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Stories filed under: "elephants"
DailyDirt: Animals Behave Like People Sometimes
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Animal behavior is getting more and more attention as researchers discover that our animal friends exhibit emotional responses seemingly similar to ours. It’s hard to “prove” animals experience complex emotions or thoughts (in fact, you never prove anything in science… you can only disprove things), but mounting evidence seems to suggest that many animals have reactions that we might predict based on our own psychological knowledge. Here are just a few interesting studies on animals acting like us somehow.
- Do animals worry like we do? Elephants have been observed to suffer symptoms similar to PTSD after traumatic experiences. Traumatized chimpanzees also appear to have mood and anxiety disorders, and various pet owners have reported anecdotal evidence of domestic animals with separation anxiety and other fears. [url]
- Dog owners probably don’t think scientists needed to perform an experiment to determine if dogs feel jealousy, but now there’s published evidence for this canine emotion. Not all of the dogs in the study showed signs of jealousy, but a majority did. Anyone want to try this experiment with cats? [url]
- There’s actually a “mouse grimace scale” that measures several features such as ear and whisker positions and eye squinting to estimate a distress level for a lab mouse. Researchers have discovered that lab mice react differently to pain, depending on whether men or women are present during a grimace measurement. When men are around, mice seem to suppress their distress. (But it should be noted that it’s not just men causing this effect. Items of fabric that have the residual scent of men or male animals also produce similar results.) [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: animals, behavior, chimpanzees, dogs, elephants, emotions, mice, pets, psychology, ptsd
DailyDirt: Drinking The Most Expensive Coffee
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Some people really like to drink coffee and are willing to pay nearly any price to do so. There are probably cheaper ways to get caffeine into your system, but if you like the taste of coffee, you might want to try some exotic procedures that are meant to make the coffee drinking experience just so much better. Here are a few links on some cups of coffee you might want to try if you have the money.
- You’ve probably heard of the civet-poop coffee (aka Kopi Luwak) which is supposedly really good. But why not try a similar coffee from an elephant? Black Ivory Coffee isn’t really that expensive. A pack that brews about 30 cups of coffee only costs about $275 (without shipping and handling). [url]
- The ISSpresso machine is how astronauts get coffee (that isn’t instant coffee) on the International Space Station (ISS). The cost of getting a ticket to ride on the ISS is the hefty part. [url]
- Starbucks coffee is significantly more expensive in China. Chinese customers are simply willing to pay more for a cup of joe because it’s a luxury (and transportation costs are a bit high, though not ISS high), but the market for over-priced coffee might be drying up. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: astronaut coffee, beverages, black ivory coffee, caffeine, coffee, elephants, food, isspresso, kopi luwak
Companies: starbucks
DailyDirt: Biodiversity Makes Life More Interesting
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The 1996 movie Bio-Dome made fun of ridiculously fruitless attempts to create an artificial biosphere, but the concept of designing a man-made biosphere is still pretty interesting (but it’s just really, really hard to do, if you wanna make one that can sustainably support humans, indefinitely). And we’re going to have to create one some day, it’s just a matter of time — measured in centuries, perhaps. Here are some interesting links on the biodiversity we’re all currently enjoying.
- How much money would it take to identify all the animal species on Earth? Let’s ask Mr. Owl. He’ll say, “Three” — but another estimate puts it closer to $263 billion. [url]
- NYU researchers have found a fish species in the Hudson River that’s apparently evolved to be immune to PCBs. Previously, other scientists found a worm that adapted to pollution in the Hudson by becoming immune to cadmium. [url]
- Berkeley scientists are looking into the possibility of a mass extinction of animals, estimating Earth’s sixth mass extinction could happen in 3-22 centuries. And we’ll be fossil fuels for the hyper-intelligent lizards a few hundred centuries after that. [url]
- Maybe super-smart elephants will help us save the planet. Elephants have just proven that they can work together, so… [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.
Filed Under: biosphere, elephants, hudson river, mass extinction