Atari founder and serial entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell says that he plans to disrupt education with a new startup aimed at teaching youngsters using technology and game-like educational programs. Speaking at this week’s GamesBeat 2011 conference, Bushnell was coy in revealing details on his new educational initiatives, but he did say that he would get his foot in the door when the state of California finally goes bankrupt in two years.

"What am I working on?” he said, speaking vaguely of his educational system. "I want to fix education in the world. As soon as I work on that, I am going to work on world hunger and then world peace."

Bushnell said the in the future all schools will end up using game metrics to teach children. Then he offered his dire prediction on California's future:

Electronic Arts founder and Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins has accused Nintendo of presiding over what he calls a "feudal dark age" in the industry in which developers "don't own the land that they are tilling." He has a point, but Nintendo certainly isn't the only platform holder guilty of that.. At GamesBeat in San Francisco today, Hawkins talked at length about the power of platform holders and how they often limit creativity in comparison to open platforms.

"Look at the world wide web and how many great companies have been built on that open platform," he said. "Nintendo is a great, amazing company, but how many companies have been built on the back of Nintendo's platform in the past 25 years?"

Rod Humble once swam in the fantasy waters of EverQuest, he lived in the virtual worlds of The Sims, and now he dwells in the hodge podge of Second Life. The former Sony Online Entertainment and EA Play employee is now the CEO of Linden Lab. Humble takes over the role left vacant by Mark Kingdon , who stepped down from the position in June.

"Joining Linden Lab is a very exciting opportunity," said Humble. "I have a long standing interest in the how the boundaries of society and economics change as communications evolve in new ways. Second Life is unique: it sits at the intersection of virtual worlds, avatars, and human contact. The Residents and developers of Second Life have built something very special, I am honored to join the talented team at Linden Lab to help expand this new frontier."

An article in The Guardian features the comments of Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, who has some ugly things to say about Google's new ChromeOS operating system. A few years ago, Stallman warned that making use of cloud-based computing was "worse than stupidity" because it put user data in the hands of those that operated the servers.

This week he is calling Google's ChromeOS a scheme to "push people into careless computing" by forcing them to save a minimum amount of data locally. He also says that he is deeply concerned because it takes private data and puts it out into the "cloud," which law enforcement agencies in the United States have easier access to:

Publishers Clearing House did something bizarre this week and it did not involve a gigantic check. The sweepstake company and magazine seller bought Funtank, an online video game company that is best known for creating advertising-based games (adver-games) for companies such as Trident, Walt Disney, and Toyota.

Financial terms related to the acquisition were not disclosed but we do know that Funtank co-founders James Baker and Scott Tannen will continue to run the company.

While the motives for this purchase are not fully understood, one could guess that Publishers Clearing House is looking for new and exciting ways to engage people on the Internet and get them to buy whatever their marketing partners are pushing to them. Since gaming is second only to social networking according to Nielsen, the deal makes a lot of sense.

In order to complement the classes it offers on video game culture and history, Stony Brook University is in the throes of amassing an archive of videogames.

The student newspaper of the Long Island, New York-based school documents the efforts, which began with the acquisition of six historic consoles—the Atari 2600, a ColecoVision, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a Super Nintendo, a Sega Genesis and a Nintendo 64. These systems will eventually be able to be played in a the Central Reading Room of the university’s library, while a permanent display of additional videogame material, from box art to magazines, will take up residence in the library’s Special Collection’s room.

A new project co-founded by a Carnegie Mellon University graduate student is creating educational games for extremely affordable computers that are gaining popularity in developing nations.

PlayPower grew from an idea Derek Lomas had while attending a conference in India, where he noticed that families were snatching up $12 computer systems right and left. The 8-bit computers are not very powerful, but the processor that powers the PC (the MOS 6502, which powered the Apple II and Nintendo NES) is in the public domain, meaning that development is relatively easy and inexpensive.

Lomas told the Post Gazette, “It doesn't require a $50 million development budget to make a great game.”

The PlayPower team is currently at work on three games, two of which feature the Hindu deity Hanuman. One Hanuman-starring title will teach users how to type, with the hopes that such a skill could translate into better job opportunities, while the second is a multiple-choice quiz-type game. The third title in development will try to raise awareness of malaria.

Lomas added, “I think that many of the more powerful educational effects of the system can be in the way it changes a kid's interest and ambitions.”

Lomas anticipates that all three games can be finished this year. He also hopes to build a relationship with those selling the computers so that PlayPower’s software can be bundled in.

Over 1,000 volunteers from around the world are already on-board to assist in game development. PlayPower also hopes to harness the growing 8-bit retro community for assistance in future releases.

Joystiq has an interview with Trent Reznor talking with the Nine Inch Nails front man about the games he grew up on, how much he sucks at Rock Band and the game character he most identifies with (Link).

Reznor also discussed his experience with pitching a videogame to publishers:

And as first time people in a pitch meeting, it was kind of depressing. Depressing to see that the people in control of those studios and publishers are much the same as the people sitting at record companies.

When asked about any similarities between the indie videogame and indie music industries, Reznor called the iPhone platform “inspiring,” and added that he likes what he sees from the Xbox, noting, “they're providing a place to get indie games and you don't have to hack your system or fight updates to get those games on it."

Indie musician Ryan Adams has also been active lately on the videogame front, writing for The Awl website over the past month. His rambling posts center on videogame titles and systems from the past, while interjecting plenty of obscenities and pop culture references.

A take from Adams on Q*bert:

Anyway, there are two ways I am thinking about Q-Bert now, either if videogames were around when making Exile on Main Street maybe it would have been a single album or that maybe it would have been longer.

Give the creator of this YouTube vid an A for effort as he stretches to pull in patriotic elements to what amounts to video reviews of a pair of NES titles:

• Xenophobe

• Golgo 13

With the Independence Day weekend upon us here in the United States, we note that News4U has posted its list of 5 Patriotic Video Game Moments.

The list is interesting and contains some games that will surprise you. The five patriotic scenes named come from:

• Freedom Fighters
• Animal Crossing
• Fallout 3
• Super Off-Road
• Bad Dudes

From the Bad Dudes (NES) description:

After rescuing the prez [GP: Bush #1], he says the most American thing the developers could think of: “Hey dudes, thanks for rescuing me. Let’s go for a burger…Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” You’re then treated to a scene with the president eating a burger in front of the White House. Apparently it was decided to beef up security after the ninja incident, since there is a wall of Secret Service agents behind both of you as well. Oh, and of course Old Glory is showing her colors the whole time the credits roll.

Check out the video clip at left to see the Bad Dudes ending.

On the one hand, you've got Madden 2009 with its highfalutin player ratings, realistic NFL playbooks and updated team stats. As we have mentioned elsewhere, Madden makes like a ouija board and guesses that the Steelers will win today's big game.

But here at GamePolitics, we'd like something a little more dependable before we risk the kids' college funds. 

Little plastic football players who spin in circles on a vibrating metal platform seem like just the thing to give us more confidence in our wager.

Yes, we're talking electric football here. But where are the Super Bowl predictions from the cult-like world of the old school game?

Electric football die-hards have their own Super Bowl, but we need them to predict the outcome of the real one. Hopefully, before kickoff...