#olfactory anthropology

[fairy25]

Transcript below:

HUMANS NOT SMARTER THAN ANIMALS, JUST DIFFERENT

Thursday, 5 December 2013

Humans have been deceiving themselves for thousands of years that they're smarter than the rest of the animal kingdom, despite growing evidence to the contrary, according to University of Adelaide experts in evolutionary biology.

"For millennia, all kinds of authorities - from religion to eminent scholars - have been repeating the same idea ad nauseam, that humans are exceptional by virtue that they are the smartest in the animal kingdom," says Dr Arthur Saniotis, Visiting Research Fellow with the University's School of Medical Sciences.

"However, science tells us that animals can have cognitive faculties that are superior to human beings."

He says the belief that humans have superior intelligence harks back to the Agricultural Revolution some 10,000 years ago when people began producing cereals and domesticating animals. This gained momentum with the development of organised religion, which viewed human beings as the top species in creation.

"The belief of human cognitive superiority became entrenched in human philosophy and sciences. Even Aristotle, probably the most influential of all thinkers, argued that humans were superior to other animals due to our exclusive ability to reason," Dr Saniotis says.

While animal rights began to rise in prominence during the 19th century, the drive of the Industrial Revolution forestalled any gains made in the awareness of other animals.

Professor Maciej Henneberg, a professor of anthropological and comparative anatomy from the School of Medical Sciences, says animals often possess different abilities that are misunderstood by humans.

"The fact that they may not understand us, while we do not understand them, does not mean our 'intelligences' are at different levels, they are just of different kinds. When a foreigner tries to communicate with us using an imperfect, broken, version of our language, our impression is that they are not very intelligent. But the reality is quite different," Professor Henneberg says.

"Animals offer different kinds of intelligences which have been under-rated due to humans' fixation on language and technology. These include social and kinaesthetic intelligence. Some mammals, like gibbons, can produce a large number of varied sounds - over 20 different sounds with clearly different meanings that allow these arboreal primates to communicate across tropical forest canopy. The fact that they do not build houses is irrelevant to the gibbons.

"Many quadrupeds leave complex olfactory marks in their environment, and some, like koalas, have special pectoral glands for scent marking. Humans, with their limited sense of smell, can't even gauge the complexity of messages contained in olfactory markings, which may be as rich in information as the visual world," he says.

Professor Henneberg says domestic pets also give us close insight into mental abilities of mammals and birds. "They can even communicate to us their demands and make us do things they want. The animal world is much more complex than we give it credit for," he says.

#i liked this article #i was thinking about this and they summarized everything better than I could

[skipperandreassen]

Assessment of non-invasive CPAP along with cover up use within co poisoning.

The actual Solomon Islanders and To the south Cameras Bantu biological materials displayed more advanced frequencies. Each of our examination points too mathematically substantial variations in MxPAR regularity can be found in between significant topographical people. As a result, your MxPAR cavity enducing plaque has now recently been put into the State of arizona Condition College Dental Anthropology Technique, a crucial factor while maxillary premolar characteristics are underrepresented within examines involving dental morphology. Feel J Phys Anthropol 141:319-324, The year 2010. (D) 09 Wiley-Liss, Inc.The particular Slitrk category of transmembrane meats is made up of six to eight associates which can be extremely depicted from the central nervous system. Currently, the part involving Slitrks in the course of progression of the actual nervous system features to be outlined. The high homology between your extracellular region of Slitrks as well as the repugnant axon advice molecules Cuts points too Slitrks might manage axon outgrowth through development. To begin to evaluate their position during development, we have looked at your expression of the Slitrk genes inside the creating murine central nervous system using within situ hybridization. Right here, all of us demonstrate that even with several overlap inside appearance, the Slitrks show distinct habits regarding phrase within the olfactory system, a persons vision, forebrain houses, the actual cerebellum, the spinal-cord., and dorsal underlying ganglia. These kind of varied styles involving term suggest that Slitrk family members might have diverse features in the course of development of the actual neurological system. Educational Mechanics 238:3285-3296, '09. (C) 09 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Number potential to deal with Leishmania significant is highly influenced by the introduction of any Th1 immune system result. Your TLR adaptator myeloid differentiation necessary protein Eighty eight (MyD88) has been suggested as a factor from the Th1 defense reply associated with the resistant phenotype seen in C57BL/6 rodents right after infection using M. key. To investigate if the MyD88 pathway is actually differentially employed by unique substrains regarding unwanted organisms, MyD88(-/-) C57BL/6 rats have been infected with two substrains regarding D. significant, particularly T. major LV39 and T. key IR75. MyD88(-/-) these animals have been vunerable to equally substrains regarding D. significant, however with diverse kinetics of contamination. Your components required during the immune system response selleck chemicals related to weakness of MyD88(-/-) mice to L. key will be nonetheless, parasite substrain-dependent. Weakness of MyD88(-/-) these animals have been infected with T. main IR75 is often a consequence of Th2 immune-deviation, while weakness of MyD88(-/-) rats to be able to an infection with L. significant LV39 resulted coming from a great reduced Th1 reply. Lacking regarding regulation To tissue (Treg) partially reconditioned IFN-gamma release along with the Th1 resistant response in MyD88(-/-) these animals infected with T. main LV39, showing a task involving Treg action within the continuing development of the disadvantaged Th1 result over these rats.Mechanisms backlinking natural immunity and autoimmune reactions are poorly realized(1). Myeloid-related protein-8 (Mrp8) as well as Mrp14 are generally damage-associated molecular routine substances (DAMPs) extremely upregulated in a variety of auto-immune problems.

#Rhosin #Salinosporamide A #MS1943 #G007-LK #GANT61 #RK-33 #ATN-161 #Tetrahydropiperine #SRT2104 #RHPS 4 #LF3 #Rivaroxaban #IKK-16 #BMS-754807 #STF-31 #Quercetin #P5091 #Marimastat #BRD0539 #LLY-283 #OSMI-1 #Dibenzazepine #MPP+ iodide #SM-164 #MK-5108 #ML390 #MM-102 #FIN56 #VH298 #(Z)-4-Hydroxytamoxifen

[belovedsemi1995]

Unit9 Week1 Culture Fridays <Horniman Museum >

I visited the Horniman Museum at Forest Hil for Friday's cultural activities.

From the museum of natural history to exhibitions of history and culture, there was a wide variety of anthropological materials.

Through this exhibition, I learned that an object always has the context of the time when it was created. It was a good opportunity to rethink the contents of the Lectures I heard on Friday through the exhibition.

I realised people can assign functional meanings to objects and stuff by projecting their own socio-cultural experiential knowledge.

As a design student, I should try to discover the perspectives hidden in objects rather than looking at them as it is and see them from a new perspective rather than prejudicing the use of objects and this attitude will be a way to understand the world around us more abundantly.

In addition, many children visited this museum with their parents, and it was impressive that various visual, auditory, and olfactory materials were placed in the museum to create an environment where adults, as well as children, can immerse themselves in the exhibition.

I think children will be bored easily if objects are just displayed, but I think it was a more interesting exhibition because there was a space in the middle where they could stimulate their senses and think. I think this atmosphere can lead to creative ideas from people.

I think this is also one of the examples of maximizing the effectiveness of learning and creativity by putting play elements in education. I think that a critical and self-thinking process is maximized through doing a play. A good exhibition that is created through various sensory stimuli (visual hearing and smell) could be a good play for children.

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Real Dinosaurs Versus Reel Dinosaurs: Film’s Fictionalization of the Prehistoric World

by Shelby Wyzykowski

What better way can you spend a quiet evening at home than by having a good old-fashioned movie night? You dim the lights, cozily snuggle up on your sofa with a bowl of hot, buttery popcorn, and pick out a movie that you’ve always wanted to see: the 1948 classic Unknown Island. Mindlessly munching away on your snacks, your eyes are glued to the screen as the story unfolds. You reach a key scene in the movie: a towering, T. rex-sized Ceratosaurus and an equally enormous Megatherium ground sloth are locked in mortal combat. And you think to yourself, “I’m pretty sure something like this never actually happened.” And you know what? Your prehistorically inclined instincts are correct.

