Vashti Bunyan -- Glow Worms

Vashti released her first album in Britain in the 60s. However, it did not do well commercially and hence she moved back to the country and became a housewife. The album became a cult classic over the years and in 2005 she was invited to release another album Lookingaftering. This song is from her first album in the 60s, and if you listen to it, you can understand why the first album became a cult classic.

Jon Stewart Interviews Bill Bennet on Gay Rights

Again, another gem from the Daily Show archives. Here, Jon takes Bill Bennet, someone from the conservative movement (i.e. religious right) and dismantles his points about denying homosexuals the right to marry one by one. This is a lesson on how to take down another person's illogical arguments with class, precision and humor.


Part 1



Part 2




The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - The Most Trusted Name in Fake News

Jon Stewart On Gay Rights

This is a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart a few years ago, and he was commenting about the religious right's protest in America regarding gay marriage. While the recent furor in Singapore was not regarding gay marriage but the right for gays to have sex without being criminalized, I thought the points Jon made was pertinent: "Unless the government is going to force you to perform make man-love, why should you even care?"




The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - The Most Trusted Name in Fake News

孙燕姿 -- 雨天

我非常喜欢这首歌，让我想起一些过往云烟。

宗教不再神秘

(刊登于2007年10月30日)

在一般人的心中，宗教仪式和其附属的人事物充满浓厚的神秘色彩，其运作是一般凡夫俗子不能轻易理解。就算是在我许多没有宗教信仰的朋友当中，每当我试图以其他不同的角度来剖析宗教时，他们总会说出一句类似 “宗教是神秘的，人类是永远都无法彻底了解” 的话来表示他们对此话题没什么兴趣。

当然，这句话在不崇尚神秘主义的本人耳中听起来是稍微刺耳。尽管我承认人类的知识有限，不过却不认为所谓宗教真的是多数人说的如此神秘和难以理解。至少，有三位不同的作者也同意本人的话，因为他们以自己的专长，各自从不同的角度去剖析宗教，然后把其看法写成了书。

Pascal Boyer 是一位人类学 (anthropology) 学者，专门研究不同文化的宗教仪式。他在90年代发表的几篇论文提出了要了解宗教就必须先了解人类的认知功能的理论。因为宗教仪式始终是人类社会里的现象，所以必须要了解人类的思维，才能够了解为何该现象在不同的文化和社会里都扮演了重要的角色。Boyer 于2001年将此理论出版成一本可供大众阅读的书，名为《Religion Explained》。在这本书里，Boyer 不赞同一般人对于宗教所赋予的定义，反而提出所谓宗教是个概念的集合体，而人类特有的认知结构导致我们深深地受到这些概念的吸引。Boyer 在书中提供了许多不同文化的宗教仪式和人类的认知特征的例子， 并且陈述出两者相辅相成的关系。《Religion Explained》独特的地方是因为它结合了认知心理学 (Cognitive Psychology) 和人类学两个不同学术领域的知识，从另一个全新的角度来了解宗教。

Boyer 的理论可说是以人为个体来看待宗教的现象。David Sloan Wilson 的看法恰好不同，以人类社会为个体做为讨论的切入点。Wilson 于2002年出版了《Darwin’s Cathedral》，试图从演化论的角度来了解宗教。根据Wilson 的看法，宗教之所以会在人类的历史和不同文化里扮演了重要的角色，主要是因为宗教做为一个社会机制赋予了属于这个机制里的成员某些好处，以致这些成员的生存和繁殖的几率大为提高。因此，宗教做为一个社会机制就能够慢慢演化成许多社会不可或缺的机制。整体上，任何一个人在出生时就拥有笃信宗教倾向的几率也大大提高。此看法和Boyer的理论有雷同之处，尽管出发点稍微有些不同。由于Wilson所提出的理论拥有强烈团体选择 (group selection) 的意味存在，与主流演化论所提倡的个人选择论 (individual selection) 有些出入，因此其理论在学术界颇受争议。至少，像Richard Dawkins 和 Leda Cosmides 等著名的演化论学者就曾多次针对该理论作出批评。

如果说Boyer 和 Wilson 是从学术的角度来分析宗教，那么 Michael Shermer 在《How We Believe》此书里是从个人经验的角度来分析宗教。Shermer 是美国著名杂志《Skeptic》的主编，曾经是个基督教徒，不过最后却变成个不可知论者，在美国普及和推广科学知识的领域中扮演了重要的角色。《How We Believe》此书记载了Shermer 成为不可知论者的过程，以及在变成不可知论者后以完全不同的角度去看待宗教。虽然说记载的是个人经验，不过Shermer 却综合了许多不同的知识领域来讨论宗教。有哲学、心理学、历史、社会学等方面的知识。或许Boyer和Wilson的书对于宗教的讨论较为深入，不过其广度并没有Shermer 此书来得全面。当然，《How We Believe》此书并没有提出任何惊为天人的理论，里头对于宗教的剖析说难听些是老调重弹。然而，如果读者想从神秘论以外的角度来认识宗教，此书可算是非常有用的入门手册，因为Shermer 不仅在书里头提供了许多参考来源，而且其文笔还平易近人，读起来绝对不会觉得枯燥乏味。

尽管许多宗教于不同文化和社会里都是以神秘主义为其指导原则，不过我们没有必要去认同这神秘的面纱。宗教在人类历史里扮演着重要的角色，而在许多现今的社会也有着很大的影响力。对于如此重要的东西，人们不是应该更积极地去了解它，而不是为它戴上神秘的面具吗？希望介绍这三本书可以让大家对于这个在人类社会扮演重大角色的社会机制有着更深一层的了解。

Demetri Martin -- Trendspotting: Credit Card

I don't have a credit card, even until now. I do have a debit card, which I use to make my online purchases. Why don't I have a credit card? Maybe for the same reasons that Demetri Martin spoofed in this Trendspotting section on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Against Big Corporations

I've always not been fond of big corporations, and have been trying to argue that the one of the most important role of the government in the 21st century is not to be corporation friendly, but to make things "difficult" for corporations by ensuring that they are socially and environmentally responsible, that they do not influence politics in any way, and to regulate the market such that there is a more equal distribution of wealth. Yes, this is not the free-market ideology espoused by a lot of people (including the Singapore government), and this is somewhat autocratic. However, I believe that we will be for the better in the long run. If anything, at least try to keep the corporations out of politics. Want to see how corrosive it can be? Watch the clip below. The speaker is Ralph Nader and one of his speech against big corporation is being remixed with some cool background music.

