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reasonsforhope · 7 months

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Humans are so cute. They think they can outsmart birds. They place nasty metal spikes on rooftops and ledges to prevent birds from nesting there.

It’s a classic human trick known in urban design as “evil architecture”: designing a place in a way that’s meant to deter others. Think of the city benches you see segmented by bars to stop homeless people sleeping there.

But birds are genius rebels. Not only are they undeterred by evil architecture, they actually use it to their advantage, according to a new Dutch study published in the journal Deinsea.

Crows and magpies, it turns out, are learning to rip strips of anti-bird spikes off of buildings and use them to build their nests. It’s an incredible addition to the growing body of evidence about the intelligence of birds, so wrongly maligned as stupid that “bird-brained” is still commonly used as an insult...

Magpies also use anti-bird spikes for their nests. In 2021, a hospital patient in Antwerp, Belgium, looked out the window and noticed a huge magpie’s nest in a tree in the courtyard. Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra of Leiden-based Naturalis Biodiversity Center, one of the study’s authors, went to collect the nest and found that it was made out of 50 meters of anti-bird strips, containing no fewer than 1,500 metal spikes.

Hiemstra describes the magpie nest as “an impregnable fortress.”

Pictured: A huge magpie nest made out of 1,500 metal spikes.

Magpies are known to build roofs over their nests to prevent other birds from stealing their eggs and young. Usually, they scrounge around in nature for thorny plants or spiky branches to form the roof. But city birds don’t need to search for the perfect branch — they can just use the anti-bird spikes that humans have so kindly put at their disposal.

“The magpies appear to be using the pins exactly the same way we do: to keep other birds away from their nest,” Hiemstra said.

Another urban magpie nest, this one from Scotland, really shows off the roof-building tactic:

Pictured: A nest from Scotland shows how urban magpies are using anti-bird spikes to construct a roof meant to protect their young and eggs from predators.

Birds had already been spotted using upward-pointing anti-bird spikes as foundations for nests. In 2016, the so-called Parkdale Pigeon became Twitter-famous for refusing to give up when humans removed her first nest and installed spikes on her chosen nesting site, the top of an LCD monitor on a subway platform in Melbourne. The avian architect rebelled and built an even better home there, using the spikes as a foundation to hold her nest more securely in place.

...Hiemstra’s study is the first to show that birds, adapting to city life, are learning to seek out and use our anti-bird spikes as their nesting material. Pretty badass, right?

The genius of birds — and other animals we underestimate

It’s a well-established fact that many bird species are highly intelligent. Members of the corvid family, which includes crows and magpies, are especially renowned for their smarts. Crows can solve complex puzzles, while magpies can pass the “mirror test” — the classic test that scientists use to determine if a species is self-aware.

Studies show that some birds have evolved cognitive skills similar to our own: They have amazing memories, remembering for months the thousands of different hiding places where they’ve stashed seeds, and they use their own experiences to predict the behavior of other birds, suggesting they’ve got some theory of mind.

And, as author Jennifer Ackerman details in The Genius of Birds, birds are brilliant at using tools. Black palm cockatoos use twigs as drumsticks, tapping out a beat on a tree trunk to get a female’s attention. Jays use sticks as spears to attack other birds...

Birds have also been known to use human tools to their advantage. When carrion crows want to crack a walnut, for example, they position the nut on a busy road, wait for a passing car to crush the shell, then swoop down to collect the nut and eat it. This behavior has been recorded several times in Japanese crows.

But what’s unique about Hiemstra’s study is that it shows birds using human tools, specifically designed to thwart birds’ plans, in order to thwart our plans instead. We humans try to keep birds away with spikes, and the birds — ingenious rebels that they are — retort: Thanks, humans!

-via Vox, July 26, 2023

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thatsneakymedic · 7 months

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"Hmmmmm." (He is just here to give you an extra layer of trauma.)

@lord-danzo

Disgusting! As if he would EVER let that old bastard anywhere near him! And now he decides to rub it in to his face that he's also fills out and scored a LOT of Kabuto's preferences!

One too many for Kabuto's liking. But four bingos?!

"Get the hell out and get away from me!"

