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Recommended Reading: What happens to your brain when you quit Facebook?
This is your brain off Facebook Benedict Carey, The New York Times The decision to quit Facebook is all the rage these days, especially following an ever-growing number of data and privacy revelations. The New York Times offers a detailed look at a study from New York University and Stanford that found Facebook users generally felt better after quitting the social network, and those who came back used it less. There are always caveats, of course, but the findings lend some credibility to the idea that health benefits accompany the "Delete Facebook" craze.
Twitter wants to be your home for watching live shows
Twitter's livestreamed content has been mostly sports and politics over the last few years, with fans able to watch and tweet about the latest boxing match or presidential debate right on Twitter itself. The company is set to double down on the strategy with twelve new content deals for news, sports, and live entertainment. The deals were announced today at an event with CEO Jack Dorsey and a host of other Twitter executives who took the stage with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, various sports stars like NFL's A.J. Green and even Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald.
'Tropes vs. Women in Video Games' says goodbye
The groundbreaking critical series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is coming to an official end. "This is one of the most emotionally complicated projects I've ever created," writes creator Anita Sarkeesian in a new note to fans. She's been looking to finish the series for a while now, thanks to the toll it's taken on her both personally and professionally. But, while her latest post touches upon the trauma she experienced from angry gamers, the overall focus of the entry is positive and forward looking.
YouTuber creates a magnetic Mjolnir not even Thor can pick up
If the Mjolnir were real, most of us would probably never be able to lift it. We'll bet Allen Pan wouldn't care one bit, though: not when he can easily make his own. The electrical engineer who likes making "pretend things into real things," according to his YouTube channel Sufficiently Advanced, has recreated Thor's hammer. It can't exactly summon lightning and spin like a boomerang, but you can say that it "works," because only he can pick it up... so long as it's lying on a metallic surface. See, since Pan isn't Odin's son, he had to rely on existing technology to make his own version. In order to make it stick to, say, manhole lids, he had to equip it with a powerful microwave oven transformer electromagnet that uses electric current to generate a magnetic field.
This is the Modem World: Japan is not weird
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. There's a dotted line between geekdom and Japan -- some of us call ourselves "otaku;" we follow Japanese technology companies; we look to Japanese culture as a beacon of our tech-obsessed future; we dream of visiting Tokyo. And yet we love to criticize Japanese culture, as if to say, "Well, sure, they make cool stuff, but they sure are messed up." I'm no expert on Japanese culture. While my visits to the island nation number in the double digits and I'm married to a citizen, I'm not about to claim any sort of authority on matters of Japan. However, I'm pretty sure they're not as weird as we like to say they are. And if they are, we're just as off-kilter.
Super Console Wars puts spin on mascot Gamepires
We've seen Mario in the Matrix, Luigi as a Braveheart, and what we thought was everything in between. Well, hold up, 'cuz now we've seen everything: classic game icons have been mashed up with Star Wars.Super Console Wars: The Gamepire Strikes Gold is that hybrid that with good and evil roles spread out onto each platform and various gaming mascots, ranging from Mario clone troopers vs. Princess Zelda to a VMU droid and GPU-enabled android (erm, peripheral).About two-thirds of the way through the 20-minute video, you're gently encouraged to wear 3D glasses to enhance your video viewing, but even without glasses, the parody stands as an amusing take-off of gaming standards, pop culture, and retro reminiscing. Obi-Wan Shinobi, indeed.[Thanks, Cradrock]See also: Super Mario Reloaded Ready for an "Oldschool Revolution"?
