Scientists have made a breakthrough in research increasing brain activity and memory. They have created Hobbie-J, the world’s smartest rat. Hobbie-j is the result of a sinister organization known NIMH. Ok, it is less sinister when spelled out: U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
Hobbie-J can remember things 300 percent more than an ordinary rat due to modifying a single gene.
This could either promise huge increases in human intelligence or a race of super rat overlords who will use us as slave cheese makers and cat killers. I want to go on record that the Turley blog will continue its policy of surrendering to any new animal overlords that demand slavish allegiance, here, here, here and here. I just wish someone would tell us whom to surrender to.
Hobbie-J can perform amazing analytical tasks due to the overexpression of the gene NR2B. One only has to compare this performance to the recent Larry King/Carrie Prejean interview to see the inevitable domination of rodent overlords.
For a glimpse into our future, here is a video from the Nimh labs:
For the full story, click here.
So you mean W has a chance? Come on surly you jest. That home lobotomy kit that W used cannot not be reversed or can it? The question is did it come with instructions or not? Nah, it really does not matter. He could not read to start with. Remember he started no child left behind . . . .
This is pretty interesting. NR2B, a neuroreceptor which is part of the larger NMDA pathway, is also believed to be a factor in alcoholism, and its production is increased from persistent alcohol consumption. The question now becomes: is beer the ultimate intelligence booster?
Secret of NIMH was a good movie, came out around 1982. If I remember correctly the hero rat made a statement about not wanting to live off of the humans and that the good rats had to leave and make it on their own.
What a great message.
Movie, schomovie.
“The Secret of NIMH” was based upon a Newbery Award winning book titled “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM” by Robert C. O’Brien. It’s one of a limited number of kids books in my first editions collection and a good read.
Ultimately, we may see a contest between the Nimh rat against our own Nal for ability to spot typos in the fastest time. I am betting on Nal who is likely also to kick his rodent rear end in the cheese/maze competition.
On a related note, you may be interested in a Matrix-like uploading technique to enhance our brain performance. Read it heer:
http://worldofweirdthings.com/2009/11/13/why-youre-probably-intuitively-wrong/
“here”
Just wait until I get my NR2B gene enhanced! I will rule the world! You all will submit to your nal overlord. And you will like it.
In the meantime, you may go about your normal activities.
cats will never rule, they get distracted by pieces of string pulled in front of them.
I thought Dick Cheney was the first of the sinister super rat overlords whose alter ego dwelt on the “dark side” of Rodentia.
Science Fiction Written Prediction™®©:
“Flowers for Algernon,” short story by Daniel Keyes, F&SF, April 1959, Hugo 1960. Novel, 1966, co-Nebula, 1966. Filmed as “Charly” with Cliff Robertson, and staged as a musical play “Charlie and Algernon” in London, Washington D.C, and New York.
Per wiki, “Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told as a series of progress reports written by Charlie, the first human test subject for the surgery, and touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.”
Recently re-voted “our number one most popular story” in the 60-year history of F&SF. The latest reprint is in The Very Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, ed. by Gordon Van Gelder. Again per wiki, it is a frequent target of censorship around the country and the world.
Byron,
That’s no LOLcat. That cat is studying the delusion of Dog belief. That’s why they call it dogma.
Vince–
There was also a children’s novel published nearly forty years ago about highly intelligent rats who escaped from a NIMH laboratory. The book, “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH,” won the Newbery Medal for children’s literature in 1972. I believe it was made into a movie in the early 1980s.
This video is not from the Secret of NIMH. This is a clip some CRAPPY direct-to-DVD sequel which is NOT based on the book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
Many constituents will united to oppose this. The Catholic church because they’ll only get more lawsuits. The entertainment industry. Political parties, gone. I call this the utopia drug and I want it right now!
nal, just a friendly warning. The god Xenu also posts to this site. I believe your words may cause you to be smote.
Elaine, Our Great Big Green Friend, Buddha Is Laughing, noted that above at 9:57 am. Thanks to all for the tip. I will search it out.
nal:
you put a piece of string in front of a dog and he will yawn.
Dogma is the superiority of the dog relative to the cat. The ma at the end of Dogma was actually truncated many years ago when dogs and man started being best buddies.
