Video - Eerrrhhh... Kirsten Dunst does cover of "Turning Japanese"

Sure the out fit is kinda cute.. err, well just short really... but good god. I think I'm turning green...

Congratulations Hilary Duff on your Engagement!! lol

Ohhh... how romantic. Down on one knee, a perfect private moment.....there's nothing like young love with the paparazzi looking on....

Tech News - CERN on trial: could a lawsuit shut the LHC down?

COURTS and legal scholars love quoting legal maxims in Latin. One of the most famous is fiat justitia ruat caelum. The phrase is a resolute affirmation of the rule of law. It means "Let justice be done though the heavens fall".

It was intended as hyperbole. But, ironically, courts may now have to confront these words on literal terms. In various countries, plaintiffs have sought court orders to halt the operation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, with the most extraordinary of allegations: that the experiment may create a black hole that will devour the Earth.

Up until now, the various lawsuits filed against the LHC have faltered. But if the right kind of claim is filed in the proper court, a judge may soon have to face the question of whether an injunction might be needed to save the world.

Injunctions are court orders that command persons to do or refrain from doing something. They are relatively routine, for example when a building of historic significance is threatened with demolition. But wading into the world of particle physics to shut down the LHC would be a forbidding proposition for anyone in judges' robes.

In deciding whether or not to issue an injunction, courts engage in what lawyers refer to as a "balancing test". The idea is that the court weighs the hardships that would be endured by both parties if the injunction were or were not issued, taking into account the likelihood and severity of the alleged consequences. The test closely resembles what is portrayed by courthouse statues around the world - Lady Justice holding up scales to measure the relative weight of the plaintiff's and defendant's cases. full article...

Video - Muppets hit the internets!

Oh yeah, Beaker is back baby... Hello Muppet Studios, good to have you on the scene again and invading the internets with a kinda new Youtube site.

Tech News - US Creates IP Police

Attorney General Eric Holder Friday announced the creation of a Justice Department intellectual property task force to better tackle domestic and international piracy and other IP crimes. "The rise in intellectual property crime in the United States and abroad threatens not only our public safety but also our economic well being," Holder said in a statement. "This Task Force will allow us to identify and implement a multi-faceted strategy with our federal, state and international partners to effectively combat this type of crime."

The task force, which will be headed by the deputy attorney general, will focus on improving coordination with state, local and international law enforcement officials and monitoring and coordinating the department's IP enforcement efforts with increased attention to the link between IP crimes and international organized crime. In addition, the task force will help formulate new policies aimed at addressing the evolving technological and legal issue surrounding IP crimes.

The department said the new task force emerged out of a White House meeting hosted by Vice President Biden in December, which included Holder and other members of the president's Cabinet as well as executives from the movie studios, record companies, book publishers and television networks. Biden said in a statement that the Obama administration "is committed to stronger and stricter enforcement of intellectual property rights, and this new task force is a step in the right direction."

Groups that represent copyright-based industries applauded the department's move. "We are grateful to Attorney General Holder for recognizing the importance of preventing the theft of creative content and enforcing laws against piracy," Motion Picture Association of America President and interim CEO Bob Pisano said in a statement. Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman highlighted the importance of IP enforcement, saying a 10 percent reduction in global software piracy over the next four years would "generate 600,000 new jobs and $24 billion in higher tax revenues worldwide."

But Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn urged the task force to balance consumer rights with the enforcement of IP laws, saying "it would be a mistake, and a misuse of government resources, for the department to pursue cases against non-commercial consumer activity."

source article...

The Future Of Computing. Ipod, Project Natal and now... G-Speak

by MG Siegler on Feb 16, 2010

In 2008, I attended a meeting in Madrid, Spain that featured the coolest demonstration I had ever seen. The problem was that I wasn’t allowed to talk about what I had seen because the company was still in stealth-mode. More importantly, several governments, including the U.S. government were still exploring various parts of the technology for next-generation computing systems, so parts of this were very confidential. By the end of that year, Oblong Industries had revealed itself, but still little was said about its project. Finally, people are starting to talk about it.


While we may not have been at this year’s TED conference, apparently, Oblong was. And apparently, it wowed the crowd. And it should have. If you’ve seen the movie Minority Report, you’ve seen the system they’re building.

No, really. The co-founder of Oblong, John Underkoffler, is the man who came up with the gesture-based interface used in the Steven Spielberg movie. And now he’s building it in real life.

The demo I saw a couple years ago was stunning, but it was still just a video. Apparently, at TED, the audience got to see it in action. NYT’s Bits blog detailed some of it in a post yesterday. For those not at TED, Oblong has also made a few demo videos in the past, which I’ll embed below. Again, this is Minority Report.

Oblong’s coming out party couldn’t come at a better time. Following the unveiling of Apple’s iPad, there has been a lot of talk about the future of computing at a fundamental level. That is to say, after decades of dominance by the keyboard and mouse, we’re finally talking about other, more natural, methods of input. The iPad is one step to a multi-touch gesture system (as is this 10/GUI awesome demo), but this Oblong system is the next step beyond that.
Other systems, including Microsoft’s Project Natal for Xbox, are promising similar types of gesture interaction as soon as this year. But the reality is that a system anywhere near this solid is probably still years out. Minority Report, the movie, takes place in 2054, for example. And while that is just a movie, Spielberg instructed the people working on the tech for it to really try to come up with what they thought we’d be using in that time. That said, Underkoffler told Bits that “I think in five years’ time, when you buy a computer, you’ll get this.” Of course, that’s the entrepreneur talking.For now, I’ll just have to continue to dream about using a computer like they do in Minority Report. But the dream is getting closer, it seems.



g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.



oblong's tamper system 1801011309 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

thanks to techcrunch... Oh and Ash

Zero Punctuation: Mass Effect 2

Video - Super Mario World synced to Queen

Very nerdy, but also very cool video...



