The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade – “Going into the year 2000, the general feeling was that the game industry was ready to put away childish things. The era of Nintendo and kiddie entertainment was over, and the videogames of the future were about multimillion-dollar budgets, mind-blowing photorealism and “digital actors” playing out their parts with human realism thanks to “emotion engines,” etc. Instead, it went down like this…”

Kindle is most gifted Amazon item, ever – “In another milestone for the e-reader, the company noted that on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, Amazon customers bought more Kindle books than physical books. The company didn’t offer specific numbers for either category…”

Infamous Chinese pirates launch Ubuntu that looks just like Windows XP – “From the Chinese pirate masters of the non-sea-faring variety comes … Ylmf OS! Not happy with pirating Windows XP itself, these creative Chinese have gone one step further and hacked Ubuntu to look exactly like Windows XP. Why have they moved to Ubuntu? Because their previous release — a pirate version of Windows XP itself — is being cracked down on by Microsoft…”

Free yourself from oppression by technology – “”THE age of melancholy” is how psychologist Daniel Goleman describes our era. People today experience more depression than previous generations, despite the technological wonders that help us every day. It might be because of them…”

370 Passwords You Shouldn’t (And Can’t) Use On Twitter – “If you’re on Twitter, that means you registered an account with a password that isn’t terribly easy to guess. As you may know, Twitter prevents people from doing just that by indicating that certain passwords such as ‘password’ (cough cough) and ‘123456′ are too obvious to be picked…”

Researchers show off functional single-molecule transistor – “An international team has crafted a single-molecule transistor that can respond to a gate voltage in the same way that traditional semiconductors do…”

Cognitive Commodities in the Neuro Marketplace – “The cognitive revolution has already begun, as concepts of enhancement move from counterculture and science fiction into mainstream media. Within the last year, the mainstream press has embraced off-label use of Adderall and similar pills as cognitive enhancers for students seeking to better their grades. Soon there will be research to confirm if students using off-label pharmaceuticals get better grades than their peers. The fact that Teva Pharmaceuticals is the corporate supplier of Adderall is rarely mentioned, nor is the fact that these “enhancement” drugs are all copyrighted blends of amphetamines and stimulants marketed to fidgety children. A similar mainstream embrace of students using methamphetamine or cocaine to get better grades will never be seen, because it‘s in the interest of the media to drive the market for regulated cognitive enhancers and beat the drum against unregulated generic alternatives. All forms of cognitive enhancement — whether a drug or a technology — will face a similar inherent media bias…”

How the Brain Encodes Memories at a Cellular Level – “Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have made a major discovery in how the brain encodes memories. The finding, published in the December 24 issue of the journal Neuron, could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to aid memory…”

Sustainable caviar – “The ‘Tropenhaus’ or Tropical House in Frutigen is expected to prove a major attraction for visitors to the Bernese Alps this Christmas, offering a tropical experience for people seeking refuge from the winter chill. The project uses sustainable energy for growing exotic fruit and breeding sturgeon, which will soon produce caviar…”

A Nomination For Coolest Game Developer Of The Year:

Arrow drivers stranded – “Arrow Trucking Co., the 61-year-old Tulsa-based flatbed carrier, has suspended operations indefinitely, laying off employees and stranding scores of drivers around the country by canceling fuel credit cards, company employees and drivers said…”

Boeing’s 787 Is as Innovative Inside as Outside – “Oh sure, Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner is made of composite materials and it’s super fuel efficient, but unless you own an airline, the only thing you care about is how comfortable it is. Boeing knows this, and has striven to give passengers an experience unlike any other airplane…”

Saving Mexico – “In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion. A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government’s war on drugs summed up recently what he’s learned from his long career: “This war is not winnable.”"

Is a Dark, Parallel Universe Pulling the Milky Way Towards It at 14-Million MPH? – “Astronomers have known for years that something unknown apears to be “pulling” our Milky Way and tens of thousands of other galaxies toward itself at a breakneck 22 million kilometers (14 million miles) per hour. But they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, or where it is…”

The Passive Splice Network Tap – “Wired networks are everywhere, and unfortunately very much vulnerable if the wiring is exposed and unprotected. If you are regular network user, make sure to always use encrypted and secure forms of communication, and never blindly assume wired networks are are somehow magically secure. If you are a network admin, please give some more thought regarding the physical security of your network. Having a really strong door to a house is meaningless if you forget to put up walls…”

Electron-Cyclotron Resonance Thruster – “A small experimental electric thruster, in which power is supplied via Electron-Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) absorption of microwaves by the propellant gas, has been tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)…”

World’s largest solar powered creations – “Recently, the world’s largest solar-powered office building was unveiled in Dezhou, Shangdong Province in northwest China. The 75,000-square-meter office building bears a resemblance to an ancient sun dial and reminds visitors of the importance of renewable energy. Today, we have for you the world’s largest solar powered creations that amaze us with their size and purpose they’re built for….”

Face looking old? Don’t blame your genes – “Don’t blame genes for aging facial skin. A new study of twins suggests you can blame those coarse wrinkles, brown or pink spots, and dilated blood vessels on too much time in the sun, smoking, and being overweight…”

Review: Gunman for iPhone lets you take down your friends in augmented reality – “Who would you rather shoot at: Real-life rouge agents played by your friends or abstract pixels? Enter Gunman, the first augmented reality shooter for the iPhone that taps the enemy recognition technology to take care of the body count…”

Matching Teaching Style to Learning Style May Not Help Students – “Almost certainly, you were told that your instruction should match your students’ styles. For example, kinesthetic learners—students who learn best through hands-on activities—are said to do better in classes that feature plenty of experiments, while verbal learners are said to do worse. Now four psychologists argue that you were told wrong. There is no strong scientific evidence to support the “matching” idea…”

Berkeley High May Cut Out Science Labs – “Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students…”

7 Tipping Points That Could Transform Earth – “When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issue its last report in 2007, environmental tipping points were a footnote. A troubling footnote, to be sure, but the science was relatively new and unsettled. Straightforward global warming was enough to worry about. But when the IPCC meets in 2014, tipping points — or tipping elements, in academic vernacular — will get much more attention. Scientists still disagree about which planetary systems are extra-sensitive to climate shifts, but the possibility can’t be ignored…”

[[[Jump to Interesting Reading #383 – Drugs in the water, year in review, Apple tablet arriving, new solar cells, power of makeup and much more…]]]