Kuwaiti journalist jailed for Twitter 'insults'

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A Kuwait newspaper says an online journalist has been sentenced to two years in prison for posts deemed "insulting" to the Gulf nation's ruler — the second such ruling this week.
The decision reflects a widening social media crackdown across the Gulf Arab states to quell perceived political dissent.
Kuwait's pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported Monday that Ayyad al-Harbi, a journalist at news website Sabr, was charged with posting Twitter messages considered offensive to the nation's Western-allied emir. No other details were given.
Kuwait, which hosts thousands of U.S. troops, has been gripped by months of political unrest led by anti-government groups, including Islamist factions.
On Sunday, Kuwaiti media said a social media activist also has received a two-year prison term for Twitter posts that allegedly insulted the emir.

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Mark Zuckerberg faces fine in Germany over Facebook privacy violations

Facebook (FB) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg could face a fine of $26,000 for not allowing German citizens to maintain anonymous identities on Facebook, The Guardian reported. Thilo Weichert, the data protection commissioner for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said that Facebook is breaking a German law by requiring users to provide their identities, adding that “it is unacceptable that a U.S. portal like Facebook violates German data protection law, unopposed and with no prospect of an end.” The company has previously come under fire in Germany for policies surrounding its “like” button and facial recognition feature. Nominal fines aside, data protection experts have said that Facebook is unlikely to change its policies.

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181,354 People on Twitter Think They're Experts at Twitter

Do you tweet a lot? Do you post everything on Facebook? Do you #hashtag #complete #sentences #like #this? Do you describe yourself, variously, as a social media "maven", "master", "guru", "freak", "warrior", "evangelist" or "veteran"? (Yes, a social media veteran. As if Tumblr were a deadly war you narrowly survived.) Well: you've got company! There are more than 181,000 such individuals on Twitter, people who adorn their profiles with credentials like "social media freak" and "social media wonk" and "social media authority."
RELATED: Teens Hacking Their Friends's Twitter Accounts Is All the Rage
B.L. Ochman at Advertising Age, whose heroic research produced the final tally, first noted the trend three years ago — when she recorded, among other distinctions, 68 "social media stars" and 79 "social media ninjas" on Twitter alone — and has been keeping track ever since. This isn't just the stuff of legitimate Twitter news-breakers like Anthony DeRosa and Andy Carvin — Ohman provides a helpful breakdown of the terms she looked for — you know, like "social media warrior." (We're tempted to argue that such diligence makes Ochman something of a social media warrior herself.) Ochman also warns of using "guru" — a Sanskrit term — to describe oneself:
While a great many of these self-appointed gurus are no doubt taking the title with tongue firmly planted in cheek, the fact remains: a guru is something someone else calls you, not something you call yourself. Scratch that: let's save "guru" (Sanskrit for "teacher") for religious figures or at least people with real unique knowledge.
I'd argue, in fact, that "social media" and "guru" should never appear in the same sentence.
Whatever the term, social media seems to be a growth industry: there were only 15,740 "mavens" (or whatever) in 2009 — less than a tenth of those represented today.

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Insight: Security fears dogged Canada debate on China energy bid

