5 ms·

The Family That Couldn’t Say Hippopotamus

39 points by BIackSwan 11y ago

voidz 11y ago
I think they're having a mother's day sale, too. I think it because they threw it right in my face. Didn't read the article though, I don't like it when offers get thrown in my face. But maybe that's just me.
- davidgerard 11y ago
  If only Google would start penalising lightboxes.
  - pp19dd 11y ago
    They really should. They're as invasive as popups of the late 90s, if not moreso. At least the popups didn't misrepresent the page you were on. The one kind of overlay that really gets me is the "take our survey" type for larger sites. Reason why it annoys me is because some fool, high up in an organization, thought it'd be great if they would have some feedback from their visitors/readers/customers. You know, instead of looking at analytics and deducing a few useful things from that. Anyhow, at whim of someone high up, a company paid some other company a bunch of money to add an annoying overlay survey in, and it results in nothing but colorful invectives from me. Hope others see it that way too.
- anc84 11y ago
  You might like http://thosefuckingpopups.tumblr.com/ http://thosefuckingpopups.tumblr.com/ or it might just make you more angry.
  - voidz 11y ago
    Haha. Well kind of. But honestly, the thing that really made me laugh was when I noticed that we now get the best of two worlds; the only thing that really annoys me other than popups is profanity in titles and URLs. So just for that, here's my upvote: you properly nailed it. +1
- MrZongle2 11y ago
  I just got angrier when I realized that no hippopotami were available in this so-called 'sale'.
peter303 11y ago
The Neandertal race supposedly has the modern form of this gene.
gumby 11y ago
This article doesn't really debunk the chomskian hypothesis that language reflects deep structure in the brain; it simply refutes the more naive characterization that there is a "grammar gland" in the brain (which, to be fair, isn't even what Chomsky says). To use a computing analogy, the fact that most networks are big-endian doesn't mean that there is something inherent about big-endian layout; it simply reflects the neoteny of networking (when most of the old time machines were big endian). But traffic analysis at higher levels can teach us something on how computing networks are organized today... which is a combination of what humans want and what machines are capable of.
charles2013 11y ago
as a layperson, i have a hunch that language first developed as a defense mechanism against predators, and continued (perhaps more rapidly) with the proliferation of hunting weapons and methods. an article/thesis from last year claims to have decoded gibbon vocalizations for distinct predators, as well as what the predators were doing [1]. and a while back i remember reading a theory that consumption of animal-based protein increased the brain size of early humans. barring a monolith [2] my guess is that crude hunting tools provided more brain food for less work which, in turn, led to the development of more sophisticated tools and hunting methods. so if the presence of predators caused early humans to develop simple words and grammar, perhaps a better-fueled brain, as well as the desire to teach and learn better tool development/use and hunting methods, expanded and improved this early grammar into something that could be used to communicate (e.g.) abstractions. as a layperson, this process would seem to involve more than the mutation of one gene (e.g. FOXP_{2}), it would seem to involve lots of stuff: chemicals related to fear, stress, changes in diet, group dynamics, and so forth. [1] http://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/ocn888412908 http://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/ocn888412908 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM6OIlreneA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM6OIlreneA

39 points by BIackSwan 11y ago

voidz 11y ago

I think they're having a mother's day sale, too. I think it because they threw it right in my face. Didn't read the article though, I don't like it when offers get thrown in my face. But maybe that's just me.

davidgerard 11y ago
If only Google would start penalising lightboxes.
- pp19dd 11y ago
  They really should. They're as invasive as popups of the late 90s, if not moreso. At least the popups didn't misrepresent the page you were on. The one kind of overlay that really gets me is the "take our survey" type for larger sites. Reason why it annoys me is because some fool, high up in an organization, thought it'd be great if they would have some feedback from their visitors/readers/customers. You know, instead of looking at analytics and deducing a few useful things from that. Anyhow, at whim of someone high up, a company paid some other company a bunch of money to add an annoying overlay survey in, and it results in nothing but colorful invectives from me. Hope others see it that way too.
anc84 11y ago
You might like http://thosefuckingpopups.tumblr.com/ http://thosefuckingpopups.tumblr.com/ or it might just make you more angry.
- voidz 11y ago
  Haha. Well kind of. But honestly, the thing that really made me laugh was when I noticed that we now get the best of two worlds; the only thing that really annoys me other than popups is profanity in titles and URLs. So just for that, here's my upvote: you properly nailed it. +1
MrZongle2 11y ago
I just got angrier when I realized that no hippopotami were available in this so-called 'sale'.

peter303 11y ago

The Neandertal race supposedly has the modern form of this gene.

gumby 11y ago

This article doesn't really debunk the chomskian hypothesis that language reflects deep structure in the brain; it simply refutes the more naive characterization that there is a "grammar gland" in the brain (which, to be fair, isn't even what Chomsky says). To use a computing analogy, the fact that most networks are big-endian doesn't mean that there is something inherent about big-endian layout; it simply reflects the neoteny of networking (when most of the old time machines were big endian). But traffic analysis at higher levels can teach us something on how computing networks are organized today... which is a combination of what humans want and what machines are capable of.

charles2013 11y ago

as a layperson, i have a hunch that language first developed as a defense mechanism against predators, and continued (perhaps more rapidly) with the proliferation of hunting weapons and methods. an article/thesis from last year claims to have decoded gibbon vocalizations for distinct predators, as well as what the predators were doing [1]. and a while back i remember reading a theory that consumption of animal-based protein increased the brain size of early humans. barring a monolith [2] my guess is that crude hunting tools provided more brain food for less work which, in turn, led to the development of more sophisticated tools and hunting methods. so if the presence of predators caused early humans to develop simple words and grammar, perhaps a better-fueled brain, as well as the desire to teach and learn better tool development/use and hunting methods, expanded and improved this early grammar into something that could be used to communicate (e.g.) abstractions. as a layperson, this process would seem to involve more than the mutation of one gene (e.g. FOXP_{2}), it would seem to involve lots of stuff: chemicals related to fear, stress, changes in diet, group dynamics, and so forth. [1] http://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/ocn888412908 http://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/ocn888412908 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM6OIlreneA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM6OIlreneA