What is Digg?45 Comments
- DrakeGTA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18"Cats have a mirror-like membrane in the backs of their eyes that lets them hunt and move in almost complete darkness. Called a "tapetum lucidum," the membrane reflects light after it has already traveled through the retina, giving the eyes another chance to nab the photons as they make their second trip." If they ever start giving those to people, sign me up please.
- philomatic, on 02/08/2009, -0/+16Spider sense totally got snubbed.
- Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Web page summary due to layout horrors:
10 - Bats -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_echolocation
9 - Sharks -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampullae_of_Lorenzini
Also, fish in general, not brought up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_line
8 - Snakes -- http://www.anapsid.org/sight.html
7 - Hummingbirds -- attuned to wavelengths of light outside our perception
6 - Cats -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum
5 - Snakes -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomeronasal_organ (organ regressed during fetal development in humans)
4 - Moths -- good pheromone detection
3 - Rats, cats -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrissae
2 - Drum fish -- uses air bladder to detect pressure and form a "hearing"
1 - Migratory birds -- biocompass, http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=26320 - herrshuster, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Yes, but many of these animals DON'T have as advanced sensory perception in some areas as we do.
- jetblackstrat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12@ Bdog2g2: I hate bush and his ineptitude as much as the next guy, but that insult made no sense. :o)
- SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Exactly, take bats for example: vision or sonar? I'll keep my vision thanks.
- consoneo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"Pitch Black" Anyone?
- scratched, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@Mejogid
There was a video of a blind kid on Digg not too long ago that could use echolocation fairly well. He was able to tell what was in front of him enough to get around. He was able to tell you the size and (IIRC) the shape of most cars and other objects, and I think he was even able to play basketball (even though I could be wrong on that)
The human body has an amazing ability to adapt beyond what we are supposed to be able to do, if the need arises. - betona, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10My dog has ESP. He can be asleep at the other end of the house, but if I tiptoe into the kitchen to get a snack, he knows about it and comes running. The boy really loves potato chips...
- elyobelyob, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Website design by the rats or the bats? That is truly one of the worst I've seen in a while.
- cesig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Really? What article were YOU reading? The one I saw mentioned nothing about evolution OR any kind of designer. The one *I* read was merely talking about traits the animals had, not where they came from.
Good try, though.
(evolution ftw.) - JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6They forgot some key senses my pets have had:
The ability for my dog to have ESP, picking up my thoughts of "Please don't sniff this new person's crotch, you'll wreck my game," and going over to sniff them gratuitously.
The ability for my cat to wait for the worst time possible (moving heavy furniture) before deciding to lay down behind me or walk between my legs.
The ability for my cat to wait until the nights where I'm most tired and in the deepest state of REM before deciding to knock down a shelf full of pots, books, etc. - f0dder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5They forgot to graphical countdown & voiceover before introducing each animal.
- kevinmotel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4if you have a better scientific theory to put forward, we'd all love to hear it
- nickdr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4do you mind backing that up a little? the way i see it this enforces the theory of evolution.
fish are getting killed by sharks. sharks go hungry. sharks that can sense hiding fish via electrical impulses survive and reproduce. those that can't die out. - omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Some blind people do use echolocation by clicking with their mouths and listening for echoes.
- jeet404, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4God horrible site design. But not to bad of a top 10 list. But then again I don't know much about this subject.
- datagod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I bet you the animals could build a better website.
That is seriously the most annoying set of pages I have had the displeasure of viewing in recent memory.
I mean seriously. I just want to see a darned top 10 list, summaries, not have to find the "n ext" button for every single item on the list!!! - Javock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Better sight, better hearing or better smell are not senses we don't have, they are differently developed.
Now for echolocation, electrical sense and the lot I agree we don't have. But keep in mind that overdeveloping one sense, atrophies others.
I am happy with the mix I have, pretty good eyesight, decent hearing, pleasant smell, touch and taste thank you very much! - Wolfboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3some blind people are really good at echolocation
wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation
"The Boy Who Sees With Sound"
http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1212568,00.html
Blind kid rides skateboards, can tell the difference between a parked car and a parked pickup truck as he walks past them, etc. - rompom7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@hidd: Ugh.. this supports the theory. The shark one for instance, it says some species of sharks have the fine tuned ability to detect fish hidden under the sand.