OTTAWA (Reuters) - In September, two months after China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd made an unexpected $15.1 billion bid for Canadian energy company Nexen Inc, Canada's spy agency told ministers that takeovers by Chinese companies may threaten national security.
The rare warning from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was disclosed to Reuters by intelligence sources, did not stop the takeover. That was approved by Canadian authorities earlier this month.
But the intervention and an influential U.S. lawmaker's warning in October that Canadian companies should be careful about doing business with Chinese telecom equipment companies Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp made the approval process for the deal more difficult than initially expected.
"CSIS did not like the Nexen bid and thought it was a bad idea for Chinese firms to be investing in the oil sands. It all played into their greater fears about firms like Huawei," said one person familiar with the agency's concerns. "They do not want to wake up one day and realize a crucial sector of the economy is under the control of foreign interests."
And after listening to the spy service, which usually keeps a low profile, Canada drew up surprisingly tough foreign investment rules that were unveiled when approving the Nexen deal, China's biggest-ever successful foreign takeover. In a clampdown on companies it deems influenced by foreign governments, Canada will block similar purchases in the future.
CSIS has been silent about what it said to Ottawa on the Nexen transaction, and it declined to comment for this story. It didn't specifically recommend the CNOOC deal be blocked, but rather warned more generally about such deals with Chinese entities, the person said.
In reality, the government was unlikely to want to block the CNOOC bid, given a high-profile push by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier in the year to boost ties with China, and given that a lot of Nexen's assets are outside Canada, and it has underperformed other energy companies.
SPECIFIC WORRIES
By pushing back aggressively, CSIS ensured that it got foreign investment policy tightened significantly to deter similar such takeovers by companies under the sway of foreign governments.
"I think people at CSIS and elsewhere are going 'Good. That was a very good response by the government'," said Ray Boisvert, a former CSIS assistant director of intelligence, who retired this year after almost three decades at the agency.
"It did reflect some of those deep strategic concerns that practitioners have had about this kind of investment."
Specific worries include theft of Canadian intellectual property, espionage, computer hacking and foreign companies gaining too much influence over crucial sectors of the economy, said the person familiar with the agency's views.
The government could, in theory, nationalize assets if it thought foreign control was problematic. But the pro-business Conservatives would likely find it politically unpalatable to take such a step.
"To be blunt, Canadians have not spent years reducing the ownership of sectors of the economy by our own governments, only to see them bought and controlled by foreign governments instead," Harper said as he announced the new investment rules.
In October, the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee urged U.S. firms to stop doing business with Huawei and another Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE on the grounds that Beijing could use products made by the two companies to spy.
The House Intelligence Committee's chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, urged Canada to take a similar stance, and two days later, the Canadian government indicated it would not let Huawei help build a secure government communications network because of possible security risks.
"The Huawei business caused a lot of political complications for the CNOOC bid," another person familiar with the CNOOC deal said of the U.S. committee's report.
Both Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly denied the allegations in the report, and China's foreign ministry dismissed as "baseless" the idea that security concerns could impede commercial ties.
"We hope that the relevant party can objectively and justly treat Chinese companies' overseas investment and cooperation plans, and stop actions which harm Chinese companies' image and do more to benefit the promotion of bilateral trade and business cooperation," said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
CLANDESTINE SUPPORT
In its annual report, released in September, CSIS noted risks that included espionage and illegal technology transfers, and said some foreign state-owned enterprises had "pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits" in Canada.
The agency did not give details, but added: "When foreign companies with ties to foreign intelligence agencies or hostile governments seek to acquire control over strategic sectors of the Canadian economy, it can represent a threat to Canadian security interests."
CSIS, hit by controversy in 2010 after its head suggested China had too much influence over some Canadian provincial politicians, did not mention any country or firm in its report.
It is unclear how much, if any, influence the United States had on the Canadian authorities' foreign investment policy.
Fen Hampson, head of the global security program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, said he had learned that a U.S. official visited Ottawa in the last few months to discuss mutual concerns about foreign state-owned enterprises.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson told Reuters he was not aware of such a meeting, but he noted that officials from the two countries met constantly. "I would be surprised if almost any issue you could think of has not come up in one or more of those conversations," he said. "The United States has not sought to influence Canada's decision with respect to that (CNOOC's bid)... We respect that decision."
The Canadian government did not respond to a request for a comment.
Chinese companies have bought up smaller Canadian energy firms before, but the July 23 bid for Nexen was their first attempt to buy one of the larger players.
Nexen has assets in Canada, the North Sea, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. Technology that Nexen and its partners use for deep sea drilling could interest CNOOC. [ID:nL4N09N3R5]
Asked about the CSIS concerns, a spokeswoman for Industry Minister Christian Paradis replied: "The government has the authority to take any measures it considers necessary to protect national security."
Yet two people close to the deal noted that the Canadian government did not exercise its option to do a separate review of the potential security risks of the CNOOC-Nexen bid, again signaling its concerns were tied to overall Chinese investment rather than to this particular deal.
Under the new rules, which Paradis is responsible for enforcing, foreign state-owned enterprises can no longer buy controlling stakes in assets in the oil sands, the biggest reserve of crude oil outside Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Such enterprises can buy minority stakes in the oil sands, or majority stakes in companies outside the oil sands. Companies deemed to have strong government links will be treated with particular caution wherever they propose to invest.
"When it comes to our security and intelligence services, they would rather pull up the drawbridge than let it down," said Hampson, co-author of a report on trade ties between Canada and emerging nations that he discussed with Harper in June.

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Huawei shows off 6.1-inch Android phablet ahead of CES [video]

It looks like things are going to get worse before they start to get better. Further blurring the line between a smartphone that is too big to be used comfortably and a tablet the is too small to be used efficiently, Huawei has plans to unveil a new smartphone-tablet hybrid device at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January. The Android “phablet” was recently shown off by a Huawei executive outside of a Huawei store in Guangzhou, China, and Engadget lists among the device’s key specs a 6.1-inch 1080p display with a pixel density of 316 ppi, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, a 4,000 mAh battery and a case that measure just 9.9 millimeters thick. A video of the device follows below.

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Iran says defeats cyber attack on industrial sites

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Internet virus attacked computers at industrial sites in southern Iran, in an apparent extension of a covert cyber war that initially targeted the country's nuclear facilities, an Iranian official said.
Iran, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, has tightened online security since its uranium enrichment centrifuges were hit in 2010 by the Stuxnet computer worm, which Tehran believes was planted by arch-adversaries Israel or the United States.
The unit tasked with fighting cyber attacks, the Passive Defence Organisation, said a virus had infected several sites in Hormozgan province in recent months but was neutralised.
"Enemies are constantly attacking Iran's industrial units through Internet networks in order to create disruptions," Ali Akbar Akhavan, head of the Hormozgan branch of the organisation, was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency on Tuesday.
"This virus has even penetrated some manufacturing industries in Hormozgan province, but with timely measures and the cooperation of skilled hackers in the province, the progress of this virus was halted," Akhavan said.
"As an example, the Bandar Abbas Tavanir Co., a producer of electricity in the province and even adjacent provinces, has been the target of Internet attacks in recent months," he said.
Bandar Abbas is the capital of Hormozgan province on Iran's southern coast and home to an oil refinery and container port.
Israeli officials have threatened military action against Iranian nuclear facilities if Western sanctions on Tehran's banking and oil sectors do not persuade the Islamic Republic to shelve its disputed atomic program.
Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is enriching uranium only for civilian energy.
Iranian authorities said in April that a computer virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island - which handles the vast majority of Iran's crude oil exports - but the terminal had remained operational.
Cyber attackers also slowed Iran's Internet and attacked its offshore oil and gas platforms this year, Iranian officials have said.

