Science and Nature

SOUTH KOREA likes to think of itself as a world leader when it comes to the internet. It boasts the world’s swiftest average broadband speeds (of around 22 megabits per second). Last month the government announced that it will upgrade the country's wireless network to 5G by 2020, making downloads about 1,000 times speedier than they are now. Rates of internet penetration are among the highest in the world. There is a thriving startup community (Cyworld, rolled out five years before Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, was the most popular social network in South Korea for a decade) and the country leads the world in video games as spectator sports. Yet in other ways the futuristic country is stuck in the dark ages. Last year Freedom House, an American NGO, ranked South Korea’s internet as only “partly free”. Reporters without Borders has placed it on a list of countries “under surveillance”, alongside Egypt, Thailand and Russia, in its report on “Enemies of the Internet”. Is forward-looking South Korea actually rather backward?

Every week portions of the Korean web are taken down by government censors. Last year about 23,000 Korean webpages were deleted, and another 63,000 blocked, at the request of the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), a nominally independent (but mainly government-appointed) public body. In 2009 the KCSC had made just 4,500 requests for deletion. Its filtering chiefly targets pornography, prostitution and gambling, all of which are illegal in South Korea. But more wholesome pursuits are also restricted: online gaming is banned between midnight and 6am for under-16s (users must input their government-issued ID numbers to prove their age). Sites from North Korea, including its state newspaper, news agency and Twitter feed, are blocked, as are those of North Korea's sympathisers. A law dating back to the Korean war forbids South Korean maps from being taken out of the country. Because North and South are technically still at war, the law has been expanded to include electronic mapping data—which means that Google, for instance, cannot process South Korean mapping data on its servers and therefore cannot offer driving directions inside the country. In 2010 the UN determined that the KCSC “essentially operates as a censorship body”.

Some Koreans are resisting. In 2011 Park Kyung-sin, a dissenting commissioner, posted a picture of Gustave Courbet’s “L’Origine du monde” on his blog, in protest at the KCSC’s order to block a picture of a man’s genitals—like that found in a science textbook—that he had previously posted on the same blog. He was convicted and fined, though the charges were later lifted. In 2012 a 15-year-old Korean cyber-game champion was locked out of a game of "Starcraft II" while playing after midnight in a competition that was taking place during the day in France. (By the time he reconnected, by entering the details of a parent’s ID card, he had lost the match.) The watchdog has no sense of humour: in 2012 a photographer received a suspended ten-month prison term for retweeting a series of North Korean propaganda posts, likening his inheritance of his father's studio to the North’s leadership transition. Park Dae-sung, a blogger who posted prophecies on the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the crash of the won in 2008 under the pen name of Minerva, spent 104 days in prison for “spreading false rumours”.

Critics spy political interference. In 2004 internet users were required to input their names and ID numbers on political comments in the run-up to an election. In 2009 those posting any comments on websites with over 100,000 daily visitors were required to do the same. That law has since been rescinded. But although the government is beginning to ease some restrictions, it is stepping up its monitoring of social media. The KCSC set up a special sub-committee on social media in 2011, and the following year asked for 4,500 comments on Twitter, Facebook and the like to be removed—13 times more than in 2010. Last year the number of comments deleted increased again, to 6,400. Some officials seem to enjoy posting rogue comments as well as deleting genuine ones. A group of intelligence agents are now under investigation for allegedly posting thousands of messages under false identities in support of Park Geun-hye, now South Korea’s president, in the run-up to the 2012 election. (There is no evidence that Ms Park had ordered this.) In December she said that the government needed to “correct the wild rumours spreading through social network services”, referring to public outcry at the privatisation of railways and health care. South Koreans may enjoy unusually speedy internet connections, but they are not allowed to use them freely.

AMD announced plans to build ARM server CPUs back in 2012. Today the company took a big step towards making those chips a reality, announcing that an 8-core ARM System-on-Chip would begin sampling in March.

