Opinion on handling of Koko the talking gorilla

I’ve been saying this for awhile; in my opinion Dr. Francine Patterson (a.k.a, Penny) of the Gorilla Foundation isn’t the right person to be running the talking gorilla project. She seems to have made clear lapses in judgment regarding Koko, the talking gorilla.

It seems that she is too emotionally attached to her subject. To maintain an objective study, she should either allow someone else to run the project or she should have relied on professionals to train and communicate with Koko from the beginning. What has happened instead is that it appears that she raised and keeps Koko as her own child. There is no way her “study” can be objective under that scenario.

She started the project as a grad student, long before she had any exposure to gorilla culture or how to handle them long term in a professional manner. It seems, from the foundation’s own promotional video, that her ignorance of gorillas has led her to make several mistakes and faulty assumptions, particularly in the area of mating practices. Gorilla culture and mating practices are much different from humans. Gorilla families consist of one dominant male and several females. Yet, Penny continues to pursue a mate for Koko based on human culture by providing male gorillas for Koko that simply aren’t compatible. In my opinion, her method of choosing Koko’s most recent mate equates to a 40-year-old couch potato flipping channels and picking Lindsay Lohan, and then having Lindsay delivered to his door. This suggests a greater problem, that of Penny projecting human characteristics onto Koko. Again, this appears to be caused by her closeness to the subject.

If Koko was simply a gorilla, kept as a loved and nurtured pet, there may have been no scientific issues. But Penny seems to promote Koko as if she is running a legitimate scientific study, maintaining a foundation of members who support her efforts. In my opinion, she is basically scamming these people (and any supporters) into paying and supporting for her own personal pet.

Additionally, it is possible that by being so close to Koko within this scenario, she has actually caused psychological harm to Koko. The recent lawsuits against Penny point to this possibility. Gorilla Foundation is being sued by former female employees for allegedly being forced by Penny to bare their breasts to Koko to gratify Koko’s supposed “nipple fetish”. Is it normal for either wild or captive gorillas to be fixated on human female nipples‽ More importantly, what does this say about Penny’s and Koko’s state of mind‽

Suggested Solutions

1. Penny should immediately step down from any decision making positions within the Gorilla Foundation.
2. New protocols for how to handle Koko and any future talking gorillas need to be established and enforced by an impartial board of professionals from a broad range of disciplines.
3. A serious effort to make an objective study of talking gorillas needs to be undertaken in place of the current project of the Gorilla Foundation. This means establishing a control group of non-talking gorillas. This also means establishing reasonable mating programs based on the needs of the gorillas, perhaps even maintaining separate groups of talking gorillas. Finally, this means that blind testing is required to verify claims.

I believe that under the correct circumstances, gorillas may prove to be more intelligent than even current work with Koko suggests. One benefit of the Gorilla Foundation is that we have discovered that animals (or at least great apes) have the potential for emotional attachment and reasoned thought. However, I think that the Gorilla Foundation’s current state prevents any possibility for definitive and conclusive studies on these matters, and it may be causing damage to the subject at the core of their project, polluting their results even further.

Movies this Year I wanna see (as of right now)

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith [May]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [April]
Batman Begins [June]
Million Dollar Baby
Kingdom of Heaven [May]
War of the Worlds [June]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [July]
Sin City [April]
Pink Panther [Sept]
The Aviator
A Scanner Darkly [Sept]
Fantastic Four [July]

I've recently seen Hitch. It's counts as a chick-flick, but it's actually pretty damn entertaining for us guys too. If anything, I've learned a few dance moves from the movie ::doin the q-tip:: lol

I'm finally well

Sheeze, I'm finally well. The flu and its damage is gone. Dang this thang took a toll on me. Yeah, I feel normal again. Now I have to shave off this dang beard I've grown while sick. That will be annoying.

It hits me

My hearts doing a little aching right now. Sometimes it hits me, I miss Bevie. Of course, looking through old artifacts tends to be a catalyst for memories. I miss her love. I miss being able to give her my love. I miss her.

Knarly Flu

Man, I had one knarly flu. I haven't been this sick since 1998. Word has it that Santa Cruz is the source of a new flu. I think I had it. Oh yeah, I'm one of the first. This year's flu shoot will cover it...too late for any California's, I'm betting, not that I'd get a flu shoot anyway. I normally only get the flu once every couple of years, and usually not so terrible that I need more than a day off. This time, I was sick for a week, and prolly worked less than 16 hours for that week.

V-DAy weekEND and nOw

V-Day weekend turned about to be nearly perfect, even in timing. My g/f and I meet up with her parents for breakfast on Saturday morning. Afterwards, my g/f and I started our romantic weekend by going to both our places, gathering our suit cases and driving up to a nice Hotel along the coast on the Pennisula. We got there just the right time for check-in. Then we headed to SF for some browsing in downtown. Like clockwork, we instinctively knew when to take off and head for dinner and a movie (Hitch) in Japan Town. We got back to the Hotel and had a wonderfully romantic night, enjoying the Jacuzzi. The next morning, we got up kinda late. We found this little donut shop for breakfast, then headed down for a nice afternoon at the SF Museum of Modern Art. We finished up with that and just headed home, just in time for me to start feeling sick from the flu. I don't get the flu very often at all (like once every two years). Thank god for my g/f who treated me right the rest of the night and Monday night too. I'm still sick, but I have my energy back.
Anyways, the whole weekend, it just felt like we were in the right place at the right time the whole time. :)

Pacifica Trip

 

February 12-13, 2005 with Alice Leung, visited Pacifica CA, San Francisco, CA and San Francisco Zoo. (Original post/backup link)

Cobb County, Georgia umm, theory = fact

In Cobb County, GA, schools were ordered to add an advisory label to text books which detail evolution, awhile back. It reads, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
Every neutral observation of that label is true, save one: "Evolution is a theory, not a fact..." I'm not sure what ignorant idiot thought this was a smart statement, but whoever it was doesn't know the scientific definition of the word theory. This statement is a contradiction.

