**This video has just been nominated for a Webby Award in the Animation category.** Please vote for us and help us win. webby.aol.com/media_types/online-film-and-video This lively RSAnimate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace. www.theRSA.org
This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: www.sirkenrobinson.com
Want a glimpse at what the future of mobile gaming looks like? Take a gander at Infinity Blade, a just-released game for the iPhone and iPad that looks like it belongs on a console. Developed by the hardcore, blood-drenched gamers at Epic, which brought you Gears of War for the Xbox 360, Infinity Blade is the first iPhone game I've seen that truly could be mistaken for a console game. Others have come close (take Gameloft's sci-fi shooter N.O.V.A. , for example, or Archetype , a fine multiplayer shoot-em-up) but this new swords-and-sorcery role-playing game takes the cake — in the looks department, at least. With visuals powered by the Unreal 3 gaming engine, Infinity Blade ($6, available as a universal app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) takes place … well, a long time ago in a land far, far away, where an evil king lurks in a dark tower guarded by all manner of brutish guards, cutthroat assassins, and hulking monstrosities — and yes, they're armed to the teeth. As the hero, your quest is to (single-handedly, of course) storm the castle, eliminate a parade of bloodthirsty creatures along the way, break into the king's chambers, kill his champion, and finally take out the king himself. Your motivation? How's this: He killed your dad. And your dad's dad. And your dad's dad's … well, more about that in a moment. Unlike many other iPhone action games (including Epic Citadel , an Unreal engine-powered proof-of-concept created by Epic prior to this new title) in which you control your movement using a pair of virtual joysticks (one for movement, the other for looking around), you move about in Infinity Blade by tapping the pulsating circles that appear here and there during the action. Tap a circle, and your character will walk to the designated location: a treasure chest, a doorway, a flight of stairs, or a foul-tempered opponent. When it's time to pull out your sword and fight, you swing your blade by swiping the screen left, right, up, or down, or you can tap buttons to raise your shield, cast a spell, or activate a "super" battle mode. The action is fast and furious — split-second timing is required to parry blows from your opponent or conjure a bolt of lightning between attacks. You can also string your swipes into devastating combos, and if you prevail, you can end the combat with a frenzy of finishing moves. Being the action-oriented role-playing game that it is, Infinity Blade lets you customize your character with dozens of accessories, ranging from swords and armor to magic rings and potions, and as you level up, you can add points to your strength, magic, health, and defense (or "shield") attributes. All very nice, but the main attraction of Infinity Blade is, as I've already said, how it looks: in a word, awesome. The creatures in the game have been painstakingly rendered, with rich, detailed textures, smooth character movement, and realistic environmental elements, like swaying trees and flags that flap in the wind. Animations that in other iOS titles might normally be handled by Quicktime movies are (handily) rendered here using Infinity Blade's in-game engine. We're talking eye candy galore, particularly on the iPad's 9.7-inch display. To my mind, Infinity Blade represents the future of mobile gaming — and I mean that literally, because (if you ask me) the current game, as it stands, isn't quite there yet. One of the joys of the Epic Citadel demo was how you could take your time, wandering from a dark, foreboding monastary to an ivy-covered street with laundry pinned to a clothesline, swaying in the breeze. In Infinity Blade, there is no leisurely wandering; instead, you topple a bad guy, tap your way to the next treasure chest or doorway, and battle again. You could almost say it's on rails, like the recent Rage HD from Id. And here's the other thing … although I should warn you right now: Spoilers ahead. Still here? Good. The conceit of Infinity Blade is that you're avenging your father's death at the hand (or the sword, rather) of the evil God King. From the moment you start the game, it takes about, oh … half an hour or so to battle your way to the God King Himself, and he'll most likely clean your clock the first time you meet him. After which … the screen fades to black, and you start all over — in another "bloodline," as the game calls it. You have the same abilities and equipment as you did before, although this time through, you're playing as your "son," avenging the death of the father … whom you'd been playing just a few moments before. And if you lose to the king again (you probably will), you — once again — start over, in a new bloodline. Rinse, repeat. So wait — that's it? You just play the game over and over again until you beat the God King? I haven't finished the game yet, but I checked with reviewers who have, and yes … that's it. Hmmm. (This "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" style of gameplay will be familiar to anyone who played last year's "Demon's Souls" on the PlayStation 3.) Now, this isn't to say that Infinity Blade isn't worth the mere six bucks that Epic's charging on iTunes. It's a thrilling look at how mobile games of the future will look — and, if you ask me, anyone interested in portable gaming would be doing themselves a disservice by skipping it. Infinity Blade also happens to be a universal application, meaning it'll work on both the iPhone and the iPad (although owners of older iPhones might see diminished performance) — so no need to buy both regular and "HD" versions of the same game. Still, the game's limitations are frustrating, although many of those frustrations (like no wandering around using clumsy virtual joysticks) are likely borne out of design decisions intended to keep the game fun on a touchscreen tablet like the iPad. But what about bringing graphics like these to a turn-based RPG, or a real-time strategy game, where you don't have to worry about fast-twitch accuracy or hard-to-handle joysticks? How about something like Chaos Rings — the addicting fantasy RPG from Square Enix, which is already looking a little dated — or Galaxy on Fire 2 (a satisfying Eve Online clone), powered by the Unreal engine? Count me in. Anyway, that's my (long-winded) take on Infinity Blade. Buy it, I say — but know what you're in for. So, tried Infinity Blade yet? Got other suggestions for those of us hunting for eye-popping mobile games? Fire away below. — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. Follow me on Twitter! Follow Yahoo! 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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – Beaches were almost deserted at Egypt's popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday after a shark ripped apart a German woman as horrified holidaymakers looked on just days after three other women swimmers were also mauled. Only a smattering of sunbathers along the beach in front of a luxury hotel suspiciously eyed the blue waters where Sunday's frenzied attack took place a mere stone's throw from the shore. The day before the deadly incident, the mayor of Sharm el-Sheikh had declared the beach safe after three tourists were attacked by the large predators over the previous week. Oxana Turenko, a Russian holidaymaker in her 20s, told AFP she had been sunbathing on the afternoon of the attack when she heard screams. She ran to a small promontory overlooking the exclusive stretch of beach reserved for hotel guests who pay a premium to avoid the crowds. "I saw a big fish, maybe two or three metres (six to 10 foot) long," Turenko said, pointing to the turquoise waters off a long jetty. "Her arms were in the air." Niclas Westmar, a Swedish clothing-store owner was listening to his music player and did not hear the screams. His wife yanked off his earphones and yelled: "Shark attack," he said. Witnesses say Westmar jumped off his sunbed and raced up the jetty, coming face to face with the shark mauling the woman just metres (yards) away. "I wasn't thinking. I just thought I need to get her out of the water," the 40-year-old Swede said. But when he looked down, he decided against jumping in. "It was too dangerous. I saw two sharks," he said. He ran back down the jetty, and yelling at a lifeguard to join him, swam up to within metres of the woman, who was now floating facedown in the water circled by a growing cloud of blood. "I was yelling like a military officer" at a lifeguard, he said. The lifeguard edged toward the woman and pulled her in to Westmar, who wrapped an arm around her and swam to shore. But it was too late for the 70-year-old woman. Twenty-four hours later, the beach is now being patrolled by wary lifeguards tasked with enforcing a swimming ban. A conservation official said they were looking into reports that more than one shark may have been involved in the attack. Some sunbathers insisted on just dipping their toes into the water as they watched a ship stacked with surveillance equipment edging along the coastline, with three smaller boats in tow. Mohammed Salem, director of South Sinai Conservation, said from aboard one of the boats that conservation experts were not taking any risks this time. The surveillance ship had been diverted from working for the electricity ministry on an exploratory project and it was now searching the depths for the killer shark. After the first attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, in which three Russian tourists were bitten, authorities said they captured two sharks, an oceanic whitetip and a mako shark, that they believed were responsible for the attacks. Environment Minister Magid George said the problem had been solved, and ordered that an extra month's pay be given to the men who caught the sharks. The beaches were then reopened, despite a warning from a local marine NGO that the killer shark could still be at large. South Sinai governor Mohammed Shosha insists that at least one of the sharks captured on Friday was the culprit in last week's attacks. "We did catch the sharks. There is another shark," he said on Monday. Authorities are keen to restore normality to the thriving and popular resort, one of the pillars of the tourism industry vital to the Egyptian economy, accounting for about 12 percent of the country's jobs. In the past, the resort bounced back quickly from bombings that killed scores of tourists and Egyptians over the past decade. The government says the Islamist militants behind those attacks were arrested. Locating the culprit behind Sunday's mauling may prove more difficult. Attacks by sharks on humans are also rare, and their motivation is not well understood. One US-based shark expert who spoke to AFP called the current search "a crapshoot." Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook
ATLANTA – About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired — meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million is being written off as trash. "It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration . The outdated vaccine , some of which expired Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, more than twice the usual leftovers, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it. About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the U.S. public will have gone to waste. Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu. "Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst case scenario than to have had too few doses," said Bill Hall, spokesman for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Most leading health experts generally agree with that. Millions of doses of flu vaccine generally go unused every year and are marked for burning, but in recent years the leftovers amounted to closer to 10 percent of the supply, rather than the 25 percent expiring now. Government flu experts couldn't recall throwing away anything close to 40 million doses before. The new H1N1 swine flu emerged in April last year, hitting children and young adults particularly hard. It was difficult to predict how deadly it might be or how easily it might spread. Federal health officials pushed five vaccine manufacturers to produce a vaccine as quickly as possible. What's more, they wanted a lot of it — many experts thought most people would need two doses for it to work. The government placed three orders last year for a combined total of nearly 200 million doses — an unprecedented amount and almost double the amount of vaccine produced in recent years for seasonal flu. About 162 million doses were meant for the general public. Another 36 million included doses for the military and other countries. But demand never took off, for several reasons: _Tests of the vaccine soon showed only one dose was enough to protect most people. _Much of the vaccine was not ready until late 2009, after the largest wave of swine flu illnesses passed. _Swine flu turned out not to be as deadly as was first feared. About 12,000 deaths have been attributed to it — or roughly a third of the estimated annual deaths from seasonal flu. So while people were waiting hours for swine flu vaccinations in some cities in October and November, by January local health departments were trying gimmicks to get anyone at all to come in for a shot. Government officials have known for months that they were looking at a huge surplus. According to an Associated Press calculation based on federal purchasing information, the dollar value of the 40 million expired doses is about $261 million. The government didn't release an official figure, but Hall said the AP estimate was approximately correct. In Europe, where nations also found themselves with millions of unused doses, some commentators have attacked the World Health Organization , which declared swine flu a global epidemic, or pandemic . The critics have questioned the motivation of some WHO advisers who had links to the pharmaceutical industry . Some critics have simply lamented that a lot of anxiety was raised and money wasted, not just during the swine flu scare but also in government responses to bird flu and SARS , a respiratory virus that swept parts of Asia in 2003. "Each time the so-called experts told us that millions of people would be killed worldwide by the respective viruses. We have learned that the experts were utterly wrong," said Dr. Ulrich Keil, a professor at Germany's prestigious University of Muenster and a WHO adviser. "This behavior is irresponsible because the angst campaigns ... confuse the priority setting in public health," he said. The death toll from influenza epidemics is much smaller than the number killed annually by chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes, he added, in an e-mail. Unused flu vaccine is a common problem. The June 30 expiration date is set by the FDA and has less to do with the vaccine's shelf life than the desire to tweak the recipe each year to protect against the three flu strains expected to cause the most illness. "It's not necessarily because it's degraded or not potent," said Dr. Mark Mulligan, an Emory University vaccine researcher. In the past year, about 114 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine were distributed. The government thinks most of that was used — demand was unusually high because of fears about swine flu. In the flu vaccination campaign for this coming fall, swine flu vaccine is being combined with two seasonal strains in single doses. Manufacturers have told the government they expect to make about 170 million doses. An influential government advisory panel this year recommended that virtually all Americans get flu shots each year. Still, that doesn't mean it will all get used. "No doubt there will be unused doses. This happens every time," said Dr. John Treanor, an immunology specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook