Gaming addiction being taken seriously!

More Study Needed on Gaming Addiction

from the Baltimore Sun

The American Medical Association warned the public yesterday about the
potential dangers of video-game addiction, but rejected a call from a
Maryland physicians group and other doctors to declare the condition a
formal medical disorder.

Instead, the national doctors' group urged more formal research into the
impact of video game use and called for a review of the video game
ratings
system.

We would like to find out exactly what this is, what it does, its
harms and
even its benefits," said Dr. Martin Wasserman, executive director of
MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Association. MedChi helped bring the
issue before the AMA's annual conference in Chicago this week...

To read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-

to.hs.video28jun28,0,1618988.story

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2qydxw

Darpa tried something like this once

But theirs was specifically for terror strikes, and the very touchy nature of it killed it before too long.

Predictions Exchange game tests ability to forsee tech trends

June 15, 2007 Reckon you've got your finger on the pulse of technology and innovation? You can now test your predictions against the world market using PopSci's Predictions Exchange - a free share trading game where you can make virtual profits by betting on the outcome of the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war, or whether Google will overtake Yahoo in its number of hits by the end of the year. It's an addictive game and a fascinating insight into consumer confidence in a range of brands and technologies - and if you can pick the "stocks" that are about to swing one way or the other, there's big (virtual) profits to be made!

PopSci.com has kicked off a fascinating free service that tests users' ability to predict the future in contentious tech markets. You start with $250,000 in virtual cash, and do your best to increase your portfolio by predicting which way the market will move on such questions as "will the iPhone be hacked within 2 months of release?" or "will the PS3 become the top selling game unit by the end of 2009?"

The PopSci Predictions Exchange is not only an amusing and addictive share trading game; with thousands of users all trying to predict public sentiment on a range of new technologies and market trends, it's also a fascinating look at consumer confidence in a range of different brands, and it shows what areas people are confident of breathroughs in.

The software for the predictions market is provided and administered by the market gurus behind the Hollywood Stock Exchange, one of the most advanced predictions-market engines on the Web.

It's a fascinating idea that should be of great interest to a lot of science, innovation, tech and gadget fans. For your free account, visit the PopSci Predictions Exchange and get trading.

http://tinyurl.com/2jzaaf

Awesome Wooden Robots

Japanese Wooden Robots Are Both Cute and Awesome 6,206 Views

Japanese toymaker Take-G Toys make a set of spectacular wooden robots figures that beat the pants off the lousy wooden Russian dolls we got as kids. Each one contains some robots, some flying vehicles, and little people to go inside and pilot the things. Has any sci-fi author written anything about wooden robots before? Woodpunk perhaps?

Also, let me know if anyone can find a place to buy these things. – JASON CHEN

I want one (not really)

06. 13. 2007

No I will not fix your computer t-shirt

It's seems inevitable - not a day goes by that, as the resident geek in my department, I don't get a techie question (though my company's “helpless desk” may have something to do with that).

Then, of course, there are my family and friends. If she's not asking me a question out of her own need, my mother is sure to be volunteering me to relocate my aunt's DSL connection three floors away or trying to send me to a cousin's house to un-jam her printer. My friends Don and Rachel have both been forever bugging me to back up their cell phone address books.

Finally, I can politely (or at least more politely than I would in person) tell them all to buzz off. This t-shirt from Think Geek says it all. A perfect accompaniment to their RTFM coffee mug.

Starts at $14.99 at ThinkGeek.

http://tinyurl.com/2rm9c2

Something my father-in-law would find neat

neat? fun? funny?  can't find the right word:

Remote Controlled Floating Serving Tray

The Remote Controlled Floating Serving Tray ($50) is the lazy man's water butler, bringing up to five drinks and 16 oz. of snacks to you and your floating pals, Billy Madison-style. The remote has a range of 25', and the tray can move left, right, forward, backward, and even rotates 360 degrees at the touch of a button — super-handy if your beer is on the other side of the tray. [via]

http://tinyurl.com/2vstyf

Re: Funny, I found this project last week or so....

Nope, it's just that bloggers are faster than traditional news outlets.

