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how are you still able to access archive.ph? do we need to put something in the hosts? All I've gotten there for the last month and a half is an nginx landing page.
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Don’t get me wrong, this is very interesting, but there is something very funny about the idea that “give a chimpanzee stuff and see if they like it” is academic research.

This could absolutely be a headline on The Onion.

Imagine if monkeys could communicate using crystals. That would be interesting - human - animal language!

Research could lead into shit like cows TELLING us when feeling sick or know something etc. Food production, pets, police animals - a lot of potential uses.

The same as literally chemistry and rocks gave us transistors.

Almost no study is crazy.

Playing with glass gave us telescopes and microscopes.

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    there is something very funny about the idea that “give a chimpanzee stuff and see if they like it”
This is the premise behind the "Ignobel prize" – awards for scientific research which at first-glance may appear to be an April Fool's prank, but genuinely advance the cause of scientific research.

    "the extent to which a certain kind of lizard chooses to eat certain kinds of pizza"
    "what a nursing baby experiences when the baby’s mother eats garlic"
    "some real plants imitate the shapes of neighboring artificial plastic plants"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize

https://improbable.com/ig/winners/

Great comment. It's bananas. Chimps like bananas too, right?
What if you place a whole bunch of similar crystals in a pile, with only 1 or 2 smooth rocks?

I’m willing to bet they will go after the smooth rocks and it’s about rarity, not crystals.

I'd gladly trade you a banana tomorrow for a crystal today.
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NYTimes competing with NYTimesPitchBot for funnier headlines, I see. What a bizarre and awesome piece of science. I like crystals for the miracle of uncountable numbers of atoms transferring symmetry from the smallest scale to the visible scale.
“While the attraction is clear, the underlying motivation is not,” he said.

Nobody involved in the study or the article has ever done even a small dose of psilocybin and interacted with crystals.

Damn now I want to buy a large crystal for my desk.
Humans like pretty things, that’s why I have an urge to pet bears and tigers even though I know they’ll kill me.