Microsoft filed an interesting patent this week trying to protect the linkage of personalized health records (e.g. Microsoft’s own Health Vault) to avatar characteristics and abilities.
An interesting (but short) concept description on GameSpot.
I found this article in Wired about the military’s interest in developing personalized eight-foot assault wings that a soldier straps on their back. The technology would enable stealth attacks of more than 30 miles. The addition of engines could double this distance.
Look Out Below! Wingsuits Pushed for Airborne Assaults | Danger Room | Wired.com.
Published in Science last week….
What Can Virtual Worlds and Games Do for National Security?
V. S. Subrahmanian and John Dickerson
Second Life, World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs have become hugely popular consumer games. The military has used computers to study war for close to 50 years. Although there have been attempts to use off-the-shelf games to train our military (see Doom goes to War), they fall flat in their inability to incorporate real-world models of terrorist activities or sociopolitical groups. World of Warcraft allows players and groups of players to fight with one another, but fails to model the circumstances leading up to the battle.
The military is now using virtual worlds that allow defense analysts and military leaders to bring their expertise in-world, incorporating complex, multifactorial background information into the game models. The models allow the analysts/leaders to explore the response to and eventual outcome of strategic decisions.
The models are not perfect. The infinite number of potential responses could quickly make the model unwieldy. Scientists counteract this complexity by limiting each branch point to choices of the highest probability.
Commanders can walk through virtual environments to see how potential decisions might play out. This allows them to consider both the strength and weakness of each decision well in advance of real-world implementation.
Caloric restriction has been shown to increase life span in primates, dogs, rats, worms, fruit flies, and other animals. Although these animals live longer, caloric restriction also has profound effects such as inhibition of reproduction.
A new study at University College London further teased apart this effect. Fruit flies reproductive abilities were followed during caloric restriction. Scientists then added single nutrients back into the flies diet.
The scientists found the addition of vitamins and minerals had no effect on the fruit flies reproductive abilities. Adding essential amino acids to the diet returned reproduction to normal, but also shortened the flies lives. Interestingly, a single amino acid, methionine, could restart the flies reproductive abilities without reducing the flies lifespan. Other scientists have found that reducing methionine in normal diet could extend lifespan.
It is unknown if this same effect will be present in humans.
via Amino Acid Recipe Could Be Right For Long Life – Science News.
A TED Talk from 2007–
A glimpse inside the brilliant mind of Will Wright (the designer of SimCity, SimEarth, and most recently Spore).
He describes his goal of designing “toys” that can change the world. He talks about his inspiration for Spore and how the complex game includes components of evolution, space exploration, (astro)biology, astronomy, and philosophy.
Definitely worth a few minutes of time.
I have always been a big fan of Ray Bradbury. The author wrote many interesting stories over the years. One of my favorites is Something Wicked This Way Comes (that featured an antagonist with moving tattoos).
Philips put together a concept video that brings Ray Bradbury’s vision one step closer to reality. Very cool (and more than a little creepy).
Check out the article in Wired.
After quite a bit of deliberation, I’ve decided to switch my blog platform and my hosting site for SimSingularity. I’ve been using Moveable Type since the inception of my blog, but have found it very user unfriendly. I’ve been reading quite a bit about WordPress lately. It’s open source architecture, plug-ins, and tons of online tutorials make Wordpress very easy to use and extend.
As I migrate my platform over the next few days, you’ll probably find the site to be unstable. Hopefully, by this time next week, all the kinks will be ironed out.
Please let me know if you have suggestions…and thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Jeff
Addendum: WordPress is SUPERB. I have been able to tweak this blog in ways I could have never imagined in Moveable Type. I wish I had ported everything over earlier.
Zach Pogue brought this incredible clip to my attention. Amazing!
World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.
An interesting article in the NY Times describing MIT’s efforts to do away from lecture-based learning.[From At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard - NYTimes.com]
Richard Kyle (on the Society for Simulation in Healthcare Listserv) passed around a link to this interesting article in the NY Times about a growing concern in healthcare. The concept, dubbed “moral distress” results from healthcare workers feeling trapped between the many conflicting demands of administrators, insurance agents, attorneys, patient’s families, and direct patient care.
An interesting read…..
[From Doctor and Patient - When Doctors and Nurses Can’t Do the Right Thing - NYTimes.com]