I have been reading the Stephen King series “The Dark Tower” and if you like Westerns, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Time Travel, Apocalypse, Mad Max, demensinal doorways, and everything in between this is a series you have to read.
Granite I am only on book 3 about 1/2 way through, but it is a page turner I cannot put it down I just want more, more and even more. The good news is it looks like J.J. Abrams one of the creators of Lost (one of the best shows ever), also the new re-launch of Star Trek as well as many others will be creating this movie from this book. The only problem I see is that there are seven of them and it is going to be hard to even do one of the books because of all the back stories and characters involved. Think back a few years when the Lord of the Rings series came out and how hard it was although they turned out great the books were barely touched in the amount of content that was involved. I would assume that J.J Will have to break it up into multiple movies at least 3 but I could see doing an entire movie just based on how the Gunslinger came about (Rolland is the main character, Gunslinger). Just like The Hobbit was a preq
uel to Lord of the Rings Gunslinger is or should be the prequel to The Dark Tower.
Speaking of the Lord of the Rings there is a great article over at Unreality Magazine that talks about the characters and actors who should play them. The picture to the right is Viggo Mortenson who would play a great Roland Deschain.
I would have to agree with most of the choices, however, I am still in the middle of book three and I do not know some of the characters yet. This gives me joy and hope. I should also point out I have never read a Stephen King Novel before but after what I have read so far, for my fathers sake i will be picking up a few more of his books.
A new scientific study has found that the size of certain brain structures predict achievement, and gamers have been found to have bigger brains and more success.
According to a study published in the science journal Cerebral Cortex, scientists can predict how well a person will perform on a video game just by measuring the volume of specific brain structures.
Within the study, 39 adults (age 18-28, only 10 of whom were male) had their brains scanned before playing “Space Fortress,” a game developed by students at the University of Illinois in which the players were required to destroy a fortress without losing their own ship. (Sounds thrilling.)
The results were that gamers with a larger nucleus accumbens (”the brain’s reward center”) did better on the initial levels of the game, while those with larger caudate nucleus and putamen (center for learning “procedures” and “new skills”) did better at playing with more variables and distractions.
Maybe video games are good for kids after all? Well, don’t throw your kids in front of a TV and the gaming console of your choice just yet, since it’s not clear that if playing more really makes your brain any bigger. Now the task is how researchers will use these findings, possibly for special education – especially patients with learning disabilities or dementia.
What do you think about the findings? Think you’ll be sharpening your video game skills anytime soon?
