When the sculpture and stone mason Jean-Louis Boistel set to renovating the Chapelle de Bethléem (Bethlehem Chapel) in Nantes, France, he decided to add some unorthodox decorations to the 15th century church. While some of the newer stone gargoyles (or, to be more accurate, chimeras) adorning the pinnacles are inspired by Christian tradition, others come from more modern sources—namely television and the movies. More » 
It's been a long time since we've heard any news about Disney's movie adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. We feared this picture had died after Henry Selick of Coraline passed up an opportunity to turn this YA novel into a stop motion feature — the studio and the director parted ways back in 2012. But Disney isn't done with Gaiman's book just yet. More » 
Is demand for the iPhone 5 waning? That is reportedly the case, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. On Monday, the newspaper cited multiple people "familiar with the situation" who said Apple had cut back orders for iPhone 5 components, including screens and other parts, following the "weaker-than-expected" demand. In fact, the sources claim Apple dropped its orders to just half of what it previously planned, sparking concern among both investors and the Apple community about Apple's future with the iPhone.
The WSJ's report was corroborated by similar reports from the Nikkei, a Japanese stock index, which said Apple asked Sharp and LG Display to halve the supplies of LCDs this quarter.
The news didn't bode well for Apple's shares, which briefly fell below $500 for the first time in almost a year when the exchanges opened on Monday morning. (Shares have since risen again to $505 as of this writing.) Investors are apparently concerned about the iPhone's future; when combined with Samsung's rising market share in the smartphone space (over 31 percent for the third quarter of 2012, according to IDC, compared to Apple's 14.6 percent), it certainly appears as if demand is shifting in the direction of non-iOS devices.
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EduHahá.
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EduRelevante
We try not to be surprised by what Google's Street View cars record as they make their way around the world's roads, but Google found itself in a bit of trouble this week when users pointed to a series of photos in Botswana that suggested that one of its drivers had mowed down a donkey. The search company has seen it fit to provide definitive proof that it hadn't perpetrated a hit-and-run by releasing the original source images used in the 360-degree street view panoramas. Unlike the processed Street View imagery, the pictures show the car's direction and prove that the donkey stood up and moved out of the car's way after lying in the road — not the opposite. Google Maps' group product manager Kei Kawai says he's "pleased to confirm...
EduEm marte.
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As the race – and it’s basically a race – to release as many 3D-printed gun parts as possible heats up, it’s never been harder for me to come down on the side of the “Freedom To Tinker” crowd. Last weekend Defense Distributed, a group dedicated to releasing plans for a 3D printed gun, posted a video and description of their 3D-printed AR-15 thirty-round magazine. The video, which is, unnecessarily, full of snarky vitriol, shows that, on some level, the 3D printed gun isn’t very far off. It also shows that the call for 3D printer legislation could soon overpower the call for freedom.
The problem with childish displays of firepower coupled with “How’s that national conversation going?” is that it proves that the folks who are doing this tinkering are less than responsible. They feel that this is a freedom of speech issue rather than a gun control issue. It’s abundantly clear that the lads at Defense Distributed are enjoying their newfound notoriety and, like a boy band on their first tour, they’re ready to trash some hotel rooms. The resulting shenanigans have convinced Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) to call for the banning of undectable 3-D printed high-capacity magazines. He updated his website yesterday, writing:
Rep. Israel said, “Background checks and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print high-capacity magazines at home. 3-D printing is a new technology that shows great promise, but also requires new guidelines. Law enforcement officials should have the power to stop keep homemade high-capacity magazines from proliferating with a Google search.”The law would “make it illegal to manufacture, own, transport, buy, or sell any firearm or magazine that is homemade and not detectable by metal detector and/or does not present an accurate image when put through an x-ray machine.” It is a noble if quixotic goal.
Politics, as we’ve learned, is woefully unprepared to handle major technological advancement. While Israel means well, his ability to keep an 3D model off of Google is laughable at best and dangerous at worst. As a gun control proponent, I know that now, more than ever, we need sane and effective controls on weapons in our country. As a believer in the unfettered growth of technology, on the other hand, I will defend Defense Distributed to the death while hating their crass methodology. Israel’s efforts only serve to give the DD kids a frisson of the martyr while avoiding the real problem of non-3D printed guns that are far more prolific and far easier to obtain.
The danger in legislating 3D printers is that it is on one hand impossible and on the other hand potentially damaging to a nascent industry. We have no idea what these printers will be able to do in the future and the best a home 3D printer can do, really, is punch out something like this handsome Nokia case. That will soon change. Again and again I equate this technology to the way dot matrix printers eventually begat the desktop publishing features available to even the rankest of amateurs today. However, a printed page can never be used to kill someone.
