BBC Horizon on dogs last night

Reentrant

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 8:35:13 AM1/7/10

to

Fascinating documentary on the evolution of dogs last night (none of the
gimmicks that have spoiled this flagship program recently).

Recent experiments show dogs are much better at reading a human's facial
expressions, and understanding pointing gestures, than chimpanzees are.
Also there's a border collie in Austria that has a vocabulary of over
300 "words" - it can fetch a given object from another room by voice
command, being shown a similar object, or a photo of the object.

There was also an update on the Russian silver fox selective breeding
experiment that's been shown before.

Well worth watching (iPlayer or torrent)
--
Reentrant

All-seeing-I

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 8:51:17 AM1/7/10

to

Take for instance my Dog. He is defiantly smarter then the average
evolutionist on TO.

Cleaner too!

Dan Listermann

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 10:11:37 AM1/7/10

to

"Reentrant" <nos...@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:7qm68h...@mid.individual.net...

> Fascinating documentary on the evolution of dogs last night (none of the
> gimmicks that have spoiled this flagship program recently).
>
> Recent experiments show dogs are much better at reading a human's facial
> expressions, and understanding pointing gestures, than chimpanzees are.
> Also there's a border collie in Austria that has a vocabulary of over 300
> "words" - it can fetch a given object from another room by voice command,
> being shown a similar object, or a photo of the object.
>

I take exception when dogs, and a lot of other animals for that matter, are
said to not have linguistic abilities. While they have rather limited vocal
abilities, they have no problem understanding human language, albeit to a
very limited, but highly useful, degree

.

Dan Listermann

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 10:14:23 AM1/7/10

to

"All-seeing-I" <ap...@email.com> wrote in message
news:42e8e47a-b058-456e...@a21g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...

Oh, an insult!

How about this? And your intelligence is far below that of anybody who has
the slightest understanding of evolution. I have a flock of pigeons whose
composted droppings understand evolution better than you do.

See, my insult is superior to yours!

.

Mike Dworetsky

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 10:35:00 AM1/7/10

to

That's a smart doggie--why, it can even speak foreign languages!

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

Boikat

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 10:46:56 AM1/7/10

to

You mean he not only *thinks* you're an asshole, but *knows* you're an
asshole. Good doggy.

>
> Cleaner too!

So he turns his nose up at you, also. Smart dog.

Boikat

Ye Old One

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 11:45:47 AM1/7/10

to

Then you really must worship him. I hope he looks after you and makes
sure he keeps your water bowl topped up.
>
>Cleaner too!

--
Bob.

You are depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.

chris thompson

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 12:16:29 PM1/7/10

to

I'd bet your dog wouldn't fall for Onyate Man.

Chris

Wombat

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 1:37:06 PM1/7/10

to

Twatman has an insult problem. They are all weak.

Wombat

VoiceOfReason

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 1:57:50 PM1/7/10

to

Thanks for the head's up. I get a lot of BBC shows thru torrents,
especially science-related ones (it beats our standard fare here in
the US).

Dan Listermann

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 2:40:52 PM1/7/10

to

"Wombat" <tri...@multiweb.nl> wrote in message
news:4afa8aa4-a496-447d...@26g2000yqo.googlegroups.com...

Easy pickings.

.

bpuharic

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 6:22:55 PM1/7/10

to

On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 05:51:17 -0800 (PST), All-seeing-I

<ap...@email.com> wrote:

hold on....my poodles just barfed up another creationist
argument...shall i send it your way?

heekster

unread,

Jan 7, 2010, 8:59:51 PM1/7/10

to

On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 05:51:17 -0800 (PST), All-seeing-I
<ap...@email.com> wrote:

Does he slam the lid down on your head when you drink from the toilet?

Wombat

unread,

Jan 9, 2010, 2:24:30 AM1/9/10

to

One does what one can.

Wombat