ITwhirled
by Amy Bennett
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Tech-induced adaptations
Russian President drives into crowd

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was so eager to glad-hand the people of Kazan, a city 720 km (450 miles) east of Moscow, that he stepped …
Texter tossed from Texas theater unwittingly stars in PSA

Don't think she didn't have it coming. She was warned. Twice.
Palin's e-mailings
The typo that exposed Weiner
What does your social networking profile pic reveal about you?

Curious about why people choose the pics they do, she decided to survey Facebook users (via a specially created Facebook group, natch).
Trekkies can now display their fandom pride even after death

Are you worried that your final resting place won't adequately indicate your love of Star Trek? Fear not.
Facebook "likes" decides whether plant lives or dies

"Meet Eater" is a plant with a Facebook account, and when people "like" it, it gets watered. But there can be such a thing as too much …
Israel buys @israel Twitter handle from porn merchant

"My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the …
There's an app for that?: AR Drone

There are any number of flight simulator games for iOS, but only AR Drone actually allows you to control a tiny unmanned quadricopter.

Warning: Do not board the elevator with the robot

BY THE NUMBERS: <a href="http://www.itworld.com/storage/273348/spotlight-storage?source=topicofmonth">Spotlight on storage
FEATURE: <a href="http://www.itworld.com/storage/250160/can-storage-be-sexy?source=topicofmonth">Can storage be sexy?
FREE DOWNLOAD: <a href="http://reg.idgenterprise.com/insider.html?url=http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-explosion/4-things-every-storage-admin-should-know-188389?1333049857?source=itwsidebar?source=topicofmonth">4 things every storage admin should know
REVIEW: <a href="http://www.itworld.com/storage/214755/nas-shoot-out-5-storage-servers-battle-business?source=topicofmonth">NAS shoot-out: 5 storage servers battle for business
BLOG: <a href="http://www.itworld.com/big-datahadoop/262612/ceph-extends-storage-open-scalability?source=topicofmonth">Ceph extends storage with open scalability

Scientists suddenly realize that robots need ethics

By Amy Bennett Add a new comment

December 07, 2009, 2:16 PM — Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz experienced one of those robot encounters we all dread. He was stuck in an elevator at Stanford Hospital when a droid the size of a washing machine 'whirled around' and almost knocked him down. Then he thought: 'What if I were a patient? There could be big issues here.'

Now Horvitz and other scientists and academics are starting to think about the implications. 'It is part of being a responsible scientist," Horvitz said.

[ via Yahoo! News ]