🦆 If It Looks Like a Duck...

🤔 Why it’s important: Vocal-production learning is critical to human speech and language development, but the brain processes that support this type of learning are still poorly understood.

• Studying this rare occurrence in animals can help us glean insight into the mechanisms and evolution of vocal learning in our own species. 

📜 Backstory: Carel ten Cate, a researcher at the Institute of Biology Leiden at Leiden University in the Netherlands, began studying the vocalization abilities of musk ducks after stumbling upon an obscure reference to one of the ducks that could mimic the words "you bloody fool."

• “When I read it at first I thought, ‘it’s a hoax, it can’t be true.’ But it turned out to be true,” ten Cate told The Guardian.

📝 Details, details, details… The researchers analyzed two separate recordings of musk ducks, one from 1987 and the other from 2000.

• In 1987, researchers recorded an Australian musk duck named “Ripper” making several peculiar noises, including mimicking the sound of a door slamming shut and saying what sounds like “you bloody fool” – though it could also be “food.”
• Ripper was hatched from an egg and hand-reared, and researchers think he likely heard either phrase from his caretakers, since the door slamming shut mimics the sound of the door to the nature center's aviary closing.
• The second set of recordings were taken of another unnamed male musk duck in 2000 and capture the bird making the same door-slamming sounds, as well as imitating the cries of a Pacific black duck it was raised in captivity with.

The researchers behind the study also report two other examples of musk duck mimicry, though recordings of those don’t exist. One duck at a United Kingdom nature park seemed to imitate the snorts of a pony, while another made sounds much like a human coughing and the squeaks of a turnstile.

📸 The big picture: The taxonomic order Anseriformes, which includes ducks and other waterfowl, is hypothesized to have split off from other mimicking birds at least 90 million years ago.

• Translation: This means vocal learning either evolved independently in musk ducks or arose in a common ancestor longer ago than previously thought.
• "In combination with [other] parameters, this will provide a basis for understanding why and how vocal production learning has evolved in certain species or groups and not in others," ten Cate said in the study.

Listen to the recordings for yourself.

+While we’re here: The curious case of Bunny, the "talking" dog.

🎁 The judge presiding over the Epic v. Apple case issued a split decision in her final ruling, bringing an end to a months-long legal battle between the two companies.

The U.S. Capitol buidling

📝 What’s in the bill ?… The Senate approved a $3.5 budget resolution blueprint last month, which provided instructions to congressional committees setting specific spending targets and priorities. They include:

$1.8 trillion for the Finance Committee with instructions to invest in:

• Universal paid family and medical leave
• Expanding Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing benefits and lowering the eligibility age
• Universal long-term care for seniors and persons with disabilities
• Extending the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Child & Dependent Care Tax Credit.
• Clean energy, manufacturing, transportation, and housing incentives
• SALT cap relief

$726 billion for the Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions Committee with instructions to invest in:

• Universal pre-K for three- and four-year-olds & tuition-free community college
• Child care for working families
• Minority-serving institutions (such as historically black colleges and universities)
• Workforce development and job training
• Labor enforcement and penalties
• Health equity (defined as “maternal, behavioral, and racial justice health investments”)

$332 billion for the Banking Committee with instructions to create healthy and sustainable public housing and provide down payment assistance, rental assistance, and other homeownership initiatives.

$198 billion for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee with instructions primarily related to clean energy development.

$135 billion for the Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry with instructions to address forest fires, reduce carbon emissions, and address drought concerns.

$107 billion for the Judiciary Committee with instructions to address “lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants.”

💰 How will it be paid for ?… The budget outline calls for raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations and beefing up tax enforcement to cover part of the cost. The rest will purportedly be paid for by projected health care savings and long-term economic growth.

• The blueprint offers little detail on specific tax policy for the wealthy, saying only that it seeks “tax fairness for high-income individuals” and would “prohibit” new taxes on families making less than $400,000 a year, small businesses, and family farms.

👁️ Looking ahead… On Sunday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he won’t support the $3.5 trillion bill with its current price tag or the September 27 deadline envisioned for passing it.

• Senate Democrats can’t afford to lose a single vote in the evenly-divided chamber, as all 50 Republicans have indicated they won't support the budget reconciliation proposal.

⚕️🤖 Dr. Roboto

Image: Cognoa

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 54 children, and is characterized by communication issues and difficulties in social interactions.

• Early identification is key to providing specific behavioral intervention focused on developing skills affected by autism.

But, but, but... The disorder is challenging to diagnose before the age of five.

The innovation: The Swiss researchers trained their AI using video footage of young children interacting with other people, trying to find forms of non-verbal communication that differ from a typically-developing child.

• Their algorithm accurately identified autism in over 80% of cases based on just ten minutes of video, which they said “could constitute a first step to be confirmed by a consultation with a specialist."

Keep reading.

Image: CNN

Donna Crane was almost fully vaccinated when she was diagnosed with COVID-19. The Floridian unfortunately found herself in the hospital within 10 days, bidding farewell to her husband Gary for the time being.

• They weren’t able to talk much after she was hospitalized, but Gary made sure to tell her to look out her window before they parted.

Donna glanced down at the parking lot below – and there was Gary, holding up a handmade sign declaring “I ❤️ U,” large enough to be seen all the way from her room in the ICU.

Gary stood outside for ten days while his wife recovered. Now, the two are back home together, and more in love than ever.

Keep reading.

Which land animal can open its mouth the widest?

A) Crocodile
B) Snake
C) Hippo
D) Alligator

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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C) Hippo

The largest mouth of all land animals belongs to the hippopotamus, which can open its jaws nearly 180°. 

• In a fully grown male hippo, this equates to an average gape of roughly four feet.