Pay attention, your pet budgie might be trying to explain to you ........

[JohnyCanuck]

the meaning of life. No need to go seek out the guru on the mountain top, nor to make a donation to receive that Benny Hinn Ministry's Bible correspondence course, our bird-brained friends just might have the answers we've been looking for, and we've just been ignoring them.

Toronto Star story:

Are birds trying to tell us things?
Owner spends years deciphering budgie's `words'
Research does suggest birds have cognitive ability

Ryan Reynolds is a psittalinguist — a person who interprets budgie-speak.

Since 1999, he has invested thousands of hours slowing down and deconstructing recordings of his beloved budgie, Victor, who died five years ago at the young age of 3, as well as other talking budgies.

Victor had a vocabulary of 1,000 words, which he used in context, Reynolds says.

Reynolds, founder of The Budgie Research Group, later reached out to others with talking budgies, hoping to share information. To describe their work, they coined the term psittalinguistics, from psittacidae, or the parrot family.

So what are budgies saying?

"This is going to sound crazy, but they talk about spiritual things: God, the afterlife, a better world for them," Reynolds says.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142941149417&call_pageid=970599119419

[mike_c]

1. no no, please, not the microwave! I promise not to crap on the back...

...of the couch again! No! NOOOOOOOOOOO! {sizzle, pop)

[kestrel91316]

2. You're SO BAD! (spank)

[Ian David]

3. He's right. It DOES sound crazy!

You know those sounds my toilet makes right after I flush it?

This is going to sound crazy, but it's giving me stock-market tips.

Lately, it's been telling me to sell everything except stock in companies that make iodine tablets.

I wonder why.