Bakalar, Nicholas. "For Some Chimpanzees, Happy Hour Starts With Stealing." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 June 2015. Web. 09 June 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/science/for-some-chimpanzees-happy-hour-starts-with-stealing.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience>.
The article “For Some Chimpanzees, Happy Hour Starts With Stealing”, by Nicholas Bakalar, was about how chimpanzees found a tree sap that quickly fermented, and produced alcohol. In West Africa, some villagers took cups and filled them with this sap. In turn, the chimpanzees stole those cups and drank the sap. It is reported and observed that they drank in groups and passed around the cup after each chimp has had a sip. Since the sap contains only 3.1 percent alcohol, scientists came to the conclusion that they might be drinking it for a nutritional value. “Raffia palm sap is rich in sucrose and glucose, and the sugars make it palatable. Whether the pleasant taste motivates the chimps is unknown” said Dr. Kimberley J. Hockings, a behavioral ecologist at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford.
The effect that this research and article has on the world is little to none. This research does not advance the world in any way, shape or form, except to amuse people. The story about monkeys getting drunk may liven someone’s day, but beyond that, nothing is accomplished.
I think that this mediocrely written by the author Nicholas Bakalar, because it has good things and bad things. Some of the bad parts about this article is the writing style and grammar. There were some instances where the article could have been reorganized to make more sense. Also, there were some parts of the article that needed less punctuation errors, and the overall grammar of the article needs to be checked. On the good side, I really liked how the author used direct facts and statistics. Lastly, I like how the author used direct quotes from professionals and scientists. Overall, I really thought this article was interesting, even if it was just for fun.
Jeb Burnell 6/9/15
ReplyDeleteChem D-Even Mr. Ippolito
Bakalar, Nicholas. "For Some Chimpanzees, Happy Hour Starts With Stealing." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 June 2015. Web. 09 June 2015. .
Jeff’s current event review of Nicholas Bakalar’s article in The New York Times titled "For Some Chimpanzees, Happy Hour Starts With Stealing," was very interesting and intriguing from a reader’s perspective. One thing I liked about Jeff’s review was that he picked a sort of light-hearted and kind of funny. Secondly, I liked that Jeff weaved in some quotes into his review, as this led to him better supporting the arguments he made in his actual review. Thirdly, I enjoyed how Jeff was short and concise in his review, and didn’t waste any time explaining unimportant things from Bakalar’s original article. While his review was well written, I think that there are a few things Jeff could have done better to improve his overall review. Firstly, I think Jeff could have connected how the chimps use alcohol in social situation, a lot like how humans do it in many circumstances. Also, in my opinion, Jeff could have compared the alcohol content of the fermented sap to that of other types of common alcoholic beverage, as Jeff stated, “he sap contains only 3.1 percent alcohol,” which does not mean much since there’s no comparison being made. All in all, one thing I took away from this article review was that we as humans are closer to chimpanzees and other apes than we think.