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Comment by BrandoElFollito | Hacker News Reader

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BrandoElFollito

So what should they be made of?

I do not want to live in a cave, I want sunlight. I also want to be protected from cold, wind and rain.

I do not see any alternative with current technology

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I'm inclined to agree with you, but how different is this from saying "I don't want to pay more for olives"?

edit: on the other hand, one of the other comments in this thread links to an article that suggests that closely spaced decals or visible screens can greatly decrease the amount of birds that fly into windows and die. we could still have natural light indoors, but we might need to make some aesthetic compromises with our buildings.

Maintenance guy here. I work at apartment complexes and get calls around once a week during winter and spring about birds( mostly doves and hummingbirds) that are bashing themselves repeatedly on residents upper story windows. It's sad because the birds just need to turn around and fly lower to escape but they seem unable to do that. They are transfixed on the window itself. The only solution I've been able to come up with is to open the window from inside( not always possible) or just allow nature to take it's course. I'd like to help these creatures but climbing a ladder three stories up is not acceptable to me. I hesitate to say that it's nature's way of culling out the dumb ones. We make our own olives here in southern California. It's very easy although picking them is labor intensive. It's very satisfying to make delicious food from things growing on trees and doesn't take a long time or a lot of space

Frosted glass, screens, and ability to open windows.

Do you know what happens when a bird 'runs into' a window that was open? You have to spend the next half hour chasing it around your house with a broom. I'm speaking from experience here.

It's not so bad. I lived in a south east Asian nation for a few years with no glass windows (but large shutters). We would get a bird once week or so. Trick is to leave the window open and close off other exits.

However, with frosted glass and screens you would keep birds out.

When a dove came into my classroom in high school it started to fly in circles and perched at the projector in the ceiling.

Apparently it got confused by the artificial lightning (6500k fluorescent tubes) because once we killed the lights it went straight to the closed windows instead of the open door at the opposite side. We had to draw the curtains of every window except one for the dove to get out :(

> I do not want to live in a cave

You don't have to though. I am pretty sure that most of the European population until at least the 17th century did not have glass windows, and neither did the far-eastern cultures, which used paper instead - yet at the same time they did not live in caves.

> I want sunlight. I also want to be protected from cold, wind and rain.

If the windows are fully opaque just open them when you want sunlight - having sunlight while it is cold, windy, and raining is not that common after all.

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