Ma is short for magnificent as is in dogs are magnificent and superior to cats as friends to man. So dogma is actually short for dogs are magnificent.
Dogs rule and cats play with fuzzy things.
Tim in SF:
I thought so, thanks for validating my hunch.
Byron,
You are a dogmatic dogmatized dogmatist and I leave you with this question:
Which animal will eat it’s own excrement?
Good day.
Byron,
Did the fact that the embed says “The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue” tip you off?
Vince–
Sorry I missed that. I should have had my cup of java this morning before commenting at the Turley blawg.
I bow to Buddha for his excellent taste in children’s books.
Buddha:
Monkeys.
nal:
I understand that my subtlety in dealing with Tim in SF is hard to convey in print, so I will ignore your vituperative response. No doubt brought about by my implication that cats are inferior to dogs.
Good day sir.
JT,
Saddly I fear Nal will become an editorial John Henry, they’ll find him collapsed over the manuscript of a fictionalization of your life, still clutching a red pen in each hand.
Gyges,
Why do you think the Professor’s life needs to be fictionalized?
nal,
To protect the innocent, of course. Not everyone knows about JT’s time as a pirate on the Barbary Coast nor would they understand.
Nal,
So the climax can be when he punches Dick Cheney (after stopping him from using one the original copies of the Constitution as toilet paper) and says some terrible one liner like “I bet you’re glad I didn’t use a water board.”
Or,
So the climax can be when he hits Dick Cheney over the head with a water board (after stopping him from using one the original copies of the Constitution as toilet paper) and says some terrible one liner like “That’s a constitutional use of a water board.”
Nal,
I said “terrible one liner,” not “sensical one liner.”
Byron,
The subject was dogs and cats. Primate poo flinging and consuming is well documented elsewhere in this blog. For examples, I direct your attention to any story involving the Senate. Believe it or not, I almost put in a primate exclusion clause but then I thought, “Shirley, he wouldn’t go with the species most likely to be fecalphiliacs” followed rapidly by “I wonder if he doesn’t like being called Shirley?” Ergo, the one and only correct answer is dogs.
I suppose they do this because they think that humans can’t get any smarter?
http://ecocosmology.blogspot.com/2009/11/life-according-to-science.html
Buddha:
ok, ok, most dogs eat their own poo. My golden doesn’t but my doxie does, it must be the German in him and their proclivity for “sausage”.
My GR is actually the reincarnation of my cat JJ, now that was a cat. But he was like a dog, although he did not eat his own poo.
Byron–
My daughter’s yellow lab eats kitty litter.
Elaine:
well at least he dosent eat his/her own and it makes the litter box that much easier to clean.
Byron–
Myabe Jack, my daughter’s yellow lab, thinks of kitty litter as a kind of doggy breakfast cereal a la Cat ‘n Crunch.
That should have read “Maybe.”
I, for one, welcome our new rat overlords!
(Man, am I the only computer (blog) geek here? Over on Slashdot, there’d be a freaking war to get that line posted first!)
Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of those smart rats!
In Soviet Russia, rat traps you!
yeah, but are the rats smart enough to have Open BSD installed on them?
Oh, I crack myself up!
Byron,
“But he was like a dog, although he did not eat his own poo.
I think you just started a poem or story line for Elaine with that one! Tom, that is funny!
Tom,
“[A]re the rats smart enough to have Open BSD installed on them?”
No, but unless you pay the researchers $20 per rat, they do come with Windows pre-installed. I personally prefer a nice blank rat I can program just the way I want.
Rats are so smart that when a new food source is introduced into their territory they force the oldest and weakest rats to eat first, and then they wait to see if it’s safe. That’s why effective rat poisons take several days to work so that the rats won’t connect the deaths with the food source.
And somebody wants to make them smarter?
Buddha Is Laughing,
Not only do some eat their own scat, dogs can clean out all the almond roca in a cat box. In their defense, I’ve never heard of a seeing eye cat. And, according to…
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921614,00.html
…there are only two animals on Earth that -naturally- follow a pointed finger; humans and dogs.
Mike S. and FFLEO,
I found this and thought you might both be interested in reading it:
http://www.alternet.org/belief/143912/the_top_one_reason_religion_is_harmful_?page=5