JDryScoliosis

When one thinks of South Africa safaris, wine tours and Cape Town may initially come to mind. Although these are some of the biggest draws for tourists the country has so much more to offer. Join us as we present to you our 20 day adventure going from Johannesburg all the way to Cape Town. Some of the top travel highlights included a Kruger National Park safari, hiking along the Wild Coast, canoeing in Wilderness and climbing mountains in Northern Drakensberg. In terms of our taste buds we tried Biltong for the first time and devoured South African barbecue – better know as Braai – on more than one occasion.

There are few countries that are as unique and diverse as South Africa. Come find out what makes it shine. This is South Africa! Our first full day in South Africa started with a long drive from Johannesburg towards Kruger National Park. Even though our safari wouldn’t begin until the following day we enjoyed some great views of the countryside and even visited a wildlife rehabilitation center. Okay, so we’ve been driving all morning.

We’ve actually been up since five AM and we are finally stopping for lunch. We’re taking a little break. And yeah, we’re just going to enjoy a meal before we continue on towards the park. Alright, so our meal has arrived.

What are we having? We’re having a Fred Flinstone portion of ribs. Take a look at this.

This is enormous. Ready to dig in! And we’re sharing this.

There is no way I could eat this all by myself. Especially after being in a bus all day. Alright, Fred Flinstone. And the only way to eat these properly is with your hands. Those are pretty good ribs.

Okay, so this afternoon we are visiting the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. We are going to be visiting some animals and just learning about the rehabilitation effort that is going on here. And yeah, let’s go have a look around. Some of the main reasons for rescues include animals being affected by power-lines, snares and also poisoning. It was awesome to see all of the animals but the honey badger truly stole the show.

Okay, so today is the big day. Yesterday afternoon we reached the outskirts of Kruger National Park and today we’re actually going in to spot some of the wildlife. So we’re going in for a sunrise drive. It is really earlier.

It is about 5:15 am right now. We’re going to head into the park and – yeah – it is safari time! Okay, so we finally reached the park and I’m going to give you a little tour of our cool truck for the day. Come on over.

Come on in. Make that big climb up there. Yeah, I’m in. One thing that totally surprised me was just how close we got to the lions. I think it was only about 10 meters away from the road. So they were really docile and the lioness was just sleeping and cleaning its cubs and in the back there was the big alpha male just stretching and yawning.

It was surreal. So that’s been an amazing safari so far. It is only 10 in the morning and we’ve already seen more wildlife than I ever imagined. We saw lions, elephants, wildebeest. Oh, gosh more than I can even remember.

Yeah, it was amazing and we were able to get up close and have a good look at them. So it has been so much fun. So tell us what happened to you at lunchtime today? So the most ridiculous thing happened to me during lunch.

A bird shit right here. It ricochet of off my shoulder all the way down to here. And while I was still recovering from the shock from that another bird shitted on this side. So I got hit on both shoulders but apparently if a bird shits on you it is good luck.

So I have a double dose of good luck. Maybe that means I’m going to see cheetahs this afternoon. Woo hoo! Right now we’re visiting a private game reserve to see even more cool wildlife.

And what caught us for a total surprise is that we saw so many giraffes. Apparently this is the most giraffes have ever been spotted out here. So we saw them walk right in front of our vehicle and we even saw a couple of them fighting. They were swinging their heads at each other. It was completely bonkers. Yeah, so overall it has been an amazing day.

We saw more animals than we ever expected. And what a beautiful way to wrap up the day. Now we’re just going to watch the sunset, drink some wine and enjoy some cheese. And do it all over again tomorrow.

Okay, so it is day two on safari and we are heading back to Kruger National Park. The focus today is going to be to find animals like being around the water. So we’re going to be visiting a watering hole maybe seeing some buffalo, some hippos and we’ll see what else we can find. So again, it’s an early start. It’s around five thirty in the morning and we’re going to head on out there. So far, so good as far as the weather today.

It looks like we’re going to have a lot better visibility. We had an amazing sunrise to witness this morning. But it is chilly and so we’re all bundled up. It’s a lot colder than it was yesterday but the sun is coming out. We actually had a little bit of drizzle yesterday, so it’ll be warmer. Just waiting for it to get warmer.

And I think we’re going to have even better visibility for photos and video in terms of taking shots of the animals. So, exciting stuff! Okay, so a pretty cool morning so far. We managed to spot the ever elusive leopard.

So that was pretty cool. And we also saw a heard of elephants that were just crossing the road. There was about fifteen or twenty of them, so that was also a pretty impressive sight. One of the coolest things that I’ve seen today was at a watering hole. There was a crocodile and it was waiting for an impala to drink.

And it was so close to attacking it. Like we almost saw this ridiculous crazy scene. Anyways, the crocodile was unsuccessful and it ended up attacking another crocodile. And we captured a bit of that footage.

One safari tip to consider is to dress with all kinds of layers. This morning it was freezing. I had on a fleece, I had on a windbreaker and now by the afternoon I’m peeling down to just this tiny kind of athletic shirt. And you’ve got thick jogging pants on. Yeah, so I wish I had shorts right now for that.

Alright, so we are wrapping up our second day of safari. We’re going to be heading to the campgrounds soon and we’re going to have our first braai for dinner and apparently that is South African barbecue so it should be tasty. Alright, so this morning we are in Drakensberg. That means the dragon’s mountain. And we’re going to be doing a bit of a hike on a stretch that is called the Amphitheatre.

And yeah, the Drakensberg are actually the border between South Africa and Lesotho. So that is a pretty cool little fact. We’ve been told to prepare for any kind of weather. It could be sunny.

It could be rainy. It could be snowing any minute. So we’re ready for some adventure.

Let’s go hiking! I’ve really been enjoying the views so far. I would classify this as a lower-intermediate hike. It is not for people who really have a fear of heights.

There are some vertical parts where you have to go up ladders and down ladders. And that part would be a deal breaker for some people. But as far as the views and just the actual hike itself it is really enjoyable. So this is actually one of the ladders that you have to climb down on the way back. And I believe there are two sets of ladders to deal with.

So something to consider if you are afraid of heights. We’ve actually decided to just stay back and enjoy a very relaxed lunch because neither Sam nor I enjoy heights and this was making us a little bit nervous. But everyone else was very adventurous, very brave so you can give it a try if you come out here. Okay, so now it is time for lunch.

Woo! Alright, so we are coming to the end of our hike here in Drakensberg. And even though we didn’t reach the top it was still an incredible trip. Like it was so scenic, so beautiful, so I’m glad we came. And if you find yourself traveling through South Africa definitely consider this region. So, good morning.