To use a 3D printer is to understand the current limitations of the platform and the potential inherent in the technology. It is a wonderful feeling to watch a Makerbot churn out a little plastic figurine and I want my kids to understand this fascinating technology from the very start. The potential damage that could be wrought by 3D-printing legislation could, potentially, destroy the industry but I doubt it. In fact, I’d say it would do the opposite. Technological advances usually route around damage and, in this case, legislation is damage.
But DD is going to keep at their project and benighted congress members will keep thinking they can, quite literally, nip this problem in the bud and they will be wrong. Whatever comes next for 3D printing, I doubt it will be very pleasing to those who are more worried about defending free inquiry
قلب is a new programming language exploring the role of human culture in coding. Code is written entirely in Arabic and is the basis of code calligraphy, classical algorithms rendered as traditional Arab art.
German magazine Der Spiegel has just published an interview with geneticist George Church in which he talks about his work as a biologist and his idea of making humans resistant to all viruses. But he also addresses a topic we've discussed before: The idea of cloning a Neandertal. More » 
For decades, comic artist and writer Rob Liefeld has plied his trade crafting stories of women with rubber spines and men with elastic physiques who love pouches and violence, and have no use for feet.
Liefeld co-created the character Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and has been lobbying to push forward Fox’s standalone film starring the character. But he’s also got other film projects brewing, and the latest is a Gods-as-Avengers style thing called — wait for it — Godyssey.
Liefeld hoped that the comic might turn into his next film project, and producers Todd Garner — whose Broken Road is based at Sony — and Brooklyn Weaver will produce the film that features a diverse cast of deities including Zeus, Buddha, Ra, and Pangu as they “fight a legion of fallen gods in an epic battle over mankind.” Is that “over mankind” in the sense that mankind is the subject of the battle, or are they literally fighting in the sky? I can’t wait to find out.
Variety reports on the project development, and describes the plot as quoted above. Check out some mind-boggling comic pages here.
Garner is also working with Liefeld on his Planet Terry pitch that came up a couple years ago, and on Bloodstrike, which is housed at 1984 Private Defense Contractors.
It’s worth noting that this is completely separate from the sci-fi version of The Odyssey that Warner Bros. announced just a day or two ago.
For Zack Kopplin, it all started back in 2008 with the passing of the Louisiana Science Education Act. The bill made it considerably easier for teachers to introduce creationist textbooks into the classroom. Outraged, he wrote a research paper about it for a high school English class. Nearly five years later, the 19-year-old Kopplin has become one of the fiercest — and most feared — advocates for education reform in Louisiana. We recently spoke to him to learn more about how he's making a difference. More » 
Earlier this week a security researcher revealed how it's possible to jailbreak the Windows RT operating system that powers Microsoft's Surface RT tablet. Using a method to exploit a setting in the OS, developers have released a jailbreak tool that simply runs and unlocks the device. It will need to be applied at each boot of the OS, but it will provide access to run ARM-based desktop apps.
Microsoft locked down its Windows RT operating system to new Windows 8-style applications, rather than allow developers to compile ARM-based apps. Irish programmer Steve Troughton-Smith has tried the technique on his Surface tablet today, revealing that he was able to run an early version of Apple's OS X server operating system on a Surface tablet....
Aaron Swartz makes the case against the Stop Online Piracy Act on January 18, 2012.
Daniel J. Sieradski
Aaron Swartz was easy to pick out of a crowd. I met him only once, at a 2010 gathering of legal academics organized by Larry Lessig at Harvard. In a room full of suits, Aaron wore a Google App Engine T-Shirt.
Unfortunately, Aaron's penchant for defying social convention may have been his undoing. He was arrested in 2011 for scraping articles from the academic archive JSTOR. Facing hacking charges that could put him in prison for decades, Aaron took his own life on Friday.
Aaron accomplished more in his 26 years than most of us will accomplish in our lifetimes. At the age of 14, he helped develop the RSS standard. He was an early member of the team that created reddit, which was sold to Condé Nast (Ars' parent company) before Aaron turned 20. Now independently wealthy, Aaron threw himself into political activism.
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Cisco Systems
Internet phones sold by Cisco Systems are vulnerable to stealthy hacks that turn them into remote bugging devices that eavesdrop on private calls and nearby conversations.
The networking giant warned of the vulnerability on Wednesday, almost two weeks after a security expert demonstrated how people with physical access to the phones could cause them to execute malicious code. Cisco plans to release a stop-gap software patch later this month for the weakness, which affects several models in the CiscoUnified IP Phone 7900 series. The vulnerability can also be exploited remotely over corporate networks, although Cisco has issued workarounds to make those hacks more difficult.
"Cisco recognizes that while a number of network, device, and configuration based mitigations exist, there is no way to mitigate the physical attack vector on the affected devices," the company's advisory stated. "To this end, Cisco will conduct a phased remediation approach and will be releasing an intermediate Engineering Special software release for affected devices to mitigate known attack vectors for the vulnerability documented in this advisory."