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Iran media report new cyberattack by Stuxnet worm

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian semi-official news agency says there has been another cyberattack by the sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet, this time on the industries in the country's south.
Tuesday's report by ISNA quotes provincial civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan as saying the virus targeted a power plant and some other industries in Hormozgan province in recent months.
Akhavan says Iranian computer experts were able to "successfully stop" the worm.
Iran has repeatedly claimed defusing cyber worms and malware, including Stuxnet and Flame viruses that targeted the vital oil sector, which provides 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue.
Tehran has said both worms are part of a secret U.S.-Israeli program that seeks to destabilize Iran's nuclear program.
The West suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran denies.

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Phablet wars heat up with ZTE’s quad-core Nubia Z5

2013 is shaping up to be the year of the “phablet” with virtually ever major handset maker preparing to challenge Samsung’s (005930) impressive Galaxy Note lineup. While there’s no clear definition on how large a phablet is, most tend to have screens that hover in the 5-inch range, though Huawei’s upcoming 6.1-inch smartphone will only push that boundary. ZTE’s newly announced Nubia Z5 packs a 5-inch display with full-HD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, an aluminum case, a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear, a 2-megapixel front camera, Dolby sound and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It even edges out HTC’s (2498) slim DROID DNA in terms of size with slightly thinner dimensions and a larger battery: 2,300 mAh versus the DNA’s 2,020 mAh. The only deal-breaker is the Nubia Z5 likely won’t be available in the U.S., but importers drooling over its specs can pick one up in China for about $554.

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Xbox SmartGlass updated with second-screen ESPN and NBA Game Time app experiences

Little by little, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox SmartGlass app is becoming more useful. Microsoft Director of Programming for Xbox LIVE Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb announced on Monday the release of the Sports Picks app, which allows users to “make picks, compete with your Xbox LIVE friends and fight for domination of the leaderboard.” Xbox SmartGlass also has new ESPN and NBA Game Time experiences that provide second-screen information and navigation to “thousands of live events, highlights and replays” during a game. Xbox SmartGlass is compatible with dozens of existing Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8 smartphones and tablets as well as Windows 8-compatible mobile devices. The new update to Xbox SmartGlass is the latest in Microsoft’s attempts to position the Xbox 360 as the ultimate living room device.

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Nintendo's TVii a replacement for the remote

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nintendo is switching on a television service that transforms the tablet-like controller for its new Wii U game console into a remote that changes the channel on your TV and puts programs from the Internet just a few finger taps away.
The TVii service will debut in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, the company said. That's a delay from previous plans to have the service available when the game console went on sale in North America on Nov. 18. The TVii service launched in Japan on Dec. 8.
The aim of TVii is to bring order to the hundreds of channels on regular TV and the thousands of shows and movies available through apps from Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Hulu Plus and Google Inc.'s YouTube.
It's the first time a video game console maker has integrated live TV controls in a device and could be the extra incentive needed for on-the-fence shoppers ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Nintendo Co.'s Wii U console has a unique controller — the GamePad — which is covered with joysticks and buttons and boasts a front-facing camera and 6.2-inch touch screen. The GamePad also houses an infrared emitter that talks directly to your TV or set-top box.
TVii scans what's available and offers you the option of watching a show, sports event or movie on live TV or through apps that connect to the Internet. By the end of March, Nintendo says that it will integrate TVii with TiVo so that it will be possible to program a TiVo digital video recorder through the game console as well.
"This is a way to get every member of the household to pick up the GamePad hopefully every day," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America. "Hopefully this leads to a significant change in how consumers view and interact with their TV."
For years, home entertainment enthusiasts have had to grapple with a bunch of different controllers to work their televisions, set-top boxes, DVRs, disc players and game consoles. TVii has the potential to dispense with some of that hassle.
If you search for "The Walking Dead," for example, TVii will show you the next time it's on AMC and give you the option of buying previous episodes from Amazon or watching them on Netflix. If it's on now, you can change the channel from the GamePad. Users will be able to watch only channels they already get via antenna or through their TV provider, but search results will include all the options available, which could entice some people to upgrade their channel packages. Netflix and Hulu Plus require separate subscriptions that cost $8 a month each. TVii itself is free.
TVii also has a traditional channel guide and will recommend shows you might like based on favorite shows, networks and movies that you enter. Different users can have different profiles, and parental controls are included.
Nintendo hopes the service boosts sales of its console. About 425,000 Wii U units were sold in the first seven days on sale. That's faster than the rollout of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 when they debuted in November 2005 and November 2006 respectively, although initial sales are often constrained by supply, not demand.
Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities said the TVii service puts Nintendo a step ahead of its competitors, but he expects Microsoft to close the gap next year with a next-generation Xbox that includes a TV tuner. Microsoft hasn't announced such a device.
"It gives them a head start. I think they should be congratulated on making this a truly multimedia device," Pachter said. "I don't think that advantage is going to last very long."
Nintendo has also added social networking features to its service. A team of curators will watch the top 100 shows on live TV and post details and a screenshot of important events, such as "a great shot in a basketball game or an unexpected twist in 'Mad Men,'" according to Zach Fountain, director of network business for Nintendo of America.
Users can then comment on these moments and have those posts show up on Nintendo's Miiverse network, as well as Facebook and Twitter if they choose. Users that express emotions could wind up with a sad or happy-looking Mii avatar.
Live sporting events such as pro or college football will also be accompanied by scores and play-by-play summaries on the GamePad's screen.
One problem with the service could be the GamePad's battery life. Nintendo says the controller can be used three to five hours depending on activity and screen brightness before it needs to be charged. But TV ratings agency The Nielsen Co. says the average American watches nearly five hours of TV per day. Heavy users may need to keep the controller plugged in to a wall socket, or buy a $25 battery pack that its maker, Nyko, promises will double the battery life.