Today we are in Northern Drakensberg. We’ve been staying at a really cool hostel called Amphitheater backpackers. And they have a little hike that you can do just outside of their property. So we’re just over at the gate right now. We’re going to head out and do a little bit of exploring on foot.

It’s a beautiful morning. We witnessed the most amazing sunrise yet again. And now it is time for a bit of exercise. We’re at a crossroads over here.

Big tree this way. Big Dam that way. Oh, which way will we go?

Okay, this way. It is decided. Big tree. This is like falling the yellow brick road. Come on, sing it for us. Follow the yellow brick road.

Follow the yellow brick road. So we are at an another crossroads. We can go towards the airstrip or towards the river.

I think we’re going to choose the river just because it is starting to get really hot. I’ve already started taking off several layers. And we’re running out of time.

And some water would be nice. I really enjoyed this walk. Sometimes it is great to just get off of the beaten track once in a while and just relax.

And that concludes our little walk around. I think it is time for a cold beer. Okay, so a new country, a new taste test. We are in South Africa right now and you can’t come to this country and not try Biltong.

So that is what I have right here in this brown paper bag. So Biltong is a dried cured meat similar to beef jerky and this is what it looks like. So we got ourselves some beef biltong but apparently you can get different kinds of meats.

Like game meat or ostrich. This is cow. And it is quite hard and chewy but it makes a really nice snack, so let’s say you’re riding the bus or going on a really long trip it is kind of nice to just have a bag full and be munching away.

That’s what we have been doing for the past few days. So for me Biltong is kind of like premium jerky. And there is three key differences. First off, it is sliced a lot thicker.

Secondly, they use vinegar in the curing process along with salt and pepper. Which is a little bit different from regular jerky which doesn’t have any vinegar whatsoever. And the third key difference is Biltong is not smoked whereas jerky is. Okay, so the purchasing process?

What was awesome is that we went into a kind of like what would be considered a deli that specialized in Biltong. And when we went in there was all of these different kinds of dried meat hanging up in different sections. There was one that was game meat, there was one that was regular, there was a premium kind. I can’t remember but there was a forth kind as well.

And anyways, what you would do is pick this meat off of a hook and bring it over to these ladies who would then put it through a grinder and it would go into this bag like that. So it was a really cool to be right there involved in the process. And it just made it a lot more special. And the other thing that I really noticed that was a big difference is that the quality of the actual meat itself is a lot better than what comes from say packaged pre-packed stuff you would find in a store.

So the word Biltong. What does it mean? I actually had to look this up but now I can tell you. So ‘Bil’ apparently comes from the Dutch word for rump and ‘Tong’ means strip or tongue.

But contrary to popular belief Biltong is not made from bull’s tongue, so don’t be afraid to try it because of that. What have you got in your hand over there? Okay, and last but not least we have something called Cabanossi which kind of looks like a dried pepperoni stick. We also picked this up at the same store we got the Biltong. So I’m going to try that.

Yeah, so it is kind of like a greasy salami stick. Again, chewy, salty, flavorful. I think it makes a great snack. Which one do you like better? Or do you like them both? I do like them both but this reminds me of salami or like a pepperoni stick so it is something I am familiar with.

So I quite enjoy the flavor. One more bite. So when you’re visiting South Africa, unless of course you’re a vegetarian, be sure to try Biltong.

I swear it is pretty much addicting. I can’t seem to stop myself over here. Okay, so we are continuing our trip across South Africa. Right now we’ve arrived in the Wild Coast and we’re staying at a cool hostel called The Wild Lubanzi which is just off in the distance over there. And apparently there is a really cool hike we can do from here, so we’re heading to a place called Hole In The Wall. It should take us about an hour and a half, so let’s get going.

So we’ve climbed the top of the hill and this is probably the best vantage point we’ve had all day. So we’ve arrived at the Hole In The Wall and as the name suggests it is just a hole right in front of the surface. So we’ve been befriended by a local who has offered to show us around. So far he has taken us to the Hole In The Wall which was amazing.

And now apparently we’re off to visit his house. So we’re just following him. So our little guided tour through the villages is now over and we’re trying to find our way back. We have a general idea of where we need to go, so let’s hope we get back in time for lunch. Sleep kitties.

Sleepy kitties. Sleepy kitties. Open your eyes.

Alright, so we are continuing our South Africa road trip. Right now we are staying in Chintsa at Buccaneers Lodge and we’ve got some fantastic views of the beach happening. So we’re just going to be relaxing here for the next few days enjoying some downtime, some beach time and right now we’re going to give you a little tour.

Today we have a horse riding adventure coming up so we’re just going to meet our horses and get geared up and get ready to go. Apparently, we’re going down to the beach so it should be fun. Alright, so this is my horse over here. It’s name is Sisci.

You’re very sweet. It seems gentle enough. So that has been a really fun ride so far. We’re down at the beach right now and we’ve been trotting with the horses.

My knees are feeling a little bit wobbly now that I’m off the horse but it has been a really good time. And also what’s funny is getting to see the horses personalities. I have one that loves to eat. And it just keeps stopping to munch on grass. And Sam has a horse that is very itchy and likes to scratch his butt against branches and trunks and anything it finds. And my horse doesn’t get along with three other ones.

Yeah. So this morning we are in Wilderness and we’ve decided to do a bit of canoeing. We’re out on the water now and it is a beautiful day, so we’re just going to be traveling upstream and maybe doing a little bit of hiking later.

So we’ve done a lot of kayaking before together but this is our very first time to canoe. And it is definitely a little bit more stable. Part of that has to do with the canoe being wider than a kayak. The other part has to do with just these waters. They couldn’t be any more calmer. I know, it is like being on a mirror.

Seriously. Look at that. Hardly any waves or ripples. Here comes another one. If you see another one come by let me know.

Alright, so we’re coming up on a little rope bridge. We’re just going to canoe right under it. Okay, so that is as far as we can get on our canoes. We are going to be hiking the rest of the way. Get moving.

Hahaha. Alrighty, so we’re off the river now and we’re going to be doing a bit of hiking. We’ve got our little maps so hopefully we won’t get too lost.

Yeah, let’s head in to the unknown. I think a lot of people who come to South Africa have this type of image of the landscape being completely barren and dry. Kind of just safari land. But there is so much diversity here. And this is a really good example.

We’re now walking through a lush rain forest. Let’s go. I seriously have no idea what animal that was.

But it was very cute. So I think we’re getting closer to the waterfalls. I can hear them off in the distance. And this looks like a bit of a different path so let’s go.

