Month: June 2006

The Tetris Effect

Chris 10 Comments

I suffered from this once after a marathon session of Grand Theft Auto. My lawyers advise me against saying anything else.

The Tetris effect refers to the ability of any activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention to begin to dominate their thoughts, images, and dreams. It is named after the video game Tetris, in which users have to rotate different shapes as they fall down the computer screen to fit together in a neat pile at the bottom. People who play Tetris for a long stretch of time may be subsequently involuntarily prompted to think about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as on seeing boxes on supermarket shelves. They may also see images of falling Tetris shapes in dark parts of the visual scene or when they close their eyes.

(via del.icio.us/revgeorge)

Oklo: Natural Nuclear Reactors

Chris 1 Comment

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Creating a nuclear reaction is not simple. In power plants, it involves splitting uranium atoms, and that process releases energy as heat and neutrons that go on to cause other atoms to split. This splitting process is called nuclear fission. In a power plant, sustaining the process of splitting atoms requires the involvement of many scientists and technicians.

It came as a great surprise to most, therefore, when, in 1972, French physicist Francis Perrin declared that nature had beaten humans to the punch by creating the world’s first nuclear reactors. Indeed, he argued, nature had a two-billion-year head start.1 Fifteen natural fission reactors have been found in three different ore deposits at the Oklo mine in Gabon, West Africa. These are collectively known as the Oklo Fossil Reactors.

(Thanks Jabberwocky)

List of Movies That Filmmakers Have Seen the Most

Chris 2 Comments

From Slate:

What movie have you seen the most? That’s the question Slate asked a collection of filmmakers and critics, knowing that what’s addictive is different than what’s deemed the best. The answers vary from Ghostbusters to Dr. Zhivago, from Citizen Kane to Election.

Star Wars for me although I only have them on VHS. I refused to buy the new editions that Lucas released on dvd.

(via Kottke)

An Open Letter To Rush Limbaugh

Chris

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Very heartfelt:

To Our Fellow Viagraholic:

We feel your pain. We’ve been there, and we too have suffered the humiliation and shame of having our lives torn apart by Viagra abuse.

Rush, it doesn’t have to be this way. We at Viagraholics Anonymous are here to offer you hope.

We faced our addiction and are now on the path of recovery. If we can do it, so can you. We’re your brothers, and we want to help you spare yourself any more suffering due to this insidious addiction.

We know all the games. Hiding the pills. Lying to doctors. Getting multiple prescriptions, or prescriptions in someone else’s name. We tried all the same tricks, and like you, eventually most of us got caught.

(Thanks Anonymous)