Personal Blogs
I Stumbled Across This Beautiful Wayside Decoration
Saturday 25 December 2021 at 15:52
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Edited by Richard Walker, Saturday 25 December 2021 at 16:02
Word of the day - Nugget
Monday 20 December 2021 at 01:24
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Edited by Richard Walker, Monday 20 December 2021 at 01:29
A small nug. Not joking; seems a nug is a dialect word for a chunk of something; and there you have it. Pure gold, I love words.
Ant Joke
Monday 20 December 2021 at 00:17
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Exuberant = ant no longer driving taxi
Steamrollers
Sunday 19 December 2021 at 23:52
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Donât 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 December 2021 at 00:14
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What do you call a woman that swears at tea? Kirsty.
Word of the day- lollapalooza
Sunday 19 December 2021 at 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 Iâm reading. Though Iâd never seen it before, the context made it clear at once what it meant, and Iâve learned a new word. Language is so productive, itâs 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 Iâm reading. Though Iâd never seen it before, the context made it clear at once what it meant, and Iâve learned a new word. Language is so productive, itâs possible to invent words that speakers will instantly grasp and start using.
Blower
Thursday 16 December 2021 at 16:10
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Edited by Richard Walker, Thursday 16 December 2021 at 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 December 2021 at 01:04
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Having trouble with a noisy dog? Call our Yelpline 24/7
If Christmas lasted all year
Tuesday 14 December 2021 at 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
âŚ.
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 December 2021 at 00:29
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Who's there?
No itâs Fred.
Dawn Haiku
Tuesday 14 December 2021 at 00:16
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday 14 December 2021 at 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 December 2021 at 01:45
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If youâve seen one large shopping centre, youâve seen a mall.
Dawn 11 December 2021
Saturday 11 December 2021 at 18:28
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Christmas market at Stratford
Friday 10 December 2021 at 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 December 2021 at 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 December 2021 at 20:56
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This is well-known but still surprising.
Worth a repeat
Friday 3 December 2021 at 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 December 2021 at 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 December 2021 at 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 November 2021 at 12:36
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday 23 November 2021 at 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 November 2021 at 00:13
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When my groceries came today the supermarket had replaced an item costing ÂŁ12 with one costing ÂŁ30. So a good deal! I messaged a friend and said âI lucked outâ. But then I wondered if I meant âlucked inâ.
Well lucked out is indeed what I meant. Itâs 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.Â
There are words in English that behave the same way: for example âcleaveâ can mean cling to, but also separate from. And âclipâ can mean attach, but also cut off.
There is an interesting discussion hereÂ
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-own-opposites
PS Confusingly there is another idiom âlucked inâ. And that is definitely good fortune.Â
Dad joke
Tuesday 16 November 2021 at 21:37
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday 16 November 2021 at 21:37
How do you advertise ears? Ear plugs.
Dichromatism - edited
Monday 15 November 2021 at 17:48
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Edited by Richard Walker, Monday 15 November 2021 at 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 November 2021 at 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.
Deathâs an Auctioneer
Thursday 11 November 2021 at 01:07
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