Well, well, I don’t know if you can hear that but it sounds like we made it to the waterfalls. So we’re almost there just follow me a bit longer. We’ll show you the water. And we made it! So we’re now on our way back. We saw the waterfalls and we’re heading back to find our canoes.

And we met a few travelers along the way. A few hikers who are also making their way to the waterfall. And they asked us, you know, how far to get there?

And it made me realize that Canadians are some of the only people who measure distances based on time. How long it takes to get there. They are asking us how many kilometers.

How many miles? And that is such a typical question but a Canadian will tell you like 10 or 15 minutes or so. Yep, that’s us. Well Hello from South Africa.

We just finished raiding a supermarket where we picked up as many South African snacks as we could. We grabbed chips, chocolate bars, soda drinks and we’re going to try them all for you. So this is our South African taste test. So over here I’ve got myself Nik Naks.

It’s a maize snack and I think the packaging looks great. Have a look in the bag. Those kind of look like cheesies. They look like cheese puffs and they taste like cheese puffs. It’s very airy and crunchy.

It’s a nice light snack. Good snack for the road. I’m giving it the thumbs up. Road tripping snack. I’m trying here the Chocolate Log.

And I have a feeling, oh yeah, it is a marshmallow on a crispy wafer. I wonder if it is going to taste a bit like a wagon wheel or a krembo. Show us the bar. What does it look like?

Yeah, we’ve got the crunchy part on the bottom and we’ve got the marshmallow in the middle. That is a really really good bar. Mmm. Yum.

So this one looks interesting. It is really similar to the Mars bars that we have in North America. Even the packaging and the color on the packaging is quite similar. But this is called Now. Eat it now!

Now! Chocolate now! I wonder if it will be a similar filling. It looks similar too. It’s got caramel and how do you call it, nougat?

Chocolate. Yeah, you know what, this to me tastes just like a Mars Bar. Just different name, that is all it is. Yeah, good stuff. Being the cat lover that I am when we were divvying up the snacks we kind of had an almost like a draft. Like a lottery.

I chose the Black Cat bar. So it is a peanut snack packed with peanut power apparently. Let’s try that out. It looks like it has got some kind of like a toffee or a something sticky and sweet keeping it together.

Oh gosh, I’m going to break my tooth. It is super crunchy. Yeah, really really sweet. And it is kind of like, I don’t know, like a honey or a caramel that is hardened. Really crunchy, packed with peanuts, pretty much delicious.

Okay, I’m not sure what this one is called but I think Beacon is the brand and Whippy is the name. And it says mmm Mallows. I think it is supposed to be like marshmallows or something. Mallows. Mallows. Soft strawberry flavored mallow smothered in chocolate and coconut.

We call it marshmallow back in Canada but we’ll go with mallows. Let’s see. Lekker. So it is like a pink and white marshmallow inside.

Nice and spongy. It doesn’t really have a strong strawberry flavor which is what I was expecting because of the pink packaging. It is just like a sweet fluffy marshmallow inside. It’s good. I like it. Wonder Bar.

And if I remember correctly we have something by the same name in Canada but I’m not entirely sure. There is definitely a wonder something kind of chocolate bar. But this appears to be totally different.

I have a feeling this is mint chocolate. It is mint flavored apparently. And it appears to be really small. Some kind of an ant on me. Okay.

So let’s try that. Can you see the green. Yeah, kind of. Oh, Wow. That is a really unique mint chocolate bar. It’s like nothing I’ve really had before.

It’s got a crunchiness to it. Almost like a cookie flavor. Wow. The mint is really hitting me strong. The first time you have a bite you don’t really taste it that much.

But as you’re chewing it, a really strong mint flavor. It is kind of like an after eight? Stronger mint flavor than that. I like it even more. Next up, we have something called Diddle Daddle by Jumping Jack. Diddle Daddles.

That sounds like something like a taddle. Tiddle taddle. Don’t diddle daddle. Okay, so it looks like caramelized popcorn.

So it is sweet popcorn. I think you would call this kettle corn in Canada, right? Yeah, I think.

Sweet kettle corn. Sweet popcorn. Caramelized.

It doesn’t have a buttery flavor. It is just strictly caramel. Perfect for watching a movie, huh?

Diddle Daddle. Don’t diddle daddle. Or do diddle daddle. So I’ve got a TV bar.

Shall I assume you’re supposed to eat this while watching TV. Who knows? So, as it says here, tropical coconut, crunchy rice puffs and smooth white chocolate. Sounds pretty good to me.

Let’s see the white chocolate coating here. Okay, you know what? That’s kind of like something in between a granola bar and a chocolate bar. Would you say it is healthy? No, it’s got a lot of sugar for sure. It’s good though.

You can definitely taste that coconut. Now I’m moving on to the Niki cluster coconut clustered coated in smooth milk chocolate. Okay. Let’s see what this is all about. I wonder if it is going to taste like a Bounty Bar. The one we have back home.

Okay, so it is coated in chocolate. Oh, it is quite chocolate-y inside. I’m going to zoom in on that.

It does taste a bit like coconut but I was expecting like white shredded coconut in the middle. And it is more like coconut that has been coated in chocolate. It’s nice. Mmmm.

I’ve been saving this one for near the end. I love coconut chocolate bars. They’re some of my favorite. And I really like Bounty Bars and I really like Ritter Sport coconut flavor from Germany, so lets see if this Niki bar lives up to that.

Oh yeah, it’s amazing. Wow! Look at all of that coconut goodness in the middle here. That is amazing. That deserves another big bite even though I’m already full.

Mmmm. Delicious! Okay, so next we have mini Eet Sum Mor biscuits. Eat some more of that!

Come on, eat some more. I’m expecting something like short bread cookies. Oh, they’re quite small. Show us one. I’ll just pop one in my mouth. These are what they look like.

They’re tiny. Little squares. Woah!

We have birds. Sam, it’s like a miniature short bread cookie not overly sweet. It would go nice with a cup of tea.

Are you going to eat some more? No, I’m going to move on to my next snack. Are you sure? Okay, I’m having a Lion King moment over here. These are Simba chips. Simba!

What flavor? Smoked beef flavored potato chips that roars with flavour. Simba. Okay. Yeah, it is like a beef flavored chip.

I don’t think I’ve ever had anything like this before. It tastes like meat. In chip form. Okay, now the funny story about this one here.

It’s called Iron Brew is that they have something in Scotland that is called the same thing. But it is spelled in Scotland Irn. So we called it Urn Bru. We totally messed up. It is supposed to be called Iron Bru.

