Thursday, April 28, 2005
Trouble in Northern Europe
The toads in Hamburg and Denmark are exploding. Fortunately, some of the best minds in Europe are on working on the case. Some current working hypotheses:
Crows are pecking out their livers and causing the problem. Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian reports that "The crows are clever...They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers." Does this mean that crows have experienced what Thomas Kuhn referred to as a "paradigm shift" (the sine qua non of a scientific revolution)? If so, I wonder what other discoveries that initial liver-pecking crow has been able to unearth.
This theory also raises the possibility that this new information (technology) has apparently been independently validated perhaps by a crow peer review committee. Thus established as mainstream, it is now being taught to other crows.
The second theory to explain the exploding toad phenomenon must be considered, at best, speculative: "the toads are taking the selfless way out — sacrificing themselves by suicide to save others from overpopulation." The link above doesn't cite the name of this idea's ingenious proponent.
Crows are pecking out their livers and causing the problem. Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian reports that "The crows are clever...They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers." Does this mean that crows have experienced what Thomas Kuhn referred to as a "paradigm shift" (the sine qua non of a scientific revolution)? If so, I wonder what other discoveries that initial liver-pecking crow has been able to unearth.
This theory also raises the possibility that this new information (technology) has apparently been independently validated perhaps by a crow peer review committee. Thus established as mainstream, it is now being taught to other crows.
The second theory to explain the exploding toad phenomenon must be considered, at best, speculative: "the toads are taking the selfless way out — sacrificing themselves by suicide to save others from overpopulation." The link above doesn't cite the name of this idea's ingenious proponent.
