Rants
This
SARAH: Daddy, were you in the shower?
DAD: Yes, I was in the shower.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: I was dirty. The shower gets me clean.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why does the shower get me clean?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: Because the water washes the dirt away when I use soap.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why do I use soap?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: Because the soap grabs the dirt and lets the water wash it off.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why does the soap grab the dirt?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: Because soap is a surfactant.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why is soap a surfactant?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: That is an EXCELLENT question. Soap is a surfactant because it forms water-soluble micelles that trap the otherwise insoluble dirt and oil particles.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why does soap form micelles?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: Soap molecules are long chains with a polar, hydrophilic head and a non-polar, hydrophobic tail. Can you say ‘hydrophilic’?
SARAH: Aidrofawwic
DAD: And can you say ‘hydrophobic’?
SARAH: Aidrofawwic
DAD: Excellent! The word ‘hydrophobic’ means that it avoids water.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why does it mean that?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: It’s Greek! ‘Hydro’ means water and ‘phobic’ means ‘fear of’. ‘Phobos’ is fear. So ‘hydrophobic’ means ‘afraid of water’.
SARAH: Like a monster?
DAD: You mean, like being afraid of a monster?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: A scary monster, sure. If you were afraid of a monster, a Greek person would say you were gorgophobic.
(pause)
SARAH: (rolls her eyes) I thought we were talking about soap.
DAD: We are talking about soap.
(longish pause)
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why do the molecules have a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: Because the C-O bonds in the head are highly polar, and the C-H bonds in the tail are effectively non-polar.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Because while carbon and hydrogen have almost the same electronegativity, oxygen is far more electronegative, thereby polarizing the C-O bonds.
SARAH: Why?
DAD: Why is oxygen more electronegative than carbon and hydrogen?
SARAH: Yes.
DAD: That’s complicated. There are different answers to that question, depending on whether you’re talking about the Pauling or Mulliken electronegativity scales. The Pauling scale is based on homo- versus heteronuclear bond strength differences, while the Mulliken scale is based on the atomic properties of electron affinity and ionization energy. But it really all comes down to effective nuclear charge. The valence electrons in an oxygen atom have a lower energy than those of a carbon atom, and electrons shared between them are held more tightly to the oxygen, because electrons in an oxygen atom experience a greater nuclear charge and therefore a stronger attraction to the atomic nucleus! Cool, huh?
(pause)
SARAH: I don’t get it.
DAD: That’s OK. Neither do most of my students.
SM
Coal Hole
From across the road- the view is down to the Thames from Strand
Beside the bar, in a corner, is a magnificent fireplace, heavily decorated with reliefs of vines. New lighting has brought to life the pubs wonderful features. The gallery, converted from an office, is a good vantage point from which to view the friezes. The rare art nouveau décor was a brief interlude between the brashness of the late Victorian gin palaces and mega-pubs, and a new sentimental movement which was to favour the fake "ye olde inn", harking back to more wholesome times.
The cellar bar is open in the evenings and has its own entrance in the Strand. It was in the basement of the pub's former incarnation that the Wolf Club was founded, by actor and lush Edmund Kean. Supposedly a place where hen-pecked husbands could enjoy a sing-song, its real role was less innocent, and involved heavy drinking and 'loose women'. A term, Strandman would suggest is misleading!
100 years old!
A brief history of the Piccadilly line
The Piccadilly line opened on
15 December 1906. It consisted
of 9.5 miles of tunnels from
Finsbury Park to Barons Court
and a short section of surface
track on to Hammersmith.
The Piccadilly line, with its 52 stations
covering 71km (44.3 miles) across London,
celebrates its centenary this year. It owes its
existence to American entrepreneur Charles
Tyson Yerkes, who formed the Underground
Electric Railways Company in 1902.
The Tube’s first escalator was
unveiled at Earl’s Court in 1911.
At the opening William ‘Bumper’
Harris, an Underground tunnelling
engineer who had lost a leg in
an accident, showed the guests
how safe and easy it was to use
the new ‘moving staircase’.
A spiral moving staircase was
installed at Holloway Road
station in the mid 1900s. It
was the work of Jesse Reno,
who patented his design in
1892. This feat of innovative
engineering wasn’t successfully
copied until 1980, when
Mitsubishi in Japan unveiled
a modern-day version.
The Piccadilly line was extended
to Heathrow Airport in 1977.
Trivia fact: complete the
loop from Hounslow East
to Heathrow and back, and
you’ll pass 10 stations all
beginning with the letter ‘H’.
Down Street station, between
Green Park and Hyde Park
Corner, was closed in 1932
and remains unused today.
During WW2 it sheltered
some VIP guests, including
Winston Churchill, his War
Cabinet and the Railway
Executive Committee which
co-ordinated the country’s
railways throughout the war.
Arsenal, formerly known as
Gillespie Road, is the only Tube
station named after a London
football club. It’s also one of
the only two stations to have a
namesake on the Paris Metro.
The Piccadilly line extensions to
South Harrow and Arnos Grove
were opened in 1932, and those
to Hounslow West, Uxbridge and
Cockfosters were completed in 1933.
Architect Charles Holden’s
Piccadilly line stations of the
early 1930s, with their geometric
simplicity and integrated detailing,
remain classics of their era. Today
many are listed buildings.
Actor William Terriss, who was
fatally stabbed in December 1897,
is said to haunt the tunnels of
Covent Garden station, clad in
frock coat, hat and gloves. His
haunt is a short one – it’s only
250 metres to Leicester Square.
SM
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Maths for Dummies
Did you ever find Maths hard? Tricky? Deceptively difficult? Did your teacher fail to inspire? Was the concept of new maths just too much? Or were you a genius of numbers?
Well try this:
1200-year-old problem 'easy' | ||||
| Dr James Anderson, from the University of Reading's computer science department, says his new theorem solves an extremely important problem - the problem of nothing. "Imagine you're landing on an aeroplane and the automatic pilot's working," he suggests. "If it divides by zero and the computer stops working - you're in big trouble. If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you're dead." But Dr Anderson has come up with a theory that proposes a new number - 'nullity' - which sits outside the conventional number line (stretching from negative infinity, through zero, to positive infinity). 'Quite cool'The theory of nullity is set to make all kinds of sums possible that, previously, scientists and computers couldn't work around."We've just solved a problem that hasn't been solved for twelve hundred years - and it's that easy," proclaims Dr Anderson having demonstrated his solution on a whiteboard at Highdown School, in Emmer Green. "We're the first schoolkids to be able to do it - that's quite cool," added another. Despite being a problem tackled by the famous mathematicians Newton and Pythagoras without success, it seems the Year 10 children at Highdown now know their nullity. Well I struggled and am still struggling... SM --------------------------------------------------------- |
Really?
It is Thursday. My head hurts this morning through a combination of ethanol and too much work. The signs are not good for a busy day ahead. Reaching for the generic ibuprofen and can of diet coke I make a silent prayer and seek head salvation and nice people only to visit me. The sign above says it all.
SM
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Lie Cheat Win
Unreliable Witness
The inhabitants of an island tell truth one third of the time. They lie with the probability of 2/3.
On an occasion, after one of them made a statement, another fellow stepped forward and declared the statement true.
What is the probability that it was indeed true?
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The probability we are looking for is the conditional probability P(A|B) of the first fellow's statement being true (event A) provided the second fellow claims that it is (event B) indeed so.
Let's examine the other two probabilities in the standard definition: P(A|B)·P(B) = P(AB).
AB is the concurