Elephants get all reflective

CATS might try to pick a fight with their image in a mirror. Dogs might bring a gift of food to what they think is a new found friend. But humans and chimpanzees - and maybe dolphins - have been thought to be the only species to primp before the mirror because they recognise themselves.

Now elephants can be added to the list, say researchers from the Yerkes Primate Centre, in Atlanta, Georgia and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Scientists watched as three female elephants at the Bronx Zoo in New York inspected their reflections. They examined inside their mouths, their ears and showed other signs of self-awareness, said graduate student Joshua Plotnik, a co-author of the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The elephants did not respond socially to the images, as would be expected if they thought they were seeing other elephants.

"After the first few days, they were spending quite a bit of time in front of the mirror," said Plotnik. "In the morning, they would run out to get some hay and bring it back to eat in front of the mirror."

Most importantly, an elephant named Happy used her trunk to touch a mark on her head that she could see only in the mirror - a standard test of self-awareness developed 35 years ago by biologist Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York. The same test has been used to assess mirror self-recognition in children and apes.

Previous experiments had failed to produce such recognition, but they used small mirrors out of the animals' reach. This study used a 2.5 metre by 2.5 metre mirror made of plastic framed in steel.

They tried to look behind the mirror, kneeling in front to look under it and even attempting to climb the wall holding the mirror. Such behaviour is typical for self-aware animals, Frans de Waal, a co-author said.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Day Zero: Better Than Firefox?

IE7 finally ships in its finished form today, and the guys at Laptop Magazine say that it improves on Firefox in some key areas. Among its new features are tabbed browsing just like Firefox, an integrated RSS reader and plug-in support. Sound familiar?

Overall, the interface is far leaner and more polished than IE6 and even more convenient than the beloved Firefox 1.X releases... In the grand battle between Firefox and IE, we think that IE has a bit of an edge in this release, although the Firefox 2 betas we have seen will catch it up a bit. Many of the things we like about Firefox have been implemented in IE7 and have been polished to be more streamlined and useful.

Microsoft says IE 7 is a lot more secure than its predecessor, so that might improve one of the most glaring problems with Internet Explorer 6. But better than Firefox? We're going to have to try this for ourselves. Either grab it for yourself when it's offered up for download soon, or it will be pushed upon you via Windows Update sometime in early November if you have Service Pack 2 installed.

Polanco savors sweep

Second baseman Placido Polanco was named MVP of the American League Championship series, after he went 9-for-17 (.529) with one double and two RBI in the Detroit Tigers’ sweep. He might have been underrated during the regular season, but his October performance is turning heads.

Detroit Tigers Placido Polanco holds his trophy after being named most valuable player of the American League Championship Series.

Alexis Gomez thought it was a joke

Alexis Gomez thought it was a joke when Jim Leyland told him at a morning workout in the hotel that he would start in Game 2 of the American League championship series. When it comes to baseball, the Detroit Tigers manager isn't kidding around. In another great call this postseason, Leyland went with the little-used Gomez as Detroit's designated hitter. The result: Tigers are heading home to Motown with a 2-0 advantage.

So long playoff chokes. Hello ALCS.

So long playoff chokes. Hello ALCS.
Oakland Athletics Nick Swisher, center, celebrates with teammates Eric Chavez, and D'Angelo Jimenez, (12) after the A's beat the Minnesota Twins 8-3 during Game 3 of their American League Divisional Series baseball game, Friday, Oct. 6, 2006, at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. The A's swept the best-of-five games series 3-0, to advance to the American League Championship Series.