Bus Driver Suspended For Playing Games While Driving

Less than a day after KITV broke the story of a city bus driver playing a video game while driving a bus, the driver is on unpaid leave and being investigated Wednesday. The president of TheBus apologized for the incident and said he's "embarrassed" by it less than a month after another bus driver was arrested for drunk driving while operating. . .

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LEGO Batman: The Videogame Builds on the Fun

I was a tiny bit skeptical about LEGO Batman: The Videogame. I knew it would be fun, because the previous LEGO videogames had been such a blast. The question really was whether they could make it different enough from the other games that it would be worth the money, while at the same time having enough Batman content to please fans.

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EA Sued Over Spore DRM

Ever since Spore was released on September 7, an uproar has been growing. Many gamers have taken great exception to the fact the PC game comes bundled with SecuROM digital rights management software. One criticism is that SecuROM only allows the game to be installed on three computers before locking. As a result of the outcry, EA expanded the. . .

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Tetris Remade as a LittleBigPlanet Level

Whatever portion of brain matter we had left reserved to be blown by Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet has been officially blown. This impressive Tetris-like, which they're calling "Stacker" works, in a somewhat loose sense, as a capable, but clearly maddening, game within a game. To see the full contraption responsible for all this wonderment. . .

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How NOT To Use Your Wii Remote In the Company Of Ladies

BBC sketch comedy show The Wrong Door put together a handy PSA for those who tend to get a bit too excited during co-ed Wii play. Oh, it's painfully obvious, but I saw Crecente type "haha" earlier today after having watched the clip. Maybe you'll type "haha" too? If not, maybe the crude Wii Sports tennis and Mii renderings will elicit at least. . .

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Why 7 Hours of Sleep May Not be Enough for You?

The term sleep disorder may suggest someone tossing and turning all night, but lying awake for hours with insomnia is just one example of many conditions that affect how you sleep and function during the day. In fact, you can have a sleep disorder and not even know it.

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Letterman Attacks McCain Day 2:

"Late Show" host David Letterman kept up a verbal assault on John McCain Thursday, saying he felt like an "ugly date" because the GOP presidential candidate backed out of a scheduled appearance on his talk show.

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78 Stupid People Who Tattooed Celebrities Onto Their Bodies

We’ve compiled a list of 78 celebrity faces and some other popular characters in the form of tattoos on their biggest fans.Good luck figuring out what body part you’re looking at in some of the pictures!

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Did we say $700b... actually it's more like $1.2 trillion

The banking system needs another $500 billion to survive beyond the $700 billion rescue plan being contemplated by Congress, said Pimco founder Bill Gross.

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Americas Virtual Console/WiiWare Sales Chart, W/E 9-21-08

This week covers the strong debuts of Strong Bad Episode 2 for WiiWare and Mega Man 2 for the Virtual Console. Groovin' Blocks drops out, but My Aquarium and Super Mario RPG both continue to sell well.

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How a $2 toy ball saved a little girl

IT costs as little as $2 and until now has been considered little more than a toy, but a simple ping-pong ball is keeping liver transplant patient Mackenzie Argaet alive.

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Red Planet MAVEN: A New Probe to Scan Martian Atmosphere

A new NASA probe slated to launch in 2013 will take the most detailed look yet at the atmosphere of Mars. A team will design, build and operate the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), an orbiter designed to study the upper atmosphere of the red planet and its interactions with the sun.

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Comcast Admits Error In Requiring SSN Under "Patriot Act"

Comcast's customer service czar Frank responded to our post "Comcast: "The Patriot Act" Mandates We Need Your SSN" by saying it was an error on part of the agent.

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Mad Catz Wants One Thing From Gamers: Another Chance

Mad Catz, the company most often talked about when it comes to cheap knock-offs, wants you to know that it has changed, and it wants another chance from consumers. Based on a few recent acquisitions and the company's first official Rock Band 2 accessory, it may have earned that second chance.

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Is the Xbox 360 Price Drop Really a Steal?

Microsoft has announced another round of price drops for the Xbox 360, and it's easy to see their plan, one where they hope to sell you accessories that are available in their high-end model later. The question is, should someone base their decision on buying the Xbox 360 solely on the cheap price of the Arcade version, or should they look. . .

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Two balls, one strike, and he's OUT!

Ouch!

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Official Google 10th Birthday Site

Features a cool interactive timeline that lists major milestones in Google history, as well as all the various birthday logos!

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"Designer vagina" Trend Worrying

A leading urogynaecologist has spoken out against the growing popularity of cosmetic vaginal surgery. These include operations to make the external appearance more "attractive" and reshaping the vagina to counter laxity after childbirth, for example...

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Glowing Red Fish Discovered (PICS)

Enneapterygius pusillus has found a creative way to communicate with other fish in a world dominated by blues and greens: The fish literally glows red. At least 32 species of reef fish that live at depths below 33 feet (10 meters) possess this unique method of signaling, researchers said in a September 2008 study.

