New Avatar! The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra Trailer

I’m still kicking myself for missing yesterday’s Comic-Con panel for The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra, but at least we can all now feast in the trailer that premiered there. As a huge fan of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender, I’m happy to report that Korra looks like a gorgeous and mature follow-up.

The trailer opens up with some epic imagery, including a giant statue of a grown-up Aang (the original series’ main character), and a flying bison (no clue if it’s Appa). We see Korra, the new Avatar, leaving her home in the Southern Water Tribe and making her way to the United Republic. That city was founded by Aang and Zuko (the tortured “evil” prince from the first series) as a place meant for members of all tribes to live, our friends over atUGO reported from the panel.

We also see several action beats in the trailer, and it looks like the choreography will be even more intricate this time around. The animation also appears to be improved over the original Airbender series — it seems more on the level of a big-budget anime TV series like Full Metal Alchemist now.

Unlike Aang, Korra seems to be a thorough badass with an attitude — a nice shift that hints things will be more mature in this series. Her main animal pal is a polar bear dog (yup) named Naga, and the creators say flying lemurs will also make an appearance at some point.

The villains of the series are an anti-bending group, “The Equalists”, who are led by a mysterious masked man named Oman (seen at the end of the trailer). His henchman use Chi Blocking techniques (similar to Ty Lee from the original series), according to The Last Airbender online.

Toph, the Earthbender from the original series who discovered the Metalbending technique, is now traveling the world creating an elite Metalbending SWAT team. Toph’s daughter is the chief of police in the city, where she manages a team of Metalbending cops.

The panel also revealed that Aang and Katara had three kids, though Tenzin (voiced by J.K. Simmons) is the only Airbender. He has three kids of his own who are all Airbenders (plus another on the way). Music in the series will once again be handled by The Track Team, and they say the music will sound as if New Orleans-style Jazz was invented in China during the 1920s.

Unfortunately, there’s still no premiere date for Legend of Korra. To tide you over until then, check out the screenshots I grabbed from the trailer below.

Looks more adult and more anime to me, brilliant!

Jaume Collet-Serra in Talks For WB’s Rebudgeted Live-Action ‘Akira’

Is the live-action Akira dead, or is it not? That status has been a big question markmore than once in the past couple years as directors and screenwriters have tried to develop a new Americanized live-action version of the classic manga and anime byKatsuhiro Otomo.

Now we know that the new version is very much alive, as WB is looking to Jaume Collet-Serra, the director of Orphan and the Liam Neeson action thriller Unknown, to direct Akira.

Variety has the report, saying that the budget for the film has been pulled back to about $90m — that’s down considerably from what was looking like a $150m movie in its most recent incarnation when Albert Hughes was going to direct.

It sounds as if the latest script, by Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves, is still in play. (Book of Eli writer Gary Whitta wrote an early draft, and Albert Torres and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby also wrote drafts.) The film will still be set in New Manhattan, with Variety describing the story only as following “the leader of a biker gang who saves his friend from a medical experiment.” So that’s all info that hasn’t changed in the past month or two.

And still we have zip for casting info. That will still be one of the big points of concern and curiosity for many. Based on what we know, be prepared for actors who are (a) white and (b) older than the characters in either previous incarnation of the story. If you’re not ready to accept both of those points, best to just ignore this one altogether, at least until there is some footage to demonstrate how it all turned out.

Can we predict how it might turn out based on this directorial choice? Jaume Collet-Serra’s star is certainly rising, assisted by the fact that Orphan and Unknown both performed well, with the latter turning up $130 globally on a $30m budget. That sort of frugal performer makes studios happy, and if Jaume Collet-Serra can keep that profit proportion while tripling his Unknown budget for Akira, WB will do OK.

But will the story be in good hands? I like the idea of Steve Kloves scripting as he’s proved several times that he can really condense material well. But Collet-Serra didn’t quite manage the deeply silly aspects of Unknown. Enough of Akira has the potential to also look ridiculous on screen that the wisdom of this choice will have to be proven as the project moves forward.

Thanks Slashfilm

BioShock Infinite: 15 Minutes of Gameplay Footage

Here's a new 15 minutes piece of gameplay footage from this years E3 for the upcoming Bioshock Infinite. It looks absolutely amazing and if you haven't already pre-ordered this bad boy than what are you doing still reading this blog! Go to Amazon or JBhifi now damnit!

China looking to buy a chunk of Facebook...

News surfaced yesterday that a sovereign wealth fund representing the Chinese government wants to buy a substantial amount of Facebook stock. According to anonymous sources to Business Insider, China wants to own enough of Facebook "to matter."

What does that mean? It is important to note that a sovereign wealth fund may represent a government but is not the actual government, as Business Insider reporter Nicholas Carlson points out. Is China's interest in Facebook a simply a government-sponsored group of venture capitalists looking to get a piece of the upcoming Facebook IPO or is there something more complicated at work behind the scenes?

