TEL AVIV — “Computer, computer on the desk, am I pretty or am I a mess?”A student at Tel Aviv University has developed software that may be able to answer that ages-old question by accomplishing esthetic judgment based on mathematical formulas. “Until now, computers have...

SAN DIEGO, CA — Lightning Warrior Raidy, a 3D fantasy role-playing game for adults, has attained Golden Master status based on international sales, according to publisher G-Collections, a division of JAST USA.The hentai-style game, based on Japanese lore, puts players in...

MANILA —Calling the soon-to-be released Philippine edition of venerable gentleman’s magazine Playboy proof of “the declining moral values and system among the present generation of Filipinos,” Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese is leading a chorus of...

AUSTIN, TX — The Texas Legislature thought it had cooked up the perfect revenue combination: digging into the pockets of socially scorned (but popular) strip clubs and funding fiscally neglected but valuable social programs. This past Friday, District Judge Scott Jenkins...

NEW YORK, NY — A new hardware-software partnership hopes to make videoconferencing — once the stuff of far-fetched science fiction — as ubiquitous in the home as it is in corporate boardrooms around the world.The technology being promoted by Quanta Computer and OoVoo relies...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Bundled inside the package represented by Google’s recent acquisition of Web-advertising network DoubleClick came a nifty little company that has search-optimization and search-engine-marketing firms worried.Performics directly competes with SEM and SEO...

PHOENIX, AZ —If a piece of artwork is sexually explicit, but nobody sees it – is it still a menace to society? Apparently so, if some of newlywed Ryan Walker’s neighbors can be believed.“It was like a hit of coffee or something in the face,” observed one neighbor. “A penis...

CANOGA PARK, CA — In the latest agonizing national political season, many citizens feel as though their votes don’t count – especially on tax day. That’s certainly not the case during the Third Annual FreedomStreams April 15th fundraising event, custome designed by...

CYBERSPACE — Like a scene out of a modern techno-thriller, on Tuesday at noon EST email began bouncing all over the Web as a long-gone spam blacklist arose from the dead.The Open Relay Database (ORDB.org), an anti-spam service commonly employed on email servers worldwide,...

VANCOUVER, B.C. — It took Charlie Miller only two minutes on Thursday to claim top honors in a contest that asked hackers to exploit security weaknesses on laptop computers. Believe it or not, his victim was a Mac.The hacking contest, PWN 2 OWN, is part of the annual...