When Free Speech Is Not Free Speech

I am not a big fan of censorship, unless in some cases (i.e. you don't show porn to kids under... 12 years old). However, I do not agree with most people that you are free to say anything, or at least my definition of "free speech" does not mean that you can make any statements without impunity. I do think it is important that when someone makes a statement, he or she must back it up with facts and evidences, well-thought-out rationale, good logic and must not subscribe to any fallacies. Sadly, if you look at some of the people who are opposed to the PAP, they make this kind of arguments (I'm looking at you, Chee Soon Juan). And the sad thing is, when they are challenged on their lack of evidence, they come up with all sorts of bullshit like the state-controlled media has falsely informed the people, or that the "truth" is not told to the people, etc etc etc, or that there is a conspiracy against them, etc etc etc.

This is kind of frustrating. Because although I agree with the government on some issues, there are certain issues and policies that I disagree with. And there are good people out there who are making sensible arguments against the government with regards to their bad policies, or policies which makes no sense (think 377a). However, the antics of assholes like CSJ undermines these valid arguments that the other people are making.

Here is a clip from Bill Maher's show, Real Time, recently, where a few 9-11 conspiracy theorists (who believes that 9/11 was a coordinated effort by the US government i.e. there were no terrorist, the government blew up the twin towers in an orchestrated effort) hijacked the show to protest against the host. Bill Maher threw them out (which I think was a correct move). Again, these crazy 9-11 truthers blur the issues with their crazy assertions, which is the Bush administration has badly handled the war and lied the American people into it. This is kind of how it is when people like Chee Soon Juan shoots off his mouth. His crazy antics are then easily dismissed by our government, and it blunts the real criticisms that other people may make against out government. Think about it.

My Pet Hamster

I've named him Cartman.

不受欢迎并不代表不正确

(刊登于联合早报2007年10月28日)

李资政在两个星期前为国际律师协会的常年大会主持开幕式所发表的演讲中指出，新加坡之所以有今天的成就，是因为政府当初采取了很多让人民建立起凝聚力的政策，例如集选区的少数民族候选人、政府组屋的种族配额、推广英语的使用等等。尽管许多政策长期以来不受人民欢迎，不过李资政指出它们最终还是让新加坡社会达到种族和谐的目的。

仔细想想，有关当局其实还推行了许多不受欢迎的政策，例如电子公路收费制和公积金制度。尽管许多国人都有所抱怨，不过也不得不承认这些政策的效率。就拿电子公路收费制，近来伦敦和纽约等著名城市也考虑效仿我国实行类似制度。

也就是说，有关当局向来都不畏实行不受欢迎的政策，就算起初引起大众不满，不过只要政策有益，有关当局都坚持立场。因此，就算我对于有关当局对于刑事法典377A的废留问题所采取的态度和立场不惊讶，却对他们所提供的理由感到失望。许多议员碍于多数持有保守观念的国人还没做好公开接受同性恋准备的情况下，因此决定不废除刑事法典377A。

本人稍早前曾指出，排挤同性恋者与新加坡建国宗旨背道而驰，因为宣誓里的 “不分种族、言语、宗教” 暗示着某种与不同组群合作以建立美好家园的包容精神，而新加坡人一直以能够包容不同文化而自豪。因此，当有关当局以类似少数应该服从多数的理由驳回废除该刑事法典时，不禁让人感觉他们似乎在自掌嘴巴。

或许本人误会了有关当局的用意。或许他们是考虑到维持本地社会现有的凝聚力，所以才决定服从多数人的意愿。许多议员也表示不废除的理由是不想让 “政府是否支持同性恋者的生活方式” 的议题分裂社会不同族群。然而，本人认为此决定虽然从短期利益的角度看似合理，不过从长远的角度却弊多于利。因为曾犯了迎合大众口的先例，所以如果下次想要推行不受大众欢迎的政策时，是否会显得没有说服力？英明的政府不该做出迎合大众口味的决定，而是做出有利于人民的决定，这好像是有关当局不仅一次发表过的声明。

况且，没有一个国家或社会是完全没有意见分歧的族群。就算不是多元文化、宗教和种族的国家，其人民的想法也不可能一致。因此，有关当局所能做的就是提供不同族群同等的自由发表空间，不在任何法律或者制度上偏袒或者排挤任何一方。有关当局对待不同宗教团体就是发扬此精神的一个好例子。有关当局不偏袒任何宗教，不在任何公共机构提倡，然而也不会干涉任何人的宗教自由，前提是这不会破坏咱们社会的秩序，或者不会使得任何社会成员受到伤害。

或许，这就是对于刑事法典377A的废留问题的重点。至少，反对废除的群众所给的理由是假如废除刑事法典377A，这就等同有关当局在提倡同性恋者的生活方式，而这将瓦解整个社会的家庭结构。就第一点而言，我觉得这些反对的群众模糊焦点了，因为如果废除刑事法典377A，提倡的不是同性恋者的生活方式，而是人人皆平等的崇高包容态度。换另个角度看待此问题，不知道大家是否记得几年前的头巾风波？当时教育部不允许某些学生戴头巾上学，并非是针对某个宗教，而是出于在教育场所人人平等的前提下。如果运用此逻辑，就可以理解为何废除刑事法典377A不是等同提倡同性恋者的生活方式。

关于接纳同性恋者和保持社会的家庭结构，这并不是个二选一的抉择，而是可以同时实行的。毕竟，并不是所有的离婚者或是不婚者都是同性恋者，而当一对同性恋者在私人空间进行性行为时，并不会在社会某处就有一个美满的家庭就因此受到摧毁。在反对废除的理由如此贫乏和缺乏逻辑时，有关当局迎合大众的口味而做出不废除的决定，是否还是一个明智的决定呢？

Bill Maher New Rules 26th October 2007

Bill Maher on fear, and what to fear.

