beulahbondo's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Black bugs It's so cold here. It's the heart of winter. I spent the morning excitedly roaming around the Internet looking up "budget travel Dominican Republic bicycle" and found some places I would dearly love to see. Ha. I have the time but no el dinero. Reading about chimps and language acquisition. Did you know that "chimpanzee" comes from a Congolese dialect and means "mock man"? Chimps do the craziest things, but so do scientists. There was a psychiatry professor in the 60s who had most of his students, who were also his patients, adopt baby chimps and raise them as children. This could explain a few things about people who were born in the 60s. Yes? Oh, I don't know. But the language acquisition is really the interesting part. This one chimp, who was taught from five months of age to speak ASL, met other chimps for the first time when she was an adult and called them "black bugs." Then she taught them all to speak ASL. They picked it up because they naturally speak a gestural language, along with some vocalizing. I wonder if they all had different accents? The dadblasted Patriot Act extends to libraries, you know. The FBI or anyone in the government can pick up your borrowing records and the library isn't allowed to tell you. Those of you readers who work in libraries, where do you stand on this? The Cambridge library does its part to protect borrowers by deleting records as soon as you return materials. So return on time, people! 11:15 p.m. - 2004-01-20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||