Keeper Phil Ridges explains how Emmie the gorilla responds to being tickled
Thought it was just humans that are ticklish? Think again - scientists are studying how animals respond to being tickled in a bid to shed light on how laughter evolved.
Tickling a gorilla is not for the faint-hearted. But keeper Phil Ridges is not worried at getting into the enclosure with Emmie at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent.
The gorilla, now 19, was hand-reared, and Phil has been her keeper for most of her life.
He says she has a tendency to be "a little bit frosty", but if she is in the mood, she cannot resist a chortle when she is tickled.
"I've worked with gorillas for a long time, and I've often seen gorillas tickling each other, so it is a nice feeling when they have accepted you enough and they don't mind you tickling them," he says.
But it is Emmie's response that has intrigued scientist Marina Davila-Ross from the University of Portsmouth, because the gorilla's reaction sounds a lot like human laughter.
Dr Davila-Ross says: "I was amazed about the way apes responded to being tickled - the apes seem to behave in the same way humans and children behave when they are being tickled."
Friday, December 30, 2011
Scientists tickle animals to find laughter clues
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Ben Breedlove
Ben Breedlove was an Austin teenager who had a popular YouTube channel
("OurAdvice4You") where he gave dating advice to viewers. He also had
a life-threatening heart condition he fought every day growing up.
The brave 18-year-old lost his life on Christmas night from a heart
attack. The week before, he recorded the below videos where he shared
his feelings about death, after "cheating" it three times.
He also shared a vision that came to him when the paramedics were
reviving him at his school: he stood in a white room, wearing a suit,
and was joined by his favorite rapper, Kid Cudi.
"I then looked in the mirror, I was proud of myself of my entire life,
everything I have done. It was the BEST feeling," he wrote.
Cudi posted the following message on his blog in response to the news
of Breedlove's death: "I am so sad about Ben Breedlove. I watched the
video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in
his vision really warmed my heart. I broke down... To Ben's family,
you raised a real hero, he's definitely mine. You have my love."
Watch Breedlove's videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmlTHfVaU9o&feature=player_embedded
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Christmas gift to America 20 years ago – a Russia to be thankful for
In a Christmas gift on Dec. 25, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. The “evil empire,” as Ronald Reagan rightly called it, was erased from the map. On its territory, Russia and 14 newly independent states emerged.
In the rush of the past two decades, “things have changed so fast we have not yet taken time to be astonished,” the late Czech President Vaclav Havel once observed. The tendency of bad news to drive out the good is well known. How often does a story about positive developments lead television coverage or make the front page? Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement that he will run again for the presidency (and undoubtedly win) casts a cloud that accentuates the negative.
RELATED: Billionaire as Russia's next president? The 5 richest men in Russia
Nonetheless, as Americans pause during this holiday season to give thanks and reflect, it is appropriate to review what has happened in the new Russia’s first 20 years. Assessed strictly from the perspective of what matters most to Americans, the good news is that the nightmares that experts realistically expected at the time have not happened.
Who imagined the Evil Empire disappearing – without war?
Who imagined US victory over its cold war rival – with a whimper rather than a bang?
Who imagined a revolution that buried communism – without blood?
OPINION: After Russia's elections, public anger at Putin: Can he fix corruption?
Who imagined that 20 years on, not one single nuclear bomb from the entire Soviet arsenal would have been found loose outside Russia? (Recall that in December 1991, on “Meet the Press,” then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney forecast: “If the Soviets do an excellent job at retaining control over their stockpile of nuclear weapons … and they are 99 percent successful, that would mean you could still have as many as 250 [warheads] they were not able to control.”)
Who imagined that the nation that would do more than any other over these two decades to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional states would be Russia? (Russia took the lead, with a significant American assist, in preventing Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus from inheriting major strategic nuclear arsenals.)
Who imagined that a state that had been defined for the previous 700 years by continuous imperial expansion, having just seen its borders rolled back to lines last known under Peter the Great, would have acquired no new territory in these two decades? (To be precise, after the conflict with Georgia in 2008, Russia recognized two provinces of Georgia as new independent states. But it did not annex them.)