The Professor

"i got this when i was young,
when i was conquering my first tree,
but then gravity conquered me instead"
pointing to a scar on his forehead
he said boastfully, beaming
like a proud son to his father
even though i never knew him
all my life, this stranger
was talking to me on the jetty

i smiled, nodded, looked over
his shoulder, looked over
the fishing rod, thinking about the line
and what was on the end of it

"i caught myself a big one, last week
you should have seen the baby, big"
he said, with renewed vigour
"it was struggling, like a prize fighter,
it was defiant, like a rampant bull,
reminded me of myself, but then
i pulled the baby in. and man it was
huge." he was almost breathless, "and i laid it
for all to see, right at this seat where i am
sitting now. right at this spot."

i remained silent, but smiled
politely. everybody likes to tell
a story once in a while
but today i'm only listening
i'm only thinking about
what's on the end of the line

"you'd never guess my profession,
i'm teach, lecture, yes, in the university
yeah, got my degree way back then
got my doctorate in the states. worked
my ass off, but now here am i, speaking
to you. and fishing. damn it seemed so
fucking surreal. it seemed like yesterday."

he was beginning to strut
like a proud peacock
like an old sea sailor
after a whiskey and a rum
selling his adventures
but no, he was a professor,
and now he is fishing
or was he parading his life story
standing himself like a trophy

and the line began to move
he excused himself and
he kept on pulling, trying
to rail the line in
i was watching
and he kept on pulling
and he kept on pulling

Demetri Martin -- Trendspotting: Social Networking

Demetri Martin is a talented young comedian. I really like his dead-pan style of execution, and unlike a lot of other comics, he does not rely on the usual jokes about race or gender. Instead, if you look carefully at his jokes, they rely much on creative word-play and out-of-the-box comedic thinking.

Trendspotting is a segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which Demetri contributes sporadically, but what he lacks in quantity, he makes up with quality. Check out this clip on social networking, which had me laughing my ass off.



The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - The Most Trusted Name in Fake News

黄美珍 -- 女爵

Lewis Black During the 2007 Emmys

Bill Maher Demonstrates The Ridiculousness of Religion

Oh my god, god exists, because I saw his face on a taco! Or does anyone remember the story a while back about the Monkey God appearing on the bark of a tree in Toa Payoh? Bill Maher lampoons this kind of naive thinking with comedy of pure gold...

新宝岛康乐队访问

虽然说这是新宝岛康乐队的访问，不过好像都是阿升在说话。

Part I



Part II



Part III

陈升 -- 純情青春夢

这是阿升早期为潘越云写词的一首歌。这是他最近在台南的一个活动现场Live演唱，以unplugged的方式来诠释这首歌。

==========================================================================
《純情青春夢》

作詞：陳升　作曲：鄭文魁　編曲：李正帆

送你到火車頭　越頭就做你走
親像斷線風吹　雙人放手就來自由飛
阮還有幾句話　想要對你解釋
看是藏在心肝底較實在

阮也有每天等　只驚等來的是絕望
想來想去　抹凍辜負著青春夢　青春夢
咱兩人相欠債　你欠阮有較多
歸去看破來切切　較實在

送你到火車頭　越頭阮要來走
親像斷線風吹　雙人放手就愛自由飛
不是阮不肯等　時代已經不同
查某人嘛有自己的想法

甘願是不曾等　較贏等來是一場空
想來想去　同款辜負著青春夢　青春夢
唱歌來解憂愁　歌聲是真溫柔
查某人嘛有自己的願望

阮也有每天等　只驚等來的是絕望
想來想去　抹凍辜負著青春夢　青春夢
咱兩人相欠債　你欠阮有較多
歸去看破來切切　較實在

陈升 -- 风筝

太喜欢这首歌了。总觉得阿升应该就是一个贪玩的孩子，所以才能写得出这个歌词。或许自己也是一个大顽童的关系，因此每次听到这首歌时都感同深受。

===========================================================================
《风筝》

词曲： 陈升

因为我知道你是个 容易担心的小孩子
所以我将线交你手中 却也不敢飞得太远

不管我随着风飞翔到云间 我希望你能看得见
就算我偶尔会贪玩迷了路 也知道你在等着我
我是一个贪玩又自由的风筝 每天都会让你担忧
如果有一天迷失风中 要如何回到你身边
因为我知道你是个 容易担心的小孩子
所以我会在乌云来时 轻轻滑落在你怀中

我是一个贪玩又自由的风筝 每天都会让你担忧
如果有一天迷失风中 要如何回到你身边
贪玩又自由的风筝 每天都游戏在天空
如果有一天扯断了线 你是否会来寻找我
如果有一天迷失风中 带我回到你的怀中

因为我知道你是个 容易担心的小孩子
所以我在天上的时候 却也不敢飞的太远

Seinfeld's History Class

This is a classic clip from Saturday Night Live a few years back, where Seinfeld is a history teacher trying to teach a class of ignorant students about history. Although I am not teaching history but psychology, I can attest to the fact that a lot of kids nowadays are like the students in the clip.

Toshihiko Koga's Superb Seoi Nage

When I was playing judo back in high school, Koga was a player I admired most, mainly for his kick-ass Ippon and Morote Seoi Nages (i.e. one and two armed shoulder throws). Here is a clip that shows just how devastating his shoulder throws were.

Another Tirade On Intelligent Design

This time it is not by me, but by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a famous astrophysicist in the Beyond Belief Conference in 2006.

David Beckham's Free Kicks

陈奕迅 -- 随意门

Jon Stewart On Mixed Martial Arts

This is a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he and John Hodgman, probably one of the most dead-pan satirist in America now, discusses about mixed martial arts.



The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - The Most Trusted Name in Fake News

Antony and the Johnsons -- If It Be Your Will

This is a clip from the new documentary about Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man, where Anthony covers one of his songs, If It Be Your Will.

女权主义

(One of the few "image poems" I've written...)

新寶島康樂隊 -- 一百萬

这是阿升早期与黄连煜在新宝岛康乐队里一首非常动听的歌，讲述的是台湾南部当时很多青少年到台北寻找更好的未来，却不慎误入歧途的故事。曾读过一篇评论，说这首歌许多台湾南部的人当时听了都很有感触，因为他们的身边都有一个类似的故事。

Flock of Dodos: Unintelligent Design

These are two clips from the award winning documentary, Flock of Dodos, which looks at the absurdity that is Intelligent Design and why so many people do not believe in evolution. The official website is found here.

Bill Maher New Rules 19th October 2007

Bill Maher on defense against aliens....

Banning of creationism education

Gee whiz, I wonder if anyone would say that the Swedish government are not a democratic society because they banned the expression of "free speech" in their textbooks. This is a report on the internet (here) in which creationism is going to be banned from Swedish schools, probably as a reaction to the religious fundamentalists out there who wants to bring civilization as we know it back to the dark ages. I am not sure of our education policies here, but this is one thing that I would like to see banned from our schools as well. It probably is, and so I guess people like Chee Soon Juan (whom I heard has a religious view that is way skewed towards the right) would cry foul over the fact that the government are indoctrinating our kids.

