You remember a fragment of a song that sounds like it’s from the eighties. You do some research, but you struggle to remember where you heard it, and when. Your guesses are more imagination than recall. No hints come to mind.  When this happened to Questlove, he was stumped. He decided to transform this research […] The post From research to imagination appeared first on Herbert Lui.

A couple of weeks ago when e-bikes were banned from TfL services, we mused on what TfL's announcement might be. • All types of e-bike, e-scooter and e-unicycle are banned except foldable e-bikes. We now have TfL's wording which you can see on this poster. Big letters: No e-scooters, e-unicycles or non-foldable e-bikes Smaller letters: allowed on TfL services.* Small letters: Failure to comply may result in prosecution. Tiny letters: * E-bikes are permitted on the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle service and on the Woolwich Ferry "No e-scooters, e-unicycles or non-foldable e-bikes" is probably the optimum wording. In terms of importance e-bikes should be at the beginning, but the use of "non-foldable" would then be ambiguous so it's best at the end. Non-foldable is a much better word than unfolded which I'm glad has been summarily dumped. That was the poster. "Non-foldable e-bikes are prohibited on TfL services except for the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle and the Woolwich Ferry." This starts well and then gets bogged down in exceptions. Over half of the announcement is about where e-bikes aren't banned - two services used by maybe a few hundred cyclists weekly so of minimal relevance. Alas over a loudspeaker you have to say the asterisk out loud and this gives it undue prominence, lest some e-bike warrior be fooled into thinking they can't cross the Thames downstream of Tower Bridge. The announcement's also a triple negative with "non-foldable", "prohibited" and "except for" to try to get your head around. "Customer information. All folded and unfolded e-scooters and e-unicycles are prohibited on TfL services. Non-foldable e-bikes are also prohibited on TfL services except for the Silvertown Tunnel cycle shuttle and the Woolwich Ferry. For more information speak to a member of staff. Thank you." The "no e-bikes" message is utterly buried here because someone's felt the need to incorporate e-scooters and e-unicycles too. I don't know about you but I hardly ever see e-unicyclists around London, let alone sneaking onto the tube with their single wheel steeds. Sure they're banned but no way do we need to be reminded about this every five minutes, it's total overkill. What we've got here is a brand new no e-bikes policy the public needs to be told about, but dressed up in faff so that the campaign makes far less impact than it might. This is what happens when you plump for precision over simplicity. And all because words are difficult, however they unfold.

When you read a comic strip or a graphic novel, your eyes move from one panel to the next. What happens in between the panels? Your brain filled in the gaps. You participated in a co-creation process.  An experienced author or artist knows to intentionally create these spaces in order for the reader’s brain to […] The post Writers and readers as co-creators appeared first on Herbert Lui.

It was nearly Easter Sunday today. Easter, as you may know, is the first Sunday after the full moon after the spring equinox. First Council of Nicaea set the rules for determining the date of Easter. spring equinox was always on 21st March, even when it wasn't. 2019 it made four weeks difference. same thing will happen in 2038 when Easter will be kicked ahead from 28th March to 25th April, the latest possible date. 19 year cycle of full moon dates and used that instead. complicated cycle involving epacts, golden numbers and leap years so let's not get into that here. ecclesiastical full moon in the period 21st March to 18th April inclusive. new moons rather than full moons. ecclesiastical new moon on or after 8th March. 1st Jan, 31st Jan, 1st Mar, 31st Mar, 29th Apr, 29th May, 27th Jun, 27th Jul, 25th Aug, 24th Sep, 23th Oct, 22nd Nov Officially speaking, Easter is the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon after the ecclesiastical equinox. This year that's 20th April, the Sunday after the imaginary full moon on 13th April. It doesn't always match up like that. But most years it does, including this year. So it wasn't nearly Easter Sunday today, sorry. But a few tiny tweaks to the rules and it could have been.

Is it a child’s task to study? Or is it a parent’s task to get them to study? “There is a simple way to tell whose task it is. Think, Who ultimately is going to receive the result brought about by the choice that is made?” Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi write in The Courage […] The post Whose task is this? appeared first on Herbert Lui.