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Korean university faces boycott over fears of AI weapons
For all the joking we do about Skynet-scenarios and killer robots, there's some truth to the worrisome creations. To prevent Terminators from becoming a real threat, some 50 robotics experts are boycotting the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a university in South Korea, given its decision to open an artificial intelligence weapons lab, according to Financial Times. The fear is that it'll trigger a next-gen arms race and that ultimately, any safeguards put in place will be circumvented by terrorists and, more specifically, North Korea.
ICYMI: Steps for electricity, scoliosis exosuit and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-340917{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-340917, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-340917{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-340917").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison made shoes that store energy from steps inside internal batteries, making them the coolest transport hybrid yet. Columbia scientists built a prototype for a robotic exoskeleton torso suit that would allow wearers who suffer from curvature of the spine to move, all while the machine kept their spine in proper alignment. And an upcoming art installation turns a door into a psychedelic experience that must be seen. We also hoped you'd enjoy this DIY build of a Russian tank. As always, please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.
Infinite Crisis introduces Doomsday and Gaslight Batman to the roster
Turbine's Infinite Crisis roster keeps growing larger and more potent. Today the studio has unveiled two new playable characters for the MOBA: Doomsday and Gaslight Batman. Doomsday is a brute-force character who loves to wail on opponents at close range, while Gaslight Batman is an inventor who's all about his trusty sonic pistols. We've got a video for each of these characters for you to check out after the break. Discussion: Which of these two would win in a fight, do you think? [Source: Turbine press release]
Doomsday confirmed for Injustice, Superman suddenly remembers a bunch of stuff he needs to go do
Doomsday, the ancient, artificially engineered monstrosity responsible for the "death" of Superman (among hundreds of thousands of others) has been confirmed as a playable character in NetherRealm Studio's forthcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us.Previously, Doomsday was spotted in the background of Superman's Fortress of Solitude stage, though his status as an actual character remained ambiguous. As seen in the video above, Doomsday's main ability appears to be getting completely stomped on by Captain Marvel Shazam, at least until Doomsday punches him through the entire planet and back, quite literally.
Team Fortress 2 'Pyromania' update is three days of new content
The Pyro is finally getting his own "Meet the Team" short on Wednesday, and to celebrate Valve is trickling out three days of update goodies for Team Fortress 2. Valve is calling it the Pyromania update.First up today is Doomsday, a new map and corresponding game mode where one team attempts to deliver a suitcase nuke to a waiting rocket, while the other team attempts to stop them. This new map and game mode brings a whole slew of new achievements to unlock. We'll learn more about this Pyromania update as Valve unlocks even more new content in Team Fortress 2 over the next two days.
Breakfast Topic: Doomsday predictions
WoW Doomsday predictions -- they're happening in the comments of The Queue, in the official forums, actually everywhere that people can comment relevantly about World of Warcraft. It's the end of WoW because of pandas. WoW is dead because of the Black Market Auction House. The WoWpocalypse is near because Blizzard is catering to the casuals. I know that subscription numbers must be a little down right now. Many people suspended their accounts in order to play Diablo III. Many others canceled until they see how Mists of Pandaria turns out. I don't know what the magic number of subscribers is for Blizzard to make a profit from its MMO, but my guess is that it's much less than the 10.2 million reported last month. Most MMOs would be happy with a third of that number. Despite what the very loud doomsayers predict, millions of people are enjoying Azeroth and are happily paying the subscription fee to do so. As Ben at the Asylum Wall pointed out, the entertainment dollar per hour value is low. Of course, you still need to be having fun playing, or any amount of money will be too much to pay. Are you still subscribing? If not, why not? Do you think the end of World of Warcraft is nigh? Why? Even if you think WoW will be around for many years more, what do you think would bring about its demise?