===========================================================================
Creationism to be banished from Swedish schools

Published: 15th October 2007 07:57

The Swedish government is to crack down on the role religion plays in independent faith schools. The new rules will include a ban on biology teachers teaching creationism or 'intelligent design' alongside evolution.

"Pupils must be protected from all forms of fundamentalism," said Education Minister Jan Björklund to Dagens Nyheter.

Some Christian schools teach biology students that the world and the organisms on it were created by a supreme being. This is often presented as another valid scientific theory alongside evolution - something most scientists reject.

Religious Education will remain on the curriculum and it will still be allowed to start the school day with prayers. But in classes teachers will be expected to stick to the curriculum.

"End-of-term services in school are great," he said, and added that religious education would remain a school subject. But all elements of religious worship would have to be completely separate from class teaching.

Most independent schools in Sweden are privately owned but funded by government grants.

Björklund also said the Swedish National Agency for Education would double the number of inspections of both council-run and independent schools. He also announced a ban on anonymous financial donations to schools and said he would make it easier to close schools that were breaking the rules.

The stricter rules will be introduced in next year's education act.

Is MM Lee an atheist?

When I came over to the United States and looked at how religion bled unhealthily into the society here, it made me reflect on the policies in Singapore. I suddenly realized how secular a society that Singapore is, and that a lot of our policies were aimed at creating a secular society. It then occurred to me that whoever was in charge of running our government must be a secularist (or an atheist?) and took extra steps into ensuring that religion does not mix with politics, even though sometimes you are accused of violating human rights.

One thing that came into my mind was the tudung incident a few years back when Chee Soon Juan accused the government of violating human rights because MOE refused to back down from allowing the Muslim girls from wearing tudungs in school. At that time, I was kind of nonchalant about the incident, but seeing how religion corrupts education in the Unites States (think of the debates regarding teaching creationism in school), I realized that the government back then had made a correct decision, and that Chee Soon Juan is a huge dick (not that I am not aware of that from other antics that he has pulled in the past).

Recently, I came across this newspaper report in the Straits Times where MM Lee was talking about dealing with religious difference in Singapore, and I cannot help but think that he is either an atheist, or a very pragmatic secularist. Just read what he says, and you tell me that this is the words of someone who is very religious? I don't think so.



===================================================================================
Oct 15, 2007

'Unusual steps' needed to get people to gel
MM: Policies like GRCs, ethnic quotas needed because of heterogeneous mix

By Li Xueying

SINGAPORE has had to take 'unusual steps' to get to where it is today - a society of people who gel despite their heterogeneous mix.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said this last night as he explained the rationale for policies such as the group representation constituencies (GRCs), ethnic quotas in public housing estates, and the use of English.

A delegate at the International Bar Association had asked if Singapore's 'amazing' achievements were due to the fact that the country was 'not so democratic'.

Responding, Mr Lee gave an account of the Singapore Story to the audience of international legal practitioners, while making clear that he did not 'speak of this as a model. I speak about how Singapore got where it is'.

Any society which wants to move forward needs a certain cohesion, he said.

Singapore began as a society of migrants of different races who lived separately, spoke different languages, and who intended to return to China, Indonesia or India.

'So we were like different kinds of fishes in an aquarium, each with different salinity that would occasionally meet at the edges,' he said.

What the Government did, among other things, was to make English the common language, and it got people to physically interact through the ethnic quotas in the public housing programme. 'We rebuilt the city and did not give anybody any choice of who their neighbour would be.'

While of 'great discomfort' for many years, it helped the races to eventually accept each other as one community.

'If we had not done that, today we'll have a big terrorist problem,' he said.

And to ensure minority representation in Parliament, GRCs were created.

'Are these democratic procedures?' he asked. 'My opponents say they are not because they can't find good minority candidates because they are not likely to win.

'So, therefore, should I abandon it and have no minority candidates?'

Rankings by groups such as Amnesty International cut no ice with him.

'I do not measure myself by the yardstick of Amnesty International... I measure myself by the objective of governance of my people. What must a government do? They must establish a system and there's peace, stability and opportunities for everybody to live a full life - which means good health, good housing, good jobs, good education, good hospitals,' he said to applause.

And while Singaporeans 'have access to all information', he said, 'we do not allow certain subjects to be made bones of contention'.

Globalisation meant that what happened in one country could become a world issue, he noted, citing the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that angered the Muslim world.

'It's a clash of civilisations. I'm not sure that we can avoid this. I'm not saying that because... mad fundamentalists threatened us with death and destruction, we must retreat.

'But I believe it is practical and sensible not to be offensive. Live and let live. They want a good life, we want a good life. They want to do it their way, pray five times a day, live a certain way of life, well, so be it.'

This, Mr Lee added, is 'a problem which we are facing with increasing difficulty'.

He recalled going to college with Muslim friends who shared his food. But today, they are concerned not just about food, but whether the same dishwasher is used.

He recounted going campaigning with a Muslim ex-minister: 'He'd drink beer, I'd drink beer. He'd have a whisky, I'd have a whisky.' But four years ago, at a dinner, when Mr Lee offered him wine, 'he looked around and held up his hands and says, 'No, thank you''.

There was also an increasing number of madrasahs, where Malays were sending their daughters, while sending sons to secular schools.

'That's going to cause trouble,' he said. 'Do we stop it? If we can, we would. But will we have trouble? Yes, of course.'

So to 'put a damper on it', students were required to also pass in English, maths and science.

So 'starting from a heterogeneous base trying to get this mix to gel, you have to take unusual steps and procedures that have enabled us to get this far', he said.

Radiohead -- Videotapes

Another brilliant song from Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows.

All Glory To The Hypno-Toad!

For those who are fans of Futurama, you will definitely get this reference (or joke). For those who aren't getting the joke, click on the clip below to give you a clue. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO-TOAD!!! BUY THE NEW FUTURAMA DVD COMING OUT NEXT MONTH!!!

Lewis Black

Lewis Black on the way politicians and the mainstream media dwells on the non-issues (i.e. focusing on the surface rather than what really is important).




The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - The Most Trusted Name in Fake News

President Al Gore??? In another parallel universe...

