links for 2009-01-17

From NolaDishu. “It was [George] Antheil’s knowledge of endocrinology, in fact, that began the [Hedy] Lamarr-Antheil collaboration. Aware of his work in the field, Lamarr approached him at a Hollywood dinner party to talk about the possibility of increasing the size of her breasts. The next thing you know — bang! — a revolutionary torpedo-guidance system. We’ll just leave it there.”

“Below is a compilation of some of the most interesting animal tool use yet observed. Much more likely remains to be found: until Jane Goodall watched chimpanzees fishing for termites with sticks, scientists had been reluctant to credit animals with such sophisticated behavior ” perhaps because, as Charles Darwin noted, ‘Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.'”