Another good theory shot to *****!

Are you one of those that believe only "humans" can think and learn and communicate?

Diana

Just not like humans

It's demonstrated on video -- guess you skipped that episode of Nova, eh? Or is this another case of "it doesn't fit with my worldview, so it must be wrong, and so is all evidence supporting it?"

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

and monkeys but didn't one of the two pilot the first spacecraft that our country launched? I've never seen the evidence that apes can learn sign language but I believe it to be true. If you can teach an ape or monkey or whatever the complex tasks necessary to pilot a spacecraft and return safely to Earth, then I would think that sign language would be even easier.

Of course, this is my own uneducated opinion on the matter, but if it is possible to teach one animal to communicate effectively with humans then to me it is not so much of a stretch that other animals might also be capable of communication on a level other than instinctual.

... when the apes (or monkeys or whatever) start teaching the humans, then I'll worry

Evie

Please! In that instance it involved sitting there and not dying. He (Ham the Chimp) did NOT "pilot a spacecraft and return safely to Earth" any more than your suitcase in the baggage compartment flies the airliner.

If ape could use sign languge to talk, they would, but they don't.

are garbage birds. They are so dirty, cats won't touch them. Many of them do sing very well. The only good thing about them is that they eat the grubs in your yard. They make good target practice too.

Years ago my wife and I watched in disgust as a bunch of them gathered around a pile of puke in the street in front of our house. I guess some neighbor couldn't make it all the way home from a party and heaved in front of our place. The starlings gobbled it right up while we watched them almost serving up a second helping. However, I must admit they did a thorough job. They were "clean platers".

Makes me feel like puking now.

Did not know starlings were like that. I know Crows and Sea Gulls are garbage birds, but starlings, hmmmm.

George

"One of the most egregious examples of introducing an exotic animal was perpetrated by one Eugene Scheiffer, a lover of the works of Shakespeare, who wanted to introduce all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays into the United States. He deliberately released eighty starlings into Central Park in New York City in 1890, and another forty in 1891."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduced_species

He released all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare including Nightingales, and other singing birds, of these I believe only the Starling and English Sparrow have survived. Both are winter tolerant. The Starling in Britain has a much more interesting song than in the US because of the other bird species there. They are born mimics, and there is a book of tunes for the pennywhistle or flageolet with which you can train your bird to sing specific tunes. Called The Bird Fanciers Delight, my copy is somewhere, but it contains tunes for the Nightingale and several for the Starling, about 20 different wild species in total. I wish the English Robin had survived, it's tiny, cute, fearlessly aggressive, utterly unlike the much bigger North American Robin which is more closely related to the English Blackbird which has a very similar call.

It is now possible to buy hedgehogs (usually of the African Pygmy variety, though they are only slightly smaller than the British variety) in pet stores, I wonder if one could find a source for English Robins?

Oh, and I have recognized myself in the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, apparently I am what is called a Maven, a self taught "expert" (not my choice of word) on everything and anything whose primary characteristic is that they cannot prevent themselves from sharing what they know with everyone within reach, and many beyond my reach. I used to be a Connector too, but depression has robbed me of that facility. And here I thought I was just annoying.

Rob

which is one of the reasons for the passing of the Passenger Pigeon. Rats with Wings.

http://www.sewanee.edu/biology/courses/Bio201/Introduced.html

Rob

I can't recall where, but there were problems with a non-native fish being introduced (by accident or otherwise) into a river. They ate the native ones.

When we lived in Texas, one could buy a special tool for digging up ''Johnson grass''. Like corn, that grew ''as high as an elephant's eye'', with a thick stalk.

''Timothy'' grass makes for beautiful lawns in Ireland, but is a pest here.

And folks wonder why they have to face the Agriculture agent when coming through customs!

Angeline (who knows enough to know she doesn't know much)
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email
semods4@yahoo.com

And zebra mussels which are such efficient feeders they suck up most of the nutrients in the water leaving the regular species at the bottom of the food chain with nothing to feed on and thus destroying the entire ecosystem. If you happen to step on a rock covered with them they'll cut your feet too. Not a nice thing.

Rob

He perceived linguistics as a branch of a general science of signs he proposed to call semiology (now generally known as semiotics). The science of language?.