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When scientists found out that chimps had better memories than students, there were unkind comments about the calibre of the human competition they faced. But now an ape has gone one better, trouncing British memory champion Ben Pridmore. Ayumu, a seven-year-old male brought up in captivity in Japan, did three times as well as Mr Pridmore at a computer game which involved remembering the position of numbers on a screen. And that's no mean feat - the 30-year-old accountant from Derby is capable of memorising the order of a shuffled pack of cards in under 30 seconds.

Ape To Human: Walking Upright May Have Protected Heavy Human BabiesFor safety, all nonhuman primates carry their young clinging to their fur from birth, and species survival depends on it. (Credit: iStockphoto/Graeme Purdy) ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2007) — The transition from apes to humans may have been partially triggered by the need to stand on two legs, in order to safely carry heavier babies. This theory of species evolution presented by Lia Amaral from the University of São Paulo in Brazil has just been published online in Springer’s journal, Naturwissenschaften. For safety, all nonhuman primates carry their young clinging to...

GLEN ST. MARY, Fla. -- Mysterious ape sightings are bringing excitement to a sleepy Florida town. Residents have been hearing screeches in the night and stories of sightings echo on every corner. The local newspaper even ran a story about the sightings. "There is kind of that 'I've seen a bigfoot' type of feel to it," said resident Eric Lawson. "They said it made a nest in that tree, so it's probably somewhere here in the area." Some believe the mysterious animal is an orangutan -- one local family had found what looked to be an orange ape up high...

A reorganization of workers at the Swedish Tax Authority is partly shaped on studies of apes, according to a leaked internal report. Employees are not flattered by the comparison. The tax authority is currently undergoing its largest reorganization for many years. One of the foundations of the restructuring plan is a report which says that studies of apes show that people work best in groups of 150. The reorganization was announced earlier in the summer. Work is being moved from small towns to larger towns and cities. Around 1,350 people are affected by the move. Economies of scale are a...

Beaten by her father, neglected by her mother, 6-week-old gorilla Mary Zwo seemed destined for tragedy - until kindhearted doctors who normally treat human patients fell for the tiny beauty of a beast. The ailing ape began receiving emergency treatment for dehydration and hypothermia over the weekend after her plight was discovered, German hospital officials said. She was whisked to the pediatric ward of the Muenster University Clinic in Stuttgart after zookeepers found her semiconscious and near death in the arms of her mother. And to the relief of her handlers, Mary Zwo, or Mary Two in English, was finally...

The female baby - a type of ape called a gibbon - was born April 9. BOISE, Idaho - The first ape ever born at Zoo Boise is being hand-raised by humans and is gaining weight, after being rejected by its mother. The unnamed female baby -- a type of ape called a gibbon -- was born April 9 and weighed half a pound, but is now up to three-quarters of a pound, zoo director Steve Burns said. Her mother rejected her five days after she was born, Burns said.The female baby - a type of ape called a gibbon...

Scientists have unearthed remains of a primate that could have been ancestral not only to humans but to all great apes, including chimps and gorillas. The partial skeleton of this 13-million-year-old "missing link" was found by palaeontologists working at a dig site near Barcelona in Spain. Details of the sensational discovery appear in Science magazine. The new specimen was probably male, a fruit-eater and was slightly smaller than a chimpanzee, researchers say. Palaeontologists were just getting started at the dig when a bulldozer churned up a tooth. Further investigation yielded one of the most complete ape skeletons known from...

By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 7 minutes ago QUNEITRA, Syria - Syria could resort to armed resistance if peace negotiations do not lead to Israel's return of the Golan Heights, the country's Information Minister said Sunday. Mohsen Bilal said international negotiations should lead to Israel giving back the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. If that does not happen, he warned Syria could resort to "other means, which struggling people have used at various points in history, beginning with legitimate resistance." But Bilal said Syrians were eager to resume talks....

Presenting to you, this weekend, from pcottraux and rzenjikj at stout: From “King Kong” (1933) By Pcottraux (a.k.a Philip) A publicity still from “King Kong.” “King Kong” is one of my personal favorite movies, and unquestionably one of the greatest American films. It was a pioneering breakthrough in film special effects technology, as well as one of the most technically influential movies ever made. “Aliens” and “Jurassic Park” are its grandchildren.However, since its original premiere in 1933, the movie itself has taken many forms. Five years after its release, “Kong” began to fall under the scissors of the editors. For...

