Monday
The operating system Android is based on Linux.
Tuesday
The Nokia ringtone was composed in 1902.
Categories
Category: Lessons
Apparantly we learn something new every day. To see if this is true my new years resolution is to record what I learn each day. Note it is not to learn something new every day so it must be something I learn as I go about my normal life.
Categories
Final October Lessons…
Friday
I learnt how to make fish head curry.
Saturday
October is the least lucky month to be born.
Sunday
In general monkeys cannot swing in trees, apes do. Monkeys run along the branches.
Categories
Lessons From the East
Thursday
Heathrow handles more international passengers than any other airport.
Friday
Today I found out that in Singapore a platter may well cost more than buying the seperate items on different dishes and that you should always get the prices first!
Saturday
A snapper turtle from the US can break human bones in its jaw.
Sunday
Asia has more sepcies of rhino than Africa
Monday
The Fountain of Wealth in Singapore was designed to be the palm of the hand with the suntec towers being the fingers.
Durian brown sugar and ice has a popcorn aftertaste.
At Thaipusam people don’t just spike themselves they also dance around once spiked.
The two newest Singapore MRT lines have driverless trains.
Even numbered streets in Geylang tend to be the red light district (although there as beeen sepage onto the odd numbered streets).
Prawns can be cooked in a way so that you can eat the legs head and tail too.
Chilli Crab is made with crab roe.
Dhoby Ghaut was named after men who did laundry.
There is a bar called Clinic in Singapore which serves drinks in drips and syringes, you can sit on whelchairs and generally look like you are sick.
Tuesday
Today I learnt that I like fish head curry.
Wednesday
The Esplanade in Singapore is known as the Durian by some locals. The last tiger in Singapore is said to have been shot in the billiard room of raffes hotel.
Thursday
Keely Hawes is the voice of Lara Croft.
Categories
A few last lessons from West of Greenwich
Wednesday
There used to be a football team called Blackburn Olympic, who have won an FA Cup
Thursday
Today I learnt that the place where some of my dad’s weirder Singapore photos were taken still exists under the name Haw Par Villa rather than Tiger Balm Gardens.
Friday
I learnt how to make chilli jam without pectin.
Saturday
Cats can let out a claw at a time, although I probably would have thought this I witnessed it.
Sunday
GIMP can be used to create GIF animations after downloading an addin.
Monday
I found an even more general proof of the inability of hexagons to create a ball like polyhedron without the help of 12 pentagons.
Tuesday
Trombone is french for paper clip.
Wednesday
Syphilis was known as the f4ench disease in Germany and Poland, the Italian disease in French. basically named after the nation whose travelloers spread it to a country.
Wednesday
Kori Bustard and the Great Bustard both are about equal in weight and are the worlds heaviest flying birds.
Thursday
I learnt how to make and use custom brushes in GIMP, wish I had learnt earlier!
Friday
Camel spiders (solifugae) are not spiders but are 10 legged arachnids.
Saturday
The slowest speed of light recorded is 40mph through -272 C sodium.
Sunday
I learnt how to tell a hygenic hawker stall from a more dodgy one.
Monday
An open comedo is the technical name for a blackhead.
Tuesday
The proper name for The Gherkin in London is the RE Swiss building. Also Emile Heskey has the middle name Ivanhoe.
Categories
First October Lessons
Friday
The Ostrich has the largest eyes of any land animal.
Saturday
The Chinese Salamandar is the worlds biggest Amphibian, and can be 6 foot in length.
Sunday
Nigella Lawson supports Chelsea.
Monday
Mr Tickle was the first Mr Man character, and probably the one most likely to be sacked for inappropiate behaviour in the work place. Mr Nosey I would be wary of too.
Tuesday
The first true cuckoo clock was made in 1738.
Due to the realignment of posting due to possible quiz issues, here is a mega posting of lessons learnt at the end of September…
Monday
Al Capone was called Alphonse
Tuesday
There are 2618 toilets in the new Wembley.
Wednesday
A hydrogen atom doubled in size 120 times would cover the visible universe. An A4 sheet of paper only requires to be doubled 90 times. Charlie Chaplin once came 3rd in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.
Thursday
The deathcap is the most common cause of fungus poisoning and destroys the liver and kidneys.
Friday
The root of the deadly nightshade is the most toxic, yet rabbits can eat deadly nightshade without any problems.
Saturday
Three members of the Capulet household are named in Romeo and Juliet but are not characters in the play.
Sunday
Ed is younger than David Milliband, I never really took an interest in the Labour leadership…
Monday
I learnt that if a network has vertices IABCDO order 1,3,3,3,3,1 such that the adjacency matrix is (010000)(101100)(010110)(011010)(001011)(000000), and the start is at I. If left and right are chosen at random the probability of exiting at O rather than I is 3/5
Tuesday
Around the world in 80 days won an Oscar.
Wednesday
I learnt that page 11 on the AQA formula books is where you will find the binomial distribution formula if you have not learnt it!
Thursday
I learnt what a picoscope looks like. Tomorrow I may try to find out what one does, or measures!
Categories
A Week of Fine Lessons
Monday
I learnt that Aristophanes and that he wrote a play called “The Birds” but more excitingly invented the phrase “Cloud Cuckoo Land”
Tuesday
I came across the name parallelepiped for the first time, I am amazed I have not come across it earlier…
Wednesday
I found out there is a Zilna in South Africa, so best to type Zilina correctly if you are trying to google the place in Slovakia…
Thursday
There is a Buckminster Fuller Institute. Not sure exactly what they do but they do seem to be the authority on the Worlds largest Geodesic Dome which they say is Fantasy Entertainment Complex: Kyosho Isle Japan, 710 ft (216 m).
Friday
Universal studios in Singapore has the tallest duelling roller coasters in the world (at this time 17th September 20110).
Saturday
When a team has a free hit in cricket the field has to stay the same (or at least it does in the pro40 tournament).
Sunday
There are 22 000 members of the MCC worldwide. (18 000 are entitled to watch every match at Lords).
Monday
I learnt today that I could draw caricatures.
Tuesday
I learnt that there is a Whitsunday Island off the coast of Australia
Wednesday
There is no name for a baby snail, but a baby turkey is a poult.
Thursday
Insects young can be called young (if the young look like mini adults), nymphs (if the insect has a gradual metamorphosis) , naiads (aquatic version of nymph) or larvae (for those animals that enjoy a pupal stage). Hemimetabolous is a gradual metamorphosis that nymphs have fun undergoing.
Friday
The final of the pro 40 competition this year will be a day night match.
Saturday
A new bar has opened in Toy Town, the Cosy Club. I had no idea one was opening there, it seemed to appear suddenly.
Sunday
Cow corner in cricket is named as it is unlikely the ball will be hit there, so cows can safely graze.
Categories
September’s first lessons
Wednesday
There seems to be no agreement about the appearance of Mohammad Bin Musa Al-Khawarizma except that he probably had a beard and a turban.
Thursday
Ceps and porcini mushrooms are the same thing.
Friday
Garfield (US President) knew a neat proof of pythagoras’ theorem.
Saturday
Found a neat proof for the “knot” pentagon construction.
Sunday
Created an inelegant proof of the Pappus property.