I’ve heard The Internationale in French, Russian, and English, but I have to say this version’s so groovy it made me laugh, even though I’m not a communist. Tony Bambino the Internationale (via YouTube)
Author: cjbickford
Andrew’s Last Storytime
I felt like I was witnessing the end of an era (or at least a phase of Kelly’s life) when her favorite storytime presenter, Andrew, announced he would be moving on to other things. In perspective, the timing was right: we’ve been going to see him almost every week for over 3 years, from when…
Good Friday and the Cologne Knight
One of the nice things about having my daughter at a Christian school is that we have to learn more about Christianity. And this learning, in turn, has given me a bigger picture on customs, traditions, and allusions in western civilization. Today, Kelly sang with her class during the early Good Friday service at the…
Our Last Day at Gathering 4 Gardner 9
By Sunday, things were beginning to slow down, though Neil was still disappointed that we’d overslept so he missed the first 20 minutes of Sunday’s talks. During the first break, we went to the exhibition room, where the artists and puzzlers were taking down their exhibits. I’d admired Jenine Mosley’s clever shapes, made completely out…
Mathematicians Playing with Space and Time
One thing I discovered at Gathering 4 Gardner is that mathematicians (not to mention magicians) really love playing with space and time. I had barely gotten there when I met a Swiss person who is actually Japanese; and a Japanese person who is actually Irish. To my knowledge, Neil is (probably) the only child who…
Party at Tom and Sarah’s
On Saturday afternoon, we loaded ourselves onto several buses which went over to Tom and Sarah’s house, where we could see the mathematical art, and participate in building some new sculptures. Soon enough Neil got to work on what he called a “Hilbert Curve,” a sculpture which eventually ended up looking like this: Julian came…
Neil Trips Up a Magician
On Friday at G4G9, magician Derek Hughes asked Neil to come on stage with him for his act. Unfortunately for Derek, Neil has spent the morning listening to talks from illusionists on perspective and misdirection. My video is just awful, but the dialogue between the two of them is great: Derek has made Neil promise…
Hackers Hacking Conway’s Game of Life
There were only a few talks scheduled for Saturday morning, since we were all going off to the party at Tom’s house that afternoon, but they were very good talks. Al Seckel, who wrote Neil’s favorite illusions book, gave a talk about the Nature of Belief: how our own biases affect our perception, and how…
The Puzzlers’ Philosophy
G4G9 invited both those who like to make puzzles, and those who try to solve them. So when I had the chance to speak to one of the puzzle-solvers, Joe DeVincentis, I asked him how he goes about solving puzzles. He told me the first step is to figure out what kind of a puzzle…
Neil Meets Wolfram
Towards the end of the Friday lectures, I left Neil to go up to the hotel room and clean myself up for dinner. I dawdled, so when I went down, the G4G9 attendees were scattered, and I was unable to find Neil anywhere. Sure that we’d crossed paths, I set myself at the cocktail party,…