Codenamed "Seattle," the processors will be branded Opteron A-series and built on a 28 nm process. The first of these will be the A1100. This will have 4 or 8 cores based on ARM's Cortex-A57 design. This is a high performance, 64-bit ARM core, and it will run at clock speeds of at least 2 GHz. The chips will have up to 4MB of level 2 cache and 8MB of level 3 cache, with both caches shared across all the cores. They'll support dual channel DDR3 or DDR4, with up to 128GB RAM. The chips will also include a bunch of connectivity: eight PCIe 3 lanes, eight SATA 3 ports, and two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Rounding out the SoCs, they'll also include dedicated engines for cryptography and compression. The whole thing has an expected power usage of 25W.

While these chips are aimed at high density, low power servers, AMD is also putting together a micro-ATX development kit built around the A1100. This will include a Fedora-based Linux environment with development tools, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Java 7 and 8.  This software stack is consistent with the goals of these low power servers: running Web applications is likely to be their primary role.

AMD has grand ambitions for ARM in the server room. The company estimates that by 2019, 25 percent of the server market will use ARM processors with widespread use of custom designs in large datacenters. AMD believes that it will be the leader of this ARM Server market, as it brings its existing server processor expertise to bear.

However, it can't be taken for granted that ARM will make itself a big force in the server room. Calxeda, an early pioneer of ultra high density, low power ARM servers, announced that it was closing down late last year in spite of tens of millions of funding and a partnership with HP.

The company behind the MakerBot 3D printer has launched a model that can handle multiple colors and materials in one print run. Stratasys’s new machine costs $330,000 and is very much aimed at making practical objects rather than novelty items.

Where normal 3D printers use a single stream of material, Objet500 Connex3 uses jets that can deliver three different liquefied resins. These can be combined in different proportions to create a range of rubbers and plastics with different levels of rigidity and flexibility.

The proportions can be altered mid-print, in effect creating a single printed object made up of different materials. According to Stratasys, the materials will “simulate high performance thermoplastics.”

The company gives the real example of a bicycle manufacturer that has been using the new printer to try out designs for handlebar grips, not just to gauge appearance but for practical testing. Stratasys also demonstrated prototype cycle helmets (pictured).

The printer can also deliver different colors, using the same mix of cyan, magenta and yellow that’s the basis of two-dimensional color printers. Previous multi-material 3D printers have been restricted to shades of black and white.

With particular combinations of base materials, the printer can even print a transparent plastic, meaning for example it’s possible to print a pair of spectacles as one item. Of course, the set-up doesn’t allow for prescription lenses, so it only really works for safety spectacles (in which case colors and designs aren’t usually a major issue) or novelty wear.

Indeed, the real question right now is whether the printer really does have practical uses or if it’s more a case of an impressive solution to a technical challenge.

Given the price, it’s most likely the Object500 Connex3 will be used for making prototypes at a stage of the design process that’s advanced enough for manufacturers to need to know how a product would not only look but also feel and behave, but still not advanced enough to make it financially sensible to be setting up customized production equipment such as injection molds.

Google has reportedly announced a whopping 2.7 million dollars bounty if security experts are able to hack its Chrome browser-based OS at the Pwnium 4 hacking contest.

This year at the Pwnium 4, researchers would be allowed to choose between Intel- or ARM-powered laptops, while last year, they had to try to crack a Chromebook with an Intel processor. According to PC World, hackers would be paid prizes of 110,000 dollars and 150,000 dollars for exploiting the Chrome OS, and the highest bounty would be rewarded to those who deliver an exploit able to persistently compromise a Hewlett-Packard or Acer Chromebook.

Last year Google put 3.14159 million dollars in the contest, but paid out just 40,000 dollars to a prolific hacker who goes by “Pinkie Pie,” the contest’s sole participant, for what Google later called a partial exploit. Google said that it would consider larger bonuses to researchers who demonstrated a “particularly impressive or surprising exploit,” like one that could circumvent kASLR, a new variant of the better-known ASLR anti-exploit technology used by Apple, Microsoft and Chrome OS.