Full article from Read Write Web...

Article from Forbes

The Map Of Human Impact On Planet Earth

This visualisation of Earth – made by anthropologist Félix Pharand – shows urban areas, shipping routes, global roads and air networks. It gives a very good idea on how big our species’ physical impact on the planet really is.

So big, in fact, that scientists are thinking about starting a new geological era: The Anthropocene.

The new era’s name (anthropo- means human and -cene means new) refers to the effect of humans on Earth ecosystems, including the transformation of terrain and life all around us. I find it a bit too cocky – since Earth could probably wipe out any evidence of our existence in a couple thousand years and not even blink – but I guess it works given the current circumstances.

Silicon Valley's secret military history

The psychedelic history of Silicon Valley is well-told in two recent fantastic books, John Markoff's What The Dormouse Said and Fred Turner's From Counterculture to Cyberculture. But there's another somewhat darker parallel history too. In this video from a 2008 talk at the Computer History Museum, Steve Blank explores the shadowy military roots of the Bay Area's high tech hub. "Secret History of Silicon Valley" (Thanks, Jacques Vallée!)

It's long so kick back and relax...

Real or Unreal,. that is the Japanese Pop question...

This is Eguchi Aimi. She’s the latest of the Japanese pop group AKB48 and a very lovely girl. But Eguchi Aimi is not what she seems. This Sunday, she shocked all her fans revealing her dark secret. You’ve to watch this.



This is Eguchi Aimi. She’s the latest of the Japanese pop group AKB48 and a very lovely girl. But Eguchi Aimi is not what she seems. This Sunday, she shocked all her fans revealing her dark secret. You’ve to watch this.

Look at this video closely. You can see the seven members of AKB48 advertising some Japanese candy. Among them, centre stage, is the lovely girl that you can see in the gallery and on top, Eguchi Aimi. She looks just like the others, all big eyes, juicy lips, perfect cheeks, cute chin, blinding smile and angelical look. Look at her sing. So cute.

The great pretender

The fact is that yes, she looks exactly like the others. Literally. The big eyes, the juicy lips, the perfect cheeks, the cute chin, the blinding smile and the angelical look belong to the other six member of AKB48. Eguchi Aimi is not a real person, she has been composed in a computer using parts from the humans in AKB48. Her fans, who are legion, just learn about it this week, when this shocking video demonstrating the process, was published in YouTube:

The synthesis and post-production that have gone into Eguchi is simply uncanny. Taking 150 gigabytes of memory, she’s the perfect example of the world we are going to head, in which men and machine, “reality” and “reality” will collide in a new way that would make humans blend into the digital world and the digital world come into the flesh and bones.

And while the Eguchi Aimi phenomenon may be just anecdotical, the fact that a synthetic creation has been able to make their fans to have crushes and feelings without them never realising she was a figment of someone’s imagination, a digital mutant mix, is not a simple anecdote. That’s very real. When people perceive such a being as real, and that being causes an emotive response in them, then that makes that character part of reality.

The fact is that all this is not science fiction anymore. It’s science. And just a matter of time before there’s a huge jump that puts together synthetic lifeforms out of the screen and into the physical world. “A new world of machines and possibilities!” as Dalí said in his futurist manifesto.

And, as we walk into this new world, I can’t help but to ask myself: Would I be able to fall in love with a synthetic being? Would you? And what will happen then, when humans and digitals collide and merge?

It’s been the subject of movies and books for most of the 20th century. But literature and film is one thing. Watching it happening right in front of you is quite different. [Singularity Hub]

New Official ‘The Hobbit’ Photos of Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey

Thank the elves that Peter Jackson is doing another Tolkien movie. I’m already feeling the hype for The Hobbit after already watching The Fellowship of the Ring extended last week and The Two Towers extended this past week in theaters. Next week is going to conclude with the debut of LOTR Trilogy on Blu-ray and Return of the King extended in theaters on Tuesday, June 28th.

Finally, our first look at the official photos of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey. Each image for The Hobbit contains Peter Jackson’s comments.

”He fits the ears, and he’s got some very nice feet,” Jackson says of his Bilbo. ”I think he’s got the biggest hobbit feet we’ve had so far. They’re a little bit hard to walk in, but he’s managed to figure out the perfect hobbit gait.”

”He’s in fantastic form,” Peter Jackson says of McKellen. ”In a way, his role in The Hobbit has more technical difficulties than Lord of the Rings did, because he has scenes with 14 smaller characters — obviously the dwarves and the hobbit are shorter… I remember saying to him [laughs], ”Look, this isn’t Waiting for Godot or King Lear. This is The Hobbit. This is the real thing.”

”There’s no way you can pace yourself for shoots like these,” Jackson says. ”When we were going through the schedule for The Hobbit, I felt a terrible drop in my stomach when I saw that we’d be shooting for 254 days. We’re only 12 days short of The Lord of the Rings even though we’re only doing two movies. When I saw that, I had to sort of pick myself up off the floor and carry on.”

The Hobbit hits theaters on December 14, 2012 and December 2013.

Source: EW

Thin film coating makes everlasting energy a piezoelectric possibility

Let's be honest, it's no big secret that we're running out of dead dinosaurs to fuel our lives. And with recent natural catastrophes proving atomic energy isn't what you'd call 'safe,' it's a good thing the researchers down at the RMIT University in Melbourne have been hard at work figuring out how to turn you into a self-sustained energy source. Marrying piezoelectrics with a thin film microchip coating, those scientists Down Under have for the first time identified just how much energy your pressure can generate. This is certainly not the first time the tech has been put to use -- Orange UK's been doing something similar, albeit bulkier, for the Glastonbury fest each year. What are some practical uses, you ask? Imagine a gym powered by a sea of workout-hamsters, each producing significant energy from the soles of their feet. Curious for more? Try a pacemaker that runs solely on blood pressure, or a laptop charged by banging out Facebook updates. Who knows, maybe even RIM can put this to use in its next Storm. Just sayin'.

Link to RMIT

Link to source article

Is The Rise Of Wearable Electronics Finally Here?

For decades I’ve wanted interesting, beautiful, and (sometimes) functional electronics on the most personal geographies of all, myself. When I think of “living in the future”, it’s what springs to mind: subtle LEDs, lots of polished metal.

Here are some milestones, mistakes, and projects in the world of wearable electronics. From geeky watches to wearable music players – I’ve always wanted to utilise my wrist real estate to my shoes for electronics of some kind. Many of the “wearables” I’m going to share are from my project archives, some are now “real,” and others are products that are out now. I think we’re finally entering an era where wearable electronics can look good and work well.

Top image via Jlndrr on Flickr

As my friend Bryce recently said:

As the price for enabling components drops, always-on connectivity in our pockets and purses increases, and access to low-cost manufacturing resources and know-how rises we’ll see innovation continue to push into these most personal forms of computing. From pedometers to cufflinks and from connected ski goggles to connected watches the rise of the wearables is upon us…

Now, this is a long article so I won't post it all here now.. check out the full thing here.

Link Invades Minecraft In Zelda Adventure

We've posted a ton of Minecraft mods since the remarkable game's inception, but this is the first that really resembles a game. Minecraft modder Gary520 has crafted a world inspired by The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past, complete with memorable locations, weapons, and of course, Link.

Gary520 says we can expect over 10 hours of gameplay, 8 dungeons, and tons of secrets. Check out the trailer below:

Merge 3000 Photos Of One Single Sport Event?

That’s what Peter Langenhahn does. He goes to a sport event, takes about 3,000 photos, and then picks around 300 to create a 100-gigabyte image over the course of three months. The results are fun and very neat.

Peter says that when you combine all those photos together—all taken from the same point of view through the whole event—you get very unique perspective that complete erases the time variable. People from different points in time sharing the same space, interacting with each other in the funniest way.

Someone should do this with super-high definition video. Pronto.

Link to the original article and here's Pete's site

Scientists Create First Memory Expansion For Brain

Imagine you can insert a memory card in your brain and go all Keanu Wow, I know Jiu-Jitsu! Reeves. It’s actually not that far away: Scientists have created a chip that allows rats to instantly know things. It’s amazing.

After studying the chemical interactions that allow short-term learning and memorisation in rats, a group of scientists lead by Dr Theodore Berger – from the University of South California’s Viterbi School of Engineering – have built a prosthetic chip that uses electrodes to enhance and expand their memory abilities. The chip is capable of storing neural signals, basically functioning as an electronic memory, allowing rats to learn more and keep it in the devices.

Dr Berger’s description is almost frightening:

“Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget [...] These integrated experimental modelling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes.

The team’s experiments – which have been in a paper called “A Cortical Neural Prosthesis for Restoring and Enhancing Memory” – could lead to the development of devices that may help people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, stroke or other brain injuries. In fact, they are already working on the next step: Reproduce the same result in monkeys.

As someone who has had family affected by Alzheimer and other diseases, I really hope they succeed. As someone who would like to have the entire IMDB in his brain, I really hope they succeed too. [PR Newswire]

Terry Pratchett initiates assisted suicide process

This is a very sad time for MonkeyM's all time favorite author.... we here at Tapemonkey send our best thoughts to The Arch Archchancellor of British Fantasy.

Beloved science fiction and fantasy writer Terry Pratchett has terminal early-onset Alzheimer's. He's determined to have the option of choosing the time and place of his death, rather than enduring the potentially horrific drawn-out death that Alzheimer's sometimes brings. But Britain bans assisted suicide, and Pratchett is campaigning to have the law changed. As part of this, he has visited Switzerland's Dignitas clinic, an assisted suicide facility, with a BBC camera crew, as part of a documentary will include Britain's first televised suicide. Pratchett took home Dignitas's assisted suicide consent forms.

