The Leader-Post from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada • 75

Saturday, October 11 2003 WeekEndhr Leader-Post G3 Science Technology CYBERBEAT Is it all overfor illegal downloads? SCIENCE Our closest relative just keeps on eating Canadian Press A screen grab from the video game Spawn is shown in this handout photo. VIDEO GAMES i Gaming pays off I recently toured the Toronto Zoo, where one of the star features is the Gorilla Rainforest. This $6 million refiirbishmcnt of the zoos old gorilla habitat expanded the living space for the zoos gorillas by four times, and added improved viewing facilities and a research station, Gorillas, along with chimpanzees, are our closest wild relatives. There are three distinct types the western lowland gorilla, the eastern lowland gorilla and the mountain gorilla, made famous by Dian Fosseys work, but all gorillas share certain characteristics. Theyre big (adult males average 1.7 metres in height and weigh 180 kilograms, while females average 1.4 metres and 90 kilograms).

They have massive heads and bulging foreheads, with short, hairless muzzles, flat noses, flaring nostrils, small ears and eyes and strong jaws. They have short trunks, and longer arms than legs. They walk on all fours, using the soles of their feet and their curled knuckles. Gorillas have dark skin and hair that ranges from reddish brown to nearly black. Older males develop a saddle of gray hair across their backs, which is why theyre called silverbacks.

A typical band of gorillas comprises a silverback, one or two immature males, several mature females and some young. Most males leave the band as they become old enough to breed, and eventually form bands of their own or else join up with other bachelors. Once a silverback has been challenged and defeated, it lives a solitary life, unless it can lure other mature females to join it Gorillas typically sleep 12 to 13 hours a night get up and eat spend three or four hours relaxing, move and forage a few hundred metres during the course of the afternoon, then make nests and settle in for another night. Eating is nearly a full-time occupation; a full-grown male eats about 20 kilograms of fruits, stems, shoots, flowers, leaves and bark a day. Like humans, gorillas mate throughout the year.

Gestation lasts for about 258 days. A newborn gorilla is completely dependent on its mother for care, spending the first few weeks clutching her belly, then beginning to ride on her back at about 16 weeks. They can crawl at nine weeks and walk at 35 weeks; 'theyre weaned when theyre about two. Gorillas are capable of elaborate learning; in captivity, gorillas have successfully learned sign language and can communicate with humans using simple sentences. And yet, their greatest threat comes from supposedly more intelligent humans, through poaching and habitat destruction.

There are only a few tens of thousands of gorillas of all types left in the world, including a few hundred in zoos, almost all of which were bred in captivity, rather than captured in the wild. It would be sad indeed if some day the only way to see any gorilla is in zoos like Torontos, no matter how fine the artificial habitat provided for them. Edward Willett is a Regina freelance writer. E-mail comments or questions to edwardedwardwillett.com. Visit Ed on the Web at www.edwardwillett.com Willett Imagine if a Brinks truck overturned on a grid road somewhere in Saskatchewan and a large number of $10 bills blew over to a nearby town.

Initially thered be quite a scramble and much giddy laughter as people stuffed money into their pockets. But in my experience, Saskatchewan folks are pretty honest. And I bet as word got out about the truck crash, people would come to their senses and start turning the bills in. Now (and I admit this may be a bit of a stretch), I think the same process is at work on the Internet with downloaded music. When Napster arrived in the late 1990s, music fans went through their own wild, giddy phase of hoarding free music.

For millions of people, illegal MP3s were (and still are) manna from heaven. Since then, the record companies have litigated Napster and several other file-. sharing schemes out of existence. The Recording Industry i Association of 1 1 America has also I sued individuals who download yt music some 500 of them settled with the RIAA recently, OComrn Closer to home, the Canadian Recording Industry Association is talking tough about people who steal music although it hasnt sued anybody yet. People are starting to pay for legal song and album downloads through such services as Apple Computers iTunes music store, which has sold more than 10 million songs in the U.S.

at 99 cents apiece and is reportedly looking to expand into Canada later this fall. There are many free file-sharing services like Kazaa that are still doing land-office business, but their numbers are starting to decline, no doubt in response to the lawsuits and the fact that legal, relatively inexpensive alternatives are increasingly available. RIAA has been crafty; telling the public its mostly concerned about people who upload songs to the Internet, rather than the casual downloaders. I dont have any hard evidence of this, but I suspect more and more people using Kazaa are setting the preferences so it can only download files. Of course, if this catches on, it will undermine the spirit of filesharing.

Why should Joe Blow use some of the bandwidth he pays for to upload songs if he suspects Jane Doe and her friends are holding back? 1 After a while, a spiral of distrust sets in again to the benefit of the big record companies. When the RIAA first started its crackdown on individuals, some critics said it could never work because they could only go after a tiny fraction of downloaders. On a typical night, for instance, three or four million people are downloading via Kazaa. The record companies insist that despite the high volumes, it could work. It would be like giving out speeding tickets on the highway, the analogy goes you dont have to nail too many speeders before everybody else on the road gets the message.

Theres some logic to this. The U.S. recording companies have angered a lot of people with their tactics, but in the long run, they might very well win. Send your comments to Cyberbeat to koconnorleaderpost.canwest.com By NEIL DAVIDSON The Canadian Press Todd McFarlane, the comic book-toy entrepreneur from Calgary, is no stranger to video games but he is getting reacquainted with the genre this fall. His comic creation Spawn figured on some earlier gaming platforms Super Nintendo, PlayStation, Game Boy and Sega Dreamcast.

And his toy company has produced licensed action figures for such games as Metal Gear Solid, Onimusha 2 and Ultima Online. Now McFarlane is back gaming with a bang. Namcos hit Soulcal-ibur 2 features Necrid, a McFar-lane-designed character, on all platforms. And the Xbox version of the fighting game has Spawn as one its characters. The game was an instant hit, shipping 1.6 million units in the U.S.

on the first day of release. Spawn gets his own video game Nov. 25 another Namco release, for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. And next spring Konami plans to release McFarlanes Evil Prophecy, a title based on McFarlanes Monster Series I line of action figures released in 2002. The PlayStation 2 game is set in the early 19th century where the gamer plays a monster hunter up against the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolf, Voodoo Queen, Sea Creature and Mummy.

The Soulcalibur-Spawn connection came as a result of talks with Namco about a new Spawn game. When that deal was struck, talk turned to McFarlane designing a character for Soulcalibur. That led to the suggestion that Spawn be included as a hidden character in Soulcalibur. By the time the discussion was over, Spawn was on the cover of the Xbox version and McFarlane had the OK to make Soulcalibur action figures. McFarlane, who now lives in Ari something that fits in the McFarlane universe.

We deal in pop culture. We sell pop culture. That runs the gamut of TV, movies, toys, comics, and games. Stuff that after people get home from work or school, thats how they spend their time For us, obviously the more different places you can put your idea then the wider its going to be, he explained. Thats why Spawn has stood the test of time, he believes.

If one or two (of those areas) are a little bit soft or people arent paying attention, well Ive got the other three as backup. The figures tell the tale. Spawn has worldwide comic sales of more than 150 million copies and is published in 16 languages and distributed more than 120 countries. As a movie, it grossed more than $100 million US worldwide and there are 22 versions of the Spawn toy line. An animated Spawn series ran three years on HBO and a new movie is the works.

McFarlane, a part-owner of the Edmonton Oilers and collector of baseball memorabilia, may spend part of his day in a world of make-believe but he pays attention to his bottom line. And while he sees the possibility gaming can offer, his head is not turned by industry figures of video game sales. The numbers are skewed, he reasons, because a video game may cost $60 US, 10 times what a movie ticket costs. So revenue figures of $120 million US may mean two million customers. Compare that to a movie, where the same dollar figure may mean 20 million patrons.

And thats all-important if hes counting on 10 per cent of that customer base to buy toys as a result of their exposure to the game or movie. Most of the stuff coming out of the video game (world) is all about money and not necessarily the number of consumers, McFarlane said. zona, isnt surprised that Soulcalibur 2 has been such a hit with gamers. We knew they had all their muscle behind it, he said of Namco. They had their A team on it and they had this big marketing campaign." While video games seem a natural extension to McFarlanes empire, he did not grow up a gamer.

Im 42, so Im just at that edge where you either slowed down and let it bite you or you just picked up a step and stayed away from it, he said. As time went by, I got busy doing other things. So now fast forward to today. Do I play games? Yes, a little bit. Not an excessive amount.

But I now have three kids and so the games I play are not games for me but games for them. Still, McFarlane takes a pragmatic approach to gaming for adults and kids. The tasks are still the same Youre just doing it with cuter looking figures, he said. Spawn, introduced by McFarlane 12 years ago, has been a steady performer. And McFarlane has been involved from the get-go in the new video game, ruling on such things as the fate of his signature characters cape after designers said it got in the way.

McFarlane was unfazed. Im the guy whos actually less concerned about paying homage to my stuff as I am about making the game as playable as possible. Dont worry about baggage that is going to slow down the game. Make the game and well just worry about whether its cool. Because I would rather have my fan go Todd, its not exactly like the comic book, and Id go yes but is it cool? And theyd go Yeah.

Well thats it. Thats all we were going for. McFarlane says he is taking a project-by-project approach to video games. Some projects lend themselves to gaming, others dont. But he is always on the lookout for Faces of the LEADER-POST CANCER SPREAD Cancer myth could affect decisions about surgeiy Name: Darren Oleksyn Occupation: Desk Editor Years with the Leader-Post: 5 Favourite section of the paper: Sports Favourite movie: Braveheart Favourite musicband(s): U2, Radiohead Favourite restaurant: Mediterranean Bistro Hobbies: Reading, Watching Movies Margolis who said he got the idea for the survey after hearing the myth repeated by a disconcerting number of patients said the respondents were largely middle-aged and elderly men.

Asked where they learned about the perceived link, respondents said they couldn't recall or gave vague answers such as the gossip mill, the study says. Dr. Alfred Munzer, past president of the American Lung Association, said he had not heard a patient link air exposure to tumour growth, but noted that such folk beliefs are not uncommon, especially among minorities, the poor and the uneducated. The overall message here is the importance of cultural sensitivity among health care providers in general, a greater awareness of what peoples fears are, and being able to listen for them, said Munzer, a lung specialist at Washington Adventist Hospital in Tako-ma Park, Md. PHILADELPHIA (AP) Thirty-eight per cent of patients who responded to a survey in five urban clinics believed the myth that cancer spreads when exposed to air during surgery.

It may be surprising for some people to hear about this, but its not surprising to me or for many doctors who confront patients with (cancer), said lead researcher Dr. Mitchell Margolis, director of clinical medicine at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Doctors administered a voluntary and anonymous questionnaire to 626 patients at Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Charleston, S.C., clinics specializing in lung diseases and lung tumours. The questionnaire was given at five urban outpatient facilities between 1999 and 2000. The study appears in Tuesdays Annals of Internal Medicine.

Of the 38 per cent who said they believed that cancer spreads when exposed to air, 24 per cent said they would reject lung cancer surgery based on that belief. Nineteen per cent said they would reject surgery even if their doctor told them the belief had no scientific basis. On the Net: Annals of Internal Medicine: http:www.annals.org American Lung Association; http:www.lungusa.org 1, Is..