Dying talking parrot's last words, "You be good. I love you."

[@_@ Artman]

Alex, a parrot that could count to six, identify colors and even express frustration with repetitive scientific trials, has died after 30 years of helping researchers better understand the avian brain.

The cause of Alex's death was unknown. The African grey parrot's average life span is 50 years, Brandeis University scientist Irene Pepperberg said. Alex was discovered dead in his cage Friday, she said, but she waited to release the news until this week so grieving researchers could get over the shock and talk about it.

"It's devastating to lose an individual you've worked with pretty much every day for 30 years," Pepperberg told The Boston Globe. "Someone was working with him eight to 12 hours every day of his life."

...

The last time Pepperberg saw Alex was Thursday, she said. They went through their back-and-forth goodnight routine, which always varied slightly and in which she told him it was time to go in the cage.

She recalls the bird said: "You be good. I love you." She responded, "I love you, too." The bird said, "You'll be in tomorrow," and she responded, "Yes, I'll be in tomorrow."

:(

"It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons." - Douglas Adams

[segovius]

'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

[Jubelum]

'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

:lol:

[@_@ Artman]

Alex (http://youtube.com/watch?v=sYk-wE18BTo).

There is no goal or direction to evolution. There is no inherent preference for complexity or intelligence, just survival. It's quite possible that previous species of parrots were even more intelligent than the current crop.

Humans though...:rolleyes:

[Gon]

A man walks into a bar with a dog. The bartender tells him, "Sorry sir, you can't bring the dog in".
"What if it can talk?" "If it can do that, it's welcome in and your drink is free. Otherwise you'll have to leave it outside."

The man lifts the dog on a bar stool. The dog clears its throat and says, "I was taught to talk by the CIA. They wanted me to listen in on people, but I ran away. Then Joe took me in."

The bartender is dumbstruck and gives Joe his drink. "How come you don't do a show with this dog or something? You could get rich."
"You think the dog's that great, you can have him."
"What do you mean? He's amazing."
"No, he's a stinking liar. He never was in the CIA."

[Aquafire]

A guy called Fred received a parrot as a Birthday Present.


Unfortunately, the Birthday parrot turned out to have a particularly rude manner and an extremely foul mouth.

Every word out of the parrot's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

For a while, Fred tried to change the bird's attitude by repeating polite words, playing classical music and anything else

he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

But nothing that Fred did or said, seemed to help.

With every passing day, the parrot seemed to become ruder.


Invariably..something had to snap...


Finally and after much provocation...Fred finally let loose a string of expletives.

The parrot yelled back with equal vigour.


Fred shook the parrot and the parrot got even angrier and ruder.


Then in a fit of anger Fred grabbed the parrot and shoved him into the freezer.


For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.

Then, suddenly there was total quiet, not a peep was heard.

Fearing that he had hurt the parrot, Fred quickly opened the door to the freezer.

The parrot calmly stepped out onto Freds' outstretched arm and said

"I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions."

"I am sincerely remorseful for any inappropriate transgressions."

"I fully intend to do everything I can do to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior".

Fred was stunned at the sudden change in the bird's attitude.

He was about to ask the parrot why the change of attitude...

but the bird continued...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


"May I ask what the Turkey did?"

[iPoster]

'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

http://i23.tinypic.com/2hocys0.gif

[Splinemodel]

I suppose this proves that the amount of gray matter required to modulate breathing, vocal chords (or bird equivalent), tongue to make speech is relatively small. To put things into perspective, I think it would take a lot of computers to do the same.

[shetline]

I suppose this proves that the amount of gray matter required to modulate breathing, vocal chords (or bird equivalent), tongue to make speech is relatively small.
Or to move fingers over a keyboard to make words. These forums prove that. :D

[Splinemodel]

Or to move fingers over a keyboard to make words. These forums prove that. :D

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Back when I was learning to type, my mom used to tell me, "they can teach monkeys to type." I'm not sure if that's true, but I will agree with the fact that there are all kinds of intellects active on AI. Hopefully, none of them are monkeys.

[Rich-Myster]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Back when I was learning to type, my mom used to tell me, "they can teach monkeys to type." I'm not sure if that's true, but I will agree with the fact that there are all kinds of intellects active on AI. Hopefully, none of them are monkeys.

eep eep ah ah ( monkey cry ).

[@_@ Artman]

A Rabbi walks into a bar with a frog on his shoulder. The bartender asks, "where did you find him?" The frog says: Brooklyn. There's tons of them there." - Robin Williams