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I don't know. You could probably explain all of pop culture through display competetion for the attention of mating partners. Sid Vicious found a way to attract Nancy by being "different," so Kurt Cobain has to be different from him to get Courtney, and Kid Rock to get his supermodel... If you aren't willing to give the whales the benefit of creative doubt, why extend the privilege to us? Just because we "think" we're expressing ourselves doesn't mean that that's the reason our DNA allows us to think that. After all, I started playing guitar because I couldn't get a date. And, dadgumit, it worked, too. They are just hairless apes, aren't they? K >Amazing how the researcher, writer, or both, have given us an >interpretation of the Whale's "song" through the filter of pop culture. >The British Invasion? Sid Vicious? Please. Oh, and when you have >absolutely no clue, nor creativity, blame it on some DNA laden sex drive. >They are just whales ....... aren't they? > >Sorry for the rant. > >Nothing against the person who posted this. > >Back to music. > >Michael > >At 10:01 AM 1/28/01 -0800, you wrote: >> >>Thought some might find this of interest: >> >>Musical crazes occasionally sweep through the deep blue sea, as surely as >>they sweep through the world of teenagers. Male humpback whales readily >>learn and "sing" radically new songs from other whales, according to >>research published in today's issue of Nature. The phenomenon was >likened by >>one expert to the "Beatles invasion" of U.S. musical tastes in the >>mid-1960s. The discovery strengthens growing suspicions that at least >some >>higher animals' behavior isn't totally guided by genetically encoded >rules. >>Rather, they possess a form of culture" that can be passed on >>nongenetically. In this case, the whales learned a new musical repertoire >>from other whales, instead of being restricted to tunes programmed into >>their DNA. Scientists have long known that humpbacks slowly change their >>songs over time. But this is the first known instance in which the >creatures >>rapidly switched to a significantly different tune introduced by a >foreign >>population of whales, according to the research team led by Michael J. >Noad >>of the University of Sydney in Australia. Analyzing tape-recorded sounds >>from more than 100 male humpbacks, Noad discovered that over several >months, >>a radically new tune sung by two humpbacks from the west coast of >Australia >>was picked up by numerous other whales on the east coast. >>The shift in whale songs is "like going from rock to Sid Vicious," Noad >>observed during a phone interview. Among the Australian humpback whales, >>"the new song has become the 'flavor of the month.' "..... >>Why would humpback males switch tunes so fast and radically, as if >switching >>platters from Bing Crosby to David Bowie? For now, experts can only >>speculate. One possibility is that by singing a different tune, a male >>humpback is likelier to stand out from the crowd. Hence, Noad speculates, >>it's likelier to attract the attention of a female humpback..... >> >>