Marvelous Movie Plots – “Queen Kong” Inspired – nay , excited by the acceptance of the latest “King Kong” re-make , and the award-winning “Brokeback Mountain” , I have come up with a perfectly marvelous idea for a movie. Dare I say it aloud ? QUEEN KONG !!! Scenario: The inadequately evolved , borderline homophobic-and-in-denial inhabitants of a remote Pacific island have a troubling relationship with a gigantic ape they call Queen Kong. Unlike most gigantic apes that inhabit remote Pacific islands, Kong has no real interest in the reluctant maidens dragged forward to become “Brides of Kong” – beyond...

Stalin's mutant ape army Evil science ... Josef Stalin       By JEROME STARKEY SOVIET dictator Josef Stalin ordered his scientists to cross humans with APES to create an invincible breed of Red Army soldiers, secret documents show.  Archive papers say the Kremlin chief demanded his Planet of the Apes warriors be “resilient and resistant to hunger”.He said they should be of “immense strength but with an underdeveloped brain”. He also wanted them to work on railway construction.Labs and ape skeletons have been found in the Black Sea town of Suchumi in Georgia by workmen building a kids’ playground.It...

Stalking through the forest, an early human hunter might have glimpsed an oversize ape through a thicket of bamboo. We may never know the outcome of such a prehistoric encounter—or even if a meeting occurred. The mysterious ape, called Gigantopithecus blacki, has long since vanished from the Earth, and so has the early human species. But researchers have determined that the giant ape—which might have been the closest thing to a real King Kong—did in fact live at the same time and in roughly the same place as early humans. In China 300,000 years ago the two species might well...

Hamilton, ON - A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered. Using a high-precision absolute-dating method (techniques involving electron spin resonance and uranium series), Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years. “A missing piece of...

Scientists say they have discovered the first evidence that chimpanzees speak to each other about objects in their environment. Chimps at the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland use a crude language of grunts to talk to each other about their food, say primate experts at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The chimps utter high-pitched noises (hear the audio) or low-pitched grunts (hear the audio) to tell each other about the food they find in their pen, the researchers say. The finding could lead to better understanding of the origins of human speech, the scientists say. Previous studies have found...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26 - In hiring Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, to remake the monster classic "King Kong," Universal Pictures took a daring leap, paying him $20 million to direct, produce and be the co-writer of the film. With seven weeks to go before the movie's release, the risks are becoming clearer. After seeing a version of the film in late September at Mr. Jackson's studio in New Zealand, Universal executives agreed to release "King Kong" at a length of three hours. The film is substantially longer than Universal had anticipated and...

Two former caretakers for Koko, the famous gorilla who communicates with humans using sign language, say they were continually pressured to show Koko their breasts or face the consequences. Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller are suing Koko's primary caretaker, Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson, because she allegedly asked them to "perform bizarre sexual acts with Koko" — namely, taking off their tops — to bond with the five-foot-tall, 280-pound female gorilla. "Patterson would interpret certain hand movements made by Koko as a 'demand' to see exposed human nipples," the suit alleges. "[Patterson] made it known to Keller and Alperin that if...

Zoo Wants Chimpanzee to Stop Smoking Fri Apr 15, 8:39 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African zoo is trying to persuade its star chimpanzee to kick a bad smoking habit. Charlie, a grown male chimp and the Bloemfontein Zoo, has been picking up cigarettes thrown to him by visitors and smoking them -- a habit he probably picked up by observing humans, zoo officials told the SAPA news agency on Thursday. "Baby chimps pick up habits by mimicking adults and we think he started mimicking smokers at his enclosure which probably led to smokers...

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

The question in this title may seem strange, but there is actually a very strong coincidence. A coworker of mine went last week to Chile to participate in the Pucon half Ironman triathlon, which took place on the same day as Chavez’ sexist remarks about Condoleezza Rice. Since Sunday, I have been trying to find news in the international press about both events, with very limited success. In the case of the triathlon I was trying to find out how well she did in her category (over 40, ladies) which was never reported by the official website. But so far,...

What's the deal with all the dead scientists?