Trapping A Partner in Marriage, a Whale at Sea World

Killer Whales NOAA/Robert Pittman

Apparently, freeing Willy was not so good an idea. A new paper suggests that the killer whale who played the titular character in the 1993 movie did not really thrive after being returned to the wild. However, we're not really seeing a sequel, Keep Willy in Chains.

Also in today's links: a creepy child robot destined to star in a horror movie, breaking down a car factory and more.

• A friend of mine who is now happily married used to insist that men only wed when tricked or forced into that union. Of the many things sketchy about that theory, apparently he was right about one thing -- the decision to marry is not one made logically. That, according to one author, is due to the orbitofrontal cortex. (The article's a bit light on supporting data, but it's an interesting idea.)
• The latest robot news from Japan: a child robot with "soft silicon skin" and creepy black eyes that trace movement. The researchers' goal is to get the creature to mimic the behavior of a human infant, responding to a "mother's" facial expressions.

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Tags

The Environment, Missing Links, M. Farbman, captivity, cars, links, missing links, robots, seismology, whales
• Last week, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency denounced a seismologist who predicted a big quake, stating "Everyone knows that you can't predict earthquakes." And according to the U.S. Geological Survey, that statement is true. But the Italian seismologist was not completely wrong.
• Building a car is an intricate process. So is breaking down an automobile factory when it closes. The process takes months or years, including such steps as 50 workers spending four months "desludging" a paint shop.