Singing Lessons

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Image: Wikimedia Commons

When the local population of rufous-collared sparrows dwindled in Buenos Aires, scientists found an innovative way to teach mating calls to younger birds: They consulted hand-drawn annotations of sparrow songs that had been made in the 1960s and used a computer to broadcast simulated versions in local habitats. Within three months a local bird was heard copying parts of the song. Similar efforts have succeeded in England and Australia, and scientists are beginning to stockpile databases of birdsong to aid future generations. “One day we’ll be grateful to have all those records,” physicist Gabriel Mindlin told the Guardian.

Birds mimicking human technology: Technical Fowl, Pitching In, Ghosts of Scotland. (Thanks, Sharon.)

| Science & Math · Technology

In a Word

https://books.google.com/books?id=iq4vAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA794#v=onepage&q&f=false

janiform
adj. having two faces, sides, or contrasting aspects

esemplastic
adj. having the function of moulding into unity; unifying

theriomorphic
adj. having the form of a wild beast

anabiosis
n. a coming to life again; revival, resuscitation

From the Strand, December 1903:

The only violin in the world made from the claw of a giant lobster has just been completed by John H. Dadmun, of 429, Berkley Street, Camden, N.J. This unique instrument, strange to say, can be made to produce as sweet musical tones as any high-class violin. Its owner gives the following as the story of its life.

The lobster from which the claw was taken was caught off Gloucester, Mass., in March 1862. In time it came to Concord, N.H., where Mr. Dadmun saw it. At that time the lobster weighed seventeen pounds and a half. A single claw weighed five pounds and a quarter. The claw that Mr. Dadmun preserved, after the lobster had gone the way of such things, was thirteen and a quarter inches long, seven inches broad, and three and a quarter inches thick.

Preserved among other curiosities of the Dadmun household the giant claw remained a claw for many years. One day it occurred to its owner that it was shaped something like a violin, and he tried the experiment of fashioning it to look more like that popular musical instrument. After much patient effort Mr. Dadmun managed to transform the claw into a violin that could be played. The tone was very sweet, but not loud enough for an orchestra. Experiment proved that by changing the fittings and settings the tone could be made much louder. As it is now the violin when played properly sounds exactly like any other violin. It is doubtless the most curious musical instrument ever made.

| Language · Oddities

The Karidis Keyboard

When IBM released the ThinkPad 701 subnotebook in 1995, users got a surprise. The unit was only 24.6 centimeters wide, but opening the lid presented a keyboard more than 4 centimeters wider. The secret was a dissection: The keyboard was stored in two pieces, each roughly a right triangle, and as the lid was opened these slid to either side, with one moving downward until they merged into a full-sized keyboard. (Mathematician Greg Frederickson wrote, “You find yourself opening and closing the lid repeatedly just to watch this movement!”)

The effect was so pleasing that the “butterfly keyboard” entered the permanent collection of Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, but IBM discontinued the feature when it retired the 701. Designer John Karidis said, “The butterfly keyboard was no longer necessary, because people moved to larger displays. Where the butterfly approach makes sense is where you want the largest keyboard possible in combination with an 8-inch or 10-inch display.”

| Technology

“We and They”

Father, Mother, and Me,
Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea,
While We live over the way,
But — would you believe it? — They look upon We
As only a sort of They!

We eat pork and beef
With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
Are horrified out of Their lives;
And They who live up a tree,
And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn’t it scandalous?) look upon We
As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun.
They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-.
We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food.
We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!

— Kipling

| Poems · Society

An Orderly Vacation

A puzzle from Peter Winkler’s excellent Mathematical Puzzles (2021):

A certain island contains a network of roads. Each road segment (between one intersection and the next) has its own name. If d is the average number of road segments that meet at an intersection, show that it’s possible to take a drive on the island that traverses at least d road segments and hits them in alphabetical order.

Click for Answer
| Puzzles

Shelf Concepts

Henry Wheatley’s 1878 monograph “What Is an Index?” gives a list of “titles of books that have given trouble to bibiographers” or been assigned to the wrong subjects:

  • Maria Edgeworth’s “Essay on Irish Bulls” and a treatise on the Great Seal of the United States have both been listed under Zoology.
  • A description of Napier’s bones, John Napier’s manual calculating device, has been listed under Anatomy.
  • “Under the Microscope,” poet Algernon Charles Swinburne’s 1872 invective against critic Robert Buchanan, has been listed under Optical Instruments.
  • A volume of poetry titled The Viol and the Lute has been listed under Musical Instruments.
  • John Ruskin’s Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds, an 1851 pamphlet on divinity, has been listed under Agriculture.
  • Scottish minister William McEwen’s writings on biblical types have been listed under Printing.

Best: German naturalist Johann Heinrich Linck’s De stellis marinis liber singularis, a treatise on sea stars, has been listed under Astronomy.

| Literature

Road Thoughts

A puzzle by Sam Loyd:

Here is a pretty problem which I figured out during a ride from Bixley to Quixley astride a razor-back mule. I asked Don Pedro, a native guide who walked ahead of me pulling the mule forward by its reins, if my steed had another gait. He said it had but that it was much slower, so I pursued my journey at uniform speed. To encourage Don Pedro, who was my chief propelling power, I said we would pass through Pixley, so as to get some liquid refreshments; and from that moment he could think of nothing but Pixley.

After we had been traveling for forty minutes I asked how far we had gone. Don Pedro replied: ‘Just half as far as it is to Pixley.’

After creeping along for seven miles more I asked: ‘How far is it to Quixley?’ He replied as before: ‘Just half as far as it is to Pixley.’

We arrived at Quixley in another hour, which induces me to ask you to determine the distance from Bixley to Quixley.

Click for Answer
| Puzzles

The Ringelmann Effect

In studying the relationship between productivity and efficiency in 1913, French agricultural engineer Maximilien Ringelmann found that members of a group perform worse on average as the size of the group increases. In a tug of war, as the size of a team grows, each member begins to “loaf,” relying on his teammates to put forth the necessary effort. Worse, the team’s growing size makes it increasingly difficult to coordinate its actions.

Interestingly, though, ants have been shown to increase in efficiency when working in teams. New World army ants can carry larger loads as a team than if the burden were distributed among them individually, and Weaver ants organize pulling chains that can effectively double the strength of each member. So “the Ringelmann effect” isn’t inescapable.

| Society