Cartoon of The Day: Captured by Dinos

 

 From the "Roos With Friends" RFL event on Saturday. 

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "Early Cretaceous Meat-Eating Dinosaurs of Maryland and Virginia"

 

"Early Cretaceous Meat-Eating Dinosaurs of Maryland and Virginia"

Saturday April 3

10 AM to 11 AM

512 fossils from the Early Cretaceous of Maryland are currently stored at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, USA. Of those most are bones of a large, long necked 4-legged dinosaur called Astrodon, which belongs to the Sauropod group. We also have bones from armored Ankylosaur dinosaurs, ornithopod or bird footed dinosaurs, and two meat eaters, Acrocathosaurus and Deinonychus. Acrocanthosaurus was almost the size of a T. rex, and Deinonychus was a raptor. A group of high school students in Virginia and New York collaborated to analyze teeth from these meat eaters in order to reconstruct the ecology of Maryland and Virginia during the Early Cretaceous.

Dr. William Schmachtenberg will present the results of their research during this meeting. The students work have been submitted to the New York Paleontological Society for publication.

For more information, Click Here. 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32
 

Ark Survival Evolved Update: New Map, New Version, and Lots of Mods

It's been a little over a year since I last wrote about Ark Survival Evolved. In that time, quite a lot has happened. Mods have been introduced to the game to give it interesting and helpful twists. There's a new official map: Ragnarok. There's a new version of the game out: Aberration. And of course there's more dinosaurs to fight or tame. But the game itself remains the same: survive hostile dinosaurs, and in certain servers hostile players, and improve yourself, your tools and weapons, and your home base.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Back in Ark: Boats In The Sunset

Since last writing about "Ark: Survival Evolved," the survival MMO with dinosaurs, earlier this year, things have continued to move on with the gamers at Nydia Tungsten's server. Eventually, there was a reboot, and we began building all over again. I've been too busy in Second Life lately to describe our adventures, at least so soon after our last time. In short, we started in the southeast and after making rafts made our way to "Herbavore Island" and leveled up in it's relative safety. But a funny thing happened. People found out one could put floors on the rafts and began making boats. These mobile bases became very handy as you could build smelters, smiths, fabricators, etc. on them. One monster ship was a huge "aircraft carrier" many stories high. My own just had a couple storage cabinets.

Eventually, we were looking to make other bases. I made a small base on the island's western peninsula. But a larger one was made further north near the top. Nydia took this screenshot from there.

"I have always enjoyed sunsets, and this is from the balcony of our westridge base built by out tribe's master builder Jaz, you can see our hunting rafts in the protected bay below"

There have been some frustrations of course. One recent update had the "flying nerf" that put big limits on our birds and pterodactyls, and introduced a big fish that would attack boats on sight, smashing them into smithereens. Once that center portion was gone, the rest of even the biggest ships would disintegrate. Needless to say, that made sea travel a lot more complicated. Nydia grumbled this update was the result of the developers giving in to demands by the PvP crowd. And then there's the upcoming update which introduces active volcanoes, and almost certainly wipes out our best source of iron, crystal, and obsidian.

So how will the tribe deal with this new complication? Like with everything else, find a way.

Picture and quote from Nydia Tungsten

Latest Misadventures in Ark Survival Evolved

It's been a while since I've last written about "Ark Survival Evolved" as my friends who were playing it moved on to other frontiers. But they recently returned, and have found there have been many changes over time, and a few that just happened. These changes include some new dangers, including new deadly beasts. But with the dangers come new opportunities. And the Ark veterans along with some players new to the island are once again taking on the dinosaurs.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

SL Video: "Jurrasic World - Second Life Machinima"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

From Mistral Production Films, March 14, 2016, filmed on Prehistorica - The Dawn Kingdoms

SL Universe in Ark

When it comes to games and Second Lifers, there's no shortage of them inworld, as "Tiny Empires" demonstrates. Outside of the grid, "Ark Survival Evolved" continues to be the favorite among the "Furry Gamers," the group of Second Life residents whom love playing games. But as it turns out, they haven't been the only ones in the Ark game lately. Another group of Second Lifers has given it a try: the Second Life Universe Forums.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Further Adventures in Ark Survival Evolved

It's been about a month since the Newser did a review on "Ark: Survival Evolved," the survival game on an island filled with dinosaurs. Since then, Bixyl Shuftan and some of his friends have continued playing the game, in both public and private servers. Here, he writes about some of the adventures, and misadventures, he and his fellow survivors have gone through, as well as a few more helpful hints and observations about the game.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Review of PaleoQuest

A few days ago, Linden Lab announced the opening of a new game in Second Life, courtesy of their Department of Public Works, "Paleoquest." In the game, Magellan Linden is opening up a "Jurassic World" style park, and needs help dealing with an evil plot that threatens not just the park but the whole grid. Gemma Cleanslate, who played Magellan's previous Linden adventure game, took a try at this new challenge. So did the game roar like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, or is it doomed to go extinct?

Read Gemma's review in Design.

Game Review: Ark - Survival Evolved

With "Jurrasic World" in the theaters in recent weeks, it's no real surprise a dinosaur game would be released to the public around this time. And on Steam, the latest wilderness survival game available, "Ark: Survival Evolved," takes place on an island full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. While some are strict plant eaters, and a few are completely harmless to even the clumsiest players, anyone who knows anything about dinos realizes any encounter with a meat eater bigger than you can end very badly. So does this game offer a T-Rex sized bite, or is it as dead as a dodo?

Read the review in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Prehistorica: The Dawn Kingdoms

Earlier this year, Second Life Newser went to the dinosuar-themed Prehistoria area. Several months later, Xymbers Slade found an LM and decided to give his own report on the place. Xymbers own report focuses less on the land and more on the avatars. So what did he have to say about them?

Read Xymber's article in Design.

The Dawn Kingdoms : Walking with the Dinosaurs in Second Life

Ever since we're kids, people are fascinated by dinosaurs. Creatures of the past, sometimes huge ones, that walked a wild primitive Earth of long before man. We read about them, we see them in movies and TV, but can we ever interact with them. Maybe we can, at least in Second Life. Wesley Regenbogen checked out Dawn Kingdoms, a place where visitors can walk a landscape where dinos roam (and roar if you get close).

Read Wesley's article in Places.