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Parrots Can Dance
juuri sends in an NPR article about the consensus created among scientists that some birds actually dance to music. "The results of this study are reported in the journal Current Biology, along with another scientific paper inspired by YouTube videos of dancing animals. Adena Schachner is a graduate student in the psychology department of Harvard University. She says she was familiar with the idea that some people had made videos of birds supposedly dancing. ... She and her colleagues eventually analyzed more than 5,000 videos. 'Imagine watching YouTube eight hours a day for a month,' she says. 'That's pretty much what we did. It was amusing for perhaps the first couple of hours.'" juuri adds, "While this makes them somewhat unique in the animal world, as only three animals are now known to dance by verifiable proofs, what struck me more was that this was the first time YouTube had helped forge a new scientific understanding. Given the explosive growth of uploading videos and people watching them, what other new understandings and popular misconceptions will be proven or disproved due to this emerging media?"
It took their watching thousands of videos to discover that yeah, parrots can indeed dance?
That reminds me of an extensive study of canine behavior where it was discovered that yes, dogs can and do laugh. The thing is, dog owners could have probably told you that hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Anyone who is halfway observant and who has played with a dog probably figured that out without an expensive study.
What's next: an expensive study to determine whether or not mccaws and african greys can associate words with concepts?
I have a better one: I'd like to see a government-funded study to determine whether or not rain is actually composed of water, and if so, is it actually wet. Until a study is done which is either wholly or partially funded by federal funds. I shall believe that rain is in fact not wet.