November 03, 2005

• Either April Fools Day or simply a comment on what now drives Homo sapiens post religious instruction in the west - accumulate accumulate- oh and money for sex - how novel! Strange gow long it tkes us to recognise ourselves!
• I have the nagging suspicion this is a double post but I can't find it on a search.
• This all serves the smokescreen of the Man who wants us to believe that economic behaviour is guided by primal urges, and not in fact something modulated by and played out in a complex system built with blood over millenia and carefully rigged to fuck you and I. Oh yeah.
• "The capuchin has a small brain, and it's pretty much focused on food and sex" Intelligent design, my ass.
• You can feed MoFi's marshmallows all day, they'll throw up and then come back for more.
• Chyren - I remember a similar post, but about monkeys learning the concept of reward for work. I can't find the thread, but here is an article about the study. The most interesting part of this NYT article was at the very end about the budding prostitution, which they felt was necessary to stop: "To this end, Chen has taken steps to ensure that future monkey sex at Yale occurs as nature intended it." WTF? We're legislating morality for the monkeys, too? It's generally not good science to avoid the results of your study, even if they make you feel squeamish. It's hard for me to believe that Yale is letting him mess with the experiment like that. Also, I'm curious what steps Chen is taking. What could you do to prevent the exchange of tokens for sex that wouldn't interfere with the monkey's normality even more?
• Not only is the halt on prostitution bad science, but so was the clean-up of the bank heist. It would have been much more informative to see how the monkeys responded to the theft and redistribution of wealth. Those are two major impositions that give rise to serious questions as to the quality of science going on at YALE.
• This article had it all! Feces-throwing, prostitution, and of course, monkeys.
• what they should have done was flood the market with ever-decreasing-in-value coins and see if the hyper-inflation would give rise to a monkey hitler
• Well, it's about time- why should we have to be the only evil primates?
• Wasn't it a Nazi capuchin who tried to poison our brave hero Indiana Jones? They are EVIL monkeys!
• MonkeyFilter: monkey hitler
• bad dates
• Isn't that a capuchin in the MoFi logo?
• MonkeyFilter: Strange gow long it tkes us to recognise ourselves! MonkeyFilter: Intelligent design, my ass. MonkeyFilter: Pretty much focused on food and sex. MonkeyFilter: Feces-throwing, prostitution, and of course, Monkeys! Says it all.
• See, I'm not convinced it was necessarily bad science. Or at least, not for its own sake. Politics DO play a part, sadly - and can you imagine the negative publicity if "Yale Researchers Create Whore Monkeys!" made the rounds of all the right-wing rags?
• Who's a Whore Monkey??
• Kit.
• Oh, my gosh, you made me laugh. "Yale Researchers Create Whore Monkeys!" indeed! hee.
• Man, this can go nowhere good. Monkeys hanging out on street corners, dressed seductively ...
• I have the nagging suspicion this is a double post that's usually a safe bet. ;) maybe you're thinking of this similar study at duke? btw, didnt those yale guys write freakonomics?
• We're legislating morality for the monkeys, too? No, not us, but people who take animal rights and PC to the extreme of applying Puritanical behaviour to non-humans. It's almost anthropomorphic, but it's not nearly as respectful of animals as most animists are. ...or simply a comment on what now drives Homo sapiens post religious instruction in the west - accumulate accumulate... This type of behaviour isn't just in the contemporary west, it's natural human behaviour since the dawn (at least) of complex hunter/gatherers. Concepts of economic interest took place in ritual feasting in surplus economies. That, in fact, gives good credit to theories regarding the rapid spread of humans in Europe 10,000 years ago--in order to keep up with the going debt you must accumulate partners and resources. So, barter and currency aren't the place where aggrandised accumulation begins. Think of cultural currency, instead, being what money now represents.
• As it is, 'sex-for-payment' behaviour isn't exclusive of humans OR monkeys; just take a look at this this feathered beauty...
• That is the freakin' funniest picture I've seen in forever, Flagpole.
• Awesome. On so many levels.
• For Flagpole and Lara: The Persnickety Penguin. nsfw what am I even doing linking this?
• We don't know exactly why, but they are using the males well duh.
• That's just...it's...wow...
• From Flagpole's link: The action takes place during a three-week mating period starting in late October. Somewhere out there, there's a BBC editor laughing uncontrollably. And I swear this article's a double.
• Yay for Abiezer. Culture passed off as nature is invariably in someone's interest. Cui bonobo?
• I thought Abiezer had implied a little ¡ in that comment. But on second read I can't decipher at which point the sarcasm comes in.
• My comment was a somewhat hyperbolic rendering of the thoughts that crossed my mind as I was reading the article, and that I was too lazy to formulate in a more coherent fashion. No sarcasm intended - I tend to lay that on with a trowel when I indulge, just in case. And to engage in mutual grooming with Wolof, cui bonobo raised a chuckle.
• I was really hoping you intended sarcasm.
• This is fucking awesome. Great links, flagpole!
• Whoa, ian: the mind boggles at the possible uses that gizmo has. For starters, I imagine it to start twitching and slither like something out of hentai anime or an Spiderman comic... What?
• Who's a Whore Monkey?? posted by petebest at 06:25PM UTC on November 03, 2005 Kit. posted by Capt. Renault at 07:12PM UTC on November 03, 2005 I saw that. You're both grounded.
• Well . . . shit.
• Hey, wait- isn't that coerced donations?
• Meh. Weekend grounding doesn't have much of an impact for somebody who only has a computer at work...
• *secretly low-fives petebest*
• Hey, fish tick, the sound on that UW page sucks. Is the idea that you give them money so that they fix the sound and give your ears a little charity? Mine now hear like bleeding.
• MonkeyFilter: Monkeys hanging out on street corners, dressed seductively ... MonkeyFilter: Cui bonobo?
• NO, NO! They weren't legislating morality by stopping the (hot) monkey prostitution, they were preventing monkey exploitation. See, what happens if during that simian recreation of Ocean's Eleven one monkey got ahold of all of the tokens? Why, he could create his own monkey harem. Then you've got monkey bitch slaps and the 'where's my money?'. Next thing you know you've got a bunch of token-poor monkey's being shipped in on banana boats from South America. Didn't you see the second season of The Wire?
• Hey buddy, how much you want for that leaf?