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Wednesday, August 20, 2003 From News Quirks (odd, strange, curious and weird but true news items from every corner of the globe), a column in Seven Days, an alternative newsweekly based in Burlington, VT: A Few Monkeys Shy of Infinity -- Intending to test Thomas Huxley's notion that an infinite number of monkeys given an infinite number of typewriters would eventually produce the complete works of William Shakespeare, researchers at Plymouth University in England gave six monkeys one computer. The monkeys eventually produced just five pages of text, none of it a recognizable word. "They pressed a lot of S's," researcher Mike Phillips said, noting that when the researchers first placed the computer in the monkeys' enclosure at the Paignton Zoo, the lead monkey bashed it repeatedly with a stone. "Another thing thye were interested in was defecating and urinating all over the keyboard." rws 9:22 PM [+]
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