300 New Words Have Been Added To The Scrabble Dictionary

The Guardian: Yowza! 300 new words added to Scrabble dictionary

Scrabble players will have to rethink their game after new words, including OK and ew, added to approved list

Three hundred new words have been added to the official US Scrabble dictionary, including sriracha, aquafaba, beatdown, zomboid, twerk, sheeple, wayback, bibimbap, botnet, emoji, facepalm, frowny, hivemind, puggle and yowza.

Merriam-Webster released the sixth edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary on Monday, four years after the last version.

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Editor: The Scrabble dictionary checker is here.

Token Change For 'Monopoly'

Photo: Hasbro

Token Change For 'Monopoly' To Replace An Iconic Piece -- USA 

Today Fans can vote in Hasbro's campaign for the shape they want to keep and for a replacement.

One of the iconic Monopoly game tokens soon will no longer be passing "GO!" or collecting $200.

Hasbro has launched a "Save Your Token" campaign to retire either the race car, iron, Scottie dog, wheelbarrow, shoe, top hat, thimble or battleship. The company is letting fans vote until Feb. 5 for the one they want to keep via the Monopoly Facebook page.

The one with the lowest total goes directly — and permanently — to jail. Fans also can vote for the replacement token: toy robot, helicopter, cat, guitar or diamond ring.

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My Comment: You do not change something that has been going on successfully for years. I guess Monopoly wants feedback from it's fans and a little buzz.

A History Of Tetris

Tetris: Can A Cold War Classic Evolve For The Touchscreen? -- The Verge

The game couldn't be simpler. One of seven shapes falls from the sky. As the "Tetrimino" inches down the screen, the player rotates it and moves it into place among other similar objects. Build a horizontal line across the board and the entire thing vanishes. Create four lines at once, and they all disappear as the gamer earns massive points. Rotate, drop, explode. Rinse, wash, repeat. Again. And again. And again. A simple and repetitive task, but one that's beautiful when performed correctly.

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My Comment: A sad confession .... I wasted many hours of my life playing this game.

Are Terror Groups Using Computer Games To Plot Attacks?

A scene from the popular video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3." (Activision)

The Real Call of Duty: Terror Gangs 'Using Computer Games To Plot Atrocities Securely Online' -- Daily Mail

* Claims come a month after government announced plans to monitor all online communications
* Players reportedly choose realistic war games to mask their plotting as harmless gamers' chatter
* Jihadis may even be using the ultra-realistic violent simulations as training for planned atrocities

Islamic extremists are using realistic war-based action games such as Call Of Duty to plot terrorist attacks in secret, it was claimed today.

With security services monitoring phone calls, emails and online messages, fanatics are reportedly using the online chat functions of video games to make plans in private.

Users can log into the games in groups to compete against each and, it is claimed, chat securely without arousing the attention of police and MI5.

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More News On Terror Groups Using Video Games To Plot Attacks

Game fanatics -- The SUN
Terrorists use online games like 'Call of Duty' to plot attacks -- FOX News/The SUN
Terrorists Using Call of Duty To Plot Attacks -- Game Revolution
Extremists practice terrorism in console games -- The Inquirer
Apparently Terrorists Are Using Xbox Live To Plan Attacks -- ITProPortal
Sun reports terrorists using Call of Duty as training tool, global threat levels reduced -- PCGamer
Call of Duty 'used by terrorists to plan attacks' -- Digital Spy

Video Games: The Skills From Zapping ’Em

From The Economist:

Playing fast-action video games helps decision-making.

THE relentless march of technology into everyday life has always given rise to debate about whether it is a good or a bad thing. Some believe that the internet and computer software are making humans more stupid or shallow. But others argue that computer programs in the form of video games can make people smarter or improve specific skills, such as spatial awareness. Indeed, an entire industry has emerged to help people “train” or improve their brains.

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Video Games May Hinder Learning For Boys

Video games could hinder academic performance for boys, a new study finds.
Credit: Dreamstime.

From Live Science:

Parents who buy their children a video game system might want to be careful that all the fun doesn't interfere with their learning. A new study suggests owning a game system could hinder academic development, at least for young boys.

The results show that boys given a PlayStation II are slower to progress in their reading and writing skills and have more learning problems reported by their teachers than those not given a system.

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Fun Inc: Why Games are the 21st Century's Most Serious Business -- Book Review

A scene from Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for Technology (2005).

From The Guardian:

Here is a compelling defence of the much maligned but fantastically successful computer game.

