(RNN) – Minecraft, an immersive computer game in which players use blocks to build the world they inhabit, is now trying to build something in the real world.
The makers of the game are using a new ocean update – which will be the first to give players a chance to focus on building underwater worlds – to promote rebuilding actual corals.
Developers are planning six Biorock installations, fixtures placed in ocean waters around which new reefs can grow. They are said to facilitate far quicker growth than natural reef processes.
They intend to put them off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico.
Biorock structures can be arranged in elaborate designs, and Minecraft’s site said three of its fixtures will be fashioned to look like two of its iconic block characters, Alex and Steve, as well as a sea turtle.
The other three will be designed by popular YouTubers who play the game.
One, Rabahrex, will work with schoolchildren in his native Mexico on a design. Another, Logdotzip, is allowing fans to vote from three designs for the final one he will submit.
Reefs are collections of small marine animals called polyps, which come to host the algae that gives them their fantastic colors in a symbiotic relationship.
According to a recently-updated post on the website for Columbia University’s Earth Institute, 75 percent of the world’s coral reefs face environmental risk and a quarter are already permanently damaged.
Citing a report by the World Resources Institute, 90 percent of coral reefs could be in danger by 2030, and possibly all of them by mid-century.
Reefs are one of the most important habitats for marine species. Fishing and pollution have long threatened them, and now warming waters are frequently resulting in what’s called coral bleaching. That process robs them of their rich colors, and more seriously can lead to disease, reproductive issues and death.
A report published in the journal Nature this week notes that Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest and most famous reef, lost a third of its corals in a bleaching event in 2016. The lead author of the report, Terry Hughes, told The Atlantic that initial research indicates a heat wave last year triggered another bleaching, and the reef has now lost half its corals since 2015.
“We can do something about this – with YOUR help!” the Minecraft post says.
An Avast report claims that almost 50,000 computers have been infected by malware in the past 30 days via infected Minecraft skins. The malware is said to package itself as an unsuspecting PNG file, ready for fans of the game to download from the official Minecraft domain. It’s not to be trifled with either, as the malware can cause serious damage to your PC, wiping your hard drive and destroying backups.
Don’t panic, though; here, we explain what the Minecraft malware is, how to avoid it and what to do if you’ve got the Minecraft virus.
What is the Minecraft Virus?
According to Avast data from the past 30 days, there have been nearly 50,000 Minecraft accounts infected with malware that could potentially reformat hard-drives and delete both backup data and system programs.
The Powershell script identified by Avast experts is apparently smuggled onto unsuspecting gamers’ computers via Minecraft skins. The script is created in the same PNG file format used for Minecraft skins, making it hard to identify potentially malicious Minecraft skins on the surface.
Avast has admitted that the malicious code is largely unimpressive, and can be found on sites that provide instructions on creating viruses with Windows Notepad. The simplicity suggests that it’s not backed by professional cybercriminals, though the skins are hosted on the official Minecraft domain.
A Microsoft spokesperson has since said that the company “has addressed this issue and put additional measures in place to protect our community” and that players should “report any suspicious activity to feedback.minecraft.net.”
How can I avoid the Minecraft Virus?
The key thing right now is avoiding the HDD-reformatting malware – the good news is that it shouldn’t be too hard to steer clear. The easiest way to avoid the malware is to simply not download any skins from the official Minecraft domain while Mojang fixes the issue and removes any infected files.
If you simply can’t wait, you could try and avoid any of the skins that Avast claim feature malware. A screenshot of the skins is provided below – just avoid those skins, and any that look like them for now.
What should I do if I’ve downloaded malware from Minecraft?
If you’ve found unusual messages in your Minecraft inbox along the lines of “You have maxed your internet usage for a lifetime”, are experiencing performance issues or receiving error messages related to disk formatting, chances are you’ve downloaded a malicious Minecraft skin.
Don’t panic; Avast recommends scanning your machine with free (or paid) antivirus softwarelike Bitdefender Total Security or Avast Free Antivirus. The company claims that most should be able to identify the malicious file and remove it for you, although some users may need to go through a few extra steps. Some users claim that the malware ‘breaks’ Minecraft for them; if this is the case for you, you need only reinstall the game from the Microsoft Store.
Now, if your computer has become completely infected and system files have already been deleted, you may need to completely reset your PC.
“Minecraft” players who like to download customized skins for their character avatars don’t need to worry about malware anymore, developer Mojang said Wednesday. The company said it resolved the issue by releasing a patch that removes all of the information from skin files except the actual image data itself.
