Cartoon Time.

Off duty @ the Magic Kingdom....

Greenland ice sheet hides huge 'impact crater'

By Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent

14 November 2018

What looks to be a large impact crater has been identified beneath the Greenland ice sheet. The 31km-wide depression came to light when scientists examined radar images of the island's bedrock. Investigations suggest the feature was probably dug out by a 1.5km-wide iron asteroid sometime between about 12,000 and three million years ago. But without drilling through nearly 1km of ice to sample the bed directly, scientists can't be more specific. "We will endeavour to do this; it would certainly be the best way to get the 'dead fish on the table' (acknowledge the issue, rather than leaving it), so to speak," Prof Kurt Kjær, from the Danish Museum of Natural History, told BBC News. If confirmed, the crater would be the first of any size that has been observed under one of Earth's continental ice sheets. The discovery is reported in the journal Science Advances.

The putative impact crater is located right on the northwest margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, underneath what is known as Hiawatha Glacier. Additional high-resolution radar imagery gathered by Prof Kjær's team clearly shows a circular structure that is elevated at its rim and at its centre - both classic traits. But because the depression is covered by up to 980m of ice, the scientists have so far had to rely on indirect studies. Meltwaters running out from under Hiawatha Glacier into the Nares Strait carry sediments from the depression. In these sediments are quartz grains which have been subjected to enormous shock pressures, of the type that would be experienced in an impact.

Other river sediments have revealed unusual ratios in the concentrations of different metals. "The profile we saw was an enrichment of rhodium, a depletion of platinum, and an enrichment of palladium," explained team-member Dr Iain McDonald, from Cardiff University, UK. "We got very excited about this because we realised we weren't looking at a stony meteorite, but an iron meteorite - and not just any old iron meteorite; it had to be quite an unusual composition." Such metal objects that fall to Earth are thought to be the smashed up innards of bodies that almost became planets at the start of the Solar System. The signatures identified by Dr McDonald are relatively close to those in iron meteorite fragments collected at Cape York not far from the Hiawatha site. It's not inconceivable, the team argues, that the Cape York material represents pieces that came away from the main asteroid object as it moved towards its collision with Earth.

One concern is the absence of any trace of the impact in several cores that have been drilled through the ice sheet to the south. At the very least, these might have been expected to incorporate the dust that fell out of the sky after the event. The other head-scratcher is the absence in the vicinity of the Hiawatha site of any rocky material that would have been ejected outwards from the crater on impact. Prof Kjær says these missing signatures might be explained by a very shallow angle of impact that took most of the ejecta to the north. And if the fall-out area was covered in ice, it's possible any debris was later transported away. "We know that at one time the Greenland Ice Sheet was joined to the Canadian Ice Sheet, and flowed out into the Nares Strait. If you wanted to find this material today, you'd have to do deep drilling in the ocean," Prof Kjær explained.

The team knows the crater must be older than roughly 12,000 years because the undisturbed ice layers above the depression can be lined up with the layers in drill cores that have been directly dated. And they estimate an age younger than three million years based on an assessment of likely rock erosion rates, both within the crater and on nearby terrains. But the only way to get a definitive age for the crater would be to drill down and collect rocks for laboratory dating. If the impact was right at near-end of the age window then it will surely re-ignite interest in the so-called Younger Dryas impact hypothesis. The Younger Dryas was a period of strong cooling in the middle of the climatic warming that occurred as the Earth emerged from the height of last ice age. Some have argued that an asteroid impact could have been responsible for this cooling blip - and the accompanying extinction of many animal groups that occurred at the same time across North America. Others, though, have been critical of the hypothesis, not least because no crater could be associated with such an event. The Hiawatha depression is likely now to fan the dying embers of this old debate. Dr Mathieu Morlighem, a team-member from the University of California, Irvine, US, commented: "When you think about it, the bed below the ice sheets has to have impact craters that have not been explored yet, and there may even be some in Antarctica as well, but more radar measurements are necessary to locate them, and dating them is extremely challenging."

