racist banners?

where's your donator badge?
What does a badge do? Did you sell girl scout cookies?

I'm not trying to be your friend, I'm trying to help you realize you're not going to gain any traction with your childish methods. I don't want you to throw away your access to good servers over such goofiness. BF chat is not the place to air out grievances or to get anything done, so yes, "stfu" is accurate. This is the place to bring them.
 
Again, much like the other thread I commented on, I scrolled through and gave up to get to the end. While I admire my tax money is being allocated to you somehow, I am disappointed in the final product.
View attachment 9999

must be the same disappointment you feel everytime you open your meme photos folder and realize your taste in memes is garbage and Robert Kraft likes lubed up handies from 50 year old Chinese prostitutes
 
chimp_throwing.jpg

Pick up an object that's close at hand. Throw it at something, or even someone (but gently, of course!) You've just reenacted what appears to be a pivotal stage in human evolution, when a propensity for projectiles shaped cognitive powers that later became language and symbolic thought.

That, at least, is one hypothesis for how humans became so smart. And now researchers have found support in chimpanzees, among whom the ability to throw goes hand-in-hand with increased intelligence and brain development.

"Imagine you're an early hominid throwing at a rabbit. There's increased selection for the cognitive demands of throwing, and that has some consequences for the development of the brain," said psychologist Bill Hopkins of Emory University. "That's where the throwing part becomes really interesting."


In a study published in the January Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Hopkins and colleagues tracked several years' worth of throwing behaviors in captive chimpanzees. ("If I was going to get s–t thrown at me, I was going to get something out of it," said Hopkins.) Chimps are the closest living relative to humans, and the only species aside from ourselves in which throwing is regularly seen.


The researchers were especially interested in relationships between throwing, cognition and lateralization, or the way certain activities are concentrated in the left or right hemispheres of our brains. Language processing occurs in the left side, which also controls our right hands; and most people use their right hands to throw, as do chimpanzees.

While throwing at first might not seem demanding, coordinating it requires intensive, on-the-fly calculations. An equation for throwing a ball, for example, would include the distance to a target, the ball's heaviness and the thrower's strength. A moving target makes it even harder. Other psychologists and anthropologists have put throwing at the beginning of a cognitive cascade into higher-order thought, but Hopkins said his team is the first to test this proposition.


From brain scans of chimps that threw most often and accurately, Hopkins found heightened development in and connections between the motor cortex, where physical actions are coordinated, and the Broca's area, which in humans is central to speech production. Better throwing meant more sophisticated, left hemisphere-reliant brains.

"It supports the idea that these areas could have been selected for as a consequence of throwing," said Hopkins. "If you imagine that throwing started off as left hemisphere-dominant, before the emergence of speech, then speech and language would have co-opted that side of the brain."

In behavioral tests, true-throwing chimps also proved especially apt in social intelligence and communication. Intriguingly, they fared no better than poor-throwing chimps on physical problem-solving tests, suggesting that throwing behaviors emerged not for hunting, as is commonly assumed, but to interact with peers.

"Why did these chimps learn to throw in a captive context? I've never in my life seen a chimp be given a banana for throwing s–t at someone," said Hopkins. "The reward is not something food-based. The reward is that they can control a person's behavior. They get a pile of something to throw, and usually the person tries to run. The chimp learns, 'If I can do this, I can have some control over the world outside my cage.'"

Hopkins also noted the story of Santino, a chimp at a Swedish zoo who, in a display of sophisticated planning skills, collects stones, hides them from zoo staff and throws them at visitors.

In future research, Hopkins plans to look more closely at neurological changes in chimps newly taught to throw. "It would be interesting to see how far they can go," he said.


Image: A chimpanzee throws a PVC pipe at a viewer. (Hopkins et al./Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B)

Citation: "The neural and cognitive correlates of aimed throwing in chimpanzees: a magnetic resonance image and behavioural study on a unique form of social tool use." By William D. Hopkins, Jamie L. Russell and Jennifer A. Schaeffer. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Vol. 367 No. 1585, January 12, 2012.
 
ArQjQPZvLQdDuYCzNc4ptQ-320-80.jpg

Going to the zoo can be a great adventure, especially if you find poop hurtling in your direction. The likely perpetrators, chimpanzees, are known to sometimes throw their feces at visitors. But what's the reason behind this behavior?

And, more importantly, should you consider yourself lucky to be the center of their attention?