It's a curious fact that, though videogames are now the world's largest entertainment industry in financial terms, they are rarely reviewed in the mainstream media. There's a thriving world of academic discussion about gaming but Newsnight Review or The Culture Show hardly ever feature them, and newspapers give them far less coverage than those other pointless-but-fun games played on a field with a ball. It's curious too that, despite their financial success, it's so easy to find people who've not only never played a videogame but who feel viscerally that they're a pernicious waste of time. If games are an artform, arts journalism is mostly uninterested. If they're a sport, they're not one we treat as admirable. The sale of games is increasing by 20% a year but, outside the gaming press, we're not really talking about them.

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Modern Warfare 2 On Course To Sell $500m Within 24hrs Of Launch

From Times Online:

The debut of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 looks sure to become the most successful product launch in the history of entertainment, with global first-day sales estimated at $500 million.

Less than 24 hours after launch, first day sales of the controversial and violent new game are set to exceed the previous record set by Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008 by $200 million.

The game is expected to sell more than 3 million copies in the UK alone, with the online retailers Amazon and Play.com both reporting record sales.

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Card Counters' Days Are Numbered

From New Scientist:

GAMBLERS who adopt a well-known probability strategy to beat the house at blackjack beware - UK researchers have developed an automated system that will detect card counters before they can cash in.

Card counting, a strategy made famous by the film Rain Man, involves remembering which cards have been played, and which might be likely to turn up. An abundance of low-value cards in the discard pile can tip the odds slightly in favour of the gambler, and a card counter bets big only then.

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What's Luck Got To Do With It? The Math Of Gambling

From New Scientist:

FIVE years ago, Londoner Ashley Revell sold his house, all his possessions and cashed in his life savings. It raised £76,840. He flew to Las Vegas, headed to the roulette table and put it all on red.

The wheel was spun. The crowd held its breath as the ball slowed, bounced four or five times, and finally settled on number seven. Red seven.

Revell's bet was a straight gamble: double or nothing. But when Edward Thorp, a mathematics student at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, went to the same casino some 40 years previously, he knew pretty well where the ball was going to land. He walked away with a profit, took it to the racecourse, the basketball court and the stock market, and became a multimillionaire. He wasn't on a lucky streak, he was using his knowledge of mathematics to understand, and beat, the odds.

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Rubik Cube Inventor Devises New Puzzle To Drive Us All To Distraction

From Times Online:

His cube was one of the most popular and infuriating toys of all time. Now Professor Ernö Rubik is hoping that the sphere will bring sleepless nights to the world’s obsessive puzzlers.

The creator of Rubik’s Cube is back with his first new puzzle for almost 20 years and early indications are that it is going to be every bit as irritating as the original.

Rubik’s 360, which goes on sale next week, features six small balls inside three interlocking spheres. The task is to lock each ball into colour-coded capsules on the outermost sphere. Professor Rubik said of his cube that it was “easy to understand the task, but hard to work out the solution”. It is just as aggravating to crack the 360.

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Poker Skills Could Sway Gaming Laws

Looking more skilful by the day (Image: Nick Koudis/ Digital Vision/Getty)

From New Scientist:

IS POKER a game of skill or luck? For regular players that's a no-brainer, but showing that skill wins out has proven surprisingly difficult for mathematicians. Now two studies that tapped the vast amounts of data available from online casinos have provided some of the best evidence yet that poker is skill-based. Many hope that the results will help to roll back laws and court decisions that consider poker gambling, and therefore illegal in certain contexts.

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Rubik's Revenge: Cube Inventor Set To Launch 21st Century Version Of Iconic Puzzle

Rubik's 360 (Click On Image To Enlarge)

From The Daily Telegraph:

For a few years the Rubik's Cube had millions under its spell.

Umpteen hours were spent on the infuriating device, which became the fastest selling puzzle of all time.

Eventually of course, more and more discovered the secret of how to solve it and word spread that youngsters were cracking the Cube in as little as eight seconds.

To the inventor, Professor Erno Rubik, this was merely the challenge to create something even more difficult.

And he appears to have done just that with the Rubik's 360, which is due to be formally unveiled this week.

Using the same formula of an apparently simple task that is maddeningly hard to complete, it involves moving plastic balls through a set of transparent spheres.

Professor Rubik, 64, a reclusive Hungarian, said: 'The 360 is one of the most innovative and exciting puzzles we've developed since the Cube, adopting elements of myoriginal design, challenging the solver to use skill, dexterity and logic.'

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Monopoly Brings Out the Worst in People

From Live Science:

Last weekend we had some folks over to play Monopoly. There were four adults and three kids, and we all wanted some family fun.

It's always chancy playing board games with good friends because people with dice in their hands, even very nice, mild mannered people, often turn cutthroat.

With this group, it started as the parents set up the board and the kids ran around.

Half the parents, it seemed, wanted to make sure our fiscally innocent children were protected from unscrupulous players. "Let's let the kids win," said one mother.

But the other parents didn’t give a hoot about the kids. "It's their fault if they don't understand economics. Let's take them for all they've got," said one father.

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