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News summary: Nintendo's TVii replaces the remote

TVii LAUNCH: Nintendo if flipping on its TVii service Thursday, a month after sales started for its Wii U game console. The service turns the GamePad controller into a TV remote control, channel guide and Web video surfer.
SALES HOPES: Nintendo hopes the free service boosts sales of the console after recording 425,000 sales in the first week since its Nov. 18 launch.
HEAD START: It's the first time a game console maker has put live TV controls into a device, but analyst Michael Pachter says competitors will copy the function soon.

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Wii U finally gets Nintendo’s TVii service on December 20th

After a month-long delay, Nintendo (NTDOY) will launch its Nintendo TVii service for the Wii U on December 20th in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo TVii is the company’s take on organizing all of the various video streaming and DVR services a user might subscribe to and then displaying them in an easy-to-navigate touchscreen-based interface on the Wii U GamePad. With Nintendo TVii, Nintendo hopes to make content discovery an easier task, rather than a chore. At the same time, Nintendo TVii will offer new “second-screen” experiences (similar to Xbox SmartGlass) with built-in social sharing options to Facebook (FB), Twitter and the Wii U console’s Miiverse.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
[More from BGR: LG’s woeful comeback attempt]
Nintendo TVii will support Amazon (AMZN) Instant Video, Hulu Plus and cable and satellite providers on Thursday, but Netflix (NFLX) and TiVo (TIVO) support won’t hit the U.S. until “early 2013.” Nintendo didn’t state when TVii support for the latter two will hit Canada.
For the consumer’s sake, we hope the download for Nintendo TVii doesn’t take as long as past system updates.
Nintendo’s press release follows below.
Nintendo Makes TV Smart and Social – Nintendo TVii Launches Dec. 20
New Wii U Service Gives Every Member of the Family His or Her Own Personalized, Easy-to-Use Second-Screen Viewing Experience
REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The company that changed how we play is about to change how we watch. On Dec. 20, Nintendo will introduce Nintendo TVii, a free, integrated service for the recently launched Wii U console that combines what you watch and how you watch into one seamless, second-screen experience on the revolutionary new Wii U GamePad controller.
The rapid increase in both the quality and availability of video entertainment content – hundreds of satellite and cable channels, a seemingly endless amount of video-on-demand options – has made finding something to watch a complex and occasionally frustrating process. The solution to this problem is coming from perhaps an unexpected place: a video game console.
“After Dec. 20, you’ll never look at your TV the same way again,” said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. “Wii U owners have already experienced the transformative effect that the GamePad has on game play and social interaction. Nintendo TVii shows how the integrated second screen of the GamePad can also transform and enhance the TV viewing experience. Welcome to the new world of TVii.”
Nintendo TVii maximizes Wii U owners’ current cable, satellite and video-on-demand services by pulling all of their available content sources – such as a Comcast cable package or Hulu Plus subscription – into one place. This empowers Wii U owners to focus on whatthey want to watch and not how they want to watch. And once users find the show, sporting event or movie they want, they press an icon and Nintendo TVii does the rest.
In addition to greatly simplifying finding and watching video content, Nintendo TVii also includes a series of social features that enable Wii U owners to share experiences and exciting moments with friends as they are happening on live TV. People can engage with others by commenting and sharing on Miiverse, Facebook and Twitter. Or they can comment, post or tweet about an incredible touchdown, a remarkable performance or a shocking plot twist, all using the personal screen of the Wii U GamePad.
Nintendo TVii requires no additional equipment and can be enjoyed with very little setup, demonstrating what’s possible when the second screen is truly integrated with the TV. Wii U owners can also discover more information about what they’re watching by easily accessing information on the GamePad via an Internet connection, including cast details, movie reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and sports data such as live stats and scores.
Nintendo TVii launches in the United States and Canada on Dec. 20. At launch, the service will support cable and satellite providers in both regions, as well as direct integration with Amazon Instant Video and Hulu Plus subscriptions in the United States. Further integration with Netflix subscriptions and TiVo are expected in early 2013 in the United States. Wii U owners with a Netflix subscription can still access the Netflix application from the Wii U system’s main menu and enjoy their favorite content accordingly.
All elements of the Nintendo TVii service are included in the purchase price of the Wii U system. Users will define which services they currently subscribe to – including the channel lineup in their cable package and video-on-demand service subscriptions – as part of the setup process.