Here it is spelled with a vowel, with an O so no mistakes this time. Iron Brew. This is the first time to try this. I have no idea what it tastes like.

I don’t think it is going to taste like the one from Scotland because that is an orange color. It is definitely different. Wow!

I don’t even really know how to describe it. It has a different cola flavor than anything I’ve ever tried before. What does it say on the bottle? What is the description? Well, it says South Africa’s favorite. Um, I’ll have to look to the ingredients here.

Carbonated water, sugar, caramel flavor, citric acid. Yeah, it’s got, it does have a bit of a caramel flavor. It’s um, it’s unique. That’s all I can say. Another chocolate bar up ahead.

This one is Beacon. Forest fruit and nut chocolate. Forest fruit, wow. It kind of reminds me of the Cadbury bars you’d get back home. The fruit and nut bars, yeah. I wonder if it is going to be similar.

I think so. Dun, dah, dah, dun. It’s hard chocolate. Yeah, nutty. Fruity? Yeah, it’s milk chocolate with fruits, nuts.

A very familiar flavor. Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s good.

Alright, we’ve done a whole other video dedicated to Biltong but this here is a kind we didn’t try. Hello, Kika. She wants some snacks. You came just at the right time. You wanted the meat snacks.

So this is Kudu. It is a kind of game flavor. Game meat. So let’s open that up. A bite for me. That’s really good meat.

A bite for Kika. She’s eating it off of my leg. Here, one more bite for Kika.

Come on Kika. Yum, yum. That’s really good. It does have that game-y kind of flavor. And it is really rich.

Really high quality and you can tell there is not a lot of fat in this. So, I know we can get Cadbury all around the world but this flavor I have never seen before. What is it? Show us. We have marvelous creations and this is cookie gummy crunch. Very colorful packaging.

We’ve got a party going on over there. Oh, yeah. Let’s open this monster chocolate bar. It’s huge, it must be like well over 100 grams. Maybe 200. Here, so I’m going to break a piece in half.

Oh, you can see some of the cookie pieces. Okay, hold it still. Oh, you can, wow. Let’s see. Yeah, so it’s got cookie chunks and some blue crumbly stuff.

Crunchy stuff. I couldn’t tell you what candy the blue stuff is. It is just crunchy, hard candy.

But the chocolate is good. The milk chocolate is good quality. Okay, I’m really excited about this product.

I think it is like Ginger Beer flavored mints. And that seems like a very niche king of unique product. I can’t wait to try it. Yep, those are mints.

I don’t think you’re going to like these. I’m still finishing my jerky. Alright, ready to try these. Wow!

These are strong. I’m loving this. I love strong ginger beer flavor but I have a feeling that unless you’ve grown up drinking ginger beer 95% of people who haven’t probably wouldn’t like this. This is delicious to me but this is not something that I would bring home for as a gift for friends and family.

Let’s say that. Next up, we have the nut basket. Tasty South African snacks and this one is roasted giant peanuts Peri Peri.

And apparently peri peri is just a spice. Like a mix of different spices. I think it is supposed to be quite spicy. Hot. Let’s see abot that.

So this is what they look like. It’s not overly spicy yet. I’m waiting for the burn to kick in.

Feel the burn? I mean, it’s spicy. It’s got some flavor but it is not overly spicy that you’re like having to chug a glass of milk. Yeah, Peri Peri peanuts. So, another thing we picked up in the supermarket: Romany Creams.

Classic choc. And it says are you South Africa’s biggest bakers fan? Let’s find out if I am. Oh, I like that easy tear away.

Nice. Use those big muscles of yours. Muscles.

Okay, they are just loose. They’re biscuits. So, chocolate biscuit with chocolate filing. It’s a nice crunchy cookie. It would be really nice for dunking in your coffee or your tea.

Yeah, chocolate. Okay, so next I’m trying something called Sparberry soft drink. Spar letta, I’m not sure if that is the brand. I’m going to assume so since the supermarket was called Spar. So Sparberry drink here we go. Oh, it is pink.

Splashed it on my finger. I just poured it all over myself. I’m going to say cherry.

I think it is cherry flavoured. I think it is strawberry flavored. Yeah, look.

It says. Oh, no it doesn’t. It could be either cherry or strawberry. I’m not sure.

My puppy friend is here. Kika. Kika is here. Come Kika. Let her say hello now that I’m filming.

Come. This is Kika. Kika lives here in Wilderness. And she is a cute puppy and she has been sleeping on my lap and being very very sweet these past few days.

Haven’t you? Are you cute Kika? Are you cute? Kika. Maybe she wants some snacks.

Maybe. You arrived just at the right time. Didn’t you? Alright, I’ve been saving this for the end because I’m thirsty after trying all that chocolate and savory snacks. This is Stoney Ginger Beer.

I love ginger beer. The best ginger beer I have ever had has been in Australia. It’s a lot stronger than the stuff you can get in Canada.

So let’s so how this Stoney stuff compares. Wow, that is pretty strong. Yeah, that is some of the best ginger beer I’ve ever had.

I can’t wait to finish that off. So, ciao from South Africa. This is Sam, Audrey and Kika signing off from Wilderness.

Hi, pup. Say, bye. So we’re closing off with Biltong in my hand and Kika. Come on Kika. Come, on, come get some. Come on.

Come here. Here you go. So it is another beautiful day here in Wilderness. And today we are hiking out to some caves. Now these are very special caves because apparently they had built a restaurant into these caves and then the business failed and the place basically shutdown but a man moved into the restaurant in this cave and apparently he has turned it into a squatting complex where homeless people can come and stay. And he takes care of them.

These are all just rumors we’ve been hearing from locals so we thought ‘hey’ let’s go check it out ourselves. So that is where we are going today. And to get there we are walking along the abandoned rail tracks. Alright, lead the way. So it would appear that these tracks haven’t been in use for a really long time. And some of the rock has just fallen over top and vegetation has grown over it but there is a way around.

Lucky for us. Oooh! So we’ve reached the entrance of the tunnel. Apparently we need to go through here. And it looks dark and spooky. Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

So that was incredible. We just got a tour from the man who runs this place. And basically it is a shelter for homeless people. He takes them in for two weeks and tries to give them a place where they can live. He feeds them. And just helps them get back on their feet.

They have to go out and look for work while they are staying here. And it is just beautifully decorated. They’ve put a lot of detail into each of the rooms.

And there is just a lot of character and personality, so it is a really funky place to check out. I liked it. You can continue hiking along the bridge to the dolphin’s nose and that will take you to Vic Bay. But we’re really hungry right now so we’re heading back in for lunch. Right now we’re at Wild Farm in Wilderness and we’re waiting for one of my favorite things. It’s called Braai.

