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The way everyone is writing this off as so obvious is annoying. Have you guys never found a bug that in retrospect was glaringly obvious, but all the symptoms l
by squeaky-clean 7y ago
The way everyone is writing this off as so obvious is annoying. Have you guys never found a bug that in retrospect was glaringly obvious, but all the symptoms looked bizarre until you found what made them all connected? This is a fun story the same way the "500 mile email limit" story is a fun story. Yeah the idea of "your timeout is so low that it times out unless you're sending a very local request, about 500 miles" is obvious and somewhat boring in retrospect too, but that twist is what makes them both fun stories/facts.
- edge17 7y agoActually, this reminded me about the impact pesticides etc. have had on Parsi death rights in India. Parsi people rely on birds of prey to consume their dead bodies in Dakhma's (structures intended for dead bodies to be exposed to birds that consume carrion). Due to the destruction of the population it's basically become much more difficult. More to read here if interested - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence#In_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence#In_India
- jfk13 7y agoI think you probably meant "death rites" (not "rights").
- jessaustin 7y agoPresumably they have rights to their rites.
- _AzMoo 7y agoThat is a fairly strong assumption for a good chunk of the world.
- plumenator 7y agoAbout a decade and a half ago CCMB (Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology), Hyderabad actually bred vultures for this very purpose. I don't remember if they ended up solving it.
- plumenator 7y ago2005: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sexing-to-increase-vulture-population/articleshow/1184166.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sexing-to-increase... 2006: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/CCMB-to-breed-vultures-for-Parsis/articleshow/1996448.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/CCMB-to-b...
- TeMPOraL 7y agoI actually find the story very interesting. I'm curious about one things: do vultures actually learn the geography, presumably from each other and not direct experience? Or are they following concentration of some carrion-related volatiles - i.e. turning around where the air stops smelling tasty? I know next to nothing about these birds, but I'd find the latter more plausible than the former.
- quanticle 7y agoThey might be using both! Studies on homing pigeons [1] have found that they use atmospheric volatiles to navigate until they're in the vicinity of their home region, at which point they use landmarks (like roads or field boundaries) to navigate. So it's possible that vultures have learned that the air on this side of the river smells better than the air on that side of the river, and therefore know to turn around when they wander across. [1]: http://theconversation.com/explainer-how-do-homing-pigeons-navigate-25633 http://theconversation.com/explainer-how-do-homing-pigeons-n...
- TeMPOraL 7y agoThanks! Good to know this happens. For some reason I haven't thought about birds using sense of smell until today when writing the previous comment.
- mywittyname 7y agoI understand your sentiment, but this plot twist was much less clever than the 500 mile email issue. My immediate thought was this was due to geography (natural or man-made) or laws/regulations that protect their habitat or food sources.
- rco8786 7y agoThere is a word/name for that phenomenon though it escapes me right now. That said, in this case I think many/most people assumed the correct answer (or something close to it) prior to the grand reveal.
- superhuzza 7y agoHindsight is 20/20?