Dolphins sing 'Batman' theme

[John Doe]

LOL!!!!!LMFAO!!!! I LOOOOOVE IT!....maybe they can do
"Calypso" by John Denver next....or maybe "I am the
Walrus" by the Beatles....how 'bout "Closer" by NIN?


--- Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dolphins sing 'Batman' theme
> Jennifer Viegas
> Discovery News
> Monday, 3 October 2005 
>  
> 
> Scientists have taught dolphins to combine both
> rhythm
> and vocalisations to produce music, resulting in an
> extremely high-pitched, short version of the Batman
> theme song. 
> 
> The findings, outlined in two studies, are the first
> time that nonhuman mammals have demonstrated they
> can
> recognise rhythms and reproduce them vocally. 
> 
> "Humans are sensitive to rhythms embedded in
> sequences
> of sounds, but we typically consider this skill to
> be
> part of processing for language and music, cognitive
> domains that we consider to be uniquely human," says
> Professor Heidi Harley, lead author of both studies.
> 
> "Clearly, aspects of those domains are available to
> other species."
> 
> The studies will be presented at the joint meeting
> of
> the Acoustical Society of America and NOISE-CON
> 2005,
> which runs from 17 to 21 October in Minneapolis.
> 
> Learning to sing
> 
> Harley, who is associate professor of social
> sciences
> at the New College of Florida in Sarasota, says that
> both studies tested dolphins at Disney's Epcot
> Center
> in Florida.
> 
> The researchers first had an adult male bottlenose
> dolphin position itself in front of an underwater
> sound projector, called a hydrophone, that produced
> six different 14 kiloherz, 4 second rhythms.
> 
> The dolphin was rewarded for performing a certain
> behaviour to each rhythm. For example, when rhythm 1
> played, it waved its pectoral fin and when rhythm 2
> played, it tossed a ball.
> 
> The various rhythms were played at different
> frequencies and tempos to ensure the dolphin was
> recognising rhythms instead of just frequencies or
> sound durations. 
> 
> Another adult male was trained to produce similar
> rhythms using a pneumatic switch, essentially a
> small,
> air-filled ball connected to a computer that then
> generated sounds whenever the dolphin pressed the
> switch.
> 
> "The dolphin was reinforced for producing a specific
> rhythm to a specific object," says Harley.
> 
> "For example, when we presented him with a Batman
> doll, he received a fish for producing a specific
> rhythm, in this case, a short sound and then a long
> one." 
> 
> "If you recall the original Batman TV series musical
> intro you'll probably remember the way they sang
> 'Bat-maaaaaaaan'," she adds.
> 
> The dolphin spontaneously vocalised to the rhythms,
> so
> the researchers started to reward the male with fish
> whenever it matched its 'singing' to the rhythms. 
> 
> By the end of the studies, the scientists could show
> an object, such as the Batman doll, which
> represented
> a certain rhythm-vocalisation combo to the dolphin,
> and it would create the correct sounds both vocally
> and using the switch. 
> 
> Batmaaaaaaan
> 
> Gordon Bauer, associate professor of psychology at
> the
> New College of Florida who did not work on the
> studies, says, "This is the first report, to my
> knowledge, of a nonhuman mammal's ability to
> discriminate rhythmic patterns." 
> 
> But Bauer doubts that dolphins realise they are
> producing what people consider 'music'. 
> 
> "I think music is a human construct," he says. "I
> doubt that it has pertinence to animals, although
> the
> elements of music, such as pitch, time, timbre,
> rhythm, etc, may be incorporated into animal
> communication." 
> 
> Harley agrees, and hopes the everyday vocalisations
> of
> dolphins will be analysed in terms of their rhythmic
> content.
> 
> In the near future, she and her team are planning to
> test the dolphins on their ability to recognise
> recordings of their own rhythms by having them
> associate their own sound creations with identifying
> objects similar to the Batman doll.
> 
>
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1473208.htm
> 
> "Catching a TWA flight to Miami was an uncoordinated
> boy who planned to slip at night into aquariums and
> open negotiations with the dolphins, who would
> succeed
> man. He was kissing his mother passionately goodbye,
> using his tongue. 'I'll write, ma,' he kept saying.
> 'Write by WASTE,' she said, 'remember. The
> government
> will open it if you use the other. The dolphins will
> be mad.' 'I love you, ma,' he said. 'Love the
> dolphins,' she advised him. "Write by WASTE.' So it
> went. Oedipa played the voyeur and listener."
> 
>
http://www.innternet.de/~peter.patti/thomaspynchon-thecryingoflot49.htm
> 
> 
> 		
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