Count @ MindSay 
Elephants master basic mathematics
- 12:10 20 August 2008
- NewScientist.com news service
- Ewen Callaway
Add elephants to the growing menagerie of animals that can count.
An Asian elephant named Ashya beat this reporter at a devilishly simple addition problem. When a trainer dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples in the first and five more in the second, the pachyderm recognised that three plus four is greater than one plus five, and snacked on the seven apples. (In my defence, I watched the video in a noisy and crowded auditorium.)
"I even get confused when I'm dropping the bait," says Naoko Irie, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan, who uncovered the elephant's inner genius. She presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology's annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.
Moreover, Irie found that as well as summing small numbers with almost 90% accuracy, elephants can discriminate between small numbers.
That's not so surprising, considering that animals from salamanders to pigeons to chimpanzees can discern numerical values. But all animals, including humans when forced to make split-second decisions, are best at telling apart two quantities when the ratio between the large and small number is greatest.
Spot the difference
Not so for elephants, Irie says. The four that she tested distinguished between five and six apples as well as they did between five and one. They picked the bucket with the most fruit 74% of the time, on average, far above 50-50.
"It really is tough to figure out why [elephants] would need to count," says Mya Thompson, an ecologist at Cornell University who studies elephants and attended Irie's talk. Asian elephants live in close-knit groups of six to eight, and they may count one another to make sure the herd sticks to together. "You really don't want to lose your group members," she says.
Alternatively, the mathematical prowess of elephants may be a side effect of their bulging brains and an evolutionary kinship to other "smart" animals, Irie says.
Today, history was made. Just this morning, President Bush signed the new GI Bill into law. Since we are only a few days away from celebrating the 4th of July, this milestone is a fitting way to honor our veterans who have bravely served this nation.
IAVA has led the fight for the new GI Bill from the beginning, and your dedication over the past year and a half ensured that our lawmakers kept it a top priority. Over 20,000 of you called your representatives in Congress, spread the word in your communities and signed the petition at www.GIBill2008.org. Thanks to your hard work, we finally achieved our goal.
Generations of veterans to come will benefit from this bill. Your support in this fight has been overwhelming- very few bills in recent history have received such an outpouring of public support. Together, we can be extremely proud of this victory.
In a few days, we'll let you know more about this remarkable bill and how IAVA plans to help veterans take full advantage of these new benefits.
Thank you for standing with IAVA throughout this fight.
Sincerely,
Iraq Veteran
Executive Director
Ok, for sure, if he's stuck at home for any length of time, I'm calling DTV to get a bedroom hookup, lol. Typical man, surf's till he's wasted & missed at least 20 minutes of a show he picks, yet I'm very decisive. When I find what I want I leave it there. That's right, for the WHOLE SHOW!! Men, you guys crack me up.
Well, Mr Cloudy Lungs, Low White Blood Cell Count, can't breathe (oh, today should be lovely, he went on the patch before bed, & I have no patches, yet, so no, I'm not sharin,lol, will hopefully hear from the hospital early, or I'll call his doctor. This man needs to get checked out. He's a royal pain in my ass, so I'm hoping he needs to be hospitalized, so I can relax at home. Seriously. And my heart has no feeling for him, cept he's a long time friend. I have yet to shed a tear, with all the seriousness I've heard. It freaks me out that I have so little feeling about his illness. He's still his bossy self, only now I'm stuck with him, 24/7 & can tell you, I HATE it. I still want out, badly, this is just a bump in the road, if & when he gets better, I'll be hoping something happens to get me out of here. I'm not nor have I been happy for a very long time here, & it's time to go. I wish him no ill, when he said he might leave me & I didn't react the other day, I think that got the point across. I didn't blink an eye. All I could think of is, hey, buddy, I've been planning, searching for a way to get out of here. Maybe he got those vibes, I'm not sure. Those of you who have been reading my stuff, know that this man has made me miserable for a very long time, & I can't get out of here faster. I'll care for him if he needs it, otherwise, I'll leave first chance I get. Love you guys, Blessed Be, QuellyQ
Apparently, however, all is not lost.
This morning my supervisor handed out little slips of paper with the following exercise on it:
In the following phrase, how many letter Fs do you see?
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY
COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS.
I didn't read the phrase until after I had counted. Here's the answer and here's an explanation so you don't think I'm insane. Seriously, try it out for yourself, then read on.
.
.
.
...okay? So I counted six. Recounted it. Got six. Counted it a third time. Same conclusion. Then my super started asking my teammates how many they saw. The first one said "three" and I thought they were crazy. The second said "three" and I thought I might be crazy. The third said "four" and I recounted. The fourth said "three" and I looked around, bewildered.
My turn. Hesitantly, I said "six". The rest of the team came up with threes and fours, mostly, with one of the senior reps claiming seven. (Did he count the one in "scientific" twice? The paper given to us had line breaks in different places.)
It was sort of gratifying to know that I haven't lost it, but it was a bit awkward when my super said, "Three is normal, some people manage to get four. If you got six... well, this says you're a genius. But since he did, I'm not sure if we can trust that." I'm not sure quite how she meant that joke, but it stung.
I've known since I was a kid that I was smart, but I was told repeatedly not to be arrogant or brag. As a result, I try not to say anything about it for fear of hurting someone's feelings. Having it brought out into the open is always a tough thing. I never quite know how to react. I want that warm fuzzy feeling people get when they're praised for the merits and successes. Instead someone's feelings inevitably get hurt - usually mine.
Is there any way to avoid this, or is it just the cross I bear for being able to solve puzzles and math problems a little faster than someone else? To be able to play word games in my head and still follow a conversation? There has got to be another way. Am I just not smart enough to see it? Not quick enough to see the consequences before they happen?