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Is a Dark Matter Galaxy Orbiting the Milky Way?

People used to think that the heavens were a vast clockwork, with planets and moons moving in circular orbits like a vast timepiece. Recent advances have shown us that this stellar machinery is far vaster than they ever suspected - even our galaxy has satellites, mini-galaxies orbiting the Milky Way and some of them could be very interesting...

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First Bust Ever for ATM Reprogramming Scam

The pair allegedly reprogrammed the machines to believe they were loaded with one-dollar bills instead of tens and twenties. A withdrawal of $20 would thus net $380. The Nebraska case marks the first reported arrests for the keypad capers.

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Who Pays for Wall Street’s $700 Billion Bailout?

Even though the government has now formally agreed to guarantee the debt of Fannie and Freddie, the White House says it doesn't see the necessity—shock me!—to include the cost of doing so in the budget. But have you heard anyone in authority asking about the $700 billion bailout: how do you propose to pay for it?

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Woman ‘tricked into sex’ by penis cream treatment

A Syrian-born airline pilot allegedly tricked a schoolteacher from Haverfordwest into having sex with him by pretending he had to administer ointment on the end of his penis...

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Chrysler Unveils Electric Cars That Americans Will Recognize

After a year of being the subject of suggestions that the company has a weak product pipeline and lacks a growth plan, the country's #5 automaker is making a big splash showing some electric models it plans to roll out in 2010.

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Phillies/Braves Conspiracy Leaked

"Sources have confirmed this week that a secret agreement was indeed forged between the two teams at the start of 2008. The underground alliance was supposed to go undetected all year but an unforeseen security leak led to an investigation that uncovered ellaborate details of a Philadelpia/Atlanta consipiracy."

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Learn Virtualization, and the Linux Kernel Virtual Machine

Linux and flexibility go hand in hand, and the options for virtualization are no different. But recently, a change in the Linux virtualization landscape has appeared with the introduction of the Kernel virtual Machine, or KVM. KVM is the first virtualization solution to be part of the mainline Linux kernel. KVM supports the virtualization of Linux...

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New Thinking: Saturn's Rings Might Be Ancient

The study's computer simulation showed how the planet's rings could date back billions of years ago to the early ages of the solar system, rather than only 100 million years ago (during Earth's Age of Dinosaurs), as previous observations suggested. The calculations are consistent with recent observations of the rings by the Cassini–Huygens

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MS will Gain $1.6 Million on the 29th when Live goes Offline

It’s a very rough estimate, but it looks like Microsoft will be earning well over a million dollars, even when you have no access to their services. Which makes me feel just a little bit cheated out of my money. And I’m already non too happy about paying the price of a full game once per year and still not being able to have a...

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MS will Gain $1.6 Million on the 29th when Live goes Offline

It’s a very rough estimate, but it looks like Microsoft will be earning well over a million dollars, even when you have no access to their services. Which makes me feel just a little bit cheated out of my money. And I’m already non too happy about paying the price of a full game once per year and still not being able to have a...

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IGN Reviews Mega Man 9 and Declares It a Winner

If our industry truly goes in cycles, then it's about time we start cashing in our 120-gig hard drives and fancy-pants "analog sticks" for some good old-fashioned 8-bit gaming, as Capcom's Mega Man series is back and swinging for the fences in all of its low-frame, low-power glory.

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Surgeons Reattach Girl's Hand After Freak Jump Rope Accident

6-year-old Erica Rix was riding in the back of her mother's SUV on the way back home from soccer practice. Erica was dangling a jump rope out of the window...

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The Top 11 Upcoming Downloadable Games

What's better than buying, downloading, and playing a full-feature video game from the comfort of your own home? Online games are the bread and butter of busy gamers. If you're a PC user, member of the PlayStation Network, or an Xbox Live Arcade buyer, here's 11 online gems that you definitely shouldn't miss!

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PS3 Going Home Soon. . .It's A Bona Fide System Seller

Yes, it has been delayed several times, and yes, more than a few current and prospective PlayStation 3 owners have questioned whether or not PlayStation Home will deliver the goods. Well, of course it will. Wanna know why? Look, I'm not a huge online gamer and I spend minimal time on the PlayStation Store or Xbox Live Marketplace. I don't. . .

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Spore Patch Offers Built-In Cheats

EA and Maxis encourage players to cheat in the name of fun.

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Nintendo Tattoos -- Classic 8-Bit-Inspired Ink (PICS)

Fusajiro Yamauchi founded a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan on this day in 1889. Little did he know that a century later, his small venture would go on to create a video gaming system so influential that young people would not only play it incessantly, but also permanently imprint its most popular emblems into their flesh.

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Is it true McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time?

