Second, many allow their temperature to drop at night. Many hummingbirds go into a trance-like torpor at night.
In that state, they are less aware and less able to take flight, so there is a greater risk of predators. However, when they are asleep they cannot feed, and at their normal rate of metabolism they need sugar regularly. The torpor is their way of saving energy which they cannot replace until the next day.
Thirdly, almost all endotherms are insulated to reduce heat loss. Obviously that is true of birds (which have feathers) and land mammals (which have fur). Marine mammals have thick layers of fat under their skin, which is better insulation than wet fur. The exceptions are some very large mammals such as elephants, which have almost no fur. Their problem is how to get rid of heat, and that is a problem for all really large land animals. The African elephant's solution is to have large ears, which are well supplied with blood vessels, and to wallow in water if that is available. It is very likely that the same problem affected large dinosaurs. After all, the largest titanosaurs were far larger than any land animal alive today.
Ectotherms are what is often called "cold-blooded". To function properly they need some heat, and usually this is heat from their surroundings. Many need heat in order to digest their food.
Many supposedly cold-blooded animals do things to keep their temperature higher than the surrounding air or water. Fast-moving fish, like tunny, and some sharks, keep their temperature above the level of the surrounding water. Reptiles such as lizards and snakes sit in the sun when they are cold and in the shade when they are hot. Some insects control their temperature, especially colonial insects. Termite mounds have 'air conditioning': their system of openings and galleries allows currents of air to flow through the mound. Honey bees fan their wings to cool their colony. However, many smaller invertebrates do not control their body temperature at all.
The correct scientific word for cold-blooded is poikilotherm (noun), "poikilothermic" (adjective).
Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor made by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a ph vocoder to fix pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to hide out of tune singing and mistakes. It lets singers perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without needing to sing in tune. Its main purpose is to slightly bend sung pitches to the nearest true semitone. Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised/lowered a lot.
Auto-Tune can be used as a plug-in for professional audio multi-tracking suites used in a studio setting, and as a stand-alone, rack-mounted unit for live performance processing. Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios.
Auto-Tune was first created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data, and then realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch.
Auto-Tune was used for vocal effects on Cher's "Believe", recorded in 1998. This was the first major hit song to use the software for this purpose. At first the sound engineers claimed that they had used a vocoder, in what "Sound on Sound" said was an attempt to keep a trade secret. After the massive success of "Believe", many artists copied the technique, which became known as the "Cher Effect". It can be heard in songs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some notable examples are Gigi D'Agostino's "La Passion" and Janet Jackson's US Number 1 hit "All For You". Auto-Tune became famous again in the mid-2000s when R&B singer T-Pain made active use of it in his songs. This technique has been copied by many other modern R&B and pop artists, including Usher, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber. T-Pain has even had an iPhone App named after him that copies the effect called "I Am T-Pain".
The "Boston Herald" revealed that country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have both said they are using Auto-Tune in performance. They said it is a safety net that guarantees a good performance. Sara Evans, John Michael Montgomery and Gary LeVox of the group Rascal Flatts also use Auto-Tune to fix pitch problems. However, other country music singers, such as Loretta Lynn, Allison Moorer, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Martina McBride, and Patty Loveless, have refused to use Auto-Tune.
YouTube musical group The Gregory Brothers have joined their original music tracks with Auto-Tuned versions of mundane evening news video clips, making fun of everyone from President Barack Obama to Antoine Dodson. The popularity of their YouTube channel led the Gregory Brothers to release many of their songs on iTunes.
In 2002, the CD "Miss Fortune" by singer-songwriter Allison Moorer was released with a sticker stating that "Absolutely no vocal tuning or pitch correction was used in the making of this record". At the 51st Grammy Awards in early 2009, the band Death Cab for Cutie wore blue ribbons to protest the use of Auto-Tune in the music industry. Later that spring, Jay-Z named the lead single of his album "The Blueprint 3" as "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". Jay-Z said that far too many people had jumped on the Auto-Tune bandwagon and that the trend had become a gimmick. Christina Aguilera appeared in public in Los Angeles on August 10, 2009 wearing a T-shirt that read, "Auto Tune is for Pussies". However, when interviewed by Sirius/XM, she said that Auto-Tune wasn't bad if used "..in a creative way". She said her album "Bionic" uses the technology and highlighted "Elastic Love" being a product of it.
Opponents of the plug-in argue Auto-Tune people will not treat musicians with respect in they need help to stay in tune. A "Chicago Tribune" report from 2003 states that "many successful mainstream artists in most genres of music—perhaps a majority of artists—are using pitch correction".
In 2004, "The Daily Telegraph" music critic Neil McCormick called Auto-Tune a "particularly sinister invention that has been putting extra shine on pop vocals since the 1990s" by taking "a poorly sung note and transpos[ing] it, placing it dead center of where it was meant to be".
In 2009, "Time" magazine quoted an unnamed Grammy-winning recording engineer as saying, "Let's just say I've had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums. And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through the box." The same article hoped "that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade", commenting that pop-music songs are sounding the same, as "track after track has perfect pitch." Timothy Powell, a producer/engineer stated in 2003 that he is "even starting to see vocal tuning devices show up in concert settings"; he states that "That's more of an ethical dilemma—people pay a premium dollar to see artists and artists want people to see them at their best."
The American television series "Glee" uses Auto-Tune in its songs. E! Online's Joal Ryan criticized the show for its "overproduced soundtrack", in particular, complaining that many songs rely too heavily on the software.
In 2010, there was controversy when British television reality TV show, "The X Factor" had been accused of using Auto-Tune to improve the voices of contestants, especially Gamu Nhengu. Simon Cowell ordered a ban on Auto-Tune for future episodes.
Masai Mara
Masai Mara National Reserve is a National Park in Kenya, East Africa. It was established in 1948 as a wildlife sanctuary, and has been made larger since then.
Masai Mara is a game reserve type of park, meant to protect the animals on the savannah of the Serengeti. It is named after the Maasi people, who are the traditional people of the area. Big as it is, the Masai Mara National Reserve is only a fraction of the Greater Mara Ecosystem.