Gizmodo: bird

Large Hadron Collider Overheats Due To Dropped Chunk Of Bread

Rosa Golijan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:40:00 EST

Yesterday the Large Hadron Collider overheated, but it wasn't because of a software error or terrorism. It was because a bird dropped a piece of bread onto some outdoor equipment.

The LHC's beam wasn't actually operational at the time, so the automatic fail-safe mechanism didn't need to kick in. Nonetheless the operation had to be shut down until the problem was found. No remarks on whether anyone tracked down the bird bomber and compensated it for the lost lunch. [Register via Pop Sci]

Bird Beats Broadband! Pigeon Flies 4GBs Faster than South African DSL

Joanna Stern — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:33:20 EDT

South Africa's broadband has got to be feeling pretty ill-equipped today considering a real, wing-flapping pigeon beat its transfer speeds. No really, a company found out that sending a bird with a 4GB USB drive was faster than uploading.

That has got to hurt for Telkom, one of South Africa's main ADSL providers, but damn is Winston the pigeon feeling like the man today. He is telling all the other pigeons, how it took him two hours to carry the strapped-to-his-back flash drive 60 miles to the company's second office in Durban. In the same time the broadband service had only sent 4 percent of the data. You do the math but that is pretty damn slow upload speeds. No wonder the guys at Unlimited IT first joked that a bird could send files faster.

This is just the kind of story I want to read to children at night (I'm thinking the picture book is called "Winston and the Broadband"). Let's hope South Africa gets those fiber optic lines installed soon or else a crap load of bird seed. [BBC]

This Clip is Proof That Birds Are Secretly Composers

Rosa Golijan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:20:00 EDT

A normal person sees these birds perched on electrical wires and worries about getting crapped on. Jarbas Agnel looks at them and sees musical notes. Maybe he's smarter than the rest of us because the melody is utterly oh-so-sweet-that-I-could-doze-off-right-now.

Agnel explains that he was simply curious about what sort of tune he could create by transcribing the birds into musical notes. I'm more curious about what would happen if he tried the same with the freckles on someone's back. [Vimeo via Wired]

Adam Savage From Mythbusters Makes Maltese Falcon Replicas in His Spare Time

Brian Lam — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:37:57 EST

I met Adam Savage at the EG conference last year, and watching him give this talk, it became clear the man is obsessed with replicating things 3D things from 2D imagery.

Things like a skeleton of a dodo bird or the maltese falcon. And he does all this in his spare time. (Being pretty good at making thing from nothing, since he worked as a prop designer for many years before being on TV.)

[I enjoyed EG for the day I was there. If you're interested in going next year, and mention you read about EG on Giz, they've got a friends discount for you when you sign up.]

Bird-Electron EZISON 0 is Chunky Portable Speaker Bliss, Almost

Haroon Malik — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:22:49 EDT

The EZISON 0 speaker has Bird-Electron written all over it; it's pricey, utterly ridiculous and has a design that makes us swoon. Available in white, red, gold, blue or silver aluminum finishes, the EZISON 0 is quite the looker whatever color you should choose, but we just cannot get our heads around the 7350 Yen ($73) price tag. After all, a portable speaker that relies on your MP3 player for juice via the 3.5mm jack connection isn't going to pump out the tunes. In fact, standing in at only 73×76×32mm, the EZISON 0 probably sounds just as good as an electron sized bird. (See what I did there with the old semantics? Please, stay seated.) [NewLaunches]

iBird R/C Toy Looks Like Flapping Good Fun

Kit Eaton — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:55:46 EST

The new iBird comes from the same makers as our favourite R/C microcopters, but this time takes a leaf from Mother Nature's design book. Controlled with the same kind of infrared remote and charging system as the Picoo Z's, the flapping wonder is supposed to look and fly like a real bird. Real, hey? I'd say really cybernetic, but what the heck: check out its "realistic flapping motion" in the video.

It looks easier to control than the choppers, but is apparently made to be "ultra tough" in case you still manage some high-speed collisions when playing with it. Available in three color schemes, it's out now for around $50. [Geekalerts]

Inflatable Fist Flicks the Bird

Brian Lam — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:45:57 EDT

This window mounted fist sits on your rear windshield, just waiting for some jackass to flash you his high beams or honk his horn. At this point in time, you can slam on your brakes, let him rear end you, and sue him into oblivion. Or you can pump up the rubberized middle finger, and get revenge without risking whiplash. –Brian Lam

Flickin the Bird Pump up Finger [Boy's Life via Gadgetizer and Jalopnik]