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Pigeons to Blog Pollution

Posted by samzenpus on Wed Feb 01, 2006 09:21 PM
from the 100-monkeys-with-typewriters dept.
Technology News Science
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."
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  • Hmmmmm (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:24PM (#14622539)
    Sounds more like a job for African swallows, but then again African swallows are not migratory.

    • Re:Hmmmmm (Score:4, Funny)

      by Viper Daimao (911947) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:12PM (#14622836) Journal
      pigeons equipped with cellphones and GPS

      I hope they weigh less than a coconut.

      • Re:Hmmmmm (Score:3, Interesting)

        by timeOday (582209)
        I hope they weigh less than a coconut.
        Me too (and it's not just my pythonesque sensibilities.) Did they really need to put a camera onboard too?

        My big question (not addressed in the article) is the power supply. What's the fun if each birdphone only lasts a couple days? I guess solar would be the first choice, but how about a little wind turbine or an induction coil spanning the bird's wings?

  • Blogging Quality (Score:5, Funny)

    by narcolepticjim (310789) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:24PM (#14622541)
    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.

    • Re:Blogging Quality (Score:5, Funny)

      by afaik_ianal (918433) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:32PM (#14622601) Journal
      And that's worse than the current standard of the average blog?
      • 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!"
    • That's a hell of a lot more scientific and insightful than 90%+ of all the human blogs combined already! You're off to a good start! On the other hand, if the internet had any more mindless droll I'm sure the Earth would implode into a literal black hole of knowledge and all that is good and pure.
    • Don't feed the trolls... Cause if you do, they'll eat all the pigeons.

    • Either way, their comments section will be FILLED with anti-science trolls.

      And hunters that can't afford to pass up a free gps unit and cellphone with no bill.

  • wow (Score:3, Funny)

    by cyranthus (893560) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:24PM (#14622544) Homepage
    wow, imagine that! pigeons with cellphones!

  • Oh, this is good (Score:5, Funny)

    by cc-rider-Texas (877967) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:24PM (#14622548) Homepage
    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.

  • Suspicious indeed (Score:5, Funny)

    by Saint37 (932002) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:25PM (#14622551)
    I don't know, this sounds like to sneaky attempt to set up a peer to peer network.

    http://www.commodore69.com/ [commodore69.com]

  • I'm not surprised... (Score:5, Funny)

    by grcumb (781340) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:27PM (#14622562) Homepage Journal

    They've had the protocol in place for years! [wikipedia.org]

  • Blog? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MustardMan (52102) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:30PM (#14622586)
    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...

    • It could very well be considered blogging. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CyricZ (887944) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:40PM (#14622651)
      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.

      • Re:It could very well be considered blogging. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Z0mb1eman (629653) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:48PM (#14622692) Homepage
        Would a PHP random number generator script count as blogging? What about a script that generates a random blurb based on a random number generator?

        In terms of information, it's roughly equivalent. I'm going to go out on a limb here and, even without reading the article, assert that the pigeons themselves are not "posting short blurbs of information" anywhere.
        • Again, it depends on what you consider "blogging" to be.

          Nothing about the particular definition I supplied suggests that it has to be a human (or even a pigeon) posting the information.

          You might suggest that a blog entry would have to have meaning. But that's not necessarily true. A blog in Chinese, for instance, would look far more like gibberish to somebody who only speaks English than a PHP-generated string of numerals.

          • You might suggest that a blog entry would have to have meaning.

            I think that would be overestimating blogs ;)

            I WOULD, however, suggest that some level of awareness or conciousness would have to be involved. I'll go as far as saying that if a person considers that they're posting information to a blog - or at least is aware that they're selecting some information to be shared with others - then it's a blog. That's about as general a definition as you can get.

          • Again, it depends on what you consider "blogging" to be.

            Exactly. I consider blogging to be when children eat ice cream too fast and get an ice-cream headache.

