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Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

theguardian.com

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Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#11

Post by dewey »

DarthGhandi wrote: post #7
con wrote: post #3

Here’s the Japanese news post by the Sumida Aquarium, which includes the Email addresses to FaceTime the eels: https://www.sumida-aquarium.com/news/details/2236/ A shame that The Guardian’s article did not include a backlink to it.

It's absurdly common with news articles. They never link the stats/paper/organisation. I often wonder about the amount of collective time spent by individuals simply trying to find the data summarised in an article. For all the lamenting about the media's decline there's plenty of amateur blogs out there that manage to link their sources when writing an article.

I was wondering the same and once when I asked someone who knows about the topic the answer was basically: Don't want to give free backlinks for SEO, don't want people to just scroll to the link and leave the site.

It might just be a policy to not add links except if it's to articles on the same site, which is obviously stupid from the user's point of view.

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#12

Post by montebicyclelo »

goostavos wrote: post #10
DarthGhandi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absurdly common with news articles. They never link the stats/paper/organisation. I often wonder about the amount of collective time spent by individuals simply trying to find the data summarised in an article. For all the lamenting about the media's decline there's plenty of amateur blogs out there that manage to link their sources when writing an article.

This is my biggest pet peeve with news in general. Why does a high school paper have more rigor in terms of citations than the average post from a major news organization? It honestly drives me crazy. How in the world can a majority of major news organizations not overcome the hurdle of... adding links to what they're covering..? It makes digesting political news all but impossible.

I suspect there is motivation for a news organisation not to send users away from their website.

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#13

Post by sosodev »

con wrote: post #3

Here’s the Japanese news post by the Sumida Aquarium, which includes the Email addresses to FaceTime the eels: https://www.sumida-aquarium.com/news/details/2236/ A shame that The Guardian’s article did not include a backlink to it.

Thanks for linking to the source. This is super cool! I'm going to try and get through tomorrow night. I hope the eels appreciate English.

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#14

Post by ekianjo »

montebicyclelo wrote: post #12
goostavos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my biggest pet peeve with news in general. Why does a high school paper have more rigor in terms of citations than the average post from a major news organization? It honestly drives me crazy. How in the world can a majority of major news organizations not overcome the hurdle of... adding links to what they're covering..? It makes digesting political news all but impossible.

I suspect there is motivation for a news organisation not to send users away from their website.

Probably because content outside of news websites is a lot more worth a read.

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#15

Post by kranner »

rjtobin wrote: post #6

Although I think this is wonderful, I wonder is there a non-public outreach reason for not just showing pre-recorded videos of people? I’m also curious about how well these eels can perceive screens. Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it. Is there some biological difference here, maybe the frequencies of light emitted by a TV/monitor being designed for human…

FWIW this particular type of eel supposedly has excellent eyesight (if I have the right eel).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteroconger

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#16

Post by AmericanChopper »

DarthGhandi wrote: post #7
con wrote: post #3

Here’s the Japanese news post by the Sumida Aquarium, which includes the Email addresses to FaceTime the eels: https://www.sumida-aquarium.com/news/details/2236/ A shame that The Guardian’s article did not include a backlink to it.

It's absurdly common with news articles. They never link the stats/paper/organisation. I often wonder about the amount of collective time spent by individuals simply trying to find the data summarised in an article. For all the lamenting about the media's decline there's plenty of amateur blogs out there that manage to link their sources when writing an article.

It’s not very relevant to a story about eels, but the problem media has with primary sources, is that you can’t spin primary sources. They would rather have you read their editorial account of the primary source, rather than provide it to you, where there’s a greater risk of you making up for own mind about what to think of it.

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#17

Post by tsimionescu »

rjtobin wrote: post #6

Although I think this is wonderful, I wonder is there a non-public outreach reason for not just showing pre-recorded videos of people? I’m also curious about how well these eels can perceive screens. Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it. Is there some biological difference here, maybe the frequencies of light emitted by a TV/monitor being designed for human…

Some animals perceive movement much more quickly than we do, so standard 24 or 30 FPS video appears like a slideshow to them (apparently pigeons fit this category, I have no idea which animals it was tested for).

For binocularity, I'm not as sure, but it may be that with different eye setups, perspective has different rules to appear realistic.

There is also the simple fact that images on a screen don't appear realistic to us either, we just choose to take interest in them because we understand what they are meant to represent.

Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels

#20

Post by capableweb »

rjtobin wrote: post #6

Although I think this is wonderful, I wonder is there a non-public outreach reason for not just showing pre-recorded videos of people? I’m also curious about how well these eels can perceive screens. Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it. Is there some biological difference here, maybe the frequencies of light emitted by a TV/monitor being designed for human…

> Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it

In my experience, it's more about the particular individual of animal rather than broadly "all eels can see screens", at least that's what I experience with my dogs. One of them ignore screens and seemingly can't see / don't want to see what's on the screen, even if prompted to look at it. The other one watches TV with me, as soon as I'm watching something. And if there is something appearing on the screen resembling an animal, she tries to scare them away with barks. Humans on TV is fine, and she follows them, but birds, dogs or any other animal is an enemy according to her. Even animated animals are recognized as animals for her, unless they are too abstract.

Watching BoJack Horseman was an interesting experience, to see where she would react vs not. Seems most animals/humans in that show are fine, unless they are really behaving like animals, then it's not fine.

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