[Giant rocks falling from the sky made us what we are today. Funny though how random bits of rock floating out in space can, thankfully occasionally, change EVERYTHING!]

Just Finished Reading: The PKK – Coming Down from the Mountains by Paul White (FP: 2015)

I only really became aware of the PKK – The Kurdistan Workers Party - and its affiliates recently during Gulf War 2 (or technically 3 if you could the Iran-Iraq War too). They were the plucky Kurdish forces holding off Saddam and being protected under the Allies no-fly zone. After the fall of Saddam they prospered and stabilised the northern part of Iraq when everything else was falling apart. More recently they were at the front of the fight against ISIS attracting fighters from all over the world to their cause. Most oddly amongst Middle Eastern groups (with the notable exception of Israel) they allowed – indeed welcomed – women into their front rank fighting units.

In this often dry and academic book the author describes the origins of the group and their fight, both military and political, for recognition and a homeland in an independent Kurdistan separate from the artificial borders drawn up to create Turkey, Iraq (which only came into existence in its present form in 1932), Iran and Syria. Spiritual leader Abdullah Ocalan, still in prison after decades in captivity, is the guiding force behind the PKK and its military wing. Long an advocate for a peaceful solution to his peoples struggle Ocalan has been instrumental in moving the peace process with Turkey forward despite violent acts and provocations on both sides. Backed by and used by all sides in the on-going meat grinder of Middle-East politics the PKK is seen as one of the most important non-state players in the region and this is in no small part to the evolving way they have engaged with the regional powers and how they themselves have evolved from their early Marxist-Leninist roots to their unique take on Democratic Confederalism.

Despite being an interesting contemporary story I thought this book was let down by its style. I was expecting a more general reader friendly approach rather than a PhD thesis feel to things which was a real shame. There’s lots of good stuff here – of that I’m sure – but it’s somewhat buried under references to almost every quote and observation almost as if the author didn’t trust himself to come across as knowledgeable on the subject so need to reassure the readership that his work was worthy. A less rigid and more urbane approach would have made this book both more readable, more approachable and, probably, more widely read. It certainly hasn’t put me off reading more books in this series and I certainly learnt a great deal about the region, its politics and the Kurds themselves. I will, however, be looking for more fluid prose in my next book on the Kurds.   

Cartoon Time.

War…. What is it Good For?

As there’s no great burning issues I want to vent about and whilst there’s nothing much going on in my life (just hanging in there for my long Christmas break) I thought I’d let you in on some more of my long term reading plans.

So…. War, just what IS it good for? Well, novels apparently! As a long-time fan of war fiction in all its guises I thought I’d get together and put some war novels together in my usual ten book lumps. I’m just coming to the end of my 20th Century Classics set and then I’ll be moving onto 10 Historical Crime novels. After that I’m finally back to the Future with 10 novels of Man Vs Machine which should be much fun. After that we actually get to the topic at hand with 10 novels of World War One. Which, naturally, got me started on other war themed reads. Here’s my thoughts so far:

World War Two
Modern War (1945-Present)
Vietnam War
Future War
Alternative War
Fantasy War
Ancient War
Dark Age War
Medieval War
Early Modern War
Gunpowder War
American Civil War
War at Sea
War in the Air
War in Space

Now, if I didn’t read anything else those 150 books would take me around 2 years to work through. As I would, naturally, be reading other things that’ll extend to around 10 years and maybe more (I’m wondering if I could go for one ‘topic’ per year…). It’s certainly something to think about long term – maybe post-retirement. I already have the WW2 set ready to go and the Modern War set is wide enough to be easy to acquire. Likewise Vietnam should be a problem and Combat SF should be a walk in the park. In fact most of the topics shouldn’t be too much of a problem and I probably already have 3-5 books in each category. This is actually starting to look achievable…… [muses].

Cartoon Time.

