'Blinking is like a kitty kiss': Researchers aim to decipher how cats talk to us

When it comes to cats, those meows mean … well, a lot of things.

With each purr, yowl or even blink, felines are saying, "Hello," "Let's snuggle" or "Beat it, Mom." For the increasing number of cat owners who want to connect with their often-aloof fur babies, experts say there's something to gain from those attempts at communication.

Cats are very independent, and so they are easily misunderstood, says Dr. Gary Weitzman, chief executive of the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA and author of the new National Geographic book How to Speak Cat. He aims to unravel the mystery by helping people discern what cats are trying to convey.

Blinking is like a kitty kiss.- Dr. Gary Weitzman

Crafty kitties can make 16 different meow sounds and usually only unleash them when people are around, he said. Meows can be their way of saying feed me, pet me or let me out, and hardly ever get exchanged between cats.

That's because cats learn they can get something desirable from people if they meow, said Dr. Bonnie Beaver, executive director of the American College of Veterinary Behaviourists and a professor at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine. She also wrote the 2003 textbook Feline Behavior.

The meaning of a scratch or a hiss is pretty clear, but cats can talk in more subtle ways — with their eyes and tails. A slow blink from a feline, for example, is like a wink between friends, Weitzman said.

Like a handshake

"Blinking is like a kitty kiss," he said.

Dr. Gary Weitzman, chief executive of the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA and author of the new National Geographic book How to Speak Cat, gives a chin scratch to Stewart in San Diego. (Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press)

And extending their tails straight up equates to a human handshake, he said. A cat perks up that appendage as it approaches to show it's happy to see you.

Susan McMinn, 55, of Tryon, N.C., was eager to try the slow-blinking exercise with her Siamese cat, Jade, after reading the book.

"I sat and blinked slowly at my cat, and she blinked right back. I know she loves me, of course, but now I feel I understand her communication even more," McMinn said.

McMinn has owned Jade for 10 years and has had six cats over her lifetime, but she says it's clear she still has a lot to learn. "And I thought I was an expert!" she said.

Even ear and whisker movements signify something worth listening to. If a cat's ears are flat, don't get close because it's scared or facing a fight, Weitzman said.

Help them prey

A kitty is happy, calm or friendly when its whiskers are naturally out to the side. Twice as thick as a human hair and rooted three times as deep, the whiskers guide them, help them with prey and show how they are feeling.

Learning to communicate with cats becomes even important for those who adopt a pet based only on the colour or breed they want versus a connection with the animal.

At Happy Cats Sanctuary in Medford, N.Y., a potential owner might ask for a "white cat with fluffy fur," said Melissa Cox, director of communications and development.

She tells them not to go by looks alone because the true indicator of compatibility is spending time with a cat and getting to know it.

For McMinn, she says she isn't done with the book and plans to use some of its training tips. But now she knows "what to look for in her (cat's) tail and ear movement, whisker positions and in her eyes."

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Watch SpaceX's rocket explode after almost landing successfully

Video

Rocket 'landed fine' on floating platform, but tipped over after touchdown

Thomson Reuters Posted: Apr 15, 2015 11:38 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 16, 2015 9:20 AM ET

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off 13:45

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off 13:45

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SpaceX has released a video of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket touching down on a floating platform during an attempted landing before toppling over and exploding.

It was the company's unsuccessful second attempt to land the rocket in an effort to develop a booster rocket that can be reused on future space missions.

During Tuesday's launch, the rocket successfully sent an unmanned Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station before separating and attempting to land on an unmanned barge. The barge, described by SpaceX as "an autonomous spaceport drone ship" was named "Just Read the Instructions" and floated about 322 kilometres off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla.

The barge called 'Just Read the Instructions' was floating about 322 kilometres off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla., when the rocket came in for a landing. (SpaceX)

Initially, SpaceX posted a seconds-long video on its Twitter account that shows the rocket firing and adjusting its angle as it approaches the platform. It rotates slightly counterclockwise to touch down on the centre of the platform in a cloud of smoke, but appears to keep rotating a little too far, leaning to the left as the video ends.

A longer version on YouTube shows the explosion that follows.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the rocket "landed fine, but excess lateral velocity cause it to tip over post landing."

SpaceX's previous attempt in January ended in a dramatic explosion after it ran out of hydraulic fluid for its steering fins and crashed into the platform.

The company will make a third landing attempt during a space station resupply mission targeted for June.

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Federal government is violating its own law on pesticides, lawsuit claims

Environmental groups have revived a lawsuit against the federal government because the Health Department changed its mind about reviewing a pesticide that is banned in Norway but is increasingly common in Canada.

The decision to stop the review of a fungicide used on cereal, oilseed and vegetable crops violates the government's own legislation, said Lara Tessoro, a lawyer for Ecojustice, the firm acting for several groups behind the lawsuit.

"The duty on the government is to assess all the products containing the ingredient."

The lawsuit is over difenoconazole, which is known to be toxic to fish and believed by some scientists to accumulate in increasing amounts in the food chain. The suit was originally filed in 2013 in an attempt to force the government to review 23 different pesticides.

The action was put on hold after Ottawa agreed to the reviews. But the Pest Management Regulatory Agency has now pulled back.

"The special review ... is no longer required," said a letter from the agency to Ecojustice.

Review required for pesticides banned in OECD

Canadian law requires a review for any pesticide banned in a member country of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Norway, which is a member, has banned difenoconazole.

But it is legal to import seeds that have been treated with the pesticide. That's enough, says the government, to remove the requirement for the review.

"In Norway, the use of difenoconazole is permitted on treated seeds," a department spokesman wrote in an email. "As Norway permits the use of difenoconazole, it does not 'prohibit all uses' of this product."

Tessoro said that's not how the Norwegians see it.

"Please note that this does not mean that we still have uses of difenoconazole allowed in Norway," says a letter to Health Canada from Norwegian officials. "It is prohibited to sell, stock, store or use difenoconazole in Norway."

Tessoro said Canada has ignored Norway's interpretation of its own law.

"Here's Norway telling Canada, 'No, no, don't be misguided here. We do not allow this pesticide to be used in this country.' Canada turned around and said, 'Thanks very much, Norway, but we're going to disagree with how you interpret your own laws."'

She pointed out Canada's position is similar to one urged by the pesticide's manufacturer in a letter to the pest management agency after the review was promised.

Health Canada said it was unable to comment further on a matter before the courts.

Risk well-managed through warnings, Canada says

The Norwegians say their decision was taken as a result of the chemical's "worrisome" toxicology. They say it tends to persist in the environment, concentrate in the food chain and is toxic to aquatic life.

Canadian assessments are similar. But in a letter to Ecojustice, the agency says the chemical's risks are well-managed through warnings.

"With the existing risk mitigation measures in place on the registered labels, the risks to aquatic species are not expected to be a concern," it says.

Ecojustice scientist Elaine MacDonald said difenoconazole is increasingly added to pesticides which some say are behind large die-offs in bee populations. She said the review her group is asking for would force Health Canada to examine all such combined products.

"I think it's worthwhile to have another look, evaluate the risk and evaluate the mitigation. That's all we're asking."

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Why problem coyotes hang out in the city

Certain coyotes are known to have frequent unnerving encounters with humans and their pets in residential neighbourhoods, and scientists now have an explanation.

It turns out that coyotes infected with a common skin parasite tend to develop habits that make them problem animals.

"These coyotes that were losing their hair and were sick were more likely to run into people in residential areas, especially during the day," says Maureen Murray, lead author of a new study on urban coyotes published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Coyote sightings and encounters have been increasing in cities across Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto to Newfoundland.

Murray is part of a University of Alberta research group that has been tracking coyote sightings in Edmonton since 2000.

Maureen Murray (right) and Joe Abercrombie of Animal Damage Control in Cochrane, Alta., captured 19 coyotes in Edmonton for the study. (Maureen Murray)

"And it's been increasing exponentially every year," she says.

While coyotes rarely attack pets or humans, their growing presence in cities makes many of their human neighbours uncomfortable.

"It comes down to this unease about a carnivore and a predator around people's backyards, around people's kids and their pets," Murray says.

Most urban coyotes hide in ravines and golf courses, away from humans, eat mainly small animals that they hunt, and are more active at night than during the day.

Murray wanted to find out why certain coyotes seemed to be spotted unusually often on city streets during the day — was that linked to their age, sex, or something else?

Diet leaves traces in hair

Murray and her collaborators caught 19 coyotes in Edmonton and put GPS collars on them to track their location every three hours over an average of four months. They took note of the animals' age, sex and whether they had any signs of sarcoptic mange, a common parasitic mite that lives in the skin, causing itching and hair loss. They also took hair samples to find out what the animals had been eating.

