Slashdot Mirror
Singing Dolphins Do Batman
The results of two scientific studies have shown that dolphins are capable of recognizing rhythms and pitch and are able to reproduce them. In order to best demonstrate this ability the scientists chose the epic, Batman theme song and were able to teach a shortened version to the dolphins who reproduced it in response to certain stimuli.
let me know when they can do "free bird."
insert inflammatory anti-microsoft comment here
Ugh... the blurb is woefully incorrect. The dolphins didn't sing, and they certaintly didn't sing the Batman themesong. They were trained to respond to the rhythm of one long beat, followed by one short beat. It's quite a stretch to equate this to the old "Batmaaaannn!" catchphrase, much less the song. Perhaps the dolphins are instead brushing up on Morse code in preparation for a DX contest?
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
Birds do this too, and elephants, and probable many other animals that you might want to kill time by studying scientifically.
There's some bloody bird outside my bedroom window that has a natural ability to memorize the latest ringtone on my mobile phone whenever I change it. 6am in the morning I jump out of bed thinking my phone is ringing (I'm waiting on some important calls)
Reminds me of this poem
I woke early one morning,
The earth lay cool and still
When suddenly a tiny bird
Perch on my window sill,
He sang a song so lovely
So carefree and so gay,
That slowly all my troubles
Began to slip away.
He sang of far off places
Of laughter and of fun,
It seemed his very trilling,
brought up the morning sun.
I stirred beneath the covers
Crept slowly out of bed,
And gently lowered the window
And crushed his little head.
I am not a morning person
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
What a man in a batsuit and a sea creature do together is their business and they can tape it and post it on the internet if they want to
... assuming flipper has a sense of humour he'll also laugh his head off as the swimmers run screaming up the shore.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Screw that! you know the next step is to hook these dolphins up to sentry robots armed with machine guns. Yeah, who's laughing now, sharks with frickin laser beams strapped to their heads?
Push Button, Receive Bacon
They are pretty damn smart.
:)
I've worked with them, and have good friends that have worked with them more than I have.
A couple of 'cool' facts:
When you meet someone for the first time, you shake their hand and look them in the eye, right?
Dolpins 'beam' you with their 'sonar'. They tend to think that people with an implant (pacemaker), screws or pins (from surgery), etc. are 'cooler' because they are different from most humans they meet.
They can tell if a woman is pregnant, often before she knows herself, and they understand what it means. One friend of mind works with some 'wild' dolphins in the Florida keys. Every once in awhile they'll get a new researcher (female) and a lot of the female dolphins will be very gentle near her, and rub her belly with their noses (i.e. being very affectionate). The 'old hands' from the research team will always tell the new lady that she's pregnant. New lady will always say 'no way'. The dolphins are invariably correct.
'FYI'.
Repeat a few tunes from Batman? ha!
The Lyrebird of Australia is practically a living tape recorder (<= google video)
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
I also hear of marriages to snakes and dogs.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Meh!
Let me know when they can do the JAWS theme.
Imagine swimming in Florida waters and just hearing the JAWS theme with fins approaching you...
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky