But how does Betty see it? It is an unimaginable concept, though one could imagine that in the bird’s neurons there was some memory of hook-shaped things and what they did, and another memory of how those hook-shaped things felt like the same material as this; then something sparked, and the wire was being bent.A more interesting experiment now would be to see what Betty, or her brethren, made of wires that were either too thick to bend, or too thin to hold a shape; and also with plastics that feel unlike metal but hold a shape It’s an experiment that’s waiting to be done. And it would certainly sort the thinking sheep from the cognitive goats.But Betty can rest easy. After all, the experiment was repeated 10 times, and she succeeded nine times. She’s not going hungry.You can see Betty make the hook at /feature/data/crow/index.html.

But the big conceit of this campaign is that nobody cares about these situations any more; the only shame that matters is being caught with a naff mobile That’s the measure of how young this market really must be. Anyone over 19 with half a life knows that a mobile phone is a commodity now, until a desirable add-to arrives. (Who really wanted those second-generation bells and whistles?) Mobile shame’s as adolescent as Kevin and Perry.In one commercial, a young man opens his hotel room door to an efficient-looking young woman who’s come to help with TV screen trouble. “I’m having a problem with the triple-X adult pay channel,” he explains. And when he brings this unlikely apparatchik into his room, you see he’s wearing only his airy boxers. As she examines the flickery, stripy screen, he looks, alarmed, at the shaming mobile on the bed beside him (I haven’t a clue what’s wrong with it – ask a 15-year-old) and covers it with the towel conveniently placed just to his right.”Ashamed of your mobile?” asks the voiceover (Paul Merton; now there’s a 40-something fully tuned into lad-thought).

“Then get the Ericsson T66, the world’s smallest phone.” Meanwhile the young woman has restored the TV to thrashing curls and bleating multiple orgasms. “Oh, that’s perfect,” he says.Phones4u will find you the right phone, says Merton, and we are shown a mobile in a line-up of suspects with a paper bag over its head. In fact, you’ll get precisely the same phone as all your mates.peter sru.co.uk. Lord Bell’s foray back into the advertising business is ending in a move that will renew speculation that he is about to strike a deal with the young pretender to his public relations crown, Matthew Freud. The deal will value HHCL, which has recently lost key clients such as the AA, Tango and Egg, at less than half that amount.HHCL will become part of WPP’s Red Cell network and in return Chime will be given a minority stake in Red Cell.

WPP already owns a 20 per cent stake in Chime, which it took when Chime bought HHCL. Lord Bell and Sir Martin are old sparring partners, having worked together at the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in the 1980s.The HHCL sale will add to speculation that Chime is ready to expand its PR interests. The group, which owns agencies Bell Pottinger, Good Relations and Smithfield, has been in talks with two rivals, Freud Communications and College Hill.Matthew Freud, one of the best known PRs in London, bought his PR business back from US giant Omnicom for £10m last year. He has a niche in high-profile consumer and celebrity PR, acting for clients as varied as Geri Halliwell and the Millennium Dome. Although Chime wants to expand into the consumer area, sources close to the talks say that Mr Freud is believed to be more keen to strike a deal than Lord Bell.However, Chime’s talks with College Hill, a financial PR agency run by Alex Sandberg, about merging its business with Bell Pottinger, are believed to have broken down.Chime suffered a poor year last year with profits down 14 per cent, largely due to weaknesses at HHCL.