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Shooting renews argument over video-game violence

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the days since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a shell-shocked nation has looked for reasons. The list of culprits cited include easy access to guns, a strained mental-health system and the "culture of violence" — the entertainment industry's embrace of violence in movies, TV shows and, especially, video games.
"The violence in the entertainment culture — particularly, with the extraordinary realism to video games, movies now, et cetera — does cause vulnerable young men to be more violent," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said.
"There might well be some direct connection between people who have some mental instability and when they go over the edge — they transport themselves, they become part of one of those video games," said Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, where 12 people were killed in a movie theater shooting in July.
White House adviser David Axelrod tweeted, "But shouldn't we also quit marketing murder as a game?"
And Donald Trump weighed in, tweeting, "Video game violence & glorification must be stopped — it is creating monsters!"
There have been unconfirmed media reports that 20-year-old Newtown shooter Adam Lanza enjoyed a range of video games, from the bloody "Call of Duty" series to the innocuous "Dance Dance Revolution." But the same could be said for about 80 percent of Americans in Lanza's age group, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Law enforcement officials haven't made any connection between Lanza's possible motives and his interest in games.
The video game industry has been mostly silent since Friday's attack, in which 20 children and six adults were killed. The Entertainment Software Association, which represents game publishers in Washington, has yet to respond to politicians' criticisms. Hal Halpin, president of the nonprofit Entertainment Consumers Association, said, "I'd simply and respectfully point to the lack of evidence to support any causal link."
It's unlikely that lawmakers will pursue legislation to regulate the sales of video games; such efforts were rejected again and again in a series of court cases over the last decade. Indeed, the industry seemed to have moved beyond the entire issue last year, when the Supreme Court revoked a California law criminalizing the sale of violent games to minors.
The Supreme Court decision focused on First Amendment concerns; in the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that games "are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature." Scalia also agreed with the ESA's argument that researchers haven't established a link between media violence and real-life violence. "Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively," Scalia wrote.
Still, that doesn't make games impervious to criticism, or even some soul-searching within the gaming community. At this year's E3 — the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the industry's largest U.S. gathering — some attendees were stunned by the intensity of violence on display. A demo for Sony's "The Last of Us" ended with a villain taking a shotgun blast to the face. A scene from Ubisoft's "Splinter Cell: Blacklist" showed the hero torturing an enemy. A trailer for Square Enix's "Hitman: Absolution" showed the protagonist slaughtering a team of lingerie-clad assassins disguised as nuns.
"The ultraviolence has to stop," designer Warren Spector told the GamesIndustry website after E3. "I do believe that we are fetishizing violence, and now in some cases actually combining it with an adolescent approach to sexuality. I just think it's in bad taste. Ultimately I think it will cause us trouble."
"The violence of these games can be off-putting," Brian Crecente, news editor for the gaming website Polygon, said Monday. "The video-game industry is wrestling with the same issues as movies and TV. There's this tension between violent games that sell really well and games like 'Journey,' a beautiful, artistic creation that was well received by critics but didn't sell as much."
During November, typically the peak month for pre-holiday game releases, the two best sellers were the military shooters "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," from Activision, and "Halo 4," from Microsoft. But even with the dominance of the genre, Crecente said, "There has been a feeling that some of the sameness of war games is grating on people."
Critic John Peter Grant said, "I've also sensed a growing degree of fatigue with ultra-violent games, but not necessarily because of the violence per se."
The problem, Grant said, "is that violence as a mechanic gets old really fast. Games are amazing possibility spaces! And if the chief way I can interact with them is by destroying and killing? That seems like such a waste of potential."
There are some hints of a growing self-awareness creeping into the gaming community. One gamer — Antwand Pearman, editor of the website GamerFitNation — has called for other players to join in a "Day of Cease-Fire for Online Shooters" this Friday, one week after the massacre.
"We are simply making a statement," Pearman said, "that we as gamers are not going to sit back and ignore the lives that were lost.

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Bringing Sunlight to Light an Underground Garden

Imagine an inviting green park with tall, shady trees and wide swaths of grassy lawn where you can hear live music or see theater or simply sit quietly soaking up the noonday sun.
Now, imagine that all underground in an old disused parking garage … but still with trees and grass in the bright sunlight - a little less bright, of course, on cloudy days.
This paradoxical vision is already halfway to becoming a reality in downtown Manhattan, a dream made possible partly by fiber-optic technology that can capture sunlight on high rooftops and literally pipe it down to shine further from big underground "skylights."
Dan Barasch and James Ramsey envisioned it all in 2008 when they teamed up with an idea to transform an abandoned trolley terminal, a 1.5-acre lot underneath the Williamsburg Bridge and next to the Delancey St. subway station.
They dubbed their underground park the "Lowline," a nod to Manhattan's popular Highline Park that transformed another swatch of urban blight - in that case an unused and overgrown elevated rail bed.
PHOTOS: Lowline Park Project
Since they teamed up, Ramsey, an architect and principal at RAAD Studio, and Barasch, formerly VP of strategic partnerships for PopTech, have raised more than $500,000 for the project, including a Kickstarter campaign that totaled $155,000.
This past September, Ramsey and Barasch also staged an exhibit at a warehouse on Essex Street, just above where the proposed park would exist, in an effort to show the public what the Lowline could look like.
But lighting the underground space is a challenge and that is where Ramsey's background in engineering comes in; the former NASA employee turned architect had already been working on a way to collect and funnel light when he approached Barasch about the idea of an underground park.
Ramsey and Barasch explain their concept and in more detail here:
The technology consists of fiber optic cables attached to devices Ramsey refers to as remote skylights. Equipped with GPS, these solar collectors follow and capture the sun funneling it down through the cables. The glass surface of the skylights filters out infrared and UVA rays, but still harvests the light necessary for photosynthesis to take place.
For the exhibit, Ramsey and Barasch, alongside a team of volunteers put this technology to the test; together with their team they hand fit together 600 pieces of anodized-aluminum sheets to create a curved dome, a silver canopy that cast the light down on the warehouse space. On the warehouse roof, 20 feet above, six tracking systems collected the light and piped it down to the space below.
"We looked to the way that they build space telescopes to actually cobble together a mesh of flat pieces to create a very completed curved surface, and that curved surface is calibrated to actually deploy the light," said Ramsey, who worked with infrared spectrometry while at NASA.
With the help of volunteers, including engineers and team members from RAAD Studio, the duo created a mock-up complete with moss-covered knolls and Japanese maples. For their installation, they partnered with Sun Central, a Canadian-based solar technology firm, and Arup, a design and engineering firm that is also working on the Second Avenue subway line in Manhattan.
"All of a sudden you have this idea beginning to emerge where you can take this ancient disused space underneath the city and actually turn it into a public space, a garden really, for everyone to enjoy," Ramsey said.
Both Barasch and Ramsey point out despite their success so far, they still have a long way to go before making the Lowline a reality; first, they need to convince city and MTA officials (and ultimately the state) to let them use the site, a process that Barasch says requires both political and public support.
Barasch, who resigned from his position at PopTech in March, is devoting his efforts full time to the project focusing on fundraising and engaging with members of the community.
"This is not a short-term project," Barasch said. "It's very big in terms of its integration with the overall ecosystem of the space, the neighborhood, the subway line, the community and the city and we want to do this right."
If they gain control of the terminal, Ramsey and Barasch estimate the project would cost $50 million in capital costs for construction and may take five to eight years to complete. Nevertheless, both remain determined to see the Lowline complete.
"It taps into this thing that every human actually just needs, which is public space and some semblance of being outdoors as well as being inspired by making the city more beautiful, more livable," Barasch said.
For now, the trolley terminal remains an empty, shadowy cavern with an undetermined future, but one in which Ramsey and Barasch hope they can play a part.

