Oh, and by the way, thanks to Russ Allen for sending me a video link last week. There was no return e-mail address (it was sent via the video provider), so I couldn't respond to you, but thanks.
From DQ reader and Future Nobel Prize Winner Brian Pilnick, a link to a fantastic, abandoned amusement park in China. Here's the intro to the site:
Once upon a time in a land called Xi Pu, just west of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in the People's Republic of China, there was a tourist theme park... The World Landscape Park. As a business venture it failed, and today the park lies abandoned and decaying. Personally, I think it's a lot more interesting this way than it could ever possibly have been when it was open.
There are a ton of pictures and they're fantastic. One note: at least in my browser, sometimes the text captions spill over onto the pictures and they're hard to read. Just highlight the text with your mouse cursor and it will be readable. Also, on the very first page, there's a yellow "NEXT" near the top of the picture that is what you click on to view the other pictures of the park. I had a hard time seeing that, too.
Even with the formatting problems, though, it's an amazing series of pictures to look through, and the captions are generally pretty clever as well. Here's the link: Disgraceland.
From Eduardo X, a terrific link to help explain the crazy, tangled relationships involved with the Gizmondo fiasco. Complete with flowchart at the bottom of the article. The whole story is so strange and bizarre that, as fiction, it would be dismissed as ridiculous.
From Dave S., a link to a website that discusses--in detail--movie physics. The site is called "Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics," and it's a very interesting read. You can find it here.
Daniel Quock sent in an amazing video link. It's a juggler who juggles inside an inverted glass cone. Actually, "amazing" doesn't even do it justice. Mind-blowing is more like it. Don't say I didn't warn you: juggler.
Andrew B sent in a link to the Game Innovation Database. Their modest objective: The goal of the GIDb is to classify and record every innovation in the entire history of computer and videogames. Because we could never complete this daunting task alone, we have made the GIDb an open wiki, allowing anyone to easily add innovation entries for the benefit of everyone who cares about the history, study, and practice of game innovation.
It's a great idea, with plenty of interesting topics already, and here's the link.