The Week in Review

This week we learn that lasers may fuel space travel, Apple takes a back seat to Android when it comes to advertising and trolling terrorists sounds like fun.

“Shag A Gamer” Cuts to the Chase

Shag A Gamer is not a dating site. Dating sites, in theory at least, are for people looking for dates. Shag A Gamer is for people who want to shag. And “shag,” as anyone who’s ever watched an Austin Powers movie can tell you, is an English colloquialism for doing the nasty. The horizontal mambo. Chesterfield rugby. Playing hide the pickle. Taking ol’ One-Eye to the optometrist. Riding the skin boat to Tuna Town. I’m talking about bumping uglies, people. I’m talking about sex. Shag A Gamer was launched by the same people who founded Date A Gamer, after they noticed that a lot of members were using the site for drive-by banging rather than actual dating. (Link)

Engineers Propose Interstellar Spacecraft Fueled by Lasers

Although it’s a beautiful concept, the reality of interstellar space travel is one that features an enormous amount of practical hurdles. One of the biggest problems presented by the “assuming we don’t invent faster-than-light travel soon” school of far-flung dreams is the issue of fuel; namely, how do you supply a craft with sufficient fuel for a massive journey without weighing it down too much? Now, in a neat twist, a nonprofit interstellar research foundation has brought us closer to solving that problem: Icarus Interstellar has drawn up a working theory for an interstellar spacecraft, known as “The Vacuum to Antimatter-Rocket Interstellar Explorer System” (VARIES), that is powered by a laser that generates antimatter fuel out of the vacuum of space. (Link)

Advertisers Choose Android Over iOS

When smartphones first entered the marketplace, you had two realistic choices: Apple’s iPhone or some other phone. The iOS platform dominated mobile markets for years following its original launch, but recently the tide has slowly turned as the competition learned from Apple and upgraded their own services accordingly. Now a new report is suggesting that Google’s Android operating system has become the most popular platform for smartphone users and advertisers alike, with Android gaining a 46% global majority of ad impressions in Q2 2012. (Link)

State Department Proposes “Trolling” Web-Based Islamic Extremists

In years gone by, Islamic extremists and would-be terrorists would communicate with one another using tangible means: they’d exchange cassette or video tapes of their leaders’ rousing speeches, for example, or hoard secret pamphlets laced with just the right kind of rhetoric. Back then, the best way to nip their violent dreams in the bud was to seize their contraband; but now that terrorists are increasingly communicating and recruiting using the internet, what can we do to turn them away from the not-so-straight path of extremism? According to the State Department, the solution might be to prod them into moderate thinking by politely trolling their internet spaces. (Link)

EA Joins Gay Marriage Coalition

Love or hate EA, you have to admit that when it comes to LGBT rights and same-sex marriages, they’ve taken a strong public position. Whether in the form of an “It Gets Better” video starring EA employees, openly celebrating Pride month, or responding to an anti-homosexual email campaign, the company has refused to back down from a position of equal civil rights for all. Now the games publisher is hoping to put the issue before the Ninth Circut Court of Appeals via an amicus brief asking that the Defense of Marriage Act be overturned as unconstitutional. Under the Defense of Marriage Act, no state or political subdivision is required to recognize a same-sex marriage or union if it occurred in another state. (Link)