Saw a story on the news tonight, about a memory test where chimps beat humans. Very interesting piece, love seeing monkeys doing cool things (sorry, sis!). But that's not what this post is about.
The anchor said to go to abc.com to see more videos. But when I went there, it was all about their primetime shows. So I clicked on the news tab. But nowhere on that page was there a link to the monkey videos. So I typed "chimpanzees" into the search engine, and up came a list of recent chimp-related news stories.
I picked one, and there's a little video box, up on the right side. But it only shows video about a dinosaur. Sure, dino's are cool, but I'm looking for chimps. As I scrolled down, I finally found the link to the video... or so I thought. It actually took me to a video of Julia Roberts and a paparazzi or something stupid. Finally, I found the right page, the right story and the right link.
But boy, they didn't make it easy, did they? (and I'm not exactly a n00b when it comes to this interweb thing).
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You know - I've often thought it a bit backward that we as humans rate other species by their capacity to function in "our world." Headlines about chimps pressing the right buttons, blah blah blah. Chimps are so brilliant in their button pushing, they have an almost-human intelligence. Yippee. I could have told you that by what we know about chimps in their own habitat. But, you never read a story about a human that was able to survive in a chimp world, learning the chimp's way of eating and communicating. Throw a 5 year old human in with chimps and see what he learns. Nooooo...that would be too unethical.
I'm glad that you couldn't find the story easily.
Dan - hello from "blue-sky Colorado"! Just read that RPL & PBL is on permanent hiatus - bummer, but projects have a natural lifespan. Just wanted you to know that PBL & your attitude on life has had a permanent impact on me! You'll be glad to know that I am working on finishing up my first book (called "Why be merely human?" - the title is based off of 1 Corinthians 3), which was started largely due to your enthusiasm to create neat stuff :) That, and God's direction! So, thanks for your positive attitude on life - you and Kim are great! Project "Stymied" didn't get its first copy out the door - I got stymied in the process and God was leading me elsewhere for a time - perhaps I'll come back to it, who knows? Have a Merry Christmas in Ohio, take care brother! Running the race to completion (and throwing off all that hinders!), Ryan
Good point, Kimmer! I wondered what you'd think of that piece.
My main point of the post, of course, was that ABC did a remarkably terrible job of making the information available.
The anchor doesn't have to say "check out our website for more info." He can just report the story and be done with it. But if he decides to invite people to come to the site for more info, then the info had better be there, and prominently.
Maybe if I was as smart as a monkey, I wouldn't have had such a hard time finding it.
(or maybe if a chimp hadn't designed their website - no offense to chimps).
And Hi to Ryan - glad to hear things are going well in Colorado, and that you're having good success with your writing and other Rocky Mountain adventures! Do continue to keep me posted. It's great to be in touch!
I was trying to think of a funny comment about needing to be as smart as a chimp to find the article. :) My guess is that the point was to get you to search all over the website - sounds like it worked!
Dude, I totally agree with your sentiment. I've had this happen a lot. The guys on the shows that tell you what to do are disconnected from those putting the info online. In fact, I think the major networks (and even the minor ones) still think the internet is just another outlet for cramming stuff down your thoat. I hate visiting their websites. Its basically just more commercials. Why the heck would I go to a website to see more commercials? This is in the same vein as the commercials during TV shows I wrote about here. ABC we're talking about you. Are you listening?
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