On 6/13/07, Joshua Bierman <josh.bierman@gmail.com> wrote:
> and here it is being written up.... I wonder if I am listening to the
> collective unconscious again.... might be time to get my brain a tune
> up.....
>
>
> Ancient Rome Brought Back to Life
>
> from BBC News Online
>
> Ancient Rome has been brought back to life through a unique digital
> reconstruction project, said to be the world's biggest computer
> simulation.
> An international team of architects, archaeologists and experts spent 10
> years working on a real-time 3D model of the city called Rome Reborn.
>
> Some 7,000 buildings were scanned and reproduced using a model of the
> city
> kept at a Rome museum. Users enter the city at the time of
> Constantine and
> see inside buildings. The simulation takes place in AD320, which is
> said to
> be the city's peak, when it had grown to a million inhabitants.
>
> "We can take people under the Colosseum and show them how the elevators
> worked to bring the animals up from underground chambers for the animal
> hunts they held," said Bernard Frischer, the project's leader who heads
> Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.
>
> To read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6743991.stm
>
> Or: http://tinyurl.com/2hvxs4
>

--
Doni Farkovits

Funny, I found this project last week or so....

and here it is being written up.... I wonder if I am listening to the
collective unconscious again.... might be time to get my brain a tune
up.....

Ancient Rome Brought Back to Life

from BBC News Online

Ancient Rome has been brought back to life through a unique digital
reconstruction project, said to be the world's biggest computer
simulation.
An international team of architects, archaeologists and experts spent 10
years working on a real-time 3D model of the city called Rome Reborn.

Some 7,000 buildings were scanned and reproduced using a model of the
city
kept at a Rome museum. Users enter the city at the time of
Constantine and
see inside buildings. The simulation takes place in AD320, which is
said to
be the city's peak, when it had grown to a million inhabitants.

"We can take people under the Colosseum and show them how the elevators
worked to bring the animals up from underground chambers for the animal
hunts they held," said Bernard Frischer, the project's leader who heads
Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.

To read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6743991.stm

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2hvxs4

and yet, we STILL hunt them

Some of the oldest sentient beings on the planet...... we should be
ashamed of ourselves.

19th-Century Weapon Found in Whale

from the Boston Globe (Registration Required)

BOSTON -- A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month
had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a
similar hunt -- more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber
was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers
insight
into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an
adjunct
curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Calculating a whale's age
can be
difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's
rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the
oldest were close to 200 years old.

The bomb lance fragment, lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and
shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast
coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce
said. It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around
1890.

To read more:
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/

2007/06/12/19th_century_weapon_found_in_whale/

Or: http://tinyurl.com/34u4zn

A moment of silence please

I LOVED his show. I am saddened by his passing. He lived a long
life and enlightened thousands if not millions.

Don Herbert, 89; TV's 'Mr. Wizard'

from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to millions of
young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as "Mr.
Wizard" and
did the same for another generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon
cable
TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.

...A low-key, avuncular presence who wore a tie and white dress shirt
with
the sleeves rolled up, Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science
show
for children on NBC in 1951. Broadcast live from Chicago on Saturdays
the
first few years and then from New York City, "Watch Mr. Wizard" ran
for 14
years.

Herbert used basic experiments to teach scientific principles to his TV
audience via an in-studio guest boy or girl who assisted in the
experiments. ...By 1955, there were about 5,000 Mr. Wizard Science Clubs
nationwide, with more than 100,000 members.

To read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-

herbert13jun13,0,2250279.story

Or: http://tinyurl.com/2v8rug

Book: For My Friend Doni

It's Not News, It's Fark

Drew Curtis, the guy behind Uncrate favorite Fark.com, unleashes his criticisms of mainstream media in his own extra special ultra sarcastic way with this hardcover. It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News ($14) examines just that — the stories the big media folks keep trying to shove down everyone's throats as must-read news. [via]

Just plain brilliant

I am impressed.  The simplicity is amazing, the concept is brilliant.... I love it:

milkscanner - 3d mapping that's good for you

posted jun 5th 2007 11:45pm by will o'brien
filed under: peripherals hacks

[blind tree frog] sent in the milkscanner. it's an oh-so-simple method of mapping a 3d object. [fiezi] used a small tub, a lego mounted webcam, a small supply of milk and a bit of software to create the map and import it to moviesandbox.. the object is placed in the tub, then then it's scanned by the camera as the milk level is slowly raised (in this case, via spoon power) and voila: 3d map.

http://tinyurl.com/38lpaf