If you know what Katamari Damacy is, then you will love http://kathack.com.
(The script was created by University of Washington students Alex Leone, David Nufer, and David Truong for the 2011 Yahoo HackU contest. See, dear physicists, the benefits of living in a computer science department 🙂 )
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner has passed away at age 95. I fondly remember going back through the back issues of “Scientific American” as a kid and devouring Gardner’s “Mathematical Recreations” column (along with the similar columns written by Hofstadter and Dewdney.) If I have any mathematical skills, I probably owe a large chunk of them to some of Gardner’s puzzles. Indeed, in my mind, Scientific American went from a pretty good first rate science magazine, to something less than stellar, when they ended these regular columns along with their “Amateur Scientist” column. (And don’t get me started on the “Skeptic” column in the Scientific American, which yes, I know is ironic considering Gardner’s job after the SciAm gig ended.)
Live Worldwide Monopoly Game
Tomorrow, September 9, 2009 is apparently the date for a worldwide game of monopoly: Monopoly City Streets
Welcome to Monopoly City Streets. You versus the world in the biggest live game of MONOPOLY in history!
On the 9th SEPTEMBER, a world of property empire building on an unimaginable scale will be launched! A live worldwide game of MONOPOLY using Google Maps as the game board. The goal is simple. Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence.
Own any street in the world. Build humble houses, crazy castles and stupendous skyscrapers to collect rent. Use MONOPOLY Chance Cards to sabotage your mates by building Hazards on their streets.
Which strategy will you employ? Determined drive? Ingenious daring? Intelligent caution? Will you thrive under the pressure of a fast growing global property empire – or will you crumble? Find out if you’ll thrive, or even survive, in the amazing world of MONOPOLY City Streets. It’s going to be epic fun!
Having spent many days in my childhood playing epic games of monopoly I’m tempted. How does one play an epic game of monopoly? Easy, just modify the rules to allow you to go in debt and be stubborn as a mule even when your opponent owns both Boardwalk and Parkplace. (Good lesson: even though there is randomness in rolling dice, when the board gets stacked against you, you may have statistical fluctuations which feel good, but eventually you are doomed. Multiple rolls of bad odds eventually catch up.)
Life Sized Katamari Controller
Katamari Damacy is a very cool game, if for no other reason than it is a game in which “scale” changes. The basic idea is that you roll a ball around which picks up objects that aren’t too big for the ball and then the ball grows. Usually you are racing a clock to make your ball big enough. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s highly addictive.
But this, this is way cool. A controller for the game which is….a big shiny metal ball:
The Equilibrium Theory of Games
The other day I ran into a good friend from Tlön, who told me the most fascinating story about his discovery of a new theory of games.
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A Simple Winning Strategy for the Card Game War
War is a classic kids card game. I spent many an hour wiling away the time playing war growing up. Enough so that I actually developed a strategy for the game. A strategy for the game of war? That’s crazy talk.
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