This past week’s Virtual Cinema course at Dartmouth College proved that machinima works can go far beyond the tried and true. A mere handful of students explored lost love, gaming culture, poet-zombie attacks, and perhaps most importantly, the pensive and strange qualities of virtual life. Check out their playlist, and celebrate with Tilt.

Dr. Cordelia Fine, with a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from University College London, notes in her summary of many gender studies in her book, Delusions of Gender, about gender and the brain a) several studies have found no difference in hemispheric size in neonates; b) the allegedly bigger female corpus (callosum) is in dispute and c) size vs function has not been proven: as Dr. Fine notes, “getting from brain to behavior has proved a challenge.” There may be biological difference in brain, but what do they show us about our thinking?

A recent article in the Washington Post discusses South Korea’s world-leading gaming culture. Considered the world’s most technologically integrated country, with high numbers of gamers and internet users, South Korea is the one to watch as far as gaming policies. Appx 95% of households have broadband access, and in July 2010 there were appx 420,00 concurrent users of the popular online game Maple Story — that is about one in every 115 South Koreans playing the same game at the same time. The e-sports movement has gained massive momentum in South Korea as well, with popular Starcraft competitions.

Meanwhile, the government is ineffectively trying to combat ‘internet addiction’ (or what game industry folks there call ‘overindulgence,’ as it is a type of behaviour, not a particular substance) and considering blocking underage gamers from logging in from midnight to 6am.

The gamers argue that there is no proof that internet use or game playing is dangerous.