///Rational or irrational?///

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

This one only indirectly touches on politics, as anything even remotely environmental does.

Are dolphins, and marine mammals in general, smart - maybe as smart as we are? Are they on the same level as chimps? A whole mythology has grown up around the intellectual ability and cultural sophistication marine mammals. As one author says, "complex dolphin sociology and high cetacean intelligence has joined motherhood and apple pie in the public mythology." [D. E. Gaskin "The Ecology of Whales and Dolphins," Heinemann, London and Exeter, New Hampshire,1982.]

Well, they're more like hedgehogs and ferrets. ("Cetacean brains are structurally more primitive than those of hedgehogs and they score lower than ferrets in learning ability.")
http://www.sepp.org/conferences/psmfmm.html
The evidence for the idea that these cetaceans are so brilliant originally seems to have been based on brain mass, but that is easily shown to be an irrelevant measure.
http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Myths/br-be-an.htm
"They (dolphins) have been ranked at about the same level as the elephant in test scoring."
http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Myths/th-ec-of.htm

Why do we hold these rather quaint yet absurd things? Are we so lonely in the universe than we need to invent imaginary friends in other species? Or are we uncomfortable being at the top of the evolutionary ladder, a kind of evolutionary (false) modesty? I can only speculate as to the reason, but this is yet another illustration of ignoring data in favor of gut feeling.

Of course, the only reason any of this matters is that the exaggerated intelligence of these animals justifies their special treatement. When was the last time you saw a "Save the dung beetles" bumper sticker? If an animal is smart (or cute, or cuddly), we tend to be more protective of it. But let's not confuse the issue with facts.
Gabriel 11:08 PM

Saturday, May 10, 2003

OK, here's another one.

The educational system in the US is in the toilet, right? For instance, little Johnny can't read. At least that is what these guys would have you believe:
http://www.literacycenter.net/about_us/research.htm
They cite something called "The Nation's Report Card," a US Department of Education study. Yet does the study really back up their claim that "While their global counterparts are excelling at math, science, and the adoption of multiple languages, the majority of American children are having trouble learning to read English."? Ummm... no. Indeed, this study made no effort to compare US performance with that of other countries.

Let's look at a study that did, the OECD Program for International Student Assessment,
PISA
This study shows that:
1. The US is roughly at the average of OECD (developed) countries.
2. In the area of literacy, the US is just above the OECD average and well above Germany.
3. The distribution of scores is roughly the same for the US as it is for other developed countries. This contradicts the claim made by the Dept. of Education study that there is an alarming gap between good and poor readers. The gap is no worse than it is for other developed countries.
Gabriel 9:07 AM