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Isn't it interesting how, over the centuries, different cultures sometimes come up with the same inventions, but usually with a different angle? For instance, it was common for Western kids to play with a yoyo, where you hold the string and the reel travels up an down. In China, you can buy a Chinese yoyo, which moves too, but in a completely different way, and it's just a roll of paper wound around a stick.

Anyway, a while back I blogged about Spud's brother, Usuff, who has a dark room where he photographs geometric patterns, using a camera and a torch on 2 swinging pendulums.

This was one of the pictures he made.

Well, now he's branching out. He's bought a traditional Middle Eastern low-tech device, that does the same sort of pattern but using relief instead of colour. The pattern is made by a heavy pendulum scratching through a swinging plate full of sand.





When I showed this to Cap'n Kev, a connoisseur of all things Middle Eastern, he said "ah reckon them Islamics coulda taught us a thing 'r two."

Meanwhile, after the last post, hotboy quite rightly warned me of the folly of wasting your fluids over age 50. I must remember that when I turn 50. And on further reading of the research, I see that the cancer-protecting effect only applies to activity before age 30. And only solo activity qualifies. Did I put in enough effort at that age? I can't remember. The retention deficit disorder's kicking in again.