Whether you believe in the words written in the bible or not means very little in the overall impact it’s had through the years. It’s without a doubt the single most significant piece of literature in the history of mankind. There have been many interpretations of the book throughout the years, and now it looks as though the oldest version will be made available to the public, through a website.

The University of Leipzig, which is just one of the four curators of the document has made a public statement on the decision to make the work public. Ulrich Johannes Schneider, a director of Leipzig had this to say, “A manuscript is going onto the net which is like nothing else online to date…It’s also an enrichment of the virtual world — and a bit of a change from YouTube.”

High-def scans of the document will be posted on the website, www.codex-sinaiticus.net. For people who can’t read Greek so well, there will be translations of it in English and German. If you would like to know some of the recent history of the ancient bible, click here.

This year was a fairly odd year for the conference. Most of us were left with pretty lackluster announcements, in terms of brand new games coming out. Most of the titles that were featured were games that we already had prior knowledge to, so there were no ‘AHHHH!!!’ moments. That being said, there were a slew of gameplay videos and trailers to salivate over. Here were some of the top games to be presented.

Fallout 3 - For anyone who was around during the ‘golden age’ of PC gaming in the mid-late 90’s no doubt played the Fallout series. In the Fallout games you would take control of a nameless character in a post-apocalyptic Earth. The games were a blast to play, and sported a very unique gameplay engine that was more on the tactical side than action. Bethesda is now in control of the series, and going by videos and interviews they don’t look to disappoint. The game is already being banned in Australia for drug-related use, so it’s already on its’ way for being a best seller

LittleBigPlanet - For those who like to ‘create’ in their video games, you might want to keep an eye on LittleBigPlanet. On the surface it looks like another platformer, but it’s the level creator/editor that you should be most hyped about. Sony showed off the power of the editor as they used it to create a presentation for the keynote.

Mad World - Whoever thought that the Nintendo Wii is just for the family or kids evidently hasn’t heard of Mad World. I’d go so far to say that Mad World looks to be the most violent, bloody game that was on display at E3. If there’s anything that gets this writer’s heart racing it’s bloody violence, and the idea of playing ‘Man Darts’. All of which will be available on the Nintendo Wii next year.

The internet can be a depressing, and sick place alot of times. From stories of internet predators to child pornography sites, the internet truly brings out some of the best and worst aspects of the human spirit. Today, we get to look back on one of the great spirits of the internet.

Olive Riley, might not have been a celebrity on television, or a movie star but to some she was a great inspiration. Olive had been blogging or ‘blobbing’ as she jokingly put it since February of last year. Once she started, she became the official oldest blogger on the internet at 107. If you were to read her stories, or watch her video blogs you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be captivated. From her stories during World War II, to the struggles of finding work during the 1930’s, all the way to hearing her raise her family. Before she died, Olive had submitted over 70 posts and became a pretty big internet phenomenon. People from all over the world, the US, Russia, Europe would continually comment on her posts and keep up on her goings-ons.

Towards the end of her life, she was put in a nursing home due to physical problems. But after watching some of these videos of her, you would never have guessed it. Her site is down right now, but hopefully it will be up soon.

R.I.P. Olive Riley - You will be sorely missed.

Air Hockey, it’s been a bar/arcade classic since aslong as I can remember. The game is simple, try to get the air hockey puck into your opponent’s slot. I don’t like to brag, but suffice to say I’ve become a pretty good player over the years. Of course I’m not undefeated like the Nuvation Air Hocket robot.

Nuvation has created a robot that is apparently unbeatable at the Air Hockey table. Through different mathematical and geometrical algorithms, the robot will respond to any shot that someone could throw at it. Get two of these things together, and I’d say you’d have an Air Hockey match that would be more about endurance than skill.

