• Religion in His Dark Materials

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    3–5 minutes

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    7 comments on Religion in His Dark Materials

    Philip Pullman, along with a couple of other people from New Line, gave an interesting talk at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday about the process of adaption The Golden Compass for the cinema. There was a bit of a thrill of seeing some effects shots for the first time, although it turned out to be…

  • The Secret of Christmas Lights

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    1–2 minutes

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    1 comment on The Secret of Christmas Lights

    ‘Largest’ Christmas tree lit up (BBC News): When lit up, the giant redwood will be visible on board flights approaching Gatwick Airport. Two electricians spent a day replacing all 1,800 light bulbs before a pair of cranes were brought in to put the lights on the tree at Ardingly. …Conservation manager Ian Parkinson told BBC…

  • Beating the Hive Mind

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    1–2 minutes

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    3 comments on Beating the Hive Mind

    “What’s this?” I asked, toying with a white cylinder with letters printed across it. “It’s a cryptex,” explained Eric Harshbarger, one of Mind Candy’s in-house puzzle designers. “Like the one from the Da Vinci Code.” In The Da Vinci Code, a cryptex is a cylinder with five wheels that can be rotated independently; each wheel…

  • Baba Yetu

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    3–5 minutes

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    7 comments on Baba Yetu

    Like other game designers, I don’t play a lot of games. I do have a Wii and a PS2, which sounds typical enough except for the fact that the only games I play on the PS2 are Katamari Damacy and Guitar Hero; Wii Sports and Warioware for the other console. Clearly I like quirky and…

  • GDC 2007, ARGFest, Google…

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    2–4 minutes

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    No comments on GDC 2007, ARGFest, Google…

    Updated with a link to my Google presentation. Flying from west to east, I can recover from jetlag at about 2.5 hours per day. This means that when I come back from San Francisco, 8 hours behind GMT, I take a little over three days to return to my normal circadian rhythm. I once read…

  • Fire Alert at Heathrow

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    3–5 minutes

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    1 comment on Fire Alert at Heathrow

    I was sitting in the lounge area of Terminal 3 in Heathrow when the PA system came on. “This is a security announcement. All passengers are reminded that baggage should-” A sharp beeping interrupted the message. “A fire alarm has been activated in your area. Please go to the nearest emergency exit immediately. A fire…