• 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…

  • University

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    1–2 minutes

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    1 comment on University

    Interesting article from today’s New York Times, What a College Education Buys: Moreover, if you’re not planning on becoming, say, a doctor, the benefits of diligent study can be overstated. In recent decades, the biggest rewards have gone to those whose intelligence is deployable in new directions on short notice, not to those who are…

  • Lost and Found

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    1–2 minutes

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    After two years, the Cube has been found, and with it comes the end of Season 1 of Perplex City. A couple of days ago, we launched a new site at perplexcity.com (we call it the Puzzle Portal); it’s still in beta, but there are going to be some good changes over the next few…

  • Cars off the road

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    2–3 minutes

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    1 comment on Cars off the road

    M&S unveils carbon-neutral target (BBC News): M&S said the carbon savings it aimed to achieve under its plan would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road each year. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of environmental plans being measured in the number of cars taken off the road. I did a search on Google…

  • PowerPlay Golf

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    1–2 minutes

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    4 comments on PowerPlay Golf

    From BBC News Online: In PowerPlay Golf, each green has two holes instead of one, with a black flag denoting a more difficult pin placing and a white flag the easier one. Over nine holes, players have to make three powerplays where they have to go for the harder option. (…) Other innovations being considered…