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[2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 4:21 pm
by kaitou
But gorillas can fly if you can convince the airline that it's an emotional support animal.

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 7:24 pm
by sbruestle
Here is my answer:

"The Work Output of Animals: Flight by Birds and by Man-power" by D.R. Wilkie (1959) notes that "man is five times heavier than the heaviest flying creature of this or any other epoch". And "A Record of the Body Weight and Certain Organ and Gland Weights of 3690 Animals" by George Crile and Daniel P. Quiring (1940) includes a table comparing primate body weight. The table shows that gorillas are significantly heavier than humans. Therefore gorillas are heavier than the heaviest flying creature. Therefore gorilla's can't fly. QED

I admit my answer would have been cleverer if I could use one of the papers comparing human and gorilla testes weight. There seems to be a large scientific literature on the subject.

If I win the 10 internet points, I will donate them to the person who can find a citation showing: "avocados can't talk"

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:35 pm
by CCsF_S
It strikes me that most of the prompts in this game would be negatives: planets are not safe for human consumption, lego minifigs are not good pack animals, etc.

I'm really struggling to think of an example that isn't counterfactual.

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 10:28 pm
by NeatNit
CCsF_S wrote:It strikes me that most of the prompts in this game would be negatives: planets are not safe for human consumption, lego minifigs are not good pack animals, etc.

I'm really struggling to think of an example that isn't counterfactual.
Try: some paintings are blue.

It might not be that hard, I haven't checked.

Edit: Since I'm obsessed with having this for each new comic:
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/game

Image

Image

We need a science olympics for this sort of thing. Other tasks - who can fill out paperwork fastest? Who can p-hack best?

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:05 am
by Tracy Hall
It didn't take long to find this, either: "Birds and bats are the only extant vertebrate taxa that have achieved flight."

from: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/203/20/3045

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:54 am
by dorwinrin
Tracy Hall wrote:It didn't take long to find this, either: "Birds and bats are the only extant vertebrate taxa that have achieved flight."

from: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/203/20/3045
Are you making the assumption that gorillas belong to an extant vertebrate taxa? Citation needed.

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:58 am
by dorwinrin
CCsF_S wrote:It strikes me that most of the prompts in this game would be negatives: planets are not safe for human consumption, lego minifigs are not good pack animals, etc.

I'm really struggling to think of an example that isn't counterfactual.
Peeling a banana is significantly easier than peeling an apple (citation needed).

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 4:47 am
by SMOS
An ethogram of observed Gorilla behavior. Does not include flying. Unless you include a reference to flight or fight responses.

http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/aboutp/beha ... llas2.html

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:41 am
by hmijail
SMOS wrote:An ethogram of observed Gorilla behavior. Does not include flying. Unless you include a reference to flight or fight responses.

http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/aboutp/beha ... llas2.html
Just because the behavior hasn't been observed doesn't mean that it isn't possible. Case in point: the slow loris was discovered to be venomous only in 1990, even though the folklore had said so for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_loris#Venom

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:28 pm
by AlixeTiir
hmijail wrote:
SMOS wrote:An ethogram of observed Gorilla behavior. Does not include flying. Unless you include a reference to flight or fight responses.

http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/aboutp/beha ... llas2.html
Just because the behavior hasn't been observed doesn't mean that it isn't possible. Case in point: the slow loris was discovered to be venomous only in 1990, even though the folklore had said so for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_loris#Venom
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.d ... _of_th.pdf

"...gorillas are regarded as specialized terrestrial folivores..."
Emphasis mine

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 2:39 am
by Capable Runt
There is a precise combination of pitch, tone, and cadence in a person's voice that creates audible cues in speech and allows them to be understood by the listener.

It seems obvious enough, but I've had a professor hit me with a [citation needed] on this. I'm still upset that I had to find proof that "people have recognizable voices."

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 8:09 am
by NeatNit
Capable Runt wrote:There is a precise combination of pitch, tone, and cadence in a person's voice that creates audible cues in speech and allows them to be understood by the listener.

It seems obvious enough, but I've had a professor hit me with a [citation needed] on this. I'm still upset that I had to find proof that "people have recognizable voices."
Maybe your professor has the voice equivalent of prosopagnosia (= face blindness) [Edit: the voice equivalent is called Phonagnosia], and wants to make sure you're not bullshitting him :P

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:42 am
by hmijail
If it helps, in highschool a teacher insisted to me that it was impossible to scream underwater, and that even if one could, the sound wouldn't be audible by other people underwater. (o~o)

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:18 am
by RyanW
I was thinking a gorilla could fly an ultralight, but if there is a human aboard it is carrying a passenger (thus not an ultralight), and if there is no human aboard it's an unmanned aircraft (thus not an ultralight).

After careful research, I've found two circumstances in which gorillas can fly within the US:

1) in a dual control aircraft with a certified flight instructor.
2) with special exemption from the Secretary of Transportation under 49 U.S.C. §44807, waiving pilot certification requirements for unmanned aircraft over 55 pounds loaded.

Any other flying requires some level of certification or license, which universally requires the ability to speak English.

Re: [2019-03-21] Game

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:28 pm
by AlixeTiir
RyanW wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:18 am
Any other flying requires some level of certification or license, which universally requires the ability to speak English.
[citation needed]