Elephants Understand Human Gestures

Scientific Computing ^ | October 10, 2013 | University of St Andrews

[almcbean]

And, as always, be afraid of Bad Juju.

[ExGeeEye]

Depends on the dog. Not even the dogs' breeds.

Of the several Shelties family members have had, I knew one who would look where I was pointing, and another that would look at my finger.

[jpsb]

"The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years,[6] unsurpassed until the 160-metre-tall spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed c. 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length.[7] The base is horizontal and flat to within ±15 mm (0.6 in).[8] The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within 4 minutes of arc)[9] based on true north, not magnetic north,[10] and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc.[11] The completed design dimensions, as suggested by Petrie's survey and subsequent studies, are estimated to have originally been 280 cubits high by 440 cubits long at each of the four sides of its base. The ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05%"

Obliviously the work of a civilization barely out of the stone age. /s

[Kip Russell]

Obliviously the work of a civilization barely out of the stone age. /s

Yes, it must of been engineers from Atlantis...or Mu..or...Hyperboria...or Middle Earth...or maybe Narnia...or:

[jpsb]

"Based on these estimates, building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day. Similarly, since it consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, completing the building in 20 years would involve moving an average of more than 12 of the blocks into place each hour, day and night"

And these stone age people were very well organized too!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks null and void.

[madison10]

We had four dogs at one time-—one of the dogs, a lab, dobie, spaniel, terrier mix watched and reacted to the TV and would obey the finger point. He was a lot human, even with expressions-we miss him awfully.

The other three of various and sundry mixes(papillon/terrier; beagle/corgi; lab/beagle/herder dog) just didn’t follow the finger pointing idea. The latter survives, but does not respond to us much...then again he’s getting up there in years.

[null and void]

People calculate stone placement rates for the Egyptian pyramids based on the “fact” that it must all have been done in 20 year, yet no one asserts that a medieval cathedral had to be built in 20 years.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Dogs inherently understand the human pointing gesture too.

Absolutely! Not only that, some of them will retrieve what you are pointing at!

[Squantos]

Well I hope that GOP-”E” Elephant mascot knows which finger I’m holding up right now and remembers it.......

[pax_et_bonum]

Yup. All my dogs look at my finger.

***

Are you sure you’re pointing correctly?

;-)

[Trailerpark Badass]

Dogs inherently understand the human pointing gesture too.

My dog would just look at my finger.

[Salamander]

Yup.

And my Dobes will look where I’m looking if I say “What’s that?”.

If I then point in that direction, they tear off to see if something needs biting.

;D

[Daffynition]

What if the elephant *is* the gesture?

[2111USMC]

I trained mine to eat, too.

[blam]

"Dogs inherently understand the human pointing gesture too."

Exactly.

I just recently read a science study demostrating this to be true.

[DManA]

I taught mine that old trick where you tell him a treat is poison and he looks at it till you tell it was really ok, and then he’s supposed to gobble it up.

Took about 2 minutes to teach him poison but for some reason I couldn’t teach him the signal that it was ok. So I picked up the biscuit and took a nibble and he gobbled it down.

So that was the trick from then on. He wouldn’t touch it till I proved it was ok by tasting it myself. Which made it a 10X better trick. I’m not sure if it was him or me who came up with the twist.

[ClearCase_guy]

I think your dog trained you well. Did he show you off to his friends?

[SunkenCiv]

• Rand Paul: GOP ‘probably can’t defeat’ Obamacare
• Paul: We probably can't get rid of 'Obamacare'
• Paul pushes to restore state felon voting rights as part of push to reform sentencing
• Rand Paul’s immigration speech

  Let’s start that conversation by acknowledging we aren’t going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants... bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society. Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors. [but he’s not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]

• Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften [immigration, gay marriage] stance

  ...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said.

[blam]

The ancient Sumerians (The Wise Men From The East), brought much knowledge with them when they had to leave, Sundaland.
Humans lived and prospered there during the last Ice Age.

See below when it went underwater.