At full speed, the Rimac Concept_One is little more than a cherry red blur, flashing from one corner of the horizon to the other in the blink of an eye.

Electric Beast

This Saturday marks the premiere of Lifetime’s latest film, House of Versace. Based on Deborah Ball’s book,House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival, the film gives an in-depth look at Donatella Versace’s life in the years after her brother and renowned designer Gianni Versace was shot and killed at the height of the brand’s success. It follows Donatella, played by Gina Gershon, as she falls into a world of drugs, disorder, and chaos. And even though Versace recently told WWD, “Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is based, the movie should only be seen as a work of fiction,” actress Gina Gershon still had a very large task in front of her when she took on the part: Playing a well-known public figure with a very distinct look.

The body: “You have to lose weight and start working out like a fiend, especially your arms because she has those amazing arms, which was good because I needed to do that anyway so that forced me into doing it. It was right before summer so it was like, ‘Alright, I’ll do this.’”We caught up with Gershon to talk about her amazing transformation into the iconic fashionista. Here’s your checklist for the long road to becoming Donatella Versace:

The voice: “Start smoking a lot of cigarettes, which I wasn’t really used to, but I had to learn because she smokes quite a bit and it also helps with the voice. I can’t do her voice unless I have that sort of thing going on.”

The face: “You gotta have some tape to flatten out the face when you need to. You pull it a little bit. That helps with the lips. Her lips get kind of wider as she gets older.”

The shoes/walk: “High, high heels! You have to wear super high heels at all times even when you’re going to the gym. She’s a little thing and she likes to be big, and she wears those heels like nobody’s business. But it also helped with the walk. The tighter the skirt and the tighter I made my waist — sometimes a corset — and the higher the heels, I felt like I could fall into her walk and her stance a little bit easier. She kind of walks with her hips more, her hips are jutted forward and her shoulders are a little bit caved in, which is completely the exact opposite, I’m usually more swayback-y. So I had to really really concentrate on that probably the most of anything.”

The accent: “I listened to her non-stop. I would listen to her as I was going to sleep; I was listening to her in my trailer. Luckily for me, she’s done a lot of interviews, and I’ve done Italian accents before, but hers is very different. Not only is it Southern Italian, she comes from Calabria. The more Southern you get, the lazier the sound becomes and the wider it becomes. But then on top of it she has a very specific Donatella-esque accent. And she’s really funny, so she’s got a very dry sense of humor. I really started totally going for her accent, but then I guess, with TV, they want to understand what I’m saying. [Laughs] The truth is, if I was really doing Donatella, she’s tough to understand sometimes. I kept requesting we use subtitles, but no one really went for that suggestion. But I was kind of being serious. But that was one thing: I had to pull back on her accent, which kind of bummed me out a little bit, but I also understood why people want to hear what I’m saying.”

The make-up: “I had a zillion pictures of her … It’s like painting your face looking at someone else’s. You’re just putting the shadows and the highlights in a different area. She has a bit of a longer, wider forehead than I do, so I would lighten it up as much as possible. I love makeup, and I love lighting, and I love changing my face. It’s like painting. It’s all an optical illusion, an then hopefully if the lighting’s right then you really can create that illusion.”

The hair: “It was a really nice wig which was important. When I first got the gig I said, ‘Listen, the wig’s gotta be great,’ because I hate when you watch these sort of movies where it’s supposed to be someone and the wig is wrong. I find it so distracting. Her hair is part of her look. She’s got this iconic look, and she’s had that hair since she was 11 years old. If you saw an invisible face with that hair you’d be like, ‘Oh that’s Donatella Versace,’ so it was really important to me that we got the wig just right in different periods of her life.”

The eyebrows: “I can’t say I looked great after I’d leave the set because then I had to dye my eyebrows white as well, and I dyed the front of my hair white just so it looked. I wanted the illusion of my hair being further back, like a longer forehead. I looked like a crazy alien once the alien came off. I put my hat on, went home, and didn’t look in the mirror because it was too scary.”