He said: "The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish."

But he stressed that he was as yet still undecided whether he would eventually take his own life.

He said he changed his mind "every two minutes" but added that if he did choose to die would prefer to do so in England and in the sunshine.

Sir Terry, creator of the Discworld novels, was 60 when he was diagnosed with terminal condition and has since campaigned passionately for a change in the law to allow assisted suicide in Britain.

Source...

Another Peek At BioShock Infinite Explains How Everything Went To Hell On Columbia

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By Michael McWhertor on June 17, 2011 at 8:20 AM

One of the big brains behind next year’s BioShock Infinite walks us through the back story of this layered, alternate history shooter, another chance to (at the very least) see more footage of this exciting BioShock spin-off.

Irrational Games’ Ken Levine explains the war between the Founders and the Vox Populi, the factions that have turned the once glorious flying city of Columbia into a globe-trotting disaster. Irrational peppers in some footage you might not have seen before, moments culled from our pre-E3 walkthrough of BioShock Infinite.

If you prefer your developer diary things a bit more action packed, perhaps you’d like to learn more about BioShock Infinite‘s skylines?

We’re still at least five months and change from the release of BioShock Infinite on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so you’d better settle in for a slow drip feed of content from next year’s game.

MonkeyM666's Cosplay Party

Henchman 21, Zoidburg, Luigi Costumes and the rest all showed... Costumes a go go.

E3 2011: New Nintendo Console Announced the Wii: U

This years E3 coverage is already pretty hardware heavy and with the expected announcement of the Nintendo's new console, the Wii: U. Check it out...



and hands on baby...



Even though in the tech demo there are some amazing looking games, it seems that America president Reggie Fils-Aime has told GameTrailers that the footage – of games like Ghost Recon and Darksiders II – was instead culled from the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the games.

Launches: 2012

Size: Approximately 1.8 inches tall, 6.8 inches wide and 10.5 inches long.

New Controller: The new controller incorporates a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touch screen and traditional button controls, including two analog Circle Pads. This combination removes the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world. The rechargeable controller includes a Power button, Home button, +Control Pad, A/B/X/Y buttons, L/R buttons and ZL/ZR buttons. It includes a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, rumble feature, camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, a sensor strip and a stylus.

Other Controls: Up to four Wii Remote (or Wii Remote Plus) controllers can be connected at once.
The new console supports all Wii controllers and input devices, including the
Nunchuk controller, Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro and Wii Balance
Board.

Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density
optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.

Video Output: Supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. Compatible cables include HDMI,
component, S-video and composite.

Audio Output: Uses AV Multi Out connector. Six-channel PCM linear output through HDMI.

Storage: The console will have internal flash memory, as well as the option to expand its
memory using either an SD memory card or an external USB hard disk drive.

CPU: IBM Power-based multi-core microprocessor.

Other: Four USB 2.0 connector slots are included. The new console is backward compatible
with Wii games and Wii accessories.

Itty bitty 3D printer

High-quality 3D printing at home has just come one step closer. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria have presented the smallest 3D printer to date. At the size of a carton of milk and weighs 1.5 kilograms, it currently costs around €1,200 but the makers expect the price to drop quickly.

E3 2011: Minecraft coming to XBOX 360 & Kinect

Now you can actually punch trees to gather wood!

Despite the presence of an imitator or two, indie hit game Minecraft has remained where it started - on the PC. At Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference, though, the Xbox 360 maker announced that Mojang's building-block phenomenon would be coming to consoles exclusively for Xbox.

Minecraft would also support Kinect's motion-control system, said Microsoft. Presumably gamers will be able to use gestures to get a workout digging holes into the earth, building homes and palaces, and running the hell away from Creepers before they blow up.

We've already seen Kinect hacked into Minecraft, so it really shouldn't be surprising to see it happen the other way around, either.

Of course, Sony isn't totally screwed by the Minecraft devotees - the indie smash hit will be making its smartphone debut on Sony's Xperia Play.

Read our E3 2011 Microsoft liveblog here.Thanks Escapist...

E3 2011: Playstation 3D TV! Sub $500US with all the trimmings...

Want a 3D display? How about a 3D display with PlayStation logo on it? Today at Sony’s E3 press conference, the electronics giant unveiled a PlayStation branded 3D display.

The 24-inch display is specifically developed for PS3 owners, and according to Sony, it is perfect for dorm rooms and family rooms. Thanks to stereoscopic glasses, the display can show two different images to players, instead of split screens.

The monitor is bundled with 3D glasses, a 1.8m HDMI cable and Resistance 3 – over $US150 in value just for the accessories, Sony said.

The bundle is priced at $US499, with extra 3D glasses retailing for $US69.99. The PlayStation 3D display will go on sale later in the year.

Source article...

E3 2011: HALO 4 ANNOUNCED!

Out of the blue and totally expected (but maybe not this quickly) Microsoft have announced a new Halo game. Check it out!

Strangest and most fun game weapon of all time...

With the new Red Faction game out and about it time to check out one of the strangest weapons in gaming existence. Please welcome Mr Toots!!


and it's getting so popular that some very cool fan vids are being produced as well.

Minecraft Documentary Wants Your Story

A feature-length documentary on Minecraft and developer Mojang's first year has been in the works for some time now. The team behind the the doc, 2 Player Productions, is looking to hear the extraordinary stories some fans have to tell. If you have a story about how Minecraft has impacted your life -- maybe you used the game to propose to your significant other or get a job -- 2PP wants to hear it. If your tale is deemed special enough, it might just make it into Minecraft: The Story of Mojang.

The documentary is being funded by fans. A donation page on Kickstarter for the project shows that more than $210,000 was raised by 3,631 individuals, far more than the goal of $150,000 (which was met back on March 26). A 20-minute version, made before realizing that a more in-depth piece was needed, can be seen here.

2PP explains what fans will get from watching: "For the first time, viewers will be given an in-depth look at both the triumphs and the challenges faced by a studio during their first year in existence. 2 Player will analyze the unprecedented success of Minecraft, gain insight into its impact from journalists and industry professionals, and meet the fans whose lives have been changed by the game."

Full article...

China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work

As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.

Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Memories from his detention at Jixi re-education-through-labour camp in Heilongjiang province from 2004 still haunt Liu. As well as backbreaking mining toil, he carved chopsticks and toothpicks out of planks of wood until his hands were raw and assembled car seat covers that the prison exported to South Korea and Japan. He was also made to memorise communist literature to pay off his debt to society.

But it was the forced online gaming that was the most surreal part of his imprisonment. The hard slog may have been virtual, but the punishment for falling behind was real.

"If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said.

It is known as "gold farming", the practice of building up credits and online value through the monotonous repetition of basic tasks in online games such as World of Warcraft. The trade in virtual assets is very real, and outside the control of the games' makers. Millions of gamers around the world are prepared to pay real money for such online credits, which they can use to progress in the online games.

The trading of virtual currencies in multiplayer games has become so rampant in China that it is increasingly difficult to regulate. In April, the Sichuan provincial government in central China launched a court case against a gamer who stole credits online worth about 3000rmb.

Full Article...

Sony estimates FY 2010/11 net loss, revises from profit

Sony on Monday changed its earnings estimate for the year to March 2011 to a net loss of 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion) from a profit of 70 billion, in the company's first indication of the financial impact of the devastating March earthquake and tsunami.

The company maintained its estimate of an operating profit of 200 billion yen, which compares with analysts' consensus of 197 billion yen, according to a SmartEstimate by ThomsonReuters I/B/E/S. SmartEstimates place additional weight on recent forecasts by top-rated analysts.

The maker of Bravia televisions and Vaio computers is set to announce its January-March earnings on Thursday.

Sony factories in northeastern Japan were among those damaged in the March 11 disaster, which also snarled the electronics industry's supply chain and triggered a plunge in domestic consumption.

Many of Sony's rivals, including Panasonic Corp , have yet to issue forecasts for the current financial year to March 2012, due to lingering uncertainty over the effects of the quake. ($1 = 81.710 Japanese Yen) (Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source...

The box office grosses of DC and Marvel comic book adaptations graphed out from 1978 to 2010

Two production staff suffered burns in the workshop for Peter Jackson's film 'The Hobbit'

TWO people have been hurt in an explosion at the studios where "The Hobbit" is under production in New Zealand, according to local reports.

Emergency services were called to the Stone Street Studios, co-owned by Oscar-winning producer Peter Jackson about 11.30am local time, the New Zealand Herald reported, as a result of an "industrial explosion."

Two people were taken to hospital, with a fire service spokesman suggesting they had been injured - however Wellington's The Dominion Post reported the pair were hospitalised as a "precaution."

A spokesman for Wingnut Films said the explosion was in a workshop, not on set, and filming was continuing.

Source Article...

Dead Island gameplay tour trailer

Tags: GameTrailers.com, Dead Island - To Kill Time Gameplay Walkthrough, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Showrunners - New Docco from the Makers of your favourite TV

With Upfront Week in full swing (see Deadline’s extensive coverage here), what better time to peel back the layers on the creative minds behind some of your favorite series of the past few years? The 2012 documentary Showrunners does just that, featuring interviews with the likes of Damon Lindelof (LOST), Jeff Pinkner & J.H. Wyman (Fringe), David Eick (Battlestar Galactica), Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) and more, who spill on everything from daily life as a showrunner on a hit show to what happens when you sign away creative control. TV lovers, you’re going to want to watch this trailer.

Showrunners Trailer from Showrunners Documentary on Vimeo.

New Spielberg TV Show - The River

Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli is behind a new ABC show called The River, which follows the search for a missing nature TV host. Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) directed the pilot from a script by Michael R. Perry and Michael Green, and a trailer has shown up online.

The faux-documentary/’found footage’ aesthetic that Oren Peli has cultivated is put to good use here — I like it applied to TV rather than a movie. Granted, the trailer shows a lot of tricks that will be familiar to anyone who has seen one of the Paranormal Activity films, or any of the many similar movies that exist. But The River looks like it might have a scare or two in store, and if the characters and background story build to anything good, this one could have a couple seasons in it.

The Australian Government Has Axed Voluntary Internet Filter Scheme Funding

In last year’s budget, the federal government introduced a $9.8 million program to assist ISPs in offering voluntary filtering measures. In last night’s budget announcement, that program was scrapped. Turns out, nobody actually wants internet filtering…

According to the Government’s Budget site:

The Government will not proceed with the Voluntary Internet Filtering Grants Program. This will provide savings of $9.6 million over three years.

The Government provided $9.8 million in the 2010‑11 Budget to establish the Voluntary Internet Filtering Grants Program to assist internet service providers (ISPs) to offer customers internet filtering options on a commercial basis. However, consultation with industry has identified limited interest in the grants due to the increasing range of filtering technologies readily available to online users, including browser and search engine filters, and the decision of the three largest ISPs, which account for over 70 per cent of Australian internet users, to voluntarily filter child abuse sites using a list compiled and maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Savings from this measure will be redirected to support other Government priorities.

Source Article...

Microsoft's acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion becomes official

It was pretty much known about since last night, but Microsoft and Skype have now obliterated any lingering doubt in the matter: the Redmond-based software giant will acquire the internet telephony company for a cool $8.5 billion in cash. Xbox and Kinect support are explicitly mentioned in the announcement of this definitive agreement, as is Windows Phone integration -- both the gaming and mobile aspects being presumably key incentives for Microsoft to acquire Skype. Importantly, this purchase shouldn't affect Skypers outside of the Microsoft ecosystem, as Steve Ballmer's team promises to continue "to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms." Skype was first sold for a relative bargain at $2.5b to eBay in 2005, who in turn sold most of it off to Silver Lake in 2009 at an overall valuation of $2.75b, and now Redmond is concluding proceedings by tripling those earlier prices and offering Skype a permanent home. A new Microsoft Skype Division will now be opened up to accommodate the newcomers, with current Skype CEO Tony Bates becoming president of that operation and reporting directly to Ballmer. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year and you can read Microskype's full announcement after the break.

Update: Microsoft has just disclosed a couple more details about the deal. It was signed last night, May 9th, though the price was finalized on April 18th. You can follow a live stream of Steve Ballmer and Tony Bates' presentation right here.

Full article...

Games officially declared art in US

NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), which works under the US federal government, has officially recognised video games as an eligible art form under its new grant application guidelines.

NEA issues grants for works deemed as art or works that are about the arts. In digital terms, only television and radio works were acknowledged, but NEA has expanded its guidelines under a new ' Arts in Media' category, which now incorporates: "All available media platforms such as the Internet, interactive and mobile technologies, digital games, arts content delivered via satellite, as well as on radio and television."
NEA issues grants of up to $200k to works of art or works that are about the arts to artists creating outside of the commercial world for support while they create. This would allow small (or individual) developers to create games to offer for free while being funded by the government, as painters and sculptors have been able to for years.

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PSN servers were 'unpatched and had no firewall installed,' security expert testifies

The House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade continues to seek answers regarding last month's breach of the PlayStation Network's security. The one it got yesterday from Purdue professor and security expert Dr. Gene Spafford is troubling, to say the least, if the situation he detailed actually played out as described.

Spafford told the subcommittee that, according to security mailing lists he subscribes to, "individuals who work in security and participate in the Sony network" had learned "several months ago" that PSN was hosted on servers running "very old versions of Apache software that were unpatched and had no firewall installed."

The professor continued, "they had reported these [issues] in an open forum that was monitored by Sony employees, but had seen no response and no change or update to the software." The timeframe for these events was "two to three months prior to the incident where the break-ins occurred," according to Spafford.

It's important to note that his account of the situation and information is second-hand. Still, the potential for this testimony to cause the subcommittee, headed by representative Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), to demand more answers from Sony -- and, more specifically, the individuals mentioned by Spafford -- does exist.

Sony could not be reached for comment.

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Zero Punctuation: Portal 2

Second experiment hints at seasonal dark matter signal

Things just got a little less lonely for researchers who have been insisting for years not only that their experiment has found dark matter, but also that the dark matter signal varies with the seasons. Now a second experiment, called CoGeNT, is reporting similar findings, though both results are in conflict with two other teams' observations.

No one knows what dark matter is – astronomers merely detect its gravitational pull on normal matter, which it seems to outweigh by a factor of five to one. But many researchers believe it is made of theoretical particles called WIMPs, which interact only weakly with normal matter.

Since 1998, researchers running the DAMA experiment deep inside the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy have claimed to have found evidence of WIMPs.

DAMA uses an array of sodium iodide detectors to spot the rare moments when WIMPs slam into atoms in the detectors, producing flashes of light. The number of flashes ebbs and flows with the seasons, and DAMA team members argue that this is because Earth's velocity relative to the surrounding sea of dark matter changes as the planet orbits the sun. They say their observations could be explained by a WIMP weighing a few gigaelectronvolts.

Tense situation

However two other experiments have found no sign of dark matter with their detectors. One, called XENON100, uses 100 kilograms of liquid xenon deep below Gran Sasso mountain, and the other, called CDMS II, uses ultra-pure crystals of germanium and silicon housed in a deep mine in Soudan, Minnesota.

Both experiments are so sensitive that they should have seen dark matter if the DAMA result is due to WIMPs. "The situation has created tension," says Dan Hooper, a theorist at the University of Chicago in Illinois.

Now another dark matter experiment called CoGeNT has found a seasonal variation in its results, reports team leader Juan Collar, who presented an analysis of 442 days of observations at the American Physical Society meeting in Anaheim, California, on Monday.

"We tried like everyone else to shut down DAMA, but what happened was slightly different," Collar said during his presentation.

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Fleeting antimatter trapped for a quarter of an hour

What can you do with a quarter of an hour? Write a few emails, cook rice – or store antimatter.

The team working on the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, have stored atoms of antihydrogen for 1000 seconds – roughly 10,000 times longer than before. This should help reveal if antimatter and matter are true mirror images.

Antihydrogen atoms are annihilated by hydrogen. The ALPHA team want to keep antimatter intact long enough to study it, so last year they worked out how to hold a cloud of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap. Not for long, though: collisions with trace gases would have either annihilated the anti-atoms or given them the energy to escape, so the team opened the trap after 170 milliseconds and observed the resulting annihilations, verifying that antimatter had been made.

Now they have repeated the experiment, this time waiting much longer before opening the trap. They also cooled the antiprotons used to create the antihydrogen much further, which lowered the energy of the antimatter, allowed more to be squeezed into the trap and raised the chance that some would last longer (arxiv.org/abs/1104.4982).

Antimatter's life extension will permit experiments, such as checking whether antihydrogen occupies the same energy levels as hydrogen, "perhaps within the next few years", says Daniel Kaplan of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, who is not on the ALPHA team.

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Netflix Streaming May be Putting a Hurt on File Sharing

Netflix started life by putting the squeeze on Blockbuster with DVD rentals and soared to unparalleled success with its Watch Instantly platform. Since 2008, Netflix’s library has swelled as the company signed multi-million dollars deals with content providers including Starz and CBS (yeah, we’re still excited about all of Star Trek coming to Netflix, too). With all that content, Netflix has obviously changed the way we watch movies and TV on a daily basis--but just how much has it revolutionized the online landscape?

Two web analytics organizations have weighed in on Watch Instantly’s popularity and its impact on peer-to-peer file sharing. According to one study, bittorrent has taken a big hit since 2007, with Netflix stepping up to fill in the gap.

Wired polled Arbor Network and Sandvine to rustle up any evidence suggesting Netflix’s streaming service has eaten into peer-to-peer movie sharing. With more than 23 million subscribers, Netflix is poised to become the largest subscription-based entertainment service in the US. That popularity has driven Netflix traffic into the stratosphere--it represents something like 20% of US downstream bandwidth during peak hours. According to Arbor Network, bittorent traffic fell from a high of more than 30% of US traffic in 2007 to a mere 8% of 2011’s measured bandwidth.

That 30% included all types of peer-to-peer filesharing, and some of that traffic has doubtless carried over to direct download sites like Rapidshare. Still, that drop in traffic leads us to two possible situations: Netflix’s growth (Arbor measures it at 20% of current US traffic) has actually impacted P2P traffic over the past four years, or non-P2P services have grown so significantly that P2P simply represents less bandwidth by comparison. The real answer probably falls somewhere in between.

The second traffic measurement from Sandvine tells a different story. It shows dramatic growth in Netflix streaming--from 29.5% of North American traffic to 42.7% between 2009 and 2010--but also depicts a rise in P2P filesharing over that same period. Sandvine’s traffic readings indicated peer-to-peer sharing jumped from 15.1% to 19.2% of bandwidth between 2009 and 2010. Obviously there’s no real consensus on Netflix’s mighty influence, but there are two major factors that still make piracy an attractive alternative to Netflix.