It’s South African barbecue and it is absolutely phenomenal. So in the background we’ve got our lovely little log cabin. I’m drying out a towel right now. But anyways that is besides the point. The team here at the hostel is now working on the barbecue. They’re stoking the fire so we are going to show you the whole process.

Let’s go cook some Braai. And Audrey has made a new best friend. Who is this?

It’s Kika. Is it playtime or nap time? It looks like nap time.

You want to take this one home in your backpack? Yes. She would fit nicely. Not a bad little view from over here huh? What are you drinking? Um, apple cider.

Alright, we’ve got the grill master here and he’s going to tell us what makes Braai much better than barbecue. Well, firstly, barbecue is a sauce. Hahahaha. But the difference with a South African Braai is the fact that we use real wood instead of charcoal. And it gives a different flavor to the meat.

And that is a big thing. Excuse me. What have we got here?

We’ve got some good chicken. Look at that. This is sausage as well.

That looks so good. But first. So underneath the Braai that is where you have the meat that is already done and the cheesy mushroom bread.

Here is the finished product. Look at that. Wow! So that is the bread? Yep.

It’s the cheesy mushroom bread. Show us that. Woah. It is almost like a sandwich. A hot sandwich.

That’s for me. Alright, we are checking out your plate. What do we got over here? So it is all dished up. My first traditional Braai.

We’ve got some chicken, some sausage and some meat. So I am ready to dig in. What else do we have aside from that? Well, there is salad and potatoes on the side and some feta cheese. But who is focusing on that. Okay, first bite.

Who cares about that stuff. Mmmm. That is wonderful. You did a great job. Cool, man.

Yeah, seriously. Alright, stop filming me and enjoy your food man. Hahahaha. Alright, I’m trying the sausage. That is amazing. South African Braai sausage is better than anything else I’ve ever tried.

So Hello, from Cape Town. We have finally arrived in the city and this is the final stop of our three week adventure here in South Africa. This is actually our first day exploring the city and thankfully we have blue skies so we’re trying to see as much as we can. And yeah, we’re just going to take you on a little tour.

So now that we’re near the end of the trip I’m kind of reflecting on what I might have done differently. And definitely something that I’m a little bit disappointed is that we didn’t spend more time in Cape Town. I know we just got here but I’m absolutely loving it. It is so gorgeous. The scenery is amazing.

And I wish we had a few more days to explore. So, good morning from rainy Cape Town. Today we’ve signed up to do a Cape Point and Peninsula tour. So we’re going to be traveling down to Cape Point by bus. We’re also hauling some bicycles along. So once we get there we’re planning to go biking, do a little bit of hiking and we’re going to see some sights along the way.

It should be fun and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rain holds off. So this morning we’re taking a boat tour to Seal Island and hopefully we’ll spot some seals along the way. We’re going in search of penguins. I’ve seemed to spot a rather large unusual penguin over here.

It looks rather uncoordinated. And a little bit silly. So we’re not allowed to get too close to the penguins. They may be cute but they’re quite vicious with their little beaks. Alright, so this is where the fun begins. We’ve arrived at the Cape of Good Hope and right now we’re unloading the bikes.

We’re going to get all suited up and get ready to go biking. Finally! We’re biking in a National Park and apparently it could be a bit like a mini safari. There has been a lot of animals spotted here.

Especially baboons. Having fun so far? I am but I look a little bit ridiculous but I’m trying to stay warm. It is windy out here. Okay, so we’ve just finished biking five kilometers.

Now it is time for our delicious lunch. What do we have? I’m going to enjoy this. We’ve got a lovely sandwich and Malay macaroni salad. I can’t wait for that salad.

Yeah, so we’re going to fuel up and then keep biking for another six point five kilometers. So we need our energy. Alright, so we have arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. This is the southwestern most point on the African continent.

So as you can see over there lots of people snapping their photos. The weather is still not cooperating with us. It is cold, it is wet, it is raining but we’re still going to go for a hike so let’s go find our guide and get going. Smart phone? Hello?

Aaahahaha. Go away! Okay guys, keep all windows locked. They smell food. Wow, she is screaming.

Well we didn’t spot animals while we were actually on our bikes. But while we were in the vehicle we saw ostriches and we saw baboons. And the baboons were being crazy.

One was right on top of a vehicle and a lady freaked out totally. And that concludes our Cape Point tour. The sun is just coming out just as we’re about to leave. That is just how it is sometimes. So we have a fun day planned today.

We’re actually doing a wine tour around Stellenbosch so we’re just going to be driving through the countryside sipping on wine. Let’s get started. And eating cheese.

So we’re pairing some white wines with cheese. I don’t know which one I’m more excited about. I think maybe the cheese. And this is my favorite cheese so far. It is called White Rock with cranberry. It tastes a little bit like cheesecake.

The last sweet red wine we tried tasted a little bit like Christmas cake. It was delicious. Good to the last drop. So we just finished our first wine tasting here at Fairview. We each tried six different wines with cheese. I think we’re feeling pretty happy right now aren’t we?

It is eleven fourteen in the morning right now and I’m already well greased. So we’ve now arrived at our second vineyard of the day. This one is called Moroti and it has more of a rustic family feel. So let’s go check that one out. So this particular vineyard has a lot of character.

It has a specially rustic feel. And it has just been cool touring around here. Given some of the areas what appear to be permanent cobwebs. It is pretty amazing. So this is our third vineyard and this particular red wine is straight from the barrel. Oh, take a sip.

It’s good. And for dessert we are what? Roasting marshmallows.

Over an open fire. We’re just missing the chocolate and graham crackers. Roasted to perfection.

It’s hot. Is it good? Delicious?

Alright, I get the next one. And here is how I like mine. Nice and crispy all over. That’s a mouth full. Alright, so we just finished a delicious braai lunch and we’re feeling quite stuffed.

But the tour isn’t over. We still have two more vineyards to visit and apparently there is Biltong and chocolate on the menu. So I am looking forward to that.

They’re going to be carrying us away on wheel barrels by the time we’re finished. So we are now at our forth vineyard. Everyone is wearing hats.

I’m not sure why but we’re going to go drink some wine in our fancy hats. We’ve moved on from cheese to lunch. And now we’ve got chocolate. And over here I’ve got a chili chocolate so apparently you don’t taste it too much when you’re chewing it but when it goes down. When you’re swallowing it that is when you really feel the burn. So let’s see if that is true.