Coyote sightings in Edmonton have been increasing exponentially every year since the University of Alberta started tracking them in 2000, says Maureen Murray. (Maureen Murray)

Different kinds of food leave different chemical signatures in hair or fur. Animals with diets higher in meat tend to have higher levels of nitrogen-15, a heavier form of the element nitrogen. Animals who consume more processed human food — which contains corn-based ingredients such as corn starch and corn syrup — tend to accumulate more carbon-13, a heavier form of the element carbon.

The researchers found that eight of the 19 coyotes showed signs of mild mange, mainly in the form of red patches on their hind legs. The coyotes who were sick had four habits that tended to bring them in contact with humans:

• A greater likelihood of spending time in developed residential or commercial areas of cities.
• Wandering over much bigger ranges.
• More active during the day.
• Eating of more human food and less protein, determined by hair analysis.

The researchers aren't sure why the sick coyotes showed these behaviours, but it may be that sick coyotes rely on easily accessible food from humans such as compost scraps and the shelter provided by human structures such as porches. They could be more active during the day because they find it too cold at night without a full coat of fur.

Many sick animals died

Sadly, many of the sick coyotes got sicker over the course of the study.

"Some of the animals in our study ended up with almost no hair at all," Murray says.

Sarcoptic mange is a parasitic skin mite that causes itching and hair loss in coyotes. (Maureen Murray/University of Alberta)

Six of them died. Murray says four of them had apparently frozen to death in their sleep without their hair to protect them from Edmonton's frigid winter temperatures. Two others were euthanized by city officials because they refused to leave the backyards where they had taken shelter.

Murray says that knowing why the animals were spending time among humans may help city officials figure out how to manage problem coyotes.

While cities are generally reluctant to intervene when animals are sick, she says, her results suggest that "that letting nature sort of run its course for these coyotes in cities might not be the best course of action for people."

Coyote mange can be transmitted to dogs, something that Murray says people who have pets in areas with coyotes should be aware of.

However, the disease can be treated with an ointment.

Murray recommends that people discourage coyotes from living near them by eliminating possible food sources. Securing compost and green bins, and cleaning up spilled bird seed and rotting fruit that has fallen off trees in their yard may help.

She hopes that knowing why coyotes might be seeking shelter in their backyards will encourage people to take action.

"I feel like those sorts of messages can resonate with people a lot more if you know why something might work."

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EU launches antitrust complaint over Google search

The European Union's executive branch hit Google with official antitrust charges on Wednesday that allege the company abuses its dominance in Internet searches, and also opened a probe into its Android mobile system.

The move massively raises the stakes in the highest profile antitrust case in Europe and could lead to billions in fines for Google if the case shows the way it does business in the 28-country bloc is illegal.

In announcing the action, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she is "concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service."

Vestager said the separate antitrust probe into Android will investigate whether the Internet giant relies on anti-competitive deals and abuses its dominant position in Europe's mobile market.

"Dominant companies have a responsibility not to abuse their powerful market position."- EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager

The EU has for years sought a settlement with Google, but says the company has not fully addressed its concerns.

The more confrontational route could mean years of legal wrangling — as well as fines worth billions. The EU can impose fines of 10 per cent on annual revenue, or some $6 billion US, and force the Mountain View, California, company to overhaul its system for recommending websites in Europe.

Vestager said her chief goal was to make sure multinationals "do not artificially deny European consumers as wide a choice as possible or stifle innovation."

The company has a market share of over 90 per cent of Internet searches in the EU, compared with around 70 per cent in the U.S. Vestager said that one in four companies complaining about Google were U.S. rivals.

"Dominance as such is not a problem," said Vestager. "However dominant companies have a responsibility not to abuse their powerful market position."

When it comes to comparative shopping, the EU said it found that "Google gives systematic favourable treatment" to its Google Shopping at the expense of others in its general search results.

"It may therefore artificially divert traffic from rival comparison shopping services and hinder their ability to compete on the market," the EU said in a statement.

Google has 10 weeks to respond to all the allegations.

Senior Vice-President Google Search Amit Singhal said in a reaction that "while Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways — and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark."

When it comes to comparative internet shopping, Singhal wrote in a blog that "it's clear that (a) there's a ton of competition (including from Amazon and eBay, two of the biggest shopping sites in the world) and (b) Google's shopping results have not the harmed the competition."

