Entries tagged with animal intelligence

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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

Centauri Dreams notes how gas giants on eccentric orbits can easily disrupt bodies on orbits inwards.

Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber suggests that the political culture of England has been deformed by the trauma experienced by young children of the elites at boarding schools.

Dangerous Minds looks at the haunting art of Paul Delvaux.

The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the work of Tressie McMillan Cottom in investigating for-profit higher education.

Far Outliers looks at Tripoli in 1801.

Gizmodo shares the Boeing design for the moon lander it proposes for NASA in 2024.

io9 shares words from cast of Terminator: Dark Fate about the importance of the Mexican-American frontier.

JSTOR Daily makes a case against killing spiders trapped in one's home.

Language Hat notes a recovered 17th century translation of a Dutch bible into the Austronesian language of Siraya, spoken in Taiwan.

Language Log looks at the origin of the word "brogue".

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the payday lender industry.

Marginal Revolution notes a new biography of Walter Raleigh, a maker of empire indeed.

The NYR Daily looks at a new dance show using the rhythms of the words of writer Robert Walser.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how, in a quantum universe, time and space could still be continuous not discrete.

Strange Company looks at a court case from 1910s Brooklyn, about a parrot that swore.

The Volokh Conspiracy notes an affirmative action court case in which it was ruled that someone from Gibraltar did not count as Hispanic.

Window on Eurasia notes rhetoric claiming that Russians are the largest divided people on the Earth.

Arnold Zwicky looks at lizards and at California's legendary Highway 101.

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[CAT] Five #caturday links: horror, returns, communications

At JSTOR Daily, Stephanie Larson looks at how and why cats have been used in horror films.

BBC reports on a black cat that was returned to its owners on Halloween six years after it disappeared.

Sarah Basford as Lifehacker AU explains what different cat vocalizations man.

Cats show love in many different ways. Non Pareil Online reports.

Stephen Dowling at BBC Future looks at the different mistakes we make that keep us from understanding the friendliness of cats.

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[BLOG] Some Sunday links

Adam Fish at anthro{dendum} shares a new take on the atmosphere, as a common good.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares a photo of Earth taken from a hundred million kilometres away by the OSIRIS-REx probe.

The Crux tells the story of how the first exoplanets were found.

D-Brief notes that life could be possible on a planet orbiting a supermassive black hole, assuming it could deal with the blueshifting.

io9 looks at the latest bold move of Archie Comics.

JSTOR Daily explores cleaning stations, where small fish clean larger ones.

Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the role China seeks to play in a remade international order.

The Map Room Blog looks at the new upcoming national atlas of Estonia.

Marginal Revolution touches on the great ambition of Louis XIV for a global empire.

Steve Baker of The Numerati shares photos from his recent trip to Spain.

Anya Schiffrin at the NRY Daily explains how American journalist Varian Fry helped her family, and others, escape the Nazis.

Drew Rowsome reviews the classic movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shares a map looking at the barriers put up by the high-income world to people moving from outside.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel answers the complex question of how, exactly, the density of a black hole can be measured.

John Scalzi at Whatever reviews Gemini Man. Was the high frame rate worth it?

Window on Eurasia notes the deep hostility of Tuvins towards a large Russian population in Tuva.

Arnold Zwicky considers the existential question of self-aware cartoon characters.

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[BLOG] Some Friday links

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes new research on where the sun is located within the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the value of slow fashion.

Centauri Dreams notes the different gas giants that our early methods have yet to pick up.

Crooked Timber shares a lovely photo looking back at Venice from across its lagoon.

D-Brief notes that upcoming space telescopes might find hundreds of rogue planets thanks to microlensing.

io9 notes that Marvel will soon be producing Warhammer40K comics.

The Island Review shares some poetry and photography by Ken Cockburn inspired by the Isle of Jura.

JSTOR Daily notes that different humpback whale groups have different songs, different cultures.

Language Hat tries to find the meaning of the odd Soviet Yiddish word "kolvirt".

Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the history of Elizabeth Warren as a law teacher.

Map Room Blog shares information from Google Maps about its use of data.

Marginal Revolution notes that in 2016, not a single child born in the United Kingdom was given the name Nigel.

Peter Watts talks about AI and what else he is doing.

The NYR Daily marked the centennial of a horrible massacre of African-Americans centered on the Arkansas community of Elaine.

Emily Margolis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at how the Apollo moon missions helped galvanize tourism in Florida.

Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the constitutional crisis in Peru.

Drew Rowsome takes a look at A Streetcar Named Desire.

Peter Rukavina looks at a spreadsheet revealing the distribution of PEI public servants.

Spacing reviews a book imagining how small communities can rebuild themselves in neoliberalism.

