I read yesterday's piece on this book just before going to bed. For some reason when I lay down I was in an unusually good mood. Something in the piece, perhaps that humans are naturally cooperative and that this can have both good and bad results, had for some reason raised my spirits. The thought of being murdered by marauding Germans or Japanese in the grip of excessive cooperation was almost soothing compared to the thought of being murdered by some random burglar.
Splendid amount of information Ed. I have been more interested in extinct creatures, evolution, and paleoclimatology over the past several months. Here are some sources I have been watching a lot of:
You're welcome. What amazed me in researching Earth's history was how many contingent events lead to our species emergence. One might almost call it a miracle.
'Octopuses in at least two aquariums have learned to turn off the lights by squirting jets of water at the bulbs when no-one is watching, and short-circuiting the power supply. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, this became so expensive that the octopus had to be released back into the wild.' wow!
Not really on topic but…it is surprising how many animals can mate and produce offspring when the parents are of different species (cos I thought that was the main definition of a species: animals that could reproduce with each other). Sometimes the animals don’t even look alike, such as, amazingly, lions and tigers - they don’t even live on the same continents, and yet a lion and a tiger can produce something called a liger!!
Reading these excerpts from Jonathan Leaf's book, I want to yell at him, "Get an editor!" Sentence fragments, comma splices, pronouns without clear antecedents ... gah! When a writer is sloppy about composition, it makes me wonder whether the writer is equally careless about factual accuracy.
As a boy in the 1970s I went with friends to a zoo, probably Windsor Safari Park, where there was an orca, then known as a killer whale, in a pool (obviously). There was also a subsurface window where you could look into the pool and see the whale swimming around. We of course joked around as we watched it through the glass, at which point it swam towards us and peered back at us. Cool, we thought, it wants to be our friend. Then it had its fun: it flipped its tail and created a wave which ran over the side of the pool and rained down on the hominids on the other side of the glass! Clever…
Your recurring point about other creatures, most notably other primates being much more anti-social than humans, is in my view one of the best points against misanthropes who always believe Humans Are the Real Monsters.
To the question of whether human nature is more "good" or "evil", for me one of the best points in favour of the "good" answer is how we are willing to take care of and show affection for other creatures less cognitively endowed than ourselves without expecting anything in return in terms of meat, milk, etc.
Amongst all the sturm und drang of the human world, the sheer majesty and mystery of our animal cohabitants of this planet amaze, amuse, and inspire. Thank you, Ed and Jonathan Leaf, for this reminder of our slightly peripheral place on this planet.
I think there may be some kind of law under which the more immoral it is to eat an animal, the more tasty it is. Which is why pigs (another highly intelligent animal not mentioned in the article) and octopuses are so delicious.
It’s been deleted, and now we will never know how wonderful it was. 🙁 But now THIS is the only poem in the comments: Girls go to college to get more knowledge/ Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. Tana!
Here's a video I watched recently of a man who successfully managed to train an Octopus to play a (simple, modified) piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWnQ7fYzwI
I read yesterday's piece on this book just before going to bed. For some reason when I lay down I was in an unusually good mood. Something in the piece, perhaps that humans are naturally cooperative and that this can have both good and bad results, had for some reason raised my spirits. The thought of being murdered by marauding Germans or Japanese in the grip of excessive cooperation was almost soothing compared to the thought of being murdered by some random burglar.
Splendid amount of information Ed. I have been more interested in extinct creatures, evolution, and paleoclimatology over the past several months. Here are some sources I have been watching a lot of:
https://m.youtube.com/@GEOGIRL/featured
https://m.youtube.com/@ExtinctZoo/featured
https://m.youtube.com/@eons/videos
thanks, Aidan!
You're welcome. What amazed me in researching Earth's history was how many contingent events lead to our species emergence. One might almost call it a miracle.
I wrote up the octopus at length here https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/Diaries/2017-04.html#07
'Octopuses in at least two aquariums have learned to turn off the lights by squirting jets of water at the bulbs when no-one is watching, and short-circuiting the power supply. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, this became so expensive that the octopus had to be released back into the wild.' wow!
Not really on topic but…it is surprising how many animals can mate and produce offspring when the parents are of different species (cos I thought that was the main definition of a species: animals that could reproduce with each other). Sometimes the animals don’t even look alike, such as, amazingly, lions and tigers - they don’t even live on the same continents, and yet a lion and a tiger can produce something called a liger!!
I wrote this poem some time ago:
The Octopus and the Pescatarians
Some friends of mine won’t eat meat,
They think it quite uncouth,
To kill a cow or sheep or pig,
Especially in its youth.
It’s not fair to butcher anything
That’s sporting hoofs or trotters,
And them that carry out such deeds
Are scoundrels, louts and rotters.