Enjoy the videos…and I’m pretty sure I could take the robot, I’ve got some crazy shots you can’t simply input into a computer (Amateurs)

I’m not a huge stickler for dictionary usage, or even correct grammar alot of times. I sometimes make up my own language with such words as ‘crizazy’ - a more heightened meaning of crazy, or ‘Stamos’d’ - You’ve just been Stamos’d; what I say to a girl the next morning, like what I think my hero John Stamos says. Just because I have fun creating these words, doesn’t mean I think they should be in the actual dictionary. This brings us to today’s topic, the recent listings being added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Every year about a hundred or so words get added to the already packed official dictionary. In the past years, there have been additions that have been suspect to say the least. In 2007, there was a laughable entry with the quasi-word ‘w00t‘. I’ve been seeing that word since about the late 90’s, which was mostly uttered by 12-15 males who got a headshot in Unreal Tournament. You could also find it in numerous forums around the internet, again with 12-15 males arguing over who would win in a fight, Superman or The Incredible Hulk. I can’t act all high and mighty, I use the word still to this day, and I’m 24 years old. But just because I use it, and people around the internet uses doesn’t mean it should be made official and be allowed into the english language. If anything it makes our language even dumber than it was, and takes away the mystique of ‘w00t’; so nobody wins.

This year’s technology based words aren’t nearly as questionable as w00t, as the entries were webinar, malware, netroots, pretexting, and fanboys. Fanboy is the addition I’m most skeptical about, but this word unlike w00t has roots all the way back to the Star Trek days. If you’ve never met a fanboy, then you really must someday. These are the people that have entire rooms of their house dedicated to things like Star Wars, Star Trek or some other kind of science fiction. They are also the people you see dress up in costumes at comic book conventions, and wait 8-10 hours in a line to be the first to shake Leonard Nimoy’s hand.

If I was a petition starting kind, I would be petitioning to stop Merriam Webster from adding “words” from l33t speak (leet speak, or geek speak) to our language. If you think ‘w00t’ is bad, then just wait until the slippery slope reaches terms such as OMGWTFBBQ, or ROFLcopters, or my personal fav, L33torz. So, for all of you who actually like to stand up for things please write Merriam Webster and let them know how disgusted you are over some of these entries. B4 u know the 3ng1ish l@ngu@g3 wi11 l00k lik dis.

When we were all playing Mortal Kombat back in the early 90’s, hoping our parents wouldn’t see the spouts of blood oozing around who knew that we’d be helping the advancement of medicine. Although this might be a slight exaggeration, it isn’t a complete lie. As the technology for video games advances, so does the applications in which they are being used for.

The largest commercial success for evidence can be found in active games such as Dance Dance Revolution, and Wii Fit. While they aren’t directly involved in medicine, they are providing people with ways to stay physically fit. Try and do a hour worth of activity of Wii Fit and tell me if you don’t feel the burn.

While Wii Fit might be great for the body, games are actually being used in the ‘field of medicine’. Most of the different games being used are in the field of psychology. The greatest example is how virtual reality games are being used to help soldiers deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This article by Defense-Update.com has the full details about the program, but I’ll try and summarize. Soldiers who come home suffering from PTSD will be exposed to a virtual environment of the setting they just left. For most this setting is the Iraq war; and the game representing it is called “Virtual Iraq”. The soldiers are exposed to virtual sights and sounds that were typically found in combat; the game engine is based of the video game ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’. As the soldiers are exposed to these experiences, their memory of the actual live memories become more tolerable. Along with Virtual Iraq, virtual reality has proven effective for Vietnam vets, 9/11 survivors, and amputee patients.

Trauma isn’t the only thing video games are being used to treat. People who suffer from migraines might end up using virtual reality for comfort. In a study, patients who suffered from migraines had sensors attached to their scalp. These sensors are used to navigate a virtual ship by way of brain waves. The research has proved to be turning out positive, but researchers are still trying to devise an answer as to why it works.

Games aren’t just being used to help treat patients, but to help train the doctors as well. Some virtual reality settings are being used to help doctors prepare for the chaotic situations that such places as the ER, and large scale natural disasters can have. Also research has shown that doctors who actively engage in video games are a lot of times a third less likely to make mistakes during laparoscopic surgery simulations.

So, all the times our parents told us playing video games wouldn’t help anything turned out to be quite false. In fact if research keeps going on pace as is, you could see video games pop up to treat all kinds of different problems. From physical rehabilitation all the way to serious psychological disorders. So just remember kids, keep slamming those buttons and moving the analog sticks because there’s no telling where it could lead you.