Voting Baby (from a listener)

Hello Internet!

William's mom and dad voted in the flag referendum and noticed that you have no age limit on who can vote. Since William regularly listens to the podcast with his parents, it only seemed fair to give him a chance to vote.

William is nine months old.

The postcard his mom wrote and mailed off on his behalf has a disclosure and mentions that we took pictures and are emailing them (to Brady, of course).

Since he can't speak yet, mom printed off small copies of the short list and laminated them to present them to the little voter and let him select his favorite.

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The flags were laid out on the carpet and William even did two runs with all flags laid out randomly and selected the same flag both times (a clear favorite that (spoilers) is shown in the pictures). His selection was done in the same manner, the remaining flags were laid out in a row and William was set down to crawl over and select his favorite.

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The voting was quite a fun experience for him judging from his grin. 

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We hope our postcards arrive for the vote. Everyone in the family has a different favorite, so we eagerly await the results!

We love the podcast!

Nick, Elaine, and William 

PS: This little guy also attended Random Acts of Intelligence! If you remember a lady with a beach ball under her sweater getting doodles/autographs from each of you after the event, that beach ball was William!  Still love the random cat you doodled, Brady! The page hangs up in the studio.

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Romantic Shapes (from a viewer)

Hey Brady,

Today is my girlfriend's and mine one-year anniversary. We went to dinner and to see a movie, and exchanged presents. Your 'Unexpected Shapes' video came just in time for me to use it today. I did the whole act during dinner. I started with the content of the extra video: the 'impossible' move of the paper flap from one side of her hand to the other side, with her eyes closed. I then did the rings/squares/möbius/hearts routine. She loved it! To finish it, I repeated the impossible flap move, only I also placed her present on the table while her eyes were closed.

We are both students of artificial intelligence and are fond of maths, so these tricks are very enjoyable to us.

I thought you might like to see how, indeed, this piece of mathematics can be applied in practise. I attached a photo showing the end result.

Cheers and keep up all the great work,

M
The Netherlands

The videos in question...


Hotstopper Awareness

The Hello Internet campaign to raise Hotstopper Awareness has gone to a new level.

All is explained in episode 49 of Hello Internet (from 43'30).

Hotstoppers are small contraptions to block the hole in the lids of take-away coffees (and other hot drinks). They are also known as "splash sticks".

Pic via @mynombreisben

Pic via @mynombreisben

My fellow podcaster CGP Grey has been bemoaning the lack of hotstoppers in many Starbucks outlets in the UK - and he's campaigning to have them available universally.

In true rabble-rousing style, Grey even launched a Twitter campaign to pressure Starbucks UK into action.

But our latest campaign for Hotstopper Awareness is a fundraiser.

We are looking to raise money for the Children's Burn Trust in the UK.

While our podcasting rants are partly for fun, the issue of hot drink spillages is very serious.

On its website, the CBT lists one of its main goals as "working with others to raise awareness of burns and scalds, including prevention campaigns".

It also urges people to "Drink Responsibly", pointing out that a hot drink can still scald a small child 15 minutes after pouring.

Over half of all children hospitalised for burns have been burned by hot drinks, the trust says.

So while Hello Internet may be light-hearted in its calls for hotstoppers, do think seriously about hot drinks, especially when near children.

You can donate to the Children's Burn Trust via this Hello Internet Just Giving Page.

And, as discussed on the podcast, we are auctioning our Reunion Swamphen Fracture (signed by Brady and Grey) with proceeds also going to the trust.

Being auctioned for charity

Being auctioned for charity

Oh, and tell @StarbucksUK about it! :)