we’re approaching the end of an era: on July 14, the last telegram will be sent, and the once-groundbreaking form of communication will officially be obsolete. If you’ve ever wanted to send a telegram, start composing one now before It’s too late?or just honour the historical moment by reading this trivia about communication, human and animal, ancient and modern:
Sure, Finding Nemo‘s Dory didn’t really know how to ?speak whale,? but whales do have their own fascinating language, with many layers and levels of communication. So do these other animals, from elephants to chickens to prairie dogs.
If the telegraph’s been rendered obsolete by the lightning speed of modern electronic communication, what will fall next? Naysayers insist that all this progress spells disaster for interpersonal communication?but ironically, people were decrying the breakdown of communication way back when the telegraph was first invented. XKCD gets it right.
A wolf whistle conveys a certain message on the city streets, but there are whole, complex languages based on whistling?and they’re found all over the world. Whistling carries much better than shouted language and historically has been found in communities that are spread widely over rough terrain. This BBC piece (and video) talks about the whistling language of La Gomera, the smallest of the Canary Islands; the language has recently experienced a revival.
