Should the rules of war be included in computer games?

The Red Cross wants to have a greater influence in the virtual world of battlefields.

The aid organisation is arguing that as virtual war games are becoming close to reality, the rules of war should be included.

It claims games such as Medal of Honour, or Call of Duty should make sure that actions which could be war crimes are not rewarded with victory in a virtual battle.

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How Smartphones Became Vital Tools Against Dengue In Pakistan

So far this year, the Lahore metropolitan area has recorded a few dozen cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease characterized by fever, headache, and joint pain. The number is significantly lower than in past years, thanks to a smartphone app created by computer scientist Umar Saif that allows officials to track all efforts to prevent the disease's spread. This includes photologging crews of sanitation workers as they clear out pools of standing water that can serve as mosquito breeding grounds.

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skycall

Meet the Drone That's Guiding New Students Around MIT This Fall

James Lyne: Everyday cybercrime -- and what you can do about it

How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank account? Often, it's through simple things you do each day without thinking twice. James Lyne reminds us that it's not only the NSA that's watching us, but ever-more-sophisticated cybercriminals, who exploit both weak code and trusting human nature.

Smart approach to house spider survey

If you're not afraid of them, autumn is the best time of year to see one of the arachnids as males come out of their usual hiding places in search of a mate.

And according to the Society of Biology, which has launched a newrecording scheme, the spiders may have started early.

Thanks to a smartphone app they have already received 3,000 reports - including sightings in August - but there have been few previous studies of this kind for accurate comparison.

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brittany wenger

Brittany Wenger talks about Cloud4Cancer, a computer program she designed to diagnose breast cancer more accurately and less invasively. She won the grand prize in the 2012 Google Science Fair for her project, "Global Neural Network Cloud Service for Breast Cancer".

The astounding athletic power of quadcopters

In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D'Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of nifty demos, D'Andrea show drones that play catch, balance and make decisions together -- and watch out for an I-want-this-now demo of Kinect-controlled quads.