Mark of the Beast | Is Digital ID Satanβs Seal?



A simple writing task may offer clues about aging brains. Researchers found that dictation, in particular, exposed subtle differences linked to cognitive impairment. Handwriting depends on both fine motor skills and complex mental processes, including selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information. Because writing places heavy demands on the brain, changes in handwriting may help reveal [...] In hours of underwater video footage from a New York aquarium, a beluga whale named Natasha stretches her neck, pirouettes, nods, and shakes her head in front of a two-way mirror. Her daughter Maris does much the same. According to a new study published in PLOS One, both animals show the behavioral hallmarks of mirror self-recognitionβa cognitive ability long considered a marker of self-awareness, and one that had never before been documented in beluga whales.
If the result holds up, belugas join a remarkably short list. The mirror self-recognition test (MSR) has been passed, with varying degrees of confidence, by humans (starting around age two), a handful of great apes (chimps, bonobos, orangutans, andβsomewhat contentiouslyβgorillas), Asian elephants, bottlenose dolphins, probably magpies, possibly orcas, and, if you can believe it, a cleaner wrasse. That's it. No dogs, no cats, no monkeys. Plenty of species we had assumed were self-aware have been tested and failed.
So what is this test, exactly, and what is it supposed to tell us?


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Engaging the fine motor system to produce letters by hand has positive effects on learning and memory

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