Thomas Vinje, legal counsel for FairSearch Europe, a group that has been urging EU regulators to rein in Google, said that Wednesday's move was "a significant step towards ending Google's anti-competitive practices, which have harmed innovation and consumer choice."

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Spacecraft snaps first colour image of Pluto

Scientists have released the first colour image of Pluto and its largest moon Charon ever taken by an approaching spacecraft.

The photo was released at a news conference on Tuesday to discuss the spacecraft New Horizons, which took the image, and its nearing of Pluto.

No spacecraft has ever visited Pluto. Scientists are hoping that will change on July 14, when NASA's New Horizons probe is expected to fly within 9,978 km (6,200 miles) of the dwarf planet after a nine-year journey.

Alan Stern, a New Horizons scientist, spoke about the historic project with excitement.

"This is a small, compact, highly advanced spacecraft. A real 21st century exploration spacecraft with tremendous capability, that's in almost, almost the most wonderful place you can ever imagine you can be as a scientist," Stern said.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, seen in an artist's impression, will make a close flyby of Pluto and its moons on July 14. (NASA/Reuters)

"The spacecraft is in perfect health, it's full of fuel and it's carrying a scientific arsenal of seven instruments that are combined the most powerful suite of scientific instruments ever brought to bear on the first reconnaissance of a new planet. Nothing like this has been done in a quarter century and nothing like this is planned by any space agency, ever again. This is a real moment in time."

Stern said that next month, as New Horizons nears Pluto, it will start taking the most detailed photos ever seen of it. The craft will begin sending back atmospheric data on Pluto in May, and data on the dwarf planet's surface composition in June.

​

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Kim Dotcom Megaupload case falters over sharing Canadian data

More than three years have passed since Canadian police seized 32 Megaupload-related servers on behalf of U.S. authorities seeking to prosecute company founder Kim Dotcom in one of the world's largest copyright infringement cases.

Still, no one — except perhaps officials with the file-sharing company itself — knows what's on the servers. 

At issue now is how much of this seized Canadian data can be shared with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is very eager to press its case against Dotcom, who is currently fighting extradition from New Zealand, where he's a permanent resident. 

In a Toronto court on Monday, Crown attorney Moiz Rahman, acting on behalf of the U.S., recommended bringing in a U.S. "clean team" — an American term for a group of forensic examiners independent of the case — to sift through the 25 terabytes of data on the servers to pick out relevant files and separate them from personal information. 

But Megaupload's lawyer argued that the Ontario court can only ask the U.S. police officials on the so-called clean team to "double pinky promise" that they won't share information not relevant to the case, since there's no way to enforce the court's decision south of the border.

"Once they return to the United States, that's nothing more than a promise," said Scott Hutchison.

U.S. regulators shut down Megaupload, founded by the notorious Kim Dotcom, in January 2012. At the time, it was one of the world's largest file-sharing sites. (Dotcom, a German-Finnish entrepreneur who was born Kim Schmitz, changed his name in 2005.)

Dotcom and others face charges related to copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering. Prosecutors argue the company essentially rewarded users for uploading popular content such as stolen movies and TV shows.

The three-year-old case has been mired in complications and delays, including here in Canada.

On Jan. 18, 2012, an Ontario judge granted a search warrant to seize 32 servers in Canada — equivalent to the amount of data stored on 100 laptops, according to Megaupload lawyers.

A year later, a different Ontario judge rejected a request to send mirror copies of what was on those servers to the U.S, saying such a request might be overly broad.

Instead, the justice ordered both parties to find a way to filter out and share only the relevant data.

The "vast majority" of the data, argues Megaupload lawyer Hutchison, is likely everyday files uploaded by innocent users of the file-sharing service, which allowed users to upload and share large files such as photos, videos and documents.

"We don't know what we're turning this clean team loose on," said Hutchison at Monday's motion hearing.

Even if the court assumed half of Megaupload's daily users — estimated to be 50 million at the time of the site's shutdown — were innocent, that's a lot of irrelevant files in the hands of U.S. officials, he said.

Instead, Hutchison proposed that an independent Canadian examiner be hired to review the content.

Crown attorney Rahman argued that having a U.S. clean team do the sorting posed no greater risk than the practice of allowing U.S. police to come into the country to witness evidence

He says the clean team would review the materials without delving too deeply. It would then present an index of what's contained on the servers to the court, which would decide what gets turned over to the U.S.

