www.MatchItForPratchett.org went online this afternoon as a clearing house for news on fund raising efforts etc.

Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld novels, has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's. In response he has donated half a million pounds (approx $1 million) to Alzheimer's research and appeared on TV highlighting the low levels of research funding it receives. His readers and Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans from around the world are helping to match Terry's donation. Buy the t-shirt and all the profits (roughly $10) will go to Alzheimer's Research or donate directly.

I've been thinking about the iPhone as a great games platform but with a different slant.

I'm interested in games that teach skills. Not your traditional dull, spelling test type education game but games that people want to play. Games built using all the abilities of the modern game designer to teach memory skills, rhythm and movement. Skills that being increasing understood as important foundations to language development and academic learning.

I wrote this piece on how the iPhone will change education [ http://www.myomancy.com/2008/02/how-the-iphone-will-change-education ] and a couple of follow up posts. Including this one looking at a game by an iPhone hacker that cleverly uses the iPhone's tilt detector as a game controller [ http://www.myomancy.com/2008/03/yet-more-future-training-technology ].

Chris

The TSA program is almost certainly based on the work of Dr Paul Ekman [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman ]. Its fascinating stuff and his work has really opened up our understanding about how expressions work. He has developed training programs for FBI etc to help them spot when suspects are lying.

However its effectiveness in this situation is doubtful.

It works when the person you are dealing with is likely to be up to something wrong. E.g. a driver who has just been stopped for speeding. He may just be late for a meeting but that fleeting expression of panic might indicate he is in a hurry to hide the body he has in his trunk.

This doesn't mean its effective to stop all cars on the highway just so you can see their facial expressions during small talk.

Re: Electricity in the bathroom

In the UK you are not allowed electrical sockets (except special ones for shavers) because 220v + water = dead people.