11 September 2009

Carrier pigeon can be "faster than broadband"


A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest web firm, Telkom.

Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.

The comparison is of course a bit contrived, but it presents the opportunity to explore some additional information about carrier pigeons:

There is no specific breed actually called "Carrier pigeon," so a Carrier pigeon is any variety that is used to carry messages.

Carrier pigeons historically carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably. This setup allows Pigeons to cover 160km round trip.

Thirty-two carrier pigeons have been awarded the Dickin Medal, established to honor the achievements of animals in war. Other recipients of the medal include a variety of rescue dogs, police horses, and one ships' cat - Simon, who also received a Blue Cross medal for his participation in the Yangtze Incident aboard the HMS Amethyst in 1949.


Pigeon photo credit Wikipedia.

Question:Does any reader know whether the U.S. military branches present equivalent honors to animals?

Answer: "In the United States, war dogs who put their own lives on the line to save humans cannot be awarded any kind of medal or commendation. We used to give such awards. But during the Vietnam War, families of Vietnam veterans complained that giving medals to canines dishonors veterans who win medals. The Defense Department rescinded all medals awarded to animals, including the one awarded Stubby, the heroic Pit Bull from Connecticut who saved so many lives in World War I." (From an article in the Examiner of Nashville Tennessee.) Hat tip to the Artful Dodger.

5 comments:

  1. The experiment was a bit contrived yes but i believe it was done more to demonstrate the state of broadband internet in south africa, thats still virtually monopolized by Telkom

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_South_Africa

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  2. "In the United States, war dogs who put their own lives on the line to save humans cannot be awarded any kind of medal or commendation. We used to give such awards. But during the Vietnam War, families of Vietnam veterans complained that giving medals to canines dishonors veterans who win medals. The Defense Department rescinded all medals awarded to animals, including the one awarded Stubby, the heroic Pit Bull from Connecticut who saved so many lives in World War I." (From an article in the Examiner of Nashville Tennessee.)

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  3. That says so much about our country that we would not honor animals because it "somehow" dishonors our own vets. I don't know where to begin but it would have to be somewhere along the lines of not sending our youngest and poorest to die so many times for bogus reasons and then not following through. Also, the complete disregard we show animals in our meat industry and the waste of meat by consumers and producers could only be matched by forcing animals to die for us and our distorted "causes" then not even recognizing the taking of their lives as well as our own.

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  4. Today is Friday. One post? My addiction is suffering. Please be back to normal tomorrow!

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  5. ...and I'm chomping at the bit. Just cleared a bunch of paperwork. Blogging within view...

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