Rahman noted that the treaty guiding U.S.-Canada information exchange allows for the Ontario court to place restrictions on how the evidence is used. 

"That's a little bit of cold comfort to me," said Justice Michael Quigley.

Beyond that, Rahman said this data pales in comparison to other information shared easily with the U.S., such as wiretaps.

"What's being proposed here looks very, very minor in terms of what we're exposing foreign officials to," said Rahman.

Ultimately, however, the issue comes down to cost. Rahman said the price tag to hire an independent Canadian examiner would be "prohibitive."

The judge ordered both parties to do a cost comparison between the U.S. clean team versus. hiring Canadian experts before a decision will be made.

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Researchers quit science Hall of Fame panel over lack of women nominees

University of British Columbia neurologist Judy Illes, above, along with her colleague Catherine Anderson, resigned from the selection committee of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame this month after realizing that no women had been nominated for induction two years in a row. (University of British Columbia)

Two female researchers tasked with helping to recognize the top scientists in the country have stepped down from their duties to protest lack of recognition for other women in the field.

Judy Illes and Catherine Anderson resigned from the selection committee of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame this month after realizing that no women had been nominated for induction two years in a row.

 To have zero women two years in a row signifies a failure on our part to really reach out as needed.
- Judy Illes, University of British Columbia

Illes, a professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia, called for more direct efforts to solicit nominations of female candidates after men swept the ballot during the 2013-14 nomination period. When the result was duplicated for 2014-15, Illes stepped down to voice her objections to what she felt was a flawed process.

Anderson, a member of UBC's faculty of medicine, followed suit days later.

The Canada Science and Technology Museum, which houses the Hall of Fame, runs a nomination period of approximately one year during which the public is invited to put names forward for consideration. Illes said she pushed for officials to be more aggressive in advertising the nomination process among universities and other institutions, but feels her calls were ultimately ignored.

The Canada Science and Technology Museum, which houses the Hall of Fame, runs a nomination period of approximately one year during which the public is invited to put names forward for consideration. (CBC)

"We...did not do a satisfactory job in eliciting a full range of possible nominations," Illes said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

"There are great science and engineering women out there in Canada today who have been part of our communities. To have zero women two years in a row signifies a failure on our part to really reach out as needed."

Anderson agreed, saying her decision to step down was an effort to force the museum to change its ways.

"There were some good suggestions made last year and we didn't act on them," she said. "I was afraid that if we just kept making suggestions and kept thinking that we'd do them next year, it would always be next year."

Museum spokesman Olivier Bouffard said Illes raised the lack of female nominees as a concern last June in the middle of the 2014-15 nomination period. He said the organization felt her concerns were valid and said officials are working to address the issue, but declined to offer further details.

Misunderstandings abound, since both sides have different perceptions of what Illes proposed to address the gender disparity.

"What we understood is that Dr. Illes wanted us to start over the nomination process midstream when she expressed those views in June," Bouffard said. "...We didn't feel it was fair to those who had been nominated who are deserving scientists in and of themselves."

Illes contends that she proposed allowing existing nominations to stand while working more aggressively to solicit new ones from a more diverse candidate pool.

"We're at a time now when we have to make that extra effort until we find a better balance," she said, adding that she hopes to rejoin the selection committee if that effort is made.

At least one industry observer feels that outreach effort should be targeted far beyond scientific and academic circles.

Organizations have sprung up across the country with the primary goal of attracting youth to the sciences, many of which focus specifically on girls.

Jennifer Flanagan, chief executive of youth outreach organization Actua, said the dearth of female nominees stems largely from public perceptions of women's role in the sciences.

The fact that nominations come from the public, she said, suggests that people don't perceive women as viable candidates for such prestigious honours.

More prominent recognition of women's achievements in the field would do a great deal to establish female role models and promote equality, she said.

"(The controversy) is reflective of a broader societal issue that has nothing to do with the museum and everything to do with the fact that we don't know enough about females," she said. "The opportunity here is to raise that profile."

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Hackers get lots of help from careless victims, studies show

When a cyber security breach hits the news, those most closely involved often have incentive to play up the sophistication of the attack.

If hackers are portrayed as well-funded geniuses, victims look less vulnerable, security firms can flog their products and services, and government officials can push for tougher regulation or seek more money for cyber defenses.