From the time that the first dinosaur fossils were identified in the early 1800s, society has been fascinated by these “terrible lizards.” When, where, and how did they live? And why did they (except for their modern descendants, birds) die out so suddenly? We’ve always been hungry to find out more about the mysteries behind the dinosaurs’ existence. The public’s hunger for answers was first satisfied by newspapers, books, and scientific journals. But then a whole new, sensational medium was invented: motion pictures. And with its creation came a new, exciting way to explore the primeval world of these ancient creatures. But cinema is art, not science. And from the very beginning, scientific inaccuracies abounded. You might be surprised to learn that these filmic faux pas not only exist in movies from the early days of cinema. They pervade essentially every dinosaur movie that has ever been made.

One Million Years B.C.

Another film that can easily be identified as more fiction than fact is 1966’s One Million Years B.C. It tells the story of conflicts between members of two tribes of cave people as well as their dangerous dealings with a host of hostile dinosaurs (such as Allosaurus, Triceratops, and Ceratosaurus). However, neither modern-looking humans nor dinosaurs (again, except birds) existed one million years ago. In the case of dinosaurs, the movie was about 65 million years too late. Non-avian dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago during a mass extinction known as the K/Pg (which stands for “Cretaceous/Paleogene”) event. An asteroid measuring around six miles in diameter and traveling at an estimated speed of ten miles per second slammed into the Earth at what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The effects of this giant impact were so devastating that over 75% of the world’s species became extinct. But the dinosaurs’ misfortunes were a lucky break for Cretaceous Period mammals. They were able to gain a stronger foothold and flourish in the challenging and inhospitable post-impact environment.

Cut to approximately 65 million, 700 thousand years later, when modern-looking humans finally arrived on the chronological scene. Until recently, the oldest known fossils of our species, Homo sapiens, dated back to just 195,000 years ago (which is, in geological terms, akin to the blink of an eye). And for many years, these fossils have been widely accepted to be the oldest members of our species. But this theory was challenged in June of 2017 when paleoanthropologists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology reported that they had discovered what they thought may be the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens on a desert hillside at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. The 315,000-year-old fossils included skull bones that, when pieced together, indicated that these humans had faces that looked very much like ours, but their brains did differ. Being long and low, their brains did not have the distinctively round shape of those of present-day humans. This noticeable difference in brain shape has led some scientists to wonder: perhaps these people were just close relatives of Homo sapiens. On the other hand, maybe they could be near the root of the Homo sapien lineage, a sort of protomodern Homo sapien as opposed to the modern Homo sapien. One thing is for certain, the discovery at Jebel Irhoud reminds us that the story of human evolution is long and complex with many questions that are yet to be answered.

The Land Before Time

Another movie that misplaces its characters in the prehistoric timeline is 1988’s The Land Before Time. The stars of this animated motion picture are Littlefoot the Apatosaurus, Cera the Triceratops, Ducky the Saurolophus, Petrie the Pteranodon, and Spike the Stegosaurus. As their world is ravaged by constant earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the hungry and scared young dinosaurs make a perilous journey to the lush and green Great Valley where they’ll reunite with their families and never want for food again. In their on-screen imagined story, these five make a great team. But, assuming that the movie is set at the very end of the Cretaceous (intense volcanic activity was a characteristic of this time), the quintet’s trip would have actually been just a solo trek. Ducky and Petrie’s species had become extinct several million years earlier, and Littlefoot and Spike would have lived way back in the Jurassic Period (201– 145 million years ago). Cera alone would have had to experience several harrowing encounters with the movie’s other latest Cretaceous creature, the ferocious and relentless Sharptooth, a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Speaking of Sharptooth, The Land Before Time’s animators made a scientifically accurate choice when they decided to draw him with a two-fingered hand, as opposed to the three fingers traditionally embraced by other movie makers. For 1933’s King Kong, the creators mistakenly modeled their T. rex after a scientifically outdated 1906 museum painting. Many other directors knowingly dismissed the science-backed evidence and used three digits because they thought this type of hand was more aesthetically pleasing. By the 1920s, paleontologists had already hypothesized that these predators were two-fingered because an earlier relative of Tyrannosaurus, Gorgosaurus, was known to have had only two functional digits. Scientists had to make an educated guess because the first T. rex (and many subsequent specimens) to be found had no hands preserved. It wasn’t until 1988 that it was officially confirmed that T. rex was two-fingered when the first specimen with an intact hand was discovered. Then, in 1997, Peck’s Rex, the first T. rex specimen with hands preserving a third metacarpal (hand bone), was unearthed. Paleontologists agree that, in life, the third metacarpal of Peck’s Rex would not have been part of a distinct, externally visible third finger, but instead would have been embedded in the flesh of the rest of the hand. But still, was this third hand segment vestigial, no longer serving any apparent purpose? Or could it have possibly been used as a buttressing structure, helping the two fully formed fingers to withstand forces and stresses on the hand? Peck’s Rex’s bones do display evidence that strongly supports arm use. You can ponder this paleo-puzzle yourself when you visit Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition, where you can see a life-sized cast of Peck’s Rex facing off with the holotype (= name-bearing) T. rex, which was the first specimen of the species to be recognized (by definition, the world’s first fossil of the world’s most famous dinosaur!).

T. rex in Dinosaurs in Their Time. Image credit: Joshua Franzos, Treehouse Media

Jurassic Park

One motion picture that did take artistic liberties with T. rex for the sake of suspense was 1993’s Jurassic Park. In one memorable, hair-raising scene, several of the movie’s stars are saved from becoming this dinosaur’s savory snack by standing completely still. According to the film’s paleontological protagonist, Dr. Alan Grant, the theropod can’t see humans if they don’t move. Does this theory have any credence, or was it just a clever plot device that made for a great movie moment? In 2006, the results of ongoing research at the University of Oregon were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, providing a surprising answer. The study involved using perimetry (an ophthalmic technique used for measuring and assessing visual fields) and a scale model T. rex head to determine the creature’s binocular range (the area that could be viewed at the same time by both eyes). Generally speaking, the wider an animal’s binocular range, the better its depth perception and overall vision. It was determined that the binocular range of T. rex was 55 degrees, which is greater than that of a modern-day hawk! This theropod may have even had visual clarity up to 13 times greater than a person. That’s extremely impressive, considering an eagle only has up to 3.6 times the clarity of a human! Another study that examined the senses of T. rex determined that the dinosaur had unusually large olfactory bulbs (the areas of the brain dedicated to scent) that would have given it the ability to smell as well as a present-day vulture! So, in Jurassic Park, even if the eyes of T. rex had been blurred by the raindrops in this dark and stormy scene, its nose would have still homed-in on Dr. Grant and the others, providing the predator with some tasty midnight treats.

Now, it may seem that this blog post might be a bit critical of dinosaur movies. But, truly, I appreciate them just as much as the next filmophile. They do a magnificent job of providing all of us with some pretty thrilling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment. But, somewhere along the way, their purpose has serendipitously become twofold. They have also inspired some of us to pursue paleontology as a lifelong career. So, in a way, dinosaur movies have been of immense benefit to both the cinematic and scientific worlds. And for that great service, they all deserve a huge round of applause.

Shelby Wyzykowski is a Gallery Experience Presenter in CMNH’s Life Long Learning Department. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

#Carnegie Museum of Natural History #Dinosaurs #Dinosaur Movies #Jurassic Park #Jurassic #Land Before Time #Paleontology

[corvidshipping]

i was talking abt my dc ocs the other day so i decided to do a quick lil introductory sketch

info under the cut

top left: The Wraith

also known as Jane Doe. originally an unidentified found person discovered in a ditch outside G.otham with severe amnesia, she is actually Mallory Mire, a young anthropology student who worked in a M.etropolis museum. she has extremely strong but uncontrollable psionic abilities which usually manifest in creating illusions and even warping reality to her beliefs and often her fears. after an accident during a fight between S.carecrow and B.atman, she believes herself to be dead and appears due to her powers as a ghostly, corpselike apparition with poltergeist-like abilities. she is extremely dedicated and loyal to S.carecrow, and usually doesnt stray far from him; when he’s contained within A.rkham, she spends most of her time plotting his escape.

top right: Cerberus

real name Lorelei Othonos. she spent her life as an extremely spoiled wealthy heiress, often attending parties with the likes of B.ruce W.ayne (and developing a friendship with his ward D.ick, who shared her disdain for the stiff authority of their guardians and a mischievous streak) until an incident in which a building her parents occupied was attacked. most of the occupants survived, due to B.atman’s interference, however her parents were unable to be saved and passed away; she became embittered after this and blames B.atman for their passing. this led her to spend an amount of her inheritance on cutting-edge suit and weapon technologies, most notably surgical alterations including nanobots which serve to enhance her natural abilities, giving her superhuman hearing and olfactory senses, enhanced strength and speed, and high endurance. she also has two large German Shepherds, who were her pets before her parents’ passing, which have also been enhanced. though her life goal is now destroying B.atman, Rob.in (now Nightwing) often gets in the way, leading to an enmity between them.

middle bottom: Baby (formerly Baby J)

her birth name is Hilaria Quin.zel. she was raised by her aunt, Janeane Qu.inzel, in a suburb of New Jersey until she was 17. she began asking questions about her mother, and while her aunt refused to tell her who she was or where she could be found (claiming it was for Hilaria’s own safety, since her mother couldnt raise her for a reason), she informed her she was formerly a psychiatrist living in G.otham, though she wasn’t sure what she was doing now. Hilaria then set off to attempt to find her mother, only equipped with her surname and this knowledge. however, on a chance coincidence she was kidnapped and held hostage by the J.oker. this led to her meeting H.arley Q.uinn, and noting a striking similarity to her own appearance - later investigation into police records led to her realization that this was the very mother she seeked. in order to become closer to her, she aligns herself with the J.oker under the claim of Stockholm syndrome, though he is constantly suspicious of her. H.arley initially gives her the nickname of Baby J as she jokes that they’re like a nuclear family now. after she leaves J.oker’s posse when she fears for her safety, she is hired by Cerberus and Wraith as hired muscle for a plan to take the entire staff of Ar.kham hostage to accomplish both of their goals: for Cerberus, to attract B.atman’s attention to potentially destroy him, and for Wraith to release S.carecrow.

#paper_heart.jpg #oc: wraith #oc: cerberus #oc: hilaria #origamis

[rahimaldemir]

Let’s thing biology wise- 1000 years in the future and the virus has gone through several mutations... where do you think the strain would end up? How would it evolve? We’ve seen that it strives to be the ultimate predator...

Okay, ahaha, so I used to be an anthropology major, and did some of studies on biological anthropology and the evolution of humans and shit like that, so I’m gonna draw on that a lot for this.

I’m just gonna talk about volatiles, because that’s easier than trying to address all of them. I’m going to take two major things into account when thinking about this: getting access to resources (in this case, food, i.e. people) and reproduction.Which is also one of the reasons I’m only focusing on volatiles/night hunters, because they’re the only zombie type that has developed a way to reproduce at the time of the game.

I’m also going to go into this with a few assumptions. First, that human beings and infected are kind of cohabitating on Earth, and that humans haven’t been run to the brink of extinction. Two, that in DL, infected function mainly off of vision and sound, this is based off the fact that human (and most other primates) have shorter snouts/weaker olfactory senses, so it doesn’t make sense for for smell to suddenly become their strongest trait. I think there’s two really big branches the evolution could go down:

1.) Volatiles, or whatever the infected are at that point, would evolve to be able to withstand UV light, allowing them to hunt during the day. Although they are a nocturnal species, being physically incapable of being out during the day AND being away when majority of their primary food source is sleeping or hiding away would eventually have an impact. Being active at the same time as your prey is a major part of any predator species.

Or 2.) Volatiles fully commit to the night life. We’re talking enhanced night vision, so bigger eyes. We see volatiles tumble off of roof tops enough that it makes me think their perception of their surroundings is still underdeveloped.

If they do stay nocturnal, I think they’d need some efficient enough way to hunt humans even when they’re hiding in their homes or something so proficient that the second humans step out at night, there’s risk of a volatile scooping them up. This second option is under the assumption that in a functioning world, it’s not realistic for human beings to NEVER leave their safe houses at night.

If volatiles were to stay bipedal, I think their legs would need to develop to withstand long falls and make large jumps. Even with their still very human bodies, volatiles rely of jumping a lot. If their sight doesn’t get any better, then this would also help save them for when they fall of buildings. There’s a possibility their feet and hands may also elongate to better grip climbing.

Tbh, it all really depends on whether they put their evolutionary points into running or climbing. I would THINK climbing would server them better, letting them climb tall buildings, break into windows, traverse cityscapes. I know I mentioned the chance of them remaining bipedal, but honestly it’d probably make more sense if they became at least partially quadrupedal. Maybe kind of like lemurs.

Their joints and bones’ resistance to trauma would also need to get better fast. Human feet, knees, and backs are what we would call the peak of evolution.

If they retain human brain size, they’d probably have a strong level of problem solving and would be able to trick prey or use tools much more proficiently than any other non-human animal.

Going into reproduction, there’s also a chance that volatiles would start to diversify biologically based on role, much like an ant colony or bee hive. We already see this in the night hunter, who I think of as like a nest keeper/responsible for guarding new, budding volatiles. Their maneuverability is much, much more advanced than the the run off the mill volatile. They also seem much more deadly. So tbh? Maybe that’s what volatiles will evolve to be more like in general.

I’m really sorry anon, I got super burnt out half way through this and I have a lot more to talk about, but no energy to do it.

#dying light #asks #anon #stills

[lachlann-macnab]

Task #11: Create your own class for Pride University. Who teaches it? Come up with three assignments

Semiotics 

A class for any student in Sociology, Comunications, Publicity and Graphic Design.

Teacher: Prof. James Lipton, commonly refered by students as "The Director"

About Semiotics:

"Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the study of sign process (semiosis), which is any form of activity, conduct, or any process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the sign itself, to the interpreter of the sign. The meaning can be intentional such as a word uttered with a specific meaning, or unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition. 

Signs can communicate through any of the senses, visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory.

The semiotic tradition explores the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications. Unlike linguistics, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems. Semiotics includes the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, analogy, allegory, metonymy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication.

Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological and sociological dimensions (...)"

Schedule:

Monday and Friday from 16:00 to 17:00

Three asignments:

*Create a video about what semiotics study and how. Allude to it's history and main figures. (Example)

*Select ten logos from any business, identify their signifier and signifieds, elaborate your answers.

*Watch the short "Singles" by Rebecca Sugar. Write an essay using the concepts of dennotation and connotation to explain the short's story.

#bdrpwrimo #bdrpwrimo2020 #bdrpwrimojean

[connywrites]

To Tame A Beast

also on [ao3]

-

‘Dental’ visits were generally a messy process as the humans ensured the ports that rooted titanium teeth into the gums were well intact, fully functional and decorative enough to display with their reflective chromatic exterior, despite their functionality being centrally a weapon.

Optical units programmed with vertical pupils that could shift from full-orbital dilation to needle-thin constriction, allowing the androids to see in any and all ranges of light. Olfactory receptors were designed to detect scents up to 500 feet away, and UV, nightvision and low-light settings enable the androids to track humans and other androids for long distances and extended periods of time.

Extendable jaws that could detach and artificial skin that could stretch. Retractable claws, transluscent double eyelids, prehensile tails and heat-seeking weaponry. Digitigrade legs, gleaming synthetic skin and crosshair eyes—but for the most part, they tried to keep the government-oriented androids looking relatively human, and so the RK800 remained fairly unassuming until its jaws were pried open, showing oversized, lengthy teeth that nearly dug through the inner lip and gums when the mouth was closed, one of the inspectors whistling as he showed a teammate a flash of the powerful robotic jowls.

“Better than a K9 unit,” he said, patting the android on the cheek – fleshy and humanoid, as were the brown eyes that gazed him down and the auburn hair donning its head, the clothing fitting an otherwise anthropological form. The android blinked its quadruple lids with curiosity, but otherwise remained still.

“Connor,” rang a voice it seemed to know to listen to as its head turned and its eyes focused in on wherever the noise emitted from. Recognizing its designated ‘partner’, it stepped away from its parking slot to trail behind the older male, silver-haired with a glare of contempt in his blue eyes as he left the building with an elaborate killing machine following close behind.

-

“Stay away from the dog,” the man commanded from his place on the couch, and the android registered the sound of an opening can as he pried away the tab of a cold beer.

“Will do,” the machine responded politely, though its voice remained evidently artificial in nature, earning a skeptical glare but no other response for the time being.

-

“Do you think they’re properly equipped to manage situations like these?” The voice was unfamiliar, but it echoed down the halls of the DPD.

“That’s the whole point of a prototype, isn’t it?” Another voice, more adamant, responded to the first.

“Kamski didn’t design them for this.”

“Kamski isn’t in charge anymore. Cyberlife is, and they design the androids.” Tension hung with the silence in the air.

