Svengali 2012: Milton Keynes and Torquay Tickets now on sale!
The following venues for Svengali 2012 are now on sale:
27, 28, 29 Feb and 1, 2, 3 March – Milton Keynes Theatre
26, 27, 28 April – Princess Theatre, Torquay
You can find a complete listing of announced tour dates so far over on the main site (click here)
3 Man Chess – the ultimate brain busting chess game
Finally, a Chess variant board has been developed that accommodates three players, without compromising ANY of the rules, strategies, or competitive challenges that make Chess the best board game in the world. The only changes from conventional chess are some protocol issues that must be followed to maintain order where the teams border each other, which is simple and necessary. Also, please notice that the trajectory lines orienting from the outer rank, are simply visual aids to help guide diagonal moves passing through the center.
If the path is clear, a diagonal move starting from the outer rank can pass through the center and sweep back around to where it originated. The complexities of the third player are infinite. Your threatened piece may be allowed to maintain occupancy as your position is beneficial to the threatening player. But how long can it last? This scenario may exist all over the board.
There are multiple trust and doubt situations between all players. An unexpected move might well result in a cascading massacre. Defense is crucial since a diagonal move through the center, or a horizontal move around the center can sneak up behind you. A player can be checkmated by a combination of both other players or ultimately one player can checkmate both other players at the same time.
Stephen Hawking: ‘There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story’
In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain’s most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time. Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today.
The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms arising, an outlook that turned the young scientist to Wagner, but ultimately led him to enjoy life more, he has said, despite the cloud hanging over his future.
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first,” he said. ”I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” he added.
Hawking’s latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, The Grand Design, in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe. The book provoked a backlash from some religious leaders, including the chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, who accused Hawking of committing an “elementary fallacy” of logic.
Full Article at Guardian Science
How Twitter helped doctors during Japanese disaster
Doctors in Japan used Twitter to coordinate medical assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March this year.
In a letter to The Lancet this week, Yuichi Tamura and Keiichi Fukuda of the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo say the social networking service played a significant role in triumphing over the disaster.
The pair explain the earthquake made it difficult to ensure a continuous supply of drugs for their patients suffering chronic diseases such as pulmonary hypertension. With phone lines unreliable but internet connections still working, they turned to Twitter to help inform people where to get their medicine.
Tamura set up an account, @ut1tamura, three days after the disaster and tweeted information from his hospital computer, providing messages in Japanese such as “Patient can get the orphan drugs for pulmonary hypertension in XX hospital” or “Patient should keep additional oxygen tanks preparing for electrical power interruption, and can get tanks by XX”.
Retweeting meant the messages spread rapidly and ordinary Twitter users were quick to lend a hand. “Not only patients but also other general persons provided retweets,” says Tamura.
This stream of information combined with drug deliveries to patients by medical staff meant that all of their patients received the treatment they needed.
Via NewScientist
‘Hero’ Jack in Boxes up for auction
Matt Galley, star of ‘Hero at 30,000 ft’, is auctioning for charity the first two of the three jack-in-the-boxes left at his doorstep during the filming of the special.
Here’s what he says on his eBay page:
Hello my name is Matt Galley,
Last year i had the fantastic opportunity to be part of a Derren Brown special called Hero At 30,000…I was an ordinary guy looking for a break and a bit of a helping hand…
I found an advert to be part of Derren’s show and i knew that if i was going to break out of my habits then, as a life long Derren Fan, he would surely be able to help me.
For those of you who saw the show you will know that Derren left cool little Jack-In-The-Box’s on my door step to show my progress through the transition from zero to hero
I want to try and help someone in need like Derren did me, so as a result i would like to auction off two of the props so that i can raise some money for SAVE THE CHILDREN who help young children in Africa get clean water, mosquito nets and a education.
So if you are a Derren fan, and want to get your hands on a small piece of his history then please let’s raise as much as we can!!
Thanks to you all,
Matt
TED Open Translation Project – Year 2
Today is the 2-year anniversary of the Open Translation Project! To date, our volunteer translators have created over 18,000 translations of TEDTalks in 81 languages. The above lecture is from the man who invented the World Wide Web, Tim Burners-Lee. He beautifully demonstrates how about how open source language and information projects are changing the world.
Added to this are Chinese subtitles by Jenny Yang who said “The year open data went worldwide is the most mindset-changing talk I’ve translated because I believe enabling and allowing people to access open data helps ordinary people see the truth”.
More brilliant examples over at TED
NASA captures comet smashing in to the Sun
NASA released this stunning video of a huge comment smashing in to the Sun. Though NASA states that you can’t actually see the comet hit the Sun (the impact is blocked out by the red occulting disk that allows the other structures in the Sun’s corona to be seen) the ensuing explosion gives a pretty good idea of what’s going on.
The Sun’s position is indicated by the white circle in the video.
More at the NASA Facebook page
Why did the three-toed sloth cross the road?
The best bit is when they pick Mr Sloth up and he thinks he’s Superman.
2011 Optical Illusion Top 10
For those of you who like optical illusions, you’ll love the finalists in the 2011 Optical Illusion of the Year (yes it’s true).
The above illusion comprises a morphing sequence between two faces. The observer has to fixate a dot superimposed on the morph. When the dot is moving, morphing can hardly be seen. However, when the dot suddenly stops, the morphing appears surprisingly strong. Subtle differences in, e.g., the shape of the eyes, the color of the skin, and even gender characteristics are ‘blown-up’ perceptually. Apparently, such differences between faces are easily overlooked when following a moving-dot, but are highly salient when our eyes rest at a single point on the morphing faces.
To see the Top 10 Finalists simply prep your eyeballs and click here.
“Amazing” magnetic boy from Croatia
According to the Daily Mail, Ivan Stoiljkovic is much like any other six-year-old boy in his city, apart from the fact he weighs as much as a fully grown man. He’s currently in the spotlight for his “amazing magnetic abilities”, just watch this video where he demonstrates this incredible ability to stand at awkward angles and balance objects on his rubbery skin whilst covered in lemon juice.
His family claim that he has the ability to magnetically stick up to 25kg of metal to his body including frying pans, spoons and plastic TV remote controls to his body.
They also claim he has unusual strength and even healing powers. So far he’s not yet developed the ability to fly and turn water in to wine, but we’re sure this may happen as soon as interest wains.