Theory - the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art (Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary)

Basically, when a scientist uses the word theory, that person is discussing fact or truth as proven repeatably and predictably by the scientific method (i.e., theory = fact). Technically, any high school graduate should know this. Certainly, the teachers and schools themselves do know this. Any member of any school district board is supposed to know this, especially if they making decisions regarding curriculum.

There's a reason why 70% of all Fundamentalist Christians that go to college leave their fundamentalism behind by the time they graduate! Education makes them smarter. lol My hypothesis is that the 30% that hold on to their beliefs may tend to be business grads. hehe Either way, there is no way to reconcile fundamentalism (of any religion) with reality.

251 guys kissing

Its been awhile since Miriam and I have instigated strangers in to scandalous behavior. After we had dinner and drinks at Zuccas in downtown Mountain View, we walked down to 251. The place has changed a lot since the last time we've been there. It was all decked out in a new, mysterious yet swanky layout. Kinda cool, especially from its old image as a pool hall that was trying to be hip.

We found an old aquaintance, Darr, there with is friends at the bar. After some more drinking, I noticed two of Darr's guy buddies being a bit too close for a bit too long. Nothing sexual, just strange for two guys. So I'm all, "I get each of you guys two drinks each if you two kiss, like full on." I punctuated "two drinks" with the peace hand gesture and stressed tone for dramatic effect.

I have this strange ability to read situations without thinking about them that lead to pretty entertaining results. Last night was no exception.

Ok, so everyone starts up with the peer pressure. Miriam was like the ring leader and became the unofficial judge of what constituted a qualifying kiss.

Finally, Darr's two friends embrace each other, then break away. More peer pressure. The one guy grabs his buddy and moves in, then they crack up and break away again. So, again more "encouragement". Finally he grabs his buddy, moves in and pulls him into his arms and dips and moves him around, simulating a kiss. Miriam was not fooled.

After calling them on their fake kiss and some more encouragement, they move in on each other, pressing lip to lip in an impressive display of homosexuality that got as far as supple lip biting. I'm afraid the image of those two guys kissing and lip biting will forever be burned into my memory as pushishment for bringing up the idea. Oh the horror of it allll. LOL Anyways, the bartender was so impressed, she covered their drinks instead.

"Darr, you can never let these two live this down," I demand. He's all, "Don't worry, I'm not going to let them forget."

Ahh, fun times.

P.S., on a side note, Darr's date (the only female in his group) was giving date-like attention to another guy in the group. The odd thang was that she was kinda cute and the other guy was a bit of a hobbit. Very strange, especially since she didn't seem very interested in any of them. (As in, she was shooting looks to other guys.)

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Lack of Pagan Profanity

Here's a good prose on pagan profanity (more to the point, the absence of pagan profanity) 

Pagan Profanity (backup link)

His view is that pagans have no reason to profane because profanity deals with religion, sex and shit in ways that are irrelevant to his beliefs. For example, he can't damn someone to hell because there is no hell and no devil to send them to.

My take on it is a bit different. Right, there is not hell or devil, so who the hell cares if I call on a god to damn something. LOL Anyways, check it out.

Church Orgie Sign

To the people looking up the church orgie sign photograph, you can find it by clicking on the "Blog-Entries-By-Topic" section in the left column, and look for "Photo-Blog". It's entry "Church-sponsered-orgies". Or you can click this link:
http://fcsuper.blogspot.com/2004/09/woohoo.html

Aux personnes recherchant la photographie d'orgie de signe d'église, vous pouvez la trouver en cliquant sur la section de "Blog-Entries-By-Topic" (Blog-Entrée-Par-Matière) dans la colonne gauche, et recherchez la "Photo-Blog". C'est entrée "Church-sponsered-orgies". Ou vous pouvez cliquer ce lien :
http://fcsuper.blogspot.com/2004/09/woohoo.html

The reason I'm posting this is that I've noticed a steady stream of hits from people looking for that photo but not finding it because of the way that Yahoo! image search works. Have fun! (In both French and English ::curious look::)

La raison que je signale ceci est que j'ai noté un jet régulier des coups des personnes recherchant cette photo mais ne la trouvant pas en raison de la manière dont Yahoo ! travaux de recherche d'image. Ayez l'amusement ! (dans le regard français et anglais de ::curious::)

Rocky

My best friend Miriam and I have had a rocky period over the past couple of weeks. Thangs are starting getting back to normal, but not before a serious heart to heart that left both of us rather drained the other day. Feels good to get to try to normalize thangs, even though it's going to take some time before we are back 100% I think. She had hard feelings about thangs in the past, and I misread her drastically recently. Wasn't pretty.

Winchester Mystery House

Funny thang is that I've never visited the Winchester Mystery House. It's only a few miles from where I live. It's even across the street from my favorite theaters for watching big flicks like LOTR and SW. The only reason I know a little about it is cuz it is a local thang. Maybe I should go check it out some day.

Learning to Ski

This last weekend, I learned to ski. I went from never skiing before to conquering the mighty bunny hill plus a mild green slop. I even got pretty good at walking around the main building in my ski boats. :) I’m not too sure what the big thrill is yet. I did have a fun time. My g/f, Dave, his Miriam and myself shared a condo that had a floor layout that kinda reminded me of the Winchester Mystery House. Dave hit up is Black Diamond runs. Miriam stuck the green runs. My g/f and myself spent the two days learning the basics of skiing. She’s skied a couple times a long time ago. We still have another day of schoolin on our ski packages, so we will likely be heading back up in March.