Mmmmm, obligatory Pratchett.

Yeah, so? Have you never used photoshop before? Never edited/designed an icon? Mucked about with fonts?
As I've already referenced Kanzi, we'll stick with him for a moment. Yes, it is a simple matter to develop software that would work on a structurally fortified iPad. Hell, you could probably port it from existing software. Naturally more lexigraphs would need to be developed as each generation learned and adapted to a larger vocabulary, much as Kanzi did better than his mother at learning.

As partially depicted by the video, and listed on several sites you can easily google, Kanzi understands a good bit of English, over 3000 words. He can also identify several hundred lexigraphs and understands complex sentence structure and embedded clauses. Granted, that is currently tantamount to the understanding of a 5-6yr old, but just because someone/something doesn't grasp your language, do you dismiss them as unworthy of regard and deny them the option of being taught despite their underlying intelligence? I should hope not. In the face of that, anything that doesn't work towards attempting to continue to overcome that barrier sounds like bigotry or egotism to me.

Kanzi learned lexigrams and speech better than his mother did. He also learned some American Sign Language from Koko. Generational improvements in learning/adaption have happened and are currently happening. There's nothing ambiguous about stating that B learned better than A did, while also learning something from C when there is quantitative and qualitative proof.

I don't recall stating 'Votes for Apes!' specifically, but there is nothing ambiguous about anything I've said concerning a desire to see evolutionary progress. I'm all for it. I mentioned that Apes shouldn't have to come up the hard way. Your breakdown of that as an undefined position doesn't address my intent. Whether anybody else likes it or not, universities and private researchers all over the world are helping to teach great apes. This should continue as apes need not wander aimlessly for thousands of years like humanity did before eating some charred meat (or whatever happened to change our structural thinking) before magically grow smarter over a few dozen generations till they're building microprocessors. Given the sprawl of humanity that isn't even an evolutionary option for them given strictly delimited preserves and environments where they are only marginally protected.
Given these factors, I don't believe that reinventing the wheel is a necessary hurdle. I think that any capable body can live an enriched life by striving for understanding in any scenario. As there have been several high profile incidents of apes proving capable, I think devoting time and effort towards ape education is entirely worthwhile. Screw the SETI work and all the people chasing after aliens and sending out golden records on probes, we've got sentient life we can't fully communicate with right here.

Your position has been applied to many racist and sexist entitlements since the dawn of man. Have fun with that.

I'm serious enough that I'd vote for a 1 cent county tax to give more money to the local primate center down the street from my house (Yerkes NPRC) and vote against taxes aimed at giving money to the children/schools in Dekalb County. Too bad life and policy doesn't behave that way where I live, but I digress.

Allegedly Kanzi understands hundreds of lexigraphs, as well several thousand English words including complex sentences and embedded clauses. While some nay-sayers (often supported only by their religious dogma) still choose to believe that ape thought process and responses are merely tricks, Kanzi and other great apes over the last 40 years have demonstrated in numerous instances that they are thinking complex thoughts, expressing themselves cogently via the language "we've" taught them. In some cases it has been as simple as expressing the fact that they want to play with a particular toy, only to show regret through lexigraphs and signage at a later point in time that the play time they were told was going to happen was overlooked.

I don't profess to understand the minutiae that follows the progression of learning in non humans, but anyone who has ever even paid the slightest bit of attention to their own pets at home can relate to the fact animals aren't dumb. I've seen dogs that can identify over 200 independent items, fetch beer from the fridge, and many other simple tasks. Given the similar brain structure and opposable thumbs, if you put great apes into a safe, and more enriched learning environment than humanity had as we've evolved to this point, it is not entirely unreasonable to expect that adaption can occur.

Of course that would devolve into a whole new set of problems as we tried to get people in other countries to stop hunting apes for bush meat, secret remedies, sport and what have you. New debates would spring up regarding whether they qualified for the same rights and protections as humans, whether keeping apes in zoos is slavery, etc.

I'm not saying that I'm praying for the day we can communicate with horseshoe crabs, gila monsters and amoeba, but given our successes in the last 40 years in working with various apes I think we would be remiss if we didn't put more focus on trying to develop educational methods geared towards communication and structured learning.

P.S. - Let's end racism while we're at it. It's a win-win.

Just because these particular Orangutans haven't learned (or might not have the capacity) how to properly utilize an iPad in the way that humanity has, doesn't mean that given the opportunity and the funding of such research in regards to apes that such walls can't eventually be torn down.

It is a relatively simple process to program apps and change the icons of apps to lexigrams geared towards apes, and I find the idea of giving apes like Kanzi, as well as other apes that have worked extensively with primatologists, exposure to such technology as worthy enough to hold sufficient merit.

Much like learning a foreign language, if we teach all these exposed and inclined apes the same 'words' it isn't a huge leap to believe that in a few generations it could manifest itself as something that is passed on within the confines of each society of apes from generation to generation.

Even across species Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla. With a little determination on our part, this could be the start of something much greater.

Humans came up the hard way, but that doesn't mean that apes have to go that route.

Did you just dictate that post via a Siri-like program? You shouldn't have typed that with a standard keyboard.

Individual reasons for doing anything should not be predicated solely on the original intent of the creator, else you lose the chance to hack your life your way.

Catch a sore throat on the weekend as someone with an issue with their immune system when your regular care provider is unavailable, I think I'd go to the hospital too. Likewise if I was aged and fell, causing a swelling of the ankle. The injury could potentially be life threatening.

Just because we're young and durable doesn't mean that there aren't a good number of others who have genuine health concerns that seem trivial to us.

I'm sorry to have inadvertently maligned you when I checked the story a second time and verified that your stated inaccuracies weren't present.
As for reading the comments as the obvious 1st thing to do before accusing you of trolling, I think that my own actions of checking the article first to verify that you were correct/incorrect makes more sense as far as logical order. After all, the article is time stamped 5 hours prior to your posting here with no mention of an edit/update outside of the comments. Generally it makes more sense to verify the absence of evidence than sifting through a potential mountain of comments on every article that I might peruse to see if the author was corrected on his spelling by someone. Second to verifying a lack of errors I should've looked at your recent posts to determine if they were of quality or in the same vein as a troll. Actually reading the comments on a well constructed article to determine if there had been spelling inaccuracies? Much lower priority.

And for everyone else following this discourse, the errors that previously existed within the OP article were made on a Macbook air, not the add-on keyboard for the ipad.

None of the errors pointed out by xaxa actually exist. You got trolled.

It's a shame this troll worked on so many people...

You've succeeded in getting a Score:5 by posting erroneous information about alleged inaccuracies. Everything you posted is actually correct in the article and all these people here have fallen for you accusing them of not reading the article, because they didn't double check you since you were so self righteous. Way to raise the bar.

I appreciate the convenience of the Kiosk as I frequent locations with Kiosks at least twice a day between going to the gas station, going to the grocer, going to the drugstore, etc. I've got Redbox and Blockbuster kiosks within 2 minutes of my front door.
I find the main pratfall of the Kiosks to be that they are largely tuned to new releases. Even if there are only a scant handful of new movies each year that I find worth seeing, using the Kiosk for those 'guaranteed in stock' titles is still helpful because I don't need to waste valuable (now even more so) DVD queue turnover time on them.

With 1 DVD out at a time you could generally average 8 DVD's a month. With the changes in USPS service this number is going to decrease, driving the average dollar cost per rental well over $1 while making kiosks attractive and easier on the pocket. Add in the fact that you can also rent video games at some kiosks, and Netflix is going to be hurting.

Whether people in more rural areas without such ready access to kiosks get on board or not, the end result is still a net loss for the USPS.

That is going to be a pain for subscribers to Netflix, Gamefly, etc. I used to be able to validate the turn around time with local processing centers, but this is going to impact monthly turnover for those with DVD plans. I can see where this is probably going to do more to push consumers to use Redbox and Blockbuster kiosks, furthering the impact to the bottom line of USPS when more Netflix subscribers drop their service, decreasing use of traditional mail.

You've never played D&D or watched lottery results have you?

I generally trust that the list of numbers that don't match my ticket at the lottery website are genuinely randomly generated.

The Google story is older than you give it credit for. Just because you were too young to know what it was didn't mean that some of us weren't already 'feeling lucky' in choosing Google over Altavista, Lycos, and everyone else. Google got the job done AND worked just fine in Mosaic.

Whoops, forgot the www in my code. Sorry 'bout that.

As it happens, the place I was referencing for that particular statement has had more than a few accolades. Whether people like her or respect her opinion, Rachael Ray named us in the top 8 pizzerias in the US. I ran the kitchen there for over 2.5 years; Purchasing, production, and everything else that wasn't mixing a drink up at the front bar eventually fell into my lap. Groupon wasn't a major factor in anything.

The owner is a big fan of analytics, having set the Guiness record for solving the rubik's cube at the age of 14, writing a book on it at 16, graduating from Yale to spend years as a programmer before going into Pizza and doing lectures on mastery & analytics for Google and other companies. He tracked more fiscal minutiae and marketing variables than I've ever seen on the back end of the business. Did I mention Groupon wasn't a major factor? It wasn't a factor.