My view exactly
Cool games
orisinal.com has a bunch of really cool flash games. They aren’t the most graphics intense of games, but they often require a bit of thought and a little bit of skill. But, to me, the most impressive thing is that, at least most of the ones I tried, they are just very elegantly done and something I’d be happy letting a kid play. They aren’t violent; they are, in a word, cute. But still fun and challenging.
Now, I like the standard violent games as much as anyone. The game I’m playing the most right now is Neverwinter Nights, which is pretty violent. And I enjoy the first person shooters when I’m with friends or my brothers. But, I also think that the video game industry is in a bit of a rut creativity-wise (though, definitely not money-wise, which means maybe they aren’t in any rut at all). It just seems that all games are very similar variants of one another. The first person shooter, the D&D role playing game, and so on. There are others out there, but they don’t seem to gain any popularity.
The games at orisinal.com are simple, but they are original. Some of the player moves are things I haven’t seen anywhere else (though, some are, admittedly, very much like classic games such as pong). I was just struck by the simplicity, the elegance, and the innocence, if you will, of the games.
Science? We don’t need no stinking science!
Not a surprise, really, but the previous Surgeon General of the US, Richard H. Carmona, testified before Congress that the Bush administration put politics before science, delibrately watering down or delay scientific reports that went against their policies and actively asking the Surgeon General to play politics.
In relation to my previous rant, this shows the danger of having leaders who have no real knowledge nor care about science and use their personal beliefs and convications to set policy that is in direct conflict with scientific evidence.
BoDo
I grew up in Homedale, Idaho, so I have some familiarity with Boise. Not as much as one might think since it was far enough away that we didn’t get there very often. I’ve gotten to know Boise better in recent years as Lisa’s parents live there.
Lisa and I just got back from a visit to Boise where I attended the regional American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. It was held in the heart of downtown Boise, at the Boise Centre on the Grove. I have to admit — I was very pleasantly surprised.
It has been a long time since I really spent any time in that part of Boise (minus the Basque block, which is a minute or two away by foot, but which might as well be miles away considering how often I strayed from it). I remember the 8th Street Market Place as a relatively run-down shopping center and that was about it. I have to say that Boise has done a tremendous job in revitalizing their downtown. The 8th Street area is now a vibrant commercial zone with lots of restaurants and wine bars and shops. Of course, the ever-popular Basque Block is right next door. And right in the middle of it all is the Boise Centre, which is where the conference was held. And right outside of that is a nice open plaza area with a fountain where they hold public concerts every Wednesday.
It was a very nice location for a conference. The Centre has wireless, the rooms are large and spacious, there is a coffee bar in the Centre itself.
I took a group of conference attendees to the newest Basque restaurant, Leku Ona, just opposite the Basque Center. Most everyone enjoyed their food. People got rare treats (for them) of things like tongue, tripe, squid in its own ink, and lamb shank. I and another guy had pork chops which, I think due to overwhelming conference crowd that caught them unprepared, were a little cold. But everything else was great. The service was a bit slow, also due to the unexpectedly large crowd, but it was still a great night.
I highly recommend a visit to Boise Downtown, or what they are calling BoDo (seems like a rif off of Seattle’s SoDo). Everything is in walking distance of the Centre, including a number of hotels. It was the perfect location for a conference.
New Paper: Stick-slip behavior of grain boundaries
Stick-slip behavior of grain boundaries studied by accelerated molecular dynamics
Y. Mishin, A. Suzuki, B. P. Uberuaga, A. F. Voter
Phys. Rev. B 75, 224101 (2007)
We apply parallel-replica molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations to study the peak stress versus velocity relation during stress-driven grain-boundary (GB) migration coupled to shear deformation. Because of the limited time scale of regular MD, all previous atomistic simulations of GB migration were implemented at velocities orders of magnitude higher than experiment. By accelerating MD simulations, the parallel-replica method has allowed us to greatly expand the velocity range and finally approach the experimental velocities. The GB motion observed in this work follows the general stress-velocity relation characteristic of stick-slip dynamics over a wide velocity interval. At the high-velocity end of this interval, the finite damping rate causes a reversal of the stress-velocity curve. At low velocities, we begin to see reverses of GB displacements, indicating the approaching crossover between the stick-slip and driven Brownian regimes. This study points to a close analogy between couple GB motion in crystals and other known cases of stick-slip dynamics, including the tip movements in atomic friction microscopy.