Exuberant = ant no longer driving taxi
Personal Blogs
Steamrollers
Sunday, 19 Dec 2021, 23:52
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Don’t see the point of them.
Why would you want to roll steam?
Why would you want to roll steam?
What do you call?
Sunday, 19 Dec 2021, 00:14
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What do you call a woman that swears at tea? Kirsty.
Word of the day- lollapalooza
Sunday, 19 Dec 2021, 00:10
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lollapalooza - something extraordinarily impressive, similar to a humdinger.
Attested from the 1890s but the origin is unknown; it could be a made-up word. New to me, it was in a book I’m reading. Though I’d never seen it before, the context made it clear at once what it meant, and I’ve learned a new word. Language is so productive, it’s possible to invent words that speakers will instantly grasp and start using.
Attested from the 1890s but the origin is unknown; it could be a made-up word. New to me, it was in a book I’m reading. Though I’d never seen it before, the context made it clear at once what it meant, and I’ve learned a new word. Language is so productive, it’s possible to invent words that speakers will instantly grasp and start using.
Blower
Thursday, 16 Dec 2021, 16:10
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Edited by Richard Walker, Thursday, 16 Dec 2021, 16:12
After seeing a YouTube video "hoes this app blow out candles" about an app called 'Blower' on The Action Lab I bought a copy to try it out.
The app is a simulation of a fan and the amazing thing is that it does actually blow things about. The Action Lab showed it really ould blow out a small candle but I just tried blowing some small scraps of paper and sure enough they move.
Dad Dog Joke
Wednesday, 15 Dec 2021, 01:04
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Having trouble with a noisy dog? Call our Yelpline 24/7
If Christmas lasted all year
Tuesday, 14 Dec 2021, 23:54
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A popular question in Christmas quizzes asks how many gifts were sent, and received, altogether in the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas.
So on day 1 (sing the song) it was 1
On day 2 (sing the song) it was 2 plus 1 = 3
On day 3 plus 2 plus 1 = 6
….
What is the total after 12 days: 1 plus 3 plus 6 …?
Now, what if there were 365 days of Christmas? What would the grand total be then?
Knock-knock!
Tuesday, 14 Dec 2021, 00:29
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Who's there?
No it’s Fred.
Dawn Haiku
Tuesday, 14 Dec 2021, 00:16
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday, 14 Dec 2021, 00:17
Winter sunrise
Spreads across the courtyard.
Another day.
Spreads across the courtyard.
Another day.
On the Surprising Similarity of Large Shopping Centres
Sunday, 12 Dec 2021, 01:45
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If you’ve seen one large shopping centre, you’ve seen a mall.
Dawn 11 December 2021
Saturday, 11 Dec 2021, 18:28
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Christmas market at Stratford
Friday, 10 Dec 2021, 15:40
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Yesterday we went to the Christmas Market at Stratford-on-Avon. A very interesting town, with many beautiful old houses, including one that belonged to Shakespeare's father John and is very likely to have been the playwright's birthplace. As we were leaving just at sunset the lights were coming on and the scene was almost magical.
Horsey horsey
Wednesday, 8 Dec 2021, 20:44
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My friend was rushed to hospital after being kicked by a horse. Luckily his condition is stable.
A geometric puzzle
Sunday, 5 Dec 2021, 20:56
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This is well-known but still surprising.
Worth a repeat
Friday, 3 Dec 2021, 21:31
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Accordion to research, 9 out of 10 people don't notice when you replace words with random musical instruments.
A Strange Game
Wednesday, 1 Dec 2021, 00:27
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Every day a group of friends play a strange game. Everyone writes their name on a slip of paper, folds it, and drops it into a hat. The slips are thoroughly shaken up, and then each player pulls a slip out of the hat. Anyone who draws a slip with their own name on wins a prize.
My question is: over a long series of games, what is the average number of players per game who win a prize?
Light Show at Kew
Wednesday, 1 Dec 2021, 00:14
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Today we went to see the Christmas Light Show at Kew Gardens. Here are three installations that I thought especially beautiful.
Chain fountain
Tuesday, 23 Nov 2021, 12:36
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday, 23 Nov 2021, 12:37
Inspired by Steve Mould's videos about the chanin fountain, I bought 5 m of 3.2 mm beaded roller pull chain and took it down the pub, where it was a big hit.
Lucked out
Monday, 22 Nov 2021, 00:13
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When my groceries came today the supermarket had replaced an item costing £12 with one costing £30. So a good deal! I messaged a friend and said “I lucked out”. But then I wondered if I meant “lucked in”.
Well lucked out is indeed what I meant. It’s an idiom for a fortunate event. But it is also an idiom for something happening that is unfortunate. So it can mean something and also the opposite, which is interesting.
There are words in English that behave the same way: for example “cleave” can mean cling to, but also separate from. And “clip” can mean attach, but also cut off.
There is an interesting discussion here
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-own-opposites
PS Confusingly there is another idiom “lucked in”. And that is definitely good fortune.
Dad joke
Tuesday, 16 Nov 2021, 21:37
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday, 16 Nov 2021, 21:37
How do you advertise ears? Ear plugs.
Dichromatism - edited
Monday, 15 Nov 2021, 17:48
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Edited by Richard Walker, Monday, 15 Nov 2021, 23:07
Pumpkin seed oil has an intriguing and unusual optical property; it is dichomatic. A thin layer is coloured some shade of green but a thicker layer is a dark-reddish purple. When I heard about this from Steve Mold's YouTube piece The rare property of pumpkin seed oil - dichromatism, I bought some and took this photograph.
The camera has distorted the colour of the green area slightly; it is less yellow and more green that the photograph suggests, at least to my vision. EDIT here is another photo, that shows the two colours better.
From what I can gather the explanation is that a thin layer of pumpkin seed oil transmits significant amounts of blue, green, yellow and red light and the blue, green and yellow together dominate and are perceived as green. However once the layer gets more than 0.7 mm thick the blue, green and yellow are sharply attenuated and the transmitted light is nearly all red. I owe this information to the Wikepedia article on the topic at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichromatism
Next week I'm going to try an Austrian salad dressing, pumpkin seed oil and cider vinegar.
Poppy Drop
Thursday, 11 Nov 2021, 12:00
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Today my friend will drop 10,000 biodegradable poppies from a classic aeroplane, a de Havilland Rapide. Here's a photo from a previous occasion.
Death’s an Auctioneer
Thursday, 11 Nov 2021, 01:07
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going
going
gone
Dad Joke
Tuesday, 9 Nov 2021, 21:15
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I’ve been working as a tailor, specialising in the top half of men’s suits. But I’ve decided to jack it in.
More from Deep Dream
Friday, 5 Nov 2021, 14:22
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I took the same snow scene as in my blogpost of 20 October and put it through the Deep Dream generator, but this time the transfornation was not based on a style image but instead on patterms the AI software has been trained to recognise. Here's the result, bizarre and vaguely disturbing, but very interesting.
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