Some of the articles that have caught my eye this week:

General Issues

• Did you know there have been more than 2000 nuclear explosions on the planet since 1945? I didn’t. Displayed in an animation from Pink Tentacle
• Guillermo del Toro to make games – but what other film directors would you like to see join him? Article in the Guardian
• Black Friday for many strategic players in the voluntary and community sector. The UK government cuts funding to Third Sector.
• Nicholas Lovell’s graph showing massive rises in game sales against consistently falling violent crime.
• UK government cuts funding for 1000s of playgrounds. BBC article. Emma Kane organises a campaign to fight the cuts.
• How the Economist sells cleverness.  Thoughts from the NYTimes.
• Ushahidi launches simplified crisis-mapping service. From the Guardian.
• DeviantArt’s Muro Drawing App Is Pure HTML5 Awesomeness. From Wired.com
• Poverty linked to mental health disorders according to study funded by Wellcome Trust

Learning

• Student Undergrads study ineffectively on computers according to research published in the Journal of Educational Psychology
• Research from NSF shows a good kindergarten education makes dollars and sense.
• Focus on results can make children do worse, Institute of Education study finds.
• Learning a Language From an Expert on the Web. Article from NYTimes.com
• Microblogging in higher education. Research from Upper Austria University and others.

Games

• Study in BioMed Central of medical students attitudes towards video games.
• Women Set the Pace as Online Gamers from NYTimes.com report

Psychology

• Negative stereotypes have a lasting impact according to University of Toronto study (pdf).
• What your perceptions of others say about you – research from Wake Forest University (pdf).