At 11:36 PM 1/15/96, Lindsay Haisley wrote:
There has (fortunately!) been a big crackdown recently on the illegal pet bird import trade, something akin to the slave trade of the 19th century for those of us who like pet birds. One of the methods people use to import birds is to wear special vests full of pockets for rare bird eggs. If the person who wrote this was coming in from SE Asia, especially Australia, then this was very possibly the meaning of the question.
Yes, Cliff Stoll described how this plot was hatched in his book "The Cuckoo's Egg." (This was a yolk, folks. I stoll it.) P.S. I am persuaded that the importation of rare tropical birds into the U.S. is a GOOD THING, and that the attempts to ban such imports are misguided eco-fundie efforts. Diversity will be enhanced by having the birds in the U.S., and if left in their native jungles, most will die anyway. Better a pampered tropical bird in a gilded cage than lunch for some predator, or starvation as the jungles are cleared by slash-and-burn farmers. The same data transparency of borders, where truckloads of stuff come in easily, means that truckloads of birds, eggs, embryos, babies, etc. can also make it in. Most such shipments are only caught when surveillance yields a shipping schedule...such surveillance is becoming more and more difficult because of the technologies we push. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."