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Digital Schwarzenegger Set For New 'Terminator' 309

Posted by samzenpus from the he-said-he'd-be-back dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Governator revealed this week that he may appear in the upcoming 'Terminator Salvation,' but when he said he didn't want to act, he left many fans scratching their heads. Turns out Schwarzenegger has been secretly working with helmer McG and the effects team to reprise his signature role ... without lifting a finger. 'I made it very clear that I don't have the time to do the movie,' says Schwarzenegger. 'I said that I would be willing to be in the movie if they get the technology together, and so they are working on that right now.' A body-cast mold of Schwarzenegger, created when he first appeared as the muscle-ripped cyborg, provided the basis for a digital-effects version of his famous character so the figure can appear in 'Terminator Salvation' as a living, breathing actor. Warner first screens the movie in early May, and opens it May 21. 'I think it's cool to continue on with the franchise ... in case I want to jump over again and get into the acting after I'm through here,' adds Schwarzenegger."
The Courts

Swedish ISP Deletes Customer ID Info 177

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the putting-tread-on-the-slippery-slope dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A Swedish internet service provider, Bahnhof, has begun deleting customer identification information in order to prevent it from being used as evidence against its customers under Sweden's new legislation against copyright infringement via peer-to-peer file sharing. According to this report on 'The Local,' it is entirely legal for it to do so. The company's CEO, Jon Karlung, is identified as 'a vociferous opponent of the measures that came into force on April 1st,' and is quoted saying that he is determined to protect the company's clients, and that 'It's about the freedom to choose, and the law makes it possible to retain details. We're not acting in breach of IPRED; we're following the law and choosing to destroy the details.'"
Spam

The Ecological Impact of Spam 176

Posted by Soulskill from the hello-sir-madam dept.
krou writes "A new study entitled 'The Carbon Footprint of Spam' (PDF) published by ICF International and commissioned by McAfee claims that spam uses around 33 billion kilowatt hours of energy annually, which is approximately enough to power 2.4 million US homes (or roughly 3.1 million cars) for a year. They calculated that the average CO2 emission for a spam email is around 0.3 grams. Interestingly, the majority of energy usage (around 80%) comes from users viewing and deleting spam, and searching for legitimate emails within spam filters. They also claim that 'An individual company can find that one fifth of the energy budget of its email system is wasted on spam.' One of the report's authors, Richi Jennings, writes on his blog that 'spam filtering actually saves an incredible amount of energy.' He continues, 'Imagine if every inbox were protected by a state-of-the-art spam filter. We could save about 75% of the spam energy used today — 25 TWh per year; that's like taking 2.3 million cars off the road.""
Sony

LittleBigPlanet Delayed Due To Qur'an-Sampling Audio 995

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the always-check-your-sources dept.
Several readers have pointed out that Sony's much-awaited LittleBigPlanet has hit a snag and will be delayed worldwide. The delay came after it was discovered that a song licensed for use in the soundtrack contained audio samples from the Qur'an. All advanced copies sent to retailers for the target release of October 21 in North America, 22 in PAL territories, and 24 in the UK and Ireland, have been recalled. "The post, by user 'Solid08', indicates of the specific references in the composition: 'In the 18th second: "kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: "Every soul shall have the taste of death' ... almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "kollo man alaiha fan", literally: "All that is on earth will perish."'"
Earth

Removing CO2 From the Air Efficiently 487

Posted by kdawson from the install-anywhere dept.
Canadian scientists have created a device that efficiently removes CO2 from the atmosphere. "The proposed air capture system differs from existing carbon capture and storage technology ... while CCS involves installing equipment at, say, a coal-fired power plant to capture CO2 produced during the coal-burning process, ... air capture machines will be able to literally remove the CO2 present in ambient air everywhere. [The team used] ... a custom-built tower to capture CO2 directly from the air while requiring less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of carbon dioxide."
Biotech

Pope Denounces Some Biotech as Affront to 'Human Dignity' 1158

Posted by Zonk from the weighing-in dept.
eldavojohn writes "Today in a speech the pope denounced human cloning, embryonic stem cell research and artificial insemination, citing them as a violation of 'human dignity.' That said, the pope did 'appreciate and encourage' research on stem cells from non-embryonic cells in the human body. The pope encouraged the Vatican to be a leading voice in the philosophy and discussion of bioethics. 'Church teaching certainly cannot and must not weigh in on every novelty of science, but it has the task to reiterate the great values which are on the line and to propose to faithful and all men of good will ethical-moral principles and direction for new, important questions,' Benedict said."

