Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Music

Alpine Legend Revolutionizes Music Game Genre 45

Microsoft has announced the upcoming release of Alpine Legend for the Xbox 360. Building upon the established titles of the music game genre, Alpine Legend takes you to the Swiss mountaintops, where you and your friends play up to three Alpenhorns at a time while a fourth yodels along. When you're done playing, you can disassemble the 8-foot horns for easy storage. "Jam with alpine legends like Franz 'The Manz' Lang and Johann Hornbostel. Shake the mountain tops with 100 classic Alphorn tracks including, 'Whose spit is in my horn?' and 'More goat bell (It needs).'"
The Media

The Guardian Shifts To Twitter After 188 Years of Ink 211

teflon_king writes with news that renowned British newspaper The Guardian will be abandoning its paper-and-ink distribution scheme and publishing all articles and news as Tweets. Quoting: "A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include '1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!;' 'OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more;' and 'JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?' Sceptics have expressed concerns that 140 characters may be insufficient to capture the full breadth of meaningful human activity, but social media experts say the spread of Twitter encourages brevity, and that it ought to be possible to convey the gist of any message in a tweet. For example, Martin Luther King's legendary 1963 speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial appears in the Guardian's Twitterised archive as 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by,' eliminating the waffle and bluster of the original."
Censorship

Graphic Artists Condemn UK Ban On Erotic Comics 408

mdwh2 writes "Graphic artists, publishers and MPs have condemned the UK's Coroners and Justice Bill, which will criminalize possession of sexual depictions that appear to show someone under 18 (the age of consent is 16 in the UK), as well as adults where the 'predominant impression conveyed' is of someone under 18, and even if they are merely drawn as being present whilst sexual activity took place between adults. The definitions could include Lost Girls, Watchmen, and South Park. The Comic Book Alliance has launched a petition against the law."
The Courts

Strip-Search Case Tests Limits of 4th Amendment 1240

langelgjm writes "The US Supreme Court has agreed to review a case involving the strip-searching of a 13 year-old girl who was accused of possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen on school grounds, in violation of the school's zero-tolerance drug policy. The case has gained national attention because of the defining role it will play in determining which, if any, parts of the Constitution apply on school grounds. In Morse v. Frederick, the Supreme Court has already upheld the right of school administrators to restrict students' free speech at school-sponsored events that take place off school property. The school described the strip-search as 'not excessively intrusive in light of [the student's] age and sex and the nature of her suspected infraction.' The Supreme Court's last decision about searches on school property dealt only with searching a student's purse. Incidentally, the girl was found not to be in possession of any drugs, illegal or otherwise."
Games

City of Heroes Mission Creator Explained 54

Kotaku is running an article with details on an update to City of Heroes which will allow players to create their own missions and publish them for others to play. Quoting: "The Mission Architect for City of Heroes and City of Villains actually appears in game within buildings belonging to Architect Entertainment, a company that has developed a virtual training program for super-powered beings. Players will log in to a computer terminal in said buildings to gain access to the mission editor, where they can create anything from a quick mission that lasts a few minutes to a massive, five-chapter epic. Players write the dialogue, create the enemies, and map out the goals other players need to achieve to complete their mission. Once they've got it perfect, they can upload it to NCsoft's Arc Server, which delivers their content to all of the game servers. Once it's live, anyone can access the terminals in Architect Entertainment and run through the mission."
The Courts

Wife of Harried Pirate Bay Witness Gets Buried in Internet Love 470

treqie writes "During the trial of pirate bay yesterday, a professor (Roger Wallis) took the witness stand. He told the court things that the prosecutors did not want to hear. The prosecutors then tried to discredit both him and his team's work in the area, as well as his title, it was a real spectacle. In the end, the judge asked if he wanted compensation for being there — he replied that he did not want anything, but they could send flowers to his wife. Many listening online heard, and began sending her flowers, from all over the world. As of this submission, the sum is over 40,000 SEK worth of flowers. There's even a Facebook group for it."
Privacy

Submission + - Congress wants to monitor emails, IMs, etc.

Josh Nelson writes: "A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.

[It] would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely. The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records. (emphasis mine)
This is a terrifying development and it must be stopped before it gains any significant momentum. Background, Action items and contact information at this link."
Biotech

Submission + - Four new genes found for diabetes type 2

Johan Rung writes: "A new genome-wide association study led by scientists from Montreal, with collaborators in England and France, has found four new genetic loci linked to increased risk for type 2 diabetes. The results is published online in Nature (subscription required for full text articles), and also confirm a previously known risk gene. Of the four new genes, two are involved in the development or function of insulin secreting cells and one plays a role in the transport of zinc, an important mineral required for the production of insulin. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes in adults and is becoming increasingly common in children. It has been known for some time that Type 2 diabetes is caused by a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors, and the group's new findings helps identify the population at the highest risk of developing this disease. The study, the first whole-genome scan for a complex disease, is a major breakthrough and provide new insights in the mechanisms behind diabetes, and may eventually lead to new treatments and diagnostic methods."
Editorial

Submission + - Sex is Good For the Body, But What About Games?

Toblerone writes: "Twitchguru has a counter-point article discussing sex in video games, and whether or not the industry should bother — Rob Wright argues that more mature games should have more mature content, but Aaron McKenna argues that there's no need for sex in video games, and most sex portrayed in games is done in a laughable manner anyway."
The Internet

Submission + - Students suspended for remarks on Prinicpal

Uthic writes: The Toronto Star reports that 11 students at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School were suspended for up to eight days for remarks they made about their principal, Edward McMahon, on a Facebook group. The remarks were apparently derogatory and insulting due to the students' discontent with their principal and fell under the category of cyber-bullying. Additional information can be found on The Caledon Enterprise Website. Bruce Campbell, spokesman for the local school board, added that it's one thing to complain about your teacher or principal, but "you're taking it to a whole new level when you're putting it out there on the Internet." The group appears to have disappeared from Facebook, but there are other groups up that have some discussion about it, so one can't really verify what was said.

Slashdot Top Deals

Force needed to accelerate 2.2lbs of cookies = 1 Fig-newton to 1 meter per second

Working...