-

Snapping hinges clasped with long canines digging through fake flesh, brown fingers with gray talons piercing into the external shell of his opponent.

“What will you do? Send another Connor?” The words echoed in its ears, encouraging it to use more of its strength as it shoved the RK200 to the ground.

“If I need to,” it responded with a snarl, and he mimicked its expression just the same—though his teeth were flat and sharp, sharklike with a sheen edge like that of a double-sided blade, his smirk resembling that of an angler fish.

“You’re outnumbered, Markus.” Its words smarted, but in a swift movement, he had it pinned beneath him by the shoulders.

“Maybe. But outpowered?” The sound of grinding metal grated against Connor’s audio processors while the dark tone of the skin on Markus’ torso washed away while his body split down the middle to open with curled, sharp-ended clawlike ribs curving in beneath plastic and metal flesh, revealing an intricate system of faux organs, variously transparent and generally filled with gradient blue liquid.

“You want to kill me? Now’s your chance.” It was a trap, Connor knew it by the way thirium swirled through the artificial transparent ‘veins’ and glinted under the sunlight, protected by a complicated mechanical endoskeleton that shined silver and white. Connor opened its jaw and disconnected the lower portion so it could separate and catch a larger bite of his shin, crunching down on the calf; with a grunt of dismay, Markus raised his leg and flipped his weight so he was on top of Connor, staring it down. Teeth sharp enough to slice through android parts with ease, Connor eyed the plethora of fangs lining the inside of his mouth in rows. Connor’s teeth were large, long and dull, meant for crushing the way the limb caved beneath its bite, while Markus’ were small but needle-sharp, ripping through synthetic flesh, cables and plastic tubes like tissue paper; something that offset its original neutralize all deviants programming as when a ‘stronger’ opponent might outmatch it, a flood of ‘adrenaline’ charging it to lunge at the enemy and return itself to the top position. Markus hissed, the ‘flesh’ of his jaws bending outward and revealing more layers of teeth like a snake adjusting its maw for the next meal half its own size. Preparing itself for what would come next, Connor was quick to upload its memories to the upcoming model before arrowhead teeth sunk into its forearm, cutting a plethora of small slits in a circular pattern into its arm, signaling it to react similarly and open its maw wide with jaws clenching tight onto the neck of its opponent before he had time to deflect its attack. Hearing the crunch of a prosthetic throat, Markus emitted a wail of pain with another bodily flip so he had the physical advantage again, his anatomy rematerializing as his internal organs receded and his skin recolored itself in its usual human-mimicking tone.

Connor snapped its jaws and hissed, a loud clack of teeth ricocheting through their surroundings as it snarled and glowered, eyes wide and violent with preparation to attack. The android that was Markus let out a gurgling noise, body thrashing as he was quick to slither beneath Connor and press his feet to its chest, launching it away with one determined kick of two powerful legs. Claws unsheathing from beneath humanesque fingernails, Connor caught itself on its toes as its talons dug into the dirt beneath the two of them. Thirium dribbled from its lips as well as the deeply indented marks on the other android’s limbs, and Markus took the moment as an opportunity to lunge forth again, shoving the RK800 by the shoulders while heaving all of his weight forth to tackle it in one rapid, heavy movement, feet quickly re-arranging their plates into a semicircle as they morphed into hooves, one of which he quickly stomped into Connor’s face to fracture the biocomponents in its nose as it peeled away from its head, revealing a cutaway of the interior wiring; flickering sparks of bright blue as disconnected pathways struggled to make up for the missing components. With a snarl, the RK800’s face split in two, dividing into a pair of symmetrical one-sided jaws full of heavy metal teeth with an appendage vaguely resembling a tongue flicking between the flat ‘halves’ of the entity’s head.

Startled, Markus reeled backwards, preparing himself for the next attack as Connor whipped its ‘head’ around with one side stretching in an attempt to bite his neck, but his own claws tore through the flexible plastic of its cheek, hooking fingers around one jaw before placing the other on the opposite side, pulling each side of the head in opposite directions until it tore through at the base of its collar, watching as cables separated and popped apart from the pressure.

“Tell your next model to try harder,” Markus said in warning, stepping over the limp chassis to press a hoof to its chest in a signal of dominance. Signaling the collection of androids around him, he waved his hand in a gesture that meant he had remained victorious.

“Now, we wait. We wait, and we prepare.”

#aka krit spent too much time lookn @ toothy nines on pinterest #n got Ideas #au #detroit: become human #dbh: markus #dbh: connor

[transcending-chaos]

I really enjoy your art and find your headcanons for the creatures both interesting and somehow fitting despite there not being a lot of information about them. But I am curious, do you have any headcanons for each tribe in general?

(I got this question a while ago; using it now because my hands hurt too much to draw right now. Thank you for your patience.)

UnderWorlders

Those that live in areas like UnderWorld City, the Lava Pond, or places where the air is largely filled with sulfur gas have less of a sense of smell and taste than most other UWs. Scent isn’t as viable in those regions because it’s largely masked by the gases that spout from the ground. However, because this means that those Creatures have stunted olfactory senses, this is why they typically spice the heck out of their food (and you can sort of smell it in the air once you get used to the sulfur). They can’t taste most things without it, especially sweet-things, so most of their cooking is often really strong -be it simple dishes, to feasts, to really hard alcohol. This lack of taste is especially true in the Creatures that breathe fire, as they have fewer nerves in their mouth and tongues as a whole due to the extreme temperatures their bodies have been made to withstand.

Related to that last point, it’s why their hygiene seems a little lacking in comparison to the other Tribes. While they can certainly feel grime, they don’t smell it as much, and besides, water is a very rare resource for them so they’re not going to waste it with superfluous bathing.

UnderWorlders are strangely possessive of their Humans. Though most don’t outwardly show it (because that broadcasts something that could be used against them), those that have ‘wards’ or connections to Players will absolutely destroy something in order to protect them. If given the opportunity, most UnderWorlders would leap at the chance to have someone study under them (kind of like how Grook did with Kaz), as training is usually a social behavior shared not only among students and teachers, but friendly sparing between family members is somewhat of a culturally sacred thing. However, most are aware that they’d likely kill a Player if this was attempted.

Von Bloot was never a respected leader; his army was made of conscripts and people forced into a situation where they had no other choice. That being said, most are also dissatisfied that Chaor took so long to do something about him, as well as the fact that he wasn’t the one who finally got Von Bloot in the end. There’s a bit of a power-vacuum in the southern UW after he’s gone. 

Some UnderWorlders would swear that they can feel Fire in a few Players. This is part of the reason Chaor has not outright wiped Tom from existence (the other part being that his human is too attached to him). 

Danians

Danians are surprisingly adept at playing music and making instruments. Because of their connection to each other, it’s easy for them to harmonize sounds together and create layered symphonies that are perfectly in time with one another. They specialize in percussion, be it stamping of the feet, steel drums, or humming to make a beat. Also, younger Danians have a tendency to chitter or hum without realizing it. It’s pretty common to find their designated part of the Hive thrumming with sound, even in the dead of night. It’s a calming noise for the soldiers who can’t sleep, as it sounds entirely of contentment, and those with insomnia have a small medical barracks next to it so that they can be lulled asleep.

While uncommon, some Danians crave physical affection. Most have a pretty steely demeanor, but those with softer sides are usually the ones you can find befriending Players. Their culture isn’t too big on affection as a whole, so when encountering Humans (who as a species are aggressively social), it was like striking gold. These Danians tend to favor younger Players, as they are commonly predisposed to protect those they know cannot help themselves. 

Most Battle-Masters have a (mostly) one-way connection to the Hive. They can send out orders, but it’s hard for them to receive messages unless it’s from the Queen or her personal entourage. This is because they often have to make choices that will end up costing lives, and they don’t have the sense of solidarity most other Danian classes do. While many Mandiblors will provide solace to one another because they feel the loss and rift that fallen left behind, Battle-Masters typically don’t. After all, who wants to mourn when you’re the reason that they’re gone? Instead, you need to focus on the next fight and prevent such a thing from happening again.

Needless to say, that last point is a huge contention between Muges in the Hive and the generals. One focusses mainly on how things are connected, while the other is fundamentally incapable of understanding it. 

They detest spiders. All of them. “Nothing holy would create something with that many eyes.”