Also Evolution is a FACT, the common cold virus evolves by natural selection and mutation all the time. Evolution of life such as animals and humans is a theory.
If you could care to explain how ID explains why viruses have to evolve by natural selection and mutations, to stay alive, i'd love to hear it. - Enasni1212, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Your dog just has hearing that's that much better than yours.
My cats can hear the sound of a can opening in the kitchen when they're asleep upstairs or when they're outside. - Asdfglpwglion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Most bats do have adequate normal vision and can see just fine when there is light.
- lebaige, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There was a fellow on Oprah not too long ago that could do it very accurately. So your theory sounds good but has been proven wrong by reality.
- irregardless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2***** that, i've got two freakin' thumbs and can use them to build devices that are *better* than animal senses.
- Xenif, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4#0
Emo-Web2.0-Driven-Attention-Starved-Web-Design-Guru
Ability: Can make entire 'fashionable' websites, with 6 straight lines, 3 words, and a solid white plain background.
Attributes: +3 Social Status +2 Digg Effect -1 agoraphobia -5 love life +20 MySpace Linkage
O.k. stupid jokes aside, the list was cool on the whole. Would have enjoyed it more as a Discovery countdown with numerous videos of each animal, etc. Hell, they prob already have it. I'll ask the local pot smoker if they have ever done this list on there, as long as they aren't watching the History Channel that night. - Pyroteq, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Haha, I agree, the page is like 3000px tall, and each time I pressed next I only read a sentence of information, they could have easily fit it all on one page and save us having to load the page a total of eleven times.
Interesting none-the-less. - DiamondIce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2killuminati96,
psych, not sike. - neko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Pyroteq: There's a wonderful extension called "Re-pagination" that's in my must-have list, it can deal with these archaic web pages that think they're printed on paper.
- thescimitar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It is interesting how adaptive the human brain is, particularly with sensory-related stimuli. If you can, catch the episode of Scientific American from this season where they explore "blinding" people with perfect eyesight for a week, and teaching them Braille, as well as requiring them to navigate through life without their eyes.
The study is pretty amazing, because though the subject doesn't learn Braille particularly well over a one week period, pretty outstanding data was able to show that the visual cortex could be re-tasked to handle tactile sensory information, instead of visual, which is pretty surprising. It would be like your house-key suddenly working in your car's ignition.
Link for anyone that's interested: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1101/segments/1101-1.htm - Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Even if you'd live where bats do? :-)
As usual, it's about adjusting to your environment. Humans live in quite general areas, therefore we have decent senses overall, but not excelling in any. - MyDigitalSin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1what about common sense?
- Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, humans can sense more than a shape of a room, however bats are still way beyond our abilities in this area, with it being a requirement for them to survive and using it to hunt for prey. Humans don't have senses *made* for echolocation, but bats do and basically use it as a radar. But you're right in that humans can use it for more than detecting a shape of a room, and that the information our limited abilities can receive can be maximized by training.
- carbonetc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If this fits his definition of proof, you just aren't going to get through to him. Don't bother with it.
Though it does complement the original topic of humans lacking sense. :) - missflibbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hidd, gravity is a theory, too.
Oh wait, God is what keeps us anchored to the ground. nm. - missflibbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That site made me blind. I sure hope I can develop sonar or something.
- daprice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If dogs have a sense of smell many times more sensitive than that of humans, then I wonder why when I take my dogs for a walk do they have to sniff fresh dog poop piles from about 1 mm away from their noses?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0still we have weapons
- l3v14th4n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't know what this article is talking about, I can do ALL of these...
- Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Human ears are nowhere near sensitive enough to get an accurate idea of their surroundings from clicking: for a start the wavelength of a click is too big to give anything more accurate than metres, if that - that's why bats use ultrasound. You may be able to get an idea of the shape of a room, but other than that it's simply not possible.
- mrops, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Human intellect more than makes up for any senses we don't have.
Now I wouldn't mind having the sharks sense to read electrical activity to sniff out my boss heading my way. - thunderball, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0haha
- killuminati96, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I wish I had whiskers on my snout....SIKE
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -11/+0This is another thing that Proves the theory (NOT FACT) of evolution wrong.
- Bdog2g2, on 10/12/2007, -45/+11nor do some people.....i.e. Bush
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is