Feel the Fear
Page 29
Ruby, however, is faced with trying to decode a new sort of touch code that is based on ternary numbers rather than binary numbers. These numbers use powers of 3 rather than powers of 2 to record digits. They require 3 symbols to represent them: 0, 1 and 2. So for example the number 16 is represented by 121 which – reading right to left again – means 1 unit, two 3s and one 9; making 9 + 2 × 3 + 1 = 16.
To render this into a tactile message that can be read using your fingers, Claude has created the code in the following way. First, each number is defined by a row of three dots, punched either up or down into the card. A 1 is represented by a dot punched down into the card while a 2 is represented by a dot punched up out of the card. A zero is represented by no dot. (See diagram opposite.)
Then, Claude simply uses three such rows to encode three numbers on each card. The key realisation for Ruby was this use of three numbers, as well as the rows of three dots. This made her think of the number three, which in turn gave her a light bulb moment where she realised that the whole code was a base-3 – or ternary – numbering system. For his final card, Claude needs the numbers 29 and 27. To get these he simply adds another column. The touch code on the sixth card would look like this:
If Braille is based on binary then perhaps this new touch code based on ternary numbers should be called “Traille”. Here are the numbers from 0 to 30 written in Traille:
Marcus has filled in the table up to 30. Can you crack the last two yourself?
Parkour is a way of moving around one’s environment without limitations on movement. The name comes from the French word parcours meaning ‘way through’ or ‘path’. It was originally developed in France in the lead-up to World War I as an obstacle-course military training exercise, and has since become standard military practice. In its modern, popularised form it dates from the 1980s – but Ruby is ahead of her time!
These days parkour is an activity, a youth movement, even a philosophy, usually practised in and around urban environments, as can be seen in the thousands of videos on the internet showing practised parkour practitioners leaping huge distances, up and over walls. The idea is to use the obstacles in your path to increase your efficiency of movement, the rail that you leap onto becoming the object you use to propel yourself forward.
Some forms concentrate on this aspect of efficiency and speed of movement, others more on fluidity and self-expression, but for all those that practise freerunning and parkour, it is more than just a physical activity – it is a philosophy, and a way of life. It accepts fear as a useful warning and an essential part of being in the moment, but through practice, training and awareness, offers a way to move through fear. It is a new way of seeing one’s surroundings – the belief that there are no obstacles in your path, physical or otherwise, that cannot be overcome. No true parkour practitioner is a thrill-seeker – but rather someone who seeks to master her or himself in all environments.
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Parkour is a highly skilled discipline and should not be attempted unsupervised. To find courses and classes near you try leading organisation Parkour Generations www.parkourgenerations.com
While US military ‘stealth technology’ has succeeded in creating materials that can hide a tank or a fighter-jet from radar, full invisibility – that is, invisibility to the human eye – has until recently proved impossible, involving as it does a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum: light.
In 2007, a team of engineers at Purdue University in Indiana made the first big breakthrough when they developed a ‘metamaterial’ made out of nanoneedles that create an electromagnetic field with the ability to bend light around the object, in much the same way that water moves around a rock in a stream. Unfortunately, however, this metamaterial does not grow on trees. It has to be engineered at the nanoscale (one billionth of a metre) which means that so far the problem has been creating an ‘invisibility cloak’ big enough to hide anything that isn’t already too small to be worth hiding.
In 2014 a major breakthrough was made in the race to achieve full invisibility. Researchers at the University of Florida announced that they have developed a means of mass-producing metamaterial using a type of 3D-printing process. Though the printed material itself cannot serve as an ‘invisibility cloak’, the printing process does allow for the faster creation of a material with that capability.
At the same time, Professor Chen Hongsheng at Zheijang University in China announced a similarly huge breakthrough when his team succeeded in making a goldfish and a cat disappear, also using a device that bends light. The professor’s team is one of over forty research teams currently funded by the Chinese government to develop full invisibility.
Who will win the race, however, remains to be seen. While the mood in China is confident, former US Naval SEAL officer Chris Sajnog commented: ‘The general public doesn’t know how far the US has really got with this technology because it is – and will remain – classified.’
*Invisibility
The Gorilla Test or ‘Invisible Gorilla Test’ originated in the mid 1970s and was updated in 1999 by Christopher Chabris of the University of Illinois and Daniel Simons of Harvard. The test involves showing a short video in which two teams of three people, one in black shirts, one in white shirts, pass a ball between themselves. People sitting the test are asked to silently count the number of passes made by the white team. At some point during the video, a man in a gorilla suit walks into the centre of the room, beats his chest, and walks off again – hard to miss, you would think. However when the test was originally done at Harvard University, half the people who did the test and correctly counted the passes missed the gorilla. The test was created as a demonstration of selective attention – how, if you are focusing hard on one thing, you may well miss something else, something big, like a gorilla.
http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html
* AS ALWAYS, THIS IS A VIGENÈRE CIPHER. YOUR CLUE TO KEY WORD: IT’S UNDERCOVER BUSTER.
As always thank you to Rachel Folder for good ideas and writing things in neat handwriting on little cards all spread out on the floor. AD and TC who for many months had to step over and around little cards covered in neat handwriting spread out on the floor. Awsa Bergstrom who talked me through the principles of parkour and many of the various moves – monkey vaults, tic-tacs and corkscrew pops – she is so inspiring that I feel as if I could actually do a corkscrew pop. Maisie Cowell who popped in for a few days’ work experience and left having solved a very important plot twist for me – one smart girl. Marcus du Sautoy because whether he is in a tent deep in the Guatemalan jungle or taking breakfast in Hay on Wye, he is never fazed by the question and has never failed to come up with the answer. Rachael Stirling for reading the Ruby stories out loud for audio and doing such a perfect Consuela Cruz that I am writing her back in, and such a funny Quent Humbert that I can never write him out. Thank you to Philippa Perry because I always forget to thank her even though I can’t imagine being able to do any of what I am meant to do without her – plus she is super nice. To Mary Byrne, Geraldine Stroud and Sam White in HarperCollins publicity for also being super nice and never grumpy (at least never when I am in the room). My editors Ruth Alltimes and Nick Lake for a zillion reasons but particularly because even when a book isn’t finished when it is meant to be finished, and looks like it never will be finished, they manage to stay very calm and do absolutely no shouting and make out that it is actually a good thing. David Mackintosh who knows his way around the tightest of deadlines and can still produce a beautifully designed book with perfect illustrations. And finally my publisher, Ann-Janine Murtagh, who talks me through a problem even when I know she has somewhere else to be and somehow makes time stretch even when there seems to be none left.
I am very grateful to them all.
Hey Buster! Don’t miss out on the previous Ruby Redfort adventures!
Click on the cover to find out more. . .
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