The Future of Love and Sex - Robots 510

Posted by Zonk from the oh-robot-girlfriend dept.
nem75 writes "The New York Times has a review of British AI researcher David Levy's book 'Love and Sex with Robots'. He claims that within a span of about 50 years the day will come when people could actually fall in love with life-like robots. While this may seem far fetched at first, he has some pretty interesting views. 'He begins with what scientists know about why humans fall in love with other humans. There are 10 factors, he writes, including mystery, reciprocal liking, and readiness to enter a relationship. Why can't these factors apply to robots, too?' The case he builds goes much further though, and certainly provides food for thought." Update: 12/14 16:16 GMT by Z : This article is very similar to a discussion we had recently.
Biotech

Crime Reduction Linked To Lead-Free Gasoline 616

Posted by kdawson from the getting-the-lead-out dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Even low levels of lead can cause brain damage, increasing the likelihood of behavioral and cognitive traits such as impulsivity, aggressiveness, and low IQ that are strongly linked with criminal behavior. The NYTimes has a story on how the phasing out of leaded gasoline starting with the Clean Air Act in 1973 may have led to a 56% drop in violent crime in the US in the 1990s. An economics professor at Amherst College, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, discovered the connection and wrote a paper comparing the reduction of lead from gasoline between states (PDF) and the reduction of violent crime. She constructed a table linking crime rates in every state to childhood lead exposure in that state 20 or 30 years earlier. If lead poisoning is a factor in the development of criminal behavior, then countries that didn't switch to unleaded fuel until the 1980s, like Britain and Australia, should soon see a dip in crime as the last lead-damaged children outgrow their most violent years."
Science

James Hansen on the Warmest Year Brouhaha 743

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the hot-or-not dept.
Jamie writes "In response to earlier reports, Dr. James Hansen, top climate scientist with NASA, has issued a statement on the recent global warming data correction. He points out 'the effect on global temperature was of order one-thousandth of a degree, so the corrected and uncorrected curves are indistinguishable.' In a second email he shows maps of U.S. temperatures relative to the world in 1934 and 1998, explains why the error occurred (it was not, as reported, a 'Y2K bug') and, in response to errors by 'Fox, Washington Times, and their like,' attacks the 'deceit' of those who 'are not stupid [but] seek to create a brouhaha and muddy the waters in the climate change story.'"

Feed Report Urges Greater Regulation Of Virtual Economies (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
As governments continue to wrestle with the question of how to regulate virtual worlds, a new report out of the UK is urging the government to regulate in-game finances as it would regulate transactions in the real world. In particular, the group is concerned that virtual worlds like Second Life will be used for tax evasion and money laundering. This actually sounds like a reasonable concern since the increasing size and sophistication of these virtual economies should make it easier to move large amounts of money between various parties in a way that can't easily be tracked. Given the growth of these economies, a certain level of government regulation is simply inevitable. The question, then, is how should the government frame this regulation. It would not be surprising to see governments treat Second Life (and its ilk) as quasi-banks, and require them to keep some information about who is "depositing" assets. There will be some objections to this based on privacy grounds, but then these objections could just as easily apply to the government's oversight of the broader financial sector. What would be unreasonable is if the government actually starts to intervene in the gameplay itself. For example, something like in-game theft, whereby one avatar steals assets from another, may look untoward, but it would be a mistake for the government to treat such actions as actual theft. Ideally, those issues would be left up to the virtual world itself. Again, there's little to no chance that governments around the world won't, over time, step up their regulation of virtual worlds. Knowing how government operates, these regulations will almost certainly produce negative unintended consequences. The best hope is that the governments gain a fairly good understanding of the issues so as to minimize the harm caused.

Feed Austin-area Scouts aim to smear model rocket launching record (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The 1,000 hand-painted model rockets that Austin-area Cub Scout Pack 990 and Boy Scout Troop 990 are aiming to launch some 500 to 1,000-feet in the sky today aren't as technically sophisticated as some we've seen, but raising over $8,000 in an attempt to obliterate the current record of 399 is something to salute. Rather than pocketing the funds and heading off to Philmont or using this fine weekend to complete that 50-miler via canoe, these two crews have their sights set on deploying a full thousand rockets within five seconds of each other in order to firmly establish a new world record. Interestingly enough, the event has drawn such buzz around the area that Congressman Michael McCaul and Austin City Council Member Lee Leffingwell will actually be speaking at the venue before watching the fireworks -- and if any of you just happen to be in the area with a few extra frames left on your digicam, grab a few shots, will ya? Oh, and we recognize that true Scouts already know the motto, but considering the pyrotechnics you're playing with on this one, we're really stressing that "be prepared" bit.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Students bring Pong and lasers together at last (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming


When it comes to DIY projects, there are few surer ways to impress than crafting a unique interpretation of Pong -- something that's been attempted many, many times in the past. Now, a group of students at Cornell University have devised what may just be the most impressive bit of Pong hackery to date, unveiling their so-called "Wall of Pong" for the world to see (and be jealous of). At the center of the system is a moveable laser projection platform that throws the necessary dot onto any flat surface, which the two players can then bat around using actual paddles. From the looks of it, the speed of the ball is somewhat limited by how fast the motorized projector is able to move (check it out in action by hitting the read link below), although it still seems to be capable of providing a satisfying ehough game. Best of all, the entire cost of the project was under fifty bucks, although it sadly looks to be beyond the reach of all but the most seasoned DIY-ers.

[Via SlashGear]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Comment From One Montana Guy To Another (Score 2, Insightful) 67

by MTDilbert (#18960481) Attached to: Creating a Full-Time Sysadmin Position at a School?
Think about the situation here in Montana:
  1. The legislature didn't get a budget out yet.
  2. There are still serious questions about school funding; who's paying for what and how much, and if they way they're doing it is constituational
  3. Schools are having a tougher time passing levies for operations, so they're really going to be touchy on the bottom line
I'm not saying it can't be done; just that it's going to be a seriously uphill battle.

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