But two deeply researched reports being released this week underscore the less-heralded truth: the vast majority of hacking attacks are successful because employees click on links in tainted emails, companies fail to apply available patches to known software flaws, or technicians do not configure systems properly.

These conclusions will be in the minds of executives attending the world's largest technology security conference next week in San Francisco, a conference named after lead sponsor RSA, the security division of EMC Corp.

In the best-known annual study of data breaches, a report from Verizon Communications Inc to be released on Wednesday found that more than two-thirds of the 290 electronic espionage cases it learned about in 2014 involved phishing, the security industry's term for trick emails.

Because so many people click on tainted links or attachments, sending phishing emails to just 10 employees will get hackers inside corporate gates 90 percent of the time, Verizon found.

"There's an overarching pattern," said Verizon scientist Bob Rudis. Attackers use phishing to install malware and steal credentials from employees, then they use those credentials to roam through networks and access programs and files, he said.

Old, unpatched vulnerabilities exploited

Verizon's report includes its own business investigations and data from 70 other contributors, including law enforcement. It found that while major new vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed are being used by hackers within hours of their announcement, more attacks last year exploited patchable vulnerabilities dating from 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Another annual cyber report, to be released on Tuesday by Symantec Corp, found that state-sponsored spies also used phishing techniques because they work and because the less-sophisticated approach drew less scrutiny from defenders.

Once inside a system, however, the spies turned fancy, writing customized software to evade detection by whatever security programs the target has installed, Symantec said.

"Once I'm in, I can do what I need to," said Robert Shaker, an incident response manager at Symantec. The report drew on data from 57 million sensors in 157 countries and territories.

Troubling trends in ransomware

Another troubling trend Symantec found involves the use of "ransomware," in which hackers encrypt a computer's files and promise to release them only if the user pays a ransom. (Some 80 per cent of the time, they do not decrypt the files even then.)

The new twist comes from hackers who encrypt files, including those inside critical infrastructure facilities, but do not ask for anything. The mystery is why: Shaker said it is not clear whether the attackers are securing the information for resale to other spies or potential saboteurs, or whether they plan on making their own demands in the future.

At next week's RSA Conference, protecting critical infrastructure systems under increasing attack will be a major theme. Another theme will be the need for more sharing of "intelligence" about emerging threats - between the public and private sectors, within the security industry, and within certain industries.

While many of the biggest breaches of the past two years involved retailers, the healthcare industry has figured heavily in recent months. Former FBI futurist Marc Goodman said that both spies and organized criminals are likely at work, the former seeking leverage to use in recruiting informants and the latter looking to cash in on medical and insurance fraud.

Verizon's researchers said that to be most effective, information-sharing would have to be essentially in real time, from machine to machine, and cross multiple sectors, a daunting proposition.

Another section of the Verizon report could help security executives make the case for bigger budgets. The researchers produced the first analysis of the actual costs of breaches derived from insurance claims, instead of survey data.

Verizon said the best indicator of the cost of an incident is the number of records compromised, and that the cost rises logarithmically, flattening as the size of the breach rises.

According to the new Verizon model, the loss of 100,000 records should cost roughly $475,000 on average, while 100 million lost records should cost about $8.85 million.

Though the harder data will be welcome to number-crunchers, spending more money cannot guarantee complete protection against attacks.

The RSA Conference floor will feature vendors touting next-generation security products and anomaly-spotting big-data analytics. But few will actually promise that they can stop someone from clicking on a tainted email and letting a hacker in.

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Mortal Kombat X's graphic 'fatalities' may be too violent for some fans

Two warriors face off in a lethal duel. One, a ninja named Scorpion with cloudy grey eyes, uses his magical powers to shoot a fireball through his opponent's chest. It blows straight through the victim, the warrior princess Kitana, leaving a gaping hole in her chest.

Scorpion then takes a sword and slices her face off, which slides off with a sickening gurgling noise. Kitana's maimed body slumps to the ground, as her brain flops out of her bisected skull.

This is a scene from Mortal Kombat X, the latest fighting game from NetherRealm Studios, showing off its trademark "Fatalities."

It's nothing new for the series, which has been synonymous with over-the-top gore since the 1990s. But several critics and gamers have suggested the crystal-clear fidelity vividness of the Fatalities in the new instalment may be too much for them to stomach.

"It's taken two decades, but I think I've outgrown Mortal Kombat," wrote Kotaku UK's Ian Dransfield.

