14.10.04

Obligatory Debate Thoughts

Kerry's handling of the environment question last time around may have been lame, but at least there was an environment question. This time, I figure if they could have gotten rid of all the tangenting into talking about foreign policy (hey guys, this was the domestic debate, remember?), there would have been room to squeeze in an exchange on, say, climate change.

This time around Bush seemed a bit exasperated -- he had a tone of "duh, don't you people understand?" He also seemed to be deliberately undermining the column I planned to write for the Scarlet next week (about how this campaign is being fought over competence rather than ideology). Out of nowhere he drops the "flip-flopper" charge, and starts trying to call Kerry a left-winger. There have been references to Kerry's liberalism all through the campaign, but it was never a major theme until tonight.

Technorati has inexplicably listed me as a conservative blog, so I guess I'll indulge in a little Kerry-bashing. Everybody's cheering Kerry's answer to the abortion question, since he gave the "I can't legislate my faith" line. But then -- trying to overcompensate for charges of insufficient religiosity -- he went and contradicted himself by saying that his faith motivates him to fight for other causes like reducing poverty. Why is it that religious beliefs about poverty are fair game for policymaking, but not religious beliefs about abortion? Overall Kerry seems unduly defensive -- worried about being painted as not religious enough, too pro-choice, willing to let the French overrule America. Bush, on the other hand, makes no bones about being very religious, very pro-life, and very unilateralist.
Stentor Danielson, 01:42, ,

12.10.04

Chimps Are Smarter Than You Think

Chimps Shown Using Not Just A Tool But A "Tool Kit" ... The new video cameras revealed chimps using one short stick to penetrate the aboveground mounds and then a "fishing probe" to extract the termites. For subterranean nests the chimps use their feet to force a larger "puncturing stick" into the earth, drilling holes into termite chambers, and then a separate fishing probe to harvest the insects. Often the chimps modified the fishing probe, pulling it through their teeth to fray the end like a paintbrush. The frayed edge was better for collecting the insects. ... The study reinforces the notion that tool use began long before humans walked the planet. Humans, chimps, and orangutans all used wood and bone tools, suggesting that tool use originated with a common ancestor more than 12 million years ago, Fuentes said.

I'm just generally fascinated with stories documenting instances of surprising intelligence among animals (though unfortunately a conflict between my wireless card and my sound card prevents me from watching the videos). The line marking humans off from animals gets blurrier every year. I wonder, though, about the assumption that commonalities in behavior can be chalked up to common heritage. Certainly humans and chimps share the genes that give us the capacity for complex tool use. But after reading about how the chimps interacted with the camera, I'm intrigued by the possibility that somewhere along the line, the chimps picked up some ideas from watching the local humans -- a cultural connection, rather than an inherited one.
Stentor Danielson, 18:27, ,

11.10.04

Light Posting

There's been a bunch of personal life turmoil going on that has made me less inclined to post much over the last few days. It may be another few days until I'm fully recovered from the less-than-ideal denouement and back up to full form here.
Stentor Danielson, 22:13, ,

10.10.04

Whomp Chop Whomp Chop

After all the creativity that attended Howard Dean's scream, I'm sorely disappointed that the internets have failed to produce a "need some wood" remix.
Stentor Danielson, 19:36, ,