Al Gore has just won the Nobel Peace Prize, which he had truly deserved. I hope now people will really take the threat of global warming seriously and fucking do something about it.

This was a clip done by Al Gore for Saturday Night Live! a year or so back. Many of my USA friends who saw this clip (save for the die-hard Republicans, or the so-called loyal Bushies) was so depressed and wished that Al Gore was the one that had been elected. Given his progressive views and his position on global warming, who knows how things might have turned out, not just for America, but for the whole world.

Bill Maher Interviews Naomi Klein

Okay. It should be pretty obvious by now. I am no fan of free-market capitalism or big corporations. Also, I think that in this day and age, one of the role of government is to keep in check the powers of corporation rather than facilitate them.

This is an interview of Naomi Klein by Bill Maher, which alludes to my point of why the role of the government is to keep the powers of corporation in check. Everything you hear described here has been happening in Singapore for the past few years, and personally, seeing how free-market capitalism have screwed USA for the past few years, I am not keen for it to happen to my own country.

有没有问题

(刊登于联合早报2007年10月14日)

根据海峡时报报道，李资政在南大部长论坛演讲接受观众的问题时，曾一度因为在场发问的人都是外国学生，而呼吁在场的新加坡学生勇于发问。言下之意，为何本地学生对于自己国家的事比不上国外来的学生呢？

对于本地学生不勇于发问的现象，有些人的见解是本地的教育制度原本就不鼓励学生发问。或者说，过去的教育只着重于教导学生死背课本里的知识，但对于激好奇心和鼓励发问，以及教导初院学生如何质询的课程 (Knowledge and Inquiry) 也是近期才实行的政策。因此，要等到一批勇于发问的学生，或许还有一些时间。

也有人认为本地学生不勇于发问的态度其实就是新加坡人民在谈到政治问题时的最佳写照，而这种不积极发问的心态源自于某种莫名的恐惧。我记得前几年开始写社论时，母亲曾认真地提醒我千万不要写相反于有关当局看法的言论，要不然政府不是把我捉去关起来，就是会起诉我毁谤，直到我破产为止。尽管我心领了母亲的善意提醒，不过对于这种政府随时将我关起来的想法还是觉得啼笑皆非。

然而，这却是许多人对于有关当局的看法。如果不同意有关当局的政策，他们就会将你整得很惨。至少，这是我和德士司机聊天时所听到的抱怨。或者，只要在任何网路上的论坛也可以看到诸如此类的说法。在某个程度上，这些疑虑是可以理解的，毕竟每个人对内部安全法令的理解并非全面。更何况，有关当局向来给人无可商榷的印象，就如同一位严父。

除了莫名的恐惧感外，我常听到的另一个不质问的理由是就算质问也没有用。反正有关当局什么都西都决定好了嘛，我们问了也是白问，这是一般民众的想法。其实，大家的想法如此消极也不是没有道理，因为大家感觉有关当局的政策从未询求民意，而本地民间团体的意见对于有关当局的政策的影响也似乎不是很大。例如民间团体多次要求有关当局更为广泛地接受同性恋者和撤销刑罚法典377A时，都被当局以时机尚未成熟的理由驳回。心理学里有一种现象叫做习得性无助感 (Learned Helplessness)，指的是生物在接连不断地受到挫折后所产生的一种无能为力和听天由命的心态。或许，大家不勇于发问的现象在某种程度上就如同一种广泛的习得性无助感吧。

还有另一种说法，就是由于有关当局办事非常有效率，因此大家都信任有关当局，所以鲜少提出问题。然而，如果说大家出于莫名的恐惧感和习得性无助感而不勇于质问有关当局在某种程度上是有关当局必须自我检讨，那么因为对有关当局加以信任而不提出质疑就是我们必须检讨了。就算有关当局现在办事非常有效，不过只要有一个错误的决定，或许咱们就得花上很久才能再度回到轨道。因此，这种因为信任政府而不提出问题的态度对大家都没有好处。就算再优秀和有效的政府，如果没有人民的参与和适当的讨论，也无法把国家发展往另一个高峰推进。有时候，向有关当局提出质问并非是不支持他们，或者是刻意找麻烦吧，而是我们身为公民的责任。

我想李资政大概也非常了解这点，所以才会在论坛演讲上呼吁本地学生们发问问题。因为，有时候没有问题才是真正的大问题吧。

Bill Maher New Rules 12 October 2007

Bill rants about fake patriotism...

Radiohead -- Nude

After a few listens to In Rainbows, I've decided that I like this song a lot. Maybe I still have to listen to it a few more times to decide whether I would rank it above Kid A or OK Computer, but I'll have to say that the new album is not bad.

Also, I think Radiohead is one of the more progressive thinking band. They offered the album for digital download and you pay whatever amount you wish to pay (see here). However, if you want the deluxe version of the album, then you have to pay more (much more). And they are not selling the albums via a recording company, but directly to you from them. I think this is a great idea because: (a) now the artists can be directly in touch with their fans, without the record company ripping off either of them; (b) less wastage, in the sense that no albums need to be printed ...... with the invention of MP3 and digital downloading, the printing of albums seemed so last century; (c) I think what we are seeing here is a whole new model of how the music industry will move in the future. It might work, it might not work, but whatever the new model of the music industry in the future is, it will definitely not be CDs.

Horse Sculpture

Located @ The Chinese High School, Singapore

Radiohead -- Pyramid Song

This is a nice song by Radiohead from their album, Amnesiac. I am currently listening to their newest album, In Rainbows, and is sort of torn about it. All I have to say is that it is very different from their previous albums and I have to get used to it.

Radiohead -- Paranoid Android

This is one of my all time favorite Radiohead song.

Another article about Apes...

This is an article from Science News Online, found here.

==================================================================
Ape Aid: Chimps share altruistic capacity with people

Bruce Bower

Many researchers have asserted that only people will assist strangers without receiving anything in return, sometimes at great personal cost. However, a new study suggests that chimpanzees also belong to the Good Samaritan club, as do children as young as 18 months of age.

MAY I HELP YOU? New experiments indicate that chimpanzees aid strangers, regardless of personal gain, much as people, including very young children, do. Max Planck Inst. for Evolutionary Anthropology

Without any prospect of immediate benefit, chimps helped both people and other chimps that they didn't know, and the 18-month-olds spontaneously assisted adults they'd never seen before, say psychologist Felix Warneken of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues.