One Shots: All quiet on the homefront
Ah, another peaceful day in Smallville -- or at least it is now, thanks to the heroes in this group who decided to take on Doomsday and successfully stop his diabolical plans. Today's triumphant DC Universe Online image comes to us from Xanthias, who is a member of our very own Massively Overpowered League on Zero Hour! He snapped this peaceful picture after running the hard Smallville alert recently and writes in to explain: "Xanthias can breathe more easily now that Doomsday has been brought down. Smallville is safe once again." We especially like the capture of the hero in the background who appears to be jumping for joy! Have you triumphed taking on a big bad nasty boss recently? If you've snapped a screenshot of it, we want to see it. Just email your image in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing in the picture. Please make sure your image is at least 1024 pixels wide and has no visible UI in it. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in! %Gallery-112285%
One Shots: Ridding the world of certain doom
Because of its idyllic countryside vistas, any DC Comics fan will immediately recognize Smallville, the adopted Earth hometown of Superman. Then there is Doomsday, a DC villain bent on destroying anything and everything simply because he can. With the combination of Doomsday in Smallville, trouble is on the way. That's why it is up to DC Universe Online's many heroes to intervene and make sure that things turn out all right, like Vale, who sent in today's One Shots. He was fighting Doomsday with his friends recently and sends this image from DC Universe Online to us: "[It's] just another day in Kansas. This is a pic from our league on Silver Age (EU), fighting Doomsday in Smallville." We love to know what you're up to. If you haven't sent in an image for some time, snap one this weekend! Email your screenshot to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-112285%
SDCC 2010: Part two of our DCUO panel report
Today we have more from the question-and-answer portion of the DC Universe Online panel at the San Diego Comic-Con last week. (Part one of the panel was posted earlier this week.) Panelists included Creative Director Jens Andersen, Game Director Chris Cao, legendary comic book writer Marv Wolfman, Jim Lee, and the voice of the Joker, Mark Hamill. Will there be a mechanic for switching from hero to villain or vice versa? No. You make the choice of hero or villain at character creation, and it can't be changed after that. This is so it is clear to other players in PvP who is on what team. Will current storylines in the DC comic universe affect the MMO? The game will launch "pristine"; that is, the DC Universe in the game will be the popular, well-known one. Wonder Woman will be in her classic costume; Bruce Wayne will be Batman; etc. From there, storylines from the comics may start altering the MMO universe, but at least from the get-go, the game will start with a clean slate. DCUO will be getting its own bi-weekly comic as well.
An overview of the EVE Online capital ship changes arriving today
The cries of "Free CCP Abathur" have been heard. He's one of the growing number of EVE Online developers recruited from among the ranks of the playerbase, and in Abathur's case -- he's someone very well-versed in the dynamics of nullsec warfare. His dev blog "The All Caps Ship Blog" deals with changes CCP Games is making to EVE that have long been a hot button with the playerbase. It's not surprising that capital ship balancing is a controversial topic among players of the sci-fi MMO. Capital ship pilots in New Eden have invested significant amounts of training time and in-game wealth into piloting these massive ships, be it carriers and supercarriers, dreadnaughts, or titans. Some of CCP Abathur's ideas on balancing capital ships seemed to be fairly well-received by the playerbase, but later proposed changes from more senior devs at CCP appeared to be taking the game mechanics in a different direction. (Hence the "Free CCP Abathur" meme.) Ultimately, some of the major capital ship changes didn't deploy with the Dominion expansion launch, but are arriving in EVE today.
Major rebalance of capital ships coming to EVE Online in Dominion expansion
There are few things in EVE Online which provoke more outrage among the playerbase than capital ship nerfs. These multi-billion ISK behemoths aren't just an investment in terms of currency -- being able to pilot a capital ship effectively is a time investment as well, given EVE's real time skill training system. The writing's been on the wall for a long time though. Considering the sheer numbers of capital ships being fielded in the game, some changes might just be a good thing for EVE Online. EVE developer CCP Abathur's dev blog "Dominion - The Capital Battlefield" frames the current state of capital ship warfare with a look at how dreadnaughts and carriers entered the game, and how over time their significance was eclipsed by supercarriers like motherships and titans. The big announcements are the changes being made to the various classes of capital ships in EVE, and Abathur walks us through the boosts and nerfs that will soon affect the game's numerous capital ship pilots in the Dominion expansion.
Large Hadron Collider restart, end of the world pushed back to mid-November
Still undecided about what to do with those precious few months before the biggest doomsday since Y2K? Then you're in luck, 'cause the much anticipated / feared restart of the Large Hadron Collider has now been delayed yet again, almost exactly a month after the last delay. This time it looks like a couple of vacuum leaks are the culprit, and CERN says that the collider is now unlikely to restart before mid-November, which just so happens to coincide with the peak of the Leonids meteor shower. Coincidence? Yes, yes it is.
DCUO brings Doomsday to the party
If you've been looking for an update on Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming super-hero MMORPG, DC Universe Online, then you're in luck. They've just released a trailer showing off one of the first big missions in DC Universe Online, where players will get to fight alongside either Superman or Lex Luthor to take down Doomsday. (Talk about setting the bar at epic levels in the game!) While it's still fairly rough footage so far as movement, the feel of the storyline - especially with Geoff Johns and Marv Wolfman on the team - sounds like it's going to be pretty sweet. You can check behind the break for an embedded copy of the video. Alternately if you'd like to see it in all it's awesomeosity, our sister site Big Download has a copy of the HD trailer for you to download and comics geek out on. Hopefully they'll continue sending out juicy tidbits like this as work progresses on DCUO!
