Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101022/15570011550/dailydirt-animals-with-tools.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101022/15570011550/dailydirt-animals-with-tools.shtml

A captive cockatoo has been seen creating a tool spontaneously and improving upon its design. This behavior has not been observed in the wild (yet?), and it hasn't been replicated by other captive cockatoos. Still, it shows there's tool-building potential in these birds. [url]

Female chimps are usually the innovators in primate communities. The female chimps tend to leave their families when they mature... and the socializations and sharing create opportunities for starting new cultural trends -- like ant fishing with twigs or washing food before eating. [url]

Unfortunately, a mobile chat app for bonobos didn't get funded on Kickstarter. But this could still be a really cool zoo exhibit to get people communicating with apes. [url]

Forget sharks with lasers attached to their heads. The Ukrainian navy is training dolphins "to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads." Hmm. Arming dolphins doesn't seem necessary since they're already powerful enough to kill a person underwater... but maybe dolphins with guns will look more menacing to enemies. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101022/15570011550 Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090513/1026354871/dailydirt-talking-to-animals.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090513/1026354871/dailydirt-talking-to-animals.shtml Up that can translate what dogs are saying into perfect English. But the technology to create an animal translator could actually be on the way. Considering how well machines can translate between two different human languages, though, the goal of conversational translation seems a tad lofty. Here are just a few quick links on animal communication projects.

• A prototype device for two-way communication with dolphins is going to try to talk with wild dolphins near the Florida coastline. This project is also trying to co-develop a language with dolphins, instead of trying to force a human-made language upon our flippered friends. [url]
• Pet parrots released into the wild are apparently teaching other birds how to say some human expressions. And just like high school kids learning a foreign language, these birds have picked up a lot of swear words. [url]
• Chimps that were taught sign language have been observed teaching sign language to their young. Monkey see. Monkey do! [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090513/1026354871 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110614/23340614701/dailydirt-universal-translators-would-be-nice.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110614/23340614701/dailydirt-universal-translators-would-be-nice.shtml human languages. Here are some quick links on the topic of communication research.

• A database of metaphors from a wide variety of languages could help develop software that's better at understanding human language. Darmok and Jilad at Tanagra, Captain Picard! [url]
• Dolphins have been known to keep track of about a hundred different "words" -- and using some waterproof computers we might be able to decipher some dolphins talking. So long and thanks for all the fish... [url]
• SETI is betting that mathematics is the universal language to begin an alien-human conversation. 0101001000100001 or ELSE! [url]
• To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110614/23340614701 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110519/14404914345/dailydirt-weird-foods-that-are-also-natural-organic.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110519/14404914345/dailydirt-weird-foods-that-are-also-natural-organic.shtml

Coffee made from beans excreted by civets seems to be pretty popular. But the knock-off coffee made from chemically-digesting coffee beans (in lieu of the animal-digested beans) doesn't sound so bad, actually. [url]

How about some artificial-meat made out of protein... extracted from human feces? When they're extracting the protein, maybe they should also extract the undigested pharmaceuticals while they're at it. [url]

Eating marine mammals like dolphins might be a growing trend for poorer nations. Making dolphin hunting illegal, however, is probably not the right response. [url]

Eating dirt is called "geophagy" -- a practice that expectant mothers sometimes engage in. Yum! pfft! [url]

Speaking of mothers... A flavor of ice cream with a "yuck" factor twist: Baby Gaga ice cream is made from human breast milk. It's also probably the most expensive ice cream you've never wanted to taste. [url]

To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110519/14404914345 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110106/13272512551/dailydirt-drill-baby-drill.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110106/13272512551/dailydirt-drill-baby-drill.shtml

The full effect of the BP Oil Spill may not be known for about a decade...? It also took several years to determine the environmental effects of the Exxon Valdez spill, and there's a lot of oil on the seafloor even though the surface oil has dissipated. [url]

The Gulf's seafloor seems to be covered in "microbial spit" and oil -- a combination of bacterial slime that helps microbes digest the oil. This slime has also been described as an "invertebrate graveyard." [url]

Here's a map of the Gulf of Mexico and where all the active offshore oil well platforms are located. There are thousands of wells and about 43,000 miles of pipeline in the Gulf. [url]

Earlier this year, over 70 dead dolphins (including baby dolphins) washed up along the Gulf Coast. Autopsies might point to a cause, but it seems suspicious that the baby dolphins were conceived just before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.... [url]

As a nice gesture, BP has created a very pleasant (perhaps too pleasant?) photo gallery of the US beaches around the Gulf of Mexico. Interestingly, BP also includes some altered images in its gallery, for transparency sake. [url]

To discover more stuff on alternative energy, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

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