What I Learnt Today

What do you know? Ollie cleaned out the ‘sport box’ today and found all of these, with another couple under the tree at deep fine leg of the Mirrambeena Cricket Ground.

What I Learnt On 10th January in other years

10th January 2011 Saving a wet mobile phone or iPod

My phone vibrates in my thigh pocket, and reflexly I reach down to answer. But my phone isn’t there. Or if it is there, it isn’t ringing.

This has been happening to me frequently over the last few weeks. It is more common when I am ‘on call’, or if I am expecting a call.

I’m glad to know that at least I’m not the only one going crazy.

Research by Professor Michelle Drouin at Indiana University found that 89% of the 290 undergraduates that she surveyed had experienced what is known as ‘Phantom Vibration Syndrome’

I wonder if women and men have a different experience of phantom vibration syndrome as they tend to carry their phone in different places?

In the best medical tradition of having a fancy name for a simple problem, I hereby propose that the specific phantom vibration syndrome that occurs in the thigh be known by the greek name ‘Meraesthesia Aphonia’.

mer– related to thigh, as in meralgia paraesthetica, which is pain from pinching of the lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh

-aesthesia meaning sensation (such as paraesthesia or anaesthesia)

aphonia meaning loss of voice. In this case, meaning absence of phone.

Are you also suffering from a case of Meraesthesia Aphonia?

What I Learnt On 9th January in other years

9th January 2012 TUAW Best of 2011 Awards

9th January 2011 Winning the Infinity Blade

How long since you last caught a tube in Tahiti?

Bring back that magical ride by watching this video using the YouTube app on your iOS device or using the Chrome browser on your Mac. (you can ‘steer’ your iPhone or iPad by tilting)

How about this cruise with the dolphins, and flight on a paraglider

Hat tip to Will.

I tested out ‘The Hold’ on a random crying baby today and it worked a treat.

Californian Paediatrician Dr Robert Hamilton has revealed his secret for soothing an upset newborn in the video below.

If you have your own crying baby lying around you may like to test it out.

The real challenge for parents is how to put down a soothed infant so that it doesn’t turn back into a crying baby. Any progress on that one, Dr Hamilton?

What I Learnt On 7th January in other years

7th January 2011 Making it stick!

7th January 2011 Mac App Store Opens Today

The skills that you are rewarded for at University are not the skills that get you the best job after you have completed your degree.

Seth Godin points out in his blog today that the ‘best gigs’ want you to see the online trail of magic you regularly create. Where is your  history of generous, talented, extraordinary side projects? Are you an expert in something that actually generates value?

None of these things are particularly difficult to learn, if you are willing to be not very good at them before you’re good at them.

You won’t learn this at Uni, but you do need to start while you are there. Perhaps begin by following Seth’s blog.

What I Learnt On 6th January in other years

6th January 2012 Stayin’ Alive and the Doc Marten CPR technique

6th January 2011 Getting Things Done