The roots of human altruism reach back roughly 6 million years to a common ancestor of people and chimps, the researchers propose in the July PLoS Biology.

"Learning and experience are involved in altruistic helping, but our claim is that there is a predisposition [in chimps and people] to develop such behavior without explicit training," Warneken says.

His team conducted three experiments with adult chimps living on an island sanctuary in Uganda and two experiments with 18-month-old German children. In the chimp version of the first experiment, 36 animals watched one at a time from a barred enclosure as an experimenter in an adjacent room—who had had virtually no prior contacts with the animals—reached through the bars for a stick on the other side. The stick was within reach of only the observing chimp.

Most chimps snatched the stick and gave it to the experimenter, whether or not the experimenter offered a piece of banana as a reward. No assistance came if the experimenter didn't first reach in vain for the stick.

A similar trial with 36 youngsters yielded comparable altruistic behavior, regardless of whether the experimenter offered toys as a reward.

The second round of experiments included 18 chimps and 22 infants who had helped at least once in the first experiment.

The chimps still retrieved a stick for an experimenter, although they now had to climb a 2.5-meter-high platform to reach the item. The children navigated barriers and hurdles to get a pencil for an experimenter. No reward was offered in either case.

The third experiment tested nine chimps' willingness to aid other chimps that they neither knew nor were related to. One chimp watched another in a separate room try to enter an adjacent space through a chained door in order to obtain food. Only the observing chimp could remove a peg in its enclosure to release the chain, allowing the other chimp to nab a snack.

All but one observing chimp did just that in numerous trials.

"These are wonderful experiments and present a real challenge to previous findings," remarks anthropologist Joan B. Silk of the University of California, Los Angeles. Silk and other investigators have reported that chimps don't give food rewards to their comrades, even at no cost to the potential donor.

Chimps may help others who fail to achieve observable goals, as in the new experiments, Warneken suggests. Further studies need to compare individuals' reactions to different types of cooperative tasks, Silk says.

The results "come as no surprise to any field worker who has spent lots of time close to wild chimpanzees," comments anthropologist William C. McGrew of the University of Cambridge in England.

Werewolf

Recently, a werewolf was sighted amongst the peaceful HDB estate of a certain neighborhood. Not just your regular type of werewolf, you know, but it almost seems certain that it is a color wolf (literary translated from Chinese, meaning lecher) as well. Not surprising to deduce, since all its victims were females whom had their breast and vulva attacked, badly clawed and bruised. As I said, not your regular werewolf who is interested in mutilating bodies of unknown victims, regardless of gender, and throwing their body parts all over the streets, but a color wolf who molests females only and who is not even interested in mutilating their body. Not a bit, not interested in even pulling out a finger, biting off an ear or just even tearing out strands of hair. No, all it was interested in was the breasts and the vulva. A colorful werewolf, I must say, and it is interesting to just wonder whether the rest of the werewolf community would view him as a disgrace. I could almost imagine two normal werewolves talking about this deviant one over some freshly severed human heads.

"What, you mean that bugger don't even attempt to seriously injure his victims?? Are you sure he is one of us, or just a crossbreed between a dog or whatever?"

"I don't know, maybe he has some problem with his mind. Doesn’t he know how a werewolf should behave? Molesting human victims?? Next thing you know he'll start turning into vegetarian or something."

"Yeah, better not go too close to him next time, if not others would think we are strange in the head too...."

"My sentiments exactly."

So on and so forth.

* * *

"So what makes you think the werewolf is a lecher?" I asked my friend.

It was a sunny afternoon; he was brewing some kind of green tea in his kitchen. Michael Stipe’s voice was booming out from the speakers to the tune of ‘What's The Frequency, Kenneth?’. I could never catch the lyrics of that song.

"Why not, it only attacks females, and apparently, sexually."

"Then why can't it be a lesbian? A lesbian color wolf.... that'll explain why it only attacks females too, right?"

"Well," my friend said thoughtfully as he laid down the freshly brewed green tea on the table, " your theory would stand, but for the fact that no males were attacked and mutilated. That would have happened if the werewolf were a lesbian. All lesbians hate males."

"That’s a bigotry remark." I retorted

"It’s my personal opinion." he retorted back.

"How would you know? You are not a lesbian, not even a female. How would you understand how a lesbian feels?"

"Well, neither are you."

"Gees, that's sort of true."

So with the conversation hanging in midair like a boneless jellyfish, we continued drinking the green tea. Not that it was nice, but that was the only drink available in his house when I paid a surprise visit, and the prospect of plain water didn't appeal to me.

"Well, why did it have to be a werewolf?" my friend asked.

"Pardon?"

"I mean, nobody actually saw the werewolf, right? And even the victims only saw the big hairy hands, a big hairy face and a big hairy body. For all we know, it could have been a genetically flawed vampire who had hair growing out of every part of his body."

"A vampire wouldn't have claws." I reasoned.

"Okay, so it may not have been a vampire, but it could be something else, right? Why a werewolf?"

"You’re being silly here, everybody is saying that it is a werewolf, the police, the medical experts, the religious people, the psychic and all the victims. It is all over the newspaper. You can’t argue with that."

"Well, at one point of time, everybody thought the world was flat." my friend was trying to beat me with his logic.

"Well, if it can be another monster, then why not a lesbian?"

"Ah, fuck off."

"So what's the thing with lesbians, huh? You got rejected by a girl who is a lesbian?"

"I told you to fuck off."

"Just drink the bloody tea."

* * *

When I received the phone call from my girlfriend, my alarm clock beside the bed showed that it was 2 am in the morning.

"Okay, look here, I’m really tired, can I call you tomorrow?" I mumbled groggily.

"Look, I’ll just ask you one question and I’ll hang up the phone. Do you want to marry me?"

I looked at the clock again. 2 am, I wasn't mistaken. I touched my face, it is there, I’m not dreaming.

"Look, can we just leave everything to tomorrow? I really tired and weary here and now what I want to do is to sleep. I’ll call you again the first thing I wake up tomorrow."

"I want an answer now,” my girlfriend demanded.

I hung up the phone.

Five minutes later, the phone rang again. More sober this time, I picked it up.

"Okay, please don't say anything and hear out what I’m going to say. It won't take more than five minutes,” she said.

I nodded, but realizing that she can't see me over the phone, I gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

"Today, well actually it was yesterday evening, we went out for dinner together, and after that you dropped me off below my flat before driving off, right?"