            Seriously, can't we all agree on some basic definition of blogging rather than play these dumb word games? You've taken the word and completely redfined it so it no longer resembles the original word. Pigeons making blog entries through data gathered from devices attatched to them? I think you've broken some basic laws of logic about who does what,
        • I'm going to go out on a limb here and, even without reading the article, assert that the pigeons themselves are not "posting short blurbs of information" anywhere.

          And that, my friend, is why you should RTFA.

          KFG
  • I hope they checked. If the pidgeons are female the monthly charges are going to be murder.
    • shame on you for making such sexist remarks. My wife is so livid she's calling 15 of her friends to tell them what a male chauvinist pig you are.

  • Burgle their phones. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CyricZ (887944) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:31PM (#14622592)
    Soon enough people will shoot the birds, steal their phones, and then sell those phones.

  • Blog? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Eightyford (893696) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:32PM (#14622597) Homepage
    Why would anyone use a word like "blog" when it is not needed. Especially in this case where it makes no friggen sense.

    • Re:Blog? (Score:3, Informative)

      by CyricZ (887944)
      Buzzwords are used to get the attention of people at large. This time they're using the word "blog", while other times people use words like "terrorist", "communist", "liberal", "synergy", "rich web application", and so forth.

      Sure, the word is likely misapplied, but that's irrelevant. The main point is to get attention, which can at times lead directly to the receipt of financial support.

    • Why would anyone use a word like "blog" when it is not needed. Especially in this case where it makes no friggen sense.

      Why would anyone use a word like "friggen" when it is not needed? For the fun of it.
    • Well, that can be easily fixed. Just find some bored geeks, and get them to work.

      Attach tiny computers to the pigeons and write a TCP stack for it, as well as some code to implement HTTP to submit the data to livejournal. Then implement IP over avian carriers (with QoS) to transport the data. And voila, blogging pigeons!
    • Are there any cases where the word "blog" is used and it is not both unneeded and senseless? Mostly it seems synonymous with "pointless shit that I'm going to promote with buzzwords". (The 'official' meaning is basically the same thing as 'web site').

  • Blogging is for the birds! (Score:5, Funny)

    by xdc (8753) * on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:35PM (#14622625) Journal

    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>

  • Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

    by brian0918 (638904) <.brian0918. .at. .gmail.com.> on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:40PM (#14622650) Homepage
    Finally! A blog that rivals MySpace and LiveJournal! And with the camera, we're sure to get photos of some hot chicks...

  • How convenient! (Score:4, Funny)

    by techno-vampire (666512) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:42PM (#14622662) Homepage
    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 [tinyurl.com] would be thrilled.

  • How will I be able to trust search results??? (Score:3, Funny)

    by tomhuxley (951364) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @09:59PM (#14622755)
    Oh Noes!!! What effect will that have on PigeonRank [google.com]?
  • 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

  • Going to troll their blog (Score:4, Funny)

    by toupsie (88295) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:51PM (#14623032) Homepage
    I bet someone is just going to release Peregrine Falcons to troll the Pigeon blogs.
  • According to the W3 Buzzword definition, these birds should clearly be Podcasting the pollution by now, not blogging it.
    1994: Pigeons to Browse Pollution
    1996: Pigeons to Bookmark Pollution
    1998: Pigeons to Download Pollution
    2002: Pigeons to Download Pollution Wirelessly
    2004: Pigeons to Blog Pollution
    2006: Pigeons to Podcast Pollution
    Or we could just call it what it is....

    HJ
  • too bad that they will still be 'blogging' your windshields.
  • Got it!

    1. Build combination Jacob's Ladder / Pigeon feeder
    2. Wait for EPA reports of 75% increase in atmospheric Ozone
    3. Build several thousand LM3909-based LED flasher circuits in snappy-looking box.
    4. Set up card table selling new "Ozone Eater"
    5. ???(Oh, come on - you just knew these last two steps were coming!)
    6. PROFIT!!!

  • Raven's Livejournal (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bushido Hacks (788211) on Thursday February 02 2006, @02:16AM (#14623860) Homepage Journal
    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!
  • GPS guided Pidgeon poop... fer heck's sake though, wake me up when they put frickkin lasers on their heads...
  • 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 ?

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