Baboon Recognizes Words, is Able to Pre-Read

Dan the baboon sits in front of a computer screen. The letters BRRU pop up. With a quick and almost dismissive tap, the monkey signals it's not a word. Correct. Next comes, ITCS. Again, not a word. Finally KITE comes up. 

This undated handout photo provided by of Joel Fagot, and the journal Science shows Dora during a readng experiment. French researchers are showing that baboons can do what is essentially the first step in reading. They can identify recurring patterns in English. This study is important in two fields: it shows that the early steps in reading are far more instinctual than scientists first thought and it also demonstrates that non-human primates may be smarter than we give them credit for. Baboons and other monkeys are good pattern finders and it's more than memorization. What they are doing may be what we first do in recognizing words. But it's still a far cry from real reading. The study is in the journal Science. Image: AP Photo/Joel Fagot

He pauses and hits a green oval to show it's a word. In the space of just a few seconds, Dan has demonstrated a mastery of what some experts say is a form of pre-reading and walks away rewarded with a treat of dried wheat.         

Dan is part of new research that shows baboons are able to pick up the first step in reading - identifying recurring patterns and determining which four-letter combinations are words and which are just gobbledygook. 

The study shows that reading's early steps are far more instinctive than scientists first thought and it also indicates that non-human primates may be smarter than we give them credit for. 

"They've got the hang of this thing," says Jonathan Grainger, a French scientist and lead author of the research. 

Baboons and other monkeys are good pattern finders and what they are doing may be what we first do in recognizing words. 

It's still a far cry from real reading. They don't understand what these words mean, and are just breaking them down into parts, says Grainger, a cognitive psychologist at the Aix-Marseille Univ. in France. 

In 300,000 tests, the six baboons distinguished between real and fake words about three-out-of-four times, according to the study published in Thursday's journal Science. 

The 4-year-old Dan, the star of the bunch and about the equivalent age of a human teenager, got 80 percent of the words right and learned 308 four-letter words. 

Illusion - Anuj.

Kindness May Be Genetic

It turns out that the milk of human kindness is evoked by something besides mom's good example.

Research by psychologists at the Univ. at Buffalo and the Univ. of California, Irvine, has found that at least part of the reason some people are kind and generous is because their genes nudge them toward it.

Michel Poulin, assistant professor of psychology at UB, is the principal author of the study "The Neurogenics of Niceness," published in this month in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The study, co-authored by Anneke Buffone of UB and E. Alison Holman of the Univ. of California, Irvine, looked at the behavior of study subjects who have versions of receptor genes for two hormones that, in laboratory and close relationship research, are associated with niceness. Previous laboratory studies have linked the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin to the way we treat one another, Poulin says.

Some Interesting Facts About The Brain

Dimensions and Sizes

• Average dimensions of the adult brain: Width = 140 mm/5.5 in, Length = 167 mm/6.5 in, Height = 93 mm/3.6 in.
• How much does human brain weigh? At birth our brains weigh and average of 350-400g (about 4/5 lbs), as adults the brain averages 1300-1400g (about 3 lbs).
• If Stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m(2.5sq.ft), the area of a night table.
• Total surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft.

Composition

• The composition of the brain = 77-78% water, 10-12% lipids, 8% protein, 1% carbs, 2% soluble organics, 1% inorganic salt.

General keyboard shortcuts

• CTRL+C (Copy)
• CTRL+X (Cut)
• CTRL+V (Paste)
• CTRL+Z (Undo)
• DELETE (Delete)
• SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
• CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
• CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
• F2 key (Rename the selected item)
• CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
• CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)

THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF VIRGIN GROUP

                                                                              

Virgin Group is one of the giant global players and comprises of several holding companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, Virgin Express, Virgin Blue, and many more. As a creator of Virgin, Richard Branson has blanketed the Virgin Empire in a thick layer of secrecy to get a competitive edge against its rivals. Branson’s own values and management style has differentiated Virgin group from other formal structured organizations. Richard Branson has no respect for formal authority and hierarchy. Different organisational structures can be seen in Virgin Group. Nonetheless, he is considered as a revolutionary as embodied the spirit of New Britain. Mr. Branson is a charismatic leader and his followers link him with the English heroes. His leadership qualities demonstrate more of transformational rather than transactional. He motivates his employees to do their best and also offers a number of opportunities for their personal growth and development. Virgin’s success story reflects the effective communication either within the organisation or to deal with external forces. Nonetheless, Virgin group excels in offering friendly customer service. Due to close personal ties among employees, every individual involves to generate innovative ideas and how to improve the overall performance of the organisation.

Four Amazing Magic tricks to try out on your PC

MAGIC #1

Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the Computer which can be named as “CON”. This is something funny and inexplicable? At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn’t answer why this happened!

TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE A “CON” FOLDER

Solution: Create a folder on desktop, press F2 and press delete to continue by press alt+0160 to create CON folder in your desktop.

MAGIC #2

Did you know that a flight number from one of the planes that hit one of the two WTC towers on 9/11 was Q33N. In Notepad / WordPad or MS Word, type that flight number i.e. Q33N. Increase the font size to 72. Change the font to Wingdings. … u will be amazed by the findings!………

MAGIC #3

For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type “Bush hid the facts” (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it?

Noticed the weird bug? No one can explain!

MAGIC #4

Again this is something funny and can’t be explained? At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn’t answer why this happened!

It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself?

Open Microsoft Word and type

=rand (200, 99)

And then press ENTER And see the magic..!

Some interesting Facts about Fart

1. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

2. Excess gas in the intestinal is medically termed "flatulence."

3. The word "fart" comes from the Old English "feortan" (meaning "to break wind").

4. Farts are flammable. 

5. Termites are the largest producers of farts.

6. Although they won’t admit it, women fart as much as men.

7. A person produces about half a liter of farts a day.

8. Farts have been clocked at a speed of 10 feet per second.

9. The temperature of a fart at time of creation is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

10. On the average a fart is composed of about 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen, 9% carbon dioxide, 7% methane, and 4% oxygen. Less than 1% is what makes them stink.

11. Farts are created mostly by E. coli.