Media and Entertainment
A new study finds that Teen-rated video games contain significant amounts of violence and death. Using a random sample of 81 video games rated T (for Teen) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), study authors characterized game content related to violence, blood, and weapons. They found violence in 98 percent of games, representing 36 percent of game play time, and blood depicted in 42 percent of games. Deaths from violence occurred in 77 percent of games, at an average rate of 122 deaths per hour of game play, with half of deaths involving human characters.
The play starts, the quarterback passes deep for a gain of 30 yards, and?. And now the wait: Players walk to the new line of scrimmage, coaches make substitutions, and announcers chatter to fill the minutes where nothing happens on the field. Half a football game is spent not doing football. A new program developed by researchers, however, can delete the boring, playless minutes and create a game summary that is full of nothing but action
A motion-tracking software called Fastrack has helped a Hollywood special effects house rapidly stitch computer graphics into several of this year's biggest movie hits. Developed by researchers at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), the Fastrack technology has helped specialists at Academy Award-winning special effects studio Rhythm & Hues drastically reduce production time for such films as X-Men 2, Daredevil, and the upcoming Dr. Seuss' 'The Cat in the Hat.'
Caltech?s top chess players will compete in their first intercollegiate match of the year when they face MIT?s chess team on Sunday, March 2. The match will be held on the Internet Chess Club, the world?s largest online chess community, and will represent the first Internet chess match ever to take place between Caltech and MIT.
William J. Mitchell, dean of the school of architecture and planning, has announced he will step down at the end of this academic year to concentrate on his new leadership role at MIT as head of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, the Media Laboratory and the International Affiliated Media Laboratories. Widely credited as a source of inspiration and guidance in plans for MIT's campus construction campaign, Mitchell will continue to serve as architectural advisor to MIT President Charles M. Vest, a position he has held since 1998.
Whether you fancy yourself a jet-setting sophisticate or a down-to-earth outdoorsy type, a fast-track corporate star or an all-around nice guy, new research indicates that you probably tune out information that challenges your self-image by tuning in to television. "We each have ways in which we like to perceive ourselves," said one of the lead researchers. "In many cases self-image is carefully constructed and zealously guarded, and it's difficult to experience a conflict between who we are and who we would like to be. Television appears to be an effective means of reducing awareness of how we are falling short of our own standards."
Race, gender and other social factors may explain why some parents allow their children to play with toy guns, while others shudder at the thought, according to a report in the January issue of Pediatrics. Almost 70 percent of parents surveyed felt it was "never OK" for a parent to let a child play with toy guns. The parents who allowed their children to play with toy guns were more likely to be male, with male children, and Caucasian. Families with younger children and mothers were more likely to limit toy gun play. In general, researchers found the gender and age of the child, gender of the parent, and race of the family factored significantly into parents' attitudes about allowing their children to play with toy guns.
Japan's Nintendo built its reputation on cheery games for children. But seeking a bigger chunk of the adult market, the purveyors of the Mario Bros. series and Pokemon are adding zombies, strippers and gunmen to the menu, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's a shift in resources that carries some risk. The keep-it-clean approach has made Nintendo one of the few good guys in an industry criticized for violence, the Journal notes. And that has translated into big bucks. "In his 21-year life as a game character, Super Mario has grossed more money globally -- $7 billion in software sales -- than the combined take of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson at box offices around the world." But times change. Fearing erosion in market share thanks to Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo over the next two months will spend $140 million to market videogames to American teens and 20-somethings, including promotions in nightclubs and tie-ins with brewer Heineken NV and others. New games will be edgier, sexier and more violent.
New Scientist reports on a year-long study to find the world's funniest joke. The Internet-based project was coordinated by psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire, U.K. and involved more than 2 million votes on 40,000 submissions. The goal was to identify universal aspects to humor, which could one day allow computers to devise truly funny jokes. Before we get to the winner, an interesting aside is that the team found in the process the world's funniest animal: the duck. "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck," Wiseman says. Now to the ultimate rib-tickler, which folks from Asia to Africa, the States to Siberia all seemed to enjoy. A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm soothing voice, says: "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: "OK, now what?" Thank you folks, I'll be here all week.
Ever woken and wondered, "Is Galileo's experiment on falling bodies cooler than Millikan's oil-drop test?" Ponder no more. Physics World has solved the problem, polling its readers on the Top 10 most beautiful experiments in physics. The overall winner? A combined effort: Claus J?nsson's 1961 application --- on the interference of single electrons --- of Young's double-slit experiment.
Because the idiot box at chez Science Blog is slowly dying (and was never DVD-compatible in the first place) we've been pricing new sets for the last couple months. Conclusion: Flat-panel, plasma televisions are the coolest and costliest around. The models on display at Fry's, BestBuy and elsewhere tend to be around four-inches thick, between 36- and 42-inches wide diagonally, and possessing the sleek proportions of a movie screen. Price? Try a cool $13,000. If forking over a down payment on a home just to watch reruns of Law & Order makes you blanch --- but something deep inside still insists on the latest tech gadgetry --- sit tight, says the Wall Street Journal. Prices on plasma screen TVs are dropping fast, as manufacturers like Sharp, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Samsung are flooding the market with their products, and even dowdy old Sears Roebuck has plans to start carrying the machines. Now granted, they'll still set you back plenty. But sets that once cost better than $10,000 will soon be available for less than half that, the Journal says. And if previous color television pricing is any indication, the technology may be within reach of underpaid columnists by the end of the decade.
From Barney W. Greinke in Berkeley:
"When people point out the great technological accomplishments of the 20th century, they usually think it's the big things that are the most important ones. The atom bomb, jet airplanes, the Salk vaccine, electronic computing, DNA, men on the moon.
"How incredibly wrong they are.
It's Huggy Bear, baby. That's all you need to know. Courtesy of the fantastic Snoop Doggy Blog.
Record companies will probably get the current standard CD to disappear over the next decade in favor of a new format that makes digital copying impossible without much hassle/hacking by the end user. But that won't stop the trade of MP3s, or whatever successor format consumers choose. The ability to copy music once it reaches the analog stage in your stereo or PC will always exist. And that output can be stored digitally. At its most rudimentary this can involve connecting your stereo's AUX or headphone jack to your PC's microphone port. More sophisticated is software like TotalRecorder, which captures music on your PC from CDs, Internet radio or just about any other source, intercepting the signal as it heads out of your sound card and to your speakers.
