Aargh, I started reading this Wired Article with interest. They are researching the “bits” leftover after bird-plane collisions. Snarge is what they call it. By determining what kind of bird, when, and where, they can hopefully make guesses on flight paths that will avoid bird collisions.
This is good, considering the environmental impact our transportation methods have in the sky, it’s easy for us to forget about that. But no it is not about that. In the news it’s never about anything but what negative impact it has on humans.
I thought I would continue to read about the number of plane related deaths per bird species. No, I read about the amount of money the birds are causing in aircraft damage. I read that they test a jet engines indurance to ingest an 8-pound waterfowl by “firing a chicken from a cannon at point-blank range”.
God I feel so sorry for chickens. Nature’s most abused species. We call someone a chicken because they are a coward but today I think it means so much more than that.
I would like to serve them a nice plate of snarge
ambrus said,
That is sick. Poor chickens, they should fire poorly producing employees instead at the airplanes instead; I am sure if they crunched the numbers a funeral would be cheaper than most serverance packages.
Is it just me or does it not seem like it would incredibly easy to replicate the size, weight, consistency of a chicken……
My big thing is seafood that is kept alive until cooked .. it must be such and ordeal to be restrained like that with no food … and then be boiled alive. I have never been able to eat lobsters. Most people think I am crazy.
Chris said,
Bird strikes are a major source of aircraft accidents; tests like this, while distasteful, undoubtedly save many (human) lives.
I’m reminded of one of those classic moral dilemmas: how many animals would you kill if it meant saving the life of a human (or many humans)? Would you kill a million monkeys if it meant discovering a cure for cancer?
We build highways so as to minimize the number of deer/moose collisions; we don’t stop driving because animals might get in the way. Likewise, we’re not going to stop travelling by air because birds might be killed. At least the Wired article shows that experts are designing approach corridors in a way to avoid bird strikes, even if their motivation isn’t protecting the lives of the birds.
c said,
Oh, and I’m with ambrus about the lobsters. It’s very depressing to see them with their claws banded shut and piled on top of each other in their vat.
They’re so tasty, though, that I try not to think about it while I’m enjoying a delicious lobster dinner. :P
M said,
I’ve actually never done the whole lobster thing. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten lobster…maybe possibly if it was mixed into a seafood salad or something.
But to what Chris said - I understand that the tests are saving humans. I know that birds have in the past, caused flight accidents and people have died.
Still, Ambrus has a point. They are building airplanes…you would think they could build a fake chicken.
