PopSci covers "talkies," newsreel cinemas, drive-in theaters, and other breakthroughs in 20th-century filmmaking

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Popular Science has been around for 138 years, which gives us a couple of decades on the first commercial motion pictures. After the use of narrative and orchestra music became integral to cinema, filmmakers devoted themselves to elevating movies from experimental form of entertainment into an art form. Not only were we there to break the news when movies finally played sound, but we were privileged enough to receive a couple of enlightening articles from Charles Francis Jenkins, who helped invent the television, and D.W. Griffith, who is credited for creating America's first feature film.

Although the debut of sound and color have gone down as the 20th century's biggest cinematic breakthroughs, there are other developments that are worth noting, even for nostalgia's sake. During the 1930's and 1940's, people flocked to newsreel theaters in awe that they could witness distant disasters and world events just hours after they unfolded. A decade later, the drive-in theater became a highlight of teen culture during the 1950's.

While movie fads came and went, the appetite for better films only intensified, which in turn inspired up-and-coming producers to get more creative with special effects and light techniques. Speaking of movie tricks, Griffith impressively claimed to have developed 3-D movies (glasses and all) in 1923, so click through our gallery to see how that, as well as other innovations in cinema, turned out (Spoiler: they turned out amazing, and now we can enjoy cool stuff like Tron: Legacy as a result.)

In preparation for the RBS Six Nations Rugby Tournament, the Scottish national rugby team has been using Cyberhawk unmanned helicopters to monitor their practices, and deliver God's-eye-view footage of each scrum. The UAVs are on loan from team sponsor Scottish Hydro, which normally uses the UAVs to inspect pylons and wind turbines.

They players have taken to calling the UAVs "Flying Scotsmen," after Ian Smith, who is tied with Tony Stanger for the team record of most tries (24) in international play.

Armed with UAV technology, Scotland may actually have a chance of winning the Six Nations, despite entering the tournament ranked below every other team except Italy.

[The Scotsman]

Developed at the University of Bath, England, the program works by analyzing digital video of actual trees. Then, the computer program can make copies of the original video, but with enough slight, random variations to make the new tree appear unique. Apply those variations to the movement of a wholly new computer generated tree and viola, all the realism of a painstakingly animated tree with none of the hassle.

This may seem like a trivial advance, but imagine animating an entire forest, and you get the idea of how this could speed up and cheapen the animation process. In fact, the technology is so promising that Aardman, the animation studio responsible for the Wallace and Gromit movies has already expressed interest in the project.

Additionally, this technology is only the first step. The University of Bath scientists hope to develop similar programs that allow computers to learn from videos of other notoriously difficult to animate materials like smoke, fire, clouds, and water.

Now, with the painstaking process of animating fluids and trees automated, animators will need to come up with a new reason to stay long hours at work, avoiding their friends and loved ones.

A school uses videogame-based lessons to teach a new generation of kids

This could be the future of American education, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Quest to Learn school opened last September in Manhattan, welcoming the first class of sixth-graders who will learn almost entirely through videogame-inspired activities, an educational strategy geared to keep kids engaged and prepare them for high-tech careers.

Ever since Pong, videogames have outperformed teachers in one key way: They command attention for hours. “Games are exceptionally good at engaging kids,” says Quest’s main designer Katie Salen, a game designer and technology professor at the New School university. “They drop kids into complex problems where they fail and fail, but they try again and again.” She knew, though, that when kids face tough problems in school, they sometimes just give up, which is partly why only a third of eighth-graders earn “proficient” math scores on national assessment tests.

With this in mind (and with MacArthur Foundation funding), three years ago Salen started the Institute of Play, a nonprofit collaboration of game designers and learning experts who create games to teach school material. After successful tests in city classrooms, the group worked with the New York City Department of Education to open Quest to Learn.

This year’s 72-student class is split into four groups that rotate through five courses during the day: Codeworlds (math/English), Being, Space and Place (social studies/English), The Way Things Work (math/science), Sports for the Mind (game design), and Wellness (health/PE). Instead of slogging through problem sets, students learn collaboratively in group projects that require an understanding of subjects in the New York State curriculum. The school’s model draws on 30 years of research showing that people learn best when they’re in a social context that puts new knowledge to use. Kids learn more by, say, pretending to be Spartan spies gathering intel on Athens than by memorizing facts about ancient Greece.

Most sixth-graders don’t expect to ever need to identify integers, but at Quest, it’s the key to a code-breaking game. In another class, when creatures called Troggles needed help moving heavy objects, the class made a video instructing how long a ramp they should build to minimize the force they needed to apply. “They’re picking concepts up as well as, if not better than, at other schools,” says Quest’s math and science teacher Ameer Mourad. Beyond make-believe, Quest is the first middle school to teach videogame design. Salen says building games teaches students about complex systems, which will prepare them for growing fields such as bioinformatics.

The plan is for this class to attend Quest through high school, adding more sixth-graders every year. Although students must pass the annual standardized tests that all public students do to keep a school open, educators so far are impressed. “We need new ways to create a passion for learning,” says Gregg Betheil, a New York City Department of Education director who helped Quest’s application. “The planning has been extremely thoughtful. It seemed like a chance worth taking.”

Salen has pilot studies to back up that risk; however, she won’t know if the school prepares kids for real-world success until the first class graduates. But Quest has already proved itself in one area: The kids love it. “It’s fun,” says student Nadine Clements. Her least favorite part of school? “Dismissal.”

Classification Review Board Reverses Banning of Aliens Vs Predator Video Game

Sega of Australia issued the following statement: “It is with great pleasure that we announce the success of our appeal. We are particularly proud that the game will be released in its original entirety, with no content altered or removed whatsoever. This is a big win for Australian gamers. We applaud the Classification Review Board on making a decision that clearly considers the context of the game, and is in line with the modern expectations of reasonable Australians”.

Based on the cult sci-fi action films, Aliens Vs Predator is expected to be released on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 18 2010.

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A school uses videogame-based lessons to teach a new generation of kids

This could be the future of American education, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Quest to Learn school opened last September in Manhattan, welcoming the first class of sixth-graders who will learn almost entirely through videogame-inspired activities, an educational strategy geared to keep kids engaged and prepare them for high-tech careers.

Ever since Pong, videogames have outperformed teachers in one key way: They command attention for hours. “Games are exceptionally good at engaging kids,” says Quest’s main designer Katie Salen, a game designer and technology professor at the New School university. “They drop kids into complex problems where they fail and fail, but they try again and again.” She knew, though, that when kids face tough problems in school, they sometimes just give up, which is partly why only a third of eighth-graders earn “proficient” math scores on national assessment tests.

With this in mind (and with MacArthur Foundation funding), three years ago Salen started the Institute of Play, a nonprofit collaboration of game designers and learning experts who create games to teach school material. After successful tests in city classrooms, the group worked with the New York City Department of Education to open Quest to Learn.

This year’s 72-student class is split into four groups that rotate through five courses during the day: Codeworlds (math/English), Being, Space and Place (social studies/English), The Way Things Work (math/science), Sports for the Mind (game design), and Wellness (health/PE). Instead of slogging through problem sets, students learn collaboratively in group projects that require an understanding of subjects in the New York State curriculum. The school’s model draws on 30 years of research showing that people learn best when they’re in a social context that puts new knowledge to use. Kids learn more by, say, pretending to be Spartan spies gathering intel on Athens than by memorizing facts about ancient Greece.

Most sixth-graders don’t expect to ever need to identify integers, but at Quest, it’s the key to a code-breaking game. In another class, when creatures called Troggles needed help moving heavy objects, the class made a video instructing how long a ramp they should build to minimize the force they needed to apply. “They’re picking concepts up as well as, if not better than, at other schools,” says Quest’s math and science teacher Ameer Mourad. Beyond make-believe, Quest is the first middle school to teach videogame design. Salen says building games teaches students about complex systems, which will prepare them for growing fields such as bioinformatics.

The plan is for this class to attend Quest through high school, adding more sixth-graders every year. Although students must pass the annual standardized tests that all public students do to keep a school open, educators so far are impressed. “We need new ways to create a passion for learning,” says Gregg Betheil, a New York City Department of Education director who helped Quest’s application. “The planning has been extremely thoughtful. It seemed like a chance worth taking.”

Salen has pilot studies to back up that risk; however, she won’t know if the school prepares kids for real-world success until the first class graduates. But Quest has already proved itself in one area: The kids love it. “It’s fun,” says student Nadine Clements. Her least favorite part of school? “Dismissal.”

Won't somebody please think of the children!

The first bill, H.R. 3630, is sponsored by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and focuses on providing money for Internet awareness and education programs for parents. The Bill would dole out $125 million in grants to teach parents how to better discuss Internet safety with their children.

The other bill, H.R. 1966, is sponsored by Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA), and more or less leaves reason at the door. Named in honor of Megan Meier, the 13-year-old who killed herself after a classmate's mom harassed her over MySpace, H.R. 1966 attempts to criminalize cyber-bullying with vague language that butts up against free speech rights in a wide range of ways.

Neither bill has come before the Committee for a vote, let alone made it to the floor, but I think it's obvious which one is going to win out. In a fight between well-reasoned, responsible engagement and knee-jerk criminalization, I believe we can trust Congress to make the craziest, least practical choice.

[via Ars Technica]