Mipedians

Typically seen as the most wealthy of the Tribes, Mipedians are totally unmotivated by most commodities, but are very willing to trade for food. As they live in a literal desert, it’s hard for them to grow much of anything, even in the oasis areas. Cactuses are farmed in some places, but for the most part they rely solely on imports. The biggest provider is the OverWorld, and strangely enough, no matter how bad things get between the Tribes, this agreement is never threatened (Maxxor has never considered starving them, nor would he dare entertain the idea; he refuses to punish an entire nation because their leaders aren’t being reasonable) which is a contrast to how how the arrangements between the Mipedians and the other two Tribes. 

Wearing chimes is a very common practice among most ordinary citizens. Not only does the metal heat up nicely in the sun, but it’s a way for parents to hear where their kids are. Most families will have their chimes tuned to a certain chord. Markets and bazaars are not only an amazing experience for the eyes, as seeing glittering scales, silks, and fantastic wares, but also for the ears due to the pleasant clinking of jewelry.

Mipedians have community sunbathing sessions. Towns have them at different times and days from one another, but it’s usually the highlight of the week. Typically, it’s just after the highest point of sun in the sky until dusk (though officials and soldiers leave only after about an hour or two). After that there are campfires in the night and shared potluck styled banquets. It’s great for community morale, as well as a grounding measure for those working in their political structure to see their subjects as people and interact with them as such instead of just ‘subjects.’ If one’s in the desert at night and there’s no breeze, you might hear jovial laughter and smell food on the wind. 

This is also a way of helping guide lost travelers home. It has saved many poor wanderers of all Tribes, and is the one time outsiders won’t be taken into custody immediately. 

OverWorlders

They’re the only Tribe with multiple classes and schools of Muge: Naturalists, Hunes, Archivists, and war-Muges. Naturalists are typically those who rely on elemental abilities, study the connections of the natural world, and believe that everything has innate tethers to the Cothica (something that’s rejected by the other schools). Hunes are primarily scholars or political figures, often trying to find out the nature of Mugic itself, demystify it, as well as create their own sphere of influence in the public. Archivists are like Najarin, where they take a primarily historically and anthropological view of Mugic, the world, and how things have changed. War-Muges are just those who learn to cast in order to use it in battle.

They’re the only Tribe that has territory that has other sovereign nations within it. The Gherix, Zeorn, and a whole host of others all occupy pieces of land within the vast realm, and many have diplomats stationed in Kiru. Also, if the Frozen weren’t ever intended to be a Tribe, I think they were just a society of OW Creatures that lived up higher than Glacier Plains (however it seems like they were meant to be their own thing, but this is kind of what I default to when making AUs where there are other Tribes occupying the 6th and 7th spots).

The monarchy in the OverWorld isn’t a typical monarchy. When in times of war, the council will elect a monarch as a tie-breaking vote that can veto or agree to motions set before them by other groups. Maxxor didn’t get the position because of his father, and in fact, he’s a better politician and negotiator that his dad. His father was a better general and warrior though, and this is something older council members will use to needle him when unhappy with him. 

OverWorlders have a strange superstition when it comes to twins. Many see it as a single entity that was split in half because the whole was “too bright a light to burn on its own” meaning that it likely would have only led a brief life that, while prosperous and happy, would unravel rapidly and severely. Most consider twins a blessing because of this, as it’s seen as a way of sparing the family from having to bury a child earlier than expected. 

Most villages have ‘moon pendulums’, or a set of stones on chains that trace the orbit of the three moons over a huge pit of sand or gravel. It’s essentially a lunar calendar that helps them keep track of the holidays. Some have special stones of different colors or that glow in the dark, just as a way of making sure no one bumps into it at night. 

#i apologize for typos i'll fix them later #chaos speaks

[velvetbloem-blog]

a brief introduction to who i am, except this is my motivation letter for a scholarship.

Being someone who puts interest in various kind of things, including science, art, and literature, I have never thought about architecture in my entire life. In my daily life as a student in the most prestigious and highly competitive catholic high school in my town, I am actively involved in either academic or non-academic activities. As a product of consistency and perseverance, I am the in the top 20% among students who major in science and mandarin language. I believe that as a human being, we always need to improve our social skills and to broaden our network, as well as enhancing our leadership skills. Thus, I often got involved in my school team’s film making process, in which I was in charge of being the art director, scriptwriter and production designer, leading my interest to spark in the field of architecture and interior design.  

Architecture is an adequate template in which I can express my interest to art, science and literature in a universal form. Architecture is not just a mere, stiff introduction into construction of a building, the technique to build it and physical theories behind it, or even the vague explanation of the beauty or aesthetic elements a building possesses. I have always been fascinated with how architecture influences the mechanism in our brain-when the complete sensory of a human being can synchronize with one another, savoring the space displayed in front of their eyes, their olfactory sensing tranquility from the corners of the room, their body reacting to the dimension of the space created by the structure of the building. Architecture is a language that eloquently articulates poetic yet philosophical meaning behind the construction, a container of history in which it involves the role of economy, anthropology, or even geography.

Albeit the absence of professional experience in architecture besides attending architectural exhibition or reading books related to architecture, I am eager to comprehend the discipline theoretically and practically. During high school, I always challenge myself to lead several shows such as being the director and choreographer of Indonesian traditional dancing and singing competition which won first place in my school, also to be the director and scriptwriter of the annual historical drama show in my school which gained appreciation and interest of the audience and judges. In 2018, I independently conducted social voluntary work named “J’adore La Vie” which is a movement that intends to raise the community’s empathy towards others in a form of sharing secondhand clothes and sharing home-made foods.

Being involved in a group project molded me to become someone with great leadership skills that requires the ability to cooperate and communicate with my colleagues in order to conquer obstacles and to reach the goal of the team. Maintaining the cohesiveness of a group has substantially become my basic skill to study abroad and to study architecture. I am elated to welcome any difference or change whether it is in a form of other’s opinion or culture. Therefore, studying in China provides not only knowledge of its cultural diversity, but also challenge to testify my ability to adapt with new environment in a whole new country. I also see a strong connection between teamwork and a construction of architecture-a proper building is a product of an organized cooperation of a group. I am keen to learn about the colorful diversity of China, as well as to meet people from all around the world to break the boundaries between nations and also to build beneficial connection between countries. I have a tremendous enthusiasm towards implementing what my recent activities have taught me.

The prominent civilization China had built captivates and intrigues me to experience the process of its evolution. Chinese are very visionary when it comes to strategies related to their country’s future, especially in science and technological aspect. Nevertheless, the rapidly growing economy, the highly advanced technology is not an excuse for China to abandon the heritage their ancestors had descended. I strongly respect the traditionalism Chinese possess in order to maintain their cultural authenticity and origin. Besides, in the field of architecture, architects in China have been assimilating Chinese traditional characteristic of a building with modern urban design. The implementation of yin and yang, the epitome of balance, is something I aspire to learn in China.

Chinese are renowned for their character of persistence and perseverance, especially to gain excellence in the aspect of education. The global rank which shows high reputation of education institutes in China is an assurance to reach competence in terms of education in the said country. I believe that the condition of being surrounded by purposeful and determined people motivates me to always endeavor. Given the opportunity to pursue my undergraduate studies in China by China Scholarship Council would be an honor for me to acquire advanced knowledge about architecture, and to contribute to the progress of my country, Indonesia.

After the completion of my undergraduate studies, I aspire to pursue my career in terms of architecture in order to strengthen the connection between two countries by preserving the graceful heritage of China and Indonesia, cooperating with UNESCO. Being involved in several act concerning humanity, I believe that architecture does not embody in a mere aesthetic space but also to give functional shelter to others, hence I aspire to provide facilitation for people in need all around the globe. With the ability I possess, I will bring out my best for my study in China, conducting further research focused in China and Indonesia as well as the relation between both countries especially in architectural and cultural influence.

I always believe that the future is in the hand of the young. I aspire to have a global impact after completing my study China, also to elicit remarkable movement that is able to preserve the local wisdom, as well as breaking the boundary between art and science. With all these elaboration, I would like to conclude that China is the ideal home for me to continue my education. I hope this application is up to your standard and reach your favorable consideration. I really look forward to studying in China, and I am ready to cooperate with people in a global scale.

