Susan Savage-Rumbaugh Plays with Apes to Find Out What Makes us Human

Into the great debate over intelligence and instinct -- over what makes us human -- Susan Savage-Rumbaugh has thrown a monkey wrench. Her work with apes has forced a new way of looking at what traits are truly and distinctly human, and new questions about whether some abilities we attribute to "species" are in fact due to an animal's social environment. She believes culture and tradition, in many cases more than biology, can account for differences between humans and other primates.

Her bonobo apes, including a superstar named Kanzi, understand spoken English, interact, and have learned to execute tasks once believed limited to humans -- such as starting and controlling a fire. They aren't trained in classic human-animal fashion. Like human children, the apes learn by watching. "Parents really don't know how they teach their children language," she has said. "Why should I have to know how I teach Kanzi language? I just act normal around him, and he learns it."

Savage-Rumbaugh's work with bonobo apes, which can understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching, forces the audience to rethink how much of what a species can do is determined by biology -- and how much by cultural exposure.

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The Third Strike

This article by Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Dish is a few weeks old, but as I'm creating this blog by adding things that I found interesting from todays news, I figured I'd add a few things I've found interesting recently as well.

It explains why the media, and anyone with an ounce of compassion paying attention, was so angry at the Catholic Pope recently.

In fairness to his holiness it was not he who tied up and sodomized innocent children, it was a priest in America called Father Kiesle.

However, when Bishop Cummins who was in charge of this particularly nasty piece of work started to get complaints about this asshole, he wrote a letter to Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) asking for guidance and permission to defrock this poor imitation of a man.

"It is my conviction that there would be no scandal if this petition were granted and that as a matter of fact, given the nature of the case, there might be greater scandal to the community if Father Kiesle were allowed to return to the active ministry," Cummins wrote in 1982.

Instead Cardinal Ratzinger concluded that removing this child molester from his position, even if it was temporarily for investigation, not as important the good of the universal church, which is bad enough but when added that this was the case because he didn't see the potential threat it could case particularly regarding of the age of the petitioner (sodomized child) it makes you sick.

This court, although it regards the arguments presented in favor of removal in this case to be of grave significance, nevertheless deems it necessary to consider the good of the Universal Church together with that of the petitioner, and it is also unable to make light of the detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke with the community of Christ's faithful, particularly regarding the young age of the petitioner.

This letter is signed by Cardinal Ratzinger (the now Catholic Pope) himself.

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Chimps 'feel death like humans'

Chimpanzees deal with death in much the same way as humans, studies suggest.

Scientists in Scotland filmed a group of chimps grooming and caressing an elderly female who died, and remaining subdued for several days afterwards.

Other researchers saw females carrying around the bodies of their dead children. Both studies are reported in the journal Current Biology.

The scientists say this suggests other species, particularly apes, are more like humans than we might think.

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Is it Right to Ban the Burka?

A firm believer in women's rights, the only thing Afghan lawmaker Shinkai Karokhail finds as appalling as being forced to wear a burqa is a law banning it.

Now as someone who detests the idea that women should be forced to wear any particular item of clothing to please either their husband or God, I am not blind to the hypocrisy in banning women from wearing it.

"Democratic countries should not become dictatorships and Muslim women should not be deprived from all kinds of opportunities. It should be their choice," said Karokhail.

"Otherwise, what is the difference between forcing women to wear a burqa and forcing them not to? It is discrimination."

However, there has to be a certain level of dress code when entering government or financial buildings, such as banks, for safety and security reasons. If I walked into a bank wearing balaclava then I'd rightly be forced to leave.

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Scientists make Cancer Cells Vanish in 10 Days

Anyone who has suffered first hand from this horrible disease or has seen family members wither away in front of our eyes knows how fantastic this breakthrough really is

Scottish scientists have made cancer tumours vanish within 10 days by sending DNA to seek and destroy the cells.

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Girl tries to convert audience during graduation speech

It doesn't look as though devote faith is any good for this girls mental health.

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