book reviews
Book reviews for scholastic growth; read material from the world's top educators with our collection of novels, memoirs, biographies, philosophical texts and textbooks.
How Designers Engineer Luck Into Video Games
On Sept. 16, 2007, a Japanese YouTuber who goes by the handle “Computing Aesthetic” uploaded a forty-eight-second-long video with the deafening title, “ULTRA MEGA SUPER LUCKY SHOT.” The video shows a high-scoring shot in Peggle, a vastly popular video game, loosely based on Japanese pachinko machines, in which a ball bearing clatters down the screen, accruing points as it bounces through a crowd of candy-colored pegs, which disappear shortly after being touched; more bounces, more points. Although Peggle involves some skill—before firing the ball, the player must carefully aim the launcher that dangles at the top of the screen—you are principally at the mercy of the luck of the bounce. In Computing Aesthetic’s footage, the points pile up as the ball bounces fortuitously between pegs. To underscore the seemingly miraculous shot, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” blares euphorically until, in the video’s final moments, the ball bearing sinks into the bucket at the base of the screen and the words “FEVER SCORE” flash onscreen. The description on the video, which has been watched nearly a quarter of a million times, reads, “I couldn’t balieve this when it happened!!!!!!!!!”
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
Get Back on Track: 7 Strategies to Help You Bounce Back After Slipping Up
We’ve all been there… You follow your diet religiously for a week and then break it with a weekend binge. You commit to working out more, hit the gym for two days, and then struggle to get off the couch after a long day of work. You set a vision for your career and get excited by the possibilities, only to get dragged down in everyday responsibilities and not return to your dream until months later.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
Chess: How to Spot a Potential Cheat
A few years ago, the chess website Chess.com temporarily banned US grandmaster Hans Niemann for playing chess moves online that the site suspected had been suggested to him by a computer program. It had reportedly previously banned his mentor Maxim Dlugy.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
20 potential benefits of losing weight while maintaining muscle tone!!!
Muscle tone can be significantly impacted by weight loss, but how much of an influence depends on a variety of variables. Exercise, diet, and overall body composition can all have an impact on muscle tone, which is the degree of tension or contraction that a muscle exhibits when at rest.
By Mayank Kansal3 years ago in Education
How to Chase Your Dreams and Reinvent Yourself
In 1965, a young man named Tom graduated from college with a degree in English. Soon after, Tom took a job with an insurance company in Connecticut. After working there for seven years, he transitioned to a new role in the industry and started working for an insurance agency. He worked at that insurance agency for the next eight years.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
The Pitfalls of the Pursuit of Happiness
In many cultures around the world, happiness is generally considered to be a positive emotion. But is the pursuit of happiness and “feeling happy” a good thing? Clinical psychologist June Gruber, social psychologist Iris B. Mauss, and researcher Maya Tamir looked into answering a related question: might happiness be dysfunctional at times? The short answer is: it depends.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
Why the future of restaurants runs through the grocery store
It’s Friday night and, judging from the dejected slump of a quartet of would-be diners outside of the legendary Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side, there are no tables to be had. Around the corner, a similar scene plays out at Nom Wah, the century-old dim sum restaurant on the bend of a crooked street in Chinatown. A few blocks north, at the Momofuku Noodle Bar, the hungry gaze at the eating through a plate glass window. Everything everywhere is booked all at once.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
The “Chosen Ones” Choose Themselves
In 1994, a young woman asked for an order of restraint against her husband and filed for divorce. With no job and little money to live on, she signed up for welfare benefits so that she could afford to care for her baby daughter.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
The Fight is the Reward
It was my senior year and I was pitching against the #3 team in the country, the College of Wooster. The first batter of the game was making my life difficult. He fouled off a pitch. Then another. And another. I threw a ball outside, hoping he would bite on it.
By BURN BRIGHT3 years ago in Education
