Author: Sean Patterson

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania may have found the next big trend in weight loss: deep brain stimulation (DBS).

A new study has found that DBS in a specific brain region in mice can activate a dopamine type-2 receptor. The process was shown to reduce both the caloric intake and weight of obese mice. The study has been published in in the Journal of Neuroscience.

“Based on this research, DBS may provide therapeutic relief to binge eating, a behavior commonly seen in obese humans, and frequently unresponsive to other approaches,” said Tracy Bale, a neuroscience professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “These results are our best evidence yet that targeting the nucleus accumbens with DBS may be able to modify specific feeding behaviors linked to body weight changes and obesity.”

According to the study’s authors, almost 50% of obese people binge eat. The researchers define binge eating as “uncontrollably” consuming high-calorie food within a short period of time. The mice that received DBS were shown to eat “significantly ” less high fat food. The long-term effects of DBS on obese mice also showed their glucose sensitivity improved.

DBS is currently used to reduce tremors in Parkinson’s disease patients.

“Once replicated in human clinical trials, DBS could rapidly become a treatment for people with obesity due to the extensive groundwork already established in other disease areas,” said Casey Halpern, lead author of the study and a resident in the Perelman School’s Department of Neurosurgery.

Sprint, the third largest wireless carrier in the U.S., today released its first quarter 2013 financial results. The report shows that the company’s net losses have decreased from the fourth quarter of 2012, though it also shows worrying trends, such as falling subscriber numbers.

Sprint reported a net loss of $643 million, compared to the $863 million net loss it posted for the fourth quarter of 2012. However, this small victory was tempered by the news that the carrier lost 560,000 postpaid subscribers during the quarter.

Many of Sprint’s revenue and subscriber losses come from its Nextel platform, which the company is currently in the process of shutting down. Sprint stated that it is on-track to shut down Nextel at the end of the second quarter 2013.

In the meantime, Sprint announced it has formed a committee of independent directors to review a proposed $25.5 billion merger with Dish. The merger would provide Sprint shareholders with a greater payout than an alternate $20.1 billion proposal from Softbank.

Back in December, Sprint fully acquired Clearwire for $2.2 billion.

“This is a transformative year for Sprint and we’ve gotten off to a good start,” said Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint.

There are a few games that throw characters from different series’ into a multiplayer fighting arena, but only Telltale Games‘ Poker Night series makes them sit down and look each other in the eye.

Poker Night 2 launches today on the Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade, and will follow soon on PlayStation Network and Steam. A trailer for the launch has also been released.

The game features characters such as Sam from the Sam & Max games, Claptrap from the Borderlands games, Ash Williams from the Evil Dead movies, and Brock Samson from The Venture Bros. TV series as poker players. Portal villain GLaDOS fills in as the dealer.

Playing the game can unlock what the Telltale is calling “Bounty Unlocks.” These Poker Night rewards will unlock content in other games, such as Borderlands 2 skins, Team Fortress 2 items, and, depending on the system, Xbox Avatar or PlayStation 3 theme unlocks.

Telltale is coming off the wild success of The Walking Dead adventure game, which made many best-of-2012 lists. In comparison, Poker Night 2 should be a welcome reprieve from the stress of braving the zombie apocalypse. Though it’s not likely to top best-of lists for 2013, it may be a nice diversion during the lean summer months of gaming.

Fans of Marvel superheroes have a big year ahead of them. In addition to the third Iron Man movie coming this summer, Chris Hemsworth will also be returning as Thor in Thor: The Dark World this November.

Marvel Studios today released an early trailer for the movie that teases new villains and more politics in Asgard. The trailer shows that Natalie Portman will be reprising her role as Jane Foster, and the very end of the trailer teases that Thor may have to make an alliance with Avengers villain Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston. It also shows at bit of the new enemies Thor will be facing: the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, led by Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith.

One Nevada State Senator made the state’s debate over gay marriage personal this week after coming out of the closet on the floor of the state senate.

