Random Developments

And, in another Hitchhiker-themed post… The Guardian has an article on the intelligence of dolphins that, honestly, left me speechless (I saw the article mentioned in Jeremy Zawodny’s blog). It starts by describing how dolphins trained to clean their own pools “game the system” by, first, handing litter out to trainers in small portions and, latter, capturing gulls to trade for fish (that’s how an economy starts…). It goes on to describe the behaviour of “wild” dolphins using tools to hunt and to protect themselves.

As the author says, it seems that the more we study dolphins, the smarter they prove to be. If they all go missing at some point in the future, start to worry.