Present Imperfect

Fear the Bloop

June 26, 2003

In an article in The New York Times today about the fast food industry seeking third-party consultation on how to promote a more ethical treatment of livestock, I came across this:

According to McDonald's officials, the turning point in the company's attitudes came in 1997, when executives met for the first time with Temple Grandin, an associate professor at Colorado State University who is an expert in animal behavior and welfare issues.

"We had an interest in this stuff, but couldn't figure it out," said Bob Langert, the senior director of social responsibility at McDonald's. "We went to Colorado State and saw her, and it was magic. She pitched her program, and we thought it was perfect."

Executives found Dr. Grandin's approach "scientific" and not "emotional," Mr. Langert said. They marveled at her research techniques: how she measured animal behavior and conditions; how she paid attention to animal vocalizations; how she studied their response to electric prods; how she catalogued their adaptations to various conditions.

Indeed, Dr. Grandin often gets down on all fours to walk through a processing plant, as if she were an animal. She has autism, and she says things that bother her because of her condition, like loud noises, can bother animals, as well, McDonald's officials said.

Temple Grandin was profiled by Oliver Sacks in his An Anthropologist on Mars, which happens to be one of my favorite books. I'll have to give her chapter another read...

In semi-related news, a friend at work told me about the deep-sea "bloop." The sound, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

was repeatedly recorded during the summer of 1997 on the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array. The sound rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km. It yields a general location near 50oS; 100oW (far off the west coast of southern South America). The origin of the sound is unknown.

Some people think it's the sound of a giant squid, but marine biologists say squid don't have the kind of air bladders that might produce such a sound.

Oddly, the cover of my edition of An Anthropologist on Mars features a giant squid. Or something squid-like, anyway.