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Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

dailymail.co.uk

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Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#21

Post by toufiqbarhamov »

r00fus wrote: post #15
GuiA wrote: post #14

> But it seems [dolphins] share some worrying vices as well. It's interesting how the author construes it as a "vice" by the second paragraph. That's a very Anglo-Saxon take on it (i.e. I doubt a Japanese or Brazilian journalist would have interpreted it so harshly from the get go). In fact, getting inebriated seems pretty common in the animal kingdom, making it not much more of a vice than mating, napping, or eating…

Exactly. They’re kindred spirits, our porpoise-ful friends. First sex, then drugs, now we just need rock&roll.

I wonder if anyone has ever studied their reaction to human musical compositions? All I can find are articles concerned about the impact of sonar and ship noise, but as a purely intellectual pursuit would they enjoy Motzart? Drum and Bass? God help us... Ke$ha?!

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#23

Post by [deleted] »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #13
petrikapu wrote: post #8

I spammed my friends when I tried to copy & paste title from the web page. It seems when I copy I actually get some extra spammy content to my clipboard. In my opinion this is also toxic.

...did you not read the contents of your pasted message before hitting send? I agree this is annoying but I don't think it quite rises to the level of "toxic".

[deleted]

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#25

Post by pdpht »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #13
petrikapu wrote: post #8

I spammed my friends when I tried to copy & paste title from the web page. It seems when I copy I actually get some extra spammy content to my clipboard. In my opinion this is also toxic.

...did you not read the contents of your pasted message before hitting send? I agree this is annoying but I don't think it quite rises to the level of "toxic".

If you use a CLI IM application, like an IRC client, you're toasted. I've been bit by this. The real question is why are websites allowed to manipulate what I copy into my clipboard. Imagine if, instead of adding some spam to the text, they slightly changed what the text says.

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#26

Post by jancsika »

I just followed that link on a Chromebook without any adblocker installed. I count 4 huge ads that take up about 75% of the screen real estate. The two sidebar ads regenerate new ads probably as fast as newbies respawn in a first-person shooter.

Thanks to that and an auto-playing video, CPU usage is up so high I can't even scroll in the small area that remains for the content. It's nearly impossible to successfully read the content for the jank and the distraction from ad respawns on that page. This is a computer which can still play video smoothly on Youtube. (Ignoring for the moment the problem of time-stealing ads on Youtube.)

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#27

Post by faitswulff »

Discover Magazine has its doubts:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/12/30/s...

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) doesn't make sense as a narcotic:

> Tetrodotoxin simply doesn’t make sense as a drug (and let’s be honest—if it did, humans would be snorting it off bathroom counters already). In very, very, very low doses, tetrodotoxin causes numbness, tingling, and the slight lightheadedness that fugu, the Japanese preparation of raw pufferfish flesh, is known for. I guess it’s possible to see how one might relate these mild effects to the “high” feeling that comes from THC, the main ingredient in marijuana*, but it’s a stretch to say the least. Every illicit drug has one thing in common: they alter minds. It’s right there in the definition of narcotic. Tetrodotoxin, however, doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier; it doesn’t change perception or enhance sensation. People get poisoned with TTX every year, and there’s a reason you don’t hear anyone describing the experience as a ‘high’: that’s not how tetrodotoxin works.

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#28

Post by Meerax »

toufiqbarhamov wrote: post #21
r00fus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. They’re kindred spirits, our porpoise-ful friends. First sex, then drugs, now we just need rock&roll.

I wonder if anyone has ever studied their reaction to human musical compositions? All I can find are articles concerned about the impact of sonar and ship noise, but as a purely intellectual pursuit would they enjoy Motzart? Drum and Bass? God help us... Ke$ha?!

Since dolphins hear so differently than humans, we'd probably have to transcribe (translate?) it to a version more suitable for them. Also with the much wider hearing range they are more sensitive to sounds and, I'm assuming, would not enjoy our narrower range of music. It would be very fascinating to study.

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#29

Post by GuiA »

faitswulff wrote: post #27

Discover Magazine has its doubts: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/12/30/s... Tetrodotoxin (TTX) doesn't make sense as a narcotic: > Tetrodotoxin simply doesn’t make sense as a drug (and let’s be honest—if it did, humans would be snorting it off bathroom counters already). In very, very, very low doses, tetrodotoxin causes numbness, tingling, and the slight lightheadedness that fugu, the Japanese…

It’s a good thing people are looking at it from a pharmacological perspective.

However:

> In very, very, very low doses, tetrodotoxin causes numbness, tingling, and the slight lightheadedness that fugu, the Japanese preparation of raw pufferfish flesh, is known for.

> Tetrodotoxin, however, doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier; it doesn’t change perception or enhance sensation

How is “numbness and light headedness” not “changing perception”?

And how do we know that dolphins do not experience the “numbness and light headedness” that humans do as a pleasant/euphoric/etc sensation?

Seems a little light of a rebuttal.

The article is also hilarious for qualifying purported dolphin use as “illicit drug use”. I knew about bird law, but not dolphin law :)

Re: Dolphins apparently getting 'high' with the help of toxic puffer fish (2013)

#30

Post by frereubu »

One thing to note here - the Daily Mail has been banned from Wikipedia due to its "reputation for poor fact checking and sensationalism." [0] Seems there may be a study behind the headline at least, but be aware that it's a terrible newspaper.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/08/wikipedia...

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