Word: austin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Austin, Texas...
Rambunctious students in a computer-age kindergarten? Well, sort of. The students, named Sherman and Austin, are chimpanzees, enrolled in an extraordinary class at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Despite their occasional unruly conduct, they are being successfully taught to "talk" to each other in a language other than their own usual mix of sounds and gestures. That may be a scientific first, say their instructors, who are led by a husband-wife team of psychologists, Yerkes' Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Georgia State University's Duane Rumbaugh...
Like Lana, Sherman and Austin first had to be introduced to Yerkish. Encouraged by praise and rewards of food, they soon learned the lexigrams for different foods and could identify foods by hitting the right buttons on their console. But could they be taught to exchange such information as well...
...press the appropriate button on the console, which would flash the lexigram for the food on the screen. If the other chimp understood and identified what he saw by also pressing the correct button, both chimps would be rewarded with the food. In one series of trials, Sherman and Austin got the message (and the snack) across to each other 60 out of 62 times...
...human actors are mildly envious. "Those puppets get acting moments that most actors never have," observes Austin Pendleton who plays the movie's softhearted villain. Director James (Kid Blue) Frawley has already suspended disbelief. Says he: "My work with Kermit the Frog is as specific as it would be with Bobby Redford...