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Name: Mario. Age: 28. Profession: Plumber. Ethnicity: White. Anyone who has played a lot of video games knows that the vast majority of characters are white males. However, a team of scientists have conducted the first ever virtual census, putting a number on the ethnicity and sex composition of video game characters, and raising questions about the psychological effects these games might have on members of the underrepresented groups.

Sports cars have long tested their 24-hour endurance on the Le Mans racing circuit in France. Now a Panasonic robot named Mr. Evolta will try to claim the distance record for a remote-controlled car, pedaling along furiously at 1.3 kilometers per hour (0.8 mph).

The tricycling robot should manage about six laps of the 4-kilometer (2.5 mile) Le Mans circuit during the required day-long period, when it makes the attempt next Wednesday. It will navigate the winding course by following an infrared beam emitted by a lead buggy that travels ahead.

How's this for innovation?: electronic cigarettes. Little white tubes that look like the real thing have a nicotine solution that's heated by a battery, and the user exhales a water vapor that looks like smoke. The FDA isn't quite sure what to make of them, although the manufacturer is clear: "It is not a drug, if you will. This is an adult smoking experience."

Also in today's links: a battle over pork and science, scratching an itch with a phantom limb, and more.

For a video lap around Laguna Seca, scroll to the bottom of the page (and turn up your volume).

Pulse pounding, you hit the brakes and crank the wheel, but it´s too late: The
car can´t overcome its own momentum, and you slam into the wall at 150. And
then?