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Cancer Immunotherapy Where Are We Going?

The compelling concept of utilizing the patient's own immune system for a stronger and more effective way to attack cancer cells is not a new one. William Coley observed in 1891 that infections produced in patients with inoperable cancer following an injection of streptococcal organisms (Gram-positive bacteria) led to tumor shrinkage especially when the patients developed fever and other signs of a full-blown infection.1 Since then, research has embraced approaches to "train" the patient's own immune system to recognize certain biomarkers or proteins that are mainly found on cancer cells and to destroy the cells.
After several setbacks the first cellular immunotherapy, Dendreon's Sipuleucel-T (Provenge(R)), was approved for the treatment of prostate cancer in 2010. Today, new promising cancer immunotherapy approaches are in clinical trials. Most recently, researchers at the 54th American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting reported early success with a developmental-stage cell-based cancer vaccine for the treatment of leukemia and have shown remission in several patients 2,3, including a 7-year old girl who relapsed twice after chemotherapy.
Cancer immunotherapy can be thought of as either active or passive immunotherapy. The most prominent passive immunotherapies, which have revolutionized cancer therapy, are monoclonal antibodies that either target tumor-specific antigens and receptors or block important pathways central to tumor growth and survival. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies are the market leader in the targeted cancer therapy space and include blockbusters such as trastuzumab (Herceptin(R)) or rituximab (Rituxan(R)).
In general, antibodies are significant elements of the body's adaptive immune system. They play a dominant role in the recognition of foreign antigens and the stimulation of the immune response. Therapeutic antibodies target and bind to antigens, usually proteins that are mainly expressed on diseased cells such as cancer cells. After binding, cancer cells can be destroyed by different mechanisms such as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, the activation of the complement system -- an important part of the immune system -- and triggering cell death.
Although very successful, especially in oncology, therapeutic antibodies have a significant limitation: they don't generate a memory response by the immune system, and thus, repeated antibody infusions are required. Further, monoclonal antibodies are only able to recognize specific proteins present of the cell surface. Monoclonal antibodies are mostly produced in cell culture systems which are often costly. Humanization of murine monoclonal antibodies by replacing of certain parts of the antibody with human sequences has improved the tolerability of antibodies and made them less immunogenic, but even fully human sequence-derived antibodies can carry some immunological risk.
Novel approaches in the passive immunization strategy include antibody drug conjugates, a combination of targeting antibody with a very potent drug such as the recently approved brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS(TM)) for Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). ADCETRIS comprises an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibodyanti-CD30 monoclonal antibody and a cytotoxic (cell-killing) agent that is released upon internalization into CD30-expressing tumor cells. Currently, the development of next generations of ADCs is underway.
Alternatively, specific and durable cancer immunotherapies designed to actively "train" or stimulate the patient's intrinsic immune response have been more problematic; however, recent success stories, such as the cell-based immunotherapy Provenge, have revitalized this field. Dendreon's approach modifies the patients' own dendritic cells to present a protein specific to prostate cancer cells.
Dendritic cells are the most potent, "professional" antigen-presenting cells. They process the antigen material and present it on their surface to other cells of the immune system. Once activated, the dendritic cells migrate to the lymphoid tissues where they interact with T-cells and B-cells -- white blood cells and important components of the immune system -- to initiate and shape the adaptive immune response. To develop Provenge, each patient's own dendritic cells are harvested and then loaded ex vivo with the tumor-associated antigen. Now "presenting" the antigen, the dendritic cells are administered back into the patient to induce a potent, cell-mediated anticancer immune response resulting in tumor shrinkage and clinical benefit.
In another experimental approach for the treatment of leukemia, patients' own modified T-cells were infused back into the patients. Prior to this, the T-cells were transduced with a lentivirus to express the CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptor. CD19 is an antigen which is found on B-cell neoplasms, cancerous B-cells, and the lentivirus was the vehicle to transfer the genetic material for CD19 into the cells. A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was in ongoing remission 10 months after treatment.3
