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Pigeons to Blog Pollution
Strolls writes "In an release which conjures images of avian borg, a press release tells of plans to release pigeons equipped with cellphones and GPS so that they can "blog" air pollution data. The plan is the brainchild of Beatriz da Costa of the University of California Digital Arts Research Network and is scheduled as part of the inter-Society for Electronic Arts' annual symposium in San Jose in August. Da Costa has previously been involved with RFID roaches."
Sounds more like a job for African swallows, but then again African swallows are not migratory.
I can't imagine they'd have anything too insightful to write in their blogs. Coooo, coooo.
Either way, their comments section will be FILLED with anti-science trolls.
wow, imagine that! pigeons with cellphones!
Now we have to worry about inattentive pigeons flying into our cars along with business men and teenage girls while they're on the phone.
If you give a liberal an enema, he'll turn transparent.
I don't know, this sounds like to sneaky attempt to set up a peer to peer network.
http://www.commodore69.com/
Pigeon Podcasting would be more accurate.
They've had the protocol in place for years!
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
...that Google uses.
How is this blogging, exactly? It's bad enough we have eight zillion blog derivative buzzwords, but when they are completely mis-applied it's even more annoying. Next step: record dogs' farts and call it podcasting. Then again, it might be more interesting than a lot of podcasts already out there...
I hope they checked. If the pidgeons are female the monthly charges are going to be murder.
Soon enough people will shoot the birds, steal their phones, and then sell those phones.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
The article is pretty god damn light on details.
How will the equipment affect the lives of the birds they're attached to?
Why would anyone use a word like "blog" when it is not needed. Especially in this case where it makes no friggen sense.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
The pigeons will be podcasting their blogs via TCP over powerlines.
Man, I knew blogging is for the birds! Now this proves it.
I suppose if any pigeons reply to this, they will be posting nested comments. <gr&d>
Scientists monitoring air quality in California are baffled by an alarming rise in the amount of bird dander in our atmosphere.
Finally! A blog that rivals MySpace and LiveJournal! And with the camera, we're sure to get photos of some hot chicks...
It depends what you define "blogging" as. Do you consider the frequent posting of short blurbs of information to a publically-accessible web site to be blogging? If so, then this would indeed qualify as blogging.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Letting all those pigeons get cell phones makes it easier for them to let each other know when some sucker in the park is feeding them. I'm sure Tom Lehrer would be thrilled.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Who's gonna pay for the call charges? I don't suppose the pigeons have jobs to pay for the calls they'll make.
Pigeons cover a wide variety of altitudes far better than light posts do. This makes the data they provide potentially much more valuable.
Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.
Pidgens with cellphones eh? What's next, dogs? Seems like everyone and now everything are getting cellphones! Fi!
A camera, a cell-phone, a GPS unit, an air-quality sensor package, a battery to power the aforementioned gizmos and a backpack. Are these birds actually going to be able to fly once all this junk has been strapped to them?
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
I'm going to rig up fish to monitor water pollution.
I will dub their activity 'podcasting'.
P.S. Be proud; I restrained myself from reffering to the fowl nature of this... DAMMIT!
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Oh Noes!!! What effect will that have on PigeonRank ?
Can you Coo me now??
Monitor air pollution not blog! For god sakes stop misusing this stupid word.
I ain't sure if I've seen a park pigeon fly anyway.
They already hefting all that seed around in their guts.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
I for one welcome our new avian-borg overlords
In Soviet Russia, you buy Soviet Russia Shirt!
As a fellow karma pwner, you will surely relate to this pigeon pwning soviet russia shirt. And being a karma whore in a previous life time, You can probably understand if I troll slashdot with slashdot jokes! 0_o
That explains the crappy cell phone service.
I'm actually not sure what I'd do if I was feeding pigeons in the park, and one flapped down next to me with a Borg-like attachment on its back and a camera pointed at me.
Smile? Give it my lunch?
Don't Hate, Gestate
OK, so I'm too late to mention the big-bother like spread of Google Pidgeons. But can I patent litter monitoring squirrels?
Kill a pigeon, get free activated cellphone with minutes and GPS!
Avian Borg? I can see it now: A flock of birds calls your cell:
We are the borg
You will be assimilated
Resistance is futile
Followed by the collective of birds swarming down upon the vehicle.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
What about strapping lasers to their heads?
They will submit data, they wont blog. I guarantee the data collected wont be posted in threads like blogs. 1 pigeon won't post "ZOMG teh air is teh bad!" with another saying "its teh worse next door" It will be collected and processed. If it ins't, its useless. I am not trying to be a troll, just someone who is getting sick of the word blog. I am happy the masses have discovered that they too can contribute to the internet, but they need to realize there is more going on than blogging! ZOMG T3h BLOG!!!ocho!
I bet someone is just going to release Peregrine Falcons to troll the Pigeon blogs.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
What's next? Pigeons with frickin' laser beams?
w00t
those scientists might as well collect statistical data on pigeon excretory habits...
Blogging Pigeon Beowulf Cluster
Pidgeons with cell phones and GPS!
Where's the Sharks with Friggin lasers on their heads ! ! !
Dammit! and where's my flying car while you're at it.
Considering pigeons' poop carries over 60 diseases, and not to mention toxicity. It's like letting Exxon to oversee EPA. Was a rat on the list of animals to monitor pollution as well?
