Think there are too many YouTube videos?
Well, it seems there can never be too many – or certainly not within our lifetimes, even if the whole world took to uploading.
Take a look at this video by Tom Scott, then have some fun converting some numbers in your life to base 64.
I came across the most extraordinary game this weekend.
That Dragon, Cancer is about losing a child to a terminal illness.
It seems almost unimaginable that you could make a game out of that, but as I said, That Dragon, Cancer is an extraordinary game. It is a slow and beautifully designed world – and utterly compelling.
The trailer gives you a flavour, but even more affecting are the full game playthroughs on YouTube, where you can both see the game-play and the emotional response of the players.
I have experienced empathy, compassion and grief through books, and through film, but somehow never imagined I would through a game. This has been an excellent lesson in the importance of challenging my pre-conceptions.
Talking to a friend today, we were discussing the joy of a bookshop – how, on the way to the sports section, you might happen upon a fabulous book on Persian cookery that you never knew you wanted.
Whilst Amazon is great for its reviews and “people who purchased this also purchased x” suggestions, it can never match up to the true serendipity of a bookshop find.
This is not a new theme for me – I’ve made similar complaints about Google. If you have a particular subject in mind, your search engine will lead you pretty directly to your target – usually within the first two or three links. It doesn’t know what you don’t know you want to know, so you don’t happen across that something else, that something you weren’t looking for, but which catches your eye anyway.
Or so I thought. But London Gardens has proved me wrong.
And what started as a reading of a very serious (and very informative, do take time to check it out) New York Times article on serendipity, has lead me (via #serendipty on Twitter) to a search for crocheted tortoise outfits.
The very epitome of serendipity.
Now, does anyone have a slightly chilly tortoise?
Taken from the Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman – well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already. As the YouTube comments point out Bowie understood the potential of the internet in a way that Paxman couldn’t begin to conceive.
Humbling.
https://twitter.com/matthaig1/status/686493244834852864
Today I learnt an important lesson about Twitter.
I spend my day at my desk in a 1970s semi in a small East Anglian market town. Until today Twitter has been my muse, bringing much needed stimulus from a world outside, where fun and interesting things are afoot. Twitter has been full of inspiration, but it has been about “them”, not about me. I have been looking on, not feeling a part of it.
Then today David Bowie died.
In my teenage years, I was obsessed with David Bowie. In a time without the internet, I tracked his incarnations back through the years on vinyl, played loud on the turntable in my bedroom. I read sleeve notes, wrote out lyrics and drew pencil portraits of the man. My choice of degree was influenced by a film I only went to see because it starred Bowie.
Today, Twitter has been more to me than a source of stimulation. Today Twitter has been a comfort. I’ve been able to see my feelings echoed in tweets from around the world. Where my local family and friends know little of the important part Bowie played in my formative years, I have been able to take part in the collective grief on Twitter.
And I realize I have been doing Twitter a dis-service in my attitude to it over the past few years.
I went to a talk on Friday, given by Christian Payne of Documentally, and came away with a quote scribbled in my notebook: “Be yourself in the space and the people that you are meant to be connected to will stick.” Today it has been reassuring to see how many of the people I follow online are of a like mind. I will stick with them.
And it has jarred where organisations have issued standard business promotion tweets with no reference to the news that is rocking my world.
I started with a tweet from @MattHaig that seemed to capture the Mindflea sentiment.
I’ll finish with one that captures what Bowie meant to me as a teenager more eloquently than I ever could.
https://twitter.com/matthaig1/status/686477267061633024
My diary declares today “break a resolution in spectacular fashion day”.
Let’s face it – if a resolution only makes it 5 days into the shiny new year, perhaps your heart wasn’t really in it.
But it’s not too late to try again. Check out 2016 – A good year – and get it right this time.
Still need convincing that Latin is more than a dead language of ancient texts and solemn monuments?
I wonder if J K Rowling could ever have foreseen where her degree in French and Classics would lead. See if you can spot its not so subtle influence (and a couple of cuckoos in the nest).
Check out a useful list of Harry Potter spell origins on the Harry Potter Wiki
Just discovered on Twitter, and a few days late (but still with 14 days to go), an advent calendar for Latin learning – brought to us by the fabulous Minimus mouse.
Follow Helen Forte on Twitter to get your daily dose – or check out the Minimus blog to catch up on what you have missed.
Underground is pure genius – a Nintendo Wii game that teaches essential skills to keyhole surgeons.
Never have I seen gamification so cleverly achieved.
Check out the game and its creator, Dr Henk ten Cate, in a clip from BBC’s Horizon.
the moving mind flea 