Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Geekiest Animals in History

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the furry-pocket-protectors dept.

Flipper writes "CNET has compiled a list of the geekiest animals throughout history. The entries include such peculiar characters as Ham The Astrochimp (the first chimp in space), Schrödinger's Cat (used to demonstrate quantum superposition) and Hans, a horse who could apparently do complex mathematics and read words. The classics are there too, Pavlov's dogs get a well-deserved mention, as does Dolly The Sheep. What sounds like a pretty bizarre list is actually strangely interesting — some of these animals are seriously geeky."

10 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Where is Laika? by lecithin · · Score: 5, Informative

    She would have had my first vote.

    Stolen from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika

    Laika (from Russian meaning "Barker", as well as being a dog breed) was a Russian space dog that became the first living creature from Earth to enter orbit. She was found as a stray wandering the streets of Moscow. Originally named Kudryavka, she was renamed Laika after her breed type. After undergoing training with two other dogs, she was selected to be the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 and was launched into space on November 3, 1957.

    Laika died a few hours after launch from stress and overheating, likely due to a malfunction in the thermal control system. The true cause of her death was not made public until decades after the flight. Some former Soviet scientists have since expressed regret that Laika was allowed to die.

    (more in article)

    --
    It could be worse, it could be Monday.
  2. Tux? by businessnerd · · Score: 4, Informative

    I mean I know he's not a real penguin, but a hypothetical cat got on the list. Every linux user (which is some form of geek, myself included) has a special place in his or her (mostly his) heart for that happy little penguin.

    --
    "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
    1. Re:Tux? by MustardMan · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm glad someone said it! Shrodinger's cat is an analogy to describe the "collapse of the wavefunction" principle, and not heisenberg uncertainty. It's not that you don't know which state the cat is in - it's that it is in both states until it's observed. I'm sure you knew this already, and hence the clever comment - but it's worth explaining for those who constantly misuse the analogy.

  3. K-9 is somewhat lame, but the list gets kudos... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    For being a top ten list with one fucking page view. Thanks for that.

  4. Schrödinger's Cat is DEAD! by Bake · · Score: 2, Informative

    Poor cat. Being left alone in a box without air or water or food for all that time.

    Even if the cat had plenty of food in that damn box it would have died of old age a looong time ago.

  5. Re:Remember humans are animals too by spun · · Score: 2, Informative

    Christ, is it that hard to discern from context when "animal" means "Heterotrophic eukaryote" and when it means "Heterotrophic eukaryote that isn't human?" You are deliberately blurring the meanings when it should be perfectly clear.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  6. Just so you know. by CODiNE · · Score: 2, Informative
    Koko's dialog all goes through her owner for editing first. All the gibberish is removed until something sorta kinda interpretable is left. Often the interpretatons require huge mental leaps. I've met a couple deaf people who've seen Koko at a zoo and they all said she just signs random words all the time. Yeah, yeah, they're not animal behaviorist experts or whatever, but check out the AOL chat transcript with Koko sometime... It's full of wild wishful thinking by her owner who will stop at nothing to make sense of random signs and movements.

    One of my favorite parts:
    Question: Do you like to chat with other people?
    HaloMyBaby: That was from Rulucky!
    LiveKOKO: fine nipple
    DrPPatrsn: Nipple rhymes with people, she doesn't sign people per se, she was trying to do a "sounds like..."

    Yeah, I'm really sure Koko was trying to say the word "people" by signing "nipple" which sounds just like it! Fun read.
    --
    Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
  7. What do you call an exploding monkey? by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

    a BaBOOM!

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. Re:Not a chance by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hans was not able to do complex math or read. Has anyone ever heard of the clever hans effect?

  9. Re:KoKo the gorilla and lawsuits? by funkify · · Score: 2, Informative

    The sexual harassment problem wasn't caused by Koko, but rather Koko's trainer. You see, Koko was first exposed to human breasts by the trainer. As could be predicted, Koko developed a boobie fetish and demanded to see boobs. Now, when a gorilla demands to see your boobs what do you do? But anyway, as the litigation goes, the trainer allegedly coerced the other female trainers to show Koko their boobs, too.

    IIRC, Koko is a female herself.