Throwing feces is not a regular occurrence for primates, at least not most of them. Primates in the wild don't normally throw feces, Karen Strier, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Live Science. It's typically observed in captive populations of chimpanzees, although other primates, such as wild howler monkeys in western Belize, are also known to throw poop. [Why Haven't All Primates Evolved into Humans?]

In her research, Strier studies the northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus), which may be one of the most peaceful primates in the world. These animals live in the forests of Brazil, and they don't have social hierarchies in their groups. This even-footing might make aggression unnecessary, at least for those monkeys, Strier said.

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), on the other hand, do have hierarchical social groups. They are known to drag tree branches or throw rocks when they are frustrated or annoyed or when they want to display dominance.

"They're capable of expressing so much … they're really good communicators," said Ronnie Steinitz, a doctoral student in the Integrative Anthropological Sciences program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Throwing rocks and branches is part of how these animals communicate, and being a good communicator can be an advantage in their society. For example, a male chimpanzee who can get back on the good side of an alpha male after a fight — meaning he's likely a good communicator — might not get shunned from the group. Experts think that in male chimpanzees reconciling after an aggressive conflict leads to social bonding and helps to establish the hierarchy.

Moreover, a 2012 study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B suggested that chimpanzees that are better at throwing objects have more developed brains.


Even poop throwers can be delicate diners.



Even poop throwers can be delicate diners. (Image credit: Ronnie Steinitz)
In zoo environments, especially if groups of people are staring at them, the chimps may get riled up or frustrated, and they may decide to convey that emotion to their captive audience.

"Since they're usually deprived of rocks, or branches, or any small objects like that, for this exact reason, they opt for the next best thing that they have within reach, which is usually poop," Steinitz told Live Science. This explains why you might need to take cover next time you're at the ape house.

However, there is a silver lining: If you're not bothering the chimpanzees, you should be flattered that these primates consider you worthy of their poop-throwing attention.

"Think of it as another intelligent being trying to communicate with you," Steinitz said.
 
ArQjQPZvLQdDuYCzNc4ptQ-320-80.jpg

Going to the zoo can be a great adventure, especially if you find poop hurtling in your direction. The likely perpetrators, chimpanzees, are known to sometimes throw their feces at visitors. But what's the reason behind this behavior?

And, more importantly, should you consider yourself lucky to be the center of their attention?

Throwing feces is not a regular occurrence for primates, at least not most of them. Primates in the wild don't normally throw feces, Karen Strier, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Live Science. It's typically observed in captive populations of chimpanzees, although other primates, such as wild howler monkeys in western Belize, are also known to throw poop. [Why Haven't All Primates Evolved into Humans?]

In her research, Strier studies the northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus), which may be one of the most peaceful primates in the world. These animals live in the forests of Brazil, and they don't have social hierarchies in their groups. This even-footing might make aggression unnecessary, at least for those monkeys, Strier said.

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), on the other hand, do have hierarchical social groups. They are known to drag tree branches or throw rocks when they are frustrated or annoyed or when they want to display dominance.

"They're capable of expressing so much … they're really good communicators," said Ronnie Steinitz, a doctoral student in the Integrative Anthropological Sciences program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Throwing rocks and branches is part of how these animals communicate, and being a good communicator can be an advantage in their society. For example, a male chimpanzee who can get back on the good side of an alpha male after a fight — meaning he's likely a good communicator — might not get shunned from the group. Experts think that in male chimpanzees reconciling after an aggressive conflict leads to social bonding and helps to establish the hierarchy.

Moreover, a 2012 study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B suggested that chimpanzees that are better at throwing objects have more developed brains.


Even poop throwers can be delicate diners.



Even poop throwers can be delicate diners. (Image credit: Ronnie Steinitz)
In zoo environments, especially if groups of people are staring at them, the chimps may get riled up or frustrated, and they may decide to convey that emotion to their captive audience.

"Since they're usually deprived of rocks, or branches, or any small objects like that, for this exact reason, they opt for the next best thing that they have within reach, which is usually poop," Steinitz told Live Science. This explains why you might need to take cover next time you're at the ape house.

However, there is a silver lining: If you're not bothering the chimpanzees, you should be flattered that these primates consider you worthy of their poop-throwing attention.

"Think of it as another intelligent being trying to communicate with you," Steinitz said.

He definitely didn't read any of that.
 
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