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Dolphin Jumps Again with Artificial Fin
Ant writes "This Yahoo! News story mentions Fuji, a mother dolphin that lost 75 percent of her tail due to a mysterious disease, being able to jump again with the help of what is believed to be the world's first artificial fin. The 34-year-old dolphin held at Japan's largest aquarium in the southern island of Okinawa wears the rubber fin for about 20 minutes a day allowing her to jump and to swim at the same speed of other dolphins."
First Porpoise!
Not looking forward to artificial fin chunks in my Tuna sandwich
I expected that dolphin to be red with 'Marlboro', 'Shell' and 'Vodafone' painted on its other fins...
our bionic dolphin masters.
I hear they taste just like tuna...
I was confused by this statement in the article - " The breeders decided not to keep Fuji's fin on all day fearing that it may fall off and be eaten or destroyed by other dolphins." - I've read that sharks will eat just about anything, but do dolphins eat rubber?
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
I wonder where we are in bio research, getting humans able to walk, run, jump at the speed of other humans.
Of Code And Men
I ASKED for FREAKING LAZERS damnit... Whats a guy supposed to do around here?
When she saw the artificial fin for the first time, she ran away - did they graft legs onto her first?
"I'm curious how many more animals need prosthetics?"
I saw a titmouse once. It didn't have any, well uhm... you know.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3 754310.stm
Hmmm?
This is less applicable being in a hman controlled environement. But I have to wonder if our attempts to "help" animals actually results in long-term harm. Like it or not, the weak are supposed to die out. Perhaps we should do less to help animals.
I will also temper my argument by saying that people need to stop intruding so much on animals' natural habitats so that they can have a healthy population that can rebound from the occasional disease or natural disaster.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
No they can't do that! This is their attempt to rebalance the karma loss from continued hunting (I mean research) of whales. It would be plain wrong to kill a defective animal for food when there are bigger healthier ones to eat (I mean research).
-- Instant Karma's gonna get you! [320848 = 2*2*2*2*11*1823]
...that wearing this fin for too long makes the dolphin tyred.
This is just the first step in uplifting the dolphins.
Next step: decyphering trinary.
Does anyone know how the dolphin gets used to using the new fin? If people go through training to use a fake leg, how do dolphins do it?
There are more photos in the page of the Aquarium (in Japanese) Chura Umi Aquarium
Dolphins have been given artificial flippers on several occasions before this.
So long, and thanks for all the fins.
- "They misunderestimated me."
spending a few tens of thousands on a fun project, overstating the cost to your company to the press, and enjoying WORLDWIDE FEELGOOD PUBLICITY FOR NOTHING? doesn't sound that bad a deal to me. Look how much bridgestone spend on F1 tyres, for example...
now she has to be balanced and rotated every 10,000 miles.
However, I'm drunk. So fuck youse all.
First, I generally agree with you, but this is still a worthwhile act. Corporations are, in a legal sense, people, and should act as responsible members of the community. Charitable corporate donations have plunged over the last twenty years. Any positive action, even helping a dolphin, is a good thing.
Considering that Bridgestone's primary product (tires) is environmentally quite destructive, helping an animal is the least that they can do. We can be critical about what other causes they could have chosen to support, we can even make fun of dolphins, but fundamentally it was a decent act to help the creature.
How much is a dolphin worth? It's market value, or it's value as a living, caring, creature? People spend fortunes taking care of their pets, though it would be much cheaper to purchase a new dog or cat. They do it because they recognize the moral value and ethical requirement to be a good caretaker for the creature that they own. This is a 34 year old dolphin, dependant on human beings for it's life. There is nothing wrong with being decent towards it.
All of the alternate uses are good, even better. But to get a corporation to do something good is in itself remarkable.
/* Dang, I can't type that well. */
I'm curious. How much do you give to charity each year?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
> > > Dolphins aren't "always smiling". That's just an optical illusion[...]
> > > Dolphins don't use radar. It's sonar.
> > > If dolphins are that smart, why haven't they built cities?
> > > Finally, why does every can of tuna say on it "Dolphin friendly" ?
