wdef writes "The world's first film shot entirely by chimpanzees is to be broadcast by the BBC as part of a natural history documentary. The apes created the movie using a specially designed chimp-proof camera given to them by primatologists. The film-making exercise is part of a scientific study into how chimpanzees perceive the world and each other.'"

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Though Microsoft's Project Natal won't be released until later this year, indie studio Arkedo has already revealed a canceled project for the peripheral. Called 2 Finger Heroes, it was to be a beat 'em up where your fingers do the fighting. 'Characters would be controlled by moving your fingers, while special moves could be done by incorporating your whole hand. The environment could even be affected by moving your arms folded at your chest.' On why it was canceled, one of the developers said, 'One of the design flaws of this, apart from the fact that it demanded some very precise pattern recognition from the Natal system, is that it would have been HELL to localize. Yup, what can be understood as the victory sign in France could be a terrible insult in the UK, for instance. And we are not even talking about Italian. Oh, the possibilities...'"

superapecommando writes "Too many hours spent playing videogames indoors is contributing to a rise in rickets, according to a new study by doctors. Professor Simon Pearce and Dr Tim Cheetham of Newcastle University have written a paper in the British Medical Journal which warns of the rickets uptake – a disease which sufferers get when deficient in Vitamin D. The study boils down to the fact that as more people play videogames indoors they don't get enough sunlight and this has meant the hospitals are now having to combat a disease that was last in the papers around the time Queen Victoria was on the throne." At least the kids are eating enough snacks with iodized salt that we don't have to worry about goiters.

Liz Str8 writes "When Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, spoke at a Nashville Technology Council event held at Trevecca Nazarene University, he participated in a 'meet and greet' session with students from local colleges and universities. At that event, a Trevecca student asked Ballmer to sign his Mac laptop. In an action that Tech Flash blogger Todd Bishop described as 'a scene that will make Mac fans feel like they're watching Thomas Kinkade scribble on a Van Gogh,' Ballmer graciously agreed to do so — right across the Mac logo."

An anonymous reader writes "As a 22-year-old female student at the University of Michigan went through security at Philadelphia International Airport, a TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on — the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder. Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK. After 20 seconds of crying, the TSA agent waved the baggie. It was his, and it was all a joke. Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own."

head_dunce writes "A new nanodragster has been built that measures about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair and going at speeds of up to .0005 inches per hour while doing a wheelie! Maybe the NHRA should stand for Nano-Hot Rod Association?"

Lanxon writes "A collaborative electro-opera based on Charles Darwin and his evolutionary treatise, On The Origin of Species, is about to be released to the world, after a number of highly artistic live performances in Copenhagen and Athens, reports Wired. Called Tomorrow, In A Year, the two-hour production is the work of a whole range of artists, masterminded by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. They grabbed reclusive electro-pop duo The Knife to write the music, who in turn asked electronic artist Mt. Sims and multi-instrumentalist Planningtorock to lend a hand along with several other musicians, singers and artists. The result is an unusual fusion of science, experimental music, and art that treads some new creative ground."

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A Facebook employee has given a tell-all interview with some very interesting things about Facebook's internals. Especially interesting are all the things relating to Facebook privacy. Basically, you don't have any. Nearly everything you've ever done on the site is recorded into a database. While they fire employees for snooping, more than a few have done it. There's an internal system to let them log into anyone's profile, though they have to be able to defend their reason for doing so. And they used to have a master password that could log into any Facebook profile: 'Chuck Norris.' Bruce Schneier might be jealous of that one."

An anonymous reader writes "The LackRack is the ultimate, low-cost, high shinyness solution for your modular datacenter-in-the-living-room. Featuring the LACK side table from Ikea, the LackRack is an easy-to-implement, exact-fit datacenter building block. It provides superior mounting for up to 8 U of 19" hardware, such as switches and other professional gear. Multi-shiny LackRack can also be painted to your specific preferences and the airflow is unprecedented."

jairob writes "A paper just posted in the arXiv reviews the maxims used by three early modern fictional detectives (PDF): Monsieur Lecoq, C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes. It finds similarities between these maxims and Bayesian thought. Poe's Dupin uses ideas very similar to Bayesian game theory. Sherlock Holmes' statements also show thought patterns justifiable in Bayesian terms. The author is an emeritus professor of statistics at Carnegie Mellon University."

The winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, Jose Luis Rodriguez, has been stripped of his award for hiring a ringer. Officials allege that the wolf in the picture is none other than Ossian, a tame wolf that lives at a zoological park. Using a tame animal is a violation of the contest rules. Wildlife photographer and competition judge, Mark Carwardine, said, "You can see several very distinctive markings and the experts all agreed that, yes, it's the same wolf. We disqualified [Mr Rodriguez] and banned him for life from entering the competition again, so I think that sends a strong message." I'm surprise I haven't found a "three wolves jumping the fence" meme yet.

Have you ever wanted a stranger dressed in a special all-in-one sleeper suit to warm up your hotel bed before you go to sleep? If you answered yes, Holiday Inns in London and Manchester have the perfect program for you. For a limited time, guests can receive a free, five-minute bed warming session from the hotel's human bed warmers. Holiday Inn spokeswoman Jane Bednall says it's ''like having a giant hot water bottle in your bed." Best job ever.

More than 200,000 Swedes joined a Facebook group to help earthquake victims in Haiti before it was revealed as a hoax by the “Swedish Necrophilia Association”. The group promised to send 2 kronor ($0.30) per member when 200,000 people joined. When the mark was reached it was revealed that the group had been created by a made-up organization calling itself the Swedish Necrophilia Association. A statement from the group read: "As many already know, it is the Swedish Necrophilia Association which is now sending 500,000 kronor to ensure that the bodies which are brought home from Haiti are in as good shape as possible." I must admit the threat of being scammed by fictitious Swedish Necrophiliacs has never occurred to me.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a radio commercial for implying Germans are tyrants. The advertisement for a Reed recruitment website features an angry boss speaking in German. The ASA says: "We noted the ad used a German speaker, rather than someone speaking English, to portray the boss as 'a bit of a tyrant' and the humour derived from a stereotype at the expense of German people. We considered that the portrayal suggested that German people were more likely to be unreasonable or aggressive to others. We concluded that, given the extreme reaction and aggressive tone of the German-speaking boss, the ad reinforced a negative and outdated cultural stereotype of German people as overpowering and tyrannical and therefore the ad had the potential to cause serious offence to some listeners."

Trijicon, a Michigan company that makes high-powered rifle sights for the military, has come under fire for inscribing coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ on their products. The sights contain references to Second Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" and John 8:12, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The company has acknowledged that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the US military, but says there is nothing wrong or illegal about adding them. Spokespeople for the US Army and the Marine Corps both say that they were unaware of the biblical markings, and are discussing what steps, if any, to take. I personally think this is ridiculous. Everyone knows that Jesus was such a good shot he never used sights.

Here's a list of the best fictional firearms of all time. My only complaints are: It's a list of the top 16, which seems to be an odd arbitrary number for an arbitrary list, and the BFG 9000 didn't make the cut.

A little thing like death hasn't stopped Ralph B. White from traveling the world. In the last 2 years, he has visited the mountains of Nepal, the Australian Outback, the Chinese-Mongolian border, a Rwandan volcano, Iceland, Benin and the waters off Zanzibar. In life, Ralph loved to travel and was a contract cameraman for National Geographic. After his passing, tiny portions of White's ashes were measured out in plastic bags and given to friends and family. They have been scattering the ashes all over the earth ever since.

They may not have the food, water, or medicine they need, but earthquake survivors in Haiti will soon get solar powered bibles. The "Proclaimer" is a solar-powered audible Bible that can broadcast scriptures in Haitian Creole to large groups of people. An Albuquerque-based organization is sending 600 of the bibles in the hopes that they will provide comfort to survivors. Problem solved.

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"

gimmebeer writes "The Russian Sukhoi SU-27 has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (more than 1,300 mph) and has a thrust to weight ratio greater than 1 to 1. That means it can accelerate while climbing straight up. It was designed to fight against the best the US had to offer, and now it can be yours for the price of a mediocre used business jet."