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Education

Submission + - Ad revenue from online game used to feed the poor (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by __aammpv6063
__aammpv6063 writes: BBC News has a recent article about a new website, Freerice.com, which uses profits from on-screen advertisements to buy food for impoverished nations through the UN World Food Program (WFP). Because the game involves word quizzes, it is also potentially useful as a tool for building up your vocabulary, whether for personal reasons, or to prepare for the SAT's or GRE's. Give it a shot.
Businesses

Submission + - Disabled sue Disney for exception to Segway ban (orlandosentinel.com)

Submitted by rtphokie
rtphokie writes: 3 disabled guests of the Walt Disney World Resort are suing Disney contending that Disney violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it forbid the use of Segways in it's theme parks. Disney allows motorized wheelchairs and scooters but not the faster Segways citing safety concerns for other guests on crowded walkways.
Wii

Submission + - Wii to sellout despite 1.8 million made each month (videogamesblogger.com)

Submitted by
Wowzer
Wowzer writes: "Despite 1.8 million Wii being manufactured each month, Wii's are said to sell out anyway. To quote Nintendo's President: "I can't guarantee that we're going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record that we won't." You might want to buy a Wii early if you want one under the Christmas tree, considering Nintendo started boosting the production output during the three months ending June 30, 2007. Additionally, in a Fox TV interview with Alexis Glick, Nintendo's President Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed the Wii would not be lowered in price."
Quickies

Submission + - WhatTheyPlay.com VideoGame Review Site for Parents (techluver.com)

Submitted by
Tech.Luver
Tech.Luver writes: "WhatTheyPlay is all about videogames, and it's for parents just like you. We'll help you understand everything you need to know about the games your kids want to play, and bring you friendly, helpful, unbiased information about the content and the experiences that videogames provide. Says the welcome message at WhatTheyPlay.com In his words, "For many parents, figuring out which video games are safe for kids can itself be a maddening game. Most game reviews in fan magazines and on enthusiast websites don't offer much help, with their fixation on geeky details such as frame rates, texture maps and physics engines. The packaging gives parents a few clues — whether the game contains violence, strong language or sexual innuendoes — but little else. Two game industry veterans plan to launch a website today that aims to help parents who might not know what a first-person shooter is but have kids clamoring for the new "Halo 3 game. ( http://techluver.com/2007/11/12/whattheyplaycom-to-help-parents-understand-about-the-games-their-kids-want-to-play/ )"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Why Single Player Games Will Never Die (ign.com)

Submitted by
spidweb
spidweb writes: "RPGVault at IGN.com has a new article about why there will always be a healthy market for single player games. For a huge portion of the market, the stress of dealing with (and competing with) other humans defeats much of the purpose of playing games to relax in the first place. From the article, "Computer games are, to a large extent, about adolescent power fantasies. We can write off three or four losses as valuable learning experiences. Lots and lots of losses? Well, then I am not living my power fantasy. I am providing the fodder for someone else's."

The article is at

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/832/832692p1.html"
Social Networks

Submission + - Improve Your Vocabulary, and Feed the Hungry (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
petercasier
petercasier writes: "FreeRice is a simple web-computer game with a humanitarian soul. The computer game tests your vocabulary. For every word you get right 10 grains of rice are donated to hungry people through the United Nations. The game began on October 7, 2007. Thus far over one billion grains of rice have been donated. You learn and you help. A class room example of a win-win."
Power

A New Way To Make Water, And Fuel Cells 107

Posted by Zonk from the it's-in-the-drinking-water dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "You probably know that it is easy to combine hydrogen and oxygen to make water. After all, this chemical reaction is known for more than two centuries. But now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have discovered a new way to make water. As states the UIUC report, 'not only can they make water from unlikely starting materials, such as alcohols, their work could also lead to better catalysts and less expensive fuel cells.' But be warned: don't read the technical paper itself. It could win an obfuscated contest — if such a contest existed for scientific papers." Yet another advance in fuel cell technology; we discussed a different one just the other day.
Space

Meteorite Causes Illness in Peru 357

Posted by Zonk from the i've-read-a-book-about-this dept.
eldavojohn writes "A meteorite struck in Peru on Saturday leaving cinders, rock & water boiling out of the ground. Villagers nearby reported headaches & vomiting and attributed it to the event. From the article, 'Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said. Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.' It's not yet clear whether this is from the meteorite, gas trapped underground that was released or a chemical reaction between the two."
Space

Astronomers Explode Virtual Supernova 97

Posted by CowboyNeal from the safest-detonation-yet dept.
DynaSoar writes "Scientists at the University of Chicago's Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes have created a simulation of a white dwarf exploding into a type 1a supernova. Using 700 processors and 58,000 hours, they produced a three second movie showing the initial burst that is thought to be the source of much of the iron in the universe. Understanding these supernovas is also important to testing current cosmological theories regarding dark matter and dark energy, as their brightness is used as a measurement of distance, and discrepancies found in the brightness of very distant supernovas consistently seem to indicate a change in the speed of expansion of the universe over time."
Businesses

Submission + - Netflix's No Limit Vacation Policy

Submitted by Makarand
Makarand writes: Netflix, the online movie retailer, seems to have put in place a jaw-dropping vacation policy. Employees are allowed to take as much vacation as they need as long as their work gets done. There are no vacation limits or face-time requirements for employees. For Americans who get a median of 10 vacation days after one year on the job and 15 days after five years of work, this is surely big news.
Music

Submission + - Poll: What is your favorite RIAA target?

Submitted by davidwr
davidwr writes: With all the **AA posts lately, it's time for an RIAA POLL:

What is your favorite RIAA target?

College Students
Single Mothers
Dissabled Vets
Household pets
The Deceased
Newborn babies
People without internet
PirateNeal

Credit where credit is due: This is inspired by by Drakin020's comment #18447205 Re:Welcome to ...
Education

Submission + - Purdue University decides not to follow UW-Madison

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I attend Purdue University and apparently, they will be bowing to the RIAA not soon after another Big 10 school spat in their face (University of Wisconsin). Every student has been sent the following email:

Some users of the Purdue University Internet network this week will begin receiving notices of threatened legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America.

In a stepped-up effort to enforce music copyright, the association is harvesting Internet addresses of computers that allegedly offered music for others to download illegally. It then is sending emails to Internet service providers and asking that the emails be forwarded to these computer users.
The notices offer the option of paying a settlement fee or facing legal action.

Purdue University, as an Internet service provider, will forward these emails to the user of the specified address when the user can be accurately identified. While the university will do its best to deliver these notices to the proper individuals, it is not responsible for the accuracy of the identification or address to which such notices are sent.

It will be up to each recipient to decide how to respond to these notices.
All users of Purdue IT resources are ultimately responsible for their own conduct and for responding to any notification received from a copyright owner. Should an individual choose not to pay the settlement, the RIAA may ask Purdue for its logs for the purpose of pursuing legal action. The next step would be for RIAA to file a request to subpoena the name of the computer owner. The university will at all times honor valid subpoenas.

Purdue does not generally monitor the content of Internet transmissions.
The university, however, can match computers to the addresses they use when connecting to the Internet.

Information on your legal obligations and methods to protect yourself can be found at:
http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/copyright.cfm

Individuals with questions regarding the settlement notice should contact legal counsel of their own choosing for advice.

Sincerely,

Gerry McCartney
Interim Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Purdue University

Thomas B. Robinson
Vice President for Student Services
Purdue University

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