With just over 5 months until the release of the new Transformers movie, fans of robots in disguise everywhere will have to find other outlets to slake their robo-lust until July. Whether it is with expensive toys (damn, when I was little my parents bitched about how exepensive Transformers toys were, but they couldn't have been that bad, could they?), DVDs, or (if your short on cash) just by randomly singing the Transformers theme song (which you still remember by heart from your childhood) and annoying your loved ones (Yes, I am a giant freaking geek, and I am okay with it.), it still couldn't hurt to have a little more Transformers goodness to help you pass the time until July. Urban Outfitters has stepped to the plate with this retro-riffic t-shirt sporting the classic 80's rendition of Optimus Prime and the number 84. Why 84? Well, because that is the year we all sat hypnotized as we watched the Transformers fight the evil Decepticons for the first time. While a little too rich for my blood (and skinny for my fat ass), the Optimus Prime Tee is available now for $28 from Urban Outfitters if you don't mind dropping some coin to show your geek pride.


Optimus Prime Tee [via Uncrate]
geek, cartoon, t-shirt, Transformers

A Texas judge has dismissed the $30 million dollar lawsuit against MySpace's parent corporation, News Corp., brought by the parents of a 13 year old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by someone she met on the social networking site. Judge Sam Sparks ruled, saying "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace,". "Jullie Doe's" parents, who were apparently looking for both a quick buck and a scapegoat for their own piss-poor parenting, sued News Corp. because they felt MySpace does not sufficiently protect its members.

While parents not taking responsibility for their kids is nothing new, it is nice to see that there are still sane people in this world that think that parents need to be responsible for their children instead of letting them run around unsupervised expecting everybody else to protect their offspring (and suing when they don't). Judge Sparks should be applauded for not hopping on the "it's everybody but the parents job to protect the children" bandwagon that currently seems to be back in vogue. (Just look at all the failed attempts to regulate the sale of video games instead of making parents responsible for deciding what games their children are allowed to play.)

Judge says MySpace isn't liable for alleged sexual assault on girl [via Playfuls.com]
news, internet, social networking, MySpace

While it is extremely cool that a group of Japanese scientists have created a robot capable of playing the saxophone, there is one thing that this robot makes extremely clear. We have not yet figured out how to give our mechanical minions souls... yet. (Which in and of itself is probably a good thing. It should prolong the inevitable robotic rebellion by a few years.) Simply listening to this musical automaton work its way through Coltrane's solo from "Giant Steps" is an excruciatingly painful experience, especially if you are a fan of jazz. The robot works its way through the solo, playing all the notes with mechanical precision but lacking any of the subtle intonation and variation that a human musician brings to a piece of music. Video of the robot in action is available after the jump for anyone who wants to torture themselves.

In an ironic twist, man's exploration of space may end up preventing us from further exploring the heavens. In the wake of China's January 11th anti-satellite missile test, scientists are becoming more concerned with the ever increasing amount of "space junk" accumulating around the planet. Prior to the Chinese missile test we were surrounded by over 10,000 detectable bits of garbage ranging in size from small 4 inch pieces of random debris and hand tools lost by astronauts on space walks to larger objects like disused satellites and spent rocket stages from the past 50 years of space exploration. The destruction of the abandoned Chinese weather satellite has added another 800 to 1000 pieces of debris to the cloud, already described by scientists as being at critical mass. The fear is that with so much junk in Earth's orbit a single collision between pieces of debris will spark a chain reaction, exponentially increasing the number of objects littering near space, leading to a situation referred to as the Kessler Syndrome. Named after a former NASA official, the Kessler Syndrome describes a situation where their is so much space junk orbiting Earth that launches become impossible. While the syndrome's namesake feels that launches being made physically impossible may be an over exaggeration, Kessler fears that if nothing is done to curb the amount of crap accumulating on our galactic doorstep space exploration will be threatened by the rising costs associated with shielding spacecraft from the debris cloud orbiting the planet. While no one is sure when the catastrophic chain reaction will take place (could be tomorrow could be in 1,000 years), they are all certain it will happen unless something is done to prevent it from happening.

Orbiting Junk, Once a Nuisance, Is Now a Threat [via Orbitcast]
science, space, travel, Kessler Syndrome