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EduPra que ler mais. Certo?
There's a great piece over at Wired by anthropologist Hélène Mialet about Stephen Hawking and the various ways he's learned to adapt to — and even transcend — his severe physical limitations. While it would be tempting to merely discuss his infrared activated voice synthesizer and robotic wheelchair, Mialet points out that there's more to Hawking than meets the eye — that he's not so much a person any more as he's the central node of the 'Hawking collective' — a diverse group of individuals who enable him to move beyond his disability in a profound way. More » 
EduTennyson Ford. Haha
A lot of the credit for the original Star Wars being a decent movie must go to Alec Guinness, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi and brings a lot of gravitas to explaining the Force and the complicated backstory about the Clone Wars. But Guinness didn't think much of Star Wars when he was filming it — he only took the role after they doubled his pay, and he still griped afterwards. More » 
Not long ago word came down that Guillermo del Toro is working to produce a film, originally referred to as Heaven Sent and now tentatively called Dark Universe, that will feature supernatural DC Comics characters such as Swamp Thing and John Constantine. We didn’t know much about the movie at the time, but now in a new interview del Toro talks about finally hiring a writer — who he refuses to name — and giving some more details about the potential character roster of the film. Fans of the Vertigo line from DC might be very happy with this one.
In the video interview below, del Toro talks up the writer he’s been courting for some time, and says “right now the working title is Dark Universe.”
Asked about his favorite character in the potential roster for the film, he runs down a lot of names, confirming many likely inclusions:
Swamp Thing, for me is a rock star. The Demon, Etrigan, is amazing. And then you go to Constantine, who I thought is an amazing creation — and I want to do the Constantine of the comics. Deadman is really a lot of work, but a lot of fun. [The Spectre is in,] yes…
Asked to elaborate about the full roster, he says “I can’t say, because then you’ll know the plot a little bit,” but does mention/confirm Zatanna as well as the characters mentioned above.
He says the early movement for this goes back a bit, and talks briefly about some effort at DC to “make their universe cohesive,” but that with Man of Steel WB and DC are more confident than ever. And the tone of that movie, combined with what Christopher Nolan established, is helping define the cinematic tone of DC.
The script isn’t written and the film isn’t greenlit, and so all the details above could be subject to change as the picture evolves.
Here’s the interview from IGN:
Canonical
Canonical today announced a new version of Ubuntu designed specifically for smartphones to power everything from entry-level handhelds to "high-end superphones" that double as PCs.
The move by Canonical was long expected, although it is coming late to a market already dominated by the iPhone and Android-based devices. Ubuntu for phones isn't a whole new operating system. Instead, it is a "smartphone interface" for Ubuntu. This helps Ubuntu differentiate from other phone operating systems by Voltron-ing itself into a full-fledged PC when docked to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
Ubuntu has previously been in the smartphone game with Android devices that become a modified Ubuntu PC when docked. This didn't make much of an impact, as the most prominent such device—the Motorola Atrix and lapdock—has been discontinued.
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Just days after J.J. Abrams granted his request to see a rough cut of Star Trek Into Darkness, Daniel Craft passed away. Craft was diagnosed with terminal cancer six weeks ago; his wife and friend posted his plea to see the film on Reddit, which was passed around until it reached director J.J. Abrams' attention. From The Hollywood Reporter: More » 
An article about an obscure 17th Century war in India has been deleted from Wikipedia — after an enterprising editor discovered that despite being on the site for 5 years, it had never actually occurred. Started in 2007, the Bicholim Conflict article described a "period of armed conflict between the Portuguese rulers of Goa and the Maratha Empire" that ended in a peace treaty, as well as its effect on later regional politics and popular culture. When Wikipedia user ShelfSkewed looked for the sources cited, however, he found that they either didn't exist or made no mention of the conflict. "An online search for 'Bicholim conflict' or for many of the article's purported sources," likewise, produced "only results that can be traced back...
It's been more than a year since we first learned of Christopher Salmon's quest to bring Neil Gaiman's short story "The Price" to life as an animated film. This week, he offered a clearer sense of his vision, posting the full-length animatic he used to pitch the project to Gaiman. More » 
When making the film version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke consulted with IBM. Given that one of the film's major plot points centers on an insane artificial intelligence, Kubrick was a tad bit worried that IBM might be displeased with their association with the film. More » 
Penguin is releasing new editions of five of books by George Orwell, with covers by designer David Pearson. Perhaps the best of the new designs is Pearson's simple but brilliant idea for 1984, with the title and author's name apparently censored with black foiling. More » 
Biologist and science educator Phil Torres may have discovered a completely new species — a spider that builds detailed replicas of larger spiders to intimidate and confuse potential predators. The spider, currently thought to be a new member of the genus Cyclosa, uses small pieces of leaf, dead insects, and other debris to create fake spiders, complete with legs. Other Cyclosa create decoys using spare egg sacs, but this new spider's sculptures are the first to feature leg-like appendages. Speaking to Wired, Torres said that when he first saw one of the small, 5mm spiders and its decoy on a tour at Peru's Tambopata Research Center, "it blew my mind."
