Bad Science in Science Fiction Movies

io9 targets bad science in science fiction movies, from the instance of sound in space and fire is space to faster than light travel.

Two comments about the chart: It's debatable if Apollo 13 counts as a science fiction movie (See blog on difference between hard and soft science fiction here). Second, 'dodging faster-than-light weapons e.g. lasers' is incorrect. Lasers beams do not move faster than light, as they are light.

Are people spending more time online than watching TV?

[Reposted article. See original here: Has internet use really reached TV viewing levels?]

A research company claims that Americans now spend as much time using the Internet as they do watching TV. But rival figures vary so wildly that it’s not possible to be certain of much more than a general trend.

The headline claim comes from Forrester Research, which says the average US citizen spends 13 hours a week apiece on the two activities. That’s the first time the annual survey from the firm has found parity among the population as a whole, though younger viewers have been spending more time online than watching TV for some time now.

The New York Times notes that although streaming video is becoming far more popular, this isn’t proof that people are canceling cable services and moving to online viewing: the amount of time people spend watching TV hasn’t changed significantly. However, there has been a drop in the time spend on radio, newspapers and magazines.

I suspect there’s a simple answer for this (other than people finding more hours in the day): people are likely spending more time online, particularly on portable computers and other devices, while “watching” TV (or at least, while the TV is switched on.)

The Times also makes the intriguing philosophical point: if somebody streams video content but watches it through their TV set, are they using the Internet or watching TV?

Meanwhile paidcontent.org has pointed out that while Forrester lists 13 hours a week for average Internet use, comScore has the figure at 7 hours 24 minutes. Why the difference? Well, it appears to be because comScore measures actual use, while Forrester is a survey, with consumers reporting their online activity. And it wasn’t even a case of users being asked to track their activity: they were simply asked how many hours a week they spent on each form of media.

That makes it worth noting a study by Ball State University (PDF) that concludes “Serious caution needs to be applied in interpreting self-report data for media use. TV was substantially under-reported while online video and mobile video usage were over-reported.”

To make things even more confusing, Nielsen reports weekly Internet use as 38 hours 44 minutes for the average person.

Of course, that too could have several explanations: the figure may or may not include work usage; the sample group could leave out people who don’t use the Internet at all (thus upping the average); and there may be different interpretations of what counts as Internet usage (is somebody who downloads a large video file while they sleep still using the Internet?).

Related blog entry: Are teenagers wired for digital distractions?

What is the dorkiest animal on the planet?

Dorks can be described as socially inept people who follow certain obsessions (See blog entry on geeks, nerds, and dorks). Unfortunately, dorks often get bullied in schools.


Scientists described an animal that shows some dorky characteristics. Rotifiers can shapeshift their offspring to hide from bullies (i.e., predators).

Zoologger has reported on the shapeshifting characteristics of Keratella tropica, a rotifer found in Argentina that feeds mostly on algae and is regularly hunted by larger, stronger creatures. Their only defense mechanism is their spines, which may not defend them from some predators. Here’s the dorky part:

Most of the time they reproduce asexually, only having sex every once in a while – although one group, the bdelloid rotifers, have done without sex for 70 million years.

If predators arrive, Keratella quickly finds out that its standard complement of spines is not much of a defence … Instead, the mere presence of a certain predator can make it change the shape of its offspring.

Comare the rotifier's strategy to the tardigrades ("the toughest animals on the planet"): See blog post here.


Read the original post on Geekosystem here: Rotifers Shapeshift to Defend from Predators | Geekosystem

South Korean government might ban young online gamers after midnight

South Korean Children playing online games

The South Korean Government is concerned with growing internet addiction among young people and considers banning youngsters from playing online games past midnight. South Korea is one of the world's most wired societies, and the government estimates that there are over two million web addicts in South Korea.


A bill to be submitted to parliament as early as this month will require South Korean online game companies to cut off services at midnight for users registered as younger than 16, the culture and family ministries said.


Young S.Koreans face midnight ban for online games - Yahoo! News

Creating a 3D model from millions of Flickr pictures

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich [my home university] and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill created an algorithm than generates interactive 3D models of landmarks from the millions of publicly available pictures that people uploaded to sites like Flickr.