I’ve been running the Interesting Stuff series on this blog for over two years, but with 2010 coming to a close, I feel it’s time for a change. I’m still considering the options, but in 2011 I intend to do something different.
Here are the articles I’ve picked for this final installment:
- A video of James Randi being interviewed at the Magic Castle. Many topics discussed. (The only downer is that this is on Vimeo, which sucks at buffer handling if you don’t have a fast computer, but the content is worth your time.)
- Article about musical improvisation and the associated neuroscience.
- The story of a woman with no sense of fear.
- Young chimpanzees that play dolls with sticks.
The Outer Hoard 
29 Dec 2010 at 10:44 pm
The idea that young chimps might be using sticks more or less as young humans use dolls doesn’t seem especially strange to me. Chimp society is pretty complex; even rudimentary role play would be very useful.
30 Dec 2010 at 1:19 am
‘Strange’ isn’t the word I’d choose either. But I think it adds something interesting to our understanding of chimps and inspires the imagination.
One thought I had while reading it is that because it’s hard to tell which end of a stick is its head, there’s probably no ape equivalent of the stage in human development where the child starts consistently carrying dolls the right way up.