This great video, “Chemical Party,” was created to promote careers in science, and is presented by Marie Curie. Or so the YouTube page indicates.

It’s a clever way of making what might seem dry and boring – the laws of atomic attraction – interesting and even funny.

And I’m archiving it here so I can show it to my kids when they’re a bit older.

Because careers in science are where it’s at. Seriously.

Thanks to Jason Millar for blogging about the video.

A whack of reviews in this week’s edition of the Georgia Straight.

The main feature includes my takes on L.A. Noire, Brink, and SOCOM 4.

Also appearing, capsule reviews of Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider Trilogy, and Gatling Gears.

In the June issue of Vancouver Magazine, I contributed to the cover story, “125 Reasons to Love Vancouver”.

My entry told the story of how Steve Rechtschaffner not only created the sport of boardercross, also known as SSX, but then turned it into a best-selling video game.

Because we invented an Olympic sport, and turned it into a video game

The trend in computer software has reversed. Where developers used to look at taking experiences from desktop computers to mobile devices, now they are looking at bringing successful mobile applications to your computers.

In last week’s Georgia Straight I look at the strategies Apple and Google are taking to leverage this digital distribution model made successful by mobile devices.

I can’t remember the last time I visited a retailer to purchase a computer program. And it’s been a couple of years since the software I bought came in a box. The next phase of this digital transformation is upon us, and we’ve got our mobile phones to thank for the convenience.

Also this week, a cautionary note for game developers looking to sell their Android software at Amazon’s Appstore.

The International Game Developers Association has issued an advisory about the distribution terms for Amazon’s Appstore for Android, calling on developers to make sure they “educate themselves on the pros and cons of submitting content to Amazon”.

In this week’s Georgia Straight I talk to Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch and Kirsten Forbes, the cofounders of Vancouver studio Silicon Sisters, about their first game, School 26.

Rarely is a video-game launch attended by teenage girls. But at the launch of School 26, a new game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android, half of the crowd were girls between the ages of 12 and 16.