More Games

I'm warning you, this is a supreme waste of time once you get into it a bit. It shouldn't be so damned FUN!

I can't read Japanese, so I don't know what the name is exactly, but this one might be "Sand, Water, Salt, Oil" Play around with the tools at the bottom. The main tool creates walls so you can build up one of the materials. You also have tools to "draw on" each of the materials as well as adjust the size of the drawing tool, erase, etc. My favorites are the "plant" and "fire" tools. The latter will burn up all oil on the screen and catch the blob on fire. The former feeds on water and will grow as more water touches it. Salt kills the blob, water makes it grow large. The rest is up to you. Many people have created pictures by removing the blob and building up each material on the screen. If you do that, please share a screenshot in the comments :-)

This one is older and simpler, but to get you going, put enough "sand/salt" on the blob and it shrinks til it explodes. I'll call it, "Kill the Blob".

via Fazed of course!

Raul

Tired of that Pesky Need to Sleep?

Be Tired No More!™

Seriously though, the potential of newly created (and yet to be constructed) drugs shall have quite an impact on society in the next 20-50 years. Mark my words.

From the information page: "...modafinil ('Provigil', 'Alertec', 'Vigicer', 'Modalert', etc) is a memory-improving and mood-brightening psychostimulant. It enhances wakefulness and vigilance, but its pharmacological profile is notably different from the amphetamines, methylphenidate (Ritalin) or cocaine. Modafinil is less likely to cause jitteriness, anxiety, or excess locomotor activity - or lead to a hypersomnolent 'rebound effect' - than traditional stimulants. Subjectively, it feels smoother and cleaner than the amphetamines too. The normal elimination half-life of modafinil in humans is between 12 - 15 hours. So it's worth fine-tuning one's dosage schedule accordingly."

There's the good, here's the bad: "Prolonged sleeplessness weakens immune function. Animals tortured in sleep-deprivation experiments eventually die from massive bacterial infections of the blood..."

Here is the US government's information on modafinil at the NIH site. It lists some of the warnings, though most of them sound pretty standard for a stimulant. The real interseting aspect of the stuff is it's lack of comparable side-effects to the traditional stimulants such as Caffeine and Ritalin, as well as their restricted cousins Cocaine and Amphetamines (though the NIH lists their medicinal uses at those links). For the record, all of these substances are considered central nervous system (CNS) stimulants.

It seems to me that the ideal use of modafinil is to help oneself remain wakeful while awake, but otherwise not alter one's sleep schedule. If I were able to remain more focused and useful while awake, I could get much more done. Alternatively, I could achieve the same results with greatly ncreased time to sleep. Anyway, modafinil is notable because it should become available in a cheap, generic form in 2006 which means you'll probably start hearing about it in the near future.

via the greed

Raul