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Saving bats from wind turbines is easy
Renewable energy like wind power is touted as a great way to reduce our impact on the environment. Tech companies like Google and Tesla, along with cities like San Francisco, understand the need to go green. Still, even renewable sources of energy can have hidden effects on local animal populations. The world's largest solar power plant, in fact, kills thousands of birds annually at its Ivanpah, California site. A new study in Sweden found that the country's wind turbines kill tens of thousands of bats annually -- an average of 10 to 15 bats per turbine. The answer? Halt the spinning of the fans during the summer evenings when wind is low anyway.
Machine learning is helping researchers decipher bat speech
Egyptian fruit bats are widespread throughout Africa and often roost together in colonies of 1,000 or more individuals. With that many neighbors packed together, it's no wonder they're such a noisy bunch. And thanks to some exciting machine learning research from Tel Aviv University, we now understand a bit of what they're saying.
Album of inaudible animal sounds puts you inside the head of a bat
Even with fancy Hi-Fi equipment, the weak link is often our ears and their limited 20Hz-20,000Hz hearing range. As pointed out by Motherboard, artist Jane Winderen wants you to get a feeling for what it's like to be a whale or bat with her "Out of Range" album. To do that, she used special equipment to record bat echolocation signals, marine vocalizing and other sub- and ultrasonic sounds from glaciers, oceans, and forests. From there, she slowed frequencies as high as 100KHz until they became audible, then mixed them with other exotic sounds that are within our hearing range. The end result (below) is hypnotic 40 minute recording of sounds that normally pass you right by.
'Sonar Vision' system touted by researchers to help the blind hear what they can't see
Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a prototype system that could one day aid the congenitally blind by converting video into auditory cues. The "Sonar Vision" works in a similar way to a bat's echolocation system, but instead of chirping, uses a video camera embedded in a pair of glasses. A laptop or smartphone then converts the images into sound, which is transmitted to a headset. After 70 hours or so of training, that allowed users to identify objects like faces or houses, position objects in space and even identify individual letters. Surprisingly, researchers also found that after only several hours using the device, regions of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sight became activated for the first time in the congenitally sightless. That could possibly let doctors "wake up" regions of the brain never before used, according to the team, "even after a lifetime of blindness." [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Minecraft's latest snapshot has a witchy woman
Minecraft is getting a Halloween-related update in October, and among a slew of other changes (including updated sounds) a new creature is being added to the game. She's a witch! Mojang developer Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams said the witch will be a ranged attacker, and will use the "Testificate" humanoid model, along with a polygonal nose that will wiggle and twitch.Dinnerbone also hinted at a new animal type, while YouTuber Martyn (aka InTheLittleWood) posted a new video, which shows NPC bats are on their way to Minecraft. They'll spawn not only outside at night, but in any area, under or above ground, if there's a big enough space. They'll also hang upside down, rather creepily.The new update should be out next month, so get your candy bags ready for then.
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.
Batcopter UAV observes anti-collision bat behavior, crashes into ground (video)
If you wander out into a gaggle of fellow humans in total darkness, chances are you're going to bump into one or two. Such is not the case for bats, which do much of their hunting after the sun sets. Boston University's Intelligent Mechatronics Lab launched operation Batcopter to better understand how bats can fly in clusters large enough to be detected by radar without colliding. Equipped with a GoPro 3D HD camera, GPS, and OpenPilot's CopterControl system, the 1.8-pound quadcopter UAV joined Brazilian free-tailed bats in the skies of South Texas, capturing some pretty cool footage along the way. A trio of high-speed infrared cameras positioned on the ground photographed the aircraft's interactions with the flying mammals, which seemed to maneuver around the man-made intruder without incident, until a rotor failure resulted in a Batcopter inversion and subsequent ground collision. Even so, the craft still managed to take to the skies. Jump past the break to see the crippled UAV in action, and hit up the source link for some awesome infrared footage and stills.
NC State gurus build remote control bats, freak out Dukies and Tar Holes
Micro-aerial vehicles, or MAVs as they're called in the elusive underground, are far from new, but a team from NC State University is hoping to advance the field with an all new critter. The Robo-Bat is a remote controlled creature that relies on a super elastic shape-memory metal alloy for the joints, which is said to provide a full range of motion while enabling it to "always return to its original position -- a function performed by many tiny bones, cartilage and tendons in real bats." The crew is also utilizing other "smart materials" in the muscular system, giving it the ability to react in real time to environmental changes such as sudden wind gusts. Ideally, this bionic chiropteran would be used to chivvy those who dare step foot on Franklin Street or inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, but in less malicious situations, it could help well-meaning scientists get the bottom of that whole "aerodynamics" thing.