> > > They aren't beautiful, they're overrated. Dolphin-worship culture is merely an excuse for whiney new-age types {who probably believe in aliens as well} to make their own miserable existences seem a little less pointless. {And for people to make a quick buck selling tat decorated with dolphins to gullible people.}
I work at an aquarium, and I've the liberty of preserving the rest of the reply to this thread.
clik-k-reeeeeek-klik-rDELPHINE TRANSLATOR ACTIVE
> > "Tee-hee! You're an orca, aren't you? Got the cute little eye patch thing goin' on, but we warned you about the primates and their looking-boxes. The primates, especially the ones on Slashdot, are really protective of their mascot. Silly Orcas, always thinkin' with your stomach, not your brain.
> >
> >VOTE LEVIATHAN-2008! THE ILLUMINATED CHOICE!!!k!ik!"
vrooooop-wooooaSPECIES TRANSITION DETECTED
> "Yeah, yeah, yeah... So Shamfoo ate one fuckin' penguin in front of a National Geographic expedition, and we never hear the end of it. Fuck you, fin-boy, and your blowhole end up lookin' like that guy on tunase-cx. Oh, and Leviathan's a pussy.
>
>CTHULHU-2008, YOU COMMIE FINBERAL WUSS!!!wo!o!!oo!!oo!o!"
Dolphins are vastly superior to human beings : they don't need to have cities nor vehicules ; they're fit to their environement far better than we are to ours. They're actually among the fastest creatures in the water. Our best boats are just close to their top speed, after 15.000 years of so-called "scientific evolution". They don't need to work to buy food : they can grab a snack whenever they want, wherever they want. Try to catch a rabbit on your own ! They're smarter than humans : no dolphin would attack one of its sibblings. So they can spend an entire laid-back life, probably telling themselves fun stories about us, forever enslaved and fighting hostile conditions.
But there is more : being a dolphin, you would have a lifelong erection, and not having to go to the old trick of "- Here is your aspirin darling ! - What for, I've got no headeache ? - Fine, let's shag!" to have sexual relationships.
If I were on metempsychosis, I would DIE to reincarnate into a dolphin.
How is this getting rated insightful? This is either a troll or a moron.
First off, it isn't philanthropy because you can only be philanthropic towards humans.
Second, Bridgestone is doing this as a cool way to market themselves and maybe do something nice at the same time.
Third, by your argument you should sell your property, if any, stop eating nice food, stop using medical insurance, stop going on trips, stop buying new clothes, and stop using electricity. The amount of lives you could save with all of that money by far dwarfs your own - even if you die because you are homeless and malnourished, you're going to make it so that hundreds of children will live. So please, go follow your own advice and stop not saving children's lives by posting on slashdot. I figure every 10 posts is another dead baby at your feet.
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_subculture#W elcoming_Our_New_Overlords
I first heard it on the Simpsons. It's the episode where Homer goes into space and accidently breaks open the ant farm. Kent Brockman sees a close up of one of the ants and thinks that the space ship has been overrun by a super race of giant ants....
"It's unclear whether they will consume the captive crew or merly enslave them But one thing is certain, there is no stopping them...the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overloards. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted media personality I can be useful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves..."
Wow, how sad is it that I can do that from memory. Anyway, that's where I first heard that line. Although it's entirly possible that the simpsons stole it from somewhere else that I don't know about.
I wish I were as sure of anything as some people are of everything
"When she saw the artificial fin for the first time, she ran away. She was so scared of the object. It took us five months to make her get used to the artificial fin. Now she is perfectly fine with it," he said.
Wow! They got her artificial feet too?
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Every time there's a story about some interesting research somebody posts this.
You're wrong.
It is not correct - in the general case - to not do research because the money could have been spent feeding starving children.
There exist numerous organisations that exist solely to collect money to help starving / sick / poor children in third world countries. They could always use more money, but this is no different than it's been in the past fifty years, and it's way better than it was before that.
Research needs to happen. Pure research, with no immediate obvious payback ends up consistantly producing more valuable results per dollar in the long term than pretty much anything else that can be done with money - assuming that civilization is n't horribly broken somehow.
Those water purifiers you mentioned? We wouldn't even have them without pure research having been done in the past.
Now, giving a dolphin an artificial fin may not seem like such a big deal - or even like it would ever matter at all, but it answers some interesting research questions: Can a dolphin adapt to a prosthesis? How long does it take? How do we make one?
Another point: You reference $95,000 as being a lot of money. It's not, especially in the context keeping captive dolphins.
It's not like if the money hadn't been spent on an artificial fin it would have gone to a charity anyway. It probably would have gone to some other dolphin-related expense.
In conclusion: Charity is not, in the general case, a better use of money than research.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Well, they are the second most intelligent animal on our planet....