This app visualizes bird song in a 3D space in real time. Here’s a link to some bird songs that you can upload to try out the app.
https://dl.allaboutbirds.org/backyardbirdsdownload-0
As many of my long-time readers could attest, for a long time (about 7 years, or so), I was routinely in the habit of feeding the pigeons I see, daily - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sometimes, it would be a variation on a sandwich, such as grilled cheese sandwiches, at times where I was feeling inspired. Nearly a year ago, at this point, however, I transitioned to seeds, because I had a nagging suspicion growing inside of me, of that seeds were literally more healthy and appropriate for the birds, desipite the charm of peanut butter and jelly sandwich-fed pigeons (later on, after I transitioned, I discovered, through consulting with AI, that peanuts, and peanut butter, consequentially, were high calorie dietary choices, which the birds would welcome.
So, it had been a while since the birds had gotten sandwiches from me. I had fully transitioned to seeds, since I first tried them (I was initially reluctant to purchase seeds for the birds, despite that seeds used to be available, locally, in downtown LA, at Ralph’s; now, seeds are not on the shelves, anymore). I had reasoned that the nagging voice in my head could possibly be correct, and, at the time, I didn’t have a more authoritative retort to counter the assertion. The nagging voice in my head played a tricky hand with me, hinging upon the rhetoric of that seeds were more nutritious. Now, having spent some (or more) time using either feed that I would provide for the birds, I can say that they both have their upsides and downsides. For example, eating a sandwich was more of a community effort, despite that the birds flock towards the food being given towards them, and they step all over each other, as a result, regardless of the type of food I happen to give them. The sandwich pieces would get nibbled at, by one or more birds, at a time, and then the sandwich would be flung somewhere nearby, being that they have to tear the bread apart, so small groups of birds, for the several feeding hotspots the sandwiches would represent, each took their turns eating at the rich treat.
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| Thomas’ Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread, from Amazon, is what I chose for the birds’ sandwiches, today, and it was only $3.06! A bargain, relatively, and very tasty, at that. |
By comparison, seeds are a bit more democratic a food to give the birds, and, it’s a more “natural” food for them. Every one of them gets their chance at getting some of the seeds and grains that I toss out, and, for the most part, the birds still stick around, in general, before I arrive, and after I leave, ostensibly because other people come and feed them, there, at Pershing Square. I leave them a little bit hungry, perhaps, yet they’re there, daily, faithfully, and they appreciate any sort of meal they can get, that fits in to their dietary regimen, that is (pigeons are classified as granivores; meaning they naturally get by on a diet of grains). I feed three flocks of birds; two others, on opposite sides of town, and those ones get what I estimate is a filling meal for them, since they’re not frequented by other pigeon-feeding folks, where they’re situated. Today, though, (or, yesterday - I’m writing this early in the morning, the next day), I had cinnamon swirl raisin bread, since it was on sale for cheap, and I could get free shipping, if I ordered $10 more worth of stuff off of Amazon, in addition to their fresh bag of seeds that I bought them.
I figured, here’s my chance - to prove to myself that I’m still willing to make sandwiches for them, and, now I have the confidence that the high-calorie PB&J meals are suitable, vegetarian treats for them, and possibly, they become a bit stimulated from having some sugar, from the jam, which they wouldn’t get, eating just seeds. So I went out and made them their sandwiches, as I showed up at their roosting spots, and the birds waited patiently for the sandwich-making to be done; they’re used to waiting, I guess. This time around, though, the pigeons at Pershing Square seemed even more than typical “worked up” in to a feeding frenzy, since they got sandwiches (which arrived earlier in the day than the seeds). After I was done feeding them, they started to fly up towards me, some of them, as if they were courting the idea of landing on me, to let me know that they’re happy, and, perhaps, that I’d been holding out on some last bites for them to eat. I made the Pershing Square pigeons three sandwiches, which, I figure, was a duly rich meal for the birds, and that it was enough food material to go around, so that every bird who really wanted to eat got to have some - some of the birds will stand off to the sidelines, and I try to toss out a little bit for the sparrows, also, but I know that the birds also become more assertive when they’re hungrier, as individuals, so I think that, on some days, some of the birds are just less motivated to take part in the feeding frenzy.
The event made me think about how the day’s meal probably reminded the birds of their youth; it’s estimated that pigeons live for about 3 years, in the wild, yet they can live for perhaps 15-20 years, if taken good care of, in captivity. Now, I don’t quite believe that the birds I feed only live 3 years; I feel that they’re better taken care of than that, but certainly the meal must have been a warm reminder of the days when sandwiches were the standard fare (it’s a fair amount more costly to purchase sandwiches, for them, but I had food stamps, back then, and I could shoulder much of the costs, throughout a month, contingent on that my benefits were available for me to use, to purchase food, not seeds). Now, I spend my own money for everything I have to purchase, so it matters somewhat less, whether I purchase sandwich fixings for the birds, or it comes to seeds. Some of the birds even cozied up to the notion of trying to snatch some sandwich out of my hand, before I tossed out small portions of the meal throughout the flock, which surrounds me, as I feed them.
This app promises to make learning about the underlying structure, linguistics, and grammar of things that you, or other people say fun, intuitive, and engaging, with its interactive interface and user features, such as storing phrase structures for later use, such as when you’d like to construct a sentence based on similar logic as one you had fancied, in the app, as well as hyperlinks to relevant Wikipedia articles, to assist in making you an expert at grammar, and the life of the party, on top of that.
To use the app, click on the link when the pop up comes up, and it’ll take you to Google AI Studio.
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Click on View API Keys,
and then Create API Key on the next page,
and Create a New Project - call it LinguistLens, or whatever you choose.
Then create the key, copy it, and paste it back in to the pop up from inside the blogger page. The app will now work.
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If you navigated to my blog home page and you saw the article, you would need to click “Read more…” in order to launch the code for the app, this helps casual readers from becoming too confused about what’s going on with the pop up.
Who’s in to fancy grammar? People like Barack Obama create compelling spoken word using concepts discussed in articles on Wikipedia, which are linked to, from within the app. Good grammar is the basis of logic itself, practically. Many great ideas are founded upon the principles of sound grammatical pretexts, as a starting point.
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| Earlier today, I went out to feed the pigeons in the late morning. |
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| The birds greet me, most of the time, some of them, at least, by flying up towards me. |
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| A pair of siblings and their mother, from China, were taking photos and videos with the birds. |
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| Another pedestrian was telling them that they should try being more interactive, and get a circle of birds round them. |
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| The guy asked me for some seeds, and he handed the kids a handful of seeds, each. It was a fun part of my day, to assist in giving them the pigeon experience that we have, here at Pershing Square. |
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| Yesterday, I was in East LA, and the afternoon sun broke through the clouds and put out a glorious rainbow. |
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| I could most see the very end of the rainbow, off in the nearby distance. |
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| The sparrows were out, as well, and I made sure to save some seeds for the little ones, as well. |
