making music with whales, making music to fight climate change, chattering with the squirrels, etc: these are very bad ideas. and the amazing thing is that even as you are frolicking grimly among the whales as they bellow like bono, you are doing less than nothing to save the planet. at least the music is irrelevant, though. but the new york times cannot run even a piece about singing with the whales without going brainbrainbrain. possibly, the idea is to compensate for not having a brain by saying 'brainbrainbrain' all the time. it's like getting hungry and feeding yourself the word 'sticky bun.'
Music expresses emotions, and that’s why we love it so. Whales and humans may share a capacity to express complex emotions. You see, both our brains contain a mysterious kind of cell called the spindle neuron, that until recently was known only in the brains of primates. We don’t know exactly what it is for, but scientists believe it has something to do with the ability to experience complex, layered emotions. And whales have three times the number of these cells in their brains than we do.
as per usual the spindle neurons are doing nothing for anyone, just stuck in there for the sound or something. the pseudo-science is completely out of keeping with the tone or point of the piece, but you can't write anything for the nytimes without putting that paragraph in it. scientists speculate that it is possible that mystical mystery neurons may be involved. astounding? yes. but that is what science shows.
and not to rag on y'all too bad, but i do want to point out that the times just published this sentence: 'Music expresses emotions, and that’s why we love it so.' scientists speculate that the 'blank' neuron is responsible for the production of such sentences, and though whales have blank neurons too, they are so amazing because they never yap the boilerplate like that. climate change, though, may induce a human-like neurological erasure even in humpback whales. it is the tragedy of the commons.
