1,534 karma · joined June 20, 2014
This was not because it was a Google product (we used plenty of competitors' products) but because it is so easy to make them good enough for the task that you can move on to getting the job done instead of administrating getting the job done.
Plenty of people have gardens and land that is tended to multiple times through the day anyway (for gardening, animals, workshop activity etc).
However I'm sure there is a diverting puzzle game in here somewhere. I wonder if you used narrative language and symbolism unrelated to linear reversible circuit synthesis (but kept whatever mechanic is important) an average player might be able to grasp it more easily?
1. The sun (and moon and planets and many stars) rises in the east.
2. The east represents what is to come. This manifests in natural (day / night cycles) and cultural (timezones / dateline) aspects.
3. Orienting a map to such an easy to locate (day or night) direction requires no compass or other technology.
4. Orienting a map with such an impactful direction at the top creates a strong literal connection to the territory it represents, rather than to a part-abstracted direction that must be identified and agreed.
Museum curators used to be called keepers and this only changed in the mid-late twentieth century. The philosophy of preservation runs deep and you won't struggle to find curators whose favourite day of the week is when the museum is closed to the public.
Curators tend to make exhibits and displays that appeal to their own scholarly reference points. You need a different role - interpretation - to literally interpret this scholarship into what the public might be interested in. Few museums can afford to apply the lens of interpretation, so for the most part we are stuck with what curators think and its limited crossover with what the public want.
But the patriarchy is simply an unagreed, mostly transparent and organic coincidence of male dominance. There is no mysterious cabal of men saying let's pay men more than women, but men are paid more than women anyway. Likewise there has never been a female US president, or chess world champion, or F1 champion, which does not actually point to talent but to inequality.
You might say the patriarchy is not a diagnosis, but a symptom.
The facts of male advantage in society are irrefutable, and if you consider that they permeate every sphere from public to private, social to corporate, across age and culture for many thousands of years, it doesn't hold water to claim this symptom doesn't exist.
It's just not a conspiracy theory, that's all.
The Gruffalo inhabits a territory never before seen in children's literature. It goes beyond existentialism and metaphysics and yet retains an adorable accessibility that a 2 year old can understand. Spoilers follow if you are still in the pre-Gruffalo phase of your life.
Already in line two of the whole book our protagonist, the mouse, is in mortal danger when the fox thinks "the mouse looked good" (to eat).
The mouse digs deeps into his dark imagination and concocts an enemy so abominable, based on his own worst possible fears, in the hope that it also scares away the fox. And by some miracle, a few burnished details and a roaring old wives' tale ("his favourite food is roasted fox") he actually extricates himself from mortal danger in front of this fast and formidable foe.
The process is repeated again with the owl and the snake. Each time the mouse digs deeper, building up a fictional image of a catastrophically horrendous creature that no sane animal would ever wish to encounter. Each time scaring off an increasingly deadly enemy. The ongoing survival of the mouse against all odds leads him to a fleeting moment of relaxation...
But then, before his own eyes, looming a footstep away...the very projection of his own and his enemies' worst fears. The Gruffalo - that he himself merely imagined - has been instantiated. His nightmare cannot be undone. The mouse must face his own creation.
But, we are dealing with a mouse of such pluck and chutzpah we know the story must continue. He tickles the Gruffalo with the preposterous assertion that the mouse is in fact the scariest animal in the wood. Chuckled by this, the Gruffalo entertains himself by following along for a few moments.
As they encounter again the snake, owl and fox, each runs in fear of the Gruffalo. But each time the mouse appears to demonstrate that it is in fact him they are running from, not the Gruffalo. Doubts form in the Gruffalo's mind (itself created by the mind of the mouse) and his confidence ebbs (as the mouse's grows).
Finally, in the greatest stanza in children's literature, the masterstroke.
"Well, Gruffalo," said the mouse. "You see? Everyone is afraid of me! But now my tummy's beginning to rumble. My favourite food is - gruffalo crumble!"
This teasing patronisation dispatches the Gruffalo with immediate effect. The mouse has won, against his worst enemies, and against his worst nightmare. From mortal danger he created something even more terrible, and then defeated his own demons with wit and confidence. What a journey!
There is no other children's book like this.
One item struck me as most singular and evocative of Kubrick's wild attention to detail.
The archivist brought out a box containing a full ream of A4 paper on which was repeatedly typed "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" from the famous scene. Every page had a slightly different layout, mistakes and all, for 500 pages. Every single one typed by hand. We stood in awe at this grotesque achievement used to fill only a few seconds of film.
And then the archivist brought out the identical boxes for Italian, French, Spanish, German, all typed by hand with a different, locally chilling phrase for each.
My shock at this has almost outlasted my admiration.
To put it crudely, one dwindling set of idealistic millionaires vs a growing set of capitalist thousandaires, each set with very different motivations to login to their computer each morning.
- several Palma bus lines (if you don't have the bus card)
- the most traditional bakeries, tailors, dry cleaners and so on
- 95% of the traders in my local municipal fruit and veg market
- 95% of the traders in the largest antiques market
- many cleaners, gardeners, painters, physiotherapists, swim instructors, yoga teachers etc
In addition, many places will offer one price for cash, and another for paying with card, and we know what that's about.
I've had to relearn having cash on my person, otherwise you can't get what you need several times a week.