'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

Go here to find out more.

Tuesday 30 April 2013

It's Graduation Time!


My daughter graduated two weeks ago.  She can now write 'B.Tour' (Bachelor of Tourism) after her name.  I'm so proud of her.  It was a three-year full-time degree.



Sunday 28 April 2013

Being Happy 3: Feed the Eels

Click and drag - call them to you, move them around.  Fun!

http://js1k.com/2013-spring/demo/1479

Brought to you this Saturday courtesy of 'How to be Happy' by Jay from the Depp Effect.


Thank you for the link to the experimental game site, Flatattack.

Friday 26 April 2013

Tactile Drawing Invention

James Gurney, artist and illustrator of the 'Dinotopia' books, has posted about a great, although simple little invention: The Lensen Tactile Drawing Kit.
I was fascinated and thought how useful this could be for the sight impaired.


As the pen is pulled over the page, a spindle unwinds wool which is drawn out and sticks itself to the velcro surface.  This creates a tactile drawing that is 'feelable' to those who don't see well.  The uses are numerous and beyond just art.  For example, as shown on the video clip, cursive writing can be created,  geometry shapes and other maths too.

And it's just made of wood!



  Video link

Here is the link to their 'Start some Good' crowdfunding page.
There are only nine days to go for them to reach their target.

Thursday 25 April 2013

Time-Lapse - Google Street View.

I can waste hours on Google maps.  I love to travel along French roads, soar over the Australian outback, 'climb' mountains in Patagonia or amble along London streets.

Here at last is the result of someone's long hours compressed, so I can enjoy it quicker!


Google Street View Hyperlapse from Teehan+Lax Labs on Vimeo.

Thanks  for the link Flatattack

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Oh Lawdy! Grandmother looks at 3-D Game

This is what I am like already!  What will I be like (and what wonders will I be seeing!?) when I am 90?



A Comment off YouTube:
This woman is my mother, and believe me, she has been young as long as I have been alive. Until last year she drove a red mustang convertible and got pulled over a lot for speeding. She would always tell the officer,"Really? Do I look like somone who would drive that fast? I think your radar is broken." Most of the time she got away with it...I love my mom. I'm glad so many people loved the video.

Note:  This video has, as of today, been viewed more than 1.5 million times.  It was posted 10 days ago.

Sunday 21 April 2013

Mathematics


When I was a kid, I was scared of maths.  To use a metaphor, it was a mysterious dark lake with a couple of bloated bodies, dead sticks, decomposing leaves, and lurid green duckweed* floating on the surface.
My teachers would smile excitedly at the beginning of each new type of maths, sit me on the ducking stool and and entice me under the surface with happily familiar words, teasingly offered bait, like 'triangle' and 'x' and 'origin'. But below the surface these words were appended to really scary new words like 'cosine' and 'calculus' and 'vector'.

When I got to university, carefully choosing geography, zoology and psychology for their presumed total lack of maths content (having gained a dismal 24% on my university bursary mathematics paper), I was confronted with not one term each year of the dreaded Statistics, but three!

But there is a happy ending to this story.  The patient support of my tutors and thrice repeating the same information each year was all I needed.  By the end of my fourth year, and four times three equals twelve terms of stats, I was top of my class and swimming joyfully in the crystal clear, albeit refreshingly icy, lake of maths.

Of course I have forgotten ninety percent (plus or minus three standard deviations) of all the stats I ever knew, but I am now completely unalarmed by it.

I have recently stumbled upon a short vid clip that echoes my feelings towards maths these days. So, I invite you to sit back, get a warm beverage of your choice, have the sound on, smile and plunge in, clicking on the clip below.  Be not afraid.  It's pretty.




* Lemnoideae spp.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Are You Mad?

When I was about 13, being a child prodigy, I invented the ink blot test long before Rorscharch thought of it. I made some symmetrical prints and surreptitiously tested my family's sanity  because I had some leftover tubes of watercolour paint and they just looked pretty.

I recently discovered them again.  Here they are, as much for my personal record as for anyone's viewing pleasure.  Although I hope you do enjoy them, on some deeply disturbed level.

PS. I have numbered them, in case you have some reaction to any/some and cannot restrain yourself from sharing it in the comments.


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