16 June 2013

Pecking on Privacy

View north from
our sun room
I have a perverse new pastime -- I violate the privacy of birds who fly into our yard.

We have four feeders strategically placed in view of our sun room.

By violate the privacy, I mean I parse their emails and I systematically quantify their socio-political profiles based on a proprietary algorithm that slurps down their social media posts from a 1.36 Mbps straw.(1)
“When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.”  David Brin
Whether they Tweet Wings up! or Wings down!, I'm indiscriminate. Finches, Cardinals, Grosbeaks or Grackles...it doesn't matter.

What I've found is that birds are a lot like humans.
“What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night, So stumblest on my counsel? Who are you? Why do you hide in the darkness and listen to my private thoughts?”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

(1) Our feeders are equipped with unsecured Wi-Fi access.

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