Uncomfortable ideas part of learning, says regulator

From The BBC

6 November 2018

Uncomfortable ideas should not be suppressed on campus and students should learn to deal with them through debate, a university regulator says. Sir Michael Barber, head of the Office for Students (OfS), says universities need to be places of "vigorous debate". They should, he says, be places where "the pursuit of truth is not a platitude but a daily quest". He said the OfS, the new main regulator of the higher education sector, will be an "unashamed champion" of free speech. Speaking at the higher education Wonkfest conference in London, Sir Michael said students should combat challenging speech through argument rather than suppression. "The way to deal with discomfort is to develop the resilience to overcome it, not to hide or flee from it," he said.

"Indeed, I would argue that feeling uncomfortable is an essential ingredient of learning and the pursuit of truth." He said he would encourage institutions to be "bold" when inviting speakers. "The OfS encourages the widest possible definition of freedom of speech within the law," he added. Sir Michael said the issue of free speech on campuses was also about the diversity of perspective in seminars and lectures and how ideas are debated. "There is a tendency currently to suggest that students should be protected from ideas that they may make them feel uncomfortable," he said. He added: "Free speech is one of the most precious freedoms ever established, and universities above all should be places where it is cherished. The OfS will be an unashamed champion of free speech. If we ever decide to intervene on this subject, it will only be to extend and never to restrict freedom of speech."

Sir Michael also said universities that are not financially sustainable will not be bailed out, adding that university leaders should not assume they are "too big to fail" if their institutions get into difficulty. He said some university bosses making misjudged financial decisions believe "ultimately it will be OK because the OfS will bail them out. This is wrong, the OfS will not bail out providers in financial difficulty. This kind of thinking - not unlike the too-big-to-fail idea among the banks - will lead to poor decision-making and a lack of financial discipline, is inconsistent with the principle of university autonomy and is not in students' longer-term interests." The OfS, which legally came into force in January, is designed to look after the interests of students in higher education in England. It replaced the Higher Education Funding Council for England as the sector's main regulator and will hold universities to account for the quality of teaching they provide.

[At last! Someone using that rare talent today – Common Sense. If you are only presented with safe pre-approved ideas then you essentially learn nothing. If you never have to defend your own ideas or discover why others are flawed (or maybe better than the ones you agree with) you never grow and you never actually hold your beliefs as well as you think you do. Things improve when they are challenged so embrace debate and don’t shy away from things that make you uncomfortable.]

So, you say you want a Revolution....

Just Finished Reading: The War in the West – The Allies Fight Back 1941-1943 (FP: 2017)

Despite the loss of Continental Europe by 1941 the West had survived the onslaught of the Axis Powers. Without neutralising Britain, even if hardly ready to take the fight to the Germans yet, the next objective was an invasion of Russia. Delayed by the necessity to push the British out of Greece and Crete a late start to Operation Barbarossa was going to cause problems if things did not go exactly as predicted. At first they did. The German armies advanced deeply into Russia destroying whole armies and taking millions of prisoners. They looked, and must felt as if, nothing could stop them. But there was always another river to cross, another town to take another counter-attack however ineffective, to fight off. The Russian’s capacity to resist after enormous losses was staggering.

Meanwhile the British had not been idle. On the twin battlefields of North Africa and the Atlantic seaways they were making progress. Despite some early losses at sea the British Isle was actually stockpiling food and other resources as well as turning ever more acreage over to farmland. In contrast Germany was having to cut the national ration and had ordered food to be recovered from conquered territory no matter the cost to the local inhabitants. German lives would come first. Advances in the desert forced Hitler to send precious resources to bolster the Italians in their efforts to take Egypt from the British. Always a sideshow for Hitler it was a running sore which haemorrhaged men, vehicles and material that was needed elsewhere on the vast plains of Russia.

Before the cowardly attack in December 1941 the US was already supplying war resources that Germany could only dream about. Starting from a very low level US manufacturing of weapons and ships began to skyrocket thanks to the efforts of industrialists assigned to the task by President Roosevelt. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the gloves really came off and America went into hyper-drive now fighting a war across two great oceans. But more was needed. Ships and tanks were one thing but men were needed to make them work. Britain was reaching the peak number available for the conflict but needed more. Americans would fill the gaps and enlarge the size of the Allied armies enormously - given time.

Despite a slow start and despite both bad press and a steady opposition the idea of effective strategic bombing began to gain traction. At first using largely unsuitable aircraft with emerging technologies in too small a number the overall effect of night time bombing was negligible. But with more and, more importantly, larger four engine bombers coming on stream the concept of the 1,000 bomber raid slowly became reality and started to have an effect on the German economy especially. Because Germany had never envisaged a long war little innovation had been built into its weapons programmes. The Me109 that had fought so well in the Battle of Britain had already begun its long slide into obsolescence. As better and better models of Spitfires came off the production lines in the UK and new American fighters and bombers began to arrive in ever greater numbers the Luftwaffe increasing found itself on the back foot. Losing experienced pilots and machines it could not easily replace the quality and quantity available to challenge the new 24 hour air assault steadily declined.

Far too late Hitler realised that the Battle of the Atlantic needed to be won if Germany was to have any chance of beating the West. Unfortunately for the U-boat commanders by the time this lesson had been learnt it was already too late. Close co-operation between the British Navy alongside the Canadians and the US together with the increased use of long range bombers and ever improving technology – both defensive and offensive – made an attack on a convoy a very hazardous proposition indeed. As U-boat Ace after Ace sank to the bottom or were captured, inexperience crews faced ever more challenges from a resurgent and confident naval coalition. Plus no matter how much Allied tonnage sank on the way to Britain a Liberty ship rolled off the gangway faster than the U-boats could sink them.

As 1943 approached it was clear that the tide had turned in the Allies favour. They held North Africa after years of tough fighting, the Atlantic shipping lanes were almost clear of enemy submarines, an ever greater tonnage of bombs fell on both Germany and Italy and the Russians had held the line and were starting to push back. It was the beginning of the end for the Axis.

This is the middle book of the new trilogy history of the War in the West – largely looking at things from a resource/logistics point of view rather than just battles and war leaders. It’s a very interesting perspective and actually brings into sharp focus the reason why the various powers did what they did and when they did it – often because they had to! The author continues his debunking of the German superiority myth which is a difficult thing to do really. We seem to have grown up with the idea of German invincibility (or at least technical superiority) which often does not appear to have been the case. Looking behind the seemingly efficient surface propaganda we can see just how inefficient, chaotic and just plain delusional it all was. The author maintains, with much to back him up, that the Axis Powers simply couldn’t win against the Allies once they had woken up from their pre-war slumber. After their failure to knock Britain out in 1941 it was only a matter of time before the Germans and their often distressing allies were crushed. Whilst I didn’t think this had the same powerful impact as the first volume (helped no doubt by my fascinating with the 1939-41 period) this was still very much an excellent look at some of the pivotal moments in modern history. It’s a hefty and wrist aching 707 pages (not counting appendices, index and massive bibliography) but most definitely worth the effort to hold it! 

Cartoon Time.

Happy Guy Fawkes! Go burn things and blow stuff up - it's the English way!

Good Luck, America!

Well, the Mid-Terms are almost upon us – or should I say almost upon you as I’m not an American and live several thousand miles away! But I have been paying attention (from a safe distance) so I’m aware how important they are. I’m not exactly sure about some of the hyperbole surrounding them – the most important elections for a generation and so on – but they’re definitely a great opportunity for the US to change direction as well as to put a much-needed check on the Trump Whitehouse. It’s easy to imagine just how emboldened that Trump would be if the Republicans managed to hold on to both Houses and I think that’s reason enough on its own to vote Democrat. The President is doing enough damage to the Republican Party, the US and the world without feeling he has a free pass.

