The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds terrorized movie goers over 40 years ago. Today, the terror maybe long gone but a robo bird will be checking us out in similar fashion to the crows in the old movie classic. Enter RoboSwift, a bot designed to spy on humanity as needs warrant was based on "the design on recent findings on the common swift’s flight features, as detailed in an April issue of the journal Nature."

Question, why can't this be used to check the health of crops in a farmer's field or check out the health of various rare bird populations in the Amazon? Sounds like a better use of this very elegant tech than to spy on people if you ask me.

"The tool maker never knows how his tools will be used." - Anonymous
Postscript: I saw swifts in action flying at close quarters over a large field at a folk festival. Small, darting and absolutely amazing comes to mind with one nagging question, how do they lock on to their insect prey while pushing their flight envelop to the limit?