The Censorship Trend

We all know about how the Chinese government censors the Internet, and the problems it has caused for Google and by extension the US government. Only a terrible dictatorship like the Chinese could possibly want to filter the Internet, right? WRONG! It could be that they're the only ones who can pull it off.

Australia has been trying to push through a similar filtering scheme (although they probably won't stop words like freedom and democracy), but they've been forced to delay the implementation.

This should make us all wonder about our governments and what they have in mind for us. If they didn't tell us that they were filtering our Internet access, would we even notice?

In the News:

Japanese Consortium Projects a Humanoid Robot On the Moon By 2015 - That's just 5 years away.

Robots In Space - NASA has plans for a space robot... And they're calling it R2... I'm seriously geeking out... it's so cool!!!

FDA Approves Vaccine For Prostate Cancer - Not 100% effective... but it's certainly a start

More Energy in Less Space with New Ultracapasitor - power is always the biggest problem for small devices, this should help.

NASA Announces Wednesday Media Teleconference About Search For Extraterrestrial Life - wish I could attend ^^

UK Docs Perform First Remote-Control Heart Surgery - early days still... but it's a fully successful test of a technology that will let the top specialists to save lives all over the world.

Whew... just made it.... almost didn't get a post out this week... it's been hectic at work (despite the public holiday). But I did make it, and you're reading it... so it's all good ^^ Have a great weekend.

-Odd

Instrumental

WebComics vs. WebManga

You might not realise it, but there has been a debate raging around certain nodes of the internet. Namely: what is the difference between WebComics and WebManga. There have been panels about this at numerous conventions, blogs and rants by cartoonists, writers and fans... so what's it all about?

WebComics seem to follow a more western style, both in artwork and composition, something like the Sunday newspaper cartoons: each strip has a limited number of panels (usually 3 or 4), is usually self contained (doesn't have a story-line that must be read to understand the comic) and will most often provide one joke per strip. Some examples of WebComics would be ThreePanelSoul, MacHall, RealLife and AppleGeeks.

WebManga, on the other hand, follows more of a Japanese theme, with Manga-inspired artwork and a complex story line. This is where it gets a little confusing, because if we want to avoid a third category called WebGraphicNovels, we must add the comics with a western drawing style and complex stories to the WebManga group. Examples are stuff like MegaTokyo, the Order of the Stick or ErfWorld.

So that's my definition: WebComics are a joke a strip, while WebManga have more complicated stories... but that's just my two cents, what do you think?

In the News:

Iceland Volcano's Ash Grounds European Air Travel - I'm sure you all know about this... it's insane what a huge effect it's had.... there are dinosaur extinction theories that start remarkably like this.

Using Your Thought-Controlled iPhone to Dial Home - sugoi!!!! told you it was coming.

China hackers stole key Google program - Google's single authentication code was stolen... supposedly by Chinese hackers... they've changed the code, but it's still a massive worry for your privacy.

Fatal Flaw Discovered In Invisibility Cloaks - aw... :( that sucks.

SETI To Release Data To the Public - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence tries crowd-sourcing... cool ^^

And there you have it, another week, another post. Tune in next week: Same geek time, same geek place.

-Odd

"You know what they call a quarter-pounder in France?"

Violent Video Games and human nature

Steve Napierski over at Dueling Analogs posted a strip this week about a report by the world health organisation saying that video games are a contributing factor in child obesity. Steve sees it as another extension of the bad press around video games, specifically violent ones. 

I've never really weighed in on the subject, so I thought I'd give you my two cents: Human beings are predators, we evolved with forward facing eyes and aggressive tendencies so that we could hunt our food. As Cormac McCarthy said, "War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner." We're a violent bunch, if we weren't playing video games then we'd be watching an action movie, boxing or going out the roman circus to see gladiatorial combat.

What I do find troubling is the small number of games that are creative rather than destructive. The few that are around, like Guitar Hero, Farmville or Tamagochi (remember those?) seem to do very well. Maybe we should be encouraging the positive games rather than declaring war on the negative ones... that would seem to be far more consistent to me.

In the news:

Book Review: The Warcraft Civilisation: Social Science in a Virtual World - sounds like a really cool book ^^

iPhone finally gets multi-tasking - it took you long enough....

Aussie Army Trains With Fleet of Robots On Segways - so cool! I want to have a run.

South Korea Announces Daily MMO Blackouts For Youths - very interesting since South Korea is one of the worlds  most technologically adoptive countries, and that they've got a HUGE market in neatly free MMO's. 

Power Beaming For UAVs and Space Elevators - it's getting closer and closer, the Stage1 prize was taken at last years Space Elevator Games, lets hope for some more breakthroughs at the competition this year.

NSA Develops USB Storage Device Detector - and big brother sees just a little bit more than he did before.

First Pulitzer Awarded To an Online News Site - welcome to the digital age....

My post last week was a little weak ^^.... so I've added a couple pics to it so that you can all get a glimpse of Matt and Ian's awesomeness. Hope you enjoyed the post, as usual - tell your friends ^^

-Odd

Zeus most glorious and most great, Thundercloud, throned in the heavens! Let not the sun go down and the darkness come, until I cast down headlong the citadel of Priam in flames, and burn his gates with blazing fire, and tear to rags the shirt upon Hectors breast! May many of his men fall about him prone in the dust and bite the earth! 
- Homer (The Illiad)

WebComics: MacHall and ThreePanelSoul

It's been a heavy news week, with offensive songs, the murder of a beloved Spielberg character and a tragic motor accident. All of which is depressing, so I'm not going to talk about it. Instead I'll introduce you to two of the internet's most talented residents: Ian McConville and Matt Boyd.

Ian and Matt are two of the biggest and most loved players on the WebComic scene, starting out with MacHall when they were both in college in 2000. MacHall chronicles the lives of a bunch of college students living in res at Bowling Green State University. The geek factor in the humor is high, and even though the comic stopped posting in September 2006, the archives are well worth the read. Seeing the evolution of Ian's artwork and Matt's scripting is truly something special.

One of MacHall's later strips

Both Ian and Matt have long since graduated and moved on to be successful members in their respective fields, obviously this puts a large amount of strain on one's free time and they've switched their WebComic energies to ThreePanelSoul. TPS is a very different format, having only three panels in each strip, which provides a very different flavor to their earlier offerings. The strip's humor is matured, clever and completely unique (and yes, i know 'completely unique' is redundant... give me a break, will ya?).

Awesome example of Matt's brilliant sense of humor 

So have a click through to MacHall and ThreePanelSoul the next time you're looking for something to do online, it's more fun than harvesting crops, I promise you.

In the news:

Supersonic Freefall - this dude is going to attempt to break the sound barrier in free-fall i.e. without a plane.... I think this is possibly the craziest (read stupidest) thing I can think of.

Researchers develop a robot that folds towels - it might not sound like much, but this is a huge breakthrough in robotics, read the article to find out why.

After 27 years, a New High Score For Asteroids - I can't believe people are still playing this... competitively yet.

Solar cells: UQAM researcher solves two 20-year-old problems - heralding a new age for cheap, renewable energy.  I definitely think it's time for sunny South Africa to take advantage.

Synapse on a Chip - a new kind of computer memory that mimics brain neurons (yes i know there isn't another kind). Soon to bring big advancements to a peripheral near you.

Transhumanism and Superheroes - possibly the simplest, most concise explanation of post- and trans-humanism I've read. Great stuff, give it a read.

And there you have it... another post. It's April, but I'm still looking for my hill.

-Odd

"Everything is funnier at 2am."