I don’t taste it so much now. Maybe take a sip of wine and see what happens. Yeah, as soon as you swallow it you feel the burn. It is not too overpowering but it is. It’s got some kick to it for sure.

Time for some wine. Do you want neck scratches? You’re sweet aren’t you? Why are you behind a gate? Huh? You’re not dangerous.

Are you a guard dog? Are you a guard dog? Those are nice aren’t they? Oh, you’re getting a puppy massage. Puppy massage.

So we have now arrived at our fifth and final winery of the day. To be honest they’re all starting to blend together because we’ve been drinking way too much wine but there is still a little room for a few more glasses so let’s go in and sample some more. Alright, so we’ve had cheese and we’ve had chocolate with our wine and now it is time for Biltong. Which is a type of South African jerky. This is awesome, high quality, fresh Biltong. Final impressions is that was a fantastic tour.

It is actually our very last day in South Africa and I couldn’t think of a more relaxing way to finish things off. The wine was fantastic. All of the food was really good. We had some excellent cheeses, chocolate and Biltong and we had a huge feast for lunch, so what a great way to wrap things up and that is it for us in South Africa.

Hey, how’s it going, guys? This is Dave 2D and this is the Asus Transformer 3 Pro. Now, it looks very similar to the Surface lineup and particularly the Surface Pro 4 It’s obviously been inspired by that lineup, but this is one big difference.

This device has a Thunderbolt 3 port so it allows external GPU connections. Now, as of right now, this is the only tablet that allows that. Future Surface products and future tablets might allow it, but right now, this is the only one. In terms of its build, it feels pretty similar to the Surface Pro 4.

Glass upfront, magnesium shell, The kickstand on the back can be adjusted to any position. It’s stiff. It will hold its position, but I’m not sure about long-term durability.

The mechanism looks like it works through friction between two metal parts and I don’t know if it will wear down over time, but it’s been working great for the past couple of months so, yeah, I think it should be okay. Using it as a tablet, it feels pretty comfortable to use. It’s a different shape from the Surface products – those kind of have a bevel on the edge. This doesn’t have that. It’s a different feel, but it’s still very comfortable to use. Now, I prefer to using these 2-in-1 devices with the detachable keyboards, I find that…

I mean there are devices that have the flip-around keyboards, like the Yoga products and the new XPS 13. I mean this is just personal preference, but I like being able to use my tablet one hand without feeling the bottom of the keyboard underneath. I like that.

Some people are going to be different. It’s just a matter of personal perference. Port selection on tablets is never amazing. On one side you have your standard Micro-SD slot and a volume rocker And on the other side, we have USB 3, HDMI port and that Thunderbolt 3 port. This model here is $1,600 USD and includes a stylus and the attachable keyboard.

The Surface Pro 4 has a slightly stronger connection – I think with the magnets are stronger, but this is still pretty secure. The keyboard is backlit. It has a great layout, like, I wouldn’t change a thing on it considering the smaller real- estate it has to work with. You can have it go flat or you can have it tilted on an angle.

Both are comfortable to use. It’s actually really confortable to use on your lap as well. Everything feels solid. The typing experience is good – not amazing. Decent key-travel, but the keys are a little softer or just spongier that I’d like it to be. And when you close it, there’s no magnets on the other end to keep it closed like on Surface products.

The track-pad can be better. It uses Windows precision drivers so I had high hopes. It’s glass and the texture is good, but the cursor jumps around sometimes. Not often, but enough for it to be a little bit annoying. I don’t think it’s hardware – I think a software update would fix it but as of right now, in early January 2017, it’s still an issue.

The stylus feels really similar, if not identical to the stylus for Surface products. It doesn’t attach magnetically, though, so you’ve got to bring it around with you like a regular pen. The screen is 12.6″, 2880X1920 – pretty high res. There’s letter boxing in most videos, because of the aspect ratio.

That’s just the nature of tablet screens. It has very good color gamut and color accuracy out of the box. It’s not as bright as I feel like it could be or should be. I mean, it’s bright for a laptop, but because it’s a tablet as well, I kind of feel that in some environments, like if you’re outdoors, it can feel a little dim. It’s running a Skylake CPU.

You can get it in either an i5 or an i7, both with Intel HD 520 graphics 16GB of RAM and solid-state drives. The 512GB drive in my unit isn’t particularly fast. I think it’s a SATA drive, but I have seen units with newer manufacturing dates that had NVMe drives in them. You can’t upgrade the RAM or the drive. I mean, you can configure it at purchase but you can’t open it up and upgrade it yourself. Performance for regular use is good.

It feels pretty snappy, particularly with the i7. Now, if you stress this thing hard, like on benchmarks, or if you want to edit videos, there is noticeable CPU throttling, and gaming performance on the integrated HD 520 isn’t that good. But when you connect it to an external GPU using the Thunderbolt 3 port, that is where this thing shines.

So, if you’re not familiar with an external GPU, it’s a box, and you basically stick a desktop-grade GPU in there so anything from NVIDIA and AMD, and then you get desktop GPU capabilities in your device. So, the Asus Transformer 3 Pro was originally designed to work with the ASUS XG Station 2. That’s not out, yet. It will be soon, but in the meantime, it actually works quite well with the Razer core. You’ve got to install some Thunderbolt 3 drivers and you need to get some software to run the whole Razer Synapse thing, but, it works.

Depending on the card you put in here, you can get some amazing performance. It’s a pretty standard performance drop – around 10% to 15% less than a desktop because of the Thunderbolt 3 bandwith limitations, but it’s still good. Remember, though – that performance drop – that 10% to 15% number is only if you’re using an external monitor.

If you don’t want to use a monitor and you want to pipe it back to the display on the Transformer 3 Pro, you’ll lose even more performance. We’re looking at 20% to 25%. And, if you’re curious, that Thunderbolt 3 cable will power and charge the tablet, so it’s a pretty sweet setup.

Something like Overwatch doesn’t have great performance on the integrated HD 520, but I connected a GTX 1080 and you can get some ridiculously good frame rates. One thing to keep in mind: this is a 2-core CPU. There’s plenty of games that will run great on a 2-core CPU, but there are games that are more CPU-dependent that would do better on a quad-core.

So you’ve got to research your game if you want specific benchmarks. Now, in terms of a GPU recommendation, because this is a 2-core CPU and because it doesn’t get to clock full speed because of the CPU throttling, I’d recommend maybe a GTX 1060 or even a GTX 980 if, you know, your budget is a little bit lower. But you don’t want to just spend money on a card that you can’t really make proper use of. VR also had problems working. I tried connecting an HTC Vive – had issues.