No... he refuses to believe it. They must've lied about at least some of the scores to get him this riled up.

Perhaps his preferences are too easy for others to scratch out and get a bingo since he got so many people passing so far...

Thank you for the trauma to keep him on edge.

#lord danzo #holy shit #:O #what a twist!#he is so upset #also #if this IS true #then...#that's kind of amazing #O_O #if only Danzo wasn't a bastard

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musette22 · 1 year

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i came across this video and holy f**k. i could never be famous. I'd be hitting this people right and left and the fact that they just kept going 🥴 https://twitter.com/nostalgiaseb/status/1557951080109166593?t=g-fRoUITUZdpLwHlgBqGRw&s=19

Ugh man, I can't make out what he's saying, but he's clearly not happy with them, and with good reason. Why can't people just understand that a) it's kinda rude to film people without their permission when they're not at a public event (I know a set is a borderline case, but come on, use your common sense) and b) he's working. Let the man do his job and be a little more respectful, please

#and still he's always so polite #and he still likes his fans #most of them #that's kind of amazing #sebastian stan #a different man #minnie answers

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raziraphale · 10 months

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Tag your age if you wanna bc I was just thinking about how I have used floppy disks before (I'm 25 and used them in elementary computer lab) but my 22 y.o. brother hasn't which is so weird to me like 3 years isn't a long time at all to me

#I'm wondering if im an outlier in the 25 year old demographic bc i remember bringing my floppy disk home from 2nd grade #and my dad laughing and being like our computer doesn't even have a drive for it anymore #like we didn't HAVE to use them at home bc obviously not everyone had a home computer #but it was a kind of 'if you have a computer bring this to your parents and they can demonstrate how it works!'#'look how you can take your files home isn't tech amazing!'#but i just learned that the school had old computers lol #polls #reilly.txt

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lunozapp · 6 months

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mfw they got Religious Connotations at the function😂

#both of these are kind of stretching but i love theorising about this show for some reason #tadc #the amazing digital circus spoilers #the amazing digital circus #tadc pomni #tadc caine #tadc jax #tadc gangle #tadc zooble #tadc kinger #1k NOTES DAMN

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clown-eating-pig · 3 months

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I really love gertrude robinson bc how often do you get an older woman character who just really sucks? She sacrifices ppl that trust her. She is so focused on keeping the world from ending that she completely doesn’t notice one of her assistants routinely torturing the others. She dismembered a guy. She does her job badly on purpose. She’s cunning and sneaky. She dares her murderous, immortality seeking boss to kill her. She gets murdered by her murderous, immortality seeking boss. She’s not particularly friendly. She somehow had access to plastic explosives. She’s a manipulator and a liar. She’s bound to the avatar of destruction. She helped a guy get rid of a pig by telling him to put it in conk crete. She is like the opposite of a sweet little grandma and that’s beautiful.

#tma #tma spoilers #the magnus archives #gertrude robinson #I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fanon interpretation of her being kind and motherly #and that’s sooooo amazing to me #bc female characters (esp older ones)#are so often relegated to being the mom friend or some similar trope that completely ignores their personality #so I love that she gets to be just the most morally gray old woman #with an amazing voice #ever #tma podcast #what if I fell in love with her #what are you gonna do about it?#nothing!!#you can’t!#can’t wait to be sacrificed <333

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madeleinefunn · 9 months

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no because Elle having her “girl walks down the stairs looking beautiful” moment and still looking completely like herself is actually something so magical

#also a trans girl having this kind of scene?? revolutionary iconic amazing incredible #heartstopper #elle argent #heartstopper spoilers

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egophiliac · 11 months

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oh no, I love them

(super quick doodles done between other stuff, there will be better things later I promise :')

