Tag: geography

Categories
Lessons New Year Resolutions 2010

15th – 21st December

Wednesday

As medicine advances the percentage of HIV carriers in a population tends to stabalise, so a reduction in this percentage could be a sign of poor health provision.

Thursday

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency was based partly from ideas in Shada the unscreened episode of Dr Who.

Friday

White sandy beaches are actually made from the droppings of parrot fish.

Saturday

Great Britain is the third most populated island in the world (and the 9th largest).

Sunday

Horses communicate with their ears, and white horses are born black.

Monday

Flu symptoms tend to appear more rapidly than colds (if I had known this the previous Wednesday when my symptoms appeared between 6.30 and 7 I may have consulted a Doctor sooner). I learnt today that I definately had flu.

Tuesday

King Henri IV’s embalmed head was discovered redcently in a French attic.

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
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.

July Lessons

Monday

Grasshoppers can bite.

Tuesday

The GM food scare may well have started from a discredited scientific study that poisoned mice with potatoes. All the study really showed was that potatoes contain poisons (which incidently are contained on the outisde 6mm of a potato).

Wednesday

People have the ability to take a football predicting octopus seriously. Incidently a German win today would at last show that octopodes cannot predict football results! (Something surely we should all know!)

Unfortunately for my desire for rational explanations Spain won and the octopus was correct.

Even worse news is that it predicted the final but if it hadn’t a parakeet would have been celebrated for its psychic powers!

Thursday

On Saturday it is the 31st annual “Moon Amtrak” day, when people gather by the side of a railway in Orange County and bare their backsides at passing trains. This annual event occurs on the second Saturday in July every year.

Friday

If you have 8 railings and remove the 2nd 3rd 6th and 8th railings, running a stick down the 1st 4th 5th and 7th at an even speed will give you a tango beat. (incidently if you have 30 railings leave 1 4 6 8 9 12 14 16 17 18 19 20 26 27 28 29 30 and you will get the rhythm for the Simpsons theme)

Saturday

The Monty Hall dilemma actually dates to the 30s, and not to Monty Hall himself. Monty Hall never gave contestants the opportunity to swap doors.

Sunday

Annabel Chong was from Singapore… something they don’t seem to advertise much.

Do We Learn Anything in June? Of Course We Do (1st-6th June)

Tuesday

Today I clarified what the batsman scores in cricket if the fielder catches the ball and touches the boundary (or crosses). As I thoought logically it is a six.

Wednesday

I found out that not only is Keifer Sutherland not at all american (canadian more like) he was born in London.

Thursday

World cup squads must have 3 keepers who are not allowed to play anywhere else but in goal. North Korea have only named 2 keepers and have a striker who is only allowed to play goalkeeper instead of a third keeper. The chuckle brothers have won both opportunity knocks (in 1967) and new faces (in 1974).

Friday

Yesterday was  Fronleichnam, a holiday in some parts of Germany, mainly catholic parts. It is the feast of corpus christi or the “Solemity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ”

Saturday

Cricket is becoming more popular in France, and in France you can be out jdg (jambe devant guichet). Incidently French cricket is probably not played in France.

Sunday

In the final episode of the final series of 24 the clock counts from 3 to 0 indicating the end of some sort of era probably.

15th March – 21st March

Monday – Excitingly along with the vitamin D I am getting from the sunshine I also get 167% of my daily vitamin C requirement from one bottle of orange juice in the college canteen. Another spring thing I learnt is that spring moves 3 times faster in the US than in the UK (1 mile per hour in a northerly direction in the US).

Tuesday – I think I must have forgotten this but there is a tan rule that can be used for triangles (not as useful as the cosine and sine rule though).

Wednesday – When dating churches, holding digits against the window can help you date them. One thumb Norman (1000-1175), Index Finger Early English 1175 – 1275, three fingers (not little) Decorated (1275-1375) and the whole hand Perpendicular 1375-1575. Incidently in this case dating churches is not referring to taking them out for a nice candlelit meal.

Thursday – Jeans are stronger if the double stitching is in the inside leg. Also the pocket bags should be sewn into the inner hem if they are good quality. I also learnt what a pattern block was, my fashion awareness is growing stronger daily…

Friday (41st Birthday!) – Bakers Dolphin coaches have been in business before the invention of the coach, 130 years.

Saturday – Cafe Nero milano hot chocolate is now served in glasses.

Sunday – The cricket superstition that a nelson (111) is bad luck is possibly because the number has the appearance of wickets with the bails removed.

March 8th – March 14th

Monday – A golden raspberry award costs £3 to make, congratulations to Sandra Bullock for getting hers (oh and the oscar I suppose too). The most expensive ticket for the Wigan v Liverpool game was £28. Also it is commonwealth week. I only realised today that Singapore is a member of the commonwealth.

Tuesday – We live in something known as the Goldilocks Zone, (or more boringly known as the habitable Zone). it is where a planet is neither too hot nor cold for life, but just right. Canada is the worlds second biggest nation.

Wednesday – There are 460 Bingo Halls in the UK

Thursday –  Anti-wrinkle cream is an outrageous con. It works by adding acid to the skin, irritating it and swelling it to get rid of the wrinkles. Apparantly you might as well be rubbing vinegar in.

Friday – Lewis Carroll invented the word chortle (from Jabberwocky)

Saturday – Learnt that my brother fell into a ditch on his way home from a night out last December and had great difficulty getting out. In fact was lucky to but it is funny now that we know he survived the experience.

Sunday – 2 ingredients that are not listed in Morrisons Dandelion and Burdock are dandelion and burdock (however it does contain carrot)

Categories
Lessons

Ox Bow lakes

Today I learnt that this vital part of Geography in my first year of secondary school is not very easy to find, apparantly as they often fill in. However even more exciting I learnt that a billabong is an ox bow lake thus making the song waltzing matilda only 99% imcomprehensible.

Categories
Lessons

new years resolutions

1) Treat life more like a game

2) Learn Something new every day

(incidently learnt today that the squeezy thing on the arm when giving blood is to make veins appear, and that PG tips are now part of the rainforest alliance, giving blood saves lives and is educational)