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When I was younger, I used to love reading about Alex the African Grey parrot. They are such smart birds. I miss handfeeding the babies!
1 posted on 07/08/2020 3:55:05 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: Trillian
‘Think about it – grey parrot outperforms Harvard undergrads.

Did Biden go to Harvard?

2 posted on 07/08/2020 3:58:46 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: Trillian

So if we look forward another 300 million years, will birds then look like humans?


3 posted on 07/08/2020 3:59:22 PM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity (This space vacant until further notice in compliance with social distancing 'guidelines')
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To: Trillian

A real Bird Brain


4 posted on 07/08/2020 4:01:01 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: Trillian

“an animal separated from humans by more than 300 million years of evolution”

Prove it!


5 posted on 07/08/2020 4:02:12 PM PDT by Flavious_Maximus
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6 posted on 07/08/2020 4:03:12 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: Trillian

Griffin then swindled the Harvard grads out of $500 in a friendly game of 3 card monte.


8 posted on 07/08/2020 4:11:07 PM PDT by bwest
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To: Trillian

What I want to know is did the six- and eight- year olds beat the Harvard undergrads?


9 posted on 07/08/2020 4:11:10 PM PDT by twoputt
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To: Trillian

I had the experience (when invited to the wedding for the daughter of a physician I had worked with) of sitting next to Irene Pepperberg who raised Alex.

I enjoyed talking to her...and I recall asking her what it was like to live with such a creature for that period of time, and she said something to the effect of “it was like having a very aggressive, jealous and temperamental 14 year old child”.

I guess as a male parrot, he took to viewing her as “his”...:)

IIRC, she said when she was dating and brought a male guest to the house, Alex could be very difficult to deal with, as he was very possessive and jealous! (I’ll bet)

That was an interesting dinner.

She sat on one side, and on the other side was an astrophysicist from MIT. What really startled me was when I was talking to the astrophysicist, I was able to understand some of the technical aspects of what he was talking about because he used many of the same types of mathematical filters to manipulate images of very distant objects that I used to look at very close objects that were radioactive (Nuclear Medicine). Both distant astronomical objects with very little light making it to earth and organs in a patient with very little amounts of radioactivity needed to have certain filters applied to make the viewing of them meaningful.

That had never occurred to me before, that I would ever have something professionally in common with someone like an astrophysicist...:) Made me feel smaaaaaaht!


10 posted on 07/08/2020 4:14:40 PM PDT by rlmorel ("Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies"- George Orwell)
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To: Trillian

The shell game might make a good memory exercise for anyone wanting to improve or maintain memory.


12 posted on 07/08/2020 4:18:02 PM PDT by Crucial
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To: Trillian

Birds can be a trip. This friend of my folks had a minah bird. Dad and I stopped to see her one day and she hollered “come in”. The lady had a very distinctive voice. We went in and she was nowhere around. Damned bird sounded just like her.


15 posted on 07/08/2020 4:24:12 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised but It Will Be Livestreamed)
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To: Trillian

Well maybe they should spend $50,000 per year, enroll the bird in Harvard to study all those liberal feel good courses and then after four years see how well the bird does with the game.


17 posted on 07/08/2020 4:32:02 PM PDT by Lockbox
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To: Trillian

What a stupid article.

Not a memory test.


18 posted on 07/08/2020 4:32:14 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Trillian

It is said African Greys have a brain that rivals a five year old human. One researcher bought a grey parrot from a pet store at random and named him Alex. The researcher and her assistants continued to teach Alex concepts and many were after somebody said to her “Well, yeah, he can do (x) but he can’t do (y)” and so she would teach it (y). Alex learned things like colors, shapes, emotion words and sentence structure.

He also proved to understand what he was saying. He might tell someone “Want cookie” and the assistant might say “Don’t have cookie. Have cracker.” and Alex would reply “Don’t want cracker. Want cookie.”

It’s chronicled in a book called “Alex and Me”. Fascinating read for any bird lovers or behaviorists.


19 posted on 07/08/2020 4:33:15 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Isaiah 5:20 "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.")
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To: Trillian

NO FAIR! Parrots don’t smoke weed....which makes sociey so much smarter!


30 posted on 07/08/2020 5:05:51 PM PDT by Bommer (I'm a MAGA-Deplorian! It is the way! It is the only way!)
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To: Trillian

My ex had an African Grey parrot. Amazing bird!


32 posted on 07/08/2020 5:12:32 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: Trillian

Are the students so stoned a bird beats them?


37 posted on 07/08/2020 5:32:24 PM PDT by Chgogal (ALL lives matter. If you disagree with me, YOU are the racist.)
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To: Trillian

You know why a bird is smarter than a student at Harvard? The bird knows the difference between a male and a female.


38 posted on 07/08/2020 5:35:15 PM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (In America 2.0, blacks are sacred and can do no wrong.)
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To: Trillian

Chimps short memory skill better than humans’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsXP8qeFF6A


49 posted on 07/08/2020 7:06:13 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Die-ggl,TWT,FCBK,NYT,WPo,Hwd,CNN,NFL,BLM,CAIR,Antf,SPLC,ESPN,NPR,NBA,ARP,MSNBC)
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To: Trillian

I wonder if the bird picked up some choice curse words from the students it beat?


54 posted on 07/08/2020 7:50:42 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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