The clothes: “She’s like a little teeny tiny thing; she’s like a little Barbie doll. She’s always had a great body, so the clothes, I found a couple vintage pieces from that time period that I was really happy with and the costume lady was happy with, and then some of the stuff we just had to try to recreate, which is tough. Versace’s Versace for a reason because they build those dresses so you look incredible, but unless you have the time to do the corsets and the pulling the way they do it, it’s not quite as fabulous. [The movie's] an illusion, so hopefully it shows up. Some of the clothes I thought were amazing; some of them I thought were not great. When it’s not really Versace, it’s not really Versace.”

The presence: “The most important thing after you get the look together, and even before you get the look together, hopefully you capture the essence of the person. That’s the most important job you have as an actress playing someone.  I was really interested in how shy she was. I know she seems so flamboyant but there’s an actual real shyness that she has, and there’s a softness and a vulnerability, but then there’s that absolute protection that she has. Her sense of humor I thought was really important; she kind of has a very dry wit. And who she trusts and who she feels comfortable with and who she doesn’t, I found that informed how I played certain parts.”

And although Gerson has never met Donatella, she didn’t have a problem taking on the role. She actually preferred it. “At a certain point, I didn’t want to [meet her]. If I had met her before I probably wouldn’t have done it because you feel very protective over people. Although I feel like it’s ultimately a very flattering portrayal of her. I only have super respect for her,” Gershon said. “But I’ve done projects where I’ve been in touch and worked with the living person of who I was playing, and I think what happens psychologically or subconsciously, you start protecting them in weird ways, so you don’t play certain scenes as intensely as you would had you not known them.”

So how then did she prepare? “I read anything I could on her. I read all of her interviews; I watched every single piece of video tape that she had. There was a really great French documentary when they were getting ready for a show, which I thought really was pretty helpful. It showed her personality and what she was like and how she dealt with people, the rhythm of how she spoke.”

All in all, Gershon calls the role “one of the most challenging parts I’ve ever done” due to the film’s large amount of “emotionally trying” scenes, but that doesn’t mean Donatella never smiled. “There’s a couple scenes that were certainly fun before everything started going wrong and she was just sort of fabulous and in her element. There’s something really fun about her,” Gershon said.

Like the pull from a looming planet, the first trailer for director Alfonso Cuarón's "Gravity," starring actors George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts, draws in moviegoers.

The one-and-a-half minute teaser, which Warner Brothers Pictures released online Thursday (May 9), provides a first glimpse at the highly-anticipated film, which has been in development since 2010. "Gravity" is scheduled to launch into theaters on Oct. 4, on the anniversary of the launch of the world's first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957.

In the film, Clooney plays Matt Kowalsky, an experienced astronaut commanding his last mission aboard the space shuttle. His crew includes first-time mission specialist Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock), a medical engineer. According to a synopsis, the two astronauts are out performing a routine spacewalk when the shuttle is destroyed and they are left stranded, with no way of communicating with Earth. [Watch: "Gravity" official teaser trailer]

The trailer opens with an astronaut's view of Earth as seen from space. "Beautiful, don't you think?" Clooney remarks from off-screen.

The seemingly-peaceful moment, now showing Clooney and Bullock in spacesuits, tethered together, floating over the limb of the planet, is quickly replaced with a torrent of violent shots, alternating between a space shuttle being torn apart, what looks to be the Hubble Space Telescope being significantly damaged and a Russian Soyuz capsule tearing through an exploding International Space Station.

The sound of an ever-increasing heart beat serves as the backdrop to the next scenes of Bullock being thrown into open space. "What do I do? What do I do!" she yells, as Clooney replies over radio, "Grab a hold. Grab anything!"

As the preview comes to an end, it is Bullock whispering "Anybody, please copy..." as she tumbles head over feet into the black void of space.

