Sunday 15 July 2018

Mario Kart and Data Science

As far as I am concerned one of the best games of all time is Mario Kart and although there are lots of different incarnations of it, the early SNES, N64 and later DS versions are probably my favourite - although they are the only ones I have ever played! A great game for having a few friends around as well, it is just so enjoyable and not too difficult to pick up and learn.


I tried many questionable tips and cheats over the years to gain a few extra seconds on my opponents but "what is the best Mario kart character" has to be one of the more hotly contested topics after a flawless performance on my part, amazing all in the room. I came across this post recently which has done an excellent example of making data science relevant to something that could easily interest schoolkids but more importantly seems to have answered the question once and for all....

Lots of good visualisations of the results and even an interactive version at the end for you to experiment with. I love the dig the author gets in at the roommate at the end.  With AR/VR coming along in leaps and bounds is a AR Mariokart version coming to a Karting arena near you soon??


I was always a Wario man.









Sunday 1 July 2018

Prehistoric Earth

A great online globe available here - use it to see different changes in land forms during Geologic periods with current coastal boundaries overlaid - all the way back to 750 million years ago.






Do yourself a favour and click on 'stop rotation' straight away.

About Me

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My name is Conor. I am a Lecturer at the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. These few lines will (hopefully) chart my progress through academia and the world of research.