Ari's Planet

In the not distant future, people will prerecord dad before he goes off to do battle. While he's away, the kids can be entertained with virtual dad. When dad is killed in a far-off war, the kids can continue to be entertained by their virtually aging father, who will point them in the proper way of future wars. Fortunately, governments will continue to have less imagination but greater resources and will show animations of war-hero dad discovering how women in that-other-place are not treated the way we-would-treat-our-women, and therefore how we must civilize them by all means necessary, to defend the honor of our women. Our honorable women will refrain from any virtual dad activities, and all honorable young men, of course, will have been with dead-dad on the battlefield. Those who ask if virtual dad would like to sleep would soon be shown the place of honor from which dad's electric teeth rattle their protective prayer. All such activities will have nothing to do with any rich people, who though they might receive some token remuneration from such activities, would not dream of affecting the words spoken by great-father-who-cannot-die, since surely free will must always remain in our hearts, that we may choose good over evil.

Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games, Jonathan Richards, Times Online, August 18, 2008
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4557935...

Superior Facial Animation. Simplified.
http://www.image-metrics.com/

Three 9,000-Year-Old Skulls Found in Galilee, Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, August 13, 2008
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127175
"The skulls were apparently placed on benches in a house where they would inspire the younger generation to continue in the ways of their forefathers. ... The skulls were found plastered – that is to say sculpted – ... The practice included the reconstruction of all of the facial features of the deceased by means of sculpting the skull with a variety of materials such as plaster that was specifically intended for this. On the skulls that were found in the excavation the nose was entirely reconstructed."

Do subatomic particles have free will?, Julie Rehmeyer, Science News, August 15th, 2008
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/35391/title/Math_Trek__Do_sub...
"two highly regarded Princeton mathematicians, John Conway and Simon Kochen, claim to have proven that if humans have even the tiniest amount of free will, then atoms themselves must also behave unpredictably."

The Strong Free Will Theorem, John Conway and Simon Kochen, Princeton University Department of Mathematics. Princeton, NJ 08544–1000 June 12, 2008
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0807/0807.3286v1.pdf