In a shocking discovery, the researchers observed that the zebrafish were less scared of the robot when they were drunk than they were when they were sober (the fish, not the researchers). The fish also tended to move slower in their efforts to retreat from a simulated heron attack, presumably because they kept dropping their phones while trying to text their ex-girlfriends.
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Canada Fights War On Geese With Drones
Geese have been polluting Canada's beautiful Ottawa beaches with their poop, so much so that one beach recently had to be closed down due to sky-high e-coli levels in the water. City officials agreed that this was a tall, frothy glass of Nas-Tea, and that something must be done about it. So they commissioned a remote control Irritation-Class hexacopter to patrol the beaches and play loud predator noises to scare away all the geese.
AFP
And by "predator noises", we mean "sound clips from the movie Predator".
The owner of this flying knight, Steve Wambolt, originally presented his robot as an aerial photography service, but officials quickly realized that his idea was dumb and saw way more potential in using the hexacopter as a bird-scaring device. Wambolt was paid $30,000 to clear the beaches of geese with his lumbering, expensive toy. The results were so effective that they plan on hiring him again next year, meaning that, once again, a grown man will be paid a modest annual salary to scare birds with a remote control helicopter for a few months.
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