computer games
sa smith | September 19, 2011Of the many things that annoy me about Creationists, one Im going to focus on today is their child-like understanding of biochemistry and what actually goes on inside of a cell.
They put out these pretty animations (well, they put out 'animations' copied from pretty animations) and everything is so cutesy and perfect and multicolored and smooth...
Yeah, stuff dont look like that in real life.
And those 'artistic renditions' are just that. Artistic renditions. We dont stare into our microscopes and see this stuff happening-- its too friggen small. So we go through all of these elaborate…
sa smith | July 13, 2010I had a terrible nightmare last night.
Starcraft II came out, and I was playing it opening day with lots of other people... and like, I totally forgot how to play Starcraft. All my soldiers were dying. My rocket launchers were getting blown up. And for some reason I had a ton of money and no structures... and the ones I did build were placed all wrong...
It was awful.
Needless to say Im excited about Starcraft II, and I didnt really mind their 'Real ID' registering thingie that was causing all sorts of trouble. The guys at Penny Arcade pretty much nailed it: "Of course it doesnt bother…
edyong | March 29, 2009Anyone who has played video games for too long is probably familiar with the sore, tired and dry eyes that accompany extended bouts of shooting things with rocket launchers. So it might come as a surprise that playing games could actually improve a key aspect of our eyesight.
Renjie Li from the University of Rochester found that intensive practice at shoot-em-ups like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2 improved a person's ability to spot the difference between subtly contrasting shades of grey. In the real world, this "contrast sensitivity function" is reflected in the crispness of…
edyong | January 11, 2009You've just been in a horrific car crash. You're unharmed but the vividness of the experience - the sight of a looming car, the crunching of metal, the overwhelming panic - has left you a bit traumatised. You want something to help take the edge off and fortunately a doctor is on hand to prescribe you with... Tetris.
Yes, that Tetris. According to Emily Holmes from the University of Oxford, the classic video game of falling coloured blocks could prevent people who have suffered through a traumatic experience from developing full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As ideas go, it's…