You're still making the error of thinking that "species" are *things*. There's no magical thing called speciation where an organism is the same as another before speciation but different after it.
What we call species is just a fairly arbitrary line drawn horizontally (time="now") on a phylogenetic tree. All we can do, is argue for some operational definition (like I did in my post above), or point out that there's some non-trivial genetic change along the lineage (again, as I did above).
First of all - it really depends on what you mean by "species", which is still an area of considerable research and debate. Most whole-organism biologists take Mayr's definition of species, where a species is a population of interbreeding individuals.
Under this definition, as long as there's some reproductively isolating mechanism that stops two populations of individuals breeding, then it's a new species. We have LOTS of evidence of this - most of the cereals and fruits you eat fall into this category (e.g. rice, and many domesticated species.
Regardless of the definition of speciation, we can (& have) tested mechanisms of speciation using phylogenetic methods. By modelling genetic evolution we can date speciation events and correlate them with other factors (e.g. change in body size, change in dominant mode of life, etc).
In short - we have DAMN good evidence of speciation occuring.
Yep, that's the way I do it - only use the guns for cameras or the egg pods. I ramp up strength and agility and use the wrench, followed by the laser rapier. Once you get in close enough, a couple of hits will take out most monsters.
My SS2-overflow-into-real-life story: I'd spent a hard day/night slogging away at System Shock 2, and had just been doing the level with all the metal mothers on it. You know that noise when they die - the metallic BABIES-NEED-THEIR-MOTHERS-WHIRRR-GARGLE sound...?
It was about 2 am, and I was a little *too edgy* to continue playing, and far too wired to sleep, so I turned on the TV and stuck in some video to calm down to. I must have dozed off, and when the player hit the end of tape, and kicked into auto-rewind.... and made a sound just like WHIRRR-GARGLE. Before I knew what I was doing, I was *under* the couch with my heart pounding.
I soon realised what had happened, and felt really damn stupid, but I have to admit that slept (or tried to..) with the lights on that night:)
How's this - here's a video of a New Caledonian Crow (the ones that are the topic of this article), where Gypsy performs a meta-tool task, the very first time she sees it.
I'd argue that these crows are definitely showing some form of reasoning here.
Disclaimer: I am associated with that research group.
This species (C. moneduloides) doesn't just "use twigs". They make and use a number of tools. For one, they tear off a strip of Pandanus leaf which is barbed on one side and use the hooks to fish grubs out of logs. To do this, they have to cut it out in a fairly precise pattern which has a number of steps on one side to taper it down to a point (maximises flexibility, minimises weight).
Another type of tool involves them chopping a j-shaped twig off a branch and shaping the j into a fish-hook like tool. You can see it in this video by a friend of mine, Gavin Hunt.
This is generally far more impressive than what chimps can do - they're known to use sticks, but they don't *really* shape tools beyond one level of change.
Oops, it might help to have the website of the people doing the arse-cam work: Alex Kacelnik's lab, which has some more info about why these crows are cool.
The reason for these cameras is to film the New Caledonian Crow. People are very interested in it, because it makes a number of fairly complex tools from twigs/plants to extract grubs from logs. This type of tool use is actually more impressive than what chimps can do, and appear to be showing some form of cumulative cultural evolution.
You can see some more info at the Auckland Crow Group webpage, and I wrote a blog post on some recently published work showing the crows successfully doing a meta-tool task (i.e. using a tool, to get a tool, to get food) here.
So, the whole point of this arse-cam, is so that we can watch them make tools, use them, and see what else they get up to.
Disclaimer: I work in the same lab with a number of the Auckland crow group and am very good friends with them.
It looks like this "article" was written in about 5 minutes and would probably get a C in your average sixth-grade English class if judged for intellectual content.
Part of reporting the news involves reporting *why* people should be interested in the news. Any good story about net neutrality would tell the reader/viewer why it was such an important issue to show them why they should give a damn.
There's a fairly well known anecdote about Jane Goodall going to see a chimp lab somewhere. She was shown around and told "look, all the chimps here are smiling! the must be happy!". She apparently fled in tears - chimps don't smile, they only pull their lips back like that when they're terrified.
This is probably a scientific urban legend, but the point is that you cannot recognise fear/pain/suffering just by what a human would do.
One thing I forgot to mention in the overview is that we should keep in mind that Wiley & Sons are part of the "American Association of Publishers" who have deliberately attacked the open access publishing movement, and have hired PR stooge Eric Dezenhall to help them. Slashdot discussion on that here.
In short - I wouldn't trust them as far as I could spit them.
But the blogospherewebtwopointoh cannot leverage existing technologies! That would be agsinst the principle of long-tailedness! What this needs is some AJAX map projection system preferably built in Ruby on Rails with some sweeeeet 2.0 domain name like map.aumatic.us.
From memory (I'm not religious, so don't take my word for it), but the whole point of the Christian religion is that people have fallen, and needed to be shown the error of their ways.
Also keep in mind, the "morality" that these studies are uncovering is not "the ten commandments", but more along the lines of how many people is it ok to kill in certain circumstances. There's a good introduction by Carl Zimmer here
Slashdot Mirror
Let me guess, the blog only gets updated on the second tuesday of every month?
um.. yes.
You're still making the error of thinking that "species" are *things*. There's no magical thing called speciation where an organism is the same as another before speciation but different after it.
What we call species is just a fairly arbitrary line drawn horizontally (time="now") on a phylogenetic tree. All we can do, is argue for some operational definition (like I did in my post above), or point out that there's some non-trivial genetic change along the lineage (again, as I did above).
Wow & here I thought that essentialism was dead.
