What is Digg?159 Comments
- MacEnvy, on 03/12/2008, -4/+54Sometimes I get the feeling that dolphins are, on average, significantly smarter than some groups of people. I'm thinking of social conservatives, but feel free to replace my bias with your own. Either way, they're pretty damn amazing.
- igjoe, on 03/12/2008, -1/+38so long and thanks for all the fish
- sircomix, on 03/12/2008, -1/+34This dolphin is definitely smarter than our president.
- lpmiller, on 03/12/2008, -1/+24Yeah, but Orcas are known as the pricks of the whale world.
- subterfuge, on 03/12/2008, -1/+23cats do that too. and some humans.
- badwithcomputer, on 03/12/2008, -3/+24If I could swim with the dolphins...
- norman619, on 03/12/2008, -0/+20On the flip side, wild Orcas were known to HELP whalers hunt other whales. They would herd them towards the whalers. As a thanks the whalers would drag the carcasses behind the boat allowing the Orcas to feed.
- mordochai, on 03/12/2008, -0/+16Finally a happy digg.
- inactive, on 03/12/2008, -1/+17So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- Rodalli, on 03/12/2008, -1/+17But...we're part of the animal world. We've just tricked ourselves into believing we're special.
- RobotBuddha, on 03/12/2008, -0/+15True, though it's important to keep in mind that the term dolphin is pretty broad and there's a huge amount of mental differences between them. It's easy to fall into a trap of "Don't hang out with humans, because primates have been known to jump into trees, hang from their tails, and throw poo".
- BamaMac, on 03/12/2008, -6/+18They really are smarter than we are.
- thebenchase, on 03/12/2008, -1/+12But more importantly, they are also bad-*****-ass. Dolphins > Sharks
- NOFXY, on 03/12/2008, -1/+12so they're just like humans...
- mckirkus, on 03/12/2008, -0/+11According to a guy I know the Navy trains them to find mines. They release hoops with GPS on 'em that float to the surface. He said they could easily jump out of their pens and swim away but we treat them well so they stick around.
- kastlip88, on 03/12/2008, -2/+13And to think some people in Japan actually hunt these majestic creatures. Disgusting.
- Carrot1991, on 03/12/2008, -0/+10*homer simpson voice* = Dolphins, is there anything they can't do?
- offspring06, on 03/12/2008, -1/+9Dolphins are highly intelligent mammals. I would go as far and say there are Dolphins that are more intelligent than some humans.
- bbqsalad, on 03/12/2008, -3/+11But they are even smarter than you for making that reply based on what he said.
- ilikesboobs, on 03/12/2008, -0/+8It's sad that the walrus can dance better then me.
- MacEnvy, on 03/12/2008, -1/+8Your comment doesn't explain anything about intelligence, merely about social behavior. And I don't recall using the word "civilized" anywhere in my comment.
- skinturtle, on 03/12/2008, -0/+7It probably would like to send the whole lot of us there
- scribat, on 03/12/2008, -0/+6What? Did you just pull a religion vs science argument out of your ass there? Sorry but what the ***** does that have to do with a dolphin helping a couple of whales?
- juliankauai, on 03/12/2008, -1/+7there are many amazing things about this story. one that seems to have been missed is that the dolphin pushes its way in and communicates with this totally different species and instantly leads them away on a complex path between the sandbars out of there. the other is that the whales trusted the dolphin to lead them out. both of these are very interesting.
the humans totally failed this intelligence test. the humans could not communicate with either of these species and did not have a clue as to what was going on, the humans weren't trusted by the whales, the humans did not actually find a path out for the whales and finally they were about to kill the whales to end their 'suffering'.
on the other hand the dolphin waltzes in takes command of the bleak situation, was known and trusted by the humans, communicated to the whales, convinced them it knew what it was doing and was trying to help them (try that in most companies), then guided them away from the well meaning but kind of dumb humans over a complex path keeping the different size of whales bodies from his own body in mind as it guided them out to sea. then the dolphin comes back to play with the humans.
what does another species have to do for humans to display intelligence/awareness?
seems like the human definition of intelligence, consciousness, ethics is pathetically narrow and goes something like: any species that thinks, act, speaks and looks like us is intelligent anything else is an animal and will never understand that the small fork is for salads. this meant in the past that if you had a different religion or skin color then you were a heathen or a lower race that could ethically could be slaughtered. read the wonderful novel shogun (which is about the english meeting the japanese for the first time) and you get some impression of the prejudice that humans have when encountering a different culture, religion, people, nation, species, etc. gene roddenberry tried to open us up a bit with his space tales but we always manage to get blindsided once again when the stories characters changes slightly.
don't get me wrong, we humans aren't totally evil, just a tad slow with this lesson. we'll get there one day. even bush and his followers i believe are learning (the hard way) that their philosophy is completely outdated and not ethical/life supporting. unfortunately, their/our education is at great expense to the world. hopefully, our choice of the next leader in the US will undo some of the ignorance and enhance our growth as individuals and as a more enlightened society.
ps digg is great not just for bringing us interesting stories but in these open discussions which bring us incredibly rich and diverse points of view. - sexybobo, on 03/12/2008, -0/+6What is sad about a dancing walrus?
