Now there's a jumbo about to go Splat!

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It would be hard to imagine an uglier building that hadn't won a major architectural award.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Re chimps, and their understanding of mirrors.
Years ago (25?) a magician called Paul Daniels had a popular TV show in the UK. He once did a routine involving a couple of young chimps: I forget what the trick was, or why the chimps were there, but the trick involved a box with a mirrored base on the inside.
One of the chimps got a hold of the box, and peered inside it. Recoiled immediately. Looked back tentatively. Reached around the box and began to wave a hand back and forth through the region where its reflection should have been if it were another chimp. And then reached back to touch its own face.
The studio audience was laughing uproariously all the way through this performance, but I remember sitting at home with my mouth open: the chimp worked it out, right there under the studio lights, in about 10 seconds. It was a fascinating thing to see.

Grant Hutchison

That would have been surprising to see indeed.

Dolphins deserve to get in this pictrue, too.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

as for giraffes (water reflections) and cats (home mirrors), could it be that they have no fear of the reflected animal because they know that in those particular situations (what we call reflections) the "other" animal won't do anything, but don't recognize it as an image of themselve or even a non-real animal?

Or could it be that they know it's not a real animal but an effect, but don't recognize it as themselve? I assume that a giraffe who on a routine basis licks right through the reflection on the water surface to drink, would know the swimming giraffe ain't a real one. But that doesn't imply he MUST know it is himself he's seeing.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

What is the distinction between humans and other species? I have always interpreted self-awareness as one who contemplates their existance. Thus far, we seem to be the only species who ponders our value.

I was going to disagree and point out cats as a counter-example, but upon further reflection I've decided that cats don't ponder their value, they know they are the center of the universe.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

If cats are the center of the Universe, and we have multiple cats, the Multiverse is a fact?

Unless I see the same cat in different dimensions at the same time, in which case the Multiverse still would be a fact .

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Have you asked other species if they ponder their value?

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PW -- Plant Whisperer

[quote=Nicolas;857017]

It may be clear that good knowledge of the test subjects is necessary in order to make correct conclusions from experiment results . /QUOTE]

They also need to know something about the eyesight of the animal in question. Can all animals see an exact likeness of themselves in a mirror, or do their eyes interpret the image differently?

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"I am happy to report that once again the universe is doing just great, thank you, purring with perfection, ever-changing same as always. Light is still cruising along at 186,000 miles per second, and the expanding universe shows no signs of contracting. At this rate, it won't be long before they'll have to let the photon belt out another notch."
Swami Beyondananda's 2007 State of the Universe address

I don't think a cat or dog would be fooled for a minute into thinking its reflection is another animal. Because if it were, they would be able to smell it!

In fact, cats & dogs probably don't think people have higher intelligence because they're smell-blind.

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"I am happy to report that once again the universe is doing just great, thank you, purring with perfection, ever-changing same as always. Light is still cruising along at 186,000 miles per second, and the expanding universe shows no signs of contracting. At this rate, it won't be long before they'll have to let the photon belt out another notch."
Swami Beyondananda's 2007 State of the Universe address

well in some species it is evident that if they do ponder, they don't stop to ponder. They do it while they do their jobs.

Cats will recognize other cats outside windows or glass doors despite lack of smell, though they will generally react differently. I had a cat that was bothered by a mirror reflection initially, but became used to it. Did he really figure it out or just learn to ignore it? Who knows?

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

I don't think you own a cat?

Our cat was terrified of its mirror image at first, but isn't anymore (though still doesn't like it). I think she ignores it more or less. Our cat initially was absolutely terrified of a door strip (against the wind, often representing a long dog) that represented a row of cats but didn't look like real ones even from a million miles. I was amazed that the cat interpreted the abstraction of a row of cats as animals, that she recognized cats in them. It took her a while to accept the armada of unknown cats at the door .

She obviously couldn't smell any of those fake cats. Maybe she realizes now that she sees herself in the mirror. But I'm not too sure about that.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

The Girlfriends cat, which lives with us, will often react to sounds on TV. Dogs don't bother her, but she will look for other cats. One of the most unusual things i other languages. Spanish gets no response. German makes her very, very angry. We watched Hostel and in one scene a German man is doing bad things. The cat wasn't bothered by the music or sounds, but when the guy started speaking in German, the cat got agitated. By the time the scene was over, she had puffed up, hissed at the TV and ran into the bedroom. The other day, I was watcing Heroes. There was a segment with characters in India (I won't try and ID the language but if anyone wanted to put a name to it...). The cat looked at the TV whenever they spoke, but this time she seemed very curious about it. I think she may have gone over to the TV to ive it a snif if it didn't mean moving out of the patch of sunlight.

My Iguana seemed more calm if I played Beethoven than any other form of music. Not that anything else made it angry or anything, just that it would stop whatever it was doing and look at the sound if it was Beethoven. This even included me picking out the 9th (poorly) on a guitar.

Aminals is wierd

Edit to add: No one owns a cat. They serve them, and in some cases, co-habitate with them, but no one owns one.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

I pwn a cat, as she's very trendy

Anyway I never really notice our cats reacting on anything on TV.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Well, there are 3 cats living in our house, but I'm not sure who owns who.

However, none of these cats was too freaked out about the mirror. They looked at it for a moment and went around behind it. Seeing there was no cat there, they lost interest.

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"I am happy to report that once again the universe is doing just great, thank you, purring with perfection, ever-changing same as always. Light is still cruising along at 186,000 miles per second, and the expanding universe shows no signs of contracting. At this rate, it won't be long before they'll have to let the photon belt out another notch."
Swami Beyondananda's 2007 State of the Universe address

My cat seems to love it when I put music on! I think she is happy to be entertained. On the other hand, she growls like a dog when she hears police sirens. Trash trucks irritate her too.

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"I am happy to report that once again the universe is doing just great, thank you, purring with perfection, ever-changing same as always. Light is still cruising along at 186,000 miles per second, and the expanding universe shows no signs of contracting. At this rate, it won't be long before they'll have to let the photon belt out another notch."
Swami Beyondananda's 2007 State of the Universe address

Ours was. I guess our puss is a wuss.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

I had a dog once, that as my roomate sat in front of the mirror, putting on her face, the dog wound sit on her lap and admire her own face.

On a quick side note, the last few days before we put my grandmother in the nursing home with Alzheimer's, she would leave food next to the mirror thinking she was feeding her new friend. She would converse with her reflection as well.