These promising results have spurred continued research for new and safe ways to achieve effective tumor vaccination, and drug developers have explored many cancer immunotherapy strategies. To generate an effective antitumor immunity, therapeutic intervention should drive several functions; specifically, it should promote the antigen presentation functions of dendritic cells, promote the production of protective T-cell responses, stimulate B-cells and overcome immunosuppression characteristics that are common to tumor cells.4
Cell-based therapeutic vaccines are most frequently produced outside the patient's body and involve isolation of the specific cells, such as dendritic cells, and the introduction of preselected antigens, often with the use of specific vehicle, into the cells. The antigens can be encoded in viral vectors (frequently DNA) or administered as peptides or proteins in a suitable adjuvant and carrier through a long and cumbersome process.
During my doctoral thesis, I conducted immunization experiments using RNA as a negative control, assuming that the RNA would be degraded during the experiment thus making it impossible to use as a vaccine. The physiological role of messenger (m) RNA is to transfer genetic information from the nucleus to the cytoplasm where this information is translated into the corresponding protein. mRNA is known to be very unstable and has a relatively short half-life. But astonishingly, we were able to measure a solid T-cell immune response. We repeated the experiment and confirmed that the RNA we had produced had the potential to be used as a vaccine. Importantly, we didn't need to isolate the patients' cells: mRNA-based vaccines can be injected directly into the skin (intradermal). The mRNA-based vaccines are then taken up by antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, and are then able to induce an immune response. Importantly, mRNA-vaccines can also be synthesized quickly for any antigen sequence identified.5
The first mRNA-based vaccines (RNActive(R)) are now in the clinic for the treatment of prostate cancer and lung cancer and have demonstrated that they do what they are supposed to do - induce a balanced humoral, as well as T cell-mediated, immune response that is entirely HLA independent. The HLA (human leukocyte antigen) system is used to differentiate the body's own cells (self) and non-self cells. Additionally, RNA-vaccines do not need a vehicle such as a virus for delivery to the cells, nor do they contain virus-derived elements that are often found in DNA-vaccines. These attributes make RNActive a very safe therapeutic.
The risk of integration of the RNA into the host-genome is minimized (RNA would have been transcribed first to DNA, and then it has to be transported to the nucleus), as is the residual risk of DNA-based vaccines for inactivating or activating genes or affecting cellular regulatory elements, which can induce oncogenesis. Thus, the favorable safety profile of mRNA-based therapies broadens their potential use not only for the treatment of diseases but for use as prophylactic vaccinations. A recent proof-of-concept study using mRNA-based vaccines (RNActive) in animal models for influenza was published in Nature Biotechnology.6
Therapeutic cancer immunotherapies and vaccines have come a long way, and novel, promising approaches give hope for safe and effective treatment options. This may one day lead to the treatment of all cancers as chronic diseases.
Literature
1Kirkwood JM, Butterfield LH, Tarhini AA, Zarour H, Kalinski P, Ferrone S: Immunotherapy of cancer in 2012. CA Cancer J Clin. 2012
2June CH, Blazar BR: T-Cell Infusions: A New Tool for Transfusion Medicine That Has Come of Age. Presentation at 54th ASH Annual Meeting 2013
3Porter DL, Levine BL, Kalos M, Bagg A, and June CH: Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells in Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia. N Engl J Med 2011
4Mellman I, Coukos G, Dranoff G: Cancer immunotherapy comes of age. Nature. 2011
Petsch B, Schnee M, Vogel AB, Lange E, Hoffmann B, Voss D, Schlake T, Thess A, Kallen KJ,
5Hoerr I, Obst R, Rammensee HG, Jung G: In vivo application of RNA leads to induction of specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and antibodies. Eur J Immunol. 2000
6Petsch B, Schnee M, Vogel AB, Lange E, Hoffmann B, Voss D, Schlake T, Thess A, Kallen KJ, Stitz L, Kramps T: Protective efficacy of in vitro synthesized, specific mRNA vaccines against influenza A virus infection. Nat Biotechnol. 2012

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Viral Video Recap: Funniest Memes of the Week

A cat stuck in a box. A dramatic reading of Fifty Shades of Grey from George Takei. And another "Gangnam Style" remix. These are just three examples of the top videos that the web world watched this week.
We rounded up the most viral videos from this past week for your holiday weekend viewing pleasure. After all, what's better than explaining the significance of a philosophic cat to your mother at the dinner table?
[More from Mashable: 83 of 2012′s Best Viral Videos Crammed Into 4 Minutes]
What was your favorite video from this week? Tell us in the comments below.
12. Photobombing Stingray
Five years ago, three college girls on a Caribbean vacation got a serious case of the heebeejeebies when a stingray photobombed their “say cheese” moment. The hilarious photograph could have ended up as just a fond vacay memory if it weren’t for a friend, who shared the image on Reddit in September of this year.

