Slashdot Mirror

Have you ever wondered what a game of Civilization 2 would look like after running for 10 years? According to one gamer it's a "hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation." "Lycerius" says that he's been playing the same game of Civ II off and on for over a decade. Some highlights of the marathon session include: 1700 years of war, the ice caps melting over 20 times, constant guerrilla uprisings, and "Roughly 90% of the world's population has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm." It's too bad you can't build the Hanging Gardens more than once.

Knowing that ideas are a dime a dozen and eager to think outside the box, Hungary's central bank is burning old currency to help the needy. The bank has found that the 40-50 tons of currency that needs to be burned every year is a blessing in disguise for people caught between a rock and a hard place due to the extreme cold sweeping across Europe.

It's not quite sharks with laser beams attached to their heads, but an Australian prison just got a guard dog with titanium teeth. Axel got his new metal chompers after he bit into a board, breaking many of his teeth. Veterinary dentist David Clarke says: "So much is spent on training working dogs that it ends up much cheaper to repair a dental problem than retire the dog. Prison dogs, police dogs, hunting, quarantine and customs dogs often suffer injuries in the course of their job."

Fluent in English, French, Spanish, Mandarin and working on German, 10-year-old Alexia Sloane has become the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament. An amazing feat not only for her age, but also because she is blind. From the article: "'There is usually a minimum age requirement of 14 just to enter the European Parliament so for Alexia to interpret there at the age of 10 was amazing,' said mum Isabelle. Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mum is half French and half Spanish and her dad Richard is English." I Guess I should stop bragging to my nephew about having a paper route when I was his age.

Since he hadn't been born yet, 33-year-old Charlotte Childs was shocked to get a letter from the police threatening to give her son an ASBO and inviting her to discuss how unruly he was. From the article: "Charlotte, who is 36 weeks' pregnant, said: 'The letter said there had been an incident of anti-social behavior and our child was identified. I would love to know how a 36-week-old fetus has managed to go to the park and cause trouble without me noticing.'"

Nude House, a Buckinghamshire computer software and naturist company, is looking for coders who aren't afraid to let a few Cheetos fall where no Cheetos have fallen before. The company would like to become the first all nude tech business. From the article: "Company spokesman Chris Taylor told The Register: 'As far as I am aware this is not only the first UK office job for naturists in web-coding or web-selling, but is also the first worldwide facility for naturists to earn substantial sums of money from work that incidentally provides them with the capability to work entirely without clothes.'"

A couple of Swedish bank robbers had the perfect plan: sneak inside a bank vault on Friday, spend all weekend emptying safe deposit boxes, escape when the bank opens again on Monday. They would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling pee bottles they left behind. From the article: "They managed to surprise bank staff and escape when the vault was reopened. But prosecutor Frederik Larsen said they forgot to take the urine with them 'so we were able to get their DNA samples from the bottles.' The evidence helped prosecutors win a 21-month prison sentence for the Swede. His accomplice is still at large and the loot hasn't been recovered."

It's not as crazy as the Naked Snow Angel Grand Prix but the Naked Sledding World Championships are still pretty extreme. 17,000 spectators watched 30 brave souls strip down to their underwear and race for the £1,000 prize. "It's a very closely fought contest which is good for us because we're all very keen on studying the photo finishes," said one judge.

13-year-old Walter Acre was encircled by wolves while walking home from school, but luckily for him he had some Megadeth on his phone. From the article: "Just as they seemed set to attack, the petrified youngster pulled out his phone and cranked out a song by Megadeth. Walter had previously been told not to run away from wolves but to face them and attempt to scare them away. And sure enough, the tactic worked as the sound of heavy metal music sent the animals scattering in confusion."

The Toyoka Chuo Seika fruit company plays Mozart to their ripening bananas in the belief that it makes the fruit sweeter. From the article: "Favored works include Mozart's String Quartet 17 and Piano Concerto 5 in D major, reports the Japan Times. Company spokesman Isamu Okuda said he believes it makes the bananas, which are imported from the Philippines, sweeter. The paper adds that bananas are just one of a wide variety of food and beverages, including soy sauce, udon noodles, miso and even sake, which have been enjoying exposure to classical music in Japan."

