Unless you've been living under a cultural rock, you probably know that New Moon, the second installment in the wildly successful Twilight human-vampire romantic saga, opens Friday.
This time around, brooding vampire Edward must compete with werewolf Jacob for the attentions of Bella, the human heroine of the books and movies.
But with its sexy-but-chaste leads, this teen bodice-ripper series may be sending its target audience of teen and tween girls a mixed message, some fans say.
Then And Now
Back in the '70s and '80s, Hollywood preached a clear message in its teen horror films: have sex and die; stay a virgin and live.
"Let's look to Halloween," says Kevin Doughty, 17, referring to a classic example of the genre. "Jamie Lee Curtis, virgin through the entire movie. Lived."
A student at Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, Calif., Doughty thinks the Twilight films promote conflicting values. Bella and her vamp boyfriend, Edward, don't have sex, but in one scene, Edward comes into her room at night to watch her sleep in her underwear.
" I don't have the strength to stay away from you anymore," Edward says to Bella. "Then don't," she responds.
This is great! Just type in your name and transmogrify yourself into a world of pure awesome!
Just found this a few minutes ago, figured you all would love it!This is great! Just type in your name and transmogrify yourself into a world of pure... more
Society must decide if it is willing to accept relationships between humans and robots before the machines become so sophisticated they start demanding rights, a legal expert has warned.
Rapid advances in technology mean cyborgs, or human-like robots, are no longer a vision of a distant future.
The machines have been made famous by films like Terminator and Blade Runner but real life is increasingly catching up with fiction.
Earlier this year researchers announced they had created robot ‘scientists’ – complete with the ability to think for themselves.
As the machines become more sophisticated, they will increasingly seem more like humans and could demand ‘human rights’, Anna Russel, from the University of San Diego warns.
One of the flashpoints could be over relationships, including sexual relationships, with humans, she claims.
In an article titled “Blurring the love lines” she warns: “While this humanoid is a giant leap forward technologically, if a self-aware, super-intelligent, thinking, feeling humanoid is developed, the legal system will be hard-pressed to distinguish this creature legally from human actors on grounds not stemming from a religious or moral prejudice.”
Lawyers have to start thinking now about what rights should be accorded to cyborgs, she argues.
Most societies will want to regulate such relationships but Russel claims they have to prepare themselves for how they would respond if the cyborgs clamoured for sexual freedoms.
As the technology improves “it will be inevitable that legal issues would be raised and the love lines blurred,” she warns.
“In what way would such sexual activities be regulated, however, and how regulation would work is not clear.”Society must decide if it is willing to accept relationships between humans and robots... more
People could expend more energy playing the Wii Sports games or doing aerobics and yoga with the Wii Fit than during a brisk walk, the researchers found.
The study said a third of the activities on the games console required energy expenditure that is the equivalent to "moderate intensity exercise" of the kind the Government recommends to keep fit and healthy.
Adults in Britain are recommended to take 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise five or more days a week.
It comes after the Wii became the first games console to be endorsed by the NHS and elderly people are taking up the games to stay active in residential homes.
More than 50 million Wii consoles have been sold globally since it was launched in 2006. As well as traditional video games, there are a range of sports and a balance board for players to stand on to practice activities from skiing and yoga to dance and aerobics.
Lead author Dr Motohiko Miyachi said: "The range of energy expenditure in these active games is sufficient to prevent or to improve obesity and lifestyle related disease from heart disease to diabetes."
The study was funded by Nintendo.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Active video games, where people need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get moving more and help beat obesity.
"Activity like this throughout the day can easily add up to the 60 active minutes children need or the 30 minutes that adults need five times a week."People could expend more energy playing the Wii Sports games or doing aerobics and... more
Women should wear clothes that bare 40 per cent of their flesh to maximise their chances of attracting men, new scientific research indicates.
Striking the right balance between revealing too much and being too conservative in how much skin is on show has long been a dilemma for women when choosing the right outfit for a night out.
