Personal Blogs

Nobody knew of

Our dance in the polling station

where they held the secret ballet

How many glottal stops are there in “bottle tops”?

Narwhals 1 - Humans ?

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Solzhenitsyn, based on his experiences in a Soviet forced labour camp in the 1950s. 

The most chilling quote so far

“Prisoners are not allowed clocks”.

A pelican goes into a bar and says, Can I pay for last night? The barman looks at him and says, You’ve got a massive bill.

Seated in a chair, raise your right foot from the ground and start moving it in a clockwise circle. While continuing to move your right foot, extend your right for finger and draw a figure 6 in the air. What happens? 

See here for a YouTube video about this surprising effect.

It appears on lots of web sites, often under the title 'How smart is your right foot?' but I hadn't come across it before.

I’ve just bought 12 baby polyanthus plants via Amazon. When they flower they will be an assortment of 6 colours and I’m assuming there will be 2 plants of each colour. But at the moment they all look pretty much the same.

I’m planning to give 4 plants to a friend. Given we will be picking the 4 at random…

What is the probability that my friend will receive 4 plants all different colours?

What colour leaves you in the dark? Light blew.

New TV series about falconry. Britain’s got talons.

"By their very nature bureaucracies have no conscience, no memory, and no mind."

I've been trying to remember this quote. I found it striking when first told it but I'd partly forgotten it so it's taken a while to track down. It’s by the American anthropologist Edward T. Hall, although I still can’t find where he wrote or said it

I read today in the New Scientist about “Miracle Berries”, seen below. Eat one and for twenty minutes or so sour things will taste sweet. Isn’t that remarkable?

A link to the NS article is below, and there is also information on Wikipedia.

Naturally I want to grow some and the seeds are on their way.

https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/30202824/SEI_120900398.jpg?width=800

The origin is Old Norse hus-thing, “house meeting”, and referred to an assembly of the people in the household of a noble man or woman. Over time its meaning has come to mean a platform for politicians to make speeches from.

The thing element just meant assembly and survives today in the name of the Icelandic supreme parliament, the Alþingi.

Old English also had folk-moot, “folk meeting”. Here moot is the same as in the phrase “a moot point” = a point to be discussed and also found in moot hall. Folkmoot survives but mainly in historical contexts.