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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, August 08, 2016 2:46 PM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Subject:</b> [ExI] Birdbrains<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>>…We've talked before about how smart birds are, in a new article Olkowicz et al found that crows jays and ravens have twice as many neurons per volume of brain as humans do, and the shorter inter-neural distances results in faster informational speeds too. I suppose when there is evolutionary pressure for a flying animal to get smarter because of the weight considerations it can't just take the brute force approach and make the brain bigger, it must make the brain better. I wouldn't be surprised if birds have less spaghetti code in how the neurons are wired together than humans do too<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>;<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>if so they would be ideal subjects for brain research. </span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/26/7255.full" target="_blank">http://www.pnas.org/content/113/26/7255.full</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> John K Clark<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Ja, and that group is fun to watch. Last week at a camping trip, we were having lunch at a picnic area. The Steller’s jays were squawking and asking for a handout. We were being good wildlife conscious hikers and didn’t give them anything. I was holding a granola bar in my hand. A feathery bahstid swooped down and snatched it out of my hand. {8^D I was laughing too hard to be pissed about my trail food going down his gullet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>