 This one on the other hand just adds to the mountain of evidence that people have too much time on their hands.

Video - Top 10 cartoon theme songs from the 80's

Well I did love Dinosaucers .... but where the hell is Gummi Bears??!?!



ooohhh Tummy...

Or Duck Tales...?!?!

Gaming News - Final Fantasy VII Style Difficult to Translate to HD,

Square Enix Says Developer says conventional towns in particular are difficult to render in high-def, part of the reason FFXIII is more linear than most.

No, Square Enix isn't working on a Final Fantasy VII remake right now. They apparently have their reasons for ignoring a potential mountain of cash though, starting with this one -- it would be hard to make.
In a recent interview with Ultimania magazine (via Lost Gamer), producer Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama noted that part of the reason Final Fantasy XIII lacks towns is that they are difficult to design for high-definition graphics.

"It is a result of considering HD graphics will be the mainstream. Considering the amount of work to make graphics that deserve HD, it is hard to make towns in the conventional style," Toriyama said.
"In the limited period of development time, to convey the the great story that deserves the name of Final Fantasy, and to convey the battles that entertain players enough, we condensed each element."

Kitase added that this same problem applies to any potential Final Fantasy VII remake, "It is very hard to make games on PlayStation 3 in the same style as the games in that era had. Making graphics will take enormous time."
Rumors of a Final Fantasy VII remake started with the famous tech demo above, which was created to show what was possible on the PS3 before it launched. Square Enix has denied such rumors on numerous occasions, but they persist to this day.

At the moment, Square Enix is preparing for the release of Final Fantasy XIII, with FFXIV to follow sometime soon. Once those games are out of the gate, maybe we can start thinking about an FFVII remake.

source article...

Video - Mass Effect 2 Fuuny moments

I'm most of the way through the epic space adventure and I've had a few moments in the game that I had to find on the internets. The below videos are some out of context that showcase the charm and intelligence of the games designers.

Zero Punctuation: Borderland

Funny Video - Death Metal Cat

Running on the same silly theme.... Death Metal Cat

Game News - Bioshock 2 released today!

If you're unsure about purchasing this epic Aussie deigned title then here's a few vids to tantalize your eyeballs




9 Minute Walkthrough with BS2's creative Director - Hunting the Big Sister.


 Multiplayer Orientation Video


Multiplayer interview with Producer Lesley Milner (and douchie reporter)

Tech News - The Top Selling Video Games of the 2000s (Single & Multiplatform)

1
Wii Sports Nintendo Wii
58.4 (US) million(sales)

2
Wii Play Nintendo Wii
26.53 (US) million(sales)


3
Nintendogs Nintendo DS
23.43 (US) million(sales)


4
Wii Fit Nintendo Wii

22.50 (US) million(sales)

5
New Super Mario Bros DS Nintendo DS

20.92 (US) million(sales)

6
Mario Kart Wii Nintendo Wii

20.71 (US) million(sales)

7
Brain Age Nintendo DS

18.73 (US) million(sales)

8
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Take Two PS20
18.15 (US) million(sales)

9
Pokemon Gold/Silver Nintendo GB

18.02 (US) million(sales)

10
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Nintendo DS

17.35(US) million(sales)

Full article...

Funny Ass Video - Death Metal Rooster

Now that's some funny shit...

John Stuart Interiew with Ian O'Reilly on Fox News.

It sure does frustrate, but it seems that Ian O'Reilly has calmed down over the years and seems to be a vague voice of reason over on America's most popular news network.

Zero Punctuation: Dark Void

Tech News - IINET WINS! Hollywood will have to try another angle.

In a groundbreaking result, IINET have won their court case against the media alliance (involving such companies as Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as the Seven Network.) The world's nerds have been watching this case for the past two years and it may well set precedents for future actions. The studios argued that iiNet should have taken "reasonable steps" to act on infringement notices that contained internet addresses of computers using the ISP's service to allegedly share illegal movies and music on peer-to-peer file networks.

And it was the first Australian Trial to be covered by twitter.. If you care about that sort of thing.

Australia's Whirlpool's forum has been going off tap about the news...

Read the full story here... Sydney Morning Herald

and here's a summery of event's from ZDNet.com.au in a fancy graphical form.

Macquarie Bank Employee Fired after checking out Porn on Ch7...

I've been waiting for something like this to happen for years. An economist at the Macquarie bank was caught out in the background of a live Finance cross with Ch 7's Chris Bath. Right near the end of the below video you can tell that the guy cottoned that he was live on Australian TV far too late to save his job. I guess that those new pics of Miranda Kerr were just too good to pass up.I know that my interest rate went up... lol

The full interview...

Bank Worker Caught Looking at Porn on Live News TV Broadcast
by lelalexandermurioz

Twitter-esk Version ...


In a media whore move The Daily Telegraph follow up the story by accosting Miranda Kerr as she got off of the plane into Sydney later in the week asking her what she thought of the faux pas. linky... (click on the second video)

Hollywood Celebs Recreate Scenes from their most famous films...

More....

Zero Punctuation: Bayonetta

What if Tony Soprano voiced Where the Wild Things Are...