please empty your brain below
The first caption gives the date as 20111. Toby Dignum's Twitter username is @dignut (@dignum is taken). It's Georges Perec, not George.

dg writes: If I only made three errors in all of that, then I'm well pleased.

swirlythingy | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 2:45 a.m. | #

How interesting!

Waterhouse | 20.11.11 - 7:32 a.m. | #

I'm really disappointed that I missed this. Sounds like it was fascinatingly dull.

martin | 20.11.11 - 8:22 a.m. | #

And there was I expecting information on drills, augers, oil wells, tunnelling etc!

Seems to have lived up to its name though - I wasn't moved to click on a single one of the hyperlinks in your account.

Your comment on the lack of brevity in Josie Long's piece: nominative determinism in action!

Timbo | 20.11.11 - 8:44 a.m. | #

It sounds absolutely marvellous, like those Sunday mornings as a kid when you'd be the only one up early and find yourself watching an Open University broadcast on something you knew nothing about and didn't understand at all but which was strangely fascinating nonetheless.

Sarah | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 8:46 a.m. | #

@ Sarah ... We used to get the occasional Open University Broadcast here in the Antipodes. I used to love them as a teen and when I was a university student. I thought they were absolutely fascinating and deeply wished that we had such a wonderful university here. Boring? No way! Just my opinion, but given the bland drivel we get on the box, even with multiple channels, now I'd take OU any day.

In other news - does this Grand Event have anything to do with The Goodies at all? Didn't they 'Bore for England' at some stage?

Antipodean | 20.11.11 - 9:07 a.m. | #

while your dismissal of Matthew Crosby was satisfyingly snarky, your conclusion to Jon Ronson was mildly inaccurate. The Kubrick documentary was made a while ago, Jon has just had a new book come out, and is also in the middle of a fiction screenplay. So less of a plug, and more of a refreshing revisit.

But thanks for the comprehensive list - most useful!

dg writes: Thanks. I've rewritten the final sentence to avoid unintentional improper snark.

Adam Creen | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 9:45 a.m. | #

Gigetian?? What means DG?

daguerrotype - aka 'Midnight Cowboy' | 20.11.11 - 9:54 a.m. | #

Marc Giget is Professor of Economics and Chair of Technology and Innovation at a Paris university, with a particular expertise in the management of innovative processes.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 10:04 a.m. | #

Fascinating stuff, I especially liked the Eva Lottchen stuff. Beautiful.

L.

Lorenzo | 20.11.11 - 10:42 a.m. | #

I think it was Commercial Road.

Richard DeDomenici | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 10:54 a.m. | #

Hi Richard, and thanks for your enjoyable PechaKucha 20×20 presentation.

I mis-scribbled "Commercial Street" in my notes. Commercial Road is three times longer, so photographing the entire length would have been triply awkward.

OK, that's five glaring errors so far...

diamond geezer | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 11:08 a.m. | #

Thanks DG, I can only imagine what Kubrick would have made of Google Street View.. Why don't you volunteer to present at Boring 2012?

Richard DeDomenici | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 11:32 a.m. | #

Judas! How can you possibly even suggest that the proof that the square root of 2 cannot be rational could be considered boring. It must be one of the most exciting proofs in mathematics and relatively easy to understand. It is just so beautiful - not as beautiful as the proof that there are an infinite number of primes though.

The technology behind reading a 2D barcode is fascinating and QR codes take this to a new level. But the sorting out the equations behind it are indeed boring.

If you are really looking for glaring errors then add "to photographed Commercial Road". The event must have sapped your level of concentration.

Pedantic of Purley | 20.11.11 - 11:35 a.m. | #

This sounds great. Why didn't I know about it?

I have now wasted most of the afternoon clicking on links.

Thanks DG ;)

Kirk | 20.11.11 - 3:00 p.m. | #

I meant Chesham, obviously.

Greg Stekelman | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 4:45 p.m. | #

I am sorry I didn't go, but this great chronicle has made me want to re-re-re-read Perec, especially La vie mode d'emploi. I recommend this book warmly. DG sometimes has made me think of Percival Barthlebooth, for the extent and detail of his blogging mission and because, like Barthlebooth, he's not motivated by money or fame.

Barbara J. | 20.11.11 - 5:56 p.m. | #

And I only spent that morning at an AGM...

Steve Bird | 20.11.11 - 8:24 p.m. | #

I've now got an MP proof-reading today's post, via Twitter. So, yes Peter, that should be West Hill Primary in WANDSWORTH.

Any more for any more?

diamond geezer | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 9:25 p.m. | #

I'm afraid my eyes began to glaze over just reading about some of them, so it's a good job I wasn't there in person.
Though the maths ones in particular might have cured a recent bout of insomnia!

CornishCockney | 20.11.11 - 9:36 p.m. | #

Ha, I'm pretty sure he's not a real MP... I think he might be a character from The Thick of It? Glad you enjoyed my talk DG, particularly as this is one of my all-time favourite blogs.

Leila Johnston | Homepage | 20.11.11 - 10:28 p.m. | #

I'd be interested to hear Matt Parker's spiel about text messages. SMS actually utilises 7 bit encoding, which allows for 127 characters (plus ^ { } \ [ ] ~ | and € which are each take up twice the space behind the scenes - and you can see for yourself by entering these into a text message and watching the remaining/used letter count change by 2).

Sir Garence | 22.11.11 - 7:21 a.m. | #











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