Nov 27, 2009: Pigeon Express

xoxoxoBruce • Nov 27, 2009 12:42 am
Let's say you're running a white water adventure business, in the Colorado Rockies. And to make the most of the limited season, you want to sell the adventurer/customers, pictures of themselves in the thick of the river action. So you have the guide/photographers take lots of pictures to sell, but there's a problem... the pictures get to the end at the same time as the customer, and really don't want to wait. They've got to find dry clothes, or catch a plane, or off to the next memory.
:idea: Pigeon Express.

Image

The birds are owned and trained by Rocky Mountain Adventures, who fly 19 pigeons five times every day, usually travelling a distance of between 20 and 40 miles. Using the pigeons is quicker than driving down from the river and it solves the problem of producing photographic memories for the white water rafting tourists. It takes them just 20 minutes.

'We began this as an interesting solution to the problem we encountered with the distance from the bottom of La Poudre to our base 30 miles away back in Fort Collins,' says David Costlow, the head pigeon keeper at Rocky Mountain Adventures.
'We have lost some pigeons to hawks and eagles up here in Fort Collins,' he adds. 'We lose five on average every year, but we've only lost seven digital chips in the last 14 years.'


That's because he hasn't had to contend with hungry Cellarites... lucky for those birds there's a lot of leftovers around today. ;)

link
Undertoad • Nov 27, 2009 1:15 am
This data transfer method has actually been documented for years in RFC 1149, "A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers".

The data loss for pigeons taken by hawks was not considered in the original RFC. Perhaps they should contact the Internet Engineering Task Force.
capnhowdy • Nov 27, 2009 7:19 am
Now we can use up all that cranberry sauce.

...slides knife against steel......
capnhowdy • Nov 27, 2009 7:21 am
Note: Remove memory card prior to cooking. And the backpack thingie. Feet are optional.
monster • Nov 27, 2009 9:13 am
They should send decoy/bodyguard pigeons to keep the hawks busy
Cloud • Nov 27, 2009 9:56 am
I thought homing pigeons were extinct. You mean regular sky rats do this, too?
Coign • Nov 27, 2009 1:54 pm
Cloud;612906 wrote:
I thought homing pigeons were extinct. You mean regular sky rats do this, too?


The American Passenger pigeon is extinct. It was officially extinct in 1914. This is before the "homing pigeons" of World War 1 and World War 2 which used commonly used Rock Pigeons.

No, homing pigeons have never gone extinct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_Pigeon
monster • Nov 27, 2009 2:40 pm
pigeon-fancying is popular in the UK.
richlevy • Nov 27, 2009 8:52 pm
Am I the only one who saw the words 'pigeon express' and immediately thought of takeout?


Pigeon Pie :yum::yum:

Braised pigeons in chocolate sauce (I'm not kidding!!!) :eek::eek:
monster • Nov 27, 2009 10:08 pm
Vulhawkeon -pigeon in a hawk in a vulture :yum:
dar512 • Nov 28, 2009 12:03 am
Undertoad;612863 wrote:
This data transfer method has actually been documented for years in RFC 1149, "A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers".

The data loss for pigeons taken by hawks was not considered in the original RFC. Perhaps they should contact the Internet Engineering Task Force.

It looks like 1GB per packet (in this example). But the lag time is pretty bad.
SPUCK • Nov 28, 2009 6:29 am
A ping must take hours!
richlevy • Nov 28, 2009 11:01 am
SPUCK;613094 wrote:
A ping must take hours!
Actually, I think the technical term is 'peck'.
Undertoad • Nov 28, 2009 11:37 am
At 20 minutes per GB, that's actually faster than DSL. It's a great technology!
ZenGum • Nov 28, 2009 6:27 pm
Yeah, but the viruses include bird flu.
richlevy • Nov 28, 2009 10:57 pm
ZenGum;613243 wrote:
Yeah, but the viruses include bird flu.
:lol:
Sundae • Dec 6, 2009 11:44 am
I've eaten pigeon.
It was pretty good actually.
And no, it didn't taste like chicken. Well - a bit. It's poultry! More gamey though, like duck without the strength of flavour.

I had it in a pie. Nom nom nom. You can eat pretty much anything with pastry. Come on over and I'll prepare a long pig plait...
SPUCK • Dec 7, 2009 5:20 am
Pigeon is the best bird I've ever had. Very good. Not much there, but what is, is outstanding.
ZenGum • Dec 7, 2009 5:53 am
I had pigeon in a restaurant once. It was tough and stringy so I sent it back. That's when the trouble started...