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Synopsis of an E-Tech talk: "Amy Jo Kim discussed five key mechanics of game design, why they are important and powerful, and examined examples of how they can be used in other settings. The five game mechanics discussed were collecting things, earning points, providing feedback, exchanges, and customization."
Blame it on World of Warcraft, Mario Kart DS or Pro Evo 5 on Xbox Live, but playing "against the computer" just isn't as much fun these days.
If women aren't funny, how come the world's hottest, most controversial comedian is female?Sarah Silverman tosses her long black hair and bares her perfect teeth. She steps up to the microphone, demure as a schoolgirl on the witness stand. The crowd tenses. 'I don't want to belittle the events of September 11 - they were devastating. They were beyond devastating....' She stops; words can't express her pain. 'I don't want to say especially for these people, or especially for those people but... especially for me.'
She lowers her sleek eyebrows. The audience in the little North Hollywood theatre takes a nervous breath. Her voice gets gritty: 'Because it happened to be the same exact day that I found out that the soy chai latte was, like, 900 calories.' There's a titter. I'm thinking - you can't do this in America? Can you? 'I had been drinking them every day.' She shakes her head. 'You know, you hear soy, you think healthy... And it's a lie.' Words fail her. Pause. Regather. 'It was also the day we were attacked...' The audience pauses, on the brink: they could go one way or another.
adding a third member option with premium features, but free and ad-supported [via]
This appears to be real: The Family that Walks on All Fours is a BBC production about a Kurdish family in which the siblings are only capable of walking using both their hands and feet. Researchers believe the group may offer a glimpse into the time before we became bipeds. (thanks, Chris!)
Nepalese Sherpas may be the world's most efficient carriers. Their technique of walk-pause-walk isn't well understood, but it may be more efficient than the gait African women use when carrying loads — which conserves 80 percent of each stride's momentum.
South Korean professor and cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk has asked that his highly acclaimed research paper on stem cell research be removed from publication after it was learned that most of the stem cells produced for the paper were faked. Allegedly, Hwang had pressured a former (unnamed) scientist at his lab to fake data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies when in fact there were only two or three. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, has now called for caution regarding the reports on Hwangs work.
ask took over! yay!