A few weeks ago, I gave into my desire of buying a Kinect for my Xbox 360 for the sole purpose of playing the game Fruit Ninja Kinect. Over my winter break, after a crazy semester of medical school, I had the wonderful chance to play the game on my cousin’s 360 console and immediately [...]
04
Jan
2012
More Physics, More Skyrim
After doing some further gameplay to explicitly test the physics of Skyrim, I felt the need to do some background on the physics engine at hand. The engine, which many of you have probably heard of before, is the Havok physics engine. This is a collision-based physics engine that focuses on the dynamic interaction between [...]
02
Jan
2012
The Physics of Skyrim
The room is dark, musty, and strangely cold. You can’t quite figure out what it is that chills you, but the source must be here. As you reach out to feel the walls, you are startled by low-hanging moss. There is water in the air, meaning a source of water must be nearby. With a [...]
23
Dec
2011
Hmmm . . . Wanna write for NCL?
We’re looking for a few fresh new voices in the world of NerdcoreLearning to bring us experiences of geekery with a medical flavor. Of course you needn’t be a doc or med-student to write for the ‘Core – in fact, we’re just looking for people who are passionate about learning and creativity in general. Contact [...]
01
Dec
2011
On Feminism and Gaming
I’ve started listening to the Weekend Confirmed podcast which is run by the folks at Shack News, a gaming news site / blog from back before blogging was even a noun/verb. The podcast is run by game reviewer/illuminati Garnett Lee, and I began listening after the Totally Rad Show’s Jeff Cannata mentioned it as another [...]
09
Nov
2011
Mass Effect’s Dr. Mordin Solus and Basic Medical Ethics
If you’ve read this blog, you’re probably aware of just how fan-boyish we are for Bioware and the MassEffect series of games. Glorious graphics? Check. Interesting game-play that seems to have evolved over the series based on fan feedback? Check. Awesome pop-synth score? Check. Characters with motivations, conflicts, and weaknesses that make you care for [...]
19
Aug
2010
Rehydration Comments
The emergency room is at once both a fascinating and terrifying place. It is an exercise in balance and limitations, boiling down to either chaos or controlled chaos. This was my observation at a fully staffed, well stocked 400 bed regional referral center in west Texas. It tests the limits of my imagination to fathom [...]
10
Aug
2010
Wiki Blues
Just wanted to give a heads up to folks who wrote in about our site’s wiki being down. Thank you very much! We’re in the process of getting it fixed and should have all of the moving pieces up again. In the spirit of keeping things interesting, I wanted to share with you why we [...]
05
Jun
2010
On Sexuality and the Healing Blade
A few days ago, we woke up to the sound of concern. It seemed to be permeating from our comments board. In particular, this one: You folks are businessfolks, right? You’re interested in selling as much stuff as possible, right? I read about Healingblade in The Scientist, immediately thought of how much fun it would [...]
28
May
2010
OMGMCFRONTALOT!
We’ve made a ripple on the gentle wave of counter-culture that is Nerdcore HipHop. A few days ago we got a shoutout from BlakLotus, the bassist for one particular MCFrontalot, seen by many as the group of individuals that pioneered the Nerdcore movement. How epic is that? Here’s a little bit of NCL trivia for [...]