On Monday, Nevada State Senator Kelvin Atkinson publicly outed himself as gay during a debate over a gay marriage bill, according to a report in the Las Vegas Sun. The newspaper described his voice as “trembling” as he revealed his sexuality in a highly public way.

“I’m black. I’m gay,” Atkinson is quoted as saying. “I know this is the first time many of you have heard me say that I am a black, gay male.”

Atkinson compared Nevada’s current ban on gay marriage to interracial marriage bans in the U.S.’s recent past. His father has re-married into an interracial marriage. He also stated that gay marriages do not harm heterosexual marriages, saying, “If this hurts your marriage, then your marriage was in trouble in the first place.”

The Nevada Senate was debating Senate Joint Resolution 13, which would repeal the state’s ban on gay marriage and require Nevada to recognize all marriages, regardless of gender. After much debate, the resolution passed with 12 votes to 9. According to the Sun, if the bill passes the full legislature it will have to be re-approved in 2015 and then placed on the 2016 election ballot.

Earlier this month, Ozzy Osbourne took to his Facebook page to clear up a myriad of rumors that had begun circulating about his family.

Osbourne admitted that for the last year and a half he has relapsed, drinking and doing drugs. He stated that he “was in a dark place” and “was an asshole to the people” he loves most. Though Osbourne did not deny that rumors that he and his wife, Sharon, were living in separate places, he did emphasize that they are not divorcing.

This week, it was Sharon’s turn to speak about her recent family troubles. The reality TV star used her place on the daytime talk show The Talk to address the topic.

Sharon stated that she knew Ozzy was drinking “occasionally,” but didn’t know he was abusing prescription drugs. She also emphasized, as Ozzy did, that the couple is not getting divorced.

“Am I happy? No,” said Sharon. “Am I upset? Yes I am. I’m devastated right now. It’s a disease that not only hurts the person that has the disease, but it hurts the family.”

Yesterday, Gearbox, the developer of the Borderlands series (and Aliens: Colonial Marines), announced that it had acquired the Homeworld franchise and intends to port the first two games in the 3D real-time strategy series to “today’s leading digital platforms.”

Today it has been revealed that what’s left of THQ has sold off a few more of its IPs that didn’t sell in the initial feeding frenzy that took place in January.

The largest sale this week went to Nordic Games, which purchased Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Destroy All Humans!, Summoner, and other IPs for $4.9 million.

“First and foremost we are very happy about this deal which also turns over a new leaf for the entire Nordic Games Group,” said Lars Wingefors, CEO of Nordic Games Group. “In the long term, we either want to cooperate with the original creators or best possible developers in order to work on sequels or additional content for these titles. A very important point for us is not to dash into several self-financed multi-million dollar projects right away, but rather to continue our in-depth analysis of all titles and carefully selecting different financing models for developing new instalments of acquired IPs.”

505 Games has also purchased the Drawn to Life games from THQ for $300,000. It was also revealed that Gearbox’s purchase of the Homeworld series set the developer back $1.35 million.

Just over one week after bombers detonated two explosives near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the French Embassy in Tripoli has now been bombed.

According to a Reuters report, a car bomb parked outside the French embassy exploded. The blast reportedly injured two French guards. No deaths have been reported.

The last terror attack against a foreign entity in Libya was the September 2012 attack against the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Four people were killed during that assault, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens.

Since the ousting of Mummar Gaddafi in 2011 and the ensuing civil war, Libya has experienced military, economic, and political turmoil. France was the first country to recognize Libya’s National Transitional Council as legitimate and was a major player in the NATO-led military intervention during the civil war. Though no organizations have taken responsibility for the bombing, the French military has recently been conducting operations in Mali against Islamic rebels and terrorist organizations have vowed retaliation for French efforts in the country.

According to the Reuters report, Libya’s government has condemned the bombing as a “terrorist act.” French President Francois Hollande called on the Libyan government to quickly capture those responsible for the bombing.

(Image courtesy Bryn Jones/Wikimedia Commons)

It appears that the mystery of how water got into the atmosphere of Jupiter has finally been solved.

