Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
Can an octopus predict football matches?
July 8th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Sections of the media have become very excited about the fact that apparently an octopus in Germany has correctly predicted the outcome of every World Cup game that Germany has played in South Africa. Typical of the coverage is this piece. A few points are worth noting. First, statistically this is not a big deal. […]
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What is time?
July 5th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I attended a one-day course on time at the City Lit in central London. It was a brave attempt to tackle a complex subject from both a scientific and a philosophical point of view with different lecturers for the two perspectives and then a general discussion. The scientific section concentrated on the theory […]
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Our local Hindu temple
May 31st, 2010 by Roger Darlington
A new Hindu temple has opened officially today in Wembley in north-west London. It took 14 years and cost £16 million to build. The charity behind the building of the temple is the Shri Vallabh Nidhi UK. The temple is literally down the road where from we live and I’m looking forward to visiting it. […]
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Happy birthday London Eye
March 10th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The London Eye is 10 years old today. Originally owned by British Airways, it was opened to celebrate the new millennium and intended to operate for up to five years, but it is now a permanent and iconic feature of the London skyline. I’ve been on it several times and will no doubt go again […]
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Animals on the London underground
March 5th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
This is fun.
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The ten word wiki
February 21st, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It is explained here and you have the index here. Some examples: Cat: Mortal enemy of dog. Famous for walk and embarrassing photographs. Sarah Palin: Brain-dead Alaskan and former running mate to elderly John McCain. Recursion: When argument, definition or function refers to itself. See: Recursion. Tiger Woods: World’s greatest golfer. Plays a round, and […]
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Asking people a question
February 5th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I had lunch today in central London with a new work colleague. I wanted to welcome her to the organisation and get to know her better. Although we both now live and work in the capital, we are both Northerners – she from York and me from Manchester – and people from the North have […]
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What is the Kaaba?
February 3rd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of devout Muslims walking around a huge rectangular object in the heart of Mecca. But what is it and why is it so significant in Islam? It is called the Kaaba. Inside this enormous cube, the holiest object is the black stone. Nobody is sure what it is but it […]
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How do we measure time?
January 13th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
There have been – and indeed still are – many calendars to plot the passage of time. In today’s “Guardian”, ‘Notes and queries’ features a short overview – see here.
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How do we measure distance?
January 13th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Over the centuries, there have been countless means of measuring distance, but today all scientists use metres. Since 1793 when the French first made the effort, there have been many attempts to define a metre. The book “You Are Here” [my review here] explains that, since 1983, the metre has been defined as the distance […]
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