The studio’s assurances came one day after cybersecurity company Avast claimed hackers were distributing malicious software via skins created in the PNG file format and uploaded to “Minecraft’s” official website. The virus could potentially reformat a person’s hard drive or destroy their backup data. It estimated nearly 50,000 “Minecraft” accounts were infected. That is a pretty low number, though, when compared to the game’s 74 million active players worldwide.
“The malicious code is largely unimpressive and can be found on sites that provide step-by-step instructions on how to create viruses with Notepad,” Avast said. “While it is fair to assume that those responsible are not professional cybercriminals, the bigger concern is why the infected skins could be legitimately uploaded to the ‘Minecraft’ website. With the malware hosted on the official ‘Minecraft’ domain, any detection triggered could be misinterpreted by users as a false positive.”
While people who upload skins could potentially slip extra code into the PNG files, Mojang points out that code can’t be run or read by the game itself. “Additionally, even if you found the code within the file and chose to run it, your antivirus software should detect and block the attempt,” it added.
“Minecraft” is one of the biggest games in the world, having sold more than 144 million copies since its launch in 2009. Microsoft bought both it and Mojang for an estimated $2.5 billion in 2014. Its next big update will add a variety of ocean-themed creatures, blocks, and items. It comes out later this year.
Once the Honeymoon effect finally wore off for the new Pacific Rim Movie, and I gradually put together in my head what the sequel’s story was, one important question rang in my head: have we run out of original plot lines? I don’t have anything against Pacific Rim Uprising, as it’s not a movie that anyone (or that I would recommend anyone) goes to watch for its gripping story; there’s about 50 years of giant robot fighting movies with original stories from Japan. However, it is something I do want to address simply because it’s growing increasingly hard for me to work out what audience Pacific Rim is beginning to cater for. The level of nods and winks towards the series’ spiritual past in anime would lead anyone to believe that it’s a nostalgia piece, designed to either bring in current fans of the mecha genre, or even to draw in new fans.
But at the same time, this movie isn’t anything like its acclaimed ‘origins’. If anyone was to watch the likes of Evangelion, the Gundam Series, or even the more recent Aldnoah Zero,based on what theysaw from Pacific Rim Uprising (despite all the emphasis put on reminding us that its roots are inherently Japanese), they’d see a huge difference. I noticed the same disparity watching it; the plot was more hastily put together, and less character development was shown – instead opting for oddly placed monologues.
The surviving characters from the previous movie weren’t developed, but left as stagnant background characters, and the plot wasn’t as much an engaging and cohesive story, but seemed more of a vessel to carry characters to the next giant robot fight. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I could best relate this series to in relation to the background material it was supposedly derived from – until I was reminded of another robot fighting movie that has its origins in cult animated shows. I’m sure a lot of fans of Pacific Rim are going to get very, very mad at me for making this assumption, but Pacific Rim feels like the Transformers of Evangelion. I’m not saying this is a bad thing: the live action Transformers movies have their place (or at least we infer they have their place based on the profit Michael Bay makes from them), and this ‘place’ is probably not too far from the place the Pacific Rim series currently resides, but the relationship is irrefutable now I’ve seen it.
The previous movie, despite it being ‘A big dumb robot fighting movie’, was an interesting spin on the ‘monster vs robot’ fighting genre. I would have found it hard to hate Pacific Rim no matter what state it came out in simply because one of my favourite directors of all time, Guillermo Del Toro, directed it. He did a decent job with setting up the world, the characters, and the story-line in an engaging perspective of a well-known trope of international cinema, brought to a western audience. This interesting and diverse world also passes over into Pacific Rim Uprising, set several years following the events of the first film, in a world that is slowly recovering and developing from the previous ‘Kaiju’ invasion. As far as excuses to have giant mecha suits fight each other, this is probably the most engaging, if not believable, set-up. The special effects, just like the first movie, are top-notch, and equally the designs of the monsters and the Jaegers deserve commendation. The Jaegers especially seem decidedly… Japanese, while also in-keeping with their own designs and clear influences from other cultures.
John Boyega’s performance was decent, if not a bit cliched. It is refreshing for a movie to avoid ‘Americanising’ its British actors by forcing them to put on contrived American accents; a trait unfortunately found in other blockbusters (I’m looking at you, Star Wars). His supporting actress, Cailee Spaeny also performed admirably in a rather illustrious debut role in cinema. Burn Gorman and Charlie Day, like in the 2013 Original Pacific Rim, once again presented perhaps the highlights of the movie for me in their performance, even if Charlie Day’s performance is essentially Charlie Kelly from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with a PhD in Molecular Biology. The new additions to the cast (the sci-fi high school starter pack straight out of Ender’s Game) aren’t as well written. To the credit of their actors, they perform the roles believably, but they feel like a generic excuse to have a mentor-student relationship between Boyega and Spaeny’s characters, because that’s still ‘in fashion’ right now. I think the lack of emphasis on their character development is best conveyed when one of them dies in battle, and… that’s it. One other character slaps the floor, and the rest of the cast makes an awkward shuffle, but nothing else. Their death isn’t even mentioned again in the entire movie, so I guess I’ll take that as free rein not to even count it as a spoiler. It must leave a bad taste in your mouth when even the movie you’re acting in forgets you before the end credits have started to roll. Let’s hope the pay check wasn’t forgotten.