Towleroad shares the criticism of Christine and the Queens of the allegedly opportunistic use of queer culture by Taylor Swift.

Understanding Society considers, sociologically, the way artifacts work.

The Volokh Conspiracy argues that the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China should be a day of mourning, on account of the high human toll of the PRC.

Window on Eurasia suggests the Russian generation of the 1970s was too small to create lasting change.

Arnold Zwicky looks at how underwear ads can be quite sexualized.

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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.

Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.

D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.

Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.

Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.

Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)

JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.

Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.

Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.

Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.

Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people's language.

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[BLOG] Some Saturday links

Architectuul writes about the exciting possibility of using living organisms, like fungi, as custom-designed construction materials.

Bad Astronomy looks at first-generation stars, the first stars in the universe which exploded and scattered heavy elements into the wider universe.

Caitlin Kelly writes at the Broadside Blog, as an outsider and an observer, about the American fascination with guns.

The Toronto Public Library's Buzz lists some top memoirs.

Centauri Dreams considers the vexed issue of oxygen in the oceans of Europa. There may well not be enough oxygen to sustain complex life, though perhaps life imported from Earth might be able to thrive with suitable preparation.

The Crux looks at the well-established practice, not only among humans but other animals, of using natural substances as medicines.

D-Brief looks at the NASA Dart mission, which will try to deflect the tiny moon of asteroid Didymos in an effort to test asteroid-diversion techniques.

io9 reports George R.R. Martin's belief that Gandalf could beat Dumbledore. I can buy that, actually.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the local reactions to Woodstock.

Language Hat looks at the language in a 19th century short story by Nikolai Leskov, concerned with the difficulties of religious conversion for a people whose language does not encompass the concepts of Christianity.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a book review of his examining the Marshall mission to Nationalist China after the Second World War.

Marginal Revolution links to survey results suggesting that, contrary to the Brexit narratives, Britons have actually been getting happier over the past two decades.

The NYR Daily reports on an exhibition of the universe of transgressive writer Kathy Acker in London.

Drew Rowsome reviews the innovative new staging of the queer Canadian classic Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times.

Towleroad reports on the progress of Pete Buttigieg.

Window on Eurasia notes that Russia and Ukraine are becoming increasingly separated by their very different approaches to their shared Soviet past.

Arnold Zwicky looks at the latest evolutions of English.

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[CAT] Five #caturday links: adoption, sakura, Dwayne, Pouces, feline intelligence

blogTO reports that some of the 300 cats rescued from a hoarder's apartment here in Toronto are now available for adoption.

This r/toronto photo of a cat who came out to enjoy the cherry blossoms at Robarts Library is adorable.

These images and videos of Dwayne, a cat capable even of riding the TTC, are adorable. blogTO has them.

CBC Montreal reports on Pouces, a cat who rides with his trucker human Sean Litwack across the country.

David Grimm at Science Magazine writes about the pioneering work of Kristin Vitale in studying feline cognition. It turns out cats are much smarter, and more attuned to humans, than we might think.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five notes about smart animals: bees, wolves/dogs, cetaceans, Denisovans, Neanderthals

The Conversation notes how urban beekeepers can play a key role in saving bees from extinction.

Motherboard looks at the comparative intelligence, and generosity, of wolves versus their domesticated dog counterparts.

National Geographic looks at how marine mammals, particularly cetaceans, have been used in different militaries.

Smithsonian Magazine looks at how recent studies have demonstrated the diversity among Denisovan populations.

Smithsonian Magazine looks at the new consensus about the remarkable capabilities of Neanderthals.

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[BLOG] Some Friday links

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how the dinosaurs seem to have been killed off 65 million years ago by a combination of geological and astronomical catastrophes.

Centauri Dreams examines Kepler 1658b, a hot Jupiter in a close orbit around an old star.

The Crux reports on the continuing search for Planet Nine in the orbits of distant solar system objects.

D-Brief notes how researchers have begun to study the archaeological records of otters.

Cody Delistraty profiles author and journalist John Lanchester.

Far Outliers reports on the terrible violence between Hindus and Muslims preceding partition in Calcutta.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests the carnival of the online world, full of hidden work, is actually an unsatisfying false carnival.

Hornet Stories reports that São Paulo LGBTQ cultural centre and homeless shelter Casa 1 is facing closure thanks to cuts by the homophobic new government.

io9 reports on one fan's attempt to use machine learning to produce a HD version of Deep Space Nine.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the increasing trend, at least in the United States and the United Kingdom, to deport long-term residents lacking sufficiently secure residency rights.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the literally medieval epidemics raging among the homeless of California.

Marginal Revolution considers how the Book of Genesis can be read as a story of increasing technology driving improved living standards and economic growth.

The NYR Daily interviews Lénaïg Bredoux about #MeToo in France.

