Adventure Ausrama Blog

It seems that bird calls evolve like human language. Research on the chestnut-crowned babbler shows the cooperative bird is able to change the order of sounds to make new "sentences" with different meanings. The babbler does not sing like other birds. It makes a series of unique sounds. Analysis shows that the bird is communicating in different ways by stringing sounds together. It has two main categories of calls A and B. If flying, only AB calls are made. In the nest with young birds BAB calls predominate. When different calls were played back, AB calls initiated flight in the birds that heard it and BAB sounds caused them to go the nest. These "sentences" were definitely perceived as unique instructions. Even when sound prompt elements were changed for the sentences the birds could still tell the difference. This is the first time a vocabulary type structure in communication has been observe in any animal other than human. The first soun...

There must be a dearth of things to study. Scientists are now researching the odd sounds that people make. It may seem weird but its true. Those who can make odd sounds are called beatboxers. Scientists are interested in percussion sounds. These are expressed in Celtic, Chinese, North American and Indian cultures. Hip-hop is an area of great interest. A young "practitioner" had MRI scans done on his mouth while he created percussion sounds. The conclusion reached is that a lot of brainpower is involved in imitating percussion. It "is a small part of the larger puzzle," experts say. In my view it takes little mental concentration. Just put your tongue behind you top teeth a "tap" away. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Society Vista C...

Dolphins and whales are related. When dolphins are sleeping they show this. In the day they are quite unlike whales. Dolphins show off by jumping, swimming and catching balls. At night, however, they appear to "speak" a whale language. The sounds they express closely resemble the humpback whale song. They only do this after they have heard the song. The song was in a soundtrack played during a performance for the public. This is an indication how all mammals deal with new things. The brain works on new things below the level of consciousness. So well imitated were the whale sounds that tests done on them by volunteers showed people thought they were real whale sound. Dolphins mimic other types of sounds during the day, but they tend to zero in on whale sounds at night showing the evolutionary link. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blo...

Eighty per cent of people swear every day including children. The little ones don't just get this habit from parents. Some children are awake late at night and hear it on television. In different eras there are new sets of popular swear words. Words such as "bloody hell" and "bugger" were once really offensive, Today they are not treated as swear words any more. Personally, I find phrases containing the word "shit" quite off-putting. Hearing "bullshit" and "shitloads" tends to create images in the minds of listeners. It makes one move away from the speaker. The question is - Does swearing do any harm? It does lower the "status" of an occasion if someone begins swearing when everyone else is in formal mode. One wouldn't swear when university degrees are being given, but at the pub swearing is almost expected particularly in the public bar. Swear words are just sounds like other words. The sounds, however, do h...