We are experiencing some of the best moments in video game history. With better graphics, more engaging storytelling and character development, and just the overall concepts with which games are being created today, we have so much to keep us entertained.

But over the course of video game history, there have been some games that went overboard which caused them to become banned.

In the United States, freedom of expression is guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

While this means that video game companies can release pretty much any game they want, it doesn't mean they won't face consequences in the marketplace when they release a product that's overtly violent, controversial, or overall tasteless.

Looper presents us with a list of video games that were banned in America for various reasons.

-via Zerg Net

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When I first heard the term 'filibuster', I was reading a novel for school. I tried to derive its meaning from the context of the novel and what I got was that it was someone who tries to oppose government. And in a way, that was partly correct. But it doesn't completely encapsulate what a filibuster does. So here's what it is:

Generally speaking, a filibuster impedes legislative work by exploiting the rule of unlimited debate. Basically, a legislative body (think Parliament or the US Senate) can discuss something for as long as they’d like until a decision is made. As long as the discussion is being held, a decision is never made, and political obstruction has occurred.

There are other questions regarding these filibusters. From one point of view, one can say that what filibusters do is illegal while others only say it's unethical. Still others view it as a legitimate political tactic. For more information on it, check out Sporcle.

(Image credit: "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", Columbia Pictures via Sporcle)

It would be rare for average people like us to have the chance to meet the Queen of England in person. But if ever you get the chance to do so, there are a few pointers you need to keep in mind so as to observe the proper behavior and etiquette. Here are some of them.

First and perhaps most important of all, don’t touch the Queen. You can shake her hand … if she offers it. Now, there is a bit of wiggle room here, according to Lucy Hume, the associate director at Debrett’s, a professional coaching company founded in 1769 and an authority on modern British etiquette.

They may be OK with physical contact beyond a handshake, after all. Hume has said on the question of touching: “Best not to initiate personal physical contact with a member of the royal family. It may be that they offered to give you a hug or to put their arm around you, but usually wait and see what’s expected or what’s appropriate for the event.”

There are also other areas apart from physical contact. Things like addressing them, talking to them, and even For some of the other do's and don't's when it comes to the British royalty, or for any royal as a matter of fact, check out some of the guidelines at The Vintage News.

(Image credit: West Midlands Police/Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)

Computers were created to make our daily tasks easier and life more convenient. But it took a while to make them accessible to a wider population. And now, anyone of all ages can use computers without having the technical know-how of its mechanisms.

And Google is upping its game with an improvement to its Duplex project. When it initially launched, Duplex could take phone calls for people. Now, it can scour the web and do all the tedious tasks for us based on our preferences.

In the demo, the assistant navigates a car rental website. It fills in the form and makes choices for you according to your past history.

With Duplex for Web, websites, menus, forms, and other UI elements are becoming a hindrance — a bunch of slow and unnecessary obstacles between you and what you are trying to achieve. Why spend time going through them, when you can tell the computer exactly what you want, in plain English?

(Image credit: Bence Boros/Unsplash)

The world's climate has been changing ever since the Stone Age. Things just sped up rapidly over the last two centuries due to industrial developments. But from what we usually see in films and other depictions of prehistoric eras, people had gone through some extreme weather conditions and changes as well.

Two researchers, Peter Allen and John Stewart, from Bournemouth University wanted to create a simulation to show how prehistoric humans had to adapt to the different weather patterns and vegetation available to them so they developed a video game and asked people to try it out.

We designed a video game environment and asked volunteers to find red deer in it. The world they explored changed to scrub and grassland as the climate cooled and thick forest as it warmed.

The participants could spot red deer at a greater distance in grassland than in woodland, when the density of vegetation was the same. As vegetation grew thicker they struggled to detect prey at greater distances in both environments, but more so in woodland.

In the world they created, they tried to imitate the conditions which prehistoric humans also went through but in going through the simulation, we see certain patterns that give us insight on how humans adapted to these climate changes.

-via The Next Web

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Largest Hot Dog: Feltman's of Coney Islandhttps://t.co/fZjbYGPN9r#largest_hot_dog #largest_hotdog#hotdog #hot_dog #New_York_City #NY #USA
#recipe #food #foodworldrecords #cooking #recipe #worldrecord
#worldrecord #worldrecordacademy #recordholder #guinnessworldrecord pic.twitter.com/Ud5Kv2PLYX

— World Record Academy (@WRANews) June 26, 2019

Hot dogs have become an American staple. Recently, Feltman's at Coney Island celebrated its 152nd anniversary by attempting to break the Guiness World Record for the largest hot dog. They made a 5-foot long, 66-pound hot dog to achieve this title. And they succeeded.

The enormous frank was measured on Wednesday by Guinness officials, but it hasn't officially entered the record books yet. According to a Facebook post, Feltman's owner Michael Quinn expects that news to arrive in about 12 weeks.

Feltman's also sold the hot dog for $10 per slice, the proceeds from which will be donated to Headstrong Project which provides cost-free mental health care to post 9/11 combat veterans.

(Image credit: World Record Academy/Twitter via Feltman's)

Several billion years ago, the world was born and from there life started to emerge. Recently, scientists have discovered microscopic fossils which have their cellular structures intact found from 992-million-year-old rocks. They're still trying to determine what the organisms are exactly but they believe them to be eukaryotic algae or cyanobacteria.

The discovered cells (pictured top) are called coccoids, which refer to "unicellular, non-flagellated, non-amoeboid organisms, with a definite shape, in general but not always ovoid."

While it's impossible to conclude exactly what the microfossils are, Dr. David Wacey, a microbiologist at the University of Western Australia, and his co-authors think they are likely eukaryotic algae or cyanobacteria. That's because these microbes are known to take up rare earth elements, which suffuse throughout the fossils.

(Image credit: Wacey et al./Scientific Reports)

One of the first hurdles we need to get over when we try to bring civilians into space is the length of time it takes to reach our destination. So far, it would usually take months to get from Earth to nearby planets like Mars. Going to the Moon is shorter which usually just takes three days. But if we're thinking of living in Mars someday, would we be able to get there in a shorter span of time?

Let’s say that you wanted to visit Mars using a chemical rocket. You would blast off from Earth and go into low Earth orbit. Then, at the right moment, you’d fire your rocket, raising your orbit from the Sun. The new elliptical trajectory you’re following intersects with Mars after eight months of flight. 

We need to go faster. It turns out NASA has been thinking about what comes next after chemical rockets for almost 50 years. Nuclear thermal rockets. They definitely speed up the journey, but they’re not without their own risks, which is why you haven’t seen them. But maybe their time is here.

-via Real Clear Science

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Gongs usually make big resounding bangs. They could wake your senses to be on the alert for something or they could also be used for celebratory purposes. Their loud and clangy. But this 80-inch gong sounds nothing like that. In fact, it sounds like it came straight from the Twilight Zone or a horror film.

Listen to the clip of the gong being played by Gong Master Sven and feel the chills reverberating through your body.

(Image credit: Wind Chimes Australia, screenshot)

Botulinum neurotoxins are some of the most potent toxins in the world. In very tiny doses, they are used in cosmetic procedures to make one's skin tighten and look firm giving anyone a youthful vibe. These toxins also belong to the same family of proteins as the tetanus toxin.

Now, scientists have discovered that this family of proteins have the ability to target malaria mosquitoes specifically which could enable us to address these disease-carrying parasites in a more environmentally-friendly way.

"We have discovered a neurotoxin, PMP1, that selectively targets malaria mosquitos, demonstrating that this family of toxins have a much broader host spectrum than previously believed", says Pål Stenmark of Stockholm University and Lund University.

"PMP1 makes it possible to reduce the prevalence of malaria in a new and environmentally friendly way. Because these toxins are proteins, they do not leave any artificial residues as they decompose. PMP1 may also be developed into biological insecticides designed to target other selected disease vectors or pests", Pål Stenmark says.

Their paper has been published in Nature Communications.

(Image credit: Dr. Braun/Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)

It's an unbearably hot summer for Europe this year as a heat wave has kicked in several countries and is expected to persist until next week. For those traveling to Europe, better bring your sun hat as temperatures will continue to rise into the three digit range.

Over the last century, Europe has increasingly experienced heat waves, and since 1500 AD, the region's five hottest summers have occurred in 2018, 2016, 2010, 2003, and 2002. Expectedly, temperature records will continue to break as Earth's overall climate continues its relentless, accelerated rise.

