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The comedy art group Improv Everywhere have a mission to cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places. They are behind the well-known Food Court Musical as well as dozens of other elaborate setups and performances. They used to have someone pretend to be Ben Folds at piano bars in New York, until the real Ben Folds found out about it. Fortunately he loved it so much he invited them to make it a part of his concert performance, with hilarious results!
The group's latest outing involved getting a group of identical twins to ride on a New York subway car in such a way that they created a mirror image of each other, and then watching people's reactions. You can read how they did it here, and watch it below:
Matt is a video game designer from Brisbane who quit his job after he realised he was very bad at it and decided to spend his time travelling around the world. Everywhere he goes he records a video of himself dancing to various songs and posts the videos on YouTube.
He has been doing this for a few years now and has gathered a worldwide following. He has just released a new video of him dancing in 42 countries over 14 months. If you think it sounds weird or silly, well it is, but watch it and I defy anyone not to have a big grin on their face by the end of it.
We've already had a look at the money system and how it isn't what you think - which of our other rarely questioned social institutions needs a new perspective? Well there's the ridiculous Gregorian calendar that we all use of course, but we'll leave that for another time.
Today it's maps. We've all seen maps of the world, right? We never question those. Most of the world maps we see are based on the Mercator projection, named after Gerhardus Mercator who designed it in 1569 to aid sea travel by assisting sailors in drawing straight lines from port to port.
The Mercator map is great, it's just wrong. This got a run on The West Wing (one of my favourite shows), and while the organisation represented in the following video is fictitious, the information is not. Watch below, it'll blow your mind...
What have maps got to do with social equality? Here's a follow up scene from the same West Wing episode:
Of course the only map of the world without distortion is a globe, but if something as innocent as a map can have bias and subtext, well that sure makes you think, and thinking is a Good Thing™
Apple's first Australian retail store opens in Sydney tonight, changing forever the landscape of the computer experience in Australia.
While I can't go to the opening myself, thousands of others will and indeed some loyal fans have been queueing* outside the store a full 24 hours or more before it opens.
If you've ever wondered what could possibly entice people to queue outside a computer shop for 24 hours, including some who have flown halfway around the world to do so, have a listen to this segment on ABC radio. Several of the people lining up outside the Apple Store are interviewed and discuss what it's all about, including Anthony Agius, who runs Australia's popular MacTalk website (and used to be an employee of mine).
The Apple Stores are the best retail experience you could ever imagine. Free training, free use of all the products, free internet, wireless purchasing, make an appointment to ask a genius anything, free, workshops, seminars and guest appearances by movie directors and rock bands. I spend many hours geeking out in them while I was in San Francisco earlier this year.
*Incidentally, did you know queueing is the only word in the English language with five consecutive vowels?
Below is the solution to the probability puzzle I posted a couple of days ago. If you have not seen the puzzle, go here to read it.
So is it better to switch doors or keep your original choice? If you said it makes no difference because the chance of picking the car is the same, you are wrong! In fact, it is better to switch. Switching doors will give you a 2 in 3 chance of picking the car, whereas staying with your original choice will only get you the car 1 out of 3 times.
What? How can that be? It should be 50/50 right? Certainly lots of people thought so, including hundreds with Ph.D.s who wrote in and complained when the answer was first published by Marilyn vos Savant in Parade magazine. Nevertheless, the 2 in 3 probability of winning when switching can be proved fairly simply as follows:
It has come to be known as The Monty Hall Problem - read more about it here. If you enjoyed the puzzle let me know!
Over 1,000 people with Ph.D.s got this question wrong when it was first published in a magazine. I did too. How smart are you?
You are on a game show on television. On this game show the idea is to win a car as a prize. The game show host shows you three doors. He says that there is a car behind one of the doors and there are goats behind the other two doors. He asks you to pick a door. You pick a door but the door is not opened. Then the game show host opens one of the doors you didn't pick to show a goat (because he knows what is behind the doors). Then he says you have one final chance to change your mind before the doors are opened and you get a car or a goat. So he asks you if you want to change your mind and pick the other unopened door instead.
Which gives you better odds of picking the car? Changing doors or sticking with the one you picked originally?
The 17-month presidential primary campaign for the Democratic Party has been compressed down to 8 minutes in an amusing and informative video produced by Slate, in the style of the 'Lost in 8 Minutes' video the show's producers made to help people catch up to this year's new season.
