Russia: Extreme Censorship

Few countries have as extensive a history of censorship as Russia, though many of the Soviet-era restrictions had been lifted during the 80s and 90s. Clearly Vladimir Putin has a touch of nostalgia, however. Obviously the big news was the introduction of legislation against the positive portrayal of homosexuality brought into law earlier this year, but this doesn't seem to have sated the need to crack down on free expression.


Stalker, one of the classics of Russian
cinema, will be restricted by the law

Putin has signed a new law banning swearing in Russian media. That's all books, magazines, newspapers, films, television, theatre, music etc. Those breaching the new law will face a hefty fine. Existing media containing swearing will have to be clearly marked with a warning, though the threat of shutting down traders not adequately warning their audience will presumably convince many that stocking such material isn't worth the risk. Disputes as to what constitutes a swear word will be handled by an expert panel (hopefully made up of Gordon Ramsey, Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino).

The move will also presumably prevent the showing/publication of many foreign works (I can't see Game of Thrones slipping through!). It's also unclear how it'll affect online services such as Facebook and Twitter.

Any one want to place bets on what Russia will ban next?

Original story: BBC News

Electronic hiking - sightseeing in video games

I'm not normally in a habit of just posting links to stuff, but this is a great article that I simply wouldn't have thought of:

Dear Esther's atmospheric Scottish island is well worth a visit

The ten most beautiful walks in gaming (Guardian)

As games become more visually appealing, there is more opportunity for some stunning level design, especially in open-world games. Sadly too many games rely too much on uninspired linear, cover-based gauntlets, but sometimes I do enjoy just wandering around (especially if there are collectables to hunt!). I maybe add Assassin's Creed to the list...

Return of the video cassette?

Way back in the mists of not all that long ago, the video cassette revolutionised the movie industry, allowing you to watch what you wanted, when you wanted. For the benefit of younger readers, with the exception of the convenience, tape technology was inescapably terrible - poor picture quality that degraded the more you watched it, machines that would damage or destroy your tapes with alarming frequency, and you had to rewind the tape at the end (which never happened, leading to 100% of family arguments in the 1980s). It may come as a surprise then that Sony have pushed on with cassette research with some astounding results.

The latest Sony prototype cassette can hold a remarkable 185TB of data (equivalent to over 3775 dual-layer Blu-ray discs). The production process also sounds pretty cool, involving "shooting argon ions at a polymer film substrate, which produces layers of magnetic crystal particles." No lasers though, I do love a laser.


Sadly even this is unlikely to see a return of video cassettes to the home. They would still suffer from the same problems as old cassettes, and you would still have to fast-forward through the entire tape to find the thing you wanted to watch (tiresome enough when it was one TV episode, let alone 3775 movies!). The tapes are, however, likely to be welcomed into the much less interesting data archiving industry.

Original story: IT World

Exploding whale threatens Canadian town

I really wish that headline was exaggerated somehow. Sadly, no.

A dead blue whale has washed up in the small Newfoundland town of Trout River (seriously Canada, name your towns better!), attracting a wave of tourism. Unfortunately the small town isn't really geared up to dispose of a 25-metre whale carcass, and it's starting to get a little pungent.


never, ever type 'exploding whale'
 into a google image search

More alarmingly, the corpse is now beginning to bloat, sparking fears of an internal gas explosion (still not exaggerating). Currently refused any government assistance, the town population of 688 are now faced with a battle aginst the clock to somehow remove the carcass before things get... messy.


Original story: Escapist

Amazon buys comiXology - removes purchasing from Apple and Google apps

Sooner or later, someone had to succeed in digitising comic books. Stan Lee almost went bust trying it in the early 90s, but finally comiXology managed to make it work (aided by easy to access WiFi and tablets). For the past couple of years, the comiXology app has been one of the most popular for in-app purchases on the Apple Store, helping boost the flagging sales of traditional, paper comics.

Of course, success breeds attention, and comiXology have drawn the attention of no less than Amazon, who snapped the company up earlier this month. All well and good, Amazon has a reasonable reputation for investing in their acquisitions.

Last week, however, news broke that comiXology would start enforcing local pricing structures, making their products considerably more expensive outside of the US (which makes sense for paper comics - they have distribution costs to pay for - but not for digital products). Then on Sunday Amazon really dropped a curve ball by removing in-app purchasing completely from the Apple and Google versions of the app. Users of any non-Amazon version of the app are now forced to buy their comics through the website before they can read on their mobile device. What do Amazon gain from this? Simple, Apple and Google take 30% of the puchase price from in-app purchases - money that now goes to Amazon.

comiXology on iPad no longer includes in-app purchasing

Only time will tell whether this works out for comiXology. While they'll be taking more money from Apple and Android users, they'll also potentially be putting off customers using these platforms. For the time being, however, it's safe to say it's a move that's left many users a little bit peeved.

Lucasfilm ditches Star Wars Expanded Universe

Growing up, there was nothing more important to me than Star Wars. Even today, I have a great love of anything to do with the franchise, so long as it's not horrifically bad (and let's not pretend that that doesn't account for a whole lot of stuff). One of the reasons I was able to fall so deeply in love with Star Wars was that it wasn't just three films - I was the perfect age for the new Expanded Universe books and comics of the 1990s. I must have read a hundred Star Wars novels and, for me at least, they were as much a part of the overall experience as the films were.

Sadly, Lucasfilm announced on Friday that the Expanded Universe (EU) was no more, that all of the books and comics that I held so dear in my youth were being cast from Star Wars canon. This was kind of expected - I mean, with new films set during the same, post-Return of the Jedi time period, Lucasfilm were hardly going to be willing to go along with the myriad weird and wonderful stories and characters that populated the EU. The problem Lucasfilm are likely to face (which is entirely of their own making) is that many of the EU books were painstakingly edited to create an enticing ongoing story spanning 40-odd years after the end of Return of the Jedi. Many of the regular characters had become as familiar and dear to the hearts of the Star Wars die-hards as Luke, Han and Leia are to fans of the films alone. Lucasfilm have yet to confirm whether all of the characters and concepts from these later stories will be abandoned, or whether they intend to reweave some of the existing elements around the new films.

The appropriately titled 'A New Dawn' will be the
first book set in the new continuity, serving
as a prequel to the Rebels animated series.

The first books set in the new post-Return of the Jedi continuity, and tying into Episode 7 (due for release on 18th December 2015) and the new Rebels animated series, are scheduled for release later in the year. Whether or not they will attempt to reintroduce fan favorites such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade or Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo, we'll just have to wait and see.

Original story: Star Wars