However, the spider is still a long way from being recognized as a new species....
Two weeks after the first-ever tweet from a pope, the Vatican is touting its success on the social media platform. An article on official news site The Vatican Today claims that the pope's account is "exceeding pop stars like Justin Bieber in the percentage and number of retweets of his messages," citing 1.2 million retweets of @pontifex's first tweet from over 2 million followers. It's not clear where the Vatican got that 1.2 million figure, however: tallying up the retweets across the pope's eight foreign language accounts currently gives a total of 115,407, with all of the accounts together accumulating 2,115,421 followers at the time of this writing.
Even with the miscount, the Vatican is correct that the pope's first message had a...
EduAí siiim.
West Point Bridge Designer is a challenging engineering game where your goal is to design and build virtual bridges for the lowest possible cost. Unlike the simplistic, fun oriented bridge building game Cargo Bridge, West Point Bridge Designer is designed to be realistic.
One of the purposes of the West Point Bridge Designer 2012 is to provide a realistic, hands-on experience that will help players understand how civil engineers design real structures. While many aspects of the software accurately reflect the structural design process, a number of significant compromises have been made to keep the program from getting too complex. WPBD is intended as an introduction to engineering design, with emphasis on the design process, rather than the detailed technical aspects of structural design.
As a player you have to plan and design a virtual steel bridge to carry a two-lane highway spanning a river, in much the same way that practicing civil engineers design real highway bridges. Your goal is to design a bridge that doesn’t collapse when a load is put on it while trying to obtain the lowest possible cost in the process. You may choose from a wide variety of different site configurations for your bridge, and you also have at your disposal all the basic structural elements such as bars, beams, columns and joints.
The game takes care of all heavy-duty mathematical calculations, so that you can concentrate on the creative part of the design process.
Once your first design attempt is complete, you will be able to test your bridge to see if it is strong enough to carry the specified highway loads. This test shows a colorful animation of a truck crossing your bridge. If your design is strong enough, the truck will be able to cross it successfully; if not, the structure will collapse. During the crossing the stress on various elements of the bridge will be highlighted by color allowing you to gauge which elements need replacement or strengthening.
If your bridge collapses, you can strengthen it by changing the properties of the structural components that make up the bridge, or by changing the configuration of the bridge itself. Once your bridge can successfully carry the highway loading without collapsing, you can continue to refine your design, with the objective of minimizing its cost while still ensuring that it is strong enough to carry the specified loads.
West Point Bridge Designer is developed by the West Point Military Academy in the USA, who use it to run a large annual contest. The contest is open to students of age 13 through grade 12, who are currently enrolled in schools in the United States. However, anyone can participate in the West Point Bridge Design Contest – you just won’t be able to advance to the Qualifying Round and compete for prizes. Prizes include $10,000 in scholarship and a notebook computer.
2013 West Point Bridge Design Contest will start on January next year. See this page for more details about the contest.
© Instant Fundas, 2013EduPorque as anteriores mal podiam ser chamadas de idéias.
Rewatching the most recent batch of Vampire Diaries episodes, we were struck with a couple of thoughts. More » 
Lydia
A Detroit science fiction and fantasy convention is auctioning off the chance to play a game of Dungeons & Dragons with eight prolific authors.
Immortal ConFusion has posted the opportunity to play Dungeons & Dragons with Pat Rothfuss, Peter V. Brett, Diana Rowland, Jim C. Hines, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Sam Sykes on eBay. Authors Myke Cole and Saladin Ahmed will take on the role of Dungeon Masters. The game, which will take place on the morning of January 19 at the convention center in Detroit, will be filmed and edited for release on YouTube.
All proceeds raised from the auction will go to Worldbuilders, a charity founded by Rothfuss, in support of Heifer International, which aims to fight world hunger and poverty through sustainable aid.
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EduMuito lindo.
Venus, the 80-meter yacht crafted for the late Steve Jobs by famous French designer Philippe Starck, is stuck in a Dutch harbor because of a dispute over payment. Jobs commissioned the yacht before his death in 2011, but it was first unveiled in late October of 2012. Now, according to Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad and other sources, Starck claims that the Jobs family underpaid him for his work. Starck allegedly says he should have received about 9 million euros ($11.8 million) for his work, but instead he was given only 6 million ($7.9 million). Now, the yacht will remain stationary until the matter is settled.
As The Wall Street Journal points out, very little money is at stake here by Jobsian standards, and the family hasn't...
EduQue excelente essa história.