Various parts of Europe recorded high temperatures. Paris had 104 degrees F last Wednesday. Spain experienced some wildfires with the temperature coming up to 100 degrees last Thursday. Poland was at 101 degrees while German reached 103 degrees. Aside from climate change, scientists say that Rossby Waves also affect the weather patterns in Europe.

Though, it's not just boosted overall temperatures that have contributed to Europe's heat waves. Winds in the high atmosphere (the jet stream) that move in giant waves around the planet, called Rossby Waves, have changed, explained Rahmstorf. Specifically, these major atmospheric flows have been slowing down and grow weirder and more curvy. This leaves persistent weather patterns — like heat — stalled over big regions, like Europe.

(Image credit: ESA/Wikimedia Commons)

President Trump meets with Prime Ministers Modi and Abe. #G20 pic.twitter.com/VgDuWjg3eR

— The Hill (@thehill) June 28, 2019

Nothing is ever conventional with Donald Trump. You'll never know what to expect. But during the G20 Summit, he had a funny and possibly quite awkward exchange with PM Shinzo Abe of Japan and PM Narendra Modi of India. When the three were about to exchange greetings, PM Abe held out his hand to shake Trump's but was met with an outstretched fist instead.

President Donald Trump ditched his usual bizarre and domineering handshaking technique during a photo session at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on Friday. Instead, Trump initiated a strange three-way fist bump with the prime ministers of Japan (Shinzo Abe) and India (Narendra Modi) ahead of their trilateral talks.

The awkward gesture was “an example of a good way Trump is upsetting the global order,” David Nakamura, a reporter for The Washington Post, tweeted.

(Image credit: The Hill/Twitter)

Anybody who has gone into business knows you need to have grit and an undying sense of finding opportunities to address a need or create one which you would then sell to others. Suzy Batiz, owner and founder of Poo-Pourri knows exactly what it's like. The 54-year-old entrepreneur went through two bankruptcies before hitting the jackpot.

She came up with two business ventures, one during her teenage years, and another later on after she got married and had kids. The first one was a bridal shop she bought at 19 but tanked because nobody wanted to buy the designs. The second one was an online recruitment business in the late 90s but after the dot-com bubble popped, that too went down the drain. She filed for bankruptcy a second time.

She vowed not only to never take on debt or investors again but also to never start another business. For four years—what she calls her “spiritual sabbatical”—she kept her promise. That changed after a fateful family dinner in 2006 during which someone stunk up the bathroom; her then-brother-in-law wondered aloud if bathroom odor could be trapped.

For nine months, she researched oils and natural ways to fight stink. She mixed concoctions in her kitchen and had anyone using the bathroom in her house test them. Finally, her husband walked out of the bathroom one day with good news. “His famous words were, ‘Oh my god, we’re going to be millionaires,’” Batiz recalls.

Read more of her story on Forbes.

(Image credit: Suzy Batiz/Twitter)

The dinosaurs have long been extinct but we still find a lot of evidence of the time they roamed around earth. About ten years ago, scientists were able to excavate a long trackway of dinosaur footprints created by a sauropod found in the village of Plagne in France. It is said that these set of footprints were made around 150 million years ago.

Dinosaur trackways have been discovered in many parts around the world. What makes this particular tracks interesting is they are the longest tracks to be discovered belonging to the largest class of dinosaurs. The tracks run for a length of 155 meters and has 110 individual footprints.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The confusing labels on food packaging has caused many people to throw away otherwise edible food, or those that are still safe to eat despite what the "best before" or "use by" date says. In this regard, Firat Guder, an assistant professor in bioengineering at Imperial College London, created a microsensor for smartphones which could detect whether food is safe to eat or not.

The sensor, which costs about two cents to make, identifies spoilage gases — ammonia and trimethylamine, for example — and are linked to “near field communication” (NFC) tags, microchips that smartphones easily can read.

The sensor could help people avoid consuming food tainted by bacteria, which can pose a danger if improperly cooked or mishandled. Beyond protecting people from illness, the sensors also could be important in the fight against climate change. Some 30 to 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is wasted, according to the USDA.

The researchers are still conducting tests on the effectiveness of the sensors on different types of food. So far, they have done tests on chicken and fish so they expect to release the microsensor within the next three years. Until then, we must use our own discretion with our food.

(Image credit: Caroline Attwood/Unsplash)