Today, news came that chimps use spears to hunt food (insert here a humorous picture of a chimp throwing Britney Spears on a bushbaby). Now, all those pointy things were really supposed to be what made us human, and thus different from the non-human.

So, what next? Robots that cry with you?

Really, what in the end is left of our claims of uniqueness other than the fact that we may well be the only species that has this passionate need to see ourselves as unique, and not just another part of a larger biological system?

There has recently been what I feel is a relatively high rate of “world’s oldest” people dying.

I know that old people in general tend to die with a higher probability than do younger ones, and that those who reach a grand old age of over 110 are even more probable of kicking the bucket, as I believe the scientific term in use is, but it would seem that this past half a year or so has been especially harsh for the “oldest” people. Let’s take a look.

On August 27 2006, María Capovilla who was the world’s oldest person at that point, passed on at the age of 116. She had been the world’s oldest person for two whole years, which is more or less the average of how long you get to keep the title (see Wikipedia). There are of course counter-examples to this: Shigechiyo Izumi for example held the title for nine whole years and some between 1976 and 1986.

After María Capovilla, the title of the world’s oldest person fell to Elizabeth Bolden, but the 116-year-old was unfortunately only able to hold the title for three and a half months, as she left this world on the 11th of December, 2006.

After this, the honour was given to Emiliano Mercado del Toro, who however died only a little over a month later on January 24th, 2007. The title has now moved to Emma Tillman, who is only 114.

It should furthermore also be noted that while del Toro was still the world’s oldest person, the world’s oldest woman at that point, Julie Winnefred Bertrand, also died on January 19th, 2007.

In summary, the “oldest” people to have died recently are:
María Capovilla (August 27, 2006)
Elizabeth Bolden (December 11, 2006)
Julie Winnefred Bertrand (January 19, 2007)
Emiliano Mercado del Toro (January 24, 2007)
Update: Emma Tillman (January 29, 2007)

Considering that, as I mentioned before, one usually gets to keep these titles for a couple of years, I feel that this is quite a number of casualties. Or then it is just a statistical thing. Or my brain interprets it wrong, making it a quirk of perception.

In any case, add to this also the many famous individuals who have died in the past couple of months — James Brown, Robert Altman, Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Gerald Ford, Joseph Barbara, to name a few — and you must clearly agree that these clearly constitute the first signs of Doomsday. I, therefore, urge you all to hide your chickens and slaughter your oxen before your government gets you.

See Dublin City University newsroom for the full article.

It therefore seems to me that when a cat wants to go, it goes, and when it wants to come back, it comes back. You don’t have control over your cat.

For more information, you can read the full article at EurekAlert!

I’m a bit sceptical, to be honest. Why would we give rights to robots if we are so reluctant to recognize the rights of animals? Cow slavery goes on, and in most countries killing a kitten by hitting it with a car amounts to nothing in terms of lawsuits. We are self-centred enough to not recognize other life forms, so I don’t see why we would give our vacuum cleaners any say over their lives, either.

Researches publishing at the British Medical Journal have looked into the question why Denmark has over the years repeatedly topped the list of the happiest European nations, and this year came out the happiest nation globally. While several hypotheses were raised, the study points out two especially important factors: winning the 1992 European Championship, and the fact that the Danish people on average expect less from their future than do people from many other nations. (link)