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Crows could be key to understanding alien


seeder

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Holy **** Crows waiting for the light to turn Green to collect the Nuts after the Cars cracked them open? Thats ******* Genius for a Animal. Now if only they can teach Deer to look both ways before crossing American roads would be a safer place. 

Check this out, the fires stuff Abe mentioned, dead set amazing - LINK

Dr. Maurice Burton, a British naturalist, has suggested that this legend may have some basis in fact. He points out that some birds like to play with fire. The British rook is a bird that is a little larger than a crow. When Dr. Burton hands a rook at his nature preserve an unlit match, the rook holds the match so it can peck at it. Once the rook gets the match to light, it quickly puts the burning match under its wing, appearing to want to set itself on fire.

When supplied with straw and a match, the rook will set the straw on fire and then lie, wings outstretched, on the burning straw until the fire goes out. It is possible that in ancient times people saw this behavior and developed the legend of the phoenix to explain what they saw.

Dr. Burton points out that this behavior is common among intelligent birds, such as rooks and jays, who pick up discarded cigarettes that are still burning and fly off with them. It is even likely that this strange behavior is responsible for many house fires.

(Maurice Burton, 1959. "Phoenix Re-born")

Niger3.jpg

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let's resume then: Crows are pretty much terrestrial, but totally awesome.

And so intelligent! We just re-elected a pretty ugly one as chancellor here in germany!

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Check this out, the fires stuff Abe mentioned, dead set amazing - LINK

Dr. Maurice Burton, a British naturalist, has suggested that this legend may have some basis in fact. He points out that some birds like to play with fire. The British rook is a bird that is a little larger than a crow. When Dr. Burton hands a rook at his nature preserve an unlit match, the rook holds the match so it can peck at it. Once the rook gets the match to light, it quickly puts the burning match under its wing, appearing to want to set itself on fire.

When supplied with straw and a match, the rook will set the straw on fire and then lie, wings outstretched, on the burning straw until the fire goes out. It is possible that in ancient times people saw this behavior and developed the legend of the phoenix to explain what they saw.

Dr. Burton points out that this behavior is common among intelligent birds, such as rooks and jays, who pick up discarded cigarettes that are still burning and fly off with them. It is even likely that this strange behavior is responsible for many house fires.

(Maurice Burton, 1959. "Phoenix Re-born")

Niger3.jpg

heya matey... thanks, i had seen this in the weird nature series... quite amazing, you can skip to 8:50 but the whole show is great...

:tu:

Edited by mcrom901
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heya matey... thanks, i had seen this in the weird nature series... quite amazing, you can skip to 8:50 but the whole show is great...

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:tu:

Cheers mate, that does look like a good show, I did watch the crow bit, but might seek out the entire series for the rest fo the show. Good timing :tu: Holidays just around the corner.

Cheers on the sound-cloud link too, my son in law has a few of his tracks on there.

We have Fire Hawks here too that use embers from bush fires to flush out prey. LINK

Single-bird-13987.jpg

Merry Christmas from Downunder mcrom!!

Edited by psyche101
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WOw ! Marry Christmas ,Psyche101 ! TEXAS WAITS ! THe Marfa lights will wait too ! But I ate the T-Bone Steaks ! I`ll have to buy more when you Get here ! :tu:

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How are we going to equate crows to aliens when we will probably never be allowed to know about alien anatomy?

when the only car you know is a ford model T, and you come across a Formula 1 car, it will be totally different to you, but in the same time not. You'd sure be able to figure out how to drive that race car from your knowledge of the Model T.

Same with the birds. They are not LIKE aliens, they are "alien brains" as in "completely different from ours".

If we get to understand how those work, it might help to understand alien intelligence if we should EVER come across some.

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Cheers mate, that does look like a good show, I did watch the crow bit, but might seek out the entire series for the rest fo the show. Good timing :tu: Holidays just around the corner.

Cheers on the sound-cloud link too, my son in law has a few of his tracks on there.

We have Fire Hawks here too that use embers from bush fires to flush out prey. LINK

Single-bird-13987.jpg

Merry Christmas from Downunder mcrom!!

just awesome, the many facets of nature... i always feel humbled with this stuff, thanks for the interesting link... :tu:

the weird nature series is top stuff too, you won't regret it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_Nature i specially liked 'devious defences' and 'puzzling partners' :alien:

happy x-mas matey, have a great one :santa:

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when the only car you know is a ford model T, and you come across a Formula 1 car, it will be totally different to you, but in the same time not. You'd sure be able to figure out how to drive that race car from your knowledge of the Model T.