Gaze into LotRO Book 2.8's Hall of Mirrors with six new screenshots
Turbine continues to shower us with imagery of their next free content update Volume II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dûm. This go-around we've been treated to a look at the Hall of Mirrors, a place where giant expensive looking mirrors shine light into the otherwise dark, vast caves.Look, we're not sure it's so wise to have all these mirrors where things like giant wolves and bat monsters live, especially when adventurers seem to think it's fun to stomp through the place and fight everything in sight. Sooner or later, you know one of those giant mirrors is going to break. And what's the cost do you think? Probably several platinum pieces that frankly, we don't have.%Gallery-64288%
Beast Mastery: Bats
My very first pet was a bat. As soon as my white-haired Troll turned Level 11, I hied off to Tirisfal Glades and sought out Ressan the Needler, one of only two tameable all-white bats in the game. Of course, some people mistook him for those semi-albino bats found in the Eastern Plaguelands, but true pet connoisseurs knew better. Even when Hunters started turning to those 1.0 speed bats from Zul'Gurub, I stuck to my white bat. All pets were eventually normalized but now in the Echoes of Doom, each pet has its own ability, making our choices of pets even more special and important.In Patch 3.0.2, all bats now have Sonic Blast as their unique, bat-exclusive ability. It's a 2 second stun with negligible damage on a one-minute cooldown. As far as Hunter pet abilities go, Sonic Blast is pretty run-of-the-mill and isn't significantly great to merit taming a bat for. It pales in comparison to the Ravage skill of Ravagers, for example, which is on a 40-second cooldown. Ravage is melee range ability while Sonic Blast has 20 yards -- an irrelevant bonus considering our pets are almost always at melee range. It's only a little better for chasing and stunning, but otherwise, I would much rather have it available every 40 seconds than have some extra range.
BigRedKitty: Crocolisk, Bat, and Raptor
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. We know you want a Spirit Beast movie. We're trying, stop yelling at us! /poutIn the meantime, we present some oldies but goodies: Crocolisk, Bat, and Raptor. You are invited to download the YouTube version (70MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (103MB) here.As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time! From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.
Petaholics Anonymous releases a pet name generator
About a month ago, we posted in anticipation of a pet name generator that Petaholics Anonymous was working on (especially of interest to me, since I've been playing my Hunter like crazy lately), and now the Pet-o-licious Namerator is now up and running. Right now, I've got a raptor that I've named Jumpy, but I very well could have named it "Bahir" or "Claws," both good names out of the Namerator. As was decided back on the poll, PA has apparently put the names into Silly and Serious categories, so you choose your pet's family and whether you want a silly or serious name, and you can choose from the ones that pop out (and if you don't like any of them, you can click Generate again and you'll get more).If you've got a great pet name that's not in there, you can submit some more, as well, and apparently Bats are the most needed category (though I really love "Guano" as a silly Bat name, and "Vlad" as serious -- why would you need anything else?). Definitely some fun ideas in there for Hunters to choose from. Unfortunately, we'll probably still see Hunters going around with their pet "Cat" following them (so boring!), but maybe this will help.
Hunter pets to have family skills
No, I'm not talking about parenting and honey-do skills. In Wrath of the Lich King, each hunter family will have its own unique skill, just as Warp Stalkers currently have Warp. While we've known this since the release of the Beta patch notes, we now have some of the details, courtesy of Mania of Mania's Arcania and Petopia. In fact, some of the pet skills are so enticing that I'm beginning to think I'm going to need about 8 more stable slots! Here is a look at some of the juicier talents: Bats will be able to stun an opponent for 2 seconds. Bears will be able to Swipe similarly to druids, hitting three enemies in melee range. Birds of Prey will be able to disarm opponents for 6 seconds. Hyenas will reduce movement speed. Moths will be increasing their own attack power, and healing themselves. Nether Rays will have a spellcasting interrupt, preventing any spells from that school for one second. Are you as excited as I am? Don't forget to head over to Petopia to check out the full, detailed list. What pets will you be taming?Tip: Don't confuse pet skills with pet talents! Read up on the new pet talent trees for more information.
Vampire MMO Darkeden launches open beta
Razorwire picked up on a new MMO to enter the open beta phase, with the intriguing vampire theme. From Joymax, the creators of Silkroad Online, comes Darkeden, a 'horror MMORPG' set in a futuristic fantasy world. Those joining the open beta will be treated to 200% experience gain to assist in seeing what the game has to offer and testing content, in the 'near-complete' build.The features page of Joymax's Darkeden site fleshes out the concept: players will choose between the Vampire or Slayer races, with Slayers being more powerful during the day and Vampires at night. The races work on completely different leveling systems, and each will have their own methods of transportation (including motorcycles, helicopters, warp tunnels, and of course, bats). There will be battles for territories, both small and large scale, between the Vampires and Slayers.Those interested in becoming a Vampire (or killing them) can visit the Joymax portal and make an account, then go to the Darkeden site to download the client.
BATS testing auto-aiming antenna
Broadband Antenna Tracking Solutions, or BATS for short, is a start-up company founded by a group of Purdue University professors who are developing an auto-aiming antenna system for wireless networks. Using proprietary software and off-the-shelf electronics, the system works by mounting a seeker antenna on a stationary or mobile object (boats and vehicles included) and allowing the powerful tracking software to keep a constant lock on the nearest target antenna. Currently designed for WiFi and fixed wireless broadband radios (WiMax support is planned, if ever needed), the BATS system can maintain a connection longer and suffer less interference due to the directional antennas broadcasting a fixated beam. The movement of the seeker antenna is controlled by two servo motors and a programmable logic controller (PLC) that is directed by software calculations, which in tests could maintain a signal on a moving watercraft for 12 miles, and keep a cruising vehicle connected for 8 miles. The application is, of course, of relatively limited use for civilians, but if there's a chance we'll see it commercialized since the BATS management team is currently seeking potential investors to get this project dialed in.
