...would I have imagined my video on whether a pigeon is faster than the Internet would end up on a popular Italian quiz show, L'Eredita. Specifically, in the March 26th episode (playable in Italy, or with an account).
The question, roughly translated:
A test by the expert Jeff Geerling from 2023 proved that in transporting data the carrier pigeons can be more, what?
- More reliable than a registered letter
- Faster than DSL.
- More precise than a human courier
- More polluting than an email?
Nobody got the answer on their first guess (it eventually defaulted to Francesca), but Stefano definitely had a solid point:
"With the hard disk connected to the paw? Come on!"
Though two notes:
- As I mentioned in my blog post with more details (and displayed in the video), I ripped out the insides of three USB SSD flash drives, which weighed in at about 20 grams total, with a wrapper and attaching string.
- Carrier/homing pigeons are surprisingly strong, as they can carry at least three times that weight without issue. Though the poor pigeon who was our test subject didn't quite enjoy the experience! (We gave him a few extra seeds when he came back.)
You can watch the video that inspired the question below: