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Turkish court backs censorship of Wikipedia
When Turkey blocked Wikipedia last week, its co-founder Jimmy Wales promised to push for a judicial review of the online censorship. Today, however, Ankara's 1st Criminal Court of Peace rejected Wikimedia Foundation's appeal, saying that popular crowdsourced site contained entries that link Turkey to terrorist groups. The court ruled that since the "offending" Wikipedia pages remain on the site, it would not remove the country-wide block.
Google expands mission to make automated translations suck less
What started with Mandarin Chinese is expanding to English; French; German; Japanese; Korean; Portuguese and Turkish, as Google has increased the languages its Neural Machine Translation (NMT) handle. "These represent the native languages of around one-third of the world's population, covering more than 35 percent of all Google Translate queries," according to The Keyword blog. The promise here is that because NMT uses the context of the entire sentence, rather than translating individual words on their own, the results will be more accurate, especially as time goes on, thanks to machine learning. For a comparison of the two methods, check out the GIF embedded below.
Turkish government bans YouTube following attempt to remove corruption videos
If you're currently in Turkey, get ready to fire up that VPN. The Turkish government has just added YouTube to its list of banned websites, which as of last week also included Twitter (that site is reportedly back online). According to Webrazzi, the ban is already active with some ISPs, while other networks are in the process of blocking access as well. A Wall Street Journal report last week stated that Google declined a government request to remove YouTube videos that allegedly feature an audio recording of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan telling his son to hide money from investigators. It's easy to speculate that today's ban is a final attempt to curb the spread of the aforementioned corruption videos, but given that millions of viewers have already tuned in, this latest effort likely won't be effective. We can only hope Turkey lifts the ban soon.
Runes of Magic to receive Turkish and Latin American localization from Aeria Games
Aeria Games seems to be making a niche for itself localizing games into neglected regions. Earlier this year, it was announced that the company would take on the localization for Perfect World International for Latin America. Now it's doing the same thing for another game, taking the responsibility of localizing Runes of Magic for both the Latin American market and the Turkish market. That means all of the current live features of Runes of Magic in your native language, assuming your native language is Spanish, Portuguese, or Turkish. No details have been disclosed about the timeframe for the launch of these new localizations. According to Len Hoang, CEO of Aeria Games, the release is part of the company's overall ongoing strategy -- "We believe emerging markets will continue to rise in importance for Aeria Games as we commit to growing our global community of power players." Keep your eyes peeled for more news about the release. [Source: Aeria Games press release]
Apple, Microsoft meet with Turkish minister, may bid to supply 15 million tablets to schools
When it comes to the economy, things appear to be pretty shaky in the land of feta and olive oil, but at least Greece's neighbor to the east is ready to spend, considering a very ambitious (and costly) investment in its education system. Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan just completed a tour through Seattle and Silicon Valley, making stops to meet with executives at Apple, Intel and Microsoft along the way. Caglayan's stateside mission was to discuss Turkey's FATIH Project, which somehow stands for "Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology" and aims to equip 15 million students with tablets within the next four years. The official seems to have left with a positive impression, telling the Turkish Weekly that "upon agreement, Microsoft teams will come to Turkey to cooperate with Turkish firms on the project." He went on to say that Apple executives expressed interest in having iPhone and iPad accessories manufactured in Turkey as well. Doesn't exactly sound like a firm commitment from either company, but 15 million tablets would be nothing to sneeze at, so we'd be surprised if the tablet makers didn't end up making formal bids. With South Korea and now Turkey making commitments to improving education, perhaps we'll see a similar plan hit stateside soon?
Etox plans all-electric Zafer sportscar, could sell for around $20,000
It may not be ready to challenge Tesla just yet, but it looks like Turkish automaker Etox is about to get into the all-electric sportscar business with a vehicle that could cost considerably less than much of its competition. The company is reportedly now working on an electric prototype of its Zafer sportscar, and it says the car could run for as low as 30,000 to 35,000 Turkish lira (or roughly $19,000 to $22,000) when it eventually hits showrooms. Unfortunately, while the car will apparently boast a respectable 250 kilometer range, it isn't quite as fast as it looks -- the company says it'll top out at just 120 kilometers per hour, or 75 mph. It also looks like those plans for an actual production vehicle are still far from certain, as Etox is reportedly still waiting on government funding to get the assembly line moving.
One Shots: Nobody steps on a church in my town
Can you feel the excitement? In less than a month, World of Warcraft is set to go explody as Deathwing takes flight. We suspect a sudden real-life "flu" epidemic may break out (or perhaps some very well-timed vacations) on December 7th. In the meantime, the pre-launch oddities are starting to crop up, such as this one, witnessed by Turkìsh of Garona. While he didn't send us a note to go with this particular image (perhaps he's busy making his peace), the full-size image in the gallery should explain itself to heretics and non-believers. Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your guildmates ever seen a dragon, dragonkin, or fire elemental? If the answer is "yes," then don't wait another minute! Fire up your MMO client and email your screenshots to the professionals... One Shots! Our courteous and efficient staff can be reached at oneshots@massively.com, 24 hours a day, to serve all your Azerothian supernatural screenshot posting needs. Be sure to include your name and a brief description. We're ready to believe you! %Gallery-85937%
Rumor: Shogun 2: Total War to be shown at E3
A Turkish site named Oyungezer has reportedly leaked news of a direct sequel to the very first game in the critically acclaimed historical combat Total War series. The site mentioned in a deleted post that Shogun 2: Total War would be on display at E3 in a few weeks. Soon after, Voodoo Extreme posted a leaked fact sheet for the game, which will reportedly be developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. According to the fact sheet, it will contain character progression across nine different Japanese clans, as well as improved war simulation gameplay on both land and sea. The fact sheet sets the release date in 2011. Joystiq contacted Sega to ask about the rumor, and we were told that it "can't comment on news about the next Total War game," so it looks like Sega's lips are sealed, at least until E3. [Via Big Download]
