A study conducted at the Swinburne University of Technology strengthens the claim of earlier studies that violence in video games don't trigger aggressive behavior in children who didn't have violent tendencies in the first place.

According to Professor Grant Devilly, only children who were diagnosed to have excessive worrying, neurotic behaviour and predisposed to aggression were the ones who reacted to the violent stimuli and very few showed aggressive behavior as a result.

In Devilly's research, children were made to play Quake II, a popular shooting game known for its explicit scenes of violence. After 20 minutes, the kids were observed and the corresponding behavior was placed in parallel to their backgrounds.

"The majority of people did not increase in aggression at all and we're not the first people to find that," says the professor. "You've got to basically read your own kid. If you have a quite hyper kid they will come down after playing a bit, but for the rest of kids, the vast majority, it makes no difference at all in their general aggression rate."

A crusade of sorts has been going on again for some time after the Columbine massacre six years ago in Colorado. Studies were made, but results have been either contradictory or inconclusive thus far. Still, franchises like Grand Theft Auto and other FPS games have been taking heat from the media and activist groups.

Who needs machines to measure the activity going on underground when you've got snakes to do the monitoring for you? That's right. Scientists in China rely instead on snakes and their behaviour to predict if there's an earthquake coming.

Over at the Nanning earthquake bureau in southern Guangxi province, experts keep a close watch on their local snake farms through 24-hour internet video links. Why did they choose the snakes? Well, for one, "Of all the creatures on the Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes," explains Jiang Weisong, director of the bureau.

They are so sensitive to it that they can sense a quake from as far as 120km (75 miles) away, and up to five days before it happens. Now, that's really preemptive. Apparently, the snakes act erratically when they feel one coming. In response to the vibrations they feel, the snakes then smash their heads into walls into an effort to escape.

Hmmm...well we do hope those snakes have insurance for hemorrhages.