I’m not sure if it’s like because like a port limitations – there is only one USB port on the tablet. The keyboard is actually not bad for gaming. It’s kind of strange because it’s not even a real keyboard. It’s a keyboard cover. I mean it’s not going to cut it for a 400 APM Starcraft player, but it’s a very usable keyboard for games.

There’s an exhaust up top. It doesn’t interfere when you’re playing games, but if you’re using some more demanding applications, while you’re holding it in Portrait as a tablet, it gets pretty warm up there. The fans don’t spin when it’s idle, but when it kicks in, it’s audible. It’s not super annoying or super loud or anything, but you’ll know when it’s on. Speakers are up front – Harman Kardon-branded, but they’re very average-sounding. They don’t get too loud and the bass is pretty weak.

The front webcam is 1080p and it has infrared, so it supports Windows Hello for login, which is pretty cool. The back camera is 13MP. It doesn’t look great, but I doubt many people are going to use this anyways so, whatever. Battery life on this thing is relatively short.

It’s a 39WA battery. Normal use – like, doing work – we’re getting around 5 hours of life with the screen at 250 nits. Watching movies, you’ll get around 3.5 hours, which is enough to finish most movies, but for a tablet, the battery life is definitely on the lower end of the spectrum. Now, overall, I really like this setup.

I don’t think that this particular model, like the Transformer 3 Pro, is the perfect version of this, particularly the battery life, but this is the only one you could do it on right now. I love the fact that it’s a tablet when you want it to be. You can connect a keyboard when you want to type or just go ham on a keyboard. You have an external GPU if you want to play games. It’s a super modular system. I think this is a really good direction for mobile computing.

I’m a brain scientist, and as a brain scientist, I’m actually interested in how the brain learns, and I’m especially interested in a possibility of making our brains smarter, better and faster. This is in this context I’m going to tell you about video games. When we say video games, most of you think about children. It’s true. Ninety percent of children do play video games.

But let’s be frank. When the kids are in bed, who is in front of the PlayStation? Most of you. The average age of a gamer is 33 years old, not eight years old, and in fact, if we look at the projected demographics of video game play, the video game players of tomorrow are older adults.

So video [gaming] is pervasive throughout our society. It is clearly here to stay. It has an amazing impact on our everyday life. Consider these statistics released by Activision. After one month of release of the game “Call Of Duty: Black Ops,” it had been played for 68,000 years worldwide, right?

Would any of you complain if this was the case about doing linear algebra? So what we are asking in the lab is, how can we leverage that power? Now I want to step back a bit. I know most of you have had the experience of coming back home and finding your kids playing these kinds of games. (Shooting noises) The name of the game is to get after your enemy zombie bad guys before they get to you, right?

And I’m almost sure most of you have thought, “Oh, come on, can’t you do something more intelligent than shooting at zombies?” I’d like you to put this kind of knee-jerk reaction in the context of what you would have thought if you had found your girl playing sudoku or your boy reading Shakespeare. Right? Most parents would find that great. Well, I’m not going to tell you that playing video games days in and days out is actually good for your health. It’s not, and binging is never good.

But I’m going to argue that in reasonable doses, actually the very game I showed you at the beginning, those action-packed shooter games have quite powerful effects and positive effects on many different aspects of our behavior. There’s not one week that goes without some major headlines in the media about whether video games are good or bad for you, right? You’re all bombarded with that. I’d like to put this kind of Friday night bar discussion aside and get you to actually step into the lab.

What we do in the lab is actually measure directly, in a quantitative fashion, what is the impact of video games on the brain. And so I’m going to take a few examples from our work. One first saying that I’m sure you all have heard is the fact that too much screen time makes your eyesight worse. That’s a statement about vision. There may be vision scientists among you. We actually know how to test that statement.

We can step into the lab and measure how good your vision is. Well, guess what? People that don’t play a lot of action games, that don’t actually spend a lot of time in front of screens, have normal, or what we call corrective-to-normal vision.

That’s okay. The issue is what happens with these live dealer casino online that actually indulge into playing video games like five hours per week, 10 hours per week, 15 hours per week. By that statement, their vision should be really bad, right? Guess what? Their vision is really, really good.

It’s better than those that don’t play. And it’s better in two different ways. The first way is that they’re actually able to resolve small detail in the context of clutter, and though that means being able to read the fine print on a prescription rather than using magnifier glasses, you can actually do it with just your eyesight.

The other way that they are better is actually being able to resolve different levels of gray. Imagine you’re driving in a fog. That makes a difference between seeing the car in front of you and avoiding the accident, or getting into an accident. So we’re actually leveraging that work to develop games for patients with low vision, and to have an impact on retraining their brain to see better.

Clearly, when it comes to action video games, screen time doesn’t make your eyesight worse. Another saying that I’m sure you have all heard around: Video games lead to attention problems and greater distractability. Okay, we know how to measure attention in the lab. I’m actually going to give you an example of how we do so. I’m going to ask you to participate, so you’re going to have to actually play the game with me.

Okay, you get my point, right? (Laughter) You’re getting better, but it’s hard. Why is it hard? Because I introduced a conflict between the word itself and its color. How good your attention is determines actually how fast you resolve that conflict, so the young guys here at the top of their game probably, like, did a little better than some of us that are older. What we can show is that when you do this kind of task with people that play a lot of action games, they actually resolve the conflict faster.

So clearly playing those action games doesn’t lead to attention problems. Actually, those action video game players have many other advantages in terms of attention, and one aspect of attention which is also improved for the better is our ability to track objects around in the world. This is something we use all the time. When you’re driving, you’re tracking, keeping track of the cars around you.

You’re also keeping track of the pedestrian, the running dog, and that’s how you can actually be safe driving, right? In the lab, we get people to come to the lab, sit in front of a computer screen, and we give them little tasks that I’m going to get you to do again. You’re going to see yellow happy faces and a few sad blue faces. These are children in the schoolyard in Geneva during a recess during the winter. Most kids are happy. It’s actually recess.

But a few kids are sad and blue because they’ve forgotten their coat. Everybody begins to move around, and your task is to keep track of who had a coat at the beginning and who didn’t. So I’m just going to show you an example where there is only one sad kid. It’s easy because you can actually track it with your eyes.

You can track, you can track, and then when it stops, and there is a question mark, and I ask you, did this kid have a coat or not? Was it yellow initially or blue? I hear a few yellow. Good. So most of you have a brain. (Laughter) I’m now going to ask you to do the task, but now with a little more challenging task.

