Ladies & Gentlemen, The Page Turner!

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Joseph Herscher is what’s called a “Kinetic Artist” (don’t worry, I never knew such an artist existed either!) or more commonly known as Rube Goldberg, but he makes those cool videos where you see everyday objects connect with each other to perform a task or just see how energy is transferred from one object to the next.

The video above is his latest work; if you are curious on how all the things connect in the video, you’ll want to check out how to turn a page, the Joseph Herscher way.

I did some googling on our Mr. Herscher and it appears he is quite famous on the old Internetz and he’s a fellow New Zealander! He was the guy who was responsible for the How to Destroy a Cadbury Creme Egg video a few years ago. Amazing how small the world is sometimes, anyway, check out some of his other work over at Joseph’s website.

Mogees – Make any surface a Musical Instrument

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For all the air guitarists or surface tappers like me, this product is for you! Designed by Bruno Zamborlin for his Arts and Computational PhD project, Mogees lets you put a small microphone onto any surface, be it a table, wall or even a tree and then using various gestures, make different sounds that gets emitted from the surface. Then when you tap on the surface, the microphone picks up how far away it is and on what part of the surface.

The tone of the synthesised sound is influenced by the actual sound picked up on the microphone. So you could use the same gesture — for example a tap — in different places on the surface and it would create the sound in a different key.

Sounds like fun *bass drum and crash symbol*

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude

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(Photo Source)

I think people with the right mental attitude are amazing. They can envision the light at the end of the tunnel and put into motion the steps in order to get there. But what encompasses the “right” mental attitude? Here are just 3 attributes I believe contribute to this:

1. Staying positive

Being in London has taught me that the world is a highly competitive space. I knew it already, but knowing and experiencing it are two entirely different things. People will always tell you what you can and cannot do. People will often make decisions and they can affect you negatively. If anything, you gotta look at things half full, otherwise it’s very easy to fall into a world of regret, hurt and self pity.

The right mental attitude

Not overthinking things too much and not always taking bad news as gospel. There are always two sides to every story.

The wrong mental attitude

Panicking and taking hasty action on issues and problems that arise without thinking them through. Negative emotions playing the dominant role

2. Open mindedness

When we were all cavemen, our minds all thought alike – food, water, shelter, safety = survival. As our race has progressed, our minds diverge – politics, left wing, right wing, gay marriages, occupy wall street, etc… And I believe that in today’s world, it’s even more important to be open minded about things; when you open your mind, you open yourself to the rest of the world.

The right mental attitude

With an open mind, you can see solutions to a problem in a different way. Don’t get bogged down by one train of thought, hop on the many channels of thought that are available to you. Can’t solve a logical problem? Add in a bit of creativity and you’ve married art and science together.

The wrong mental attitude

I think the worst thing a person can do is NOT opening their mind up to the possibilities. This results in things such as war, racism and hatred and not being able to see how things are when the shoe is on the other foot.

Arguing with a fool only proves there are two

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3. Seeing the bigger picture

I think because we can be such individual creatures, that it’s difficult sometimes to see how you yourself fit into the wider picture, be it at work, sports or society as a whole. Sometimes I find myself doing mundane tasks and I ask myself, “WTF am I doing?” Then I take a step back and think what my contribution is doing to help a project, client, society, whatever and things become clearer.

The right mental attitude

Being able to see the bigger picture or the end goal will help you put things into perspective; with the world the way it is now, I think we could all do with some. Think of how your small actions could affect the wider context of things, how a decision or action could impact an individual or many in a positive or negative way.

The wrong mental attitude

I think people who can’t see the bigger picture can be stubborn, stuck in their old ways and can often come across as somewhat selfish. They can only see what they’re doing and can’t see beyond the thick fog.

Summary

These 3 attributes are by no means a comprehensive list of attributes, but I think they provide a good basis for further discussion. Having the right mental attitude grows ever more important in today’s society as having just the right skills may help you with your work, but may not help you rise through the ranks and may even shut the doors on possible opportunities.

Allan’s Weekly Pick Up Line – Week 1: My friend’s call me Allan

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After revealing my love of funny/lame/stupid/whatever pick up lines to my graduate training colleagues, I thought I’d make a weekly email that shares one of my favourite pick up lines every week. Whilst coming up with it, I thought it might be funny to add in a video too. What you see above is the end result. I’ll start sharing these each week :)

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind

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The London riots currently happening is a perfect example of Gandhi’s famous “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”. From what I gather, the amount of violence and looting that has ensued from a guy being killed unjustly by a cop is just ridiculously out of proportion. Whether or not Mark Duggan (the guy who got killed) was in the wrong or not. Burning down people’s homes, business and property doesn’t rectify an accidental shooting.

There’s an article in the Guardian covering the London riots where Duggan’s fiancee says:

… the family had not wanted trouble, only answers. “When we were outside the police station last night we wanted someone to come out. We want some answers. I have not even told my children that he is dead because we cannot give them any answers.” Of the violence, Wilson said: “I am not happy about what has happened. We didn’t want this trouble. We wanted some answers.”

Which is really really sad if you think about it. The scary thing was, I think people were looking for a reason to riot. I wish I had taken more notice of it before, but there was a small poster stuck onto a pole near Aldgate station where there was a picture of a man’s face covered up with a slogan along the lines of “get ready to riot”, and that was it. No additional information or anything. I’m really worried that people just randomly went for any reason they could find.

I found this video of a lady who I think sums up everyone’s anger and disgust -

Keep up to the latest with the London riots 2011 here