However, a study by experts at the University of Leeds has come to the rescue by calculating the exact proportion of the body that should be exposed for optimum allure.
The findings were based on work by four female researchers, who discreetly observed women at one of the city’s biggest nightclubs from a balcony above the dance floor.
Using tape recorders hidden in their handbags, the researchers took note of what female clubbers were wearing and how many times they were approached by men asking them to dance.
For the purposes of the study, each arm accounted for 10 per cent of the body, each leg for 15 per cent and the torso for 50 per cent.
Women who revealed around 40 per cent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who covered up.
However, those who exposed any more than this also fared worse. Experts believe that showing too much flesh puts men off because it suggests they might be unfaithful.Women should wear clothes that bare 40 per cent of their flesh to maximise their... more
Valve inspires its fans to do crazy things. Take Eric Ruth, who's made it his personal mission to recreate Left 4 Dead from scratch in the context of a top-down, 8-bit action game. So far, Ruth has finished the first campaign of the original Left 4 Dead, the hospital-based No Mercy, but he's aiming to release a completed product, spanning all four campaigns and including all of the special infected, around January 4. He's pretty much building the whole project by himself.
"Valve doesn't know about it yet," wrote Ruth on his YouTube page, "but I'm sure (with their love of community creations) that they will find this mildly amusing at worst, and hilarious at best."
The world would be better with more 8-bit recreations of modern games.Valve inspires its fans to do crazy things. Take Eric Ruth, who's made it his personal... more
"Today news broke that a private Swedish company, noticing that the logo had no commercial protection, took the opportunity to hijack it. The outfit, Sandryds Handel AB, have officially registered the emblem as their own with the authorities, with the intention of commercially exploiting it.
The case raises the delicious prospect of Pirate Bay going to court to defend its intellectual property."
Its seems that nothing in Dubai is excessive as these fountains show. The video is simply stunning, makes the Bellagio look like a school water fountain:
"The Dubai Fountain is currently the world's tallest and most expensive, outshining the Bellagio Fountains, also built by WET Design. It consists of "6,600 WET Superlights and 25 color projectors create a visual spectrum of over 1,000 abstract attractions."
The beam of light shining upward from the fountain can be seen from over 20 miles away, and will be visible from space making it the brightest spot in the Middle East, and quite possibly in the entire world."
Maybe not the most exciting news but certainly interesting development. I tried a couple of videos and even on a Virgin Media 50mb connection it had to buffer a fair bit:
"Yes, starting today "YouTube's HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source."
It seems that some videos that were previously uploaded in 1080p have already been converted. The above video has been confirmed to be streaming at full 1080p."
The principal at Danvers High School, in Danvers, Mass., has asked students to stop using the word "meep" because of the frustration and confusion it caused among the faculty. Mike Spiewak, a senior at the high school, helped to popularize the word. NPR's Guy Raz talks with Spiewak about what exactly "meep" means, and what the future of the word at the school may be.
Yup, the ultimate lazy gadget. Just imagine sitting down, drinking a cold beer and controlling your lawnmower. Sounds like heaven:
"[Johndavid400] built this incredible looking R/C lawnmower. After spending some time repairing broken R/C cars, he wanted to move on to something a little more useful and powerful. He decided to build a mower. He’s using a transceiver set from ebay, with an Arduino interpreting the signal and outputting to his custom motor board.
In the video, you can see that the mower looks responsive and quick. He does note, however, that he had some glitches early in the process that left him with a runaway mower."
Eco homes are big business these days and construction firms are looking at all sorts of material for the homes of the future:
"If nothing else, this aluminum home is modern and can easily be moved from place to place. On the inside, you'll find high ceilings, a loft, dining area, and even a full-featured kitchen."
There seems to be a bit of a craze at the moment for taking consoles and converting them into portable gaming systems. Now is the turn of one of my favourite consoles ever - the Sega Dreamcast:
"Though not as stylish as the Dreamcast Tablet, this custom-built portable system is most certainly no slouch. Featuring a 7-inch widescreen display, stereo speakers, and a beautifully fabricated case."