Same with the birds. They are not LIKE aliens, they are "alien brains" as in "completely different from ours".

If we get to understand how those work, it might help to understand alien intelligence if we should EVER come across some.

Hey JT,

I agree with your premise in you first Paragraph. I walked away with a completely different conclusion fron your second paragraph. i.e. in that the Authors concluded the different Brain structures in Avians were used to preform similar Tasks as those we are Familiar with in Mammilian Brains despite the structure being dis-similar and that this was a consequence of Convergent Evolution according to the Authors.

What they are suggesting is that Brain structure in itself doesn't seem to be a limiting factor.and that Functions themselves may be convergent.

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Hey JT,

I agree with your premise in you first Paragraph. I walked away with a completely different conclusion fron your second paragraph. i.e. in that the Authors concluded the different Brain structures in Avians were used to preform similar Tasks as those we are Familiar with in Mammilian Brains despite the structure being dis-similar and that this was a consequence of Convergent Evolution according to the Authors.

What they are suggesting is that Brain structure in itself doesn't seem to be a limiting factor.and that Functions themselves may be convergent.

i was a little sloppy formulating it, you're right. I'm totally with you there, and to my defense i gotta say it was 6 in the morning here when i typed it, and what matters more: it was before the first coffee ;)

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let's resume then: Crows are pretty much terrestrial, but totally awesome.

And so intelligent! We just re-elected a pretty ugly one as chancellor here in germany!

No Sir, the other 42% did that, not me. With one of the results, that we have now a female physician

as minister of defence. Caramba! Rock´n Roll! Yo man!

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No Sir, the other 42% did that, not me. With one of the results, that we have now a female physician

as minister of defence. Caramba! Rock´n Roll! Yo man!

aaaaah, Tschörmän as well? ;) rest assured, i didn't do it, either :D

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What if we're the 'crows' being experimented on by aliens so they can learn about yet another different race of beings?

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Are we talking about Russell crow again ? Now Thats an Alien for sure ! Where does he come up wit all that E.T. contraversary ?

Although I do watch ET from time to time ! :tu::santa:

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What if we're the 'crows' being experimented on by aliens so they can learn about yet another different race of beings?

I hear ya SP! :clap:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just like most humans, heh.

Jesus it's Abe.

Where on earth have you been all this time? Peru?

Welcome back old mate :tu:

Edited by zoser
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Nasty critters, though (ask a raven): not for nothing is a flock of crows properly called "a murder of crows."

I think the reason many people hate these black birds is because they often behave in an almost human manner (meaning: as nasty as humans often are).

T

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Jesus it's Abe.

Where on earth have you been all this time? Peru?

Man, I wish I was there now....

No, I have been cut off from electricity and gas some 6 months ago, and that means my life and my priorities changed somewhat...

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Crows could be the key to understanding alien intelligence

quote:

We've studied brain structure pretty extensively in mammals from humans and apes to whales and mice. But German neuroscientists Lena Veit and Andreas Nieder are the first to watch what happens in crow brains as these birds worked their way through a series of brain-teasers. They actually wired the crows' brains up with electrodes, watching as individual neurons fired when the crows did a test that required abstract reasoning. What Veit and Nieder found reveals a lot about what intelligence looks like in a brain that's nothing like our own.

and

What this experiment suggests is that two dramatically different species might have similar abstract reasoning abilities — even if their brains are completely unlike each other. If we imagine that intelligence can only dwell in a mammal-like brain, we may miss out on discovering smart life forms elsewhere. The crow brain may be the first truly alien intelligence we've been able to study.

http://io9.com/crows...lige-1480720559

All well and good. But the biggest issue is to find the damned aliens, and hopefully finding smart ones

Thanks Seeder!

And then there is my blog about corvids: http://kromakhy.blogspot.nl/

(or the index: http://kromakhysiteindex.blogspot.nl/

Yep, I am the owner of the blog, and there my name is "Blackbeard" (like I call myself on my own website about C. Castaneda).

.

Edited by Abramelin
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Thanks Seeder!

And then there is my blog about corvids: http://kromakhy.blogspot.nl/

(or the index: http://kromakhysitei....blogspot.nl/ )

Yep, I am the owner of the blog, and there my name is "Blackbeard" (like I call myself on my own website about C. Castaneda).

.

:tu: hey mate, I was wondering when you'd show up, so a belated Happy Christmas!! I will check your blog

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