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Recommended Reading: Tracking migratory birds
Recommended Reading highlights the week's best writing on technology and more.
Yes, 'The Angry Birds Movie' will have a sequel
Rovio has had trouble recreating the success of the first Angry Birds with each successive sequel, but that isn't stopping the Finnish developer from trying the same with the movie based on its biggest franchise. The first film made $346,917,138 worldwide according to Box Office Mojo, and Wall Street Journal writes that its budget was only $73 million. So, of course, optioning a sequel makes a lot of sense. There aren't any details beyond Rovio CEO Katie Levoranta saying that pre-production is under way, though. Will Jason Sudekis and Peter Dinklage reprise their roles? That's up in the air, but last we saw him, he was busy helping a certain Mother of Dragons.
ICYMI: Fire-starting drone, Stanford bird studies and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A prototype for a fire-starting drone was deployed in Nebraska last week, dropping small balls of accelerant to create a controlled burn over grasslands. The idea is that future firefighters could use UAVs like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln model to stop an out of control wildfire with drone-created fire breaks, or for other uses.
Stanford wind tunnel for birds could lead to more stable drones
Birds can navigate both urban and real jungles with ease even when they're facing moderately turbulent winds. If they could speak, we'd have already asked their secret. But since they can't, the Stanford School of Engineering built one of the most advanced wind tunnels in the world. It's where assistant professor David Lentink study them more closely in order to develop more stable drones. The tunnel has a turbulence generator that simulates different wind speeds and patterns, as well as high-speed cameras that record every flap of the birds' wings as they fly inside.
Eagles are being trained to take out illegal drones
Forget anti-drone drones, one of nature's most majestic hunters may soon play a valuable role in taking down dangerous UAVs. As part of a new trial, the Dutch National Police force has begun training eagles to intercept troublesome drones during an emergency, when another capture device might put people below at risk.
'Sailor Moon' in a post-apocalyptic pigeon-dating simulator
Hatoful Boyfriend is a pigeon-dating simulator. You read that correctly and, yes, it means exactly what it sounds like. However, Hatoful Boyfriend is also much more than a pigeon-dating simulator: It's a dark tale of science experiments gone awry and a formerly human world now run by birds. In Hatoful Boyfriend -- released on Steam in September and on its way to PlayStation 4 and Vita this year -- you play as a young (human) woman and uncover truly terrifying things about this strange new avian world. Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star is a new game in the same pigeon-dating universe, due to hit PS4, Vita and PC this fall. As Mediatonic Producer Luke Borrett explains direct from E3 2015, Holiday Star features even wackier stories, including scenes reminiscent of Sailor Moon, a trip to a manga convention and birds in tanks. Watch a portion of our interview with Borrett below.
Scientists create chickens with dinosaur snouts to study evolution
How do scientists study the evolutionary transformation from snouts to beaks as those winged dinosaurs became birds? By putting dinosaur snouts on chickens, of course. A team of researchers at Yale were able to modify the chickens' genetic make up in a way that would make then grow a snout like their ancestors (similar to the Anchiornis model above) rather than the beaks we're all familiar with. The modification allows scientists to study the molecular foundations of the evolution. More specifically, they can examine the difference in bone structure and the genetic pattern birds exhibit that reptiles and mammals don't -- the one that causes a beak to form. Despite how awesome it would be, the research had nothing to do with building a real-life Jurrasic Park. [Image credit: Lou-Foto/Alamy]
Transparent eggs let scientists see how bird embryos grow
If you want to see how animal embryos grow in eggs, you typically have to poke a hole in the egg and patch it up later. That's not always safe, and it may give you an incomplete picture of what's going on. Scientists at Beijing's Tsinghua University think they have a better solution, though. They've developed transparent artificial bird eggs that mimic the real deal while showing every single nuance of the embryo's development. The key is a special process that gives an organic polymer the same shape as an egg, offering the avian a relatively natural environment that's easier to work with in a lab.
Warblr can identify that bird just by hearing its song
Technology can be pretty wonderful sometimes. Case in point: Warblr, an app that uses sound recognition tech and your phone's GPS signal to identify birdsongs. The application first pinpoints where you are (it'll debut in the United Kingdom), and narrows the results by what types of fowl are common to the area, according to its Kickstarter page. Then, after making the ID, it presents the most likely suspects. Pretty simple, yeah? The folks behind the app say that one of the intentions is to add geo-tracking to, well, track what species are being found where -- useful for the likes of zoologists and ecologists to monitor migration patterns, for one.
Audubon says climate change could wipe out half of US birds by 2080
If you enjoy hunting, photographing or just watching birds, you may have to move to Canada in a few decades, according to Audubon. The venerated US conservation society just released interactive maps along with an article showing exactly how bird species across North America are menaced by man-made global warming. Following a seven-year study, the news isn't great: many migratory birds could be extinct within 70 years, while others may leave their home states and provinces forever. Though the predictions are theoretical, Audubon's scientists took a conservative approach, ironically using modeling techniques common in farming and energy resource management. It stressed that "Audubon is not in the business of using scary language or going beyond what the science tells us," but called the threat to bird species "urgent."
The world's largest solar thermal power plant is incinerating thousands of local birds
A common sight in the sky above the world's largest solar thermal power plant is a "streamer," a small plume of smoke that occurs without warning. Closer inspection, however, reveals that the source of the smoke is a bird that has inadvertently strayed into the white-hot heat above the plant's many reflecting mirrors. Because the BrightSource Energy plant near Ivanpah, California, uses supercritical steam rather than photovoltaic energy, the sun's heat is reflected off more than 300,000 mirrors to a single point, which is used to drive a steam turbine. The downside of that, of course, is that it's lethal for any wildlife that strays into the picture -- a problem that was recognized well before the facility opened, but now the government has gotten involved.
Final Fantasy XIV previews chocobo training
Your chocobo is your lifelong companion in Final Fantasy XIV, but is he really getting all he can out of life? Does he have the options necessary for a robust avian lifestyle? Is he stuck sitting outside in the cold while you go in and have a few drinks? Are you one of the relentless achievers who has reached max level with the bird and wants to advance past rank 10? Then patch 2.3's chocobo raising system is for you! Once your free company builds a chocobo stable on its housing plot, you can stable your bird there, allowing him to earn experience and train skills on an hourly basis. Training requires treats, with a special treat allowing your companion to exceed rank 10 (although you're still limited to rank 20 as a maximum). Players will not be able to summon their companion whilst he's stabled. Read the full preview for more details, and get ready to start intimately tending to the needs of your feathered friend.
Super Stickman Golf creators join the Flappy flock with Flappy Golf
Hoping that two wildly addictive tastes go great together, mobile developer Noodlecake Studios has debuted Flappy Golf, an iOS game that combines the deceptively simple Super Stickman Golf with mobile hit Flappy Bird. Flappy Golf borrows physics, basic gameplay rules and courses from Super Stickman Golf 2, but instead of carefully aiming a shot, players control a flapping bird that must languidly wing its way toward the hole. The goal is to make it through the labyrinthine courses using as few flaps as possible. That may seem overly simplistic, but Flappy Golf features 30 courses of nine holes each, and like Super Stickman Golf, the courses grow increasingly complex and bizarre, offering new challenges with each round. Best of all, Flappy Golf is available as a free download on the iTunes App Store. There are no microtransactions to be found in the mobile mashup, but players will occasionally see in-game advertisements. [Image: Noodlecake Studios]
Ironpants is the only Flappy Bird clone worth a damn, and not even a very big damn
Of all the Flappy Bird clones littering the App Store at the moment, only a fraction of those games is actually playable -- meaning that they're fully functional and can be used without glitches, slowdown or outright crashes. Of that small group, there is but one that I've found that is worth your time: Ironpants. Ironpants plays almost exactly like Flappy Bird with the only real difference being that you hold your finger on the screen (rather than tap) to get your tiny superhero to fly higher. You still need to navigate through narrow passages without touching anything; the game goes on forever just like Flappy Bird; and it's also punishingly difficult. In fact, Ironpants may be even more difficult than the game on which it is based, and that's saying something. The tiny onscreen character moves a bit faster than the titular avian in Flappy Bird, and because of that, it's much harder to make adjustments before slamming into a wall. My high score on Flappy Bird is a respectable 51, but I can only manage a 6 on Ironpants. It's that difficult. To be perfectly clear: If Flappy Bird were still on the App Store, I'd probably not recommend checking out Ironpants because it is indeed the inferior product. However, with Flappy Bird's creator promising to never re-publish the game after he removed it from the App Store, it's the only halfway decent alternative currently available.
