Re: Isn't Water Like Zero Gravity?

Algis Kuliukas wrote:
>
> Rich Travsky wrote:
>
> > You keep chanting "predictable" as if it were meaningful or important. It
> > isn't. Primates are predisposed to bipedal behavior. They'll do it for
> > in any number of contexts.
> >
> > You want predictable?
> >
> > http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0401/images/hm_smarts_pic2.jpg
> >
> > From the not so long ago NatGeo bit on tool using capuchins.
> >
> > http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0401/resources_geo2.html
> > ...
> > The monkeys, brown capuchins (Cebus apella), tool around in a remote dry
> > forest in northeastern Brazil. After laying tough-shelled palm nuts on
> > sandstone slabs, the monkeys stand upsometimes using their tails for
> > supportraise rocks perhaps half their own weight head high, then slam
> > the nuts. Not content with any old hammer, the monkeys will haul a
> > favorite rock to the "anvil" site, says photographer Pete Oxford. They
> > also place nuts in small pits from previous hammering and sniff them
> > between strikes to see if the kernel is exposed yet. Older capuchins are
> > the best nut crackers, but young ones also try their hand.
> >
> > "These monkeys are acting in ways we once thought only apes did," says
> > primatologist Dorothy Fragaszy of the University of Georgia, who plans to
> > study the monkeys' tool use in detail.
> >
> > And since capuchins are only distantly related to apes, she says, their
> > ability must have evolved independently.
> >
> > "Their Schwarzenegger dead lift is amazing to see," says Charles Munn, a
> > zoologist with Tropical Nature (a nonprofit ecotourism group) who first
> > learned of the hammer wielders from locals. "But it's no surprise the
> > monkeys have to work hard to get food in such a marginal, scrubby habitat."
> >
> > There. 100% predictable. If they want to smash those nuts, they HAVE
> > to go bipedal. Using your (koff koff) logic, therefore are ancestors
> > became bipedal by hauling huge rocks.
> >
> > Did I mention that's ONE HUNDRED PERCENT PREDICTABLE????
>
> So, let me get the experimental protocol right... you take a group of
> capuchins. You put them in an enclosure, what, with a series of small
> rocks, a handy 'anvil site' sandstone slab and a bunch of palm nuts and
> then watch. Is that right?

LARGE rocks. Can't you read?

> And this produces 100% predictable *bipedalism*? *100%*? For as long as
> the experimental protocol lasts? You sure? Do you know what 100% means?

Yes. Don't you?

> Nice try but, honestly, I think a group of chimps in a smooth-sideded
> tank filled to a 1m depth would qualify just a teensy-weensy bit
> better. Come on, admit it, Rich - you've been outdone by wet apedome
> yet again!

Sigh. Tossing them in the water does NOT qualify.

We'll let you figure out why...
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Isnt Water Like Zero Gravity?
    ... > From the not so long ago NatGeo bit on tool using capuchins. ... > The monkeys, brown capuchins, tool around in a remote dry ... After laying tough-shelled palm nuts on ... > became bipedal by hauling huge rocks. ...
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