Who’s the smartest of them all?
Every species, I guess, has its geniuses and morons, or at least those who are so perceived.
When it comes to dogs, for example, Afghan hounds have been called the dumb blondes of the dog world, while border collies are often referred to as the genius of the species.
With humans, in what is an equally unfair characterization, TV and radio personalities are often portrayed as something less than razor sharp. (I’m not sure if that is true, but it does seem that the dumber they are, the louder they are — and the more they interrupt.)
This video, from ABC’s Good Morning America, shows a border collie named Zelda balancing things on her head as the humans on the program, some of them wearing funny hats, seem to compete to see who can be loudest and most annoying.
When Zelda’s owner tries to explain how Zelda came to possess the talent, the host of the show loudly interrupts: “Now we should point out border collies are one of the smartest dogs there are, I mean they’re like real smart.”
At the end of the bit, the camera cuts to a member of the crew, showing he can balance things on his head, too.
Watching this, online, made me reconsider my rankings of the intelligence of the three smartest species here on earth.
I still think dogs are at the top, but I’m unsure of the order in which to rank the other two – humans and computers, earth’s newest species.
But then I read the computer-created transcript of the video, which we’ll only quote in part:
“We have a very special live — we have Zelda. That dog. — commences our — an extra…
“Added I organ committee is all right let’s say you — yes sickened at companies like name. Set — – we Michigan do with the tenth spot didn’t she loves playing with a tennis ball — her favorite thing today — So we — – with a few other thing we should point out that Border — is part of the one of the smartest dogs is very nice seeing real — things — very fast…
“Well we have posted a picture of her balancing my dinner plates you can do that we’ll try now in the — Valentine’s tiny things had a glass of chocolate — yeah…
“We want to hear from you what should Zelda try to balance — and can really the united choices football — – banana frisbee or I’m actually getting other. Okay we’ll take right and we’ll take righted work out things with.”
At the end of the transcript, there’s a disclaimer saying it has been automatically generated and may not be 100 percent accurate.
Posted by jwoestendiek February 19th, 2013 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: animals, balance, balancing, border collie, computers, dog, dogs, good morning america, head, hosts, intelligence, media, news, personalities, pets, television, things, transcription, transcripts, tricks, video, zelda
Comments
Comment from jwoestendiek
Time February 19, 2013 at 9:18 am
Anne’n'Spencer, But it WAS a typo. Maybe I should pretend it wasn’t, but then again only the astutest of readers, such as you and Spencer, would probably get it. Given few are astuter than you two, I should make it grammatically correct. That is what I will do. Thanks for you’re, I mean your, help.
John /ohmidog
PS: The original headline on this post, written by a human, was “Whose the smartest of them all”
Comment from Miss Jan
Time February 19, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Nowhere is the dumbing down of Americans more blatantly apparent than on national broadcast media (NPR excepted) followed closely by local media, both print and broadcast. For this retired academic the grammatical, formatting (on internet sites), spelling and punctuation errors – not to mention the egregious and utter idiocy of most media talking heads – add up to one thing – stick with intelligent blogs, excellent publications and proven intellectually stimulating (not irritating) broadcast media. Who, me, a snob? YOU BETCHA. If those few of us remaining who have half a brain and who care about language, good writing and delivery of information, stop underfunding the lowest common denominator, everyone eventually will benefit. IMO. Not so humble O.
Comment from Anne’n'Spencer
Time February 19, 2013 at 8:46 am
I read the title of the post while having my morning coffee and thought, “Gosh, a typo. Wonder if I should let John know.” Then I finished reading the post and realized it wasn’t a typo.