Strange but True for May 9
Q. How much numbers sense is out there in the "wild kingdom"? Can any animals count to 5, 10, 45, 50 ...?
A. Counting crows are famous for being able to keep track of up to 6 hunters lurking in a blind, who try to fool the critters by having 2 hunters go in, then 1 back out (2-1=1), or 4 in and 3 or 2 out, etc. The birds generally don't lose count until 5 or 6. For social animals, there is "strength in numbers," said Mark Hauser in American Scientist magazine, such as 3 male chimpanzees attacking and killing a lone intruder at 3-1, but 2-1 may not be enough. Yet within the same social group, 2-1 may be enough to establish dominance. Rhesus monkeys can figure 2+1 and 2-1 but not 2+2. They seem to count 1, 2, 3, many, said Hauser.
All that's in the wild. What happens when rats or pigeons are "educated" in Skinner boxes? They press the button once and 1 food pellet is released. The same if every 3 pushes yield 1 pellet. And even if exactly 24 pushes are necessary, no more, no less, the counters can do this as well.
Now for the incredible part, said Hauser: Pigeons can count to 45 or 50 pecks for food, 45 on a left button, 50 on a right. In another trial, when a central button lights up, they must learn to peck until the light goes off, at either 45 or 50. Then to get the food, they must recall the count and go without error to either the 45-peck or 50-peck button and push it. "Pigeons can solve this problem, too."
Q. Are sword-swallowers for real, or do they use some sort of illusion or trickery?
A. Proof positive is Guinness 8-swords-at-once record-holder Brad Byers ("Warning: Do not attempt these amazing feats. Severe injury or death will result!"), later topping himself with 10 swords, and leaving nothing to question with on-site X-ray documentation. For more thrills, watch curved blades, bayonets, coat hangers glide down his hungry hatch.
Yes, hungry, for as Daniel P. Mannix describes in his classic "Memoirs of a Sword Swallower," his first attempts ended in gagging and retching, until he learned the value of an empty stomach. "If I practiced after eating, I simply lost the meal. Finally, I stopped gagging only to find that my throat had closed so tight I couldn't get the sword down... Apparently an involuntary muscle in my throat had snapped shut and there was nothing I could do to open it."
With practice, he conquered this, letting the blunted blade touch the back of his throat, then bending forward with the sword straight out in front, now over a little "hump" in the throat just back of the Adam's apple, then straightening up again and down went the instrument. Sword length is limited by distance from lips to pit of the stomach, so tall performers have a leg up. To beat hecklers who claimed the blade somehow retracted into the handle, Mannix swallowed neon tubes that would light up his insides. "When the skeptics see the light shine right through your chest, there isn't much they can say."
Q. "Rest in peace" doesn't always work out that way. What are reasons for unburying the dead?
A. Disinterment or exhumation is done today for medicolegal (Was it really Lee Harvey Oswald?) or scientific purposes (Was AIDS the true cause of death?), or because a cemetery is being abandoned, or the relatives wish to move the body, said Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D., in "Death To Dust." History records some more striking cases, as when grieving U.S. President Abraham Lincoln twice needed "just one more look" at his child Willy's face. During the French Revolution, the dead were not uncommonly exhumed and then decapitated for political crimes.
Pope Formosus' (816-896) remains were twice disinterred for supposed crimes, once by Pope Stephen VII, who had the body dragged through the streets, tried and convicted and fingers cut off (the "Cadaver Synod"), then again later by Pope Sergius III for another run through of the foregoing. During a cholera epidemic of the Middle Ages, a dead "witch" was exhumed and reburied face down to stop the plague, then when this didn't work was re-exhumed and her grave clothes turned inside out. Later - plague still raging - her heart was removed, cut into four pieces and burned at the corners of the village.
The 19th-century poet Dante Gabriel Rosetti buried the only copies of some poems with his wife, then seven years later decided he wanted them, said Dr. Iserson. One fall night by the light of a bonfire, the lady's body was disinterred, her long flaming red hair covering the manuscript, strands of which were also taken and presented to the author.
Q. In an extreme Noah's-Ark-like emergency, how many animal pairs would need to be gathered, and what would they all weigh? Might this work?
A. Estimates by various biologists put the figures at around 10 million species at 1,000 tons, or 10 whales' worth, said Clifford Pickover in "Keys to Infinity." One ocean freighter should do it. But as a survival measure, most experts predicted failure, that no animals would be around after 1,000 years, because at least 50 individuals of a species are required to sustain genetic health. "Today, species are considered endangered well before their numbers drop below 50."
A worldwide flood might decimate plant life as well, with salt deposits even after waters receded continuing to wreak havoc, as would the dead carcasses everywhere. One pessimist noted the hunger of the pairs, and that "If one animal of Species A eats one of Species B, then B automatically becomes extinct - unless the male was eaten and the pair had already initiated reproduction." Pray the rains blow over.