Call of Duty, published by Activision, is a first person shooter game that is similar to Unreal Tournament and Quake.  In the fifth installment of the war game, Call of Duty: World at War, the player is involved in World War II.

Since Call of Duty is rated T, it is recommended only for teenagers and above ages should play it.  Hugh Spencer,  a concerned parent took a rather unorthodox approach when choosing to allow his son to play Call of Duty.  He had his son Evan research the Geneva Conventions and vow not to violate it when playing this game.

“I asked Evan to google the Geneva Convention. Then he had to read it and then we had to discuss it. This we did. So the deal is that Evan has to fight according to the rules of the Geneva Convention. If his team-mates violate the Convention then play stops and Call of Duty goes away for a while,” stated Hugh.

What is your opinion about Hugh’s approach here?  Leave a comment.

[via BoingBoing]

As many of you are well aware, the Nintendo DSi will be making its way to the United States on April 5.  But why is there an “i” in the new version and why is it lowercase?  Does Nintedo want to capitalize on the success of the lower case “i” that Apple has been having?  Nope.

Nintendo stated that the “i” is symbolic to the subject of “I” and the personal aspect.  Since there is also two cameras in the DSi, Nintendo gives the system its own “eye” on things.  This came directly from a Nintendo representative.

[via Go Nintendo]

Xact XG2500 Headset Cordless Telephone looks like one of those typical Bluetooth headsets.  If you feel the need to have people confused about whether you are talking to yourself at home too, you can pull it off for $20.  The device works on 2.4 GHz wireless frequency.  If you actually want it, go to Buy.com.

Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media has decided to fold Defamer into Gawker.com in order to assimilate to a struggling economy.  This past December, it was rumored that Defamer was up for sale, but I suppose that there wasn’t any good enough offers.  Defamer will simply become part of Gawker’s entertainment section.

Defamer.com will still remain open but their posts will feed into Gawker’s feed.  Gabrie Snyder, Gawker’s managing editor will oversee the transition.  Defamer is about four years old.  Gawker brings in about 3 million visitors per month.  This is four times the number that they were receiving a year ago.

Defamer writers Seth, Stu, and Kyle will be out of a job at Gawker, but the company is now hiring a Hollywood gossip writer.  This past November, Valleywag was also rolled into Gawker.

[via NickDenton.org, Defamer]

Enrique Aguirre, a wildlife enthusiast and photographer vists the Monterey Bay about once a month to take pictures of herons, seals, and sea otters.  Only in this case, he found that an otter wanted to film him this time.  Aguirre, was on Capt. Yohn Gideon’s Elkhorn Slough Safari boat with a few other photographers, but he was the only one that captured this otter holding a video camera.

“I was like, did I actually see an otter with a video camera or was I hallucinating?” stated Aguirre.  Aguirre has been photographing animals all over the world for over a decade, but he said that the otter aiming a camcorder was the craziest thing he’s seen an animal do.

“I know I can go down there another million times and I will never see another otter with a video camera,” stated Aguirre. “I think I have more chance of a penguin coming up to me and actually speaking English.”

[via Santa Cruz Sentinel]

The iPoint 3D, developed by experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI (Hall 9, Stand B36) have put together a way to communicate with a 3D display through simple gestures without touching it.  It will be demoed for the first time at the CeBIT conference on March 3-8.  The iPoint 3D is a recognition device that can be suspended from the ceiling or integrated into a coffee table.

The device has two built-in cameras to detect hand and finger movement to transmit to a computer.  HHI believes that this device is especially useful for video game enthusiasts and hospital operating rooms.  There are an unlimited number of reasons why this could be useful.  Another example that HHI gives is someone in the kitchen cooking whose hands are covered in sticky dough.

[via Fraunhofer, Engadget]

Brother is best known for their printers and scanners, but this is the first time I’ve heard of them making a sewing machine.  The Brother QuattroT 6000D is the first sewing machine I’ve heard of that has a built in camera and an HD screen.  There are about 56 LED lights built-in too.  The screen is a 32 square inch display with 260,000 colors.  The Brother sewing machine uses InnovEyeT Technology.

[via Brother]