❮❮prevnext❯❯

Science of the Moment

Wired up to a scanner, they were asked to play a game involving navigating through a complicated bunker, killing attackers and rescuing hostages.

Mathiak found that as violence became imminent, the cognitive parts of the brain became active and that during a fight, emotional parts of the brain were shut down.

The pattern was the same as that seen in subjects who have had brain scans during other simulated violent situations.

So in other words, "the pattern seen during the simulations of violence was the same as that seen during simulations of violence." I guess there is SOME science here, it's interesting that, much like a dream, you don't need full holodecks to convince the brain "this is real, sorta", but still that's not what the press is picking up on.

Anyway, on with the usual backlog flush:

• The History of Commander Keen, a footnote in PC gaming.
• Ooh, More Kids Say The Darndest Things About Classic Video Games...also check out the original.

• Pluto's namesake was Roman mythology's ruler of the underworld -- seemingly an apt inspiration for a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. Pluto's designers calculated that its shock wave alone might kill people on the ground. Then there was the problem of fallout. In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto's nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by. (One enterprising weaponeer had a plan to turn an obvious peace-time liability into a wartime asset: he suggested flying the radioactive rocket back and forth over the Soviet Union after it had dropped its bombs.)

• Artsy Nudes by Maria Gracia Subercaseaux.
• Way old but still amusing, sexy, sexy Bill Gates
• Worst Game Ever.
• Matt "Simpsons" Groening did some cool work for Apple.
• How to make banal thriftstore art cool.