5 ms·
Google battling 'fox infestation' on roof of £1B London office
- more_corn 1y agoHave they considered aerial fox hunt?
- catlover76 1y ago[dead]
- hengheng 1y agoLondon has foxes, and they'll dig a hole where they can, and they are hard to catch? Give me a break.
- vidarh 1y agoLondon is full of foxes, that are so unafraid of people that it's not uncommon for them casually walking past in the middle of the day.
- ClawsOnPaws 1y agoIf those foxes were to spontaneously combust, then Google would have a Firefox problem.
- awesome_dude 1y agoAt issue is that the foxes are (slightly) electrocuting themselves, whilst in a metallic bath - thus they are being... chromed.
- Qem 1y agoSparkfox.
- awesome_dude 1y agoVery BRAVE of you to think that :)
- idonotknowwhy 1y agoThis would make for a great episode in a Silicon Valley soap Opera
- looofooo0 1y agoGreat culture reference for the fox problem of London: The Strange Tale of the Crack Fox The Mighty Boosh https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008fm1c https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008fm1c
- itsanaccount 1y agoHave they considered living in harmony with other sentient creatures?
- deepsun 1y agoOn grand scale -- it's possible. But try to live in harmony in a shared space with a wild fox or a wolf. Not good for you, not for the sentient creatures.
- wredcoll 1y agoWait, what? I live in harmony near lots of wild things, including some foxes. They stay on the outside of my house and I stay on the inside. It's not "perfect" but it works pretty well.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- itsanaccount 1y agoI ain't saying this in the hypothetical, here's the flowing spring wetlands that is my front yard. https://ibb.co/7dmnC4x5 https://ibb.co/7dmnC4x5 Not everything is perfect. I am not "kill nothing." But I try very hard to live well with nature by trying to understand it. And its good for all of us.
- rodgerd 1y agoFoxes live happily in urban areas all over Britain. The problem here is the Google employees.
- vidarh 1y agoI used to have a fox regularly lounging in my gazebo right outside my office window in South London. He didn't care about me unless I opened the door (at which point he would wander off), and didn't bother me at all. It was not a problem beyond a bit of fur on one of the pillows that he liked to sleep on. London foxes are used to people.
- mushroomba 1y agoI don't understand why this is a problem. The roof is surely occupied by birds, rats, and mice. Is the roof designed to include the natural world or not?
- pimlottc 1y ago> some foxes had begun to dig burrows in the perfectly manicured grounds Obviously the landscaping was designed to look pretty and win awards, not to host actual wildlife
- woodruffw 1y agoAnother possible interpretation is that the grounds are laid out such that rainfall doesn't cause the roof's soil to erode and wash off. (This is without any positive or negative value judgement, just an observation that we don't have to reach for "it needs to look pretty" to explain why having foxes on the roof isn't ideal.)
- pimlottc 1y agoI didn’t mean to cast aspersions on this project in particular, just to note that while we often expect nature to conform to our specifications, it may have other ideas…
- highpost 1y agoMenlo Park is not in San Francisco.
- CalChris 1y agoThis and Google doesn't even have an office in Menlo Park.
- neilv 1y agoIt's karma, for Google effectively seizing the beloved public roof garden in Cambridge (USA), for their offices. Now the 'secret garden' refuge of stressed MIT students, office workers, and locals... has shrunk, and been re-landscaped, as a kinda creepy Google-style nano-campus party roof deck, which feels like you're trespassing, and you're the view for their windows and the new surveillance cameras. The fox spirits know your selfish transgressions. https://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/05/22/despite-urging-new-board-moves-cautiously-on-kendall-square-proposals/ https://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/05/22/despite-urging-new-b... https://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/07/19/public-loses-40-of-rooftop-garden-in-august-without-formal-plans-from-google-for-space/ https://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/07/19/public-loses-40-of-r... https://www.cambridgeday.com/2013/09/12/one-year-later-agency-hasnt-said-a-word-about-investigation-or-law-firms-conflict/ https://www.cambridgeday.com/2013/09/12/one-year-later-agenc... https://www.cambridgeday.com/2015/06/23/ex-cra-official-pays-58745-in-penalties-restitution-ethics-commission-reports/ https://www.cambridgeday.com/2015/06/23/ex-cra-official-pays...
- dhosek 1y agoI’m looking at the picture and the roof is many stories up in the sky. I think they’ve got foxes in more places than just the roof.
- flufluflufluffy 1y agoRight, how the heck did the foxes get on the ROOF in the first place?!
- hulitu 1y ago> Right, how the heck did the foxes get on the ROOF in the first place?! Just like with all Google SW: through RCE. /s
- 0x38B 1y agoThe artist's impression in the original source on the 'fox infestation' (1) may provide a sense of scale. 1: https://www.londoncentric.media/p/why-lime-bikes-beep https://www.londoncentric.media/p/why-lime-bikes-beep
- hristov 1y agoOf course when you read the article to the end you realize that by “fox infestation” they mean one fox.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoJust shoot them. It may sound incredible to brits but that's actually legal. I assume, based on no evidence that foxes keep down the rat population. I see far more foxes then rats. Also they cause less problems then rats so i tolerate them.
- Havoc 1y agoJust leave them. London foxes are pretty harmless and shy. Getting closer than 2m to one is quite a feat so it’s not like they’re bothering anyone. Unlike say dogs off leashes that will absolutely harass people while owner stands there looking bewildered
- teruakohatu 1y agoThe article says they are digging barrows. I can understand that when a company spends an exorbitant amount of money on a building with a roof garden and the costs of ongoing maintenance they are not happy it is being dug up, especially if they are digging down to the water barrier. On the other hand I think it is pretty cool to have foxes on the roof.
- gerdesj 1y agoFoxes, pigeons, rats etc are generally described as vermin yet they perform vital ecological functions and are somehow maligned for performing it. They are scavengers (int al). They help keep the place cleaner in return for a small amount of crap and some extra disease vectors. What I'd really like to hear is that a bunch of clever kids at Google realise that a city has an ecology all of its own and that they need to fit into it and not the other way around. If they have managed to attract foxes then make the best of it. I wonder if there are there any Plane trees on it?
- owebmaster 1y agoThinking of Google as a place full of clever kids is a quite outdated view.
- gerdesj 1y agoYou might not like what they are working on or towards but a big old firm like Google has a lot of talent, bought and paid for, on board. Its a vast organisation and therefore will, even by accident, have lots of talented employees. They certainly have plenty of dosh to entice the "best". I call them "kids" out of habit. I'm 54, so that is probably mostly fair and unfair at the same time - sue me.
- cosmicgadget 1y ago"House Mozilla sends its regards."
- e2021 1y agoFacebook has had foxes in the roof garden in MPK21 for years and they don't seem to cause any problems. Is it a different type of fox?
- hulitu 1y agoIt's British.
- vouaobrasil 1y agoWell, Google's office is on ground that was once home to foxes, so they're in the wrong – it's karma. Google is the infestation, not the foxes.
- pfdietz 1y agoOh no. What next, salmon in their reflecting pool?
- S0y 1y agoHow the fuck did he get on the roof??
- anitil 1y agoI'm not sure if I've missed this, but .... how did the foxes get up to the roof? Can they climb?
- vidarh 1y agoPresumably got in during construction.
- lesser-shadow 1y agoFirefox reigns supreme