Who ya callin' birdbrained? Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand found that the lowly pigeon is actually quite brilliant at math:

Scarf and her colleagues began their search for mathematical ability in pigeons by training subject birds to recognize groups of one, two or three objects on a screen and peck at them in proper numerical sequence. This, admittedly, was not an easy lesson to get across. It took about a year of practice and rewards before the pigeons could be said with certainty to have gotten the idea. The birds may have actually understood earlier, but the researchers had to make sure they were indeed responding to the number of items, as opposed to their color, shape or relative size. As a result the pigeons had to be trained with random selections of ovals, triangles, rectangles and even computer clip art before it was clear they had their counting skills down cold.

Link (Photo: William van der Vliet)

If you love geeky (and raunchy) webcomic, look no further than Fredo & Pidjin by Eugen Erhan and Tudor Muscalu. The weekly comic features the adventures of two mischevious, nay make that evil, pigeons.

Check 'em out: Link

We've also teamed up with the artists to bring you the official Fredo & Pidjin T-Shirts:

Your purchase helps support Fredo & Pid'jin artists, who get royalties with every purchase. See: Fredo & Pidjin T-shirts at the NeatoShop

It sure can, if the birds turn out to be a major safety hazard for airplanes at a nearby airport.

Here's the story of how 59-year-old business owner (and bird lover) Charles Douglas got arrested over a flock of pigeons:

Airport police Cmdr. Allen Schmitt said a plane strikes a bird at the airport once every two months on average. But the rate of strikes has increased recently, with five incidents in July alone, he added.

"Most of those were multiple — 10 to 20 to 30 birds at once," Schmitt said. "Now it's becoming extraordinarily dangerous."

In July, a Southwest Airlines flight was diverted to Ontario after it flew into 20 to 30 pigeons during takeoff, he said.

"A pigeon is not a problem, but a flock — that's a problem," he said.

Douglas' arrest was the culmination of months of legal wrangling to stop the feeding.

Link

(YouTube link)

Don’t get too excited, hippies. This video made the rounds today with explicit “this is real” remarks that initially had me a little bit giddy with the Rube Goldbergesque idea of first breeding super-pigeons, then training them, then convincing every customer to send photographs of themselves, cities and homes to Jojo, all to avoid shipping shoes via freight or traditional carrier. I wanted to believe it, I did. But a disclaimer at the end of the video implicitly denies the reality of super-pigeon shoe shipping:

The remarks made in this video do not reflect the reality of pigeon fancying. No birds have been maltreated during the shooting of this film.

None of this should distract from the JoJo Project‘s goal of providing clean water and reforestation efforts, though, it’s too bad, really. I almost bought a pair of men’s shoes.

Polkadot via This is Colossal via FlavorWire

PS from Miss C: This marks published post #35,000 at Neatorama! That’s quite an archive. I would throw some confetti at Adrienne if I knew where she lived.

Sometimes you don’t need Photoshop to make something strange – nature’s already doin’ it. Here’s a gallery of the champions from the 2010 Grand National Pigeon Show in Salt Lake City, Utah: Link – via swissmiss

Not pretty, but interesting. Random Good Stuff has the video clip: Link

Next on Milan Fashion Week is this trendy backpack for pigeons! Just kidding – that’s actually part of a scientific study led by Tamás Vicsek of Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, to determine which bird in a flock of pigeons is the dominant one:

If you’re a scientist and you want to learn which birds lead the flock during flights and which follow, there’s probably no better way to research that question than to fit the birds with little backpacks containing GPS devices and track them. Really.

So that’s exactly what some scientists did. They strapped GPS-bearing backpacks onto homing pigeons, then followed their flight patterns in minute detail.

Link

Walter Beckett, a junior CIA agent, receives a briefcase that controls a nuclear missile. The hand-off goes smoothly, until a pigeon gets trapped inside. Pigeon: Impossible is a six-minute short film by Lucas Martell. It is his first animated film, and it took him almost five years to complete it.

Official Website via The Presurfer

Well, that’s low tech compared to what these other prisoners did:

Four suspects were arrested late on Sunday outside a maximum security facility in the southern town of Presidente Venceslau in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state after the mini-chopper, 14 mobile telephones and the equivalent of 500 dollars in cash were found in their rented car, according to reports in local media.

Link

Note that this is also in Brazil: what’s up with that? Can’t they smuggle things the good ol’ fashioned way – in their butts – just like all other prisoners do in the rest of the world?

Bits of bones and pigeon feathers may be garbage to you and me, but not to artist Kate MccGwire. The London-based artist used thousands of discarded pigeon feathers to create amazing works of art.

In this interview with Kate, Don’t Panic Magazine asks: why pigeon feathers?

I am currently using pigeon feathers as they come from a bird that is generally reviled – regarded as vermin and referred to as ‘rats with wings’. I started to collect pigeon feathers that moulted from the birds in a shed next to my studio – I realised that they were actually very beautiful.

Link – via dontpaniconline

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JJA.

The video is not of the best quality, but the cat’s reaction when the pigeon he was stalking flew away is absolutely priceless!

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Christophe.

Prison inmates are an innovative bunch (case in point: pruno), so it should be of no big surprise that they’ve found ways to smuggle contrabands into prison. But this method is surely unique: inmates at a prison farm in Brazil have been using pigeons to smuggle in cell phones!

Guards at the Danilio Pinheiro prison near the southeastern city of Sorocaba noticed a pigeon resting on an electric wire with a small cloth bag tied to one of its legs last week. "The guards nabbed the bird after luring it down with some food and discovered components of a small cell phone inside the bag," police investigator Celso Soramiglio said Tuesday.

One day later, another pigeon was spotted dragging a similar bag inside the prison’s exercise yard. Inside the bag was the cell phone’s charger, Soramiglio said.

Link – via Discoblog

It looks like another day in the park until … snap, the turtle has the pigeon, drags it underwater, and a few token feathers float back to the surface. Turtles might looks slow, but beware.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Urbanist.