The Noises Rest

Never mind today; the best thing I saw all week is this:

"The Noises Rest" from lonelysandwich on Vimeo.

How research saved the Large Blue butterfly

Thanks to this list of the best science blog entries of 2009, today's best thing was the article "How research saved the Large Blue butterfly". Nice job clearly representing a complex and subtle lifecycle. A representative sentence:

In fact, steps taken to deter collectors actually worsened the situation - one fence erected to keep lepidopterists out also excluded grazing animals, leading to overgrown turf and the rapid extinction of the local Large Blues!

Hark, a vagrant

How can it be anything other than today's Hark! A vagrant, about Lord Lovat.

Just, wow.

Big Pictures Of Mars

Sounds like a band name, but it's actually just Big Pictures of Mars.

Like this, but bigger:

Dolphins understand delayed gratification

I will omit the Carl Sagan bit about the fantastically complicated mechanisms involved in cognition. Just pretend that was here, and then read the regrettably-titled Deep Thinkers (at guardian.co.uk).

Important paragraph:

One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she [Kelly the dolphin] grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

Immediately reminded me of the apparent importance of strategic meta-thinking - and delayed gratification in humans, for example the famous Stanford "marshmallow test". See also, which seems to incorrectly state that this is an exclusively human behavior.

[ How did Google Reader show me this? Via Tyler Cowen (who I wish would edit more and publish less). For the record, I rate the Guardian "generally awful". ]

Rumba

The best thing I saw today was from Netflix: Rumba. Now available for Instant Watchery. Five stars.

Disclaimers for the gushing: "deadpan" and "pratfall" are my two favorite attributes for a comedy. (See also: Laurel & Hardy). And I am inordinately well-disposed to Belgium.

Two adorable, sincere, wonderful folks that are unbowed and almost unmoved by some (objectively) terrible events. Some of the best physical comedy I've ever seen.

Also, never in cinema has a beer looked better or more desirable.

The nearest film I can think of is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but it is a big stretch... in both cases, characters silently adapt to bizarre circumstance. And I love both movies. Otherwise, no similarity.

I'll need to let this percolate a bit. This is easily one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a long time.

No question for today

It is, via Embrocation Cycling Journal (incidentally also the source of my current desktop wallpaper), Le tour de n'importe quoi.