If the predicted ‘Blue Wave’ arrives in anything more than a ripple it seems likely that the Republicans will lose Congress. The odds against them of taking the Senate too are probably very high. I think it would shock a great many people if that happened. But Congress in the hands of the Democrats would be enough for now – to halt Trump’s agenda and, much more importantly, start a whole host of investigations into Whitehouse activities and Trump himself. It would also mean that the Mueller investigation would then be safe to continue its work in a less dangerous environment. Where the existing and proposed investigations end up and who ends up in prison is anyone’s guess if the Russia Probe is anything to go by. The next two years are going to be politically very interesting for anyone with a fascination for the subject. It will be far less interesting – to say the least – for the present Whitehouse team in the long, long run-up to 2020. It’s anyone’s guess if the President’s whole team, or even his whole family, will make it that far.

I do have serious doubts that the President will be impeached. For one thing, say what you can about him, Donald Trump is a survivor. It’s possible that his Party will turn on him assuming the Democrats do as well as expected but, if recent history is anything to go by, that’s pretty unlikely. I also doubt, no matter what he finds, that the Mueller Probe will bring Trump down. I know that the President fears the results of the investigation but I have the feeling that, although evidence of collusion and conspiracy will be found, not enough dirt will stick to Trump himself. That’s not where, as far as I can see, the real danger to the President and his family rests. That’s in his home town – New York. The Southern District’s investigation into Trumps finances and especially regarding his so-called Charity will be the killer here. Tax evasion brought down Capone and, I think, it’ll do the same for the Trump family. The President himself might have to wait for 2020 to answer for things but I don’t think the rest of his family will need to wait that long.

One thing we can pretty much guarantee is that, no matter the result on Tuesday, Mueller will drop the next bomb not long after. No doubt it’ll be someone BIG. My personal guess is Jared Kushner or possibly Roger Stone. But watch out for a series of charges based on the evidence given by the existing ‘flippers’ suggesting that a number of Trumps friends and allies won’t be having a very merry Christmas this year. I think it’s really only a matter of time before the legal processes grind forward enough to really ruin the President’s day. I would like to think that, in combination, they’d disqualify him from running in 2020 but we’ll have to wait and see.

Lastly it’s not a done deal that the Democrats will take back Congress on Tuesday. I think it will be a dark day for America if they don’t but there are no sure things in politics. From early voting it looks like the numbers of people interested in making sure their voices are heard are quite possibly unprecedented but we’ve been here before when it was assumed that Hilary would win in 2016. The pundits are talking numbers of around an 11 to 50 Democrat majority in Congress after the Mid-Terms and I’d expect it to be somewhere at the bottom end of that range. My guess is a majority of 15. That will be enough at any rate.  I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for the big day and wish my American readers good luck for Tuesday. You are most certainly in my thoughts.    

Just couldn't Resist..... [LOL]

Cartoon Time.

San Francisco 49ers cheerleader kneels for US anthem

From The BBC

2 November 2018

A cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers appeared to kneel during the US national anthem at an NFL game on Thursday, echoing recent player protests. The woman, who has not been identified, was pictured kneeling before the team's game against the Oakland Raiders. The 49ers are the former team of Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during the anthem as a protest back in 2016. His aim was to highlight police brutality against African-Americans.

While the rest of the cheerleading squad held pom-poms aloft in unison during the Star-Spangled Banner, one woman knelt down and put her hands on her hips. If confirmed, it would be the first time an NFL cheerleader has protested in this way, although five members of a college team in Georgia did so last year. NFL protests began in 2016, when Kaepernick - then the 49ers' quarterback - refused to stand for the anthem. Similar demonstrations spread to other teams, with some choosing to link arms in solidarity rather than kneel. But the action proved controversial, drawing criticism from fans and from US President Donald Trump. He has called players who "disrespect" the US flag "sons of bitches" and called for them to be sacked. Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March 2017 and is now suing the National Football League, arguing that team owners deliberately froze him out because of his activism.