"Maybe I'm old, maybe it's the graphical fidelity that puts me off - there's a distinction between the blocky, pixellated, B-movie style spinal cords ripped out of the original Mortal Kombat and seeing someone's internal organs slapped in front of the camera in vivid detail."

When Chad Sapieha, a games critic for the National Post, first saw the clips of MKX's Fatalities, he said, "My jaw dropped, I cringed a little and then I kind of giggled at how outrageous they were." 

He said it wasn't unlike his reaction to the first Mortal Kombat decades ago, though.

"From the perspective of what's in good taste, Mortal Kombat went beyond the limit years ago, but that's always been the franchise's schtick."

Too much blood, not enough camp?

In this Fatality move from 1992's Mortal Kombat, the ninja Sub-Zero rips his opponent's head and spine from his or her body. (Midway Games/Wikipedia Commons)

In many ways, Mortal Kombat X is doing what the series has always done, pushing the boundaries as advances in technology allow it to render more graphic violence. 

But the series has always mixed that with a dose of winking humour.

The first game, released in 1992, was supposed to be a tie-in to the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Universal Soldier. The game's cocky movie star character, Johnny Cage, was originally modelled after Van Damme's appearance in Bloodsport (1988).

One only needs to watch Mortal Kombat's storyline mode, featuring a cast of wise-cracking commandos, ninjas and zombies, to see that the series hasn't lost its sense of fun.

Shaun Hatton, a Toronto-based video game and pop culture critic, remembers the first time he saw kids crowd around a Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet in the '90s.

"It was like playing one of those cheesy, dubbed Asian martial-arts movies, and it also had a healthy dose of Big Trouble in Little China influence sprinkled on top."

For Hatton, though, the pendulum has veered a little too far away from the camp and more towards the gore.

"I don't know that they're necessarily more violent, because ripping someone's heart out is still very violent whether you portray it in high graphical fidelity or low fidelity. But right now, with the amount of detail that people can put into these visuals, you start to realize how gross they actually are," he said.

"And for me, they stopped being funny or entertaining."

CBC News contacted Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for this story, but no representatives from NetherRealm were made available for comment.

To Sapieha, whether or not you want to play should be determined by your personal limits. But he does praise the game's diverse cast, with characters of various ages, genders and races throwing down with equal ruthlessness.

"I see men and women and people of different races all getting diced up equally. There's no implied hate here towards a specific group, so there's no reason to jump on it from a moral perspective."

MK1 spurred creation of games ratings system

Back in the '90s, public outcry over Mortal Kombat and other games with mature content, such as the teen horror schlock fest Night Trap, prompted a U.S. Senate hearing on video game violence led by then-senator Joe Lieberman.

Pop culture critic Shaun Hatton grew up playing Mortal Kombat, but says some of the new Fatalities in MKX make him squeamish. He'll still play it, though. (Shaun Hatton)

In response to the criticism, the industry formed the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the first ratings system for games in North America.

Mortal Kombat was the first high-profile game to receive an M for Mature rating, which restricts teens under 17 from buying it without the consent of a parent or guardian.

There's no denying the blood-soaked fisticuffs are a winning formula for its creators. With over a dozen sequels and spin-off games, it's sold more than 26 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.

Mortal Kombat has also spawned several comic books, a live-action television series and two Hollywood movies.

Back in the mid-2000s, though, fighting games like Mortal Kombat and rival Street Fighter were waning in popularity. Midway, the studio behind the Mortal Kombat series, filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

The series was eventually resurrected by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, with series creator Ed Boon again at the helm, and re-christened NetherRealm Studios, named after the world inhabited by the series' demonic villains.

Flawless victory for Warner Bros.

However, the developers aren't relying solely on dismemberments to sell their game.

The last instalment, released in 2011, earned praise for its tighter and more responsive gameplay. Players had more options to fit their preferred playstyles.

It became the first MK game to be included at the Evolution Championship Series, the biggest competitive fighting game tournament in North America.

In short, while Mortal Kombat is becoming a gorier game, it's also becoming a better one from a technical standpoint, rivaling more skill-focused competitors such as Street Fighter and Tekken.

It's for this reason that Hatton is still looking forward to playing Mortal Kombat X. 

"I do love the game. I love the fighting component, and the techniques behind it, [even though] when it comes to the finishing moves, I'm a little bit squeamish about some of them."

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