The incredible educational world of Vi Hart

Despite my great love of knowledge, I despise pretty much anything labelled as "educational". I reserve a special hatred for everything termed "edutainment". And any time something is promoted as "making learning fun", I have an urge to punch people.

Usually when something is made to be educational and enjoyable, it fails on both fronts. Creativity and imagination are sacrificed for education and the learning is normally pitched so low and badly that you wonder at the level of mental retardation supposed of the consumer. When fun and education are combined, fun takes the back seat.

So I was very pleasantly surprised to encounter the work of Vi Hart. She actually explains mathematical concepts in a fun way. With Vi, the fun comes first, but rather cleverly the learning is intrinsic. Have a look at the following video which is a simple story for kids that deals with the concept of Möbius strips.





Wasn't that cool? I especially like the way she left the viewer to discover the end of the story for themselves and thus illustrating a further surprising quality of Möbius strips.

Now this might seem a little advanced for your moronic offspring, but what I think is surprisingly clever about Hart's videos are that they don't require children to understand the concepts at a technical level. The kids don't have to be told that a  Möbius strip is a chiral object with handedness and zero Gaussian curvature - they can gain an understanding of this stuff just by playing with it. As they grow up, when they encounter these concepts again from a mathematical standpoint, it'll be a lot easier for them as they have a practical and intrinsic knowledge of how this shit works.

You know what a Möbius strip is and you know that you can make one by sticking a half-twist in a strip of paper. But I'll bet you have no idea how to represent one mathematically like you do a triangle or a hexagon.  But then you never encountered Möbius strips until after you'd learned most of your mathematical knowledge and they were difficult to understand through the window of geometry. This kind of stuff is a lot easier to deal with if you first encounter it through the lens of play.





Well, I went a bit ranty there, didn't I? So ignore me and have a look at the video above which is all about mucking around with those snake toys that we've all used. I'm almost ashamed that I didn't figure out half the stuff that Vi manages to discover just by mucking around with them.

Do yourself a favour. Get that sprog of yours away from Peppa sodding Pig and try some of Vi's activities with them instead. You'll both get smarter and have a lot of fun in the process. Oh and Vi can explain exactly why Spongebob Squarepants is a twat... with mathematical proof.

Vi has a blog with lots of videos here:
http://vihart.com/


You can find out more about Vi herself in an article in the Noo Yoik Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/science/18prof.html

Comics: Oglaf

I'm always interested in a good online comic strip, but there really aren't that many that really grab my attention. My chum Matt pointed me at cracker though: Oglaf. It's set in a sort of medieval fantasy universe with other bits and pieces (like that Ponce de León strip above). There isn't an over-riding story as such, more a collection of small storylines, although there are times when there is a longer story arc.

It's frequently dodgy (in a not safe for work manner) but it's damn funny. And when I say it's a bit iffy... well, you probably wouldn't want your kids to be reading it. I've avoided posting any of the more explicit ones here - you'll just have to pop over to the website to see those.

What's quite surprising is that it's drawn by an Australian. Even more surprising is that the author is female. Trudy Cooper is a cartoonist, illustrator and animator and Oglaf is just one of her strips. She also publishes Platinum Grit, which has a different art style and is nothing like Oglaf.

If you're wondering about the title... it's actually the name of one of the characters in the strip. Oglaf is a young farm boy and also happens to be The Chosen One although it's never exactly clear for what he's been chosen.

There are a whole pile of recurring characters and sometimes the strip will follow one for several weeks, but just as often it'll skip back and forward without settling on a particular one. A new strip is published every Sunday and, if you read it via the RSS feed, it'll even tell you if it's 'clean' or not.

Some stories are just one page, but most have two or three. Be sure to click "next page" until you can't any more. Then you can click "next story" to move on.

When you reach the end of a story, the bottom right hand panel corner is cut off just so you're sure you haven't missed anything.

That's got to be my favourite one. The joke is just spot on and so underplayed that I find it brilliant.

Head on over to oglaf.com to catch up. There's about 250 strips for you to read (at the time of writing).
http://oglaf.com/

You might also want to check out Cooper's other comic here:
http://www.platinumgrit.com/

There's an interview with Trudy Cooper about Oglaf and other stuff here:
http://www.yuhmm.com/post/434279932/trudy-cooper

The streets are safe in Moscow

As we've seen recently, Russia's in a bit of a mess and Putin seems set to be in charge for life. Without any apparent sense of irony, he said in a speech the other day: "I promise you that all democratic gains of our people will without any doubt be upheld and guaranteed. We shall strengthen civil society and do everything to uphold media freedom."

Mmm, what a delight. Presumably all those riot police we've seen beating protesters are doing so to safeguard democracy.

Recently, one chap decided to test out the authorities and the very notion of safety on the streets of Moscow. He did it in a very simple way: by taking his AK47 for a walk. Despite walking past police, militia and soldiers in the centre of the city, no one stopped him or took any interest in what he was doing.

Yes indeed, whilst walking the streets with a protest sign will get you a trip to a hospital and/or a police station, strolling around with an assault rifle won't even arouse a second glance.

More photos of Comrade Ballsy can be seen on the excellent English Russia site:
http://englishrussia.com/2012/05/10/are-you-safe-in-moscow-streets/

F1: Williams garage catches fire at Spanish Grand Prix

Just after the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, a fire broke out in the Williams garage. Many are reporting that a KERS units ignited a fire in a fuel rig at the back of the garage. Pastro Maldonado's car was in Parc Fermé at the time, so only Bruno Senna's car was present.

Smoke poured out of the garage as pit crew rushed to contain the blaze. Although wheelchair-bound Sir Frank Williams was in the garage at the time, he was quickly rushed out the door without injury.

Several people required medical treatment after the fire was put out. Four members of the Williams team were injured at treated at the track's medical centre. One was released at that point, but the other three were sent on to the local hospital. The Caterham team in the next door garage also had casualties, with three of their crew treated for smoke inhalation and a fourth reported as having a hand injury. A Force India team member was also treated for smoke inhalation.

Bruno Senna's care was damaged in the blaze, but not as badly as initially feared.

Police and firefighters are investigating to find the cause of the fire. The next F1 race is at Monaco in two week's time.

Update:
The FIA have released a statement

Montmelo, May 13th - The FIA can confirm that a fire broke out in the Williams garage after the conclusion of the Spanish Grand Prix. The flames were quickly brought under control through the combined intervention of staff from Williams, Caterham and Force India, supported by the circuit fire services.
Thirty-one team members were seen by Circuit Medical Centre staff and all have been released, with the exception of seven who were transferred to a variety of local hospitals where they are receiving treatment.
The FIA is collaborating closely with the Spanish authorities investigating this incident and will be providing a further update as soon as more information becomes available.

Catalonia's regional government also issued a statement say that one person was airlifted to hospital in Barcelona with serious burn injuries. Williams have confirmed that this person is one of their staff.

Free Game Friday: Stunt Rally and Tricky Truck

I don't deliberately theme these game articles, but it seems to happen anyway.

Stunt Rally might not have the most original name, concept, execution or gameplay, but that isn't a bad thing. You drive a car jolly fast through a landscape and try not to screw up too much. It comes with an impressive 79 tracks spread over 11 different regions and it's even possible to play multiplayer.

Although the tracks are very much made for rallying, there's quite a variety and some of the loops and bridges and things are simply excellent fun. There's even a track editor if you feel a bit creative and the game is updated quite often.

Go here to get it (it's about 200MB):
http://code.google.com/p/vdrift-ogre/




Our other game today isn't quite as free. Tricky Truck does have a free version, but you need to cough up approximately eight quid for the full thing. You're actually best off playing the free version initially to see if it's your kind of thing. It's a challenging physics-based truck driving simulation.

The game is satisfyingly hard. The first couple of levels will seem a bit finicky and unnecessary, but you'll soon be trying some very challenging mountain tracks. Completing a level is... well, tricky and you'll feel a real sense of accomplishment in doing so. Failing may be frustrating, but it's one of those games where messing up is definitely your fault; you haven't been cheated, the game has not tricked you, you just turned that corner way too fast.





There's also a lot of enjoyment in taking a stupid risk and pulling it off or smashing and caroming your way around a track in a manner that you know you're not supposed to be able to. The first time I managed a track in a top fifty time, I was ridiculously pleased with myself. Playing on hard mode restricts you to views from within the cab which just adds to the fun sometimes. The best time I've scored on the first shorcuts track (24th place) was on hard. Hah!

Hang on a minute, lads. I've got a great idea

The free version limits you to one truck and only about ten tracks, but surprisingly does include features like the level editor. The full version gives you a lot more vehicle choice, many new tracks and a heck of a lot of other little fun bits and pieces that you can see some of in the video.

Grab it here (about 20MB):
http://www.gravitysensation.com/trickytruck/

Border security

There are few TV programmes that my wife enjoys more than all those customs and immigration shows. Her favourite has to be the Australian one Border Security. I quite like it for its ridiculously overblown attitude and stupid sense of self-importance. Just look at that subtitle: "Australia's Front Line" - it might just about be literally true, but taking plant cuttings out of the bags of tourists isn't quite the same as say, serving in the military in an actual conflict.

The introduction to the show bangs on about how this elite group of men and women have "dedicated their lives to protecting Australia's borders" whereas it might more accurately be termed "couldn't get a job anywhere else". But still, it is a bit of a laugh. My wife likes this Australian show the best because it has the highest proportion of Chinese people on it. And they're all guilty. Every single one of them has illicit food in their bags.

Every conversation between the customs agents and the Chinese travellers goes exactly the same way:

Customs Guy: Do you have anything in your bag that you ought not to have?
Chinese Traveller: No.
Let's have a look. Hey, there's lots of food in here.
I don't know anything about that.
You frigging do. It's your bag.
That food is all fine.
No it isn't. It's very much against our rules.
I don't know anything about that.
You frigging well do. You were given a card, in Chinese, that explained all the rules and you signed it to say that you'd read them and had nothing in breach of them.
I not understand card.
You bloody well did. And hey, this bag of sweets is made of Triffids! Do you realise that these could harm the delicate Australian ecosystem?
I not know about that.
What's happened to your English? You were fluent a minute ago...
Me know nothing.
Right, well, I'm going to let you off with a warning this time. But if you do this again, you might have to pay a small fine.

Loads of fun. I don't know why they don't just grab every single yellow person that goes through Australian airports as they all have food in their bags. It's like on those American highway patrol shows where every person they pull over for a routine traffic stop has dope in their car.

However, there is one border show that doesn't appear to have been made yet that really ought to be.

There you go TV bosses, that one's on me

Just imagine what that show would be like, eh? When Chinese customs agents find something dodgy in a bag, it's not going to be anything as pedestrian as a bag of noodles. And for a country that's not particularly interested in human rights, they'll probably do more than hand out fines and stern looks. Remember when that British guy got caught smuggling drugs, but he had learning difficulties or something and Gordon Brown ended up having to beg the Chinese (unsuccessfully) not to execute him? Wouldn't this be a great show? I'd watch it and I know the wife would. Wouldn't you like to see Chinese border guards kicking the shit out of student backpackers?

Let's have a look at some of the stuff Chinese border police have been up to recently:

Chinese border police seize ten severed bear limbs at Chongqing Airport

Chinese border police patrol Gobi desert on camels looking for Mongolian smugglers

Chinese border police capture fibreglass submarine full of cocaine. No, really

Are you sure you wouldn't like to watch that show? Heck, I couldn't find a picture of this one, but in 2007 the Chinese border police seized a shipment of 270 smuggled crocodiles. I particularly like that the article says "the seizure was the largest this year in Guangxi" - rather implying that it wasn't even the largest seizure of crocodiles in China that year and that the Guangxi region has seen larger hauls in other years.

Come on TV bosses, make it happen!

PS. According to my wife, the bear paws aren't used in medicine. They're just really tasty. There's a Chinese saying about bear paws that pretty much paraphrases the Furry Freak Brothers one about pot "Fish and bear paws are both great, but bear paws will get you through times of no fish better than fish will get you through times of no bear paws." Well, something like that. It's hard to translate. 

Unknown Chinese: Keye Luke

Although we're only tending to notice Chinese people showing up in our media now, there have been some that blazed the trail a long time ago. Keye Luke was one of those people and you've seen him in dozens of things and never noticed that it was the same chap. And he's an interesting fellow indeed.

Keye Luke (陸錫麟) was born in Guangzhou in the Cantonese-speaking part of China and thus has his name pronounced Luk Sek Lam. When he was still quite young, his family moved to Seattle. His father ran an art shop and Luke started off by working as an artist himself.

You'll have seen Grauman's Chinese Theater used as the venue of choice for many film premières (all the Star Wars films for a start) and it's the place with all the hand prints in the cement. It might seem these days that Grauman's is a horrendous mish-mash of Chinese styles, but actually many of the murals and decorations were created by Keye Luke.

Luke also designed many of the press packs for films (including the original King Kong here) and it was this work that got him into acting. RKO signed him as a contract actor.

One of Luke's first roles was as "Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films. Although the lead was taken by white actor Warner Oland in 'yellowface' makeup, Keye Luke became famous as Lee Chan. Many actors at the time struggled to establish themselves outside of such a role, but Luke appeared in a series of films for RKO, usually in action roles.

Although many people associate the role of Kato in the Green Hornet with Bruce Lee and think that he pioneered the part as a Chinese man, Keye Luke came before him and established Kato as an action character.

Keye Luke appeared in dozens of films and helped lend credibility to many Hollywood films that were ostensibly set in China. He continued to play Number One Son in the Charlie Chan films, even when the lead was changed to Roland Winters. Hilariously, thanks to his youthful oriental looks, Luke was actually several years older than Winters, who was playing his screen father.

Luke became a veteran Hollywood actor, regarded as a "safe pair of hands" often used to support upcoming actors in a variety of films. Here he is with Peter Lorre in Mad Love, Lorre's first film.

Yeah, that's Keye Luke in the original Star Trek series. In later years he was due to play the part of Noonien Soong in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but illness sadly prevented him from doing so and the part ended up being performed by Brent Spiner (Data).

Hanna Barbera made a cartoon version of the Charlie Chan stories and Keye Luke went full circle and provided the voice for Charlie Chan.

In the TV series Kung Fu, although the lead was taken by David Carradine, the part of the enigmatic Master Po was taken by Luke.

In another interesting part, Luke played Lord Sun Ming in the TV version of Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders. Detective/Judge Dee (aka Di Renjie) was an all-too-real official of the Tang dynasty who became known to the Western world through a series of novels written by Robert van Gulik.

One of my favourite parts that Luke played was that of Mister Wing in the Gremlins films. Despite being 80 years old at the time, Luke didn't look old enough and had to wear heavy make-up to make him resemble his true age. I've never had this confirmed, but I always presumed that the character was named after Luke's relative Wing Luke who was one of the very first Asians to hold public office in America, becoming Assistant Attorney General in Washington.

In one Scooby Doo episode, Keye Luke memorably played every part other than the gang in an admittedly Chinese- themed episode. And yeah, he would have gotten away with it too...

One of Luke's final roles was playing Zoltar the trans-gender/hermaphrodite alien bad guy in Battle of the Planets. Dubbed and edited from the extremely violent and profanity-laden Japanese original (Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), Battle of the Planets was a surprise success in the West and Zoltar a favourite character.

Keye Luke died in 1991. His body of work was incredibly varied and included many iconic characters, but he is virtually unknown to Chinese audiences, which is a bit of a shame. Hopefully in years to come, he'll be recognised in the East as the pioneer that he was.