[santa-maria-distretto-rovereto]

🟡 OTTOBRE È UN MESE MERAVIGLIOSO, A ROVERETO! In questi giorni il RAM Film Festival offre uno squisito programma di proiezioni a tema archeologico, storico, paleonotologico e antropologico, come di esperienze diffuse nei quartieri della nostra città. Palazzo Betta-Grillo in Santa Maria è aperto per voi questo sabato 16 ottobre, all'interno della programmazione RAM, in collaborazione con Touring Club. Sempre sabato il trekking urbano di Visitrovereto vi porta da Santa Maria lungo tutto il chilometro delle meraviglie. Il Museo della Città e il Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra aprono le proprie porte sul Leno con diversi appuntamenti. Info: https://www.rassegnacinemaarcheologico.it/rica_context.jsp?ID_LINK=115152&area=316 In sintonia con il nostro recente laboratorio olfattivo condotto da Marco Ceravolo, l'interesse per l'ofatto informa il percorso odoroso legato alla civetta portaessenze Askos di Paolo Orsi. Info: https://www.osvaldomaffei.com/osvaldo-new-osvaldo/ 🟡 OCTOBER IS A WONDERFUL MONTH IN ROVERETO! These days the RAM Film Festival offers an exquisite programme of screenings on archaeological, historical, paleonotological and anthropological themes, as well as widespread experiences in the neighbourhoods of our city. Palazzo Betta-Grillo in Santa Maria is open for you this Saturday 16 October, as part of the RAM programme, in collaboration with Touring Club. Also on Saturday, Visitrovereto's urban trekking takes you from Santa Maria along the kilometre of wonders. The City Museum and the Italian War History Museum open their doors on the Leno with various appointments. In tune with our recent olfactory workshop led by Marco Ceravolo, the interest in the ophatto informs the odour path linked to Paolo Orsi's Askos owl fragrance holder. #santamariadistrettorovereto #vallagarina #visitvallarsa #visitrovereto #visitvallagarina #rigenerazioneurbana #rigenerarovereto #giallo #distrettogiallo #yellow #yellowdistrict #distrettosantamaria #santamariadistrict #roveretoincentro #comunedirovereto #bettagrillo #distrettosanmarco #roveretodowntown #distrettocultura #distrettodellaquercia #ramfestival #touringclubtrentino #archeologia (presso Via Santa Maria) https://www.instagram.com/p/CU_01xKjplK/?utm_medium=tumblr

#santamariadistrettorovereto #vallagarina #visitvallarsa #visitrovereto #visitvallagarina #rigenerazioneurbana #rigenerarovereto #giallo #distrettogiallo #yellow #yellowdistrict #distrettosantamaria #santamariadistrict #roveretoincentro #comunedirovereto #bettagrillo #distrettosanmarco #roveretodowntown #distrettocultura #distrettodellaquercia #ramfestival #touringclubtrentino #archeologia

[leapfrogstrategyconsulting]

SEMIOTICS IN MARKETING

Semiotics is the detailed study of signs, symbols and visuals. It clarifies the meaning through our cultural and social background, uncovering how we decipher messages intuitively. Our subconscious understandings depend on feelings, not academic information. Marketing is all about delivering the correct message, at the right time, to the right individual. Semiotics in marketing encourages you do that. A brand of cultural anthropology which takes a gander at the use of signs and symbols as a method for delivering and passing on the meaning, semiotics is a crucial element in the study of marketing, advertising and branding. In marketing communications and advertising, semiotics offers a key job in deciding the success or failure of any brand.

Through the successful employment of verbal, visual and performative (i.e. activities by the customer) components, brands can reinforce their reach to their prospective clients. These symbolic components incorporates logos, trends and culture, symbols, colours, notable people, text, advertisements, sites, physical environments, hospitality and administration, slogans and other "touch points".

An incredible case of a powerful use of semiotics is found in the application of metaphors. These are usually the comprehended ideas will in that resonates effectively with your intended customer groups.

To make semiotics one step further, it is useful to consider how this works as an effective tool for a successful brand communication. Semiotics includes the "assortment and analysis of the information drawn from communication of all types – artistically or regularly, in a wide range of media including verbal, visual, and olfactory" and is valuable for "explaining the brand values in the brand audit, and then tracking the application of these values over all components of the marketing mix."

Semiotics in marketing includes examining social patterns, cultural acceptances, language, non-verbal signals, behavioural norms, social decorum, and traditions. It also incorporates seeing how the different tangible and intangible emotional stimuli of a brand communicates with one another or impacts its influences the target customer.

Therefore, it can be comprehended that executing a steady brand communications program alone isn't sufficient. Or maybe, one ought to embrace a more comprehensive methodology which includes studying the extraordinary context of where the communications takes place.  By applying such methodology, we can more readily foresee and control how customers would react to a brand given their current socio-cultural settings.

Implementing Semiotics in Marketing

Whenever you are considering to reveal an extravagant brand name, logo, redesigned shop or new product feature, consider what your complete bundle of signs and symbols mean to your customers before doing as such.

Ask yourself these questions before planning anything:

Is there collaboration between what you're attempting to communicate and what your staff are stating at the shops?

How does culture impact the way various shapes, colours, and words are perceived?

Are the various images and symbols utilized in your communications intelligent and synergistic?

Have you thought about how profound metaphors could impact the manner in which your content is comprehended?

Do you anticipate any conflicts in the comprehension of meaning between what you seek to offer, and what your crowd may perceive?

Would customers be able to relate to your visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile stimuli with your products or services?

It is safe to say that you are giving an inappropriate impression with that brilliant fluorescent pink packaging that you're putting resources into? Or on the other hand, that boring dark shades used for your logo?

Offering wrong signs can be very hindering to your brand image. It additionally discredits whatever purpose you may have to offer.

By grasping the principles of semiotic analysis in marketing, the chances of having a genuine effect on the customers’ lives – and the bottom lines – may improve fundamentally. Doing so additionally causes us to maintain a strategic distance from the heart breaking indiscretions which may emerge from a helpless comprehension of how customers see and respond to different emotive stimuli.

Ref: https://leapfrogstrategy.blogspot.com/2020/08/semiotics-in-marketing.html

#ADVERTISING AND SEMIOTICS #DIGITAL PLATFORMS & BRAND SEMIOTICS #SEMIOTICS IN ADVERTISING #SEMIOTICS IN MARKETING

[listentotheland]

What is it about sound? What is it about sound that generates so much attention …from us Humanoids? That is my new designation for the ethnographical current manifestation of the anthropologically labeled HomoSapien – meaning simply that the general, but often challenged, three ethnicities are Caucasoid, Negroid Mongoloid I postulate that the Humanoid nervous system is wired from Paleolithic times to consume data, information, from the environment he/she inhabits because it is vital for survival. I live in a crowded city New York, with large wealth disparity, I’m occasionally, but rarely, last time 20 years ago, endangered by mugging ‘n robbing; in such situations, generic sound is received through my ears, hi-fi wired to transfer specific sound waves, translated to audio data, of sounds such as footsteps, or the whisper of an arm brushing against a jacket – alerts me to something curious happening behind me. TURN or RUN. Of course there are millions of different sounds with less dangerous qualities. A bee buzzing somewhere above me – there I go again particularly driven toward threats to my well being. It is quite obvious that sound is vital data. Dogs, I am told, have hearing and smell identification sensitivity many times more accurate than we. So, if sound is so important, what if controlled sound is created, without fearful consequences, organized with repetition, variation or melodic sequence of pitched notes? Music. Surely everyone else knows it, but because I’m under the influence at this moment, stoned, ordinary things, events or objects, appear revelatory like first discovery. I am very responsive to ‘music’. For example that last sentence of my writing, tapping my keyboard, while in the background listening to early jazz era music, the last word ‘music’, was synchronized with a beat from the big drum standing sideways, Thump Thump …activated with a foot petal, a musician’s foot. That era of jazz is very playful, purposed for entertainment such as encouraging dancing or cheering up a sad person – just listen right now, trumpets are dancing along with the trombones droning in the background, a high pitched clarinet fancy-skipping over of all that and even a growly folk voice singing about romance, girl ’n boyfriends, Saturday night, end of work week. Relief. Freedom. As I tap out these words on the keyboard my shoulders are bouncing sideways, right moving forwards while the left backwards, and every which way to that ‘slow slow quick quick’ of this 1920s Dixieland jazz band. It aligns with my heart pulse and my breathing. It thrills me. Gets me on my feet – Muscrat Romp with Louis Armstrong on cornet. So actually this inquiry into sound propels these words – what is it about sound that our ears are biologically designed to optimize the signal of in the ear-canal? The inner ear, the cochlea, the thousand fine auditory receptor hairs that amplify and transduce, convert into electronic data, the nuanced character of the received audio waves. Ears & Eyes. Our major cognitive receptors that are hard-wired to our supersonic electro-chemical nerves and to the Incredibly Complex Data Center for Evaluation, Storage and Processing of Aural & Ocular Information. BRAIN. At this writing I am not including the other significant, necessary for survival taste and smell functions, the tongue buds and olfactory neurons, delivers vital data to the brain as well. I am a poor wayfaring stranger, while traveling through this land of woe. Yet there’s no sickness, toil or danger, in that bright world to which I go.