Watch Instantly’s library must continue to expand to win out against piracy--even if pirates are willing to pay $8 per month for their video content, they’ll go right back to torrenting if something isn’t available for instant streaming. The second problem, of course, is quality. So far Netflix’s HD support remains limited, and only the PlayStation 3 offers streaming of 1080p video. As long as streaming remains sub-1080p and Blu-ray rips are easy to come by, piracy will own a nice little chunk of bandwidth usage.

Streaming quality will only get better as average broadband speeds continue to improve, but we wonder how much Netflix can offer on Watch Instantly while remaining profitable. The service already contains an obscene amount of content, and Netflix will have to pay hundreds of millions in the coming years to secure new deals with providers like Starz. But if it can conquer that hurdle and by gaining even more subscribers, P2P numbers may look pretty meager within the next half decade.

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FBI Raids Students, Looking For Gold Farming Fraud

The FBI now is raiding homes looking for World of Warcraft gold farmers. The party van showed up March 30 at an apartment shared by two University of Michigan students (building pictured), who say the feds have got the wrong suspects.

The two students, neither named, say they aren’t gold farmers and don’t play World of Warcraft. “They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud,” said one. “I’m pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff.”

Why is the FBI interested in gold farming? Computer World posits they may be looking for terrorist connections, either with gold farming as an enterprise funding them, or believing that the virtual worlds of these MMOs is where they plan out their operations.

Paperwork says investigators think someone at the address was in on “a scheme to set up fraudulent bank accounts to buy and/or sell ‘virtual currency’ or ‘gold’ to be used in the game”. They were looking for online transaction records associated with World of Warcraft, the Chinese gold-farming website gameusd.com, eBay, PayPal and the United Services Automobile Association.

At least they didn’t shoot anybody.

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Wii Successor Must Launch By This Christmas, says AnalystWii 2 rumors have been flying of late, and today the speculation reached a new high, based on

Wii 2 rumors have been flying of late, and today the speculation reached a new high, based on multiple sources claiming that a new HD Nintendo console would be announced at E3. Many would argue that a new Nintendo console has been long overdue. The Wii's been declining in sales, software support has dried up, and the competition has better motion controllers. One analyst told IndustryGamers that Nintendo better launch a Wii successor by this fall/holiday or else.

Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia told us, "We are hearing the same thing [about a new Nintendo console] from our channel checks. I think Nintendo has to upgrade this Christmas, given how weak Wii sales have been. Launching this year means they will be able to protect their market share. Sony and Microsoft will probably still wait until 2013 to launch their next consoles," he said.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot recently called for all the platform holders to advance the cycle and upgrade as soon as possible. We agree with Bhatia, however, and feel that Microsoft and Sony will have at least 2 more years.

EEDAR's Jesse Divnich wouldn't be surprised to see a Wii 2 announcement at E3 either. He noted, "Nintendo originally announced the Wii at E3 in 2005, nearly 18 months before its official launch. It wouldn't be out of the question for Nintendo to announce some top-line specs on its new hardware. In terms of what does this mean for Nintendo? Unfortunately, not enough information exists to warrant any type of speculation, but rest assured Nintendo will continue to dedicate themselves to creating original hardware and software."

DFC Intelligence's David Cole doesn't think Nintendo will push things quickly enough to launch a successor this year, and he said that Nintendo might wait for sometime after E3 to announce. "In our forecasts for the industry we have a new console system from Nintendo launching second half of 2012. However, when it will be announced is another question. E3 could be a possibility but you also have to consider Nintendo's home turf is Japan and they may be more comfortable at a venue like TGS."

He continued, "Our new forecasts come out next month...if Nintendo announces a Wii 2 launch for 2011 we will have to go back to the drawing board real quick. We think the Wii is on the downward cycle of its life and sales will naturally decline every year. However, we still see Wii as the number one selling system in 2011. It will not be until 2012 that DFC forecasts Xbox 360 and PS3 sales will exceed Wii. As for Wii 2 we see it being a fairly successful system as consumers are really craving new hardware and Microsoft and Sony show no signs of delivering. We think it will be a strong seller but not nearly as strong as the Wii."

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'Glasses-free' 3D coming to iPad 2

A technology research group has unveiled a new piece of software that adds 3D-functionality to the iPad 2. It also works for iPhone.

At the beginning of the month, we reported on an April Fool’s joke about a 3D screen for the Apple iPad 2. Well, it turns out that the gag is heading towards reality.

The Engineering Human-Computer Interaction (EHCI) research group has unveiled a clever hack for the iPad 2 that can successfully track the position of a person's head in 3D in real-time. Dubbed the Head-Coupled Perspective (HCP), the innovative software hack uses the iPad’s front-facing camera to create a ‘glasses-free’ monocular 3D display.

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