No sentient breed of ungulate
Will end up on their dish,
But it’s a different story
When it comes to nibbling fish:
For it seems that with the piscine
There’s some elasticity,
To the logic which seems based on
Cerebral capacity.
Now pigs are really clever,
Of that there’s is no doubt,
And they’ll snuffle up a truffle
With their finely tuned pink snout.
But cows look pretty dopey,
They just munch grass and poo,
As to sheep, well they seem better off
With carrots in a stew.
Now I don’t dispute the diet,
That the pescatarians eat,
It seems healthy, fine and wholesome
In the absence of red meat.
But I wonder if the fish-eaters
Might possibly discuss,
Their odd logic when it comes
To chewing rings of Octopus.
’cause I’m fond of Octopuses,
And they look so strange and weird,
Like some fifties science fiction film
Has suddenly appeared.
But their tentacled absurdity
Is nothing to compare,
To the brightest mollusc mindset:
Cephalopods do have flair.
They are far the wisest mollusc
You will bump into on Earth,
These lines only give an outline
Of their talent and their worth.
They’ve conceptual ability,
Spatial awareness too,
And you should keep your distance
If they’re wearing rings of blue.
They’ve a long- and short-term memory,
Find their way out of a maze,
Can change their shape, add camouflage,
There’s so much we should praise.
They can lose an arm which wriggles off
To fox attacking fools,
And to cap it all this genius
Can muck about with tools.
The chap who’s lying on your plate
May well have made a pen,
From a cuttlefish shell and a parrot fish beak,
It’s well within his ken.
Then he’s filled it with his own ink,
And scritched away all day,
In his Octopus’s Garden,
Writing verse like Thomas Gray.
Or perhaps he pens philosophy?
Jots down his abstract thoughts,
An invertebrate Spinoza,
Such a crime this comes to naught,
Simply poached in his sole medium
Of inky self-expression,
To dissolve inside your stomach:
I think you should learn this lesson.
The goat’s the better option
As their poetry is dire,
You can rest more easy
While they’re slowly roasting on a fire.
But if you don’t believe me
Here’s the sort of thing they write,
And I think you might agree
That they are really not that bright:
‘I am a goat, and not a stoat.
A stoat might bite you by the throat,
But a goat won’t.
But a goat can jump over a moat:
And stoats are useless at that.
So is a rat.’
So to pescatarians everywhere
I make a simple plea,
Don’t say ‘I’ll go for pulpo’
Just because it’s from the sea.
Leave the Octopus to think and write,
He’s better read than dead,
Do the watery world a favour:
Have the goat kebabs instead.
Reading these excerpts from Jonathan Leaf's book, I want to yell at him, "Get an editor!" Sentence fragments, comma splices, pronouns without clear antecedents ... gah! When a writer is sloppy about composition, it makes me wonder whether the writer is equally careless about factual accuracy.
CSLF discussed octopi last week:
https://marqueg68.substack.com/p/tsaf-the-algae-octopus
As a boy in the 1970s I went with friends to a zoo, probably Windsor Safari Park, where there was an orca, then known as a killer whale, in a pool (obviously). There was also a subsurface window where you could look into the pool and see the whale swimming around. We of course joked around as we watched it through the glass, at which point it swam towards us and peered back at us. Cool, we thought, it wants to be our friend. Then it had its fun: it flipped its tail and created a wave which ran over the side of the pool and rained down on the hominids on the other side of the glass! Clever…
Your recurring point about other creatures, most notably other primates being much more anti-social than humans, is in my view one of the best points against misanthropes who always believe Humans Are the Real Monsters.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreTheRealMonsters
To the question of whether human nature is more "good" or "evil", for me one of the best points in favour of the "good" answer is how we are willing to take care of and show affection for other creatures less cognitively endowed than ourselves without expecting anything in return in terms of meat, milk, etc.
Amongst all the sturm und drang of the human world, the sheer majesty and mystery of our animal cohabitants of this planet amaze, amuse, and inspire. Thank you, Ed and Jonathan Leaf, for this reminder of our slightly peripheral place on this planet.
These posts have left me charmed Ed. Where is the doom and gloom? Are you ok hun?
Don't worry, the doom and gloom will return asap!
I think there may be some kind of law under which the more immoral it is to eat an animal, the more tasty it is. Which is why pigs (another highly intelligent animal not mentioned in the article) and octopuses are so delicious.
I was sad to see snow leopards high on the list of animals that kill their own species. They are arguably the best extant mammal.
Good elephant photo, Ed. As a published photographer once said, they're so hard to photograph but incredible to see.
Thank you Brooklyn Beckham himself would have been proud of that one
Wonderful. I think this is the first poem I’ve even seen in the comments.
It’s been deleted, and now we will never know how wonderful it was. 🙁 But now THIS is the only poem in the comments: Girls go to college to get more knowledge/ Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. Tana!