Bored and looking for something to do with your fingers? Why not try speed-cubing at a central London pop-up? Speed-cubers, artists, entertainers and at least one Guinness World Records judge will have their hands well occupied during next week's free-entry Rubik's Cube "Pop-Up Experience" in London. Despite plenty of media appearances, heavy marketing at toy shows and art installations over the years, it's the first time an event …
A few years ago, walking over a bridge in Central Hong Kong I saw a group of teens sat round a small table with a selection of different cubes (snake, pyramid etc.). They also had a timer similar to those used in chess. It was quite fun to see these guys frantically twisting the things around before hitting the timer.
They are probably trying to break into government buildings now, but hey, different times...
Or whatever the age bracket was...
Yes! We should not be "o tempora, o mores" all the time - and I actually had a group of both smart-phone toting and cube-solving teens in the same train compartment a month ago or so. Cubes from 2x2x2 to 5x5x5 (or maybe bigger, cannot remember), that was really a cool thing to see. One of them was teaching another one about how to swap corners while avoiding to mess up the middle bits of the edges, thinking several steps in advance. She really seemed to understand it and not just reproduce some youtuber or somesuch. Definitely restored my belief in the younger generation.
The Norwegian "cube artist" (as labelled by the event organiser) known as @Cubearting plans to build a mosaic of the Queen from 1,800 cubes with the help of visitors, hoping to break a Guinness World Record in the process.
Those cold, dark winter nights must just rush by.
"Welcome my son, and what brings thee to the gates of Heaven?"
"Well it all started like this ..."
I purchased a £1 full size version in Poundland a few weeks ago ("Magic Cube"), so the anniversary has not gone unnoticed by the knockoff merchants either, and it is as much a cheap and nasty copy of the pricy smooth original as the cheap and nasty copy I originally had in the 80s, so it's therefore a more authentic retro experience. I am looking forward to the £1 ZX81 that no doubt will be available in a year's time.
What exactly is this 40 years next year an anniversary of?
It's already more than 40 years since I first saw the "magic cube" - though not yet the name Rubik. I remember it well: a couple of weeks in the summer of '79 to get a taster of Cambridge before going up in earnest for the autumn term. John Conway demonstrated the cube during a (suitably lighthearted) lecture to us.
After that, I was one of many who bought a cube for myself sometime during my first term there (autumn 1979).
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