A similar theme, underlined by the tagline "Don't Let Go," appears on the movie's first official poster, also released this week. The blue and black poster depicts an astronaut flailing backwards, his (or her) tether having snapped, as he or she falls away from the space shuttle amid a cloud of space debris.

Despite it featuring NASA spacecraft and spacesuits, the film sought little assistance from the U.S. space agency. According to NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs, the agency's only involvement was to arrange a phone call between the filmmakers and astronaut Catherine "Cady" Coleman.

"Gravity" is Cuarón's first feature film since the Academy Award-nominated science fiction drama "Children of Men" in 2006. The son of a nuclear physicist, Cuarón has said in interviews that he always wanted to be an astronaut, as well as a director.

This is Bullock's first "trip" into space. Clooney previously strapped on a spacesuit as astronaut Chris Kelvin in the 2002 sci-fi movie "Solaris" by director Steven Soderbergh.

Rockstar Games spent five years crafting the new installment and the time has paid off for gamers, according to a slew of reviews giving the title top marks.

"GTA V has been worth the five-year wait," said computerandvideogames.com digital manager John Houlihan.

"You can really see the maturity in this version, the graphics look sensational -- it really is like being in a virtual copy of LA."

GTA V is set in a fictional city of Los Santos based on real-world Los Angeles and its nearby hills and beaches.

The videogame franchise has won legions of fans and cadres of critics with game play in which triumph depends on acts such as carjacking, gambling and killing.

Play in Grand Theft Auto games has included simulated sex with prostitutes and drunken driving. The latest version is said by reviewers to be rife with more of the same, along with profanity-packed dialog.

"GTA is essentially the 'Sopranos' of videogames," Tech Savvy analyst Scott Steinberg said, making a reference to a hugely popular US cable television series centered on Mafia characters.

"Everyone talks about the series as violent, but compared to what you are seeing in the movies and on television GTA is relatively tame. Certainly, it is a mature game for mature audiences, and should be consumed accordingly."

GTA V is billed by the New York City-based videogame publisher as the "largest and most ambitious" title to date in the franchise that has sold more than 114 million copies since its debut in 1997.

"Grand Theft Auto V builds on everything we've learned about open world gaming," said Rockstar founder Sam Houser.

Versions of "GTA V" for play on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 videogame consoles or personal computers powered by Windows software will launch worldwide Tuesday in respective time zones.

There were reports on Monday that Amazon accidentally delivered copies of the videogame to lucky gamers in Britain who had placed early orders online.

Midnight release events were planned at shops in an array of countries to let GTA lovers snap up the game the instant Tuesday arrives.

"This really is a blockbuster that almost dwarfs the movies in some way," Houlihan told AFP.

"GTA V is really a cultural phenomenon. You'll find people tonight queueing around the block to play it, people taking days if not the whole week off work to explore this vast virtual world."

Houlihan said it was rumored that the production budget for the game was in the vicinity of $270 million.

The franchise's appeal is fueled by captivating story lines and an open-world format that lets players go wherever they wish in game worlds.

"It gives you a complete virtual playground to go and explore," Houlihan said.

"You can rob banks or you can do a yoga lesson or you can fly a plane or you can play tennis or you can do what I sometimes do which is just wander round the world in a really flashy car and listen to some of the hilarious radio stations -- so there really is everything for you to explore, it's a world of possibility."

The game will also let people play with or against one another online.

Rockstar, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, said that GTA V "focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar" in a re-imagined Southern California.

Grand Theft Auto IV blew away videogame and Hollywood records by raking in an unprecedented $500 million in the week after its release in April 2008.

"GTA is the 10-ton gorilla of videogame franchises," Steinberg said. "Obviously, this is going to help kickstart the holiday season for the videogame industry, which has taken a beating."

While console videogames have faced mounting pressure from free-to-play titles tailored for smartphones or tablets, there is "still room for blockbuster Hollywood-style games," according to the analyst.