Alexei Kudrin, Russia's finance minister, has a plan to drink and smoke his country out of its financial woes. He has urged his countrymen to drink and smoke more to help boost government revenues. "If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to help solve social problems. People should understand: Those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state," he said.

Visitors who hog the benches at Yantai Park in Shangdong province, eastern China will get a sharp surprise. The park benches have been fitted with steel spikes on a coin operated timer. A park official is quoted as saying: "We have to make sure the facilities are shared out evenly and this seems like a fair way to stop people grabbing a bench at dawn and staying there all day."

According to a Japanese study, monkeys are not immune to the siren call of the idiot box. It seems rhesus monkeys enjoy watching videos of circus animals. From the article: "The study found that when the monkey was witnessing the acrobatic performances of circus animals on a television screen, the frontal lobe area of its brain became vigorously active. The activity in such an area was significant in reflecting the monkey's pleasure, as the human equivalent is a neurological area associated with triggering delight in a baby when it sees the smile of its mother."

In addition to car exhaust and road grime, travelers along Highway 150 in North Carolina can now enjoy the smell of a barbecue thanks to a new billboard. The work of ScentAir, which provides custom scents for businesses, the advertisement for a local grocer emits the smell of charcoal and black pepper over the highway. "Marketing director Murray Dameron said the beef scent was emitted by a high-powered fan at the bottom of the billboard that blows air over cartridges loaded with BBQ fragrance oil. 'It smells like grilled meat with a nice pepper rub on it,' he explained."

Worried that it is turning out a generation of sissies, a Chinese elementary school has started a program designed to teach boys to be more masculine. Wang Jianhua, who has been teaching at the school for 14 years, says the boys are getting "more and more girly. During class breaks their favorite game is elastic band skipping, which is a typical girl's game. And the boys are very fragile. If we just scold them a bit they will cry out loudly."

Dominic Deville thought that kids would rather have an evil clown for their birthday parties instead of the usual balloon animal variety, and it looks like he's right. Deville's evil clown service starts out with him contacting his "victims" to tell them they're being watched. He then sends text messages, phone calls, and booby-trapped letters warning that they're going to get cake smashed in their face. "It's all in fun and if at any point the kids get scared or their parents are concerned we stop right there," he explained. "But most kids absolutely love being scared senseless."

Loconut1389 asks: "In 1994, Wildfire Communications released a telephone based voice recognition agent that kept track of contacts, and given a schedule or a list of numbers where to reach you, would try and contact you at places you might be when someone calls in. Wildfire was in service through a number of companies, until 2005 when Orange pulled the plug. I had the pleasure of being frustrated with misunderstandings, but thoroughly enjoyed the concept, and it was a worthwhile product. Just before they closed up the Wildfire shop, they had a version that didn't require training. In any case, I was wondering if Asterisk, with some extension modules, had come far enough to replace the functionality of the Wildfire service? Has anyone had experience with the original Wildfire product that could recommend a modern equivalent, even if it was commercial?"

Infractor writes: "UK Mobile provider Orange has moved to pull the plug on the world's first ever text message community -- Locust Cellular Linux hacker Jon Anderson built the service, similar to wireless email and IRC chat back in 1996. A student Linux project, accidently became the first service to offer interactive text message facilities on this UK network. After Locust's forced closure was announced to its members, a huge campaign has been organised by the subscribers to draw attention to the incredible value which has been created by this unique SMS community." (There's more below.)

"Hundreds of personal letters and testimonials have already been posted on the community action site which is at SaveLocust.org -- This site also has an expose on what is described as 'Orange's Hypocrisy' over claims that it is launching a competitive service to Locust. An article has already appeared on TheRegister.co.uk

For the UK, this is a unique social phenomena, driven by the power and intimacy of text messaging. Please review the evidence for yourself. This community shows what technology can really do in the wireless world. Locust still runs on good ole Linux 2.0.33 -- if it aint broke ... :)"

alecbrown writes: "Orange, a mobile phone service in the UK is about to release a Mobile Videophone coming out in 2001. As far as I know it uses Microsoft's PocketPC platform, and works on GSM1800, since as Orange has a HSCSD service and no GPRS service yet it is probably based on the former technology. I hate to think how expensive calls will be on that."