The Nukezilla Sunday Supplement – March 20th 2011

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.

Videogames

The 1v1 Starcraft II match you won’t want to miss – Quarter to Three. “Browder actually calls up the review on his iPhone. He starts reading it to me, which is a slightly surreal experience. Have you ever had the developer of a game read back to you the review you carefully wrote about his game that you had hoped was expressing in equal parts your adoration for and your reservations about that game? It’s pretty trippy. It’s a bit like dreaming down a layer in Inception. When is the van going to hit the water already?”

Some Stuff About PAX East, LA Noire, and the Press - blog.Bafeldman.com An interesting and quite worrying post about an anteendee to PAX, someone who isn’t a games journalist, but noted that hardly anybody was doing basic journalistic practice such as taking notes or even asking questions about the games they were covering.

Internet

The Psychology Behind The New York Times Paywall – Fast Company. The New York Times recently unveiled the details of its upcoming paywall. This article looks at the psychology of the paywall and ask whether they will be able to get over the psychological barriers of paying for something that was free.

.xxx adult entertainment domain approved by internet regulators – The Guardian. The .xxx domain has been approved by internet regulators, creating what is effectively a ‘red-light district’ for the internet. Protecting people or censorship?

Science

Cosmonaut crashed into earth ‘crying with rage’ – NPR: Krulwich Wonders. A shocking and awful account of a Russian cosmonaut who died -melted- as he struck the earth a full speed inside his badly built spacecraft. Only a chipped heel bone survived the crash and there’s even a recording of his final moments. Thanks to John for this awesome read.

The Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind – Time Magazine. Just how clever are dogs? What do they think? Can they even think? These are question asked in this great piece on Time. Very interesting.

Cool Stuff

‘I fell in love with a female assassin’ – The Independent. “They met on a train and fell in love. Then Jason P Howe discovered that his girlfriend Marylin was leading a secret double life – as an assassin for right-wing death squads in Colombia’s brutal civil war.”

Raises Don’t Make Employees Work HarderBut pay cuts make them slack off – Slate. “During the recent downturn, as with every recession that preceded it, companies have responded to declining demand mostly by laying off workers while leaving the salaries of remaining employees largely untouched. This peculiar habit of firing workers rather than cutting wages poses a bit of a challenge to standard economic theory.”