In May, the American football league said NFL teams will be fined if their players kneel during the anthem. Those who do not wish to stand can stay in the locker room until the Star-Spangled Banner is over, the league said. President Trump welcomed the move, saying players who do not stand "maybe... shouldn't be in the country". A number of former cheerleaders told ELLE magazine in an October 2017 article that they would never have taken part in the demonstrations. "If I was still a cheerleader, I wouldn't kneel down, it's not my job," one told the magazine. "I would be frustrated about what's going on in the country, but I would put my thoughts and opinions to the side and keep on moving."

[Of course ‘keeping on moving’ is part of the problem. Not being ‘her job’ to add to the NFL protest is not the issue her. Americans like to remind the world that they live in ‘the land of the free’. Apparently not where is comes to protesting or acting on their conscience. If the unnamed cheerleader wants to join in with the players protest then good on her. As more attention is brought to the issue maybe, just maybe, something will be done about it and it will no longer be accepted or normalised. What we permit persists.]

As we're just a few days away from Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes - and just because I can - I thought I'd dedicate November to The Rebel'. Enjoy.......... [grin].

Just Finished Reading: To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (FP: 1937)

Whether it was just plain bad luck or payback for a too generous nature it was surely when the rot set in. When his apparently rich hire lost an expensive rod and tackle and promised to pay for everything – including the outstanding hire of the boat – but flew out that same day back to the States Harry Morgan was down to the change in his pocket. With a wife and daughters to support he did the only thing he could – offered himself for hire, no questions asked. Of course that meant smuggling – people or booze it was all the same except the people tended to be more trouble if more profitable. Harry tried both but it seemed that his luck, if he ever had any, had deserted him. Smuggling is a very competitive business and the competition often carries guns and are more than happy to use them to keep their profit margins high. Harry found this out and lost both his load and his arm. Ever more desperate for work he ignored the warning signals all around him and agreed to run a group of Cuban revolutionaries back to the island. He knew it was risky so took out insurance in the shape of a well-oiled Thompson sub-machine gun. The only question in his mind was if that was enough….

This was yet another one of those books I picked up decades ago (my copy was printed in 1966) and always meant to get around to. I saw the Hollywood adaptation (or actually part adaptation) and loved it – it’s one of my favourite movies – but this is a very different book. For obvious reasons the movie plot involving the French resistance doesn’t appear in a novel published 2 years before WW2 started. The movie was based on the French island of Martinique where the book is based (mostly) on Cuba. The first 20+ pages are weirdly almost word for word from the beginning of the movie. After that, naturally, there’s no Lauren Bacall love interest (Harry is married with children in the novel) so it takes a very different trajectory. The book also has a lot of (apparently irrelevant) side stories which, at least to me, seemed strange and plot-wise pretty pointless. I found the whole thing a rather strange experience. It was well written and the characterisation was often excellent but the plotting seemed all over the place. It hasn’t put me off reading more Hemingway – there are a few I’d like to try – but I wasn’t exactly gripped or that impressed by this work.     

Cartoon Time.

Just Finished Reading: Start With Why – How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek (FP: 2009)

I came across the author on YouTube and was honestly impressed. He talked a great deal of sense about organisations and leadership. He was calm, rational, thoughtful and funny. I really liked him. I added this, his first book, to my Amazon Wish List with the idea that I’d pick it up at some point when I was in the market for something a bit different. Some weeks later I noticed that one of our Management Planning Groups were giving them away to anyone who wanted them. How could I resist a free book!

