Robird: False Falcons, Ersatz Eagles, and a Rambling Lemming

(From 3D Print, Audubon Magazine, via The Tech Journal, used w/o permission.)
(Look, up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, no: it's Robird!)

"3D Printed Robotic Birds Made To Protect Real Birds, Trials Undergoing"
Anatol Rahman, The Tech Journal (September 3, 2014)

"Birds are one of the most beautiful creations of God, but flock of these birds can be a menace for agriculture as they tend to destroy crops. Besides, they can pose a real threat to the aviation industry as they get stuck in airplane engines and raise serious issues. But don’t worry, there will be 3D printed birds that will be controlled via a remote control. These 3D-printed robotic birds are now being tested at airports, landfills and farms to scare away birds that can cause problems.

"Robird is actually a pair of 3D printed robotic birds that look like a real falcon and eagle. Full names of these robotic birds are Robird Peregrine Falcon and Robird Eagle. That falcon bird will be able to travel 50 mph speed. It has been designed to scare away birds. On the other hand, the eagle model will be able to chase off a bird of any size, because no bird dares to stand against an eagle...."

The Lemming thinks this is a pretty good idea: provided that birds loitering about airports either mistake patrolling Robirds for the real thing: or get spooked by high-speed flying robots.

That's what the Lemming thinks: but of course, the Lemming can't leave it at that. Not when there's a perfectly good opportunity to warn humanity — hysterically, of course.

As anyone who saw Hitchcock's "The Birds" realizes, birds are just biding their time: waiting to wreak chaos and destruction upon an unsuspecting world. Or Bodega Bay, at any rate. Lovely place, really.

Birds, Black Vinyl, and the Stepford Wives

The real threat, of course, was from Mars: wearing black vinyl, accompanied by a robot named Chani. Ah, they just don't make movies like "Devil Girl from Mars" any more.

Now that the Lemming thinks about it, though: there's a fairly continuous stream of that sort of thing. Not always with black vinyl, of course.

Well, one doesn't get everything: for which the Lemming is duly grateful:

• "Devil Girl from Mars"
  (1954)
• "King Kong Escapes"
  (1967)
• "Westworld"
  (1973)
• "The Stepford Wives"
  (1975)
  • and 2004
• "Android Apocalypse"
  (2006)

Let's see, where was the Lemming? Ah, yes: ranting hysterically about robots and black vinyl. Right.

Does nobody see Robird for the threat it really is?!! First they fly around airports, lulling humanity into false sense of security. Next, they'll turn to landfills: driving gulls away; and where will the gulls go?!!!

To supermarket dumpsters, of course!!!! There, they'll organize into small strike forces - - -.

No, the Lemming really should stop now. Somebody might actually believe that drivel.

Seriously? Robird: looks like a pretty good idea. Cool, anyway. In the Lemming's opinion.

More of the Lemming's view of robots, penguins, and other related topics:

• "Robots With Attitude: Maybe, Eventually"
  (August 15, 2014)
• " 'Tampering With Things Man Was Not Supposed to Know:' the Angst Continues"
  (August 1, 2014)
• "From the Mind of the Lemming: Amateur Night"
  (September 20, 2013)
• "Turing Tests, Subcognitive Low-Level Association, and Perambulators"
  (April 13, 2012)
• "Flying Mechanical Penguins"
  (February 12, 2011)