#IFTTT #Vimeo #art 360 #listening to the land

[jacopossum]

Introduction to biological anthropology lecture 1

Introduction to Biological Anthropology (Da ora in poi abbreviata in Bioant)

Biological Anthropology studies humans in the same way that zoologists study their subject species (from a perspective that includes all aspects of the species’ biology and emphasizes the interrelationships among those aspects). For Bioant appreciates that our cultural behavior is an integral part of our behavior as a species.

Biological anthropology: a subfield of anthropology (the biocultural study of human species[species: a group of organisms capable of interbreeding to produce fertile and viable offspring]) that studies humans as a biocultural species. The holistic approach is the hallmark of anthropology in general, which means we assume an interrelationship between the parts of a subject. This is where it gets complicated because the most important characteristics in this study is culture, and cultural behavior is not programmed in our genes as is much of the behavior of many other animal species.

·       Human culture (ideas and behavior that are learned and shared, nonbiological means of adaptation) is learned (how we behave comes to us through all our experience, i.e: language). Cultural knowledge involves also ideas, concepts, generalizations (which can be applied to new situations) and abstractions (i.e: speaking without knowing grammar).

·       Human culture exists in the context of human social interactions, it must be shared among members of a social group. Since cultural ideas are often complex they may require the use of symbols to be shared.

·       Human culture is highly variable and flexible. It differs from society to society, from environment to environment, and from one period to another period. It may also differ in detail from individual to individual because we modify our cultural behavior depending on the circumstances.

Therefore, one of the main characteristics of anthropology is the biocultural approach (the interactions between our nature as a biological species  and the cultural behavior).

Primates: large-brained, mostly tree-dwelling mammals with three-dimensional color vision and grasping hands. Humans are primates. Prosimian: a primate with primitive features, most closely resembling the ancient primates.

When monkeys first evolved, about 40mya, they proved more generalized than their prosimian ancestors, the earliest primates. The monkeys were larger-brained and diurnal (prosimians were nocturnal), and well adapted to an active arboreal life (eating mixed diet of leaves, fruits and insects). As the monkeys underwent speciation and radiated into new niches, they displaced their prosimians ancestors. Ex- In the New World there are only monkeys (prosimians became extinct in North America. In the Old World (Europe, Africa, Asia), prosimians were pushed into marginal areas (i.e- in the island of Madagascar, which separated from mainland Africa prior to the monkeys’ evolution. The process that produced Homo Sapiens are the same processes that have produced every single species on our planet. There are 200 to 300 living species of primates. They have these phenotypic characteristics in common:

·       Senses: primates lives in a visual world because vision is the predominant sense of primates. 60% of primates see in in colors (prosimians don’t, but have better sense of small and hearing) and all of them see in three dimensions. They have true depth perception (stereoscopic vision) possible due to their anatomy and neurology. Nerve and muscles of primates are enclosed within a protective bony socket. However, they lack the auditory and olfactory sensitivity of other mammals. Primates lack a snout (grugno) and so have a relatively flat face.

·       Movement: Primates are most quadrupedal, humans are the only species which is bipedal. Primates have extreme flexible limbs and their hands have the ability to grasp object (defined as prehensile). These traits are used for several forms of locomotion. Some primates are called vertical clingers and leapers and jump from branch to branch or trunk to trunk using the grasping ability of all four limbs. The apes are suspensory climbers, with the ability to hang and climb by the arms. An extreme form of this mode of movements if brachiation: swinging arm-over-arm through trees (figure 1.1). When on the ground, most primates use all fours (i.e: Asian’s orangutans walk on their fists, African apes support themselves on the knuckles of their hands instead of the palms). Primates may use one or more than one of this method of locomotion, depending on their anatomy or on the situation. Another important phenotypic feature is the ability to touch their thumbs to the tips of the other fingers on the same hand. This allows them to pick up and manipulate small objects (this is called opposability). Finally, most primates have nails rather than claws on the tips of the fingers and toes which provide support for the sensitive tactile sense receptors of the fingers. In conclusion, primates have manual dexterity and some have a great degree of dexterity in their feet as well.

·       Reproduction: the majority of primate species give birth to one offspring at a time (lemurs usually produce twins or triplets). As is typical for mammals, primate parents take an active role in the protection, nurturing and socialization of their young. Therefore, particularly due to their large brains and the importance of learning, young primates are dependent on adults and take a long time to mature (depends on the species). Overall, the primates, relative to size, have the longest period of postnatal dependency of any mammal.

·       Intelligence: Intelligence can be defined as the relative ability of an organism’s brain to acquire, store, retrieve and process information. These abilities are related to:

o   Brain size: a bigger brain has more room for all the complex nerve connections that makes it work (brain size variation within a species is another matter, in humans, for example, no substantiated correlation has been shown between brain size and intelligence). But the brain size must be looked in a relative way and compared to the size of the body. So the primates have the largest relative brain size of all land mammals.

o   Brain connection: the primate brain is complex

In short, the primates are smart.

·       Behavior patterns: primates are social animals and most of them live in groups (and still those who live solitary, such as the orangutans, interact with other members of their species in far more complex way than other animals that lives in group do). The difference is that primates recognize individuals, and the individual primate holds a particular status relative to others in its group. A primate group is made of collective relationships among all its individuals members. An evidence expressed on the phenotype of the individuals is the colors displayed on the face of many primates. The attention of one primate to another is drawn to the face, the primate’s identity as an individual (could we consequently state that difference in the phenotypic expression of a face is more fit?). Some individuals may consequently have more social power and influence on the other members of their group. These are said to be dominant, ad the structure of the relative power and influence of a group is called dominance hierarchy. A special status is considered female with infants, and these mother-children units are well protected by the other members of the group, even those they’re not directly related to them (why? Is the population survival more important than individual survivorship? And if so, why?). Primate social groups are maintained through communication. Primates have larger repertoires of vocalization, facial expressions and body gestures. Touch can also be an important components in communication among primates and often takes the form of grooming (removing dirt and parasites [practical purpose] and reassurance to maintain group harmony and unity).

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Smiles and Tears in Prehistoric Art- Juniper Publishers

Summary

From a graphic point of view, smiles are prior to tears. While the smiles are documented in human graffiti from the Paleolithic period (Middle Magdalenian), tears are documented much later, in animals of post paleolithic periods. These data help us to make a few reflections about our way of seeing art, which may be influenced by our culture, too serious, for a few graphs that are not so much.

Keywords:  Smile; Laughter; Paleolithic art; Evolution

    The smile of Bourdois

The figure reproduced below is a cave engraving of the Bourdois shelter, located in the Vienne, France. They will agree with me that at first glance it does not seem to have anything of particular. It is a small human face endowed, of course, with a broad smile [1]. But, if we consider that the spelling in question is 15,000 years old, the thing changes, and the impression that the smile produces increases. Indeed, we are facing one of the first smiles in the History of Art. The smile of Bourdois is not, far from it, as famous as that of the Mona Lisa, and yet its transcendence is much greater. Even if only because a smile from 15,000 years ago contains many more puzzles than one of just four centuries. And if not, look closely at the face, is it possible to look at this smiling face for a long time without smiling? This reaction, almost instinctive, says a lot about the human species, about who we are and why we are here (Figure 1).

This enigmatic fascination, which all attentive observers share, is caused by the intimacy of a gesture of different and partly undefined nuances. And is that every smile always harbors a suspicion: the shadow of dissimulation. You can see in it the trace of deceit, submission or fear. But, although the shadow of a doubt looms over its inner light, the smile is, above all, an expression of pleasure and happiness. For a smile manages to stay true to itself and its own mystery. That is to say, what really hides is, neither more nor less, than the secret of happiness.