Maybe one of the strangest stories I've ever posted about. Essentially building an artificial mountain just outside of Berlin. The picture gives you an idea of the sheer size of the project:
"A German architect has already laid out plans to build the largest artificial mountain ever (3,280-feet tall) in Berlin, which "could sit on the spot currently occupied by Tempelhof airport, and provide a natural getaway for Berliners and tourists alike.
Berliners may soon get more to see on the horizon than just construction cranes, if a German architect realizes his massive vision."
If, like me, you're in the middle of a DIY project then thi new wallpaper might be worth considereration. Especially if you have children:
"The X-Flex wallpaper is not only bombproof, but can be applied anywhere by simply peeling off the adhesive and using fasteners to reinforcement at the edges.
"With X-Flex on the backside, we literally could not bring the walls down. The material stretched to contain brick fragments trying to blast into the room and bounced right back.""
Yes it seems that geeks aren't happy with just the standard minimalist white dock that Apple sell and so they've set about making their own custom ones:
"Bread, Dreamcast controller, brachiosaurus, log, headrest, and apples? There's an iPhone dock for that. Yes, all of these are real prototypes made by fans like yourself."
In 1890, a group of eminent musicians (including Peter Tchaikovsky!) got together to screw around and experiment with what was then a wacky novelty. On this early Edison Phonograph recording, the group alternately showboats, teases each other and generally pokes the new technology with a stick.
Recording quality (and the fact that everybody is speaking Russian) makes it difficult to understand what's going on. Luckily, there's a translation after the cut...
This Edison phonograph cylinder recording from 1890 was made by Julius Block, a Russian Businessman of German descent (The Old Man with the Umbrella in this video) who became fascinated with the phonograph (and even convinced Tchaikovsky to sign an endorsement). The recording was re-discovered in the Pushkin archive of St.Petersburg, Russia in 1997, and was labelled with the names of the participants: Anton Rubinstein (composer), Elizaveta Lavrovskaya (singer), Peter Tchaikovsky (composer), Vassily Safonov (pianist and conductor), Alexandra Hubert (pianist), Julius Block (the host himself). One can imagine the scene - a group of eminent musicians each standing around this new 'wonderful invention', being gently encouraged to say something. So there are a few words of banter, some musical scales, whistles, etc., much of which is only just audible.
Here is the translated contents of this recording:
A. Rubinstein: What a wonderful thing [the phonograph].
J. Block: Finally.
E. Lawrowskaja: A disgusting...how he dares slyly to name me.
W. Safonov : (Sings a scale incorrectly).
P. Tchaikovsky: This trill could be better.
E. Lawrowskaja: (sings).
P. Tchaikovsky: Block is good, but Edison is even better.
E. Lawrowskaja: (sings) A-o, a-o.
W. Safonow: (In German) Peter Jurgenson in Moskau.
P. Tchaikovsky: Who just spoke? It seems to have been Safonow. (Whistles)In 1890, a group of eminent musicians (including Peter Tchaikovsky!) got together to... more
At a recent roundtable discussion, Warner Bros. technology director Ethan Applen commented on BitTorrent and P2P’s bad reputation in the entertainment industry. Applen said that P2P is not the bad guy some Hollywood insiders claim it to be, but actually a great way to transfer TV-episodes and entire seasons.
Bent TV is at it again, making "Star Wars" story lines into cartoon rap videos. Their first installment covered the basics, but didn't really give us the full flavor of these hardcore hooligans. This time Vader laid down the law, Leia got in her gold bikini, and Obi Wan went all Flava Flav.
Ex-boxer Mike Tyson, a man known for his calm exterior and steely restraint, has been arrested and detained on suspicion of battery after allegedly hitting a photographer at Los Angeles international airport last night.
Both men are trying to press charges and Tyson's spokesman says the former world heavyweight boxing champion acted in self defence.