A few facts...The Obama campaign is dedicated to the idea of McCain voting with Bush 90% of the time. That line works because the masses aren't paying attention. Has it occurred to anyone that George Bush doesn't have a vote in the Senate? So, how then do you measure the percentage of times that McCain is voting "with" the president? Well, maybe you could measure the number of times a Senator votes with the Republican members. Ahhh ... but remember - most Senate votes are unanimous. This would mean that the only way not to "vote with the president" would be not to vote at all. Dick Morris commented: "The fact that McCain backs commending a basketball team on its victory doesn't mean that he is in lockstep ideologically with the president." How true.Morris also points out a series of important issues on which Bush and McCain did not agree:- McCain fought for campaign finance reform (McCain-Feingold) that Bush resisted and ultimately signed because he had no choice.- McCain led the battle to restrict interrogation techniques of terror suspects and to ban torture.- McCain went with Joe Lieberman on a tough measure to curb climate change, something Bush denies is going on.- McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts when they passed.- McCain urged the Iraq surge, a posture Bush rejected for years before conceding its wisdom.- McCain favors FDA regulation of tobacco and sponsored legislation to that effect, a position all but a handful of Republican senators oppose.- McCain's energy bill, also with Lieberman, is a virtual blueprint for energy independence and development of alternate sources.- After the Enron scandal, McCain introduced sweeping reforms in corporate governance and legislation to guarantee pensions and prohibit golden parachutes for executives. Bush opposed McCain's changes and the watered-down Sarbanes-Oxley bill eventuated.- McCain has been harshly critical of congressional overspending, particularly of budgetary earmarks, a position Bush only lately adopted (after the Democrats took over Congress).Using the same methodology that Obama uses, you would probably find that most Democrat senators also voted with Bush 90% of the time as well.

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PlayStation 3 Movies Can Only Be Redownloaded Once

I'm not sure how many of you are buying (aka not renting) movies from Sony's PlayStation 3 video store, but to those who are willing to drop $15 on a permanent, DRM'd digital product, know that Sony only allows you to redownload these products one time.

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Scientists discover why we all have fish fingers

After all, you're an intelligent and good-looking Daily Mail reader and it is a crocodile-like beast that splashed about in the seas 385million years ago.

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PS3 Set to Take #1 Spot this Holiday Season

Since all three major consoles flooded the market in 2006, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have done there best to set themselves apart from the competition. Microsoft launched the 360 a year prior to the others and has relied heavily on their online service, creating a next gen void that could only be filled by the 360. An ingenious move that. . .

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IGN: The PS3 Games of Fall 2008

From Resistance 2 to LittleBigPlanet to SOCOM: Confrontation to MotorStorm: Pacific Rift to Fallout 3 and much, much more, there's a major release that will interest pretty much anyone with a pulse. But with so many games to choose from, what should you be keeping an eye out for?What you'll find here are the biggest of the big,the best of the best.

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PlayStation 3 video DRM: two strikes and you're out

After an Ars reader had issues re-downloading video content he bought for his PlayStation 3, we investigated. The verdict from Sony? You have one more shot to get your content, and after that you're out of luck. This also goes the same for Xbox360.

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Confirmed: Online Gamers 'Are Not Unhealthy'

More than 7,000 players of the online game EverQuest II were quizzed about their health by scientists. They found gamers' body mass index (BMI) tended to be lower than the US average - with many taking "proper" exercise more than once a week. But New Scientist magazine reports that depression was more common in gamers.

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Payback for Wii Fit Girl's Boyfriend

The YouTube phenomenon that is Giovanny Gutierrez's "Why every guy should buy his girlfriend a Wii Fit" continues to move it's panty-clad hips, having been viewed more that 6.5 million times since being posted in late May. The much-adored Wii Fit...

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EA relents, changes Spore DRM. Too little, too late?

The story of Spore has become the story of EA and DRM: the company is now loosening the install limit and working on ways to get your installs back after use them up. For many gamers, however, any limit remains intolerable.

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Six things you didn't know about Rock Band 2

By now you have hopefully read our drag-down, kick out the jams review of the hardware and software of Rock Band 2, and have made your decision about whether or not you want to buy the latest rhythm game entry from Harmonix.

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Spore Users Create Creatures to Protest EA's DRM

Whether it's user reviews on Amazon.com, downloading torrents or posting on YouTube, the industry's anti-piracy measures are inspiring gamers to speak out. The latest flap over EA's inclusion of SecuROM (a Sony technology) in Spore has also inspired some user-generated content.

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Ars puts Spore DRM to the test—with a surprising result

EA and Maxis released Spore to the world last week, and while we still don't have sales information for the title, the big news wasn't the game play. In fact, we found the game itself rather lackluster in most ways.

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The Evolution of Link

How did Link get to where he is today...

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The Top 10 Mario Power-ups

#7. Hammer Suit -- Those nefarious Hammer Bros. are a huge pain, so it's great to finally give them a taste of their own medicine with Super Mario Bros. 3's Hammer Suit. It allows Mario to chuck an infinite amount of hammers at his foes, as well as use the shell as a shield. Like all suits, though, he'll lose it when touched by an enemy.

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