Interesting Links for 26-06-2017

[andrewducker]

On roses, violets, and historical perceptions of colour (in verse) (tags: colour poetry history funny ) The Salvation Army: Still terrible people (tags: christianity charity OhForFucksSake ) Do NOT trust Anne Rice (tags: writing fanfic OhForFucksSake intellectual_property abuse ) The List Of Animals Who Can Truly, Really Dance Is Very Short. (

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Ann Rice is uber douche.

Patricia Cornwell is the real nut job though.

[andrewducker]

I demand juicy gossip!

[gonzo21]

I find it as mystifying that Anne Rice has fans, as I did that Transformers has fans.

[andrewducker]

Are you just boggled that people like things you don't?

[gonzo21]

No, just that people can invest their time and energy in worshipping somebody as out and out crazy and abusive as Anne Rice.

But I guess it's mostly other crazy and abusive people who enjoy being in a cult where crazy and abusive behaviour is normalised.

[cartesiandaemon]

Presumably quite a lot of people like an author's books and don't want to find out if the author is not a nice person.

dancing

[channelpenguin]

"Dancing" is an untutored, spontaneous response where the animal moves on the beat, matching motion to music. So the animal can't have a trainer. It can't have a human in the room whose moves it copies. It can't spend weeks exposed to the same tune. And when the music changes, it has to change with it, sticking to the beat. The "dance" is triggered by sound, but the moves come from inside - from circuits deep in the dancer's brain.

By that definition, humans don't dance either!! We all learn by copying / training as children. You can't keep a beat without practice - same as you can't hold a tune.

RE: dancing

[andrewducker]

People instinctively try to match beats. We may be rubbish at it, but rhythm as a general principle seems to be built in.

(Same with the parrot videos from a couple of days ago. The parrot's not _great_ at it, but it's clearly trying to match the beat.)

[simont]

The first human in history to dance can't possibly have learned from any previous human :-)

[channelpenguin]

from the not-quite-humans he/she lived amongst ?

I am just saying the criteria seem really strict. I don't believe that following a beat is instinctive - it takes exposure to music. Which is why it is interesting that it seems to be tied to animals that can mimic "tunes". Birds it makes sense for, totally.

In Andy's original post about "what other animals dance?" I was going to suggest birds, but I was thinking of courtship dances. Which are not to music. But lots of other creatuires do something similar to impress/encourage the opposite sex...

[skington]

Never mind Ruth Davidson being an honorary Colonel, what really bemused me is that Jools Holland, of all people, is a deputy lieutenant of Kent.

[andrewducker]

He looks pretty awesome in uniform, I have to say. If a bit awkward :-)