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
HJ
On first look, I thought I saw Pigeons to BLOCK Pollution...
I totally thought this story had to do with scientists dispatching pigeons to attack the severe problem of blog pollution.
I was looking forward to a lifetime of never reading another xanga crammed full of MySpace quizzes. DAMN YOU MISLEADING SYNTACTICAL NATURE OF ENGLISH! =(
Dammit, now even pigeons have better toys than I do. I really gotta try harder to keep up.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
My chances of a having a fly chick ring me now have increased ten fold!
too bad that they will still be 'blogging' your windshields.
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
So this is a great idea, but how on earth to they keep the cellphones charged? IS there some kind of bird docking station? Perhaps induction could be used from powerlines that the birds will inevitably be perched on...
or else!
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Well, don't you know that most blogs are shit? If there's anything a pigeon knows... that would be it
On the other hand, if pigeons could blog it would be rather funny:
"Managed to hit dead center on the hood of a new silver BMW, missed the Mercedes but nailed a bald dude right on the forehead. Score!"
I really hope my Wordpress has MovableType. I might need to get it out of the way quickly with all of those pigeon's flying around overhead! Okay, bad joke.
The Computations of AdamR
http://www.adamreyher.com
Monday
The world is a pitch black place. I leave my cage. I see the people down the street. I hope one of them dies.
Tuesday
Children in the park. The air is so stagnant. A dirge to anyone whose traffic is within the city. Consumer whores have no sole.
Wednesday
High School Assemblies are evil. The humans collect themselves for a meaningless celebration. The sun it burns. I long for my solitude. I wish a cat would get that peppy song bird!
Thursday
I saw Jay. Told him to caw me later. My spelling checker is not working.
Friday
Saw The Crow for the umteenth time. Ruffled my feathers at some creepy goth kids who were following me. Humans are scary.
Satuday - Poop Day!
My favorite day of the week. Nailed the a car with football players. Grossed out their cheerleader girlfriends. Got caught by the scientists again.
Sunday
Escaped the lab. Found computer. My last entry and nothing more. If some human replys the word "nevermore" I will peck their eye out!
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
All EMF communicaton to be called "blogging"
They 'll report how much they pollute the air. aren't they?
GPS guided Pidgeon poop... fer heck's sake though, wake me up when they put frickkin lasers on their heads...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
How will they recharge their batteries? Will they get solar panels glued to their wings? Or are they only expected to blog for 4 hours and then die?
The article didnt specify.
Seems foolish to do the whole cellphone thing when they could just log the data until the pigeon returns home and retrieve it then.
Also if they are not homing pigeons and they just release them to go wandering around then there may be a lot of areas that are not covered.
You don't "blog" anything. If it were a verb, I would think it would be intransitive.
They "map" air pollution maybe, "detect" it, "upload" air pollution data if you want.
And if you need to be Buzzword 2.0 compliant, I guess you could say they would be "streaming in realtime updated data in order to integrate them in a web 2.0 database". Yep, let's stick to "map" shall we ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
a link to wikipedia gets you moderated funny, just the same link to a rfc gets you moderated informative.
Seriously. Don't the slashdot editors know by now that quite a large chunk of the slashdot community is fed up with the use of the word "blog" everywhere and anywhere?
The only reason for this article seems to be to generate "it is not blogging" kind of repsonses (and it did succeed). Aka a standard troll. Or should it be called "a blog"?
<sarcasm>Blog this, motherblogger.</sarcasm>
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Blogging: Because using informative verbs are just so passé.
Blogging is the new "smurfing". No doubt.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Talked to Uncle Ed for four hours on the cell phone today. I sure as hell hope that guy from the university was telling the truth when he said we wouldn't get charged for long distance calls; Uncle Ed is all the way down in Capistrano. I took a crap on a chick in a convertible again today. I love doing that. I wish that grey-cheeked green pigeon would call me; it's been almost a week since we rubbed beaks. Maybe he thinks I'm fat....
Google was the first to implement pigeons into their technology.
Remember Pigeon Rank?
What most people are unaware of, is that most pigeons ALREADY HAVE GPS TRACKING!
Read NAAP's report Pidgeon Awareness Program
Defining Statistics and Social Research
Mood: Hungry
... Ooh! A peanut!
Altitude: 23 meters
NP: Other pigeons doing their "Laughing Dove" - routine.
Just took a dump on some statue, and
In britain at least pidgeons often huddle around boiler flues and chimneys for warmth.. i'd imagine the pollution they'd receive could be a littlehigher than average.
In other news, a new cross-site scripting vulnerability has been discovered in the recently opened pigeon blogsphere.
The working designation is P19@BirdFlu.
Seriously, I hope that no-one comes up with the wretched idea of weaponizing GPS/phone equipped pigeons at a time like this.
In case you need help, call 1-800-H5N1
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com/thestrip.asp?cDay =12&cMonth=12&cYear=2005
Herve S.
"I, for one, welcome our new avian borg overlords."
For once, this exclamation is appropriate, if you pardon the misspelling of 'smog'.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
The word 'blog' has just officially been over-used.
Seriously, reporting metrics is now 'blogging'?
(Yes, I have one. No, it's not special, but it at least sticks to the general format.)