Wed - October 17, 2007

Hoover, the talking seal


Looking through the website of W. Tecumseh Fitch (who wrote a recent article on language in Nature), I found a fascinating page of information about Hoover, the talking seal (who died in 1985).

Listening to the first recording, I thought, "Huh - so there's a guy and a seal and the guy's talking and the seal is making some voice-like noise".

Then I realized, no, it's all the seal. That catapulted me straight into the Uncanny Valley. Hoover sounds like he's saying, "Hoover! Get over here!"...probably something he heard a lot.

Apparently, pinnipeds can imitate the human voice like parrots can - but since they're mammals, studying them could shed more light on how humans make the strange sounds we do.

Posted at 10:58 PM     Read More   |

Sat - October 30, 2004

Flores man


..or woman, that is, but go check out (at Nature) the most significant find in paleoanthropology in X years..
It would be amazing if some of them were still around. Think of all the philosophy books that would get written..

Posted at 12:25 AM     |

Fri - October 29, 2004

"On Being the Right Size"


Here's a link to a nice essay by J. B. S. Haldane.

Posted at 01:33 PM     Read More   |

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