The European Space Agency (ESA) today announced that the water in the Jovian planet’s upper atmosphere has been linked to the 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts. The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up and collided with Jupiter in July of 1994. The week-long event, which was the first directly-seen extraterrestrial collision in the Solar Systam, was observed by astronomers around the world.

Though astronomers suspected the Shoemaker-Levy impacts were the source of the water, the ESA’s Herschel space observatory has now been able to map the vertical and horizontal distribution of the water in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The observatory’s infrared imaging was able to discern that there is two to three times more water in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere. Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, and Herschel has found “most” of the water is concentrated around the impact sites. The findings have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

“Only Herschel was able to provide the sensitive spectral imaging needed to find the missing link between Jupiter’s water and the 1994 impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,” said Thibault Cavalié, lead author of the paper and an astrophysicist at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux. “The asymmetry between the two hemispheres suggests that water was delivered during a single event and rules out icy rings or moons as candidate sources.

“According to our models, as much as 95% of the water in the stratosphere is due to the comet impact.”

(Image courtesy ESA/Herschel/T. Cavalié et al./NASA/ESA/Reta Beebe)

Gone are the days where food delivery consisted only of pizza or Chinese food. Restaurants over the past decade have begun offering a wide selection of cuisines that can be delivered right to customers’ doors.

Now, even fast food restaurants, which have relied on drive-thru service for decades, are getting in on the delivery act. Burger King today announced that it is expanding its delivery service, racing ever closer to the day that “did somebody order a Whopper?” will become a porn cliche.

Burger King will now deliver in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The fast food restaurant already delivers in New York, Miami, Houston, and Washington D.C.

“‘BK Delivers’ is already performing well in New York, Miami, Houston and greater Washington, D.C.,” said Alex Macedo , president of the North America division at Burger King Worldwide. “As its popularity has grown, we have seen an increasing demand for the program in other markets. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago have some of our most loyal guests and the Burger King brand is excited to offer them the opportunity to enjoy the food they love, delivered to them in the comfort of their home, dorm, or office.”

Burger fans in those cities can order Burger King delivery by phone or through the BK Delivers website. Those who aren’t in the current delivery cities can request that delivery come to their zip code on the same website.

The sun. We see it nearly every day, and yet most of us spend a considerable amount of time trying to keep it out of our eyes or off our skin.

NASA, on the other hand, has been staring straight into the sun for years now. The agency launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 2010 to capture images of the sun, which it does every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. Scientists are using the SDO to learn more about the sun and to improve predictions for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can affect satellites orbiting Earth.

In the three years since its launch, the SDO has observed the sun as it ramps up to “solar maximum,” which is the peak of the star’s 11-year solar activity cycle. To demonstrate this increase in the sun’s activity, NASA this week released a video that puts together many of the images taken by the SDO. The time-lapsed video shows two images of the sun per day for three years. It also has some nice background music (“A Lady’s Errand of Love” by Martin Lass).

Back in January, Deep Silver, the publisher of the Dead Island games, announced the “Zombie Bait” special edition of their upcoming Dead Island Riptide. As many collector’s editions do, the “Zombie Bait” package includes a statue. This statue however, was a de-limbed, decapitated female torso. It was, quite literally, just a pair of bloody breasts covered by a small bikini.

The publisher later issued an apology for the statue. The carefully worded response did not state that the statues would be pulled from pre-orders, but did make it clear that they would never show up in the U.S.

The complaints surrounding the statue subsided within days, and now Dead Island Riptide‘s launch day is finally here. Along with mediocre reviews, the game has arrived with the statue still a part of the collector’s edition.

Video blogger AussieGamerChick received her “Zombie Bait” edition of the game today and showed it off in an unboxing video on YouTube. No doubt speaking for many horror fans, she states that the statue is the reason she pre-ordered the game.

AussieGamerChick had defended Deep Silver and the statue back in January when complaints began:

And here’s the launch trailer for the game, for good measure:

(via Kotaku)

Last week Gawker published a real email from an executive board member of the Delta Gamma sorority at the University of Maryland. Now known as the ‘deranged sorority letter’, the email excoriates sorority sisters for being “boring” and “awkward” at parties and for talking “openly about post gaming at a different frat IN FRONT OF SIGMA NU BROTHERS.”

