October 7, 2008 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Animal, Caption Monkey
Hooray (and a barrel of simians!) - it’s time for this week’s Neatorama and Hobotopia’s Caption Monkey game. But first, the story of the wheelbarrowful of orangutans. From the Daily Mail:
Orphaned by Man’s folly, [the orangutans] are unable to rely on their parents to teach them the ways of the animal world. So every day at the rescue centre which is their home, they are wheeled into the forest to learn.
Link (with loads of baby cute orangutan photos!)
Okay, onto the game: funniest caption will win an original Laugh-Out-Loud Cat comic by Adam "Ape Lad" Koford. One caption per comment, please. You can enter as many funny ones you can think of.
Oh, don’t forget to check out Adam’s blog for inspiration. Good luck!
Original post by Alex
October 7, 2008 at 2:15 pm · Filed under Smart Tech, Vegetation, Sentient Tech, Biota, Keio University
Midori-san, the blogging houseplant, at bowls Donburi Cafe in Kamakura
If houseplants could blog, what would they say? To find out, Kamakura-based IT company KAYAC Co., Ltd. has developed a sophisticated botanical interface system that lets plants post their thoughts online. A succulent Sweetheart Hoya (Hoya kerii) named “Midori-san” is now using the system to blog daily from its home at bowls Donburi Cafe in Kamakura.
The plant interface system, which is built around technology developed by Satoshi Kuribayashi at the Keio University Hiroya Tanaka Laboratory, uses surface potential sensors to read the weak bioelectric current flowing across the surface of the leaves. This natural current fluctuates in response to changes in the immediate environment, such as temperature, humidity, vibration, electromagnetic waves and nearby human activity. A specially developed algorithm translates this data into Japanese sentences, which are used as fodder for the plant’s daily blog posts.
Diagram of plant interface system
Midori-san […]
Original post by Edo
October 7, 2008 at 11:20 am · Filed under Evolution
I’ve already the covered Steven-Jones-evolution-is-ending story at my other weblog. I notice that John Wilkins has also objected to Jones’ exaggerations. When I initially read the quotes from Jones in The Times I was alarmed, but wondered if his position was being taken out of context or misinterpreted. I emailed a prominent evolutionary biologist who I suspected would know Jones well enough to clarify this issue. My correspondent responded that Jones really does believe this, and he finds Jones’ ideas as ludicrous as I do (adding for good measure he doesn’t get the sense that Jones has a really good grasp of population genetics).
Since the quotations in The Times were rather spare, and the comments somewhat inchoate I didn’t really air many of my criticisms in my other post. So below are some extended thoughts….
Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…
Original post by Razib none@example.com
October 7, 2008 at 11:20 am · Filed under Evolution
I’ve already the covered Steven-Jones-evolution-is-ending story at my other weblog. I notice that John Wilkins has also objected to Jones’ exaggerations. When I initially read the quotes from Jones in The Times I was alarmed, but wondered if his position was being taken out of context or misinterpreted. I emailed a prominent evolutionary biologist who I suspected would know Jones well enough to clarify this issue. My correspondent responded that Jones really does believe this, and he finds Jones’ ideas as ludicrous as I do (adding for good measure he doesn’t get the sense that Jones has a really good grasp of population genetics).
Since the quotations in The Times were rather spare, and the comments somewhat inchoate I didn’t really air many of my criticisms in my other post. So below are some extended thoughts….
Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…
Original post by Razib none@example.com
October 7, 2008 at 7:29 am · Filed under Car & Vehicle
People see faces when they look at the fronts of cars. What they see can influence what they buy. A consulting group arranged a research study to find out what personality traits cars appear to have, and which ones people would prefer on the car they drive.
Study participants assessed cars based on a system known as geometric morphometrics (GM), which allowed the men and women to rate certain traits on a sliding scale (such as “infancy” to “adulthood”). The traits represented maturity, sex, attitudes, emotions, and personality — all things that people infer from human faces at a single glance.
After rating car traits, participants then answered the question of whether they saw a human face, animal face or no face at all on the cars. They drew facial features such as eyes, nose and mouth on the car images whenever they did see faces.
Lastly, the study participants answered whether […]
Original post by Miss Cellania
October 7, 2008 at 7:27 am · Filed under Video Clips, Music
(YouTube link)
Oh yeah, Take on Me by the Norwegian group a-ha, a big song in 1985. But wait… this song has been altered to match the video! That makes it worth a listen, doesn’t it? -via YesButNoButYes
Original post by Miss Cellania
October 7, 2008 at 7:25 am · Filed under Art & Craft
Jeffrey Augustine made this mixed media artwork called Dream Captcha -a play on Native American dream catchers and the captcha process. Hang one of these above your computer and it will sleep without nightmares! Link -Thanks, Jeffrey!
Original post by Miss Cellania
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