The marshmallow test, or Stanford marshmallow experiment, is pretty straightforward. A child is placed in a room with a marshmallow. They are told if they can manage not to eat the marshmallow for 15 minutes, they'll get a second marshmallow, and be allowed to eat both.
This ability to delay gratification demonstrates cognitive abilities such as future planning, and it was originally conducted to study how human cognition develops; specifically, at what age a human is smart enough to delay gratification if it means a better outcome later.
Because it's so simple, it can be adjusted for animals. Obviously you can't tell an animal they'll get a better reward if they wait, but you can train them to understand that better food is coming if they don't eat the food in front of them straight away.
Some primates can delay gratification, along with dogs, albeit inconsistently. Corvids, too, have passed the marshmallow test.
Last year, cuttlefish also passed a version of the marshmallow test. Scientists showed that common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) can refrain from eating a meal of crab meat in the morning once they have learnt dinner will be something they like much better - shrimp.
but can it pass the bechdel test???
“I got out there and sat down on the toilet and immediately something bit my butt right as I sat down,” Shannon Stevens told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I jumped up and I screamed when it happened.”
https://apnews.com/article/alaska-woman-outhouse-bear-attack-61a23fa15190c00e17a07bc152f9dabb
A high court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a former top bureaucrat to six years in prison for murdering his socially reclusive son in Tokyo in 2019.
The bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus), which weighs up to 35 kilograms, lives in the grassy plains and eucalyptus forests of Australia, where it spends its nights grazing on plants and its days in underground tunnels. It’s a territorial animal, leaving its unusual droppings as a calling card. But how does such sharp-sided scat come from a round anus?
To get to the bottom of the mystery, scientists dissected a wombat that had died after being hit by a car. They examined the intestines and found that they contain two grooves where the guts are more elastic, which the team first reported in 2018.
In the new study, the researchers dissected two further wombats and tested the guts’ layers of muscle and tissue, finding regions of varied thickness and stiffness. They then created a 2D mathematical model to simulate how the regions expand and contract with the rhythms of digestion. The intestinal sections contract over several days, squeezing the poop as the gut pulls nutrients and water out of the feces, the team reports today in the aptly titled journal Soft Matter.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/how-do-wombats-poop-cubes-scientists-get-bottom-mystery
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A mythical, ape-like creature that has captured the imagination of adventurers for decades has now become the target of a state lawmaker in Oklahoma.
A Republican House member has introduced a bill that would create a Bigfoot hunting season. Rep. Justin Humphrey’s district includes the heavily forested Ouachita Mountains in southeast Oklahoma, where a Bigfoot festival is held each year near the Arkansas border. He says issuing a state hunting license and tag could help boost tourism.
https://apnews.com/article/wildlife-oklahoma-5433bc22df3a87efa08c2b52838a2dd7
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) — Members of the Church of Satan are grieving the destruction of a historic “Halloween House” north of New York City that authorities say was set ablaze this week by an unidentified arsonist.
The historic home, built in 1900, served as an Addams Family-style hub for local adherents of the religion, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports. One member of the church likened the arson to a terrorist attack.
what kind of fucking name is "poughkeepsie" supposed to be, anyways
>>3
My initial guess of "something rendered from a native language" appears to be correct:
*It was settled by the Dutch in 1683; its name, of Wappinger Indian origin, means “reed-covered lodge by the little water place.”*
https://www.britannica.com/place/Poughkeepsie
Members of a troop of gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, Calif., have tested positive for the coronavirus. Last Wednesday, two of the gorillas developed a cough and showed other mild symptoms, a news release says. Park staff tested the animals. A fecal examination detected the virus last Friday, and the results were confirmed by the Agriculture Department's National Veterinary Services Laboratories on Monday.
"Aside from some congestion and coughing, the gorillas are doing well," said Executive Director Lisa Peterson. "The troop remains quarantined together and are eating and drinking. We are hopeful for a full recovery."
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/955782284/two-gorillas-in-california-contract-the-coronavirus
A long-extinct lineage of insect, known fondly as the 'hell ant', has been discovered frozen in 99-million-year-old amber, with its scythe-like jaw still pinning its prey.
According to scientists, this fierce predator is a newly identified species of prehistoric ant, known as Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, and it's the first time we've ever seen a hell ant actively feeding. Its meal is an extinct relative of the cockroach.