I’m an old-school SLR guy. I like big, heavy cameras that I can swing from the shoulder strap to scare thugs away. So I was pretty skeptical of a point-and-shoot, even a high-end model. But when the 14.7-megapixel Canon G10 arrived, I was surprised at how sturdy it is (and still slips into my shirt pocket!). Without glancing at the instruction manual, I popped in the battery and a little SD card from my wife’s point-and-shoot and headed out. Right away I was thrown back to being eleven years old again, taking pictures just because I could. It was pure joy.
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Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?