Jeff Milner

Wired reports about a new wave of games that cater to the needs of blind gamers. Audio games are appearing in all genres, from multiplayer role-playing games to action-adventure titles, science fiction thrillers, racing games, and puzzle games.

The popular first-person-shooter Quake was even turned into a purely audio experience by All in Play, a company that produces games for both blind and sighted players.

“It was basically a technology prototype to show that even in more graphically inclined games, anything is possible,” said Jeremie Spitzer, co-founder of All in Play.

I had a friend growing up whose younger brother is blind. You wouldn’t have known it for how great he was at the Nintendo version of Street Fighter II though.

I suppose this sort of fits with the backwards theme I’m often posting about around here. Jack Johnson has a music video which, I’m told, he had to learn to sing backwards for. Check this crazy composition out.

Now see the same video backwards… or is that forwards?

If you have a high speed connection and are looking for some entertainment, you’ve got to check out Rani Naamani’s sweet 3D animation, “Defective“.

(via CGTalk)

If the link to Rani’s video stops working, please comment and let me know.

Adrian Crook, a video game producer and an acquaintance of mine was approached by MTV to share his opinion on video games and violence. Though he was asked to argue for the “Hogwash! Video games don’t cause violence!” side he has written a very balanced and level-headed contribution to the ongoing debate. MTV never did end up using him for their show, but you can read his response to MTV’s pre-screening questionnaire. It’s an interesting read for those interested in media studies; plus Adrian’s candid responses are hilarious.

I’ve seen the “Female X chromosome ‘cracked’” article being linked to around the blogosphere in the last couple days so I thought I’d check it out. What I found was very interesting.

“The discovery, by an international consortium of scientists, shows that females are far more variable than previously thought and, when it comes to genes, more complex than men.”

Nature reports two new studies; one on the complete sequencing of the X chromosome for humans, which sheds some light on how sex evolved and how women differ from men, and another on how women express many genes from X chromosomes previously thought dormant.

In an update to a previous post, Mordechai Vanunu has been officially charged with violating the terms of his release from jail last year.

Here are thirteen things in science that do not make sense but are (apparently) true. I’m still not convinced about a few of them, like cold fusion and holistics. It’s an interesting read nonetheless.

“In our personal and professional lives sometimes we receive emails that are upsetting…”

Comedy relief from Ze Frank.