There are going to be three of them that are blue. Don’t move your eyes. Please don’t move your eyes. Keep your eyes fixated and expand, pull your attention. That’s the only way you can actually do it. If you move your eyes, you’re doomed.

Yellow or blue? Audience: Yellow.DB: Good. So your typical normal young adult can have a span of about three or four objects of attention. That’s what we just did. Your action video game player has a span of about six to seven objects of attention, which is what is shown in this video here.

That’s for you guys, action video game players. A bit more challenging, right? (Laughter) Yellow or blue?

Blue. We have some people that are serious out there. Yeah. (Laughter) Good.

So in the same way that we actually see the effects of video games on people’s behavior, we can use brain imaging and look at the impact of video games on the brain, and we do find many changes, but the main changes are actually to the brain networks that control attention. So one part is the parietal cortex which is very well known to control the orientation of attention. The other one is the frontal lobe, which controls how we sustain attention, and another one is the anterior cingulate, which controls how we allocate and regulate attention and resolve conflict. Now, when we do brain imaging, we find that all three of these networks are actually much more efficient in people that play action games.

This actually leads me to a rather counterintuitive finding in the literature about technology and the brain. You all know about multitasking. You all have been faulty of multitasking when you’re driving and you pick up your cellphone. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Why?

Because as your attention shifts to your cell phone, you are actually losing the capacity to react swiftly to the car braking in front of you, and so you’re much more likely to get engaged into a car accident. Now, we can measure that kind of skills in the lab. We obviously don’t ask people to drive around and see how many car accidents they have. That would be a little costly proposition. But we design tasks on the computer where we can measure, to millisecond accuracy, how good they are at switching from one task to another. When we do that, we actually find that people that play a lot of action games are really, really good.

They switch really fast, very swiftly. They pay a very small cost. Now I’d like you to remember that result, and put it in the context of another group of technology users, a group which is actually much revered by society, which are people that engage in multimedia-tasking.

What is multimedia-tasking? It’s the fact that most of us, most of our children, are engaged with listening to music at the same time as they’re doing search on the web at the same time as they’re chatting on Facebook with their friends. That’s a multimedia-tasker. There was a first study done by colleagues at Stanford and that we replicated that showed that those people that identify as being high multimedia-taskers are absolutely abysmal at multitasking. When we measure them in the lab, they’re really bad.

Right? So these kinds of results really makes two main points. The first one is that not all media are created equal. You can’t compare the effect of multimedia-tasking and the effect of playing action games. They have totally different effects on different aspects of cognition, perception and attention.

Even within video games, I’m telling you right now about these action-packed video games. Different video games have a different effect on your brains. So we actually need to step into the lab and really measure what is the effect of each video game. The other lesson is that general wisdom carries no weight. I showed that to you already, like we looked at the fact that despite a lot of screen time, those action gamers have a lot of very good vision, etc. Here, what was really striking is that these undergraduates that actually report engaging in a lot of high multimedia-tasking are convinced they aced the test.

So you show them their data, you show them they are bad and they’re like, “Not possible.” You know, they have this sort of gut feeling that, really, they are doing really, really good. That’s another argument for why we need to step into the lab and really measure the impact of technology on the brain.

Now in a sense, when we think about the effect of video games on the brain, it’s very similar to the effect of wine on the health. There are some very poor uses of wine. There are some very poor uses of video games. But when consumed in reasonable doses, and at the right age, wine can be very good for health. There are actually specific molecules that have been identified in red wine as leading to greater life expectancy.

So it’s the same way, like those action video games have a number of ingredients that are actually really powerful for brain plasticity, learning, attention, vision, etc., and so we need and we’re working on understanding what are those active ingredients so that we can really then leverage them to deliver better games, either for education or for rehabilitation of patients. Now because we are interested in having an impact for education or rehabilitation of patients, we are actually not that interested in how those of you that choose to play video games for many hours on end perform. I’m much more interested in taking any of you and showing that by forcing you to play an action game, I can actually change your vision for the better, whether you want to play that action game or not, right?

That’s the point of rehabilitation or education. Most of the kids don’t go to school saying, “Great, two hours of math!” So that’s really the crux of the research, and to do that, we need to go one more step.

And one more step is to do training studies. So let me illustrate that step with a task which is called mental rotation. Mental rotation is a task where I’m going to ask you, and again you’re going to do the task, to look at this shape.

Study it, it’s a target shape, and I’m going to present to you four different shapes. One of these four different shapes is actually a rotated version of this shape. I want you to tell me which one: the first one, second one, third one or fourth one? Okay, I’ll help you. Fourth one. One more.

Get those brains working. Come on. That’s our target shape.

Third. Good! This is hard, right? Like, the reason that I asked you to do that is because you really feel your brain cringing, right?

It doesn’t really feel like playing mindless action video games. Well, what we do in these training studies is, people come to the lab, they do tasks like this one, we then force them to play 10 hours of action games. They don’t play 10 hours of action games in a row.

They do distributed practice, so little shots of 40 minutes several days over a period of two weeks. Then, once they are done with the training, they come back a few days later and they are tested again on a similar type of mental rotation task. So this is work from a colleague in Toronto. What they showed is that, initially, you know, subjects perform where they are expected to perform given their age. After two weeks of training on action video games, they actually perform better, and the improvement is still there five months after having done the training. That’s really, really important.

Why? Because I told you we want to use these games for education or for rehabilitation. We need to have effects that are going to be long-lasting.

Now, at this point, a number of you are probably wondering well, what are you waiting for, to put on the market a game that would be good for the attention of my grandmother and that she would actually enjoy, or a game that would be great to rehabilitate the vision of my grandson who has amblyopia, for example? Well, we’re working on it, but here is a challenge. There are brain scientists like me that are beginning to understand what are the good ingredients in games to promote positive effects, and that’s what I’m going to call the broccoli side of the equation.

There is an entertainment software industry which is extremely deft at coming up with appealing products that you can’t resist. That’s the chocolate side of the equation. The issue is we need to put the two together, and it’s a little bit like with food. Who really wants to eat chocolate-covered broccoli? None of you.

(Laughter) And you probably have had that feeling, right, picking up an education game and sort of feeling, hmm, you know, it’s not really fun, it’s not really engaging. So what we need is really a new brand of chocolate, a brand of chocolate that is irresistible, that you really want to play, but that has all the ingredients, the good ingredients that are extracted from the broccoli that you can’t recognize but are still working on your brains. And we’re working on it, but it takes brain scientists to come and to get together, people that work in the entertainment software industry, and publishers, so these are not people that usually meet every day, but it’s actually doable, and we are on the right track.