Though Not The Purpose Of This Blog, Certain Experiences On This Website Have Resulted In A Substantial

Though not the purpose of this blog, certain experiences on this website have resulted in a substantial portion of my followerbase with a general interest in hominid body language and a particular focus on the contrasting meaning of smiles between the various hominini both inter- and intraspecific; this one’s for y’all

Because AI image generators create new images by collecting data from old ones, their understanding of what an image is supposed to look like will logically be shaped by those who most frequently upload images online. On a global scale, this means biases towards the wealthy, "western," online, urban/suburban, etc.

Medium

AI and the American Smile

How AI misrepresents culture through a facial expression.

"...seeing the relentless parade of toothy, ahistorical, quintessentially American, 'cheese' smiles plastered on the faces of every civilization in the world across time and space was immediately jarring. It was as if the AI had cast 21st century Americans to put on different costumes and play the various cultures of the world. Which, of course, it had...

In the same way that English language emotion concepts have colonized psychology, AI dominated by American-influenced image sources is producing a new visual monoculture of facial expressions. As we increasingly seek our own likenesses in AI reflections, what does it mean for the distinct cultural histories and meanings of facial expressions to become mischaracterized, homogenized, subsumed under the dominant dataset? In the AI-generated visual future, will we know that Native Americans didn’t smile for photos like WW2 U.S. Navy Officers?"

Caption: YOUNG AMERICAN BITTERNS

Booklet Description: 1. YOUNG of the AMERICAN BITTERN The Bittern is a member of the Heron family. It hides among the marsh reeds and cattails, eating insects, frogs, fish, shellfish, and even mice. At the approach of danger, it “freezes” with its bill pointing straight up. Since its feathers are a perfect match for the marsh grass, one might look right at one of these birds and not see it! Thunder pumper, stake driver and prairie pump are all popular names for the Bittern bestowed upon it because of its booming call. This “ump-up, ump-up, ump-up” sound is familiar in the marshes of the United States. The young Bitterns in our picture will grow to 24 inches in length, and, like all herons will be dangerous when cornered–they strike lightning blows with their sharp bills at the eyes of their attacker.

Brand: View-Master Packet Title: Wild Birds of North America Reel Title: Wild Birds of North America Reel Subtitle: In Natural Habitat - I Reel Number: 895-A Reel Edition: N/A Image Number: 1 Date: 1955

GULLS WILL DECIDE WHAT TO EAT BY WATCHING PEOPLE 

Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) can perfectly thrive in coastal  and urban landscapes, however, these birds will steal your food as soon as you are distracted. Urban gulls pay attention to human behaviour in food-related contexts, and will mimic what humans almost all the time, a new study shown.

In a simple test, researchers studied how herring gulls behave in front person eating snacks on Brighton beachfront, UK. They gave the gulls the choice between two differently coloured potato chips,  and when the human were eating potatos chips from one color, seagulls approached the food, and chose the same colour that the experimenter was eating, the 95 per cent of the time.

Seagulls were able to use human cues for stimulus enhancement and foraging decisions. Given the relatively recent history of urbanization in herring gulls, this cross-species social information transfer could be a by-product of the cognitive flexibility inherent in species who steal food, called kleptoparasitic species. This success in urban environments is suggested to result from behavioural flexibility, which is likely to require specific cognitive adaptations. In food-stealing birds, success is said to reflect an ability to integrate and use information about both the environment and other individuals, and kleptoparasites generally have usually larger relative brain sizes than their hosts.  

Photo by Jon J. Laysel

Reference (Open Access): Feist et al., 2023) Inter-species stimulus enhancement: herring gulls (Larus argentatus) mimic human food choice during foraging. Biology Letters.

cuckoo

Once believed to be a relative of the Snowy Egret, the Great Egret has been unmasked as not even belonging to the same Order. Even more astonishing, they aren’t even from the same phylum. As this photograph amply demonstrates, Great Egrets are in fact a significantly more mobile example of tubeworm, where the long rigid tube which so characterizes them has (through millions of years) been absorbed inside the body.