Episode #1109
News Items
Special Report
Using AI well
Questions and Emails
I lay here at 3 am having just experienced something odd that perhaps has an explanation in the neurology of sleep and consciousness. I was asleep, I think dreaming, and I thought I had a good idea for work. And a part of my mind was saying don’t wake me up for this, it’s going to be a stupid idea. I looked at the clock, I could tell the time, but I still couldn’t really understand the idea. Ultimately, I woke up completely, and yes the idea was stupid. So the question that my fully awake mind has is; was this a moment of partial consciousness and does sleep science explain why I couldn’t understand this idea until I was fully awake? And was it really two parts of my brain separately thinking? Paul Mississauga Canada
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Science
Killer whales, or orcas, are actually dolphins, which are, in fact, whales.
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Item #2
Fiction
Whales belong to the taxonomic group, Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates, with their hooved limbs evolving into flippers. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.96.18.10261.
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Item #3
Fiction
It is estimated that humpback whale populations worldwide were about 150,000 individuals prior to hunting, and now their total population is estimated at about 5,000. https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/international-research-programmes/sorp/antarctic-blue-whale