#art #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers #twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers #spoilers spoilers spoilers #me when the shroudparents walk in: what. why. what is this.#me thirty seconds late: never mind they are AMAZING #i mean yeah idia kind of offhandedly mentioned it way back when #in episode 6 when he was like 'my parents have to wear special equipment to deal with the debilitating effects of the curse'#'and to hide their identities as a french electronic synth-pop duo' I GUESS #no no it's okay. mrs shroud you are kind of insane and i love you #GROUP HUG EVERYBODY!!!!!#mr shroud you put up with a lot but somebody's gotta remember to do the paperwork #daft punk bert and ernie is the best possible dynamic for them #and THEY LOVE THEIR ROBOT SON #i'm so happy for ortho #(hovering around the subject of dreamworld ortho. ...we'll get to that)#man though now that i know what they're like #when idia busted in to show them how he built himself a replacement brother #mrs shroud was probably just like 'this is exactly what i would have done. let mama give you some pointers on joint mechanics'#i know i'm in the minority on genuinely unironically loving overblot idia #(YES he's weird but it's a weird i'm into!)#i am DELIGHTED by the design parallels. he looks like his dad!#but with his mom's ears!#ah it's so good

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kimtaegis · 8 months

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friendly herbivore dinosaur 🦕 for @jung-koook

cr. namuspromised

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love4hobi · 26 days

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The things you do are impressive. Who would work so hard to capture street dance like this? Who does that?

HOPE ON THE STREET EP.2

#bts #hoseok #jhope #hobi #btsgif #btsedit #dailybts #usersky #annietrack #userines #*#i know someone already kinda giffed this but i dont care #this is so important to me #i love when he gets showered with praise against his will #'who does that' is right!!! i ask myself that same thing all the time #like its so crazy that literally everyone he meets talks about how kind and humble and hard working and amazing he is #u dont have to wonder with him its all in the testimonials!

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nina-rosa · 1 year

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(read from left to right →)

🌸 The negligible self 🌸 chapter 1, p.1 to 7

A comic based on a serirei (from mp100) fanfiction written by @homosexual-fanfiction (@/ch_am on Ao3)! Please go read the fanfic there too because it’s really good!!! T v T

I don’t know if I’ll adapt the whole story (even if I really want to!!!) so for now I’ll try to do as much as I can, starting with that first chapter (which is already entirely storyboarded)!

Thanks to Camp for allowing me to draw their story and for helping me while designing some of the settings and Aimi <333 and thank you again for writing such an awesome and inspiring story!!

You can find Camp here too: @ch-am

I hope you’ll enjoy this first bouquet of pages!!💐

Here’s the link to the fic!!

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #serirei #fanfiction #fanfic #reigen #reigen arataka #serizawa #serizawa katsuya #the negligible self #comic #when I’m reading a fic that I really like it gives me the same kind of feels u have when you’re in love u know??#(or it makes me want to be in love at least???)#like this excitement you feel in your chest and the urge to put your face in your hands to giggle hdhdhdhjd #anyway I’ll stop being embarrassing now fanfictions are amazing I wish I was able to write stuff like that #(I guess I can draw comics instead so that’s okay?)

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daeyumi · 3 months

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Testament 🖤🩸💀

[2022]

#guilty gear #guilty gear strive #guilty gear testament #testament guilty gear #ggst #ggstrive #ggstart #guilty gear fanart #daeyumi art #i tried a diff style with this piece than i normally do & idk i kind of like how it looks #tho as i remember i didn’t enjoy the process much #anyways i love testament they’re amazing they’re so pretty

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buggsxp · 7 days

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trafficblr i'm coming at you once again with the paranormal order au IT'S THE GIRLS

#trafficblr #mcyt fanart #pearlesentmoon fanart #geminitay #pearlescentmoon #geminitay fanart #oh the occultist amazed by the paranormal and the kind of person who'd never touch a ritual symbol duo we all needed #they mean a lot to me

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yourhealingjournal · 9 months

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i read this post about someone simply accepting their depression is not going to go away & instead of resenting themselves for never getting rid of it or trying to find so much energy to banish the sadness away or to be fully "healed" from it, they just focus on adding more happy things in their plate.

and that is something i can resonate with.

#might not resonate with many. might not even be the hopeful amazing tone i usually keep up in this blog #but something clicked so #be kind to yourself #cptsd recovery #trauma recovery #actually traumatized #just cptsd things #living with cptsd #actually cptsd #bpd recovery #actually mentally ill #actually borderline #rose.txt

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mobius-m-mobius · 3 months

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