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Top 5 Apps for Kids This Week

1. I Spy With Lola HD
Ages 3-8 Overall rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars Why we like it: This app effectively takes the common hunt-and-find play pattern down a notch by way of a series of carefully leveled challenges, clear labels and a playful theme. Need to know: Don't confuse this with the Scholastic I SPY titles. This is a different kettle of fish. And get the paid version. It is well worth the $2 -- there are no gimmicks or in-app purchases. Ease of use: 9/10 Educational: 9/10 Entertaining: 9/10 $1.99
Click here to view this gallery.
[More from Mashable: 10 Apps to Keep You Safe and Healthy in 2013]
Chris Crowell is a veteran kindergarten teacher and contributing editor to Children's Technology Review, a web-based archive of articles and reviews on apps, technology toys and video games. Download a free issue of CTR here.
In this week's Top 5 Kids Apps, we've got a creepy crawly feeling. Your kids can learn counting with Bugs and Numbers or take up Spanish as a hobby. There's also a beautifully-designed interactive e-book sure to capture your child's attention and spark the imagination.

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Telepresence robots let employees 'beam' into work

Engineer Dallas Goecker attends meetings, jokes with colleagues and roams the office building just like other employees at his company in Silicon Valley.
But Goecker isn't in California. He's more than 2,300 miles away, working at home in Seymour, Indiana.
It's all made possible by the Beam — a mobile video-conferencing machine that he can drive around the Palo Alto offices and workshops of Suitable Technologies. The 5-foot-tall device, topped with a large video screen, gives him a physical presence that makes him and his colleagues feel like he's actually there.
"This gives you that casual interaction that you're used to at work," Goecker said, speaking on a Beam. "I'm sitting in my desk area with everybody else. I'm part of their conversations and their socializing."
Suitable Technologies, which makes the Beam, is now one of more than a dozen companies that sell so-called telepresence robots. These remote-controlled machines are equipped with video cameras, speakers, microphones and wheels that allow users to see, hear, talk and "walk" in faraway locations.
More and more employees are working remotely, thanks to computers, smartphones, email, instant messaging and video-conferencing. But those technologies are no substitute for actually being in the office, where casual face-to-face conversations allow for easy collaboration and camaraderie.
Telepresence-robot makers are trying to bridge that gap with wheeled machines — controlled over wireless Internet connections — that give remote workers a physical presence in the workplace.
These robotic stand-ins are still a long way from going mainstream, with only a small number of organizations starting to use them. The machines can be expensive, difficult to navigate or even get stuck if they venture into areas with poor Internet connectivity. Stairs can be lethal, and non-techies might find them too strange to use regularly.
"There are still a lot of questions, but I think the potential is really great," said Pamela Hinds, co-director of Stanford University's Center on Work, Technology, & Organization. "I don't think face-to-face is going away, but the question is, how much face-to-face can be replaced by this technology?"
Technology watchers say these machines — sometimes called remote presence devices — could be used for many purposes. They could let managers inspect overseas factories, salespeople greet store customers, family members check on elderly relatives or art lovers tour foreign museums.
Some physicians are already seeing patients in remote hospitals with the RP-VITA robot co-developed by Santa-Barbara, Calif.,-based InTouch Health and iRobot, the Bedford, Mass.,-based maker of the Roomba vacuum.
The global market for telepresence robots is projected to reach $13 billion by 2017, said Philip Solis, research director for emerging technologies at ABI Research.
The robots have attracted the attention of Russian venture capitalist Dimitry Grishin, who runs a $25 million fund that invests in early-stage robotics companies.
"It's difficult to predict how big it will be, but I definitely see a lot of opportunity," Grishin said. "Eventually it can be in each home and each office."
His Grishin Robotics fund recently invested $250,000 in a startup called Double Robotics. The Sunnyvale, Calif.,-company started selling a Segway-like device called the Double that holds an Apple iPad, which has a built-in video-conferencing system called FaceTime. The Double can be controlled remotely from an iPad or iPhone.
So far, Double Robotics has sold more than 800 units that cost $1,999 each, said co-founder Mark DeVidts.
The Beam got its start as a side project at Willow Garage, a robotics company in Menlo Park where Goecker worked as an engineer.
A few years ago, he moved back to his native Indiana to raise his family, but he found it difficult to collaborate with engineering colleagues using existing video-conferencing systems.
"I was struggling with really being part of the team," Goecker said. "They were doing all sorts of wonderful things with robotics. It was hard for me to participate."
So Goecker and his colleagues created their own telepresence robot. The result: the Beam and a new company to develop and market it.
At $16,000 each, the Beam isn't cheap. But Suitable Technologies says it was designed with features that make "pilots" and "locals" feel the remote worker is physically in the room: powerful speakers, highly sensitive microphones and robust wireless connectivity.
The company began shipping Beams last month, mostly to tech companies with widely dispersed engineering teams, officials said.
"Being there in person is really complicated — commuting there, flying there, all the different ways people have to get there. Beam allows you to be there without all that hassle," said CEO Scott Hassan, beaming in from his office at Willow Garage in nearby Menlo Park.
Not surprisingly, Suitable Technologies has fully embraced the Beam as a workplace tool. On any given day, up to half of its 25 employees "beam" into work, with employees on Beams sitting next to their flesh-and-blood colleagues and even joining them for lunch in the cafeteria.
Software engineer Josh Faust beams in daily from Hawaii, where he moved to surf, and plans to spend the winter hitting the slopes in Lake Tahoe. He can't play pingpong or eat the free, catered lunches in Palo Alto, but he otherwise feels like he's part of the team.
"I'm trying to figure out where exactly I want to live. This allows me to do that without any of the instability of trying to find a different job," Faust said, speaking on a Beam from Kaanapali, Hawaii. "It's pretty amazing.

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