• Dale@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    1 year ago

    You’re supposed to reevaluate brain size as a measure of intelligence. The expression “bird brain” is so outdated we need to stop using it. Bird neurons are significantly smaller than ours, so they can fit a lot more brain in a smaller volume.

    While you’re at it, you should probably reevaluate everything about intelligence and memory because apparently jellyfish have memories despite having no brain or ganglia of any kind.

    • qarbone@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not an older sibling in a 90s-era kids sitcom, so I haven’t used the phrase “bird-brain” in decades…

    • kaesaecracker@leminal.space
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Also some insects dissolve in their cocoons to a handful of cells and yet still maintain memories from their larva stage

    • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Bird neurons are significantly smaller than ours

      The neurons themselves? Because human axons are already as small as can be; they sometimes missfire because of this (brain is built around that, no worries).

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      They also understand social order and merc crows that are excessively rude thieves and whatnot. It’s a bit brutal but it’s indicative of individual identity and longer term memory.

  • TWeaK@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 year ago

    TIL Euler invented crows, but Poe got to name them because he was 2nd.

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    If I’ve learned anything from Stargate, such knowledge leads directly to the ability to build self-propelled autonomous space mines.

    • don@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Now a real killer, when he picked up the ZF-1, he would have immediately asked about the little red button on the bottom of the gun.

    • hakunawazo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      They are not the smartest guys out there, but at least they managed to kill the main bad guy of the movie:

      oh sorry

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah but imaginary numbers are a very real problem, and the solution of which affects you every day.

      • ALostInquirer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        🤨 Is this an elaborate joke, or is this query itself demonstrative of the reality of the statement?

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yes.

          But seriously yeah, imaginary numbers (square root of -1) just so happens to be a key part of the definition of a sinusoidal waveform, which is what all electromagnetic radiation flows by. Especially power delivered by alternating current, but also digital stuff and general quantum particles and things. So it really affects everything.

          • vsh@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Does it affect my estimated pizza delivery time?

  • jopepa@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    There’s a crow and seagull war around where I work. Pretty wild sky fights, but otherwise typical bird business. One time I heard what sounded like a tornado of crows outside, so I went out to see if some kind of crow Voltron was assembling. Outside was every crow I’ve ever seen screaming and swooping around one unlucky seagull that was tangled in fishing line and hanging from a tree. I cut it down untangled it and it flew off but what really freaked me out was how quiet all of the crows got when I got involved. I can’t prove it and I don’t know how they did it but I know the crows did this.

    • Slacking@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Crows laying traps for other birds would be wild. Survival books sometimes talk about laying snares for birds in trees using wire.

      • jopepa@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s what I thought at first too but there were no knots, bait, or hooks. Just a tangled messy of fishing line. When it all went silent and I could see that seagull swaying upside down it felt like something out of True Detective.

  • gila@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    Everytime I hear this I can’t help but imagine some researcher out in the wild taking a twig or something off of a magpie, the swoopy boi retaliates and the researcher is like “corvids understand the concept of zero?!”