The Planetary Society Blog considers the subtle differences in colour between ice giants Uranus and Neptune, one greenish and the other a blue, and the causes of this difference.

The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle shares beautiful photos of ice on a stream as he talks about his creative process.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers what the universe was like back when the Earth was forming.

Window on Eurasia reports on a statement made by the government of Belarus that the survival of the Belarusian language is a guarantor of national security.

Arnold Zwicky was kind enough to share his handout for the semiotics gathering SemFest20.

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[NEWS] Five science links: Gulf of St. Lawrence, ocean uranium, chimpanzees, parrots, Lunar Gateway

The study of the changing environment of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence is explored in this article, over at Global News.

A new process for extracting uranium from seawater makes nuclear energy still more viable. Forbes has it.

A recent study of chimpanzee groups in central Africa has found evidence of regional variations in their material culture. Phys.org has it.

Opium poppy farmers in India are forced to defend their fields against parrots addicted to their crops. VICE reports.

CBC explores the Lunar Gateway project that Canada is newly involved in.

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[NEWS] Five science links: ancient humans, animal minds, green Asia, generation starships, SN1987A

Quanta Magazine notes that the deep learning offered by new artificial intelligences can help pick out traces of non-homo sapiens ancestry in our current gene pool.

This sensitive article in The Atlantic examines the extent to which consciousness and emotion are ubiquitous in the world of animals.

NASA notes evidence of the great greening of China and India, associated not only with agriculture in both countries but with the commitment of China to reforestation projects.

Mashable examines the fundamental brittleness of closed systems that will likely limit the classical generation starship.

SciTechDaily notes new observations of SN 1987A revealing a much greater prediction of dust than previously believed.

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[NEWS] Five links about smart animals: elephants, octopuses, gorillas, primates, termites

D-Brief notes that elephants seem to count the same way humans do.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the reasons why octopus mothers maintain such long, silent vigils over their eggs.

Happily, the mountain gorilla is now no longer a "critically endangered" species. CBC reports.

The Crux looks at how studies of communication among other primates can help solve the question of how language developed among humans.

D-Brief notes the determination that a collection of termite mounds dates back four thousand years, product of a sophisticated hive insect society.

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[BLOG] Some Friday links

Centauri Dreams reports on the work of the MASCOT rover on asteroid Ryugu.

The Crux considers the critical role of the dolphin in the thinking of early SETI enthusiasts.

D-Brief goes into more detail about the import of the Soyuz malfunction for the International Space Station.

Dangerous Minds notes an artist who has made classic pop song lyrics, like Blue Monday, into pulp paperback covers.

Earther is entirely correct about how humans will need to engage in geoengineering to keep the Earth habitable.

David Finger at The Finger Post describes his visit to Accra, capital of Ghana.

Gizmodo notes a new paper suggesting that, in some cases where massive moons orbit far from their parent planet, these moons can have their own moons.

Hornet Stories shares the first look at Ruby Rose at Batwoman.

JSTOR Daily looks at how the image of southern California and Los Angeles changed from a Mediterranean paradise with orange trees to a dystopic urban sprawl.

Lawyers, Guns and Money imagines what might have happened to the navy of China had it not bought the Ukrainian aircraft carrier Varyag.

Lingua Franca at the Chronicle reports on how the actual length of "minute", as euphemism for a short period of time, can vary between cultures.

The LRB Blog reports on the disaster in Sulawesi, noting particularly the vulnerability of colonial-era port settlements in Indonesia to earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Map Room Blog shares Itchy Feet's funny map of every European city.

The New APPS Blog wonders if the tensions of capitalism are responsible for the high rate of neurological health issues.

The NYR Daily considers what, exactly, it would take to abolish ICE.

At the Planetary Society Weblog, Ian Regan talks about how he assembled a photoanimated flyover of Titan using probe data.

Roads and Kingdoms explores some excellent pancakes in the Malaysian state of Sabah with unusual ingredients.

Drew Rowsome raves over a new documentary looking at the life of opera star Maria Callas.

Window on Eurasia notes the continued high rate of natural increase in Tajikistan.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the growing evidence for the detection of a Neptune-size exomoon, provisionally named Kepler-1625b I, as does Centauri Dreams, as does D-Brief.

D-Brief notes evidence that the songs of humpback whales last over generations.

JSTOR Daily considers the fascination of Mary Shelley with cemeteries.

Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, considers an important question: "different from", or "different than"?

The Map Room Blog shares maps of the earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, and the relief effort.

Drew Rowsome takes a look at a new documentary examining the famed Studio 54.

Daniel Little, at Understanding Society, considers (after others) the idea of emotions as neurophysical phenomena.

