Two elderly macaws that each “had scarcely seen another macaw in their lives” formed a close bond, dancing and singing together. One macaw often began the call by vocalizing “Hi! Come here! Hello!”

Interspecies friendships blossomed as well. In the pilot study, a Goffin’s cockatoo in Boston befriended an African grey parrot in California over video.

“It’s been over a year and they still talk,” said the cockatoo’s owner.

synanthrope is 128 words

New reporting suggests the United States military accidentally killed all four people aboard a civilian medivac plane while conducting electronic warfare drills in May. Joe Wilkins, writing for Futurism, notes that this episode is “the first known instance where military GPS jamming played a role in downing a civilian plane in US airspace.”

A new article in Nature posits that, due to the emission of ultraweak photons, every living cell glows faintly, and some cells continue to glow even after an organism dies.

synanthrope is 128 words

synanthrope is 128 words

Anti-ICE protesters in Texas were convicted of providing material support for terrorism; accused of being members of antifa, a group that does not exist, five were sentenced to half a century in prison.

A mallard duckling carcass was found in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; the Pool has become spectacular with decay. A sitting congressman has been missing for over 100 days. 75% of Democrats, but only 33% of Republicans, believe that they could beat Donald Trump in a physical fight.

Dirt bike tricks were executed on the South Lawn with Marines standing at attention, all before an image of the White House which obscured the actual building, much like Borges’s imaginary map, so detailed that it covers the territory it depicts exactly.

synanthrope is 128 words

“Most greeting cards received by one person” was discontinued in 1991 over concerns for the postal system’s capacities. “Fastest violinist” ended in 2017; the Guinness World Records Youtube account noted “it has become impossible to judge the quality of the renditions, even when slowed down.

The “fastest yodel” record, established by Thomas Scholl in 1992 by hitting 12 notes in one second, was discontinued because “yodelling was too subjective to be measured in this way.”

synanthrope is 128 words

Senator Sullivan, who was instrumental in stripping Tongass National Forest of logging protections, has accused the other Sullivan of being an agent of sabotage from the Democratic party.

“Everybody in Alaska knows I’m Dan Sullivan-R,” said Senator Sullivan. “So he’s trying to do that. Why?”

According to AP News, the senator used profanity while discussing the situation.

synanthrope is 128 words

One sign by the road advertised baby chicks for sale, listing ducks, guinea fowl, peacocks, geese, and turkey poults.

Near the botanical garden, a glass store’s marquee sign read

RIP MOM

GMA G GMA

Outside a downtown cafe was a whiteboard with elegant blue cursive.

Come grab some coffee, matcha or tea with us!

Below this, in the same handwriting, was written

All y’all are welcome but you gotta act right.

Outside a tiny Baptist church, facing the street, was a wagon half-full of aluminum soda cans, with a sign reading CANS FOR CHRIST.

synanthrope is 128 words

The episode made the headlines of the New York Post: ROE IS ME! CAVIAR DEALER OFF TO PRISON.

synanthrope is 128 words

Giraffes take 15 months to bear one calf. Male giraffes often approach females dozens of times before successfully mating; as such, males tend to engage in courtship behavior with other males more often than with females. Homosexual courtship often comes after a period of physical dueling called necking… enemies to lovers…

As part of courting, males cough loudly. For a long time, biologists didn’t believe that giraffes could vocalize, but all sorts of giraffe sounds have been recorded: moans, hisses, growls, something called “bursts.” There is one documented case of one giraffe encountering another’s corpse, and uttering “high-amplitude, pulsed warning vocalizations.”

At night, giraffes hum to each other, and perhaps themselves.

synanthrope is 128 words

Worm charming is also known as worm fiddling, worm grunting, or rooping, depending on the tools used; competitors at the 2026 Championship rang bells, played guitars, and jumped on the ground in seagull costumes. The winning team raised 41 worms by singing a song they called “The Worm Song.”

In 2009, at a different British worm charming competition, one ten-year-old summoned 567 worms.

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

Most recently, seagulls in Istanbul have imitated the hoarse cries of street cats around automated cat-feeding machines; they have clearly learned the association between food and cat sounds. Passersby report that the gulls stare at people as they make these sounds, as if asking them to drop a coin or recyclable into the machine to trigger the food’s release. Seagulls performing as cats for the human gaze… is this busking? It is certainly some sort of interspecies theater.

synanthrope is 128 words

Selected items from Wikipedia’s list of costly or deadly hailstorms:

• Saint Louis, city of my heart, holds the records for the costliest and second-costliest hail storms in history; both caused damages in excess of one billion dollars.

• The largest verified hailstone was larger than 7 inches in diameter and fell on Vivian, South Dakota in July 2010. There are reports that a pumpkin-sized hailstone fell on Japan in 1917.

• A hailstorm during the Hundred Years’ War reportedly killed over a thousand English soldiers in France, incurring more casualties than all the War’s battles up to that point.

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

Even if these colors can be visualized, naming them is another challenge. The English language has always been quite fluid when it comes to color; several things of debatable hue (cabbage, onions, wine, hair) are called red. In old poems and plays, the color of blood is said to be purple. The word pink did not enter common use until the 17th century.

Wikipedia has a fatigue template with instructions for how to view the chimerical colors hyperbolic orange, self-luminous red, and, with its frigid lexical beauty, stygian blue.

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

Angela Carter’s “Vampirella” repeatedly asks: “can a bird sing only the song it knows or can it learn a new song?” Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern were able to teach young zebra finches novel songs by changing their neural pathways; they effectively implanted new song memories in the birds’ brains. But what about non-optogenetically-altered birds?

Maybe birdsong is like a name, and every bird of the same species shares the same name. They spend their days calling others and announcing themselves simultaneously. “They’re like Pokemon,” Tyler said, “always saying their own name.”

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

The Iliad, composed around 650 BCE, would have been considered classic literature during that time of Roman rule; the passage on the recovered papyrus catalogues the ships that sailed from Greece to fight the Trojans. I am curious about what compelled the mummifiers to include this text, and this passage; could it have been the intentions of the deceased? An unusual but noble wish, to be buried with your favorite book.

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

Another honey bee species has learned to deter giant hornets by smearing animal feces around nest entrances.

Some “solitary” bees build extraordinarily dense nests, with as many as 1252 nests in one square meter. Researchers recently reported the discovery of five million miner bees under a cemetery in New York.

Fossilized bumblebees were discovered in shale deposits in Colorado in 1906, and could be as many as 37 million years old. The genus name for these extinct bumblebees is Calyptapis, apis meaning bee, and the calypt- prefix meaning concealed, covered, or total devastation; it is the same root as apocalypse.

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

Each language’s message is different; some include invitations to visit, others send wishes for peace or longevity. My three favorite messages are the Arabic, the Mandarin, and the Amoy, the translations of which are, respectively:

Greetings to our friends in the stars. May time bring us together.

How’s everyone? We all very much wish to meet you, if you’re free please come and visit.

Friends from space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so

At the grocery store I received a sticker of an AI-generated puppy and kitten. A social media algorithm served me a video from the Los Angeles County Fire Air Operations account, showing a large animal rescue drill with a life-sized horse figurine dangling from a helicopter. The figurine, which seems to be made of wood or perhaps plaster, is strapped in a bright yellow harness. “Being a multi mission unit, we must continue to prepare for high risk, low frequency calls,” the caption read, “as they may come day or night.”

synanthrope is 128 words every day or so