I grunted.

"Well, after you were gone, I walked towards the lift, took the elevator up to the tenth floor, and started walking towards my apartment, and did you know what I saw?"

"What?" I muttered

"Well, I saw the full moon. And it was when I saw this I realized that we have been going out together for more than four years. During this period, you never made any serious considerations for marriage. You never made any preparations, you consider meeting my parents a drag, and you always treat our relationship as if it was something temporary. And it was there and then I realized that you never had any intention in marrying me at all."

I tried to think of words to defend myself, but before I could react, my girlfriend had beaten me to it, "well, since you had absolutely no intention of marrying me, I don't see the point of carrying on with our relationship. I just want to call you now and tell you that you don't have to look for me again. Don’t call me either."

She hung up the phone.

I stared at the receiver, totally mystified. Okay, so I wasn't the type of guy who would want to desperately be married, but what have I done to warrant this kind of treatment, especially at two am in the morning.

I put down the receiver of the phone, and decided against calling my girlfriend back right away. Nope, knowing her, she wouldn't want me to call her back now.

I went to the toilet to relieve myself. And as I was urinating as if there was no tomorrow, I thought about the words that my girlfriend said. What does she mean? Does she think that I don't love her, so therefore I don't make arrangements to get married with her? I think that must be what she meant. Well, people sometimes have a way of talking huge amount of words to hide the true intention of these words, and it is up to me to understand what it really meant. I sighed as I washed up my hands by the basin. Doesn’t the poor girl know that love does not equate to marriage? Just because I will want to marry somebody doesn't necessary mean I love the person, and just because I love the person doesn't necessary mean that I must marry her. I must make this point clear to her tomorrow, I thought. In our times and generation, this post-modern era, marriage doesn't mean anything. It certainly does not equate to love.

As I passed by the living room going back to my bedroom, I noticed that I forgotten to bolt up the front door before I slept. I walked towards the door to fasten the bolt, but just as I reached out my hand, I decided otherwise and headed back to my room. Well, nobody would want to rob a guy like me, and I’m sure even if they wanted to do so, they have to get past the security guards downstairs and the heavy and sturdy steel gates. No normal human being could have done that without waking me up. It would take a supernatural being to break through all those barriers. And the only supernatural being I know around town only attacks females.

I went back into my bedroom, climbed back onto my bed and closed my eyes in an attempt to slip back to dreamland as fast as possible. There is an important presentation at work tomorrow and I have to make sure I don't screw this up. Just as I closed my eyes, I suddenly have this eerie feeling that somebody else is in the room. The hair on the back of my neck started to stand and I dare not open my eyes for fear of what I might have seen. I could have sworn that I could hear the heavy breathings and slight grunting of something in the room. Don’t worry; I kept assuring myself despite the loud beatings of my heart, if the werewolf were in here, in this room with me, he would not attack me because I am not a female. This is only a color wolf interested in females.

I could feel the breathing sounds coming nearer and nearer, and all the while, I was lying very still on the bed, mentally reassuring myself that everything is going to be just all right.

Conversation With The Sheep

Sheep: So, what you are trying to say is, you don't believe in love.

Owl: I never said that. All I said was that my idea of love is different from yours. I don't believe that there is "the one out there" or that I have to find "the right one for me". For me, I think love is all about getting used to whoever you are with, as long as you can stand the other person's faults and idiosyncrasies, that to me is love.

Sheep: But you can get used to anyone given enough time!

Owl: I don't deny that.

Sheep: That is so sad. This means you never truly loved. Love should be more than getting used to another person. There should be a spark somewhere, something to make it special, something that lets you feel that the other person is the right one for you. I feel so sorry for you.

Owl: Hey, don't fucking judge me with your definition of love. I am comfortable the way I am now, and what is wrong with defining love as the way I defined? I just think passion, romance and the whole concept of the perfect fit is overrated and a bunch of bullshit.

Sheep: Whatever, to each his own.

Owl: Yeah, to each his own.

雷光夏 -- 入山

这是雷光夏第一张专辑的最后一首歌。虽然不如《逝》这首歌受到瞩目，不过这却是我最喜欢的歌。听说词曲是改编自客家歌谣，也是我所读过最有意境的词之一。

《入山》

入山看到藤缠树
出山看到树缠藤
滕生树死缠到死
树生藤死死也缠

Avalanches -- Frontier Psychiatrist

This is a nice mix-track from the Australian band Avalanches, from their only studio album, Since I Left You, released in 2001.

How Baboon Think

This is an interesting article that appeared in the New York Times Science and Technology section (here). It concerns how scientist try to study the baboon society.

===================================================================
How Baboons Think (Yes, Think)
By NICHOLAS WADE
October 9, 2007

Royal is a cantankerous old male baboon whose troop of some 80 members lives in the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. A perplexing event is about to disturb his day.

From the bushes to his right, he hears a staccato whoop, the distinctive call that female baboons always make after mating. He recognizes the voice as that of Jackalberry, the current consort of Cassius, a male who outranks Royal in the strict hierarchy of male baboons. No hope of sex today.

But then, surprisingly, he hears Cassius’s signature greeting grunt to his left. His puzzlement is plain on the video made of his reaction. You can almost see the wheels turn slowly in his head:

“Jackalberry here, but Cassius over there. Hmm, Jackalberry must be hooking up with some one else. But that means Cassius has left her unguarded. Say what — this is my big chance!”

The video shows him loping off in the direction of Jackalberry’s whoop. But all that he will find is the loudspeaker from which researchers have played Jackalberry’s recorded call.

The purpose of the experiment is not to ruin Royal’s day but to understand what goes on in a baboon’s mind, in this case how carefully the animals keep track of transient relationships.

Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, a husband-and-wife team of biologists at the University of Pennsylvania, have spent 14 years observing the Moremi baboons. Through ingenious playback experiments performed by themselves and colleagues, the researchers say they have worked out many aspects of what baboons use their minds for, along with their limitations.

Reading a baboon’s mind affords an excellent grasp of the dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence. As Darwin jotted down in a notebook of 1838, “He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.”

Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth are well known for a 1990 book on vervet monkeys, “How Monkeys See the World,” in which they showed how much about the animals’ mental processes could be deduced from careful experiments.

When a baby vervet’s call is played to three females, for instance, the mother looks to the source of the sound. The two others look to the mother, evidence that vervets know whose baby is whose.

