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Richard Walker

A Fable

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A Fable

One day the Red Sauce and the Brown Sauce decided to have a race!

Both set off but from the start the Red Sauce lagged. Soon the Brown Sauce was far ahead and grew near the finish. When it looked back there was no sign of the Red Sauce in the distance. So it decided to lie down for a quick nap.

Meanwhile the Red Sauce had been moving steadily and eventually passed the Brown Sauce, who woke up with a start, and made a dash to reach the finishing line before the Red Sauce.

But it was too late to ketchup.

Moral: Slow and reddy wins the race.

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Richard Walker

Wisdom

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Not sure where this came from, but

The wise always know better than to think they know best.

 
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Richard Walker

Playground humour

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What sort of sweets moan all the time?

Whine gums!

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Richard Walker

Sangaku (算額)

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Edited by Richard Walker, Wednesday, 16 Sept 2020, 00:26

At one time, around the late 1600s to early 1800s, Japan had little contact with Europe. In that era Japanese mathematics developed significantly, but in isolation.

During this period a tradition developed of painting geometrical therorems, or sometimes just questions, on wooden tablets, called Sangaku, often in bright colours and with decorative feeling, and depositing them in temples as religious offerings.

As a mathematician of sorts, and in common with many other mathematicians, I find this unique act highly moving.

Only about about 900 have come down to the present.

Sangaku concerned geometric problems; simple shapes such as lines, circles, trianges, squares; in contact; and dimensions. Here is an example which appears on many sites (and so I don't know who to atrribute the image to).


Many of the problems are very difficult, and two were not solved until this century, one only in 2016 and in a long and techical paper. But here's a simple example, in the Sangaku tradition, that you might like to try.


The two big circles have radius 2. What is the radius of the small one? Can you prove it?

PS it's meant to touch the line, my bad drawing!!







Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Richard Walker, Saturday, 19 Sept 2020, 21:31)
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Richard Walker

Alla Barnen*

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All the kids loved their teacher. Except Nat.

He left tin-tacks where the teacher sat.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alla_barnen
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Richard Walker

One Liner

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In the Awful Jokes Olympiad I was the easy victor, with an unbroken series of wince.
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Richard Walker

No clear answer

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Q. What is the most difficult tongue-twister?

A. It’s impossible to say.

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Richard Walker

One Liner

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Recently done a brilliant course on optimisation. It was, just, like... the best.

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Richard Walker

One Liner

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I used to play the guitar. But the guitar always won.

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Richard Walker

The Meaningless of Life

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I liked this quip from the radio program “I’m Sorry I Haven’t  a Clue“ 

Nietzsche said life is a choice between Boredom and Suffering. He didn’t mention experiencing both at the same time.

(Actually I think it was Schopenhauer, but it’s no big deal.j

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Richard Walker

Arrivals at the Biscuit-makers’ Ball

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Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome to the Biscuit-makers’ Ball:

Mr and Mrs Gestiff from Wales, and their talented son Dai.

Mr and Mrs Aroon from Scotland, and their celebrated son Mac.

Mr and Mrs Verkerk from the Netherlands and their gifted son Jeff.

Mr and Mrs Malcracker, from the US, and their accomplished daughter Annie.

M. et Mme D’Odgeux from France, and their fils talentueux Jamie.

Mr and Mrs Nutbutter, world citizens, and their up and coming son Pete.



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Richard Walker

Just thinking

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There are family names Tea and Biscuit.

If I’d had a mother who was a Tea, and a father who was a Biscuit, and been given a double-barrelled name, I would be Rich Tea-Biscuit.



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Richard Walker

Ambition

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I hoped to come up with a one lion joke. Although it’s nothing you can take pride from.


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Richard Walker

Hyphen-Nation?

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A BBC article today said “Places that were once teeming with the hustle and bustle of daily life have become ghost-towns.”

That hyphen feels wrong. It reminded me of the cartoon below, which I found in David Crystal's book MAKING A POINT, which I highly commend to language-lovers.


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Richard Walker

Untitled

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A cookie might crumble

A biscuit might break

But a wafer is braver

And it won’t ever quake. 

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Richard Walker

A Short Universal Epitaph

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X

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Richard Walker

What can we learn from cookies.

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“That’s the way the cookie crumbles”, someone said in the local inn tonight. I’ve said the same thing hundreds of times I suppose but this time I thought and said “Or the way the biscuit breaks”.

Not sure what cookie crumbling really means, although they might be fortune cookies.

A biscuit might break in a random way.

Another confusion is ginger snaps.


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Richard Walker

Death in Venice (5)

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?

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Richard Walker

Just Saying

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Edited by Richard Walker, Wednesday, 9 Sept 2020, 01:29

A comment on a Times piece suggested that older people are likely to have a “Ce la Vie” attitude towards the possibility of Covid infection. I think “C’est la Mort” may be closer.

(Edited “le” to “la”. Surprised that “Mort” is feminine, given the word ending. A bit like Le Musee, unexpectedly masculine.)

So “Love and Death” would be “L’Amor et La Mort”.

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Richard Walker

Lion joke

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Why did the lion cross the Serengeti?

To get to the other pride.

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Richard Walker

Cracker Joke

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Q. Why was the Cassowary thrown out of Birdland?

A. Because it was Ostrich-sized.

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Richard Walker

Off The Air

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Richard Walker

Bead Sort

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Here is a way to sort a series of numbers. Proably not suitable for practical use but rather elegant.

Imagine for example we want to sort 3, 4, 2, 1 into ascending order. We set out some beads like so

3     o o o
4     o o o o
2     o o
1     o

Then we let the beads in each column drop vertically, and: hey presto

1    o
2    o o 
3    o o o
4    o o o o
It's not obvious at all that (or how) this works but people have proved it always does. Thinking about it does give an intuitive feel but it's good to have some more solid evidence.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bead_sort

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Richard Walker

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

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They say tomorrow is another day. But so was yesterday, to be fair.

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Richard Walker

Dad Joke

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Q. Where do wheels sit down?

A. In wheelchairs.

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