Porn exiled from Wikipedia

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has begun crusading against "pornographic images" hosted on the Wikimedia Commons, sparking the deletion of hundreds of images that "appeal solely to prurient interests," reports The Register.

Deleted files include photographs, as well as graphics of genitalia and sexual acts, and they span contemporary, as well as historical images.

The Wikimedia board of trustees has supported the move - after the fact - but countless contributors question whether Wales has the power to make this sort of de facto policy change, with some calling for the removal of his founder privileges on Wikipedia and its sister sites.

US regulators have unveiled plans to change the way broadband services are overseen so they can fulfil commitments to bring high-speed Internet access to every citizen, reveals the BBC.

This so-called "third way" will insist on principles that require cable firms to treat all Internet traffic equally.

The Federal Communications Commission was forced to act after a court found it had no mandate to dictate how Internet service providers run their networks.

In a commencement speech to the students of Hampton University on Sunday, president Barack Obama warned about the superficialities that are engendered by gadgets, says CNet.

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," he told his audience.

"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter," he reportedly said. The concern, he added, is that such a proliferation of dubious information is "putting new pressures on our country and our democracy".

A future in which robots help around the home could prove harmful to humans, suggests a study.

The BBC reports that German researchers studied what happens in accidents involving robots using sharp tools alongside humans. They used a robot arm holding a variety of bladed tools programmed to strike test substances that mimic soft tissue.

In some cases, the researchers found, the robots managed to accidentally inflict wounds that would prove lethal.