
The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong (2014) - Thevet
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/08/the-dolphin-who-loved-me
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SapporoChris
This is such an out there article, I'm not surprised at the lack of comments.
I suspect very few want to comment and possibly be associated with zoophila.
It did remind me of a site I stumbled upon in the 90's possibly later
describing in a fairly clinical manner how to have sex with a dolphin. It is
not graphic at all, but definately NSFW. Not Safe For Work!
[https://web.archive.org/web/20040131140419/http://www.dolphi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20040131140419/http://www.dolphinsex.org:80/)
I'm not attracted to dolphins, but my purient interests found the site
interesting and amusing.

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coolaliasbro
I recall when my college roommate showed that site to the rest of the
apartment. The combination of hilarity and incredulity was intense.

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jobigoud
I had read about these stories separately, the consensual, interspecies sex
and the dolphin suicide, but for some reason I failed to realized or had
forgotten it was the same dolphin.

I admit I sort of fail to understand the outrage about the sex thing and about
the attempt to teach it English. I'm probably naïve but I still think some
basic form of communication should be possible, like with great apes.

~~~
newqer
I think the mindset of the 60's was way different. Today nobody blinks twice
when a horse needs to be manually gotten-off to ship off the semen to other
parts of the word.

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coldtea
> _Today nobody blinks twice when a horse needs to be manually gotten-off to
> ship off the semen to other parts of the word._

That's perhaps a city thing. In farms people did similar things (to cows etc)
all the time as part of routine job.

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nerdponx
Yup. This is literally where milk comes from.

~~~
jki275
I'm relatively certain that's not where any milk I've ever had came from...

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logfromblammo
Heifers don't produce milk until after calving. It's a whole lot easier
managing artificial insemination than a live bull.

So yes, that is where the milk comes from.

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jki275
You missed the point...

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HocusLocus
Here are the remains of Dolphin House,

[https://zoom.earth/#18.318131,-64.859424,19z,sat](https://zoom.earth/#18.318131,-64.859424,19z,sat)

We used to sail past it in the 1970s, and the buildings were abandoned but had
roofs then. Back in 2011 there were plans to develop the area but I guess they
fell through. Back then the risque part of the story was well known, though
the LSD experiments were not. They had it all backwards, the LSD should have
generated an outcry instead. Mammals are similar enough that the scent of
female human would surely provoke such a response.

~~~
jessaustin
_Mammals are similar enough that the scent of female human would surely
provoke such a response._

This couldn't possibly be correct. Female humans don't need to worry about
e.g. amorous stallions, bulls, or even male chimpanzees. The fact that sexual
relations of some sort have occasionally taken place between different species
doesn't make anything about it "sure". If it were, mammals would waste a lot
of time and energy on behavior that does not contribute to genetic fitness.
Besides dolphins don't have olfactory nerves.

~~~
Angostura
Weirdly when working in the Peruvian rainforest we did have to warn women
about an amorous tapir. He would become very boisterous and would also come
into camp and take knickers off the washing line.

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goldcountry
I very highly recommend reading up on Dr. John Lilly, easily one of the most
interesting scientists during that era. Along with interspecies communication,
he heavily researched psychedelic drug experiences and combining them with
sensory deprivation tanks. He became heavily addicted to ketamine (reports say
that he would come to work every day with a spray bottle full of ketamine, and
noisily snort it throughout the day), and eventually became convinced of the
existence of a cosmic organization called the Earth Coincidence Control Office
(E.C.C.O.), which directed the actions of individuals on Earth. His story is
also the inspiration for the video game Ecco the Dolphin.

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julioneander
Side-note, this project was one of the inspirations behind the cult-classic
Ecco the Dolphin game for the Sega Genesis

This video explains it very well:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xUvhUK8Dv8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xUvhUK8Dv8)

~~~
trollied
Relevant Vice article: [https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/exmjpz/the-
ketamine-secre...](https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/exmjpz/the-ketamine-
secrets-of-segas-ecco-the-dolphin-347)

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philshem
Here's the Radiolab podcast about it (2015)

[https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/home-where-your-dolphin-
is...](https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/home-where-your-dolphin-is_podmash)

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destinator
The Dollop podcast did a hilarious episode on this.

[https://thedollop.net/wp/episode-8-dollop/](https://thedollop.net/wp/episode-8-dollop/)

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trollied
There's a really good documentary about this:
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3822614/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3822614/)

The BBC showed it a few years ago, it's fascinating:
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046w2n8](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046w2n8)

~~~
eggy
I heard an interview with the researcher on the radio while I was driving to
work a few weeks ago, and it floored me. I then thought about the movie with
George C. Scott, 'Day of the Dolphin', which my Dad took me to see when I was
nine. I cried at the ending (no spoiler here, see the movie!).

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Haghn
Thevet, thank you for the quality of your submissions. I really enjoy reading
about these little-known pieces of history.

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GrifMD
This story pops up from time to time. There's an old Rooster Teeth video about
this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmx0lYBTko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmx0lYBTko)

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ggm
Context for some of what's in 'the day of the dolphin' by Robert Merle which I
now understand is fictionalized from the Lilly story.

Szilards 'the voice of the dolphins' story is much more a political work post
bomb physiscs career.

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jimjag
SNL did a pretty funny skit semi-based on this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zq5kWvp528](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zq5kWvp528)

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kingkawn
Poor Peter