As expected, these first world problems became the subject of internet ridicule. Now, celebrities are getting in on the action with their own renditions of the letter.

The latest celebrity to try his hand at a dramatic reading of the letter is none other than Michael Shannon. Shannon is known for bringing a grizzled, serious presence to dramas such as HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and movies such as Bug and Take Shelter. He brings that very same gravitas to the sisters of Delta Gamma:

Bonus:
Former Attack of the Show correspondent Alison Haislip has put out her own reading of the letter, which might be even scarier than Shannon’s:

There’s another video game movie adaptation coming. Luckily, it’s not another slapped-together live-action action movie that’s only resemblance to a game is character names and some professional cosplay.

Sony and Insomniac Games, the developers of the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance games (and Spyro), have announced that a Ratchet & Clank movie is currently in the works, to be released sometime in 2015. The movie now has a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account where fans can follow the movie’s development.

Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment are working on the animated film, though Insomniac is involved in a consulting role for the characters, screenplay, and animation. Rainmaker is known for producing many Barbie straight-to-DVD titles, but was also the company behind ReBoot, Beast Wars: Transformers, and this year’s Escape From Planet Earth.

Check out the teser trailer for the movie below.

Oh, and to celebrate the announcement, Sony is putting all Ratchet & Clank games on PSN on sale next week.

The former Miss Delaware Teen USA has now been put on probation.

Melissa King, who resigned from her position as Miss Delaware in February, has been hit with probation for the underage possession of alcohol, according to a report from the Associated Press. The 19-year-old former beauty queen was reportedly driving her father’s truck home from work when she was stopped for a broken taillight. A bottle of rum was found in the vehicle.

King has been placed on one year of unsupervised probation for the violation. She had also been charged for stealing money from a city bus fare box, but those charges were dropped. King’s lawyer explained the incident, saying that she and a friend took back their bus fares after deciding not to ride a bus.

King resigned as Miss Delaware following the surfacing of a pornographic video she had starred in. Though she denied starring in the video, producers for GirlsDoPorn.com stated that King was paid $1,500 for the scene. The intro to the video (SFW) can be seen below.

If you’re not sure whether the new Star Trek video game released today will be right for you, there’s still the Assassin’s Creed franchise to fall back on.

While waiting for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, fans of Assassin’s Creed III have been enjoying the alternate-history version of American history told in the three-part DLC tale The Tyranny of King Washington. The first two parts of the story are already out, and today the final portion of the tale can be downloaded for Xbox 360 and PC. The PlayStation 3 version of the content will be available tomorrow, April 24, and the Wii U version will launch on May 16.

Titled “The Redemption,” the latest DLC will see Ratonhnhaké:ton journey to New York and break into Washington’s pyramid-shaped “monarch fortress.” Ubisoft also mentioned something about discovering the “power of the bear.”

The bankruptcy and break-up of THQ is still having wide-ranging implications for the gaming industry. While many of the publishers who bought nearly-finished games in the auction are polishing up the titles for release, the future of some of the less popular game franchises that sold in January are a bit up in the air.

One of the biggest acquisitions of the auction was Sega’s purchase of Relic Entertainment. Relic is a well-known developer of real-time strategy games such as the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series and Company of Heroes.

Now, one of Relic’s first RTS games has been sold off by what’s left of THQ. Homeworld, considered a classic by RTS gaming fans has, been sold to Gearbox. The series uses three-dimensional battlegrounds where ships face off in outer space.

Gearbox has stated that it intends to port Homeworld and Homeworld 2 for “today’s leading digital platforms,” which implies that the classic games could soon be coming to Steam (or possibly iOS and Android devices).

The Gearbox announcement, in full:

Gearbox Software has prevailed as the highest bidder in the acquisition of the Homeworld franchise from THQ. Brian Martel, Gearbox Software’s Chief Creative Officer, has great love and respect for Relic’s brilliant, fun and innovative game and personally spearheaded the acquisition.

Brian intends as first priority to direct Gearbox’s interest to preserve and assemble the purest form of the original acclaimed and beloved games, Homeworld and Homeworld 2, with the intent of making them accessible on today’s leading digital platforms.

Please visit the Gearbox Software Forums to share with us and Brian what you think should be done with Homeworld moving forward. And, please try to get our attention if you have capability and interest to join the effort in developing or enabling Homeworld’s future.

Gearbox is the developer that found success last year with Borderlands 2. It is also the developer that found failure this year with Aliens: Colonial Marines. Hopefully Gearbox will treat the Homeworld IP with the care and attention it deserves.

As new details surrounding last week’s Boston Marathon bombings begin to emerge, revelations concerning the life of the two suspected bombers are also popping up. Now, authorities in Middlesex County, Massachusetts say they are investigating one of the bombers in connection with a triple homicide that took place in 2011.

According to a report from ABC news, authorities are looking for a possible connection between Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder of the two brothers suspected of the marathon bombings, and the murders.

The murders in question took place in Waltham, Massachusetts. According to ABC, the three victims had their throats cut with “their heads nearly decapitated,” and marijuana was left covering their bodies. Thousands of dollars in cash was reportedly left behind at the scene of the murders.

One of the victims, Brendan Mess, was a man Tsarnaev had been doing mixed martial arts training with. Tsarnaev was an amateur boxer.

Though the investigation into the murders is still open, police have admitted having few leads. In light of recent events, Tamerlan is now receiving a second look as a suspect in the murders.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died early Friday morning during a shootout with police. He was the wife of a Rhode Island woman named Katherine Russel and the father of a 3-year-old girl. An alleged photo of Tsarnaev’s body began circulating shortly after his death.

(Image courtesy the comment/Johannes Hirn)

Though it is generally well-known that diet and exercise are the most fool-proof ways to stay healthy, many people looking to get healthy will start with either one or the other. Easing into a healthy lifestyle can be easier than jumping in all at once. However, a new study has shown that changing diet and exercise habits at the same time might be more effective than doing each separately.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have published their new findings in the latest issue of the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Their study looked at “inactive” participants who were 45 or older and had “suboptimal” diets. After being divided and coached in different exercise and diet changes for one year, the group that changed both diet and exercise habits at the same time were most likely to meet the U.S. national guidelines for exercise and nutrition.

“It may be particularly useful to start both at the same time,” said Abby King, lead author of the study and a professor of medicine at Stanford. “If you need to start with one, consider starting with physical activity first.”

The study also showed that those who changed their diets first did not meet exercise goals as easily, while those who began exercising first were more likely to meet their nutritional goals.

“These health behaviors aren’t things that we change over a six-week period and then our job is done,” said King. “They’re things that people grapple with their whole lives, so to develop ‘touches’ of advice and support in a cost-efficient way is becoming more and more important.”

Now that the days-long nightmare following the Boston Marathon bombings is over, the U.S. is coming to terms with who the bombers were, and what that means for the nation.

The FBI last wednesday revealed its suspects in the bombings, and the following night police gunned down one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, during a shootout. Tsarnaev’s brother, Dzhokhar, managed to escape and led police on a massive manhunt which ended on Saturday when he was found hiding in a boat parked in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts home.

Though little is known about why the Tsarnaev’s may have wanted to bomb the crowds watching the Boston Marathon, details about their lives in the U.S. paint a picture of seemingly well-adjusted young men. In particular, Tamerlan was a husband and the father of a 3-year-old daughter.

Now, with national grief still fanning the flames of outrage, the Tsarnaev’s relatives are beginning to speak out. According to a report from the Toronto Sun, the Tsarnaev’s aunt, Maret Tsarnaev (pictured above), has said she and her relatives are receiving threats. In addition, Maret is of the belief that her nephews have been framed.

“For me, to be convinced that these two nephews of mine committed these kind of atrocities, cannot be taken lightly,” said Maret. “Convince me.

“I’m suspicious that this was staged, the picture was staged.”