Window on Eurasia suggests that Turkey's recent efforts to become a power in Central Asia are being aided by the way its efforts mesh with China's.

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[CAT] Five cat links: Port Hope, napping, cats vs. rats, Persian leopards, Gornick and Lessing

The small Ontario town of Port Hope has a cat café now, the Toe Beans Cat Caf○, open six days a week and housing cats looking for new homes. Global News reports.

This story of a Wisconsin man, a senior citizen, who comes in to a cat shelter to play and nap with the cats, is adorable. Global News reports.

Sarah Zhang at The Atlantic notes a new study in New York City that has found that city's stray cats seem not to hunt adult rats. The rats are, simply, too big.

Erica Gies at The Crux describes the struggle to protect the Persian leopard of the Zagros Mountains, in the heart of divided Kurdistan.

Over at the NYR Daily, Vivian Gornick considers, in the light of the writings of Doris Lessing, her experiences living with cats. What sorts of beings are they? What do they think? How accurately do we observe them?

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[NEWS] Five science links: BC fires, urban animal intelligence, Oort clouds, stars, dark energy

The fires of British Columbia are so vast that their smoke is reaching the west of France. Ici Radio-Canada reports.

Are the unique challenges posed by modern cities making the animals who live in them smarter? The Atlantic examines the issue.

Universe Today notes that the Oort clouds of other stars may well be visible on microwave frequencies.

Universe Today reports on the very recent finding that star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy shut down for billions of years, that we are in the middle of a second wave of star formation.

Do not fear: There is at least one hypothetical strategy that an arbitrarily advanced future civilization could adopt to minimize the effect of dark energy on its exploration of the universe. Universe Today reports.

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[NEWS] Five links on non-humans: gorillas, orcas, elephants, crows, parrots

JSTOR Daily reported on the legacy of Koko the gorilla, on the insights she opened up into non-human minds.

The mourning demonstrated by this orca mother with her calf, and the grief that is implied, remains moving. CBC reports.

Julian Benoit at The Conversation writes about the import of DNA analyses on our understanding of the evolution of elephants.

French theme park Puy de Dome has recruited six crows to collect garbage from its grounds. Smithsonian Magazine reports.

D-Brief reports on findings that Native Americans in New Mexico may have been breeding parrots.

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[NEWS] Five science links: Homo sapiens and Neanderthal art, squirrel smarts, tree talk, SN 2016gkg

The suggestion that there is a relationship between the acoustics of particular caves and the art that early humans painted on those cave walls is fascinating. National Geographic reports.

The Neanderthals, archeologists working in Spain have determined, created art. The idea of a significant gap between their cognition and ours seems less and less likely. CBC reports.

It turns out that the grey squirrels of North America may be smarter than the red squirrels of Great Britain. This may explain much about the greys' success in the reds' homeland. National Geographic reports.

The idea of there being secret, easily overlooked, yet powerful communications networks connecting trees fascinates me. Vaster than empires and more slow, indeed. Quartz reports.

Back in 2016, through sheer luck and an excellent amateur model, Argentine amateur astronomer Victor Buso happened to catch supernova SN 2016gkg in NGC 613 from the very start of the visible explosion. Popular Science reports.

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[NEWS] Five links on life and intelligence both near and far: 'Oumuamua, ET, blue whales, orangutans

Craig Welch at National Geographic notes how scientists, by carefully decoding the songs of blue whales, are figuring out how they are leading their lives.

Sarah Gibbens at National Geographic notes a new study suggesting that, since 1999, hunting and environmental devastation has reduced the orangutan population of Borneo by almost half, by 150 thousand individuals. This sounds almost like genocide.

Universe Today notes evidence that 'Oumuamua had a very violent past.

Nadia Drake at National Geographic explores the recent study suggesting that, unless there were signs of menace, most people actually would react well to news of extraterrestrial life.

Vikram Zutshi at Open Democracy recently suggested that contact with extraterrestrial intelligence could be good for the Earth, might even help us save it. Certainly this civilization would have survived the Great Filter; certainly it's a corrective to lazy assumptions of automatic menace.

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[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: cometary disasters, ET malware, Kepler, bird language, Canadian rockets

Universe Today notes that, 12.8 thousand years ago, a disintegrating comet set a tenth of the Earth's surface area on fire.

Should messages from extraterrestrial civilizations be automatically deleted on reception, for fear of their malware? Universe Today reports.

14 different worlds detected by Kepler have been scanned for technological signatures of advanced civilizations. Universe Today reports.

Brandom Keim at National Geographic describes a fascinating study suggesting some birds--here, Japanese tits--have human-like rules for language and can picture in their mind's eye the subjects of their communication.

CBC asks the perfectly sensible question why Canada does not have any indigenous rocket program.