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China Worried About Terrorist Pigeons
An anonymous reader writes: A pleasant event was planned for the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. A ceremony at Tiananmen Square would release 10,000 pigeons at sunrise to symbolize an era of peace. Unfortunately, even symbols of peace can apparently remind people of violence. Chinese authorities searched all 10,000 pigeons for "dangerous materials," after the government was concerned they might be used for attacks. The pigeons' feathers were checked, and they were given a cavity search as well. The reports did not indicate what kind of "dangerous materials" these pigeons might be carrying. It's unclear whether any pigeons disclosed terror plots under interrogation.
They always seem to be dropping 'dangerous materials' on my car...
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
the authorities didn't want to do they cavity search, they were worried it would pigeon hole their career.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Somebody suddenly remembered project X-Ray during WW2?
I wonder how many were found to be carrying during the cavity search ?
I knew a lot of jobs in China were pretty crappy, but I think this one takes the cake!
Those things are dangerous! Whose idea was to release 10,000 autonomous[1], un-manned[2], 0.7 liter[3] bags of Dihydrogen monoxide . Surely a terrorist plot. Even without adding fluoride to the already deadly compound.
[1] Unless trained
[2] I sincerely hope, but who am I to judge people's tendencies
[3] Assuming 1 kg average weight, 70% water mass
i *had* a low uid, but lost it in my lawn
What the Chinese authorities missed is that this event was being used as cover for circumventing the Great Firewall of China using RFC 1149: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc11...
... were selected for statistical analysis to determine if any of their solid waste contained harmful bio-terrorists components.
Each in the small sample were banded as stool pigeons.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Someone in China must have played it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Who could miss the symbolism of 10,000 pigeons shitting on the citizens gathered in the square.
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
In many languages there's only one word for both doves and pigeons. In Dutch it's both duif, in German it's both Taube, in Japanese it's both hato, etc.
The (late) Pictures For Sad Children had a very relevant comic.
You'll have to go a lot further if you want to come close to United States levels of paranoia. We once shut down the entire city of boston because we couldnt tell the difference between a light-up sign and a bomb. Our monument to the last major terrorist attack on america is so heavily fortified its nicknamed "fear tower" and the public park in front of it requires extensive security screening as well as a reservation just to get in. We once spent 3 trillion dollars attacking a country that not only had nothing to do with 9/11, but that we supported extensively in the past. We used the phrase 'support the troops,' a sentiment also used by Nazi Germany, to make sure our citizens went along with a war we couldnt win. We've shamed and humiliated entire generations of US Citizens in our zeal to ensure the elderly and children arent carrying explosives. Hell, we once had a color coded scare-o-meter to tell people how nervous they should feel on any given day.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I thought doves were pigeons. Just white flying rats instead of grey flying rats.
Hell, we once had a color coded scare-o-meter to tell people how nervous they should feel on any given day.
They should be numerically graded.
How else are we to know EXACTLY how nervous we should be?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Worst ... job ... ever.
"Oh, hey honey, how was your day at work?"
"You know, the usual, stuck my finger into a couple hundred pigeons, just like every other day."
"*sigh* Looks like I need to clean the poop off your uniform again"
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Seems like a big flock of pigeons over a big crowd would be an effective way to spread a virus that is contagious between birds and people.
Don't worry about Ebola, though. It doesn't do "airborne transmission". (Yet.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I wonder if any appreciates the dichotomy of those two things.
Because, it's not exactly true.
The Cultural revolution wasn't exactly a shining moment. Or the other reason Tiananmen Square is famous. Or many other things that's happened over the last 6 decades.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
In 1988 Korean pigeons had a different unpleasant experience at the Seoul olympic games opening ceremony.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Because a subject of "Re: SubjectsinCommentsAreStupid" isn't continuing to make it worse?
Pigeons have been flying into buildings since long before 9/11. It took some brilliant Islamic engineering to scale and adapt the concept to utilize airliners.
In many languages there's only one word for both doves and pigeons.
In Chinese, there is no difference between a pigeon and a dove. Both are "gezi". Isn't a dove just a white pigeon?
Pigeon Molesters!
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
And I suppose a polar bear is just a bear on a tropical island?
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A helmet full of Oatmeal and Nekkid Bea Arthur pictures!!!!!
I stick my finger up pigeons butts.
My BS meter is immediately going off because:
- It's a story about how crazy the Chinese government is, this topic is prime BS news breeding ground
- It's a little too good to be true
- Many sources have deleted the news, current source is "Agencies."
I fully expect to get the full story in the next Cracked.com BS news roundup.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This came out around the time that they had the color coded system.
Great series, ended because Steven Colbert got his own show (he's Ken Seben - Harvey's boss) ;/
In many languages there's only one word for both doves and pigeons. In Dutch it's both duif, in German it's both Taube, in Japanese it's both hato, etc.
...While in English, we have two equally nonspecific words for the same group of birds.
Taxonomically, doves and pigeons don't refer to distinct species, they both refer to any of hundreds of members of the family Columbidae. At best, you can say that doves "tend" to look smaller and lighter-colored
For the car analogy, we tend to refer to the largest passenger vehicles as SUVs and the smallest cars as subcompacts... Yet neither word actually refers to a specific nonoverlapping set of models, and we actually have cars advertised as subcompact SUVs.
Everyone knows we're using lab rats.
Only a gullible fool would believe we would use pigeons.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!
Best Slashdot Co
To resist RFC-1149.
Best Slashdot Co
A polar bear on a tropical island is probably a dead bear.
As a US citizen, it makes me feel better to know other governments are just as ridiculously paranoid as ours. Let someone else's government take a turn being the World's laughingstock. I care not one whit whether the pigeons actually had their little assholes probed. That is the story, and I'm sticking with it.
Haha, China!
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
Doves have good PR and were mentioned in early literature too, so they are way ahead of the 'Greater Spotted Flying Rat' variety.
Perhaps someone in the Chinese ministry for security and cointer-terrorism mistook the film "Four Lions" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F..., which featured a plot to bomb London using explosives strapped to crows as a training video? If so, did they ban anyone from attending the ceremony dressed as animals or mascots?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
brother pigeon.
Whether this story is true or not, one thing is certain, the next time there is a land battle between two technologically advanced armies, they will shoot every bird out of the sky in case it is an enemy drone. A major land war could be another significant extinction event for wildlife. Rats and cockroaches will survive of course.
It's all a smoke screen. Some guy was caught screwing pigeons and had to come up with a story...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
this is from the Onion.
Dangerous items came from the end of the barrel from the government at the same square, not from the end of pigeons.
You ain't got a thing, if you ain't got that ping.
We brrringBOINGWHOOSH search-o-missile at the pigeons and grrripSRPOINGAIYIYIYIYzoomazoomazooma endoscopic camera MIRVs and ZWOOSHowieowieowieSPLAT no more terrorist threat!
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Pigeons can send messages!
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
-Orwell.
Depends upon the times, but revolutionaries are also terrorists.
I wouldn't want to be the guy who had to spend days probing bird anuses.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
A pleasant event... don't they mean a pheasant event? :-)
*ducks*
"Dont you move !"
"And put your wings up so I can see them" - Jack Bauer
[timidvoice] Aflac? [/timidvoice]
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
It's probably an experiment and you're fucked.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork