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Monday Links from the Science Park vol. LCXXXVI

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    Monday Links from the Science Park vol. LCXXXVI

    Driving down this morning, I had to put my lights on due to the overcast, misty day. Just walked outside, and it's like an oven Best to stay inside:
    • Save the Movie! - "If you’ve gone to the movies recently, you may have felt a strangely familiar feeling: You’ve seen this movie before. Not this exact movie, but some of these exact story beats... what few people know is that there is actually a formula—one that lays out, on a page-by-page basis, exactly what should happen when in a screenplay. It’s as if a mad scientist has discovered a secret process for making a perfect, or at least perfectly conventional, summer blockbuster." The formula comes from a 2005 book by screenwriter Blake Snyder. Just to prove the point, Peter Suderman wrote this article following the formula: here's a version with the individual "beats" itemised corresponding to the list.

    • Bob Mazzer On The Tube - Great collection of photos taken on the Tube by photographer Bob Mazzer in the 1980s.

    • Readme Driven Development - "I hear a lot of talk these days about TDD and BDD and Extreme Programming and SCRUM and stand up meetings and all kinds of methodologies and techniques for developing better software, but it's all irrelevant unless the software we're building meets the needs of those that are using it... Fine. So how do we solve this problem?" Tom Preston-Werner proposes an intriguingly simple approach: "Write your Readme first."

    • How to Travel: 21 Contrarian Rules - "The purpose of travel, like all important experiences, is to improve yourself and your life. It’s just as likely–in some cases more likely–that you will do that closer to home and not further... I don’t take it as self-evident that going to a given famous place is an accomplishment in and of itself. There are just as many fools living in Rome as there are at home." Ryan Holiday offers some thoughts on how to travel so that it enriches your life, rather than merely taking up a period of it.

    • Why are these caterpillars climbing over each other? The surprising science behind the swarm. - "Imagine you’re deep in the Amazon rainforest, and you come across this.. thing. It’s a group of caterpillars, moving in a formation known as a rolling swarm." It turns out this technique results in every caterpillar moving, on average, more than twice as fast as it could on its own: all demonstrated with Lego, video-tracking software and a bit of maths

    • The Path to Monochroma: Platformer Design Elements - Orcun Nisli, of Nowhere Studios, offers an exceptionally detailed look at the many elements that go into making a good platformer game: "...before going into depth with puzzle-platformers, I examined the whole platformer genre with its sub-mechanics. My first target was a long-term game research study of 300+ platformer games that varied from past releases to new games."

    • The lost Marshall McLuhan tapes - "A recently discovered interview shows media guru McLuhan is still topical, even prescient." Indeed: "The biggest job in the world will be espionage. Around the world, people are spending more and more of their time watching the other guy. Espionage at the speed of light will become the biggest business in the world. But the CIA and the FBI are really old hat using old hardware by comparison to what’s coming, in which everybody earns pocket money by watching his own mom and dad or his brothers and sisters."

    • Exploring the Abandoned Victorian Toilets Beneath Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens - "This series of photographs reveals a dilapidated yet striking subterranean space, where ornate Victorian tiling and mosaics remain in reasonable condition despite years of neglect. Closed to the public in 2000, the former lavatories, almost semi-circular in shape, are tucked away under the Union Bridge, directly below a statue of Edward VII."

    • 1st Air Force One fades in Marana - "The aircraft that once spirited President Dwight D. Eisenhower on cross-country voyages now sits in a field that's part of Marana Regional Airport, decaying under the relentless glare of the sun." Its present owners are hoping to find a museum to house it, and backing for a restoration project.

    • What's Your Ex Doing Now? - Excellent side project from @twisteddoodles: "Because you want to know they're vaguely unhappy."



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Originally posted by zeitghost
    There used to be one of those underground loos opposite Swansea railway station.

    I think it disappeared when they changed the road layout, since the entrance was on an island in the middle of the road.
    Maybe it's still lurking under the surface? You could turn it into a secret underground lair

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
      Maybe it's still lurking under the surface? You could turn it into a secret underground lair
      DunGornin?
      Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

      Comment

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