arithmetic
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Apple engineer uses Lego to rebuild ancient Greek mechanism, will surely try to patent it (video)
The Antikythera Mechanism is what you call truly old school technology. Argued to be the world's oldest known computer, this ancient Greek invention was used some time circa 100BC to calculate and "predict celestial events and eclipses with unprecedented accuracy." Skipping past the two millennia in which it lay lost on a sea floor somewhere, the Mechanism has now been recreated by an Apple software engineer by the name of Andrew Carol, who has lovingly pieced 1,500 Lego Technic blocks together, creating 110 gears and four gearboxes in total. Each box is responsible for performing one piece of arithmetic, and when the resulting machine is fed with appropriate calendar data, it spits out a (hopefully accurate) prediction for the next time a solar eclipse should occur. All well and good, but we're really just amazed by the beauty of those gears working. Check them out after the break.
Arithmetic trainer for the mathematically challenged
Japanese folk, both young and old, who lack the foundations of a healthy mathematics knowledge may partake in rigorous exercises allowing one to confront their demons (with impeccable Algebra skills) and, ultimately defeat them with math skills of their own. It's a war where the sevens eat nines (ynuck ynuck) ...With various schools of math being present, the game looks like (and we're going on Google translation here) it takes you through all of math's different problems such as subtraction and division, progressing on to more difficult exercises as the player solves them.
Some Doctor: Brain Age is good, but don't get fat
According to an article over at Gamasutra, Nintendo is adding some more marketing push to Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day in the form of Dr. Elizabeth Zelinski, dean and executive director of Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Her smarty-pants opinion on Brain Age:"Nintendo's Brain Age should be just one element of an active lifestyle that includes mental stimulation, exercise and a good diet. Brain Age is a great way for people to keep challenging themselves."That's right. You could train yourself on Brain Age for hours a day until you become a hyper-intelligent supergenius, but if you don't exercise and eat healthily, you'll become an obese hyper-intelligent supergenius. And as anyone will tell you, that's the worst kind.
