• Technology

    Robots at War

    By Posted on 4.7.2009 7 Comments

    PackBots roam the streets of Iraq defusing bombs. Remote-controlled SWORDS robots shoot rifles and rocket launchers with deadly accuracy. Predator drones piloted by soldiers in Nevada drop missiles on Iraq and Afghanistan. The Wasp robot flies over neighborhoods full of insurgents, recording what's below with a camera as small as a peanut. If this sounds like a futuristic science fiction story, it's not. As of today, over 12,000 robots are working in Iraq, up from zero five years ago.

    4.8.2009 at 03:17pm - Comment by supergeek1694

    When you start giving human lives a monetary value, you stop accepting them as humans. Are you saying that you would kill yourself for money? When war is fought by robots, people will stop seeing war as a bad thing. War will happen all the time. The thing that keeps people from waging wars every day is the fact that in wars, people die. Every human taken out of risk makes it that much easier to order a war.

  • Science

    Human Evolution is Coming to a Standstill

    By Jaya Jiwatram Posted on 10.9.2008 11 Comments

    Our future may be uncertain, but leading geneticist Steve Jones at the University of College London says he knows one thing for sure: we're not going to change much on the evolutionary ladder. That's because human evolution is coming to a standstill, he claims. Jones says that the three main drivers behind evolution—natural selection, genetic mutation and randomness—don't hold as much anymore in the survival of the fittest race.

    4.5.2009 at 06:47pm - Comment by supergeek1694

    so what if we don't evolve. the fact that we aren't evolving shows that we don't NEED to evolve anymore. If we are surviving well enough without evolving then there's not much of a reason to evolve, is there? And the whole reason that there aren't talking insects is because the (a) they haven't been around long enough or (b) the mutation that would allow them to talk doesn't help them survive and reproduce. I think it's some combination of the two. They haven't been around long enough to find a successful mutation that brings them to human-like intelligence.

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    Is PC Gaming Dead?

    By Scott Steinberg Posted on 4.2.2009 15 Comments

    In an era of high-definition, online interconnected systems like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, will PC gaming go the way of coin-operated arcades? According to market research firm The NPD Group, sales of PC games precipitously declined to $701 million in 2008, a 14 percent year-on-year drop. But is the sky really falling for desktop users? A deeper look suggests not, pointing to a hobby that’s instead evolving so rapidly it would make Darwin blush.

    2.17.2009 at 09:12pm - Comment by supergeek1694

    Another thing that makes computers sell fewer games that is not mentioned here is that it is easier to illegally download computer games than games for any other system.

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    The Golden Globe Goes to … Adobe Flash?

    By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 4.2.2009 5 Comments

    Adobe Flash has helped create many of the animations and games commonly found on websites. But Israeli director Ari Folman used the multimedia software to make Waltz With Bashir, an animated film which explores traumatic memories of his experience as a teenage soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War.

    1.13.2009 at 10:25pm - Comment by supergeek1694

    this looks like it is very good. i really want to see it. i agree with thomas that it is very hard to realistically portray war in film. band of brothers does this well but what i've found w/ that is that it leaves me feeling nauseous. this seems like it will realistically portray the unrealness of warfare w/o the motion sickness.



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