Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

audubon.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 104 posts

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#61

Post by nxc18 »

osrec wrote: post #59
reaperducer wrote: post #19

Crazy to see this posted today. Last night my wife and I were on a reservation in Arizona and watching the birds. She googled this very topic. Then when I looked at HN today, here it is! I showed it to her and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Is Facebook listening to me?” Then I had to explain that HN is human-powered and the chances of Big G and Facebook and HN sharing data is pretty close to zero.

Similar spooky things happen to me with online adverts. I happened to mention to a friend that I want to adopt a dog. Lo and behold, for the next 5 days, all I see is dog adoption/dog food adverts. It's happened twice to me, and both times, the ads have been so out of the ordinary from my usual ads, that I actually took time to notice them! I'm fairly certain Google is listening in to conversations for ad targeting.…

I hear this kind of thing all the time. "Your case is serendipity, but they were listening to me!"

Do you know why you thought about adopting a dog randomly? Are you confusing cause and effect? Perhaps you were really being shown dog ads for six (or sixty) days and only noticed it for five.

I say this not to dismiss the fear of recording, but to raise that recording is kind of a lazy rationalization that tech companies probably favor over the other, more realistic explanation.

The idea that the ads have changed your behavior without you realizing is far more creepy. They don't have to listen to what you say because they influenced you to say it.

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#63

Post by osrec »

nxc18 wrote: post #61
osrec wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar spooky things happen to me with online adverts. I happened to mention to a friend that I want to adopt a dog. Lo and behold, for the next 5 days, all I see is dog adoption/dog food adverts. It's happened twice to me, and both times, the ads have been so out of the ordinary from my usual ads, that I actually took time to notice them! I'm fairly certain Google is listening in to conversations for ad targeting.…

I hear this kind of thing all the time. "Your case is serendipity, but they were listening to me!" Do you know why you thought about adopting a dog randomly? Are you confusing cause and effect? Perhaps you were really being shown dog ads for six (or sixty) days and only noticed it for five. I say this not to dismiss the fear of recording, but to raise that recording is kind of a lazy rationalization that tech compani…

Yes, I do know why I thought about adopting a dog. It's because I love dogs, and have wanted one since I was a kid, and a really cool dog happened to walk past my window at the time while I was at talking to my friend.

I never Google dog photos or anything dog related really. I have no real reason to. Also, all the ads are see are usually either finance related or tech related. The huge influx of dog adoption adverts was most certainly an anomaly. I dismissed it the first time, but the second time, it was harder to put it down to chance.

I could be wrong, and maybe they aren't listening in, however at this point, I can't say with certainty that they're not. My suspicion is officially raised!

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#64

Post by souterrain »

reaperducer wrote: post #19

Crazy to see this posted today. Last night my wife and I were on a reservation in Arizona and watching the birds. She googled this very topic. Then when I looked at HN today, here it is! I showed it to her and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Is Facebook listening to me?” Then I had to explain that HN is human-powered and the chances of Big G and Facebook and HN sharing data is pretty close to zero.

For what it’s worth, Audubon members got this in the Inbox today. Also serendipitous to me, since I just passed Poe’s grave site and thought it odd he would write of ravens even if they are rare in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#66

Post by OneWordSoln »

reaperducer wrote: post #19

Crazy to see this posted today. Last night my wife and I were on a reservation in Arizona and watching the birds. She googled this very topic. Then when I looked at HN today, here it is! I showed it to her and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Is Facebook listening to me?” Then I had to explain that HN is human-powered and the chances of Big G and Facebook and HN sharing data is pretty close to zero.

Yup, last week my kids and I, who are always on the lookout for wildlife of all kinds, were wondering how to tell crows from ravens. So, yeah, very, very nice timing for us, too.

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#67

Post by OneWordSoln »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #41
reaperducer wrote: post #19

Crazy to see this posted today. Last night my wife and I were on a reservation in Arizona and watching the birds. She googled this very topic. Then when I looked at HN today, here it is! I showed it to her and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Is Facebook listening to me?” Then I had to explain that HN is human-powered and the chances of Big G and Facebook and HN sharing data is pretty close to zero.

Large numbers at work :). Congratulations, out of great many people reading HN today, you won in the lottery of "obscure thing I thought about recently is suddenly on the frontpage"!

Sorry, I think we (my kids and myself) got it as we were literally wondering just last week how to tell crows and ravens apart. (We are always scanning for wildlife of all kinds.)

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#68

Post by Tiktaalik »

A bigger challenge is to differentiate a Northwestern Crow from an American Crow.

> It is smaller than the American Crow and has a more nasal call, but it is so similar that the two may in fact be the same species.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northwestern_Crow/overvi...

I didn't even realize that my area had an apparently different crow than everywhere until I bought a birding book.

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#69

Post by ryanianian »

username223 wrote: post #44
hirundo wrote: post #32

Have you ever exchanged a look with a stranger and their expression was such that you immediately got a deep impression of their inner life, of their humanity, and felt a connection? That happened to me with a raven, while we were both enjoying a stunning view of a sunset at Petrified Forest National Park. It was a large, old, rumpled, wise seeming creature. Surely that environment primed me for the experience. The m…

For me, it was watching them play for hours outside the office. Sometimes a pair would fly together for awhile, then one would dive at the other, who would flip over at the last instant. There was no reason for them to do this; they just had enough free time to screw around.

This video of a crow repeatedly "skiing" down a roof changed my view of how animals play - I thought it was all "practice-fighting" but this crow seems to be playing "just for the fun of it".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WupH8oyrAo

Re: How to tell a raven from a crow (2012)

#70

Post by dghf »

GreeniFi wrote: post #9

An old English farmer with a strong Dorset accent once explained the difference to me: “If you see a raven, and there’s only one of them, that’s a crow that is. If you see a crow and there’s lots of them, that’s a raven, that is”. Simple!

I heard/read something similar (possibly in an Enid Blyton novel), but it was contrasting rooks and crows, rather than ravens and crows. Unlike ravens, rooks are much the same size as carrion crows (the typical crow in England), and thus harder to distinguish.
Post reply on HN