The fight scenes are good, and the CGI is top-notch, but let’s be honest, the story isn’t really what everyone goes to watch it for these days, is it? Kind of like Transformers, but with a better plot and more Japan. It is an action movie with explosions, guns and giant aliens that fight each other and somewhere down the line, the earth is in danger for some reason. Sit back, enjoy this very entertaining movie, and bathe in the pyrotechnics, just don’t stare too closely at the bits in-between.
With a laugh Hastings Lego enthusiast and builder Tim Stevens said the most challenging part of working with his two remarkable 1.8m long castle and battle-themed creations was not so much the construction.
“It's getting them there in one piece,” he said.
Tim Stevens, Hastings, is part of local Lego building group linked to a national group preparing for the first big Lego exhibition to be staged in Hawke's Bay this weekend.
“There” is the Taradale High School venue for the inaugural Hawke's Bay Brick Show 2017 – a Lego exhibition for all ages sponsored by Napier Toyworld which will feature about 30 remarkable and imaginative creations from local Lego aficionados as well as top builders from throughout the country.
“It is the first one to be staged here and it is going to something pretty special,” Mr Stevens said.
Tim Stevens prepares one of his two major displays for this weekend's big Lego show in Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
The show has been organised by about 30 members of the Hawke's Bay branch of Well-LUG (Wellington Lego User Group) which has branches in the greater Wellington region, Palmerston North, Wairarapa and now the Bay.
“We started the branch here about a year ago,” Mr Stevens said, adding that now being able to stage a national-scale show of the world's most popular building brick would cement it in place – and likely attract more members.
Like most, he got the Lego bug when he was only 3 or 4 and like the creations he began to build, it grew from there.
“I remember standing in a store staring at all the sets on the wall and wishing I could have everything.”
He couldn't, but has ended up with about “a thousand men and a couple of hundred horses” – he has always been drawn toward the battle themes and “castle stuff” with figures and horses.
“I'm not the best builder. Some of what people will see at the show is quite incredible.”
There will be everything from a giant train set, Minecraft and Lord of the Rings settings as well as what the club terms ‘MoC's – my own creation.
“There is no limit to what can be built and there are going to be a lot of different things to see.”
As well as the displays the show will feature a Lego play area for kids to get creative in. Lego, Mr Stevens said, was a good “hands-on” physical way for youngsters to get creative and learn design and build general motor skills in understanding art, shapes and construction.
And as he explained, it didn't take a lot of four-by-two blocks (two attachment studs on one side and four on the other) to make something different.
As the Lego sites illustrate, if you have just two of them they can be arranged in 24 different ways.
But if you have six blocks you can arrange them 915 million different ways – yep, 915 million.
“No I haven't worked that out myself,” Mr Stevens said with a laugh.
“I think they used a computer to come up with that.”
The Hawke's Bay Brick Show 2017 will be open on Saturday and Sunday at Taradale High School between 9am and 5pm with a $2 admission, and kids under 3 free.
Students at Maraekakaho School have been using two popular children's pastimes to help their community become more prepared for an emergency.
The students have been using online video game Minecraft and Lego building blocks to map their community; locating its hazards, vulnerabilities and resources that could be useful in an emergency.
This is part of a research project to trial the use of these two popular pastimes for disaster risk reduction and explore if these are effective tools for children to use.
Researchers from the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and East Coast LAB (Life at the Boundary) developed a series of lessons and activities for the students to learn more about natural hazards, vulnerabilities and resources.
Year 6 student Raiha said they had started off in the classroom “mapping our hazards and resources on really big maps using lots of stickers, pins, and string”.
The students were then divided into groups to build their maps using Minecraft and more than 10,000 Lego blocks.
“I really enjoyed playing on Minecraft to build the map of our school and learning about the hazards that have affected us in the past,” Year 5 student Jodi said.
A group of 12 students have been documenting the process on video. It will be released online once the project has been completed.
Researchers are also working with other members of the community to help develop a Community Resilience Plan with the Hawke's Bay Civil Defence emergency management group.
This is part of a two-year research project funded by the Resilience to Nature's Challenge strand of the National Science Challenge.
For more information visit: www.eastcoastlab.org.nz/our-science/our-projects/participatory-technology/
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