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Submission + - Sony Celebrates God of War 2 with Decapitated Goat

Submitted by Serzen on Monday April 30, 2007 @12:25AM

Serzen writes: In what can only be called a puzzling move, Sony's launch party for God of War II featured topless women, at least one dead goat and an "offal" eating competition. Almost entirely too strange for words, the Daily Mail covers some of it here. Even with the goat censored out, the woman is only wearing body paint for a top, so use some caution if viewing at work.

Apparently photos from the event can be seen in subscriber's editions of PlayStation magazine, but copies bound for retail have been recalled.

Submission + - Global Warming! Aieeee! Um, on Mars, that is.

Submitted by

fyngyrz

on Sunday April 29, 2007 @11:02PM

fyngyrz writes: "Looks like Mars is warming just as fast as we are. Unfortunately, it's a little more difficult to whip the public into a frenzy of guilt over emissions when even the most daft rank and file citizen will figure out that our CO2 excess doesn't make it to Mars under any circumstances, and so the discovery doesn't bode well for the CO2 alarmists.

Looks like we might be back to terrorists, panicking over each others morals, and legislating personal choices for the entertainment of the day."

Submission + - Restoring access to memories

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29, 2007 @10:34PM

An anonymous reader writes: Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists found that in mice with a similar condition to Alzheimer's found two methods — brain stimulation and drugs — by which they could restore or regain memories of previously learned tasks. From the article: The researchers used genetically engineered mice in which a protein linked to degenerative brain disease could be triggered. Scientists had previously given the mice tests where they learnt to avoid an electric shock and how to find their way through a maze to reach food. After six weeks with the brain disease, the mice were no longer able to remember how to perform these tasks. The playground mice were able to remember the shock test far better than the mice in other cages. They were also better at learning new things. Scientists then tested a class of drugs called histone deacetylase, or HDAC, inhibitors on the mice. These also improved memory and learning, similar to improvements made by environmental stimulation. This seems to go hand in hand with the research that suggested that certain diseases are not of lost memory but of lost connections to the memories. From the article: "If we lose a memory, is it gone for good? New data in Nature suggests that memories can persist even when some of the neurons that presumably helped maintain them are dead. The work may have significant consequences for how we treat people suffering brain damage and/or dementia."

Submission + - What's wrong with Ubuntu 7.04?

Submitted by

SlinkySausage

on Sunday April 29, 2007 @10:29PM

SlinkySausage writes: "Ashton Mills from APC Magazine has written a pretty scathing review of Ubuntu 7.04: "It's out love for Ubuntu that I'm being so harsh in this review. Look where we're at — 7.04, a number of significant releases since 4.10 Warty three years ago — and it still can't manage the display properly. And that's just the start. I'd like to say the install was seamless, but it wasn't — the migration tool, while a nice touch, didn't apply to me as I was doing a fresh install, but the tool would have none of it and spewed up an error saying the process couldn't continue. Upon inserting a DVD movie, Ubuntu recognised recognised it didn't have the CODECs needed to support the media, but then couldn't install DeCSS support to actually play encrypted DVDs — i.e. 99.99% of the ones you're likely to use. I had great expectations for 7.04, but unfortunately they're not met. If you're a fanboy, don't read on, because I'll shatter your fragile world.""

Submission + - Firefox No Longer Alternative Enough

Submitted by

Kelson

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @07:21AM

Kelson writes: "The Alternative Browser Alliance, which promotes the use of alternative browsers over Internet Explorer, has stopped promoting Firefox after nearly two years. According to the announcement, Firefox has sold out, gone mainstream, and "is no longer an alternative web browser."

Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""

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