Zune 30GB brickification acknowledged, Microsoft says to wait it out
For all of you Zune 30 owners who woke up this morning to find your PMP frozen in despair at the thought of spending another year alone, Microsoft has finally acknowledged their boo-boo and explains it thusly: There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the device to choke on the last day of a leap year. Rest assured, however -- although they may not be releasing an update for the device any time soon, the issue should resolve itself whenever January 1, 2009 rolls around. So have a safe and happy New Year, and let's hope they do something about this by 2012.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
30GB Zunes mysteriously begin to fail at 12AM, December 31st -- day of reckoning to follow
Do you have a Zune 30? If so, does the thing look something like the above? That is to say, stuck at a loading bar and completely non-functional? If so, you are not alone. We've been flooded with tips about users whose 30GB players started locking up at midnight last night, essentially bricking themselves without any help from their owners. The failures are coming 24-hours ahead of the big '09 changeover, but that hasn't stopped Zune aficionados from dubbing this unfortunate flaw "Z2K." No official word yet from Microsoft, but we're guessing a made-for-TV doomsday movie staring Louis Gossett Jr. can't be too far off. Trailer after the break. Update: Jim wrote in to let us know that someone at Microsoft has apparently finally woken up and checked their e-mail (yikes, imagine that inbox). The official Zune site now has a message stating that Redmond's best are aware of the problem and "are working to correct it." We'll keep you posted.Update 2: Major Nelson just tweeted that anyone with an issue "should be good to go." Exactly what that means, however, remains to be seen, as there's still no word of an official fix on the Zune site.Update 3: Oops, sorry for getting your hopes up. Seems the Major was wrong and is now indicating the team of Zune developers is working like mad to figure it out. Somebody had better order in lunch for those guys -- it's going to be a long day.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Large Hadron Collider damaged and we have the photos to prove it
Is it possible that shoddy workmanship has once again saved the planet from an untimely demise? Not really, but this next tale should give our paranoiac readers plenty to mull over regardless. CERN has recently released pics of damage wrought when an electrical fault caused a liquid helium leak a mere nine days after the Large Hadron Collider started smashing atoms in September, wrecking interconnects between the magnets in sectors three and four. According to CNET, the doomsday machine will be out of commission until at least summer of 2009. So breathe a sigh of relief, little ones... and pray that the grey goo or the replicant hordes don't get us in the meantime. Hit the read link for all the pics.
67,000 plus dead in Jita, cause unknown
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened... -- Obi Wan Something 'terrible' indeed has transpired recently in EVE Online, but the event brought more amusement than horror to fans of the brutal sci-fi game. Over 67,000 ships were destroyed in the bustling trading hub of Jita yesterday, and the pilots of EVE's galaxy of New Eden are still trying to figure out what really happened. All of the obliterated ships were shuttles, which is unusual given the nearly endless procession of freighters and industrial ships clogging the system's star gates. The Jita system is notorious for being overcrowded and is often blamed for the lag that affects the rest of New Eden. Not a day goes by without an EVE pilot, somewhere, cursing Jita and calling for the system to be nuked. It seems those rage-fueled wishes were finally granted, just not quite how most would want that retribution to play out. Theories about the event can be found in multiple forum threads, ranging from the plausible to the absurd. A few players expressed the view that multiple convoys of freighters offloaded their cargo of ships into space at one location, and somehow ignited the mass in a doomsday-level conflagration. Some feel that it was all orchestrated by EVE Online's developers to help set the tone for factional warfare between the races, which is about to consume EVE's pilots in the Empyrean Age expansion. Others point out the most likely cause of the mayhem: it was simply a bug... a map glitch. No official explanation from CCP Games has been given for the occurrence, nor has EVE's Interstellar Correspondents covered news of the event. Glitch or not, it's a novel way to kick off the wave of destruction about to sweep over New Eden mere days from now. Thanks Hortinstein
World's first specialty robot store opening in Japan
Mark the month of October 2006 in your calendar of the apocalypse folks. Some bright-spark in Japan thought it'd be just swell to bring 1,000 of the world's robots together under the guise of the world's first robot store and museum. Of course, our enlightened readership already understands the inherent dangers of bringing these soulless, self-replicating hominoids capable of postulating on our war mongering ways under a common roof. Alone in the wee after-store hours, it's just a matter of time until the more adept of the lot stumbles upon the proper wiring sequence for consciousness. Oh Andrew McCarthy, only your mysterious powers can save us from the grey goo now!
Solid Alliance's USB hub shaped like "The Button"
Keeping with our theme of lame and gimmicky USB hubs, we have this little number from Solid Alliance. While we have no idea why someone would make a USB 2.0 hub in the shape of a button that could spark a civilization-ending nuclear war, we really can't fault them for creativity. We're also not sure why machine translation so consistently presents this as the "suicide bombing button," but take that as you will. There is no real functionality gained by the stylings, other than some blinky lights and blasting sound effect when you do activate the doomsday button, but it might just come in handy in light of a international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.[Via Impress]
