The Nukezilla Sunday Supplement – August 22nd 2010

Every Sunday we’re going to post links to articles we think are interesting from the last week. Sundays are usually very quiet around here, so this seems like the best day to do it. We’re going to link to articles on range of subjects, including videogames, technology, movies, geek culture and much, much more.

If you’ve got cool links to share with fellow NZers, please do chuck them in the comments below!

Videogames

Monaco And SpyParty, On The Road To PAX – Gamasutra. SpyParty is going to be a PAX this year (and I wish I was going as it looks awesome) and this article looks at the way indie developers market and attend these events without the lavish budget the bigger devs have.

Realtime Crisis – GamesIndustry.biz. Rob Fahey looks the the collapse of Realtime Worlds which went into administration this week. He examines what caused the collapse, how that investment and gaming tastes often differ.

What is Administration? – GamesIndustry.biz. But what exactly is administration? Gamer Law’s Jas Purewal answers some questions about the technical definitions and where the employees stand.

Console Games Have Made Me Stupid- Bitmob. Are console games too easy? Have they removed the point of videogames by constantly holding your hand through every level just to appeal to as many people of possible? That’s the argument here and it’s pretty convincing.

Internet

How the internet is altering your mind – The Guardian. David Carr’s “Is Google Making us Stupid” suggested that the internet, with its huge amount of constantly moving information is rewriting out brains for the worse.

Blog This – Newsweek. This looks at the history of the revolutionary service Blogger and the term blog, which changed the fundamental way content is created on the internet.

Facebook: Nowhere to hide – The Guardian. With Facebook releasing its new Places feature, this Guardian editorial describes a clash of cultures – people who are concerened about their online privacy and people who accept that if it’s on the internet, it’s for everyone.

Science

Over a Billion Years, Scientists Find, the Moon Went Through a Shrinking Phase - The New York Times. The moon is shrinking, if only very slightly. Over billions of years, it’s shrunk by about 200 feet. It’s not going to drop out of the sky, but it’s interesting none the less.

Cool Stuff

What ‘Fact-Checking’ Means Online – The New York Times. Fact-checking is practially unheard of in the videogame world, with the onus being the writer rather than a separate team of people who make sure every fact is fit for print. This looks at how fact-checking has changed since the advent of the internet.

A Futurama Writer Created (and Proved) a New Math Theorum for an Episode – Geekosystem. This week’s Futurama episode involved a lot of brain-switching and a theory about said switching by Dr. Farnsworth. To prove the theory, writer Ken Keeler actually composed the entire equation (and proved it, no less). I wish I was smart enough to understand it. – Jon Ruggiero.

Pay Attention and Leave Me Alone – Newsweek. Can famous people expect true privacy? They make a living of publicity, and intrinsically need it to make their money. I’m not sure I agree, celebrities are people too, but there’s some strength to the argument. .

The Most Isolated Man on the Planet – Slate. Thought to be the last of tribe after attacks from men with chainsaws and machine guns, this man, totally unaware of the modern world, lives in a 31 sq mile reservation in the Amazonian rainforest.