Who's the dodo?
Article about the dodo bird struck me as interesting. Author says that we've assumed the dodo is dumb because it went extinct. I doubt that anyone made that assumption; more likely induction from existing big flightless birds. Ostriches are dumb compared to crows or pigeons.

The purpose of the underlying scientific paper was to reconstruct the dodo's brain and sensory mechanisms from preserved skulls. The researchers found several interesting points. Dodo's brain is larger and more complex than other big birds. Dodo was more of a 'scent hound' than existing birds, with a large olfactory bulb. And dodo had an odd twist in its semicircular canals, which was constant in several skulls of different species. Purpose unknown. My guess: it might have served to null out the feedback to a specific sequence of head movements that were needed for finding bugs or finding mates..

I decided to buy the full article, hoping to get more info about the twisted labyrinth. Shoulda known better. Paid $38, navigated a twisted labyrinth of repeated dumb sign-ins through a "service" called ReadCube. AFTER PAYMENT, the "service" refused to download the PDF because I'm using a "non-modern" browser. It also claimed that the DOI reference was wrong. ReadCube recommended using Chrome or IE11 or Firefox 44. I was trying to run the download on Firefox 44, but apparently Firefox 44 isn't nearly as modern as Firefox 44. Decided that updating from Firefox 44 to Firefox 44 probably wouldn't help. Switched over to IE11, which is becoming a routinely necessary step for many situations. Ran through the sign-in again, and the download worked immediately. After reading the full PDF, I realized AS USUAL that the full version included nothing meaningful beyond the account given in the Tech Times news item.

So we have a conglomeration of dodos. Tech Times for an unjustified assumption; ReadCube for generating several idiotic and potentially costly errors; Firefox for degenerating into a barely useful browser; and me for hoping that THIS TIME MIGHT BE BETTER. It never is.


The only non-dodo in this story is the actual dodo.
  ¶ 4:14 AM