges where they have their own rooms with television sets they operate on their own, and access to the outside where they can manifest their more 'chimp' like nature.
The one story that sticks in my mind is of Cheetah from the Tarzan m
ovies. Chimpanzees after about age 4-5 become much too strong and often aggressive and are usually discarded at this point because they cannot be used for tv and movies- that often means to medical laboratories who have ways of handling adult chimps. Cheetah however managed to land himself a nice hybrid situation like the one described above. He knew how to switch cassettes in the vcr and would often put in movies of himself and get excited when he came on screen- and show these scenes to guests when they came over. Sounds like something any actor proud of his work in his first film might do.anyway, i recommend both Nim Chimpsky and Temple Grandin's Animals make us Human. If you have read Michael Pollen's Omnivore's Dilemma, this is the next logical step.
By the way I always found it amusing that Pollen wrote a book called Botany of Desire. How fitting
I also found this post on the institute for humane education
This is the graphic I like, the whale just looks so Happy!
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I don't really get it. I mean I do- but really? This is like the 21st century Version of IM. Been there- why would I want the whole world to know what I am doing at any hour of the day. Do I want everyone to know I am playing solitaire at work, or worse...
It is like an open forum IM post with the world. It's an insta-blog. An insta-blog with shitty servers that constantly crash. Granted I do like reading Rainn Wilson's posts- man that guy has nothing but time it seems to come up with hilarity. And Dr.tiki. If you don't know who either of those individuals are. Shame.... SHAME ON YOU.
This, however, has not stopped me from opening up an account, and one for the MuShoe- so the whole world can read our tweets about shoes.
Levar Burton is in on the action. AKA awesomeness. And I thought about following Brent Spiner's tweets- but after reading a few, I decided that is a mentality I don't want to contaminate my bright sunny days. I can't tell if he is joking. If you don't know who that is, don't bother, it'll just embarrass me.
Man I do love their graphics however- genius- my favorite of the server crap out ones is a bunch of blue birds helping a whale fly. too cute- I want a t-shirt of it.
This is what I got when I tried to Follow Jermain Clement of Flight of the Conchords. If you don't know there stuff- I highly suggest you youtube it. I'll post a few of my faves of theirs soon.
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It is like an open forum IM post with the world. It's an insta-blog. An insta-blog with shitty servers that constantly crash. Granted I do like reading Rainn Wilson's posts- man that guy has nothing but time it seems to come up with hilarity. And Dr.tiki. If you don't know who either of those individuals are. Shame.... SHAME ON YOU.
This, however, has not stopped me from opening up an account, and one for the MuShoe- so the whole world can read our tweets about shoes.
Levar Burton is in on the action. AKA awesomeness. And I thought about following Brent Spiner's tweets- but after reading a few, I decided that is a mentality I don't want to contaminate my bright sunny days. I can't tell if he is joking. If you don't know who that is, don't bother, it'll just embarrass me.
Man I do love their graphics however- genius- my favorite of the server crap out ones is a bunch of blue birds helping a whale fly. too cute- I want a t-shirt of it.
This is what I got when I tried to Follow Jermain Clement of Flight of the Conchords. If you don't know there stuff- I highly suggest you youtube it. I'll post a few of my faves of theirs soon.
Because I love doggies.....
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30088069?GT1=43001
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http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30088069?GT1=43001
And what time of the year is that?
The "almost" summertime which means Summer of Alana is about to begin again.
The time of the year that when I have down time and try to post here about the hilarity of things going on in my neck of the woods- wherever that may happen to be at the moment. I will actually make a goal of trying to post every day to keep all you actual working stiffs entertained.
So Welcome!
We'll see what gets my attention later to write about!
currently I am eating grapes that were much too close to the freezer part of the mini fridge in the back of the store, and wondering if it should be a "champagne friday"?
Read more
The "almost" summertime which means Summer of Alana is about to begin again.
The time of the year that when I have down time and try to post here about the hilarity of things going on in my neck of the woods- wherever that may happen to be at the moment. I will actually make a goal of trying to post every day to keep all you actual working stiffs entertained.
So Welcome!
We'll see what gets my attention later to write about!
currently I am eating grapes that were much too close to the freezer part of the mini fridge in the back of the store, and wondering if it should be a "champagne friday"?
It's been months, I know. I have been busy at the store, but I will try to get this up and going again, so I can tell you all kinds of fantastical things that are going on in my life, and hilarity that surrounds me on a daily basis.
Plans for the weekend:
80's Party, God my getup is good, get ready for pictures next week.
But this I found interesting today as I was driving the 5 minutes to work and listening to NPR:
K7, aka Lummi, the Oldest Killer whale (probably in existance) is reparorted missing from K pod. She is the Matriarch. Orcas are kind of like Elephants in that way, the Alpha Female basically is their wealth of collected knowledge. Orcas aren't technically reported as dead until they have been missing a year, but for a matriarch to be missing is unusual. What is CRAZY about this particular whale is how old she was.
Take a guess.
98. You heard me. A 98 year old gammy whale. DAMN. She saw WWI subs- now that's old. I had no idea they lived that long. According to the Friday Harbor Whale research Center, old is usually 50, but I guess a lot of calves die early so that brings the ratio down.
Another fun factiod about our whales. The local Puget Sound pods only eat salmon and fish... not so killer. But those crazies who come up from Cali, they will eat your babies, provided you dress your baby up like a seal and flap around in freezing waters. We all know babies are delicious, but they take it to a new level.
I found this article in the Vancouver Sun about Lummi
They like to hang out by San Juan. Who can blame 'em? They are cute too.
We were up there looking for them on this day, and almost went to Pender, buy they were just out of reach ://www.whaleresearch.com/thecenter/2008_Encounter_028.html