The Mog Log: Chocobos run Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV do not take place in the same world. One is not a sequel or prequel to the other, neither game continues the same story themes, and indeed nothing connects them beyond the names and a set of thematic elements. So I enjoy looking at those thematic elements sometimes, for the same fundamental reason that when I was a little boy I occasionally liked to take apart toys just to see how they worked. You'll remember that I looked at moogles as they related to the Final Fantasy series as a whole a while back, with the ultimate conclusion that moogles exist to provide an in-universe explanation for mechanical conceits. Chocobos have got to be simpler, though. They're present in both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, and they're extremely straightforward in both: They're mounts. That's their purpose in the series, isn't it? You ride chocobos. Surely it can't be any more complicated than "fictional method of transportation". The answer is of course it can. But I think the first step is to look back at the series as a whole.
Daily iPhone App: National Geographic Birds: Field Guide to North America
National Geographic has just launched at new version of its Field Guide to Birds of North America which in printed form is one of THE references for dedicated birders. The app lets you carry around a tremendous amount of information in your pocket about the habits of birds, maps to their habitats and even recordings of their calls. The app is not web based, so it's a big one. Really big -- 839 MB of big, so be sure before you buy and download that you have the room. Of course, this means it's available when you are out in the wild, and nowhere near a cell tower. The app features videos of selected birds, and connects to the Internet only for the latest birding news. There are a series of filters to help you identify what you are seeing in the field, like habitat, time of year, month, color and more. The app has now added a personal journal, quizzes and a birding tool kit with tips and tricks for beginners or advanced amateurs. One thing missing is a straight search option, which is surprising. You can get alphabetical lists of birds, or sort them any number of ways, but if you are simply looking to quickly get to information about any bird, that can't be done with a word search. I should also note that this app is really designed for the iPhone or iPod touch. On the iPad you have to scale it up, which is silly given the number of people who would like a native version for that device. The app is US$9.99, not cheap but certainly a value for its usefulness. The paperback version of the same information lists for almost $30.00 but can be had for less online. This app is simply brimming over with useful information and audio-visual features that take it beyond what the printed version can do. It should be a universal app so iPad users can get more benefit from it, and I think it needs better search features, but birders will be enthusiastic about the many positive aspects of this app. %Gallery-172479%
The Perfect Ten: Stock fantasy enemies from lamest to coolest
One theory of MMOs is that they represent several parallel universes, each with similarities and differences. This may explain why so many of them claim to be boldly original and yet carry the same monster DNA that exists everywhere else. Today we're going to carefully unpack our ancient collector's edition of stock fantasy enemies. Blow off the dust and smell that nostaglia, mhmm. Sure, they've seen better days, but they're still good, right? Still solid. Still capable of entertaining us, even if we've slaughtered their kin a thousand times over. Let me show you my collection of 10 stock fantasy enemies that we encounter all the time in MMOs. Just for fun, I'm going to order them from lamest to coolest. I would be number 11, by the way.
What's causing a delay in Sprint's LTE rollout? Birds
Sprint mentioned that one of the holdups to get its LTE network rolled out is waiting for fiber-optic backhaul to be connected to its network sites. Of course, the company also mentioned a very different reason: birds. It turns out that some of the towers have become home to some avian families determined to hamper the uptake of high speed internet, which won't be activated until they migrate. We wouldn't advise you go with a stick trying to poke the nests from the sites -- we suspect the Humane Association is on the lookout for angry nerds.
Georgia Tech develops poultry deboning robot / chicken nightmare machine
If you have any chickens in the house, you're going to want to keep them away from the computer. Georgia Tech researchers have developed the device that will haunt their feathered dreams. The prototype Intelligent Cutting and Deboning System has a built-in 3D vision system in order to help it cut and debone a chicken. The robot uses collected data and custom algorithms to help reduce bone fragments and increase yield on birds, whilst ensuring that no fowl with ever get a full night's sleep again. The school has begun testing the system, as evidenced by the unfortunate bird picture above. Press release after the break, if you're not too chicken.
A bird in the hand thanks to a robot that can perch
Land-bound robots? Been there, done that. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are taking things up a notch with a bird-style bot capable of autonomous flight. By replicating the features that enable birds to make a soft landing -- including the flapping wings that help them change direction -- the researchers developed the first micro aerial vehicle (MAV) capable of swooping down to perch on a human hand. The craft forgoes a vertical tail, which birds also lack, to allow for enough agility to land on a small surface. Articulated wings help the robo-bird complete the maneuver successfully, by first gliding into position and then pitching up and slowing down. Who knew perching was so complicated? Besides just providing a super-nifty party trick for these lucky researchers, the autonomous aircraft could be used in urban surveillance, where a small size would come in handy. Check out the MAV in action, along with the press release, after the break.
