New Scientist magazine reports that a flock of 20 pigeons outfitted with GPS receivers, air-pollution sensors, and basic mobile phones will be released over San José. The birds will then beam back text messages about air quality, posted in real time to a blog. Cameras around the pigeons' necks will also send aerial pictures. So if you still feel guilty about never starting your antique-teapot site, a blog written by birds should only make you feel worse. University of California researcher Beatriz da Costa and two of her students put together the pigeon project. The birds' journalistic careers take flight at the annual symposium of Inter-Society for Electronic Arts on August 5.
— Trevor Noren