Category: New Year Resolutions 2010

Categories
Lessons

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).

Categories
Limerick

Review of Somerset’s Cricket Season

In the twenty 20 cup Somerset came second,
And in the County Championship they also came second,
Then to great applause
They made the final at Lords
And there in the pro40 cup Somerset came second.
~
Hamster Cricket
Gareth the Hamster left hand batsman and leg-spinner
Categories
Limerick

Severn bore (part 2)

I find mediums, alternative medicine, general  pagan beliefs both tedious but also a sort of tax on the gullible…

There was a young charlatan from Chepstow,
Who would con people wherever they’d go,
They claimed to be a medium,
Which is fake and such tedium,
And con gullible people at their show.
Categories
Limerick

The Severn Bore (part 1)

Local news mentioned the Severn Bore,
A thing I assumed might make me snore,
But then I saw it was a wave,
Which was surfed by the brave,
Then I was interested in finding out more.
Categories
Doodles Limerick

The Elusive Dancing Otter (Part 2 of the dancing Otter Trilogy)

The temperature has dropped and at night you might shiver,
As you search frantically by the river,
Where on earth can he be?
This otter will we see?
The excitement’s making me start to quiver.
~
Playing hide and seek with an otter.
Categories
Lessons

The beginning of another college year (and an obsession with young animals…)

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
Limerick

Another Final for Somerset

Yesterday Somerset scored over three hundred,
Which pretty well put that game to bed,
And it was relaxing cricket,
As Essex lost an early wicket,
Although Essex gave it a good go it must be said.

~

Mike, Stumpy and Dappem
Stumpy and I finally get to have our photo taken with Dappem.
Categories
Limerick

Mathematical Ignorance

Whilst not wishing to dismiss lower forms of knowledge (only joking) I have decided that along with my main war against elephant leg (doner) kebabs that mathematical ignorance needs to be seen as a dangerous state to be in. Some people seem almost proud that they are making themselves open to be manipulated by charlatans and con-men (or both in the case of politicians)…

Art and literature is trendy and cool,
And its hip to be a mathematical fool,
But if you’re the one,
Fooled by the next con,
You will then feel a bit of a tool.
~

Incidently a lot of mathematically competent people are ignorant about how maths has shaped our culture. This makes maths ignorant people doubly ignorant. To address this I have started posting scenes from mathematical history.

Categories
Limerick New Year Resolutions 2010

Dancing Otter…(part 1)

The otter is famous for its romance,
And if one proposes you should give it a chance,
They have cute little noses,
And they’ll buy lots of roses,
If you want them to, they will grab you and dance.
Categories
Limerick

Teaching At Last

After a summer of lazing and beaching,
It is time at last to get back to teaching,
I’ll try and make sense,
To my new young students,
And instruct them in concepts far reaching.