Acetio | Blogma

Now with rumors that the heretofore undiscovered Higgs-Boson may have been detected, it's time to understand how that detector actually works.

This sequel to Color Infection isn't any more polished than the original - it still has the same clunky graphics and the same high-quality physics engine. But there are more puzzles, some of which are quite sophisticated.

There is a game called World of Goo that is getting a lot of attention.

World of Goo is a desktop (Win & Mac) puzzle game utilizing "jelly-physics" where players build sticky, wobbly structures.

It started as a "test" game as part of Carnegie Mellon's Experimental Gameplay project, which you can still play, although the desktop version goes far beyond the Flash demo.

The developers, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, are both very talented and have a number of demo games on the Experimental Gameplay site. I really like the idea of doing "research" on game design - using rapid prototyping to test an idea to see what works. 9 times out of 10 you get crud, but that 10th time ends up being one of those ideas that no one ever had before, yet appeals to nearly everybody right away.

Here is an interview with Kyle Gabler

There are a few "jelly-physics" / stacking/building games around now

This one ("99 Bricks") is kind of fun

The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson has an impact effect calculator that gives estimates of what would happen if a extraterrestrial body were to strike the earth. You need to know lots of information in order to use the calculator, such as the size, velocity, and density of the object, but the results are quite specific, such as how likely it would be that trees within 1,000 miles of the impact would ignite.

A Foucault's Pendulum would be an interesting implementation of the Pendulum Music idea.

Since we're not at the pole, a full rotation wouldn't take 24 hours, but I don't know what the correct number would be.

The UN has one in the main lobby, with a weight of 200lbs and a length of 75ft.

I used to work there, so know that getting the permission to attach a microphone and speakers to their setup would take about 2 years for all the approval to happen.