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Master Moose writes:
George Takei has called for Star Wars and Star Trek fans to unite against the mutual threat to all science fiction: Twilight.
"Gone is any sense of heroism, camaraderie, or epic battle. In its place, we have vampires that sparkle, and moan, and go to high school".
"Now I am not above mixing in a little sex appeal to spice up the fantasy," he added, his words accompanied by the appearance of images of a topless young Mr Sulu and Robert Pattinson, the star of Twilight.
"But sci-fi fans be warned. There are no great stories, characters or profound life lessons to be had in Twilight. No, in Twilight, the only message that rings through loud and clear is 'Does my boyfriend like me?'"
25925490
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Master Moose writes:
We've all walked into a room only to find that the reason for doing so has suddenly and entirely vanished from our mind.
Psychologists have discovered the so-called 'senior moments' that can leave us utterly bemused and retracing our steps may actually be caused by the way the brain processes information as the body leaves one room and enters another.
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Master Moose writes:
New Zealand's Largest ISPs confirmed yesterday that they had received their first notices under the Government's new copyright regime, which came into effect on September 1.
All the notices received so far appear to be from the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (Rianz).
Telecom received 42 notices — 35 for alleged download of songs by R&B star Rihanna, six for Lady Gaga tunes and one for British recording artist Taio Cruz.
Curiously the music rather than the movie industry has fired the first shot as it was believed the Motion Picture Association was keen to go after copyright infringers.
20153332
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Master Moose writes:
When you've paid $200,000 for a seat on a galactic flight, the last thing you want is to be served a dud beer.
Queensland University of Technology researchers have teamed up with Sydney's 4-Pines brewery to develop a beer suitable for consumption in space.
19766962
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Master Moose writes:
Pepsi unveiled a new bottle yesterday made entirely of plant material.
The bottle is made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials. Ultimately, Pepsi plans to also use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers from its food business.
"This is the beginning of the end of petroleum-based plastics," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defence Council and director of its waste management project. "When you have a company of this size making a commitment to a plant-based plastic, the market is going to respond."
19386276
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Master Moose writes:
Guinness World Records has announced its top 50 video game characters of all time.
Over 13,000 gaming fans voted to help compile the list, with Guinness proclaiming that "Mario bounced over Solid Snake, Pac-Man chewed up Kratos and Lara Croft barrelled through Donkey Kong".
Nintendo ruled the line-up with an impressive 11 characters featuring on the list, followed by Sony with six and Capcom with five.
There are obvious glaring omissions, but what do you think?
19007936
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Master Moose writes:
The UK research, commissioned by Continental Tyres and covering 2000 drivers split evenly between gamers and non-gamers, revealed that those who raced on consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox are twice as likely to speed, run a red light, suffer road rage and make an accident claim.
Or is it just a case that most gamers are young males, a group long known to be highly represented in risk taking and driving incidents?
18801018
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Master Moose writes:
Kevin Smith has premiered his latest movie at the Sundance Film Festival and sold it to the highest bidder — himself, for $20.
Smith had indicated he would auction off distribution rights to his fundamentalist horror film Red State and he brought up the movie's producer, Jonathan Gordon, to handle the sale.
Gordon told the audience the bidding was open, Smith offered $20, and his producer proclaimed the film sold.
The auction was a stunt to emphasise Smith's real plans — to release Red State himself, without the tens of millions of dollars in marketing money that Hollywood pours into its releases.
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Master Moose writes:
Boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao (who won his PPV bout with Antonio Margarito last weekend) has just been slapped with a $10 million lawsuit by RBM Group International in L.A. County Superior Court. Apparently Pacquiao signed a contract in 2009 to record 12 songs for the label but never fulfilled his obligations, and kept a $40K advance they gave him on recording. BRM claims they lost $200K out of pocket and $10 million in revenues they would have received from the album.
To me I only see $40k as being lost (with maybe a few man hours of work) but $10 Million?
15825506
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Master Moose writes:
New Zealand researchers have cracked what seems like modern-day alchemy, transforming one kiwifruit into 100 plastic spoons and the city's sewage into electricity.
Researcher Martin Markotsis said the secret was a chemical process that made kiwifruit melt like plastic in standard factory equipment.
Small batches of prototypes have been made, mixing different amounts of kiwifruit, corn and other secret, but organic, additives.
The project is now picking the best mixture — with the right strength and flexibility — and ramping up production to a commercial scale. One piece of fruit, about 90g, can make more than 100 of utensils.
The global market for bioplastics is expected to grow 20-fold in a decade, with overseas rivals building mobile phones from cashew nut shells and corn.
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Master Moose writes:
Lore has it that elephants are afraid of mice, (and Mythbusters proved it) but actual scientists have now discovered that elephants are truly afraid of bees — and that the pachyderms even sound an alarm when they encounter them.
The researchers hope this discovery can help save farmers' crops from elephants.
And they hope it will save elephants too.
"It's impossible to cover Africa in electric fences,"
Farmers could make "bee fences" by stringing up hives on poles around 10m apart, King said. A strong wire connecting the poles would cause them to swing when an elephant walks into it, disturbing the bees. The swarm bothers elephants so much that they flee, emitting low rumblings inaudible to the human ear that warn other elephants nearby.
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Master Moose writes:
is the BSOD about to become the Windscreen of Death?
Ford and Microsoft have signed a deal to work together on a computerized link between houses, electric cars and utility companies to help manage energy use.
The system would start with the all-electric Ford Focus compact car that is scheduled to go on sale late in 2011. Called "Microsoft Hohm," it will allow utilities to vary electric rates based on the time of day.
"We're doing a lot to bring vehicles to market, but there has to be a lot of other work done from both a consumer and utility perspective to make this viable and affordable," Kuzak said Wednesday in an interview.
The system eventually will lead to homeowners being able to use their cars to power home appliances and cut costs at peak electricity use times, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said Wednesday.
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Master Moose writes:
The NZ herald is reporting the misuse of Bodyscans at Terminals in the UK.
British transport minister Lord Adonis told the BBC last week that images captured by scanners would be destroyed immediately, posing no risk to travellers' privacy. It is understood that the scanners are currently in use at Heathrow and Manchester Airports
Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan said in an interview that upon exiting a scanning device, he was approached by two female security officers and asked to autograph.
printed copies of his body scan.
How many other collectible BodyScans will there be? How secure and private are these if Hard Copies are so quick and easy to create?
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Master Moose writes:
An Australian man now owes Nintendo $1.5AUD after uploading Mario Bros for Wii before its official release.
Nintendo applied and was granted a search order by the Federal Court forcing Burt to disclose the whereabouts of all his computers, disks and electronic storage devices in November.
He was also ordered to allow access, including passwords, to his social networking sites, email accounts and websites.
Nintendo said in a statement yesterday that it was able to trace Burt by using sophisticated technological forensics after the game was uploaded to the internet.
I am not arguing the legality what he did, but If they had such sophisticated methods of tracing Burt and his illegal activities, why did he have to give up access to his social networking sites and email accounts?
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Master Moose writes:
So it would appear that Microsoft is funding an Anti-Google lobby group because they feel that Google's practices are anti-competitive and they are looking to grow in the Asia-Pacific region
Is this vindication for the Microsoft haters? Is Google that bad? Is there a lesser of the two evils?