IN PICTURES: Russians protest Putin's party
Who imagined that the biggest contributor to increases in global oil and gas exports that keep downward pressure on gas prices in America would be Russia?
Who could have imagined that the nation that now provides the most significant lifeline to 100,000 American troops fighting in Afghanistan would be Russia?
Who could have imagined that the only way US astronauts can get to the International Space Station today is to hitch a ride on Russian spacecraft?
Who could have imagined that Europe would be seeking euro-bolstering loans not only from China but also from Russia?
Assessment of the past two decades from the perspective of Russian citizens presents a different question. But from the perspective of impact on American national interests, despite continuing differences on issues like Iran and Syria today, this glass is certainly closer to full than to empty.
The Monitor's View: Russia protests and other 2011 uprisings
Russia remains the land of matryoshka dolls and Potemkin villages. One penetrates one layer only to discover another, each reflecting truths that compete with contradictory realities within and beyond. Two decades on, the story is unfinished. Relative to our brightest hopes, Russia disappoints today and will do so in the future. Compared to our darkest fears, we have much for which to give thanks.
Graham Allison is director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and author of "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe."
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Lessons from The Arab spring
The 'Arab spring' and the west: seven lessons from history | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
There's a real sense in which, more than any other part of the former colonial world, the Middle East has never been fully decolonised. Sitting on top of the bulk of the globe's oil reserves, the Arab world has been the target of continual interference and intervention ever since it became formally independent.
Carved into artificial states after the first world war, it's been bombed and occupied – by the US, Israel, Britain and France – and locked down with US bases and western-backed tyrannies. As the Palestinian blogger Lina Al-Sharif tweeted on Armistice Day this year, the "reason World War One isn't over yet is because we in the Middle East are still living the consequences".
The Arab uprisings that erupted in Tunisia a year ago have focused on corruption, poverty and lack of freedom, rather than western domination or Israeli occupation. But the fact that they kicked off against western-backed dictatorships meant they posed an immediate threat to the strategic order.
Since the day Hosni Mubarak fell in Egypt, there has been a relentless counter-drive by the western powers and their Gulf allies to buy off, crush or hijack the Arab revolutions. And they've got a deep well of experience to draw on: every centre of the Arab uprisings, from Egypt to Yemen, has lived through decades of imperial domination. All the main Nato states that bombed Libya, for example – the US, Britain, France and Italy – have had troops occupying the country well within living memory.
If the Arab revolutions are going to take control of their future, then, they'll need to have to keep an eye on their recent past. So here are seven lessons from the history of western Middle East meddling, courtesy of the archive of Pathé News, colonial-era voice of Perfidious Albion itself.
France leads world as gloomiest over economy: poll
France leads the world as the "most pessimistic" country in terms of the economic outlook, with the lowest recorded score in more than 30 years, according to a global poll published on Friday.
The "End of Year" survey by Gallup International of 51 countries found that France beat second placed Ireland and third placed Austria for the dubious recognition as most pessimistic, economically-speaking.
Its score of negative 79, a drop of 20 points from last year, was the lowest the poll has recorded since 1978.
"Even in 1978, after the second oil crisis that called into question an entire economic system, the French have never shown themselves as pessimistic as today," said the poll.
"Europe leads in despair, followed by North America," it said. "The rest of the world, lead by Africa, remains mostly optimistic."
With an April presidential election on the horizon and a euro zone crisis threatening havoc at home and on the continent, French voters are increasingly gloomy.
Concerns are pervasive over high unemployment, dwindling purchasing power and the fear that France's traditionally strong social support system is unraveling, even though France has mostly been spared the austerity measures taken in countries such as Greece and Spain.
"After the Second World War, there was reconstruction and our country was one of the pioneers of Europe. Today the French 'Savior State' model, praised by both Left and Right for decades, is basically considered obsolete," said the poll. "What can the French be proud of tomorrow?"
Among a list of 51 countries, Nigeria was found to be the most optimistic country, when considering economic prosperity, followed by Vietnam and Ghana.
Between 500 and 2,700 people were interviewed in each country either by phone, via the Internet or in person between October 26 and December 13.
The survey in France, conducted by BVA, took place between December 2 and 4.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Matthew Jones)