dwl

Sounds like a case of 'let them eat cake'. Mark my words, this will be the catalyst for the next American Revolution.

“A play of only 30 minutes causes a statistically significant reduction in blood circulation in the frontal lobe,” Dr. Chow said.

This quotation seems reasonable (other factors not withstanding) as blood circulation through the brain can be objectively measured. Depending on what magnitude of change they were looking for, a 12 person sample size could well be enough to detect a statistical one. None of us know the exact variables, so it’s unfair to comment as to whether this man’s study is unscientific simply based on that one number. After all, medical trials and studies have been published with less. In any case, this figure seems entirely reasonable for a small pilot study which is probably what this is given his call for further study.

"My findings just prove there is a statistically significant association between violence in video games and low language proficiency," Dr. Chow said.

Unfortunately, this statement unfortunately is a jump too far. While there is evidence the frontal lobe of the brain is associated with higher cognitive function, the above statement implies it is the “violence” aspect only that is significant.

The only information I could find out about this Interlink company was a shareholder lawsuit regarding dodgy accounting practices: artificial stock inflation, that sort of thing.
http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/060105/91890.html

This action against Nintendo seems more and more like an act of desperation and looks to me like a last roll of the dice.

Hmm. I've always thought of LOTR:BMFE and the Dune series as games based originally based on books, less so movies. Afterall, the campaign in BFME2 is based on the parts of books not in the movies.

I think the software sales for that week in Japan are even more impressive...


Japanese software sales for September 25 - October 1:

#. Platform - Title - Publisher - This week's sales (Total sales) - Weeks on sale

1. NDS - Pokemon Diamond - Nintendo - 820,047 - NEW
2. NDS - Pokemon Pearl - Nintendo - 768,687 - NEW
3. PS2 - .hack//G.U. Vol. 2 - Bandai Namco - 122,800 - NEW
4. PS2 - Minna no Tennis - Sony - 68,755 (383,545) - 3rd week
5. NDS - New Super Mario Bros. - 57,508 (3,193,679) - 19th week
6. NDS - Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Kounin: KanKen DS - Rocket Company - 45,292 - NEW
7. NDS - Brain Training 2 - Nintendo - 39,897 (3,261,647) - 41st week
8. NDS - Final Fantasy III - Square Enix - 39,165 (751,294) - 6th week
9. PS2 - Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI - Koei - 29,304 - NEW
10. NDS - Animal Crossing: Wild World - Nintendo - 26,287 (3,282,457) - 46th week

Total top 10 sales: 2,017,742 (1,624,570 up from last week)
Last week's sales: 393,172

After some thought, I’ve decided to vote for Wii alone.

Wii60 did initially come to mind, but thinking back to the original Xbox and games such as Fable, Halo and the 2 KOTOR games eventually getting PC ports (and not to mention Oblivion on the 360), I’m anticipating similar things to again this generation. Of course, this could be partially dependent on the success of Live Anywhere.

As for the PS3, If HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats can’t be reconciled, it will be the early adopters who get burned if their selection fails to become the standard (just like BETA vs VHS). If for whatever reason (production costs, infrastructure, earlier to market, mass production from China etc.) the adoption of HD-DVD trumps Blu Ray in the long run and content for the medium is lacking, the initial outlay of $600 for a PS3 is going to look like an expensive white elephant (as opposed to the ‘bargain’ Blu-Ray player/PS3 2 for the price of 1 deal which people are using to justify the purchase). Of course, I don’t know which format is going to prevail: Blu-Ray might take off and do very well, but at this early stage I view it as a substantial gamble and a difficult purchase to justify. As such, I’d delay purchase of a PS3 until the price drops or the new disc format market matures and suitable content becomes available. Otherwise, I’m paying more for something that isn’t guaranteed to be the next standard: corporations should be the ones taking the risks, not we as the consumers.

The classic type 2 diabetic without good control will eventually lose pancreatic function and require daily insulin injections to survive (just like the classic childhood type 1). In addition, one of the more worry trends in the field of public health medicine has been the rising incidence of type 2 diabetes in younger populations. As a consequence (assuming the obesity epidemic doesn�t suddenly stop), there�s probably going to be a heck of a lot more people who could benefit from knowing how better to manage their insulin doses.

And this brings up an additional point: while core non medical management principles of diet and exercise remain uniform, the evidence base regarding best practice in medicine is constantly evolving (and not to mention variable from hospital to hospital, let alone country to country), and there�s no doubt that there�s some major study on the way regarding new treatment guidelines. So whether or not a game can adequately address this practical issue remains to be seen.

However, if they made a game for educating the population about gestational diabetes (transient diabetes occurring during pregnancy), I could see how that would further widen their appeal to a female demographic.