Multi-scare the birds
What does it take to scoot birds away from a field? More, maybe, than you might imagine.
Augustina Pruteanu and colleagues at the National Institute of Research-Development for Machines and Installations Designed for Agriculture and Food Industry in Romania recently gave their take at a conference in Jelgava, Latvia.
Advertisement
Their report, 鈥溾��, advises that: 鈥淎t present, there is no bird control technique that provides maximum protection for crops, so it is recommended to use a combination of scaring methods at the same time, namely: acoustics (propane cannons, pyrotechnic cartridges, speakers, etc.), visually (balloons, mirrors, reflective tapes, kites, lasers, drones, etc.) and physical (nets).鈥�
The report doesn鈥檛 discuss what else (bees? mice? worms? farmhands?) might be scared away by that same vast array of sights, sounds and objects.
On some farms, simplicity, if done trickily, might be enough. In 2019, Zihao Wang at the University of Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues advised reducing the 鈥淲hat does it take?鈥� problem to a mind game.
In a report called 鈥溾��, published in the journal Crop Protection, they contend that cunning and a single drone are sufficient to protect a small vineyard.
Disturbingly winning
Hazel Russman humbly lays claim to a trivial superpower of staggering worth. This is a potentially controversial addition to Feedback鈥檚 expanding catalogue of trivial superpowers.
Russman writes: 鈥淲hen I was a small child, I used to guess the winners of horse races for my father鈥� Unfortunately he never took my tips seriously or he might have made some money from them.
鈥淥ne year I managed to give him the spring double: Early Mist for the Grand National and Sailing Light for the Lincolnshire. Another year it was Never Say Die to win the Derby.
鈥淪ome years ago, I mentioned to a work colleague that I could do this as a child but had no idea how. He was greatly amused and handed me a newspaper with the day鈥檚 racing in view. He pointed to one race and said, 鈥榃ho鈥檚 going to win this one then?鈥� I skimmed through the names of the runners and one immediately jumped out at me. 鈥楺uest For Fame鈥� I said. The next day he gave me a very queer look and asked, 鈥楬ow do you do it?'鈥�
Russman says she is well aware of certain uncertainties: 鈥淚 have never tried to do anything like this since. When I was a child, it was fun, but now it seems distinctly creepy.
鈥淎nd of course there are numerous fictional accounts of people who come to grief from trying to use such gifts for profit.鈥�
Androids dreaming
Counting imaginary sheep while lying abed helps dozy people bring on sleep, some of them like to say. Counting real sheep in a field or a barn helps wakeful farmers keep track of potential milk and mutton and wool.
The problem is how to count those real sheep accurately and efficiently. This being the 2020s, artificial intelligence (broad and vague though the phrase is) comes to the rescue!
China is home to much of the new, artificially cogitational sheep-counting research. Jianming Xu and his colleagues at Shaoyang University write in the journal IEEE Access about their 鈥溾��.
They explain the problem: 鈥渋t is very challenging to accurately count sheep in the sheep farm due to the mutual occlusion between sheep and the change of illumination鈥�. The traditional humans-looking-at-sheep method, they remind us, 鈥渋s very time-consuming, labor-consuming and error prone鈥�. And though they don鈥檛 say it, maybe sleep-inducing.
Xuefeng Deng at Shanxi Agricultural University and colleagues developed an alternative method, 鈥溾��.
Yuanyang Cao and colleagues at China Agricultural University are among the many researchers 鈥� mathematical tools that can shear some inefficiency off the computation.
The science isn鈥檛 just about sheep. Yu Zhang and colleagues at Sichuan Agricultural University worked on 鈥溾��.
Others are labouring to better count cow heads. Livestock per-capita computation may be entering a golden age, presaged kinda sorta by the title of Philip K. Dick鈥檚 1968 book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Lying and lying
Andy Maloney gives lie, in two senses, to Feedback鈥檚 list of trivial superpowers.
He says: 鈥淩eading in your column about trivial superpowers, I thought I should tell you about my own. I can always tell if someone is lying just by looking at them鈥� I can also tell, just by looking at them, if they are standing up.鈥�
Got a story for Feedback?
You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.