An experiment like this — recording the sounds, waiting until the animals are in the right place and performing numerous controls — can take months to complete, but the results are widely admired by other biologists. “Any work of Dorothy and Robert’s is going to be as good as you get in the field,” said Robert M. Sapolsky, a Stanford biologist and an author who has studied baboons in the wild for many years.

“There is no one else in the area of animal behavior who does such incredibly interesting experiments in the field,” said Marc Hauser, a biologist at Harvard who was their first student.

Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth have summed up their new cycle of research in a book titled, after Darwin’s comment, “Baboon Metaphysics.” Their conclusion, based on many painstaking experiments, is that baboons’ minds are specialized for social interaction, for understanding the structure of their complex society and for navigating their way within it.

The shaper of a baboon’s mind is natural selection. Those with the best social skills leave the most offspring.

“Monkey society is governed by the same two general rules that governed the behavior of women in so many 19th-century novels,” Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth write. “Stay loyal to your relatives (though perhaps at a distance, if they are an impediment), but also try to ingratiate yourself with the members of high-ranking families.”

Baboon society revolves around mother-daughter lines of descent. Eight or nine matrilines are in a troop, each with a rank order. This hierarchy can remain stable for generations.

By contrast, the male hierarchy, which consists mostly of baboons born in other troops, is always changing as males fight among themselves and with new arrivals.

Rank among female baboons is hereditary, with a daughter assuming her mother’s rank.

News of that fact gave great satisfaction to a member of the British royal family, Princess Michael of Kent. She visited Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth in Botswana, remarking to them, they report: “I always knew that when people who aren’t like us claim that hereditary rank is not part of human nature, they must be wrong. Now you’ve given me evolutionary proof!”

Baboons live with danger on every side. Many fall prey to lions, leopards, pythons and the crocodiles that in the wet season stalk the fords where baboons cross from one island to another. Baboon watchers are subject to the same hazards. Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth say their rules are not to work alone or to wade into water deeper than knee high. They often find themselves sitting in a tree with baboons waiting out a lion below. But going into New York is more petrifying, they contend, than dodging Botswana’s predators.

The baboons will bark to warn of lions and leopards, but pay no attention to some other species dangerous to humans like buffalo and elephant. On two occasions, baboons have attacked animals, a leopard and a honey badger, that threatened their human companions. “We haven’t lost any post-docs,” Dr. Seyfarth said.

For female baboons, another constant worry besides predation is infanticide. Their babies are put in peril at each of the frequent upheavals in the male hierarchy. The reason is that new alpha males enjoy brief reigns, seven to eight months on average, and find at first that the droits de seigneur they had anticipated are distinctly unpromising. Most of the females are not sexually receptive because they are pregnant or nurturing unweaned children.

An unpleasant fact of baboon life is that the alpha male can make mothers re-enter their reproductive cycles, and boost his prospects of fatherhood, by killing their infants. The mothers can secure some protection for their babies by forming close bonds with other females and with male friends, particularly those who were alpha when their children were conceived and who may be the father. Still, more than half of all deaths among baby baboons are from infanticide.

So important are these social skills that it is females with the best social networks, not those most senior in the hierarchy, who leave the most offspring.

Although the baboon and human lines of descent split apart some 30 million years ago, the species have much in common. Both are primates whose ancestors came down from the trees and learned to survive on the ground in large social groups. The baboon mind may therefore shed considerable light on the early stages of the evolution of the human mind.

In some of their playback experiments, Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth have tested baboons’ knowledge of where everyone stands in the hierarchy. In a typical interaction, a dominant baboon gives a threat grunt, and its inferior screams. From their library of recorded baboon sounds, the researchers can fabricate a sequence in which an inferior baboon’s threat grunt is followed by a superior’s scream.

Baboons pay little attention when a normal interaction is played to them but show surprise when they hear the fabricated sequence implying their social world has been turned upside down.

This simple reaction says a lot about what is going in the baboon’s mind. That the animal can construe “A dominates B,” and distinguish it from “B dominates A,” means it must be able to break a stream of sounds down into separate elements, recognize the meaning of each, and combine the meanings into a sentence-like thought.

“That’s what we do when we parse a sentence,” Dr. Seyfarth said. Human language seems unique because no other species is capable of anything like speech. But when it comes to perceiving and deconstructing sounds, as opposed to making them, baboons’ ability seems much more language-like.

Assuming that early humans inherited the same ability from their joint ancestor with baboons, then when humans first started to combine sounds in the beginning of spoken language, “their listeners were all ready to perceive them,” Dr. Seyfarth said.

Baboons may be good at perceiving and thinking in a combinative way, but their vocal output consists of single sounds that are never combined, like greeting grunts, the females’ sexual whoop and the males’ competitive “wahoo!” cry. Why did language, expressed in combinations of sounds, evolve in humans but not in baboons?

A possible key to the puzzle lies in what animal psychologists call theory of mind, the ability to infer what another animal does or does not know. Baboons seem to have a very feeble theory of mind. When they cross from one island to another, ever fearful of crocodiles, the adults will often go first, leaving the juveniles fretting at the water’s edge. However much the young baboons call, their mothers never come back to help, as if unable to divine their children’s predicament.

But people have a very strong ability to recognize the mental states of others, and this could have prompted a desire to communicate that drove the evolution of language. “If I know you don’t know something, I am highly motivated to communicate it,” Dr. Seyfarth said.

It is far from clear why humans acquired a strong theory of mind faculty and baboons did not. Another difference between the two species is brain size. Some biologists have suggested that the demands of social living were the evolutionary pressure that enhanced the size of the brain. But the largest brains occur in chimpanzees and humans, who live in smaller groups than baboons.

But both chimps and humans use tools. Possibly social life drove the evolution of the primate brain to a certain point, and the stimulus of tool use then took over. Use of tools would have spurred communication, as the owner of a tool explained to others how to use it. But that requires a theory of mind, and Dr. Cheney and Dr. Seyfarth are skeptical of claims that chimpanzees have a theory of mind, in part because the experiments supporting that position have been conducted on captive chimps. “It’s bewildering to us that none of the people who study ape cognition have been motivated to study wild chimpanzees,” Dr. Cheney said.

“Baboons provide you with an example of what sort of social and cognitive complexity is possible in the absence of language and a theory of mind,” she said. “The selective forces that gave rise to our large brains and our full-blown theory of mind remain mysterious, at least to us.”