Stupid Dolphins

Scientist says dolphins are dim-wits.

Brains, he says, are made of neurons and glia. The latter create the environment for the neurons to work properly and producing heat is one of glia's functions.

"Dolphins have a superabundance of glia and very few neurons ... The dolphin's brain is not made for information processing it is designed to counter the thermal challenges of being a mammal in water," Manger said.

Which is why people from Canada are slow simpletons, right?

"You put an animal in a box, even a lab rat or gerbil, and the first thing it wants to do is climb out of it. If you don't put a lid on top of the bowl a goldfish will eventually jump out to enlarge the environment it is living in," he said.

"But a dolphin will never do that. In the marine parks the dividers to keep the dolphins apart are only a foot or two above the water between the different pools," he said.

Why not? Because, Manger says, the thought would simply not cross their unsophisticated minds.

Ironically, many Americans request to be stuck away in a box for minimal rewards and those boxes have open spaces to walk through. So a goldfish jumping out of the watery bowl to die on the table is smarter than dolphins and Americans.

If John C. Lilly were still alive I'm sure he would have a thing or two to say. I am still left wondering if scientists don't completely overestimate the intelligence of humans. There might be some bias.