First of all - it really depends on what you mean by "species", which is still an area of considerable research and debate. Most whole-organism biologists take Mayr's definition of species, where a species is a population of interbreeding individuals.
Under this definition, as long as there's some reproductively isolating mechanism that stops two populations of individuals breeding, then it's a new species. We have LOTS of evidence of this - most of the cereals and fruits you eat fall into this category (e.g. rice, and many domesticated species.
Regardless of the definition of speciation, we can (& have) tested mechanisms of speciation using phylogenetic methods. By modelling genetic evolution we can date speciation events and correlate them with other factors (e.g. change in body size, change in dominant mode of life, etc).
In short - we have DAMN good evidence of speciation occuring.
Yep, that's the way I do it - only use the guns for cameras or the egg pods. I ramp up strength and agility and use the wrench, followed by the laser rapier. Once you get in close enough, a couple of hits will take out most monsters.
My SS2-overflow-into-real-life story: I'd spent a hard day/night slogging away at System Shock 2, and had just been doing the level with all the metal mothers on it. You know that noise when they die - the metallic BABIES-NEED-THEIR-MOTHERS-WHIRRR-GARGLE sound...?
:)
It was about 2 am, and I was a little *too edgy* to continue playing, and far too wired to sleep, so I turned on the TV and stuck in some video to calm down to. I must have dozed off, and when the player hit the end of tape, and kicked into auto-rewind.... and made a sound just like WHIRRR-GARGLE. Before I knew what I was doing, I was *under* the couch with my heart pounding.
I soon realised what had happened, and felt really damn stupid, but I have to admit that slept (or tried to..) with the lights on that night
Great game.
How's this - here's a video of a New Caledonian Crow (the ones that are the topic of this article), where Gypsy performs a meta-tool task, the very first time she sees it.
I'd argue that these crows are definitely showing some form of reasoning here.
Disclaimer: I am associated with that research group.
--Simon
This species (C. moneduloides) doesn't just "use twigs". They make and use a number of tools. For one, they tear off a strip of Pandanus leaf which is barbed on one side and use the hooks to fish grubs out of logs. To do this, they have to cut it out in a fairly precise pattern which has a number of steps on one side to taper it down to a point (maximises flexibility, minimises weight).
Another type of tool involves them chopping a j-shaped twig off a branch and shaping the j into a fish-hook like tool. You can see it in this video by a friend of mine, Gavin Hunt.
This is generally far more impressive than what chimps can do - they're known to use sticks, but they don't *really* shape tools beyond one level of change.
You can see some of the research onto them here.
--Simon
Oops, it might help to have the website of the people doing the arse-cam work: Alex Kacelnik's lab, which has some more info about why these crows are cool.
--Simon
The reason for these cameras is to film the New Caledonian Crow. People are very interested in it, because it makes a number of fairly complex tools from twigs/plants to extract grubs from logs. This type of tool use is actually more impressive than what chimps can do, and appear to be showing some form of cumulative cultural evolution.
You can see some more info at the Auckland Crow Group webpage, and I wrote a blog post on some recently published work showing the crows successfully doing a meta-tool task (i.e. using a tool, to get a tool, to get food) here.
So, the whole point of this arse-cam, is so that we can watch them make tools, use them, and see what else they get up to.
Disclaimer: I work in the same lab with a number of the Auckland crow group and am very good friends with them.
I think every single person here expected that damn Spanish inquisition quote as soon as they saw "expecting" in the parent post.
/. that used the term "expecting" and was not followed by 3 or 4 Spanish inquisition quotes?
Seriously - has there ever been a post on
oh no - it's going to have Ajax and a drop shadow!
Well, at least he hasn't threatened to make us his bitches, yet.
Welcome to the blogosphere!
oh, we have. It just takes a few million years.
Spending all your modpoints reversing completely insane moderating decisions: Valid use of time.
Posting in the thread afterwards and reversing all that work: priceless.
Part of reporting the news involves reporting *why* people should be interested in the news. Any good story about net neutrality would tell the reader/viewer why it was such an important issue to show them why they should give a damn.
So you got that job as janitor, after all?
There's a fairly well known anecdote about Jane Goodall going to see a chimp lab somewhere. She was shown around and told "look, all the chimps here are smiling! the must be happy!". She apparently fled in tears - chimps don't smile, they only pull their lips back like that when they're terrified.
This is probably a scientific urban legend, but the point is that you cannot recognise fear/pain/suffering just by what a human would do.
Are there any open source remakes of Fallout, or something that's similar? I'm up for a new RPG but sick of goblins and wizards.
One thing I forgot to mention in the overview is that we should keep in mind that Wiley & Sons are part of the "American Association of Publishers" who have deliberately attacked the open access publishing movement, and have hired PR stooge Eric Dezenhall to help them. Slashdot discussion on that here.
In short - I wouldn't trust them as far as I could spit them.
But the blogospherewebtwopointoh cannot leverage existing technologies! That would be agsinst the principle of long-tailedness! What this needs is some AJAX map projection system preferably built in Ruby on Rails with some sweeeeet 2.0 domain name like map.aumatic.us.
"a herf equals hit-ti-p..."
Debian, is that you?
(sorry, I love you guys, really!)
From memory (I'm not religious, so don't take my word for it), but the whole point of the Christian religion is that people have fallen, and needed to be shown the error of their ways.
Also keep in mind, the "morality" that these studies are uncovering is not "the ten commandments", but more along the lines of how many people is it ok to kill in certain circumstances. There's a good introduction by Carl Zimmer here
"Check the dictionary. Love isn't just a noun, it's a verb. Too many people seem to lose touch with how deep the meaning of love can be."
Do people often check the dictionary before falling in love? I certainly don't. What a word is defined is has no effect on what people experience