Archive of entries posted on 11th October 2019

IMAO Time Machine: Hey hey, we’re the monkeys!

Posted by on

Laurence Simon wrote this in early 2006. — The Editors

(Via J-Walk)

Watch out, Frank. The Monkey Police are on the loose…

New research reveals that monkey cops help keep social groups in line.

Not having guns or nightsticks, they leverage their group seniority, craft intimidating reputations and count on good voter turnout.

Take the primate police out of a group, as researchers did, and the rest get more violent and aggressive. Interaction between cliques drops significantly.

“It’s not just that violence goes up, but a whole range of behavior involving a whole range of individuals suddenly disappears,” said David Krakauer of the Santa Fe Institute. “It’s like saying you take police out of human society, and all of a sudden people stop going to the opera, or something more important.”

The study, detailed in today’s issue of the journal Nature, also uncovered a complex monkey “voting” system for appointing the peacekeepers.

Monkey social police? Monkey voting?

I, as the proud owner of an undergraduate degree in Biology which I display proudly in some back closet, don’t like the looks of this at all.

My razor-keen scientific mind and Semitic propensity for trying to make a profit from everything leads me to believe that pretty soon there will be an all-monkey economy replacing ours. Next thing you know, there will be monkey sitcoms, monkey coffeehouses, monkey liposuction clinics, and monkey armies.

MONKEY ARMIES????

I’d better warn Frank.

Unless… he’s been replaced… oh, God, no… BY A MONKEY BLOGGER!

Pulaski

Posted by on

Death of Pulaski

A few months ago, I shared a video on Casimir Pulaski. If you don’t recall who he was, he is considered the father of the United States Cavalry.

If you want to read about him, check out that July post.

I’m mentioning him again this morning because it’s the anniversary of his death. He died in the Siege of Savannah on this date in 1779.

I’m probably giving him more emphasis than others would because we studied about him when I was in school. Since he died in and was (and still is) buried in Savannah, he was covered in our Georgia History classes. And, since my Georgia History teacher was a great teacher — and an overall good fellow — much of what I was taught has remained with me. He’s still around. Well, he’s still living. He retired and moved, so, he’s not around here, but he’s still around.

A lot of what he taught me, I’ll remember always. Including Polish-born Revolutionary War hero Count Casimir Pulaski.