On the other hand, the fascinating attraction that a smile exerts can be understood as a power of seduction that, Freud did not hesitate to describe as erotic [2]. And although the genius of psychoanalysis was too often carried away by interpretations of a sexual nature, it is quite possible that this time it was not misguided. Almost all the specialists in gestural mimicry agree in affirming that the smile has an erotic function. Even scholars of human behavior have highlighted the erotic relationship of the smile in current primitive peoples [3]. This relationship may be very old, perhaps prehistoric. In paleolithic art we have four examples in which the smile is associated with anthropomorphic figures with upright sex [4]. These spellings seem to reflect a relationship between happiness and sexual satisfaction.

    The female silhouettes of Angles-sur-l’Anglin

A few meters from the smiling face of Bourdois we have, in the same frieze, four sculpted female silhouettes, in a position that today we would not hesitate to describe as erotic. So much so, that Guthrie has compared these paleolithic profiles with the images of the Playboy. The comparison with current pornography deserves to be criticized at least in two essential points. The first is that porn is characterized by its seriousness, it is, in the words of Braudillard, deadly serious [5]. Which means that there has been a process of verification of the erotic in the pornographic, or, to put it another way, the vital and joyful component of the erotic has been eliminated, turning it into something mechanical and artificial, reduced to an act highly stereotyped And secondly, the pornographic in Western culture excludes the sacred, something that does not happen for example in the East.

However, as can be seen in three of the graphs reproduced below, the silhouettes of Angles-sur-l’Anglin, have an inescapable erotic tone. The pose of naked bodies has a disconcerting effect. It is almost impossible not to see in them the bodies of contemporary models or sex symbols. What does not lead us to ask the following question, what we see is conditioned by our pornographic aesthetics or does it have some biological basis? Look at the sinuous lines that frame the vulvas and delineate the hips and part of the legs. These parts of the female body are erotic in virtually all human cultures [6]. The reason why aesthetics uses these forms has a biological basis, that is, a “practical” sense. It is no coincidence that the beauty ideals of a tribe of Trobians and Westerners are so similar [7]. Nor that, apparently, these ideals, based on body proportions, have not changed over time. Well, they respond to a purpose, which is to stimulate reproduction, because according to certain studies, female hips and legs without visual indicators of women’s fertility. Furthermore, not only the silhouettes of Angles-sur-l’Anglin have that disconcertingly modern character; but there are other similar examples in the caves of Le Gabillou and La Magdeleine. The position of these female bodies, reminiscent of Goya’s Nude Maja, is eminently erotic. For example, the position of the arm behind the head in the bas-reliefs of La Magdeleine, is an expression of enjoyment that is also observed in sexual scenes from Roman times. In a painting of the House of the Restaurant of Pompeii (1st century), A woman bends her arm in this way while practicing sex with a man. The scene, of obvious interpretation in the Roman case, is not in the prehistoric. What is evoked in Paleolithic art is not the act itself, but something more complex whose final meaning escapes us. But what is interesting here is to point out that artists or paleolithic artists are the creators of a visual eroticism that is surely different from what we understand today. It was probably a happy and perhaps sacred eroticism, but the result of the complex world of seduction, the mystery of attraction, of creation and of life (Figure 2).

Prehistoric eroticism, and its Paleolithic graphic expression, have their roots in human evolution. Specifically, in the development of our particular mode of sexual reproduction. About two million years ago, our hominid relatives began a strategy of reproduction that we could describe as optimistic, since it consisted, mainly, of having sex a more or less constant pleasure. This fact was crucial in the evolution of our species. Our reproductive success (it is estimated that we are around 7,000 million people in the world) is unparalleled in the history of placental mammals. If we are a prolific species par excellence it is thanks to the intrinsic quality of our sex to provide us with pleasure at any time of the year. The other animal species either do not experience as much pleasure or are subject to short periods of heat. Human sexuality does not depend, like that of other mammals, on the olfactory stimuli and the hormonal chemistry of pheromones; but predominantly visual stimuli, based mainly on physical features and body proportions [7]. This explains, to a certain extent, the eroticism of artistic expressions. Today the pornographic market has reduced the erotic to its minimal expression. The most visited websites on the internet are, by far, pornographic. We are a species that we bet on the pleasure of reproduction. And natural selection has favored this optimistic strategy.

    The Tears

From a graphic point of view, smiles are prior to tears. The tears that appear on the faces of the Tassili cows, studied by Le Quellec [8], seem to have a symbolic meaning. We have to go back to the Egyptian period (2000 BC) to identify the tears, not in a human, but in a cow again, which apparently cries because they are going to sacrifice their bull in a relief of a sarcophagus of Deir el- Bahari Are human feelings attributed or is it that these feelings are not exclusively human? Are historical cultures more pessimistic than prehistoric ones? About four million years ago, the Mesopotamian civilization left us a magnificent example of the existential pessimism that has developed in our culture in a way surreptitious as a principle of unquestionable reality. Since then, pessimism has slowly imposed itself, making us believe that the human species is sinful by nature. That’s what researchers think of the human imagination as Beltrán [9]. And it is that the real, in our world, is the serious thing, that is, the drama of life. In other words, more Freudian, our principle of reality is occupied by the drama of the serious. This is an automatism that operates mechanically in our culture without hardly questioning.

However, is optimism defining us as a species? The instinct of reproduction is the means by which the organic announces the joy of existence. Therefore, what we call optimism is the force that animates existence and drives reproduction. We can appreciate the laughter in the animals, the song of the birds, the tail of the dog, the purring of the cats. Is the joy of existence the engine of evolution? From this point of view, the upright position of the sapiens animals, allows the face to be seen, which is fundamental in the non-verbal communication of the smile. And besides, the bipedal position exposes the sexual organs, “shames” that all human cultures cover in some way. Shame is one of the fundamental axes of laughter. This feeling has played an important role in the development of human humor, in, for example, the phallic exhibitions.

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Postdoc: UToyko.EvolutionaryAnthropology

Title: Postdoctoral Scholar in Evolutionary Anthropology Laboratory: Evolutionary Anthropology ( http://bit.ly/2WgbO2J) Department: Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences Institution: The University of Tokyo Job type: Postdoc Apply by: 31 May 2019 (could be extended) Application email: [email protected]; use subject line $B!H(BPostdoc application$B!I(B Applications are invited for maximally two-year-and-nine-month (July 1st, 2019 ~ March 31st, 2022) postdoctoral scholar position at University of Tokyo (Kashiwa Campus), Japan. Funding is provided by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (18H04005) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This research focuses on coevolution of chemical sense and color vision in primates. Primates had long been considered as vision-oriented mammals. But recent researches have challenged this view. Our research team has played a key role in the movement. Importance of trichromatic color vision could be dependent and conditional on dietary demands and ecological settings in living environments. Various senses are likely to have evolved inter-dependently. Chemical senses, such as olfaction and tastes, in primates are now gathering researchers$B!G(B attention for their importance which has long been overlooked. However, these genes belong to huge multi-gene families and their repertoire has remained less explored. Studies of them have largely relied on whole-genome sequencing databases publicly available, thus suffering from varying degrees of perfection and limited number of studied species. We aim to cover diverse primate taxa from strepsirrhines, tarsiers, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes and humans for the study of inter-species divergence and intra-species diversity of olfactory receptor (OR), taste receptor (TASR) and visual receptor (opsin) genes by applying target capture and massive-parallel sequencing ($B!H(Bnext-generation sequencing$B!I(B: NGS) technologies. Analyses will integrate bio-informatics, evolutionary genetics (molecular evolution and population genetics) and functional assay using cultured-cell heterologous expression system. We also integrate the field-study information which has been accumulated by our long-term collaborators, Dr. Amanda D. Melin, University of Calgary, and Dr. Colin A. Chapman, McGill University. Minimum requirements of applicants, by the time of appointment, are a Ph.D. degree in biological anthropology, genomics, evolutionary genetics or a related field. Strong interest in evolution is desired. Applicants must have relevant experience in analysis of genomic datasets and demonstrate a record of publication and presentation. Ideal applicants will also have experience in some of the following operations: DNA extraction, molecular cloning, PCR, Sanger sequencing, target capture and NGS. The start date for the position is negotiable but must begin in 2019. The postdoctoral scholar will receive \250,000-300,000 JPY per month, as well as health benefits. Interested applicants should email application materials (letter of application summarizing interests, skills and goals, CV, and contact information for 2 referees) to Shoji Kawamura ( [email protected]). The University of Tokyo is an Equal Opportunity Employer. There are no citizenship requirements. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, genetic information, or disability or any other legally protected basis. Shoji Kawamura via Gmail

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