- fearlessfx, on 03/12/2008, -2/+8There is something fishy about this story.
- beankitty, on 03/12/2008, -2/+8And so is a rock. That isn't saying much!
- 2ktj, on 03/12/2008, -0/+6Buried yours as duplicate and dugg this one. Don't be a whinny bitch.
- beankitty, on 03/12/2008, -1/+7Nature tends to be.
- alexgap, on 03/12/2008, -1/+7Not to be a downer on everyone saying that dolphins are such majestic and amiable creatures but they can be quite nasty too (IE: Dolphins killing their own young: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/e ...
- shaka999, on 03/12/2008, -1/+7I wish the story had more details on how the dolphin "lead" the whales out. From the description it sounded more like the dolphin came in to see what was going on and then left. The lucky whales then saw how to get out.
I don't see how this shows anything but curiosity on the dolphins part. We need details... - SLuM, on 03/12/2008, -1/+6Dolphin's are shown to be more caring, more conservative, more liberal and just better than the average human day to day.
- DaviDTC, on 03/12/2008, -3/+8dolphins > bush
- ComradeGoby, on 03/12/2008, -0/+5Don't be fooled! They are just gaining allies until they can take over!
- lukeduke, on 03/12/2008, -1/+6The dolphin led them through the narrow channel and out of sight where a group of juvenile dolphins ambushed the whales...that's the part it doesn't tell you, it was gang initiation for the dolphins.
- inactive, on 03/12/2008, -3/+8Dolphins have been known to kill without warning and play with the corpses. They seem like they're so adorable, but they can turn on you in an instant.
- scribat, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Yeah that makes a whole heap of sense. "Oh *****, you're going to eat me. Wait - you're stuck on a beach... guess I'd better help then huh?"
- sircomix, on 03/12/2008, -1/+5I love this dolphin! The story made me a little emotional, especially after that horrible "third-world-country-lunatics-eat live-animals" story. Animals ARE better than some humans, innit.
- Witchdoktor, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4Pygmy Sperm Whales are nearly the same size as dolphins.
- ostracize, on 03/12/2008, -2/+6If it was on Digg it must be true.
- Kn1ghtmare, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4And yet your post only has 5 comments and < 60 diggs. I think there's a moral here somewhere...
- themastersb, on 03/12/2008, -2/+6...the soft and gentle dolphins...
- appletoapple, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4I've read, I believe on Digg, that has something to do with their mating behavior.
- Hobbes24, on 03/12/2008, -0/+4i'm okay with people doing that when it's not their particular submission,
but when you do it to your own it makes you seem like an arrogant ass - GreenGrassyNoel, on 03/12/2008, -1/+5actually there is nothing fishy about it.
- o0adam0o, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3Hahaha. Now i know dolphins are smarter than some humans...
BTW....They are suction feeders and eat mostly squid, fish, and other crustaceans. - Hananda, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3The amount of time it would take to train dolphins to swim up to a ship and perform whatever action would set off the bomb makes that totally impractical. It's not like we're up to our eyes in dolphins.
Oh, I know, the Russians trained dogs to run under tanks and then strapped bombs to the dogs, but I'll bet just about anything that just getting a dolphin to trust a trainer enough to start the training would take much longer than putting food under a parked tank for a few days. - o0adam0o, on 03/12/2008, -0/+3They werent laying in the sand. They pretty much were stuck on shallow waters and couldnt or didnt know how to swim back. The dolphin pretty much showed them a way out.
- JohnboiWaltune, on 03/12/2008, -1/+4There is plenty of evidence that dolphins have complex conversations with each other, and also interact with humans (even showing a desire to mate with certain humans who they have grown attached to). Their brain size to body weight ratio is similar to a human's. They are easily trainable and solve complex problems.
There are documented cases of dolphins rescuing stranded swimmers, etc... you are right it is not proof that the dolphin was able to conceptualize that the swimmer was lost, and wanted to help him for altruistic reasons. However, there is plenty of evidence to support this belief. -
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