We've gone all Hollywood today with our indepth look at Edward Norton's career highs and, well, mainly lows, and a really relevant look at the new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man.
Never fear, we've managed to shoe-horn in some actual tech snippets too, including a philosophical debate on the copyrightability of porn and whether the UK's government should splash out £250,000 on iPads for all its MPs. Short answer: no, it shouldn't.
Can't copyright this – Can you copyright porn? As philosophical questions go, it's not exactly up there with does a tree falling in the woods make the sound of one hand clapping, but it's the defence being used by one woman being sued by adult movie maker Hard Drive for allegedly torrenting a blue movie named Amateur Allure Jen. [TorrentFreak]
Sleb endorsement of the day – Edward Norton's back and he's brought an LG Prada 3.0 phone with him. Apparently he and Daria Werbowy who's, like, a model or something, embody the core values of the handset - namely stylish looks and smart functionality. Yes, we've often thought that Edward Norton's ability to run apps and wirelessly connect to the internet have been a real boon to his Hollywood Career. Gratuitous photo below. [PR]
Zing!-a – what do allegedly spying on players and allegedly skewing game play for the sake of profit have in common? They're both allegedly things that Zynga allegedly partakes in, as alleged by a disgruntled ex-employee answering questions about the Farmville-maker anonymously on Reddit. [Reddit]
United Kingdom of Apple – Slow clap for the Conservatives, whose Sir Alan Haslelhurst has actually gone on record saying that all MPs should be given an iPad to save the country money. He says it's because of "all the work MPs have to do" and will also "reduce the use of paper", while he added baselessly, "There is a pretty sure case to say the supply of these will lead to an overall saving for the public purse." Sure it will. [Metro]
MIND CONTROL – File this under terrifying: neuroscientists are positing that brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) could be used to allow soldiers to control weapon systems by thought alone. Knowing how our minds wander, we're quite concerned for the future of the planet. [Guardian]
Mythical city remains mythical – a Google Ocean mapping error that got wispy myth lovers of a certain ilk all excited about the prospect of Atlantis actually existing has been corrected. As you were. [MSNBC]
Image credit: MSNBC
New news we thought was old – Amazon has overtaken HMV and is now the UK's top entertainment retailer according to Kantar's research. Huh. Who knew HMV had been hanging on in there for so long. Depressingly, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's come in third, fourth and fifth respectively, followed by Play.com and iTunes. [Retail Gazette]
Ambidextrous headphones – You know what we hate about headphones? Having to spend one second checking we've got the buds in the correct ears. Luckily there's needless tech for that, in the form of these proximity-sensing earphone prototypes that adjust the audio depending on which ear it detects that the earphone is in. Thank god. We're not sure how much longer we could have gone on without these. [BBC]
Forgotten but not gone – Facebook photos you thought had been deleted from the site are still accessible up to three years later. Tsk tsk Facebook. Why's that then? It's because these pictures are stored on an old system but soon all photos will be stored on a new system that will delete pics in a month and a half. But then, that's only speedy when compared to the three-year alternative. [Ars Technica]
My spidey senses are tingling – The trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man is giving us butterflies in our tummies. Okay, this isn't technically tech but there is, y'know, science in it (see 0.58) and it's being shot entirely in 3D so… Oh leave us alone and just watch it. [Total Film]