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GamesArchive for September, 2009
Earlier this week, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its 2009 fellows. The 24 “genius grant” beneficiaries will receive $500,000 over five years — no strings attached.
Aside from the cash, the annual MacArthur fellowships are exciting because of the diversity of studies and professions they fund. For instance, this year’s fellows range in disciplines from a papermaker to a poet to an evolutionary biologist, and their ages span from 32 to 69. In addition, the fellows have free reign over what they pursue with their grants, and MacArthur Foundation doesn’t require any sort of reports or updates on fellows’ research progress.
The suit that Batman wore in The Dark Knight was one of the best, as explained in this image: Batman’s new suit See also: What if you would like to walk down the street wearing a Batman suit like that? Now is your chance. It is pricey, but looks pretty authentic, and you only have [...]
Lots of stuff going on today, so here are some highlights:
Nintendo dropped the price of the Wii to $199 in the United States. John P. Falcone wrote in CNET’s Crave blog about the change, which comes hot on the heels of Sony’s cut in the Playstation 3′s price to $299, and a little farther back, Microsoft’s cut in the 120GB hard drive version of the Xbox 360. I’m guessing that will help push the three consoles through the holiday season, but I’m also thinking sales will remain slow, based on what I’ve heard.
Andrew Nusca wrote at ZDNet that Microsoft‘s acquisition of Danger has yielded two Sharp-manufactured phones, the Turtle and the Pure. These are part of the so-called Pink Project. The pictures look a little like Danger’s Sidekick devices. A few days ago, Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet said Pink Project phones will use a version of Windows Mobile 7 and will be able to use the Zune music store.
The kids want to build something, and one of the possible projects is a lawn mowing robot. So I have been doing some research on how hard this project might be. Just to compare, here is what you can buy off the shelf in the world of lawn mowing robots: The problem, and the reason [...]
Honda’s newest invention is called the U3X Personal Mobility Device: Honda shows small light ‘personal mobility’ device There is a single main wheel, like a unicycle, but unlike a unicycle this main wheel is made of smaller wheels, each with its own motor. this allows it to be self-balancing like a Segway. Fun facts: – [...]
Did you know that Evel Knievel got his stage name from local law enforcement? Learn how this larger-than-life daredevil went from stealing motorcycles to staging death-defying stunts across the globe in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
In movies and stories, zombies are undead menaces that lurch around mindlessly, in search of flesh — and braaaaaains! Where did the idea for zombies originate? Do they exist outside of fiction? Tune in to this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com to find out.
It’s a Small, Small World — in Bangkok
by Allison Loudermilk | September 23, 2009
My husband is in Bangkok right now. Last night, he unexpectedly bumped into a guy I grew up with. Neither of them live there. Both were visiting Thailand on business, a place that neither of them visits regularly. Oh, and did I mention that blogger Robert Lamb happens to be over there this same exact week, too? Such are the coincidences that finally led me to do a little digging on Stanley Milgram’s small world/six degrees of separation theory.
The social psychologist probably more famous for his Stanford prison experiment (see Josh’s posts on horrific psychological experiments) was actually the guy behind what we now know as six degrees of separation. Well, he and the playwright John Guare, who wrote a play in the 1990s titled “Six Degrees of Separation.”
Milgram said that everybody in the United States is connected to one another through a maximum of six steps. Kevin Bacon had nothing to do with it back then, although if you want to play that game, you can at the Oracle of Bacon.
You asked: Why does Saturn have rings? Why don’t the rocks in the ring attract each other and form a moon? — Simal, Sacramento, CA Marshall Brain answers: The fact that Saturn has rings has to do with something called the Roche limit or the Roche radius. If an object is orbiting a planet inside [...]
Last night I saw an article by Tim Weber on BBC News that described Yahoo’s changes to its home page. It’s a nice, clean look and I like it a lot, personally. But you also have to note something else when you visit — Yahoo’s opened up its page to other online properties.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Vacation Deprivation: Who’s got it?
- Have a Coke and a Smile
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
- Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Hug it Out
- Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
- Tips for Using Bluetooth in the Car
How-to Stuff
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
- How to Know When It’s Time for a New Pet
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 36: Now Available in 3-D
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 34: Play it again, Sam
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
