The Pigeons of Education Technology

This isn’t a pigeon story, but I’m including it here nonetheless. (And perhaps I’ll expand this project to include more bird news.) The headline from The National Post: “Australian birds have weaponized fire because what we really need now is something else to make us afraid.” The story is based...

I’ve made some changes to this site, most obviously updating the header image. Thanks to Bryan Mathers. (Why a pigeon?) Those who look closely will also note that I have also changed the copyright information. No longer is there a Creative Commons license on Hack Education material. This really doesn’t...

Who (and what) is welcome in public space? From Atlas Obscura: “What Pigeon Spikes Can Teach Us About People”: The motivations behind pigeon- vs. people-focused hostile architecture are, of course, different. So are the effects. But, Savic says, both “are part of the same principle of hard-coded exclusion,” in that...

Why Did The Passenger Pigeon Go Extinct? @Grrlscientist explains: As extinctions go, the extinction of the passenger pigeon is truly a stupendous human achievement, unparalleled in recorded history: thanks to our penchant for relentless killing combined with large-scale habitat destruction, these iconic birds’ population crashed from billions to zero in...

“Pigeons Are Secretly Brilliant Birds That Understand Space and Time, Study Finds,” reads the Mental Floss headline. Researchers at the University of Iowa set up an experiment where they showed pigeons a computer screen featuring a static horizontal line. The birds were supposed to evaluate the length of the line...

The Verge has coverage of a new video game, Pigeon Panic. The coverage isn't due to the pigeons; it's due to the app's use of Apple's new augmented reality ARKit. The premise of Pigeon Panic is simple: you throw random bits of food like pizza, donuts, and other greasy bits...

From The Daily Mail: "Prison guards shoot dead a PIGEON smuggling marijuana into Argentinian prison using a bag strapped to its back." The story claims that the bird was released alongside a pigeon-fancier event, in the hopes that its flight would not be noticed. Poor pigeon. Just doing what it...

A photo essay via The Washington Post: "'The pigeons make me feel free': An old pastime thrives in a Palestinian refugee camp." "The pigeons make me feel free," says Mohammed Qinabi, "Through their eyes I go everywhere, I see everything. You know the walls, the places I cannot go? There's...

Via Boing Boing: "Crocheted pigeon costumes for dressing them up as extict birds." The project, Biodiversity Reclamation Suits for Urban Pigeons, is the work of Laurel Hope Roth, a former park ranger.

Are Australia's native pigeons sitting ducks? asks The Conversation. The story explores the 130+ species of pigeons native to Australia. This includes some of the most beautiful pigeons on the planet, if I say so myself. Note: there are no pigeons native to North America. The pigeon species most familiar...