So, somewhat ahead of ‘schedule’ I read it. Surprisingly, especially after enjoying his presentations so much, I was rather disappointed by the whole thing. Despite its short length (only 225 pages) he repeated himself constantly. His real world examples of inspirational leaders (who knew WHY they did what they did) were few – MLK, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the Wright brothers – but used endlessly to get across the same message that he could have probably managed in 100 pages or less: If you know WHY (yes, in capitals throughout the book!) you’re driven to do something and can keep that WHY at the forefront of your every endeavour then people will pick up on this – because they don’t buy what you produce but WHY you produce it – and become ever loyal customers even when some of your stuff honestly isn’t that good. This explains fanatical Apple users and Harley-Davidson fans who tattoo the company’s logo on themselves even if they don’t own one of the bikes. It’s not about buying a product, a commodity, it’s about buying a lifestyle choice, an attitude a way of being…. And that, in effect, was it. Examples abounded of companies who forgot WHY they existed to fight it out in the margins with new features and money back offers, other companies who lost their way (often after the original inventor died or retired) only to get it back later when they returned to their core values. Then there were others business tycoons who seemed to have everything going for them but were beaten by a shoestring operation who knew WHY they did things and the innumerable companies that never took off because they never figured out their WHY!

After a while it did get more that a little tedious. He did have something interesting to say about advertising which I’ve been noticing since reading this – I can now easily spot companies that don’t know and maybe have never known why they’re in business. I suppose that’s something. All in all this was quite a let-down after watching the author be so dynamic on screen. Regretfully disappointing. 

Cartoon Time.

Clever crows reveal 'window into the mind'

By Victoria Gill for BBC News

24 October 2018

Clever, tool-using crows have surprised scientists once again with remarkable problem-solving skills. In a task designed to test their tool-making prowess, New Caledonian crows spontaneously put together two short, combinable sticks to make a longer "fishing rod" to reach a piece of food. The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports. Scientists say the demonstration is a "window into how another animals' minds work".

New Caledonian crows are known to spontaneously use tools in the wild. This task, designed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany, and the University of Oxford, presented the birds with a novel problem that they needed to make a new tool in order to solve. It involved a "puzzle box" containing food behind a door that left a narrow gap along the bottom. With the food deep inside the box and only short sticks - too short to reach the food - the crows were left to work out what to do. The sticks were designed to be combinable - one was hollow to allow the other to slot inside. And with no demonstration or help, four out of the eight crows inserted one stick into another and used the resulting longer tool to fish for and extract the food from the box. "They have never seen this compound tool, but somehow they can predict its properties," explained one of the lead researchers, Prof Alex Kacelnik. "So they can predict what something that does not yet exist would do if they made it. Then they can make it and they can use it. That means that the standard idea that animals try everything at random and improve by reinforcement - that's not enough," he added. "The finding is remarkable because the crows received no assistance or training in making these combinations, they figured it out by themselves," added Auguste von Bayern, who designed the study.

"To understand how a mind other than ours can work is a major intellectual challenge," said Prof Kacelnik. "On its own it's fascinating." And this study, he added, has reinforced the evidence that the crows have "highly flexible abilities" that allow them to solve novel problems very quickly with tools they have never seen before. The researchers suspect that the crows might do this by envisaging a simulation of the problem in front of them - playing out different actions in their brains until they figure out the solution. Dr Amanda Seed, from the University of St Andrews, described this as a "really striking finding. It raises lots more interesting questions concerning mental simulation abilities in these birds," she told BBC News, "questions we can also ask of apes and young children [to understand more about its evolution]." The problem-solving demonstrations could also help in the development of artificial intelligence in robots - to discover ways to build machines that are also able to reach "autonomous creative solutions" to new problems. "We are [working with engineers] to give robots the same problems we give the birds," said Prof Kacelnik. "Imagine the possibility of building artificial intelligence that can actually want what you are interested in doing, and can achieve it by a means that you haven't thought of before." He cited the example of an earthquake and a robot designed to "want" to rescue people from a collapsed building, having the capability to work out ways to make that happen. "The animals give us the mountain that we have to climb," Prof Kacelnik explained. "We know a task can be done because the animals have shown us that."

[What a brilliant finding. Maybe it’ll finally stop people using ‘bird brain’ in such a pejorative fashion in future. At least some birds are smart – very smart. I always had an admiration for the crow family. I guess that’s been substantiated now!]