Press release; take what you can use

[zustifer]

[press releasey thing: reproduce at will. Send to whatever news outlets you feel like! You're free!]

Alex is an African Grey parrot that is learning to recognize various letters, can count to 7 and is working on 8, and learned the color 'grey' by looking at himself in a mirror and asking 'what color?' He's just turned 30. Irene Pepperberg (my professor last semester, and an awesome lady), who bought him from a pet store and has been studying him ever since, has just won an award for her paper on Alex's zero-like concept, which is a major coup given how hard it is to get any recognition in the animal cognitive field nowadays. The pursuit is very uncool right now; it's not techy or sexy, and lots of scientists are finding themselves with cut funding or the inability to renew grants. So, in order to help in some small way, I'm making (hand-printed) t-shirts to benefit the Alex Foundation. You can buy them here. (Apparently the site's going to be revamped soon, but not yet.)

Okay, uh. Need anything else?

Comments

[jwgh]

Hey, I was promoting your tee shirts just the other day! http://community.livejournal.com/snbprov/152357.html

This also reminds me that I might want to get a couple as a going-away present for a friend. I need to find out sizing information first though.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Sure. The ladies' shirts run a little small (s-xxl is probably more like xs-xl), but the guy shirts seem normal (m-xxl). The ladies' ones are Bella, and the guys' are Canvas.
And thank you for the promotion! That's ruley.

[spatch]

Alex is incredible. He's got a bit of a following among some of the Interactive Fiction crowd, you know. (The ifMUD house infobot is Alex, for instance, heavily modified and full of parrot personality.) I'd gladly help him celebrate his 30th hatch day, and I bet some of the ifMUD folks would like to help as well. Gotta keep him in cork nuts!

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read about that! It's neat.
Thanks for helping! I kind of worry about the Alex Foundation. Their lab is really, really small, and that's all the space they can get. (This was my 'okay-to-spread-around' version of the situation... I wrote a much more jerky paranoid version earlier which I scrapped.)
Anyway, I am going up to watch the parrots on thurs, any photo requests?

[swinehund.livejournal.com]

Since my 30th hatchday is coming up this fall, I definitely have to get one, but I was just wondering about shipping to Canuckistan.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it, I'm doing the shipping. All is well.

[swinehund.livejournal.com]

Oh good. Also I was just thinking, "I am not waiting on anything in the mail, how sad". PERFECT OPPORTUNITY!

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

GOD DAMN IT I LOVE LIVEJOURNAL AVATARS

[swinehund.livejournal.com]

I just have not been using them TO THE MAXX. More effort plainly required.

[diaryarena.livejournal.com]

way to be an 18 year old female target demographic

[swinehund.livejournal.com]

Lady, you are so fast. It got here yesterday and I am wearing it right now.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Yay woo! I guess 'global priority' is pretty expedient.
I'm pretty sure I put extra effort into making the graphics not crooked on that one.