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DeMarco said hate speech has been a problem for years. Game makers, despite some serious efforts, can only seek to limit the amount.

"A lot of the problem lies within the players themselves," DeMarco said.

The widespread use of the slurs is partly fueled by the same anonymity that provides cover for abuse throughout cyberspace. Players can compete with people thousands of miles away, and know them only by the fictional "gamertags" they use to identify themselves.

After years of tolerating abusive players, gamers have become more diligent about noting the gametags of abusive players and reporting them to game companies. Abusive players can be punished or even banned, but the process is slow.

One of the new features Twitter announced is called points of interest. People on Twitter have been able to include their general location. But now they will be able to reveal exactly where they are. People will be able to search for a certain location, like a concert hall or hotel, and see all the posts written from that spot.

This is similar to the check-ins on Foursquare, Gowalla and other services that people use to share their location. Mr. Williams said that Twitter was not trying to duplicate those services but rather provide Twitter users with more relevant content.

“Where you are defines what you’re interested in,” he said.

they get to know the taste of their customers, and you can respect their wisdom and knowledge. The experience of forming a relationship with the people who work in and frequent shops such as Phonica in Soho is hugely important – entire bands have been formed after meeting in the right record shop. Entire genres have started by a great record being passed from one person to another.

Flat, Black & Circular forever!

Students in introductory biology don't need to worry about meeting her standards anymore. LSU removed her from teaching, mid-semester, and raised the grades of students in the class. In so doing, the university's administration has set off a debate about grade inflation, due process and a professor's right to set standards in her own course.

To Homberger and her supporters, the university's action has violated principles of academic freedom and weakened the faculty.

“Many cases involve students who have experience in other countries’ educational and cultural environments where different referencing systems are used – or, indeed, where no referencing systems are used at all,” says Fisher who sits on the college’s board that judges plagiarism cases. “These candidates often have absolutely no intention to deceive. There are usually language difficulties involved.”

He remembers advising one student who was looking up the definition of “plagiarism” in their native language when he met them. “They had no idea that they had done something wrong,” he says.

"In today's world, most of the real danger has been eliminated for most of us," explains Ian Milham, Visceral's art director. "We don't regularly have life-threatening, adrenalin-raising experiences. These virtual, primal, visceral experiences help us get in touch with our inner instincts and survive something."

In seeking increasingly elaborate ways to scare us, Visceral has spent time examining exactly what makes us scared and how our brains process fear. "We've done research into the psychological underpinnings of horror and terror," says Milham. "Suggestive shapes, unnerving stimuli, and things like that are always on our mind as we develop the sets and pacing of Dead Space. Most of how effective a horror moment is comes through refining the rhythm. Keeping the player off-balance and constantly establishing and breaking rhythms is key."

"Our biggest asset regarding dread and fear is the player's imagination, so it's important to create spaces that allow the mind to fill in what the player can't see," says Ben Wanat, Visceral's senior production designer.

If I come across a person who seems to completely ignore the existence of apostrophes and capital letters and types things like "im an eagle and im typing with my talons, so dont make fun of me cuz this is hard," I like to imagine that they actually are an eagle typing with their talons.  It would be a hassle if you had to hop in the air and use your feet to karate-chop two keys simultaneously every time you wanted to use the shift key to make a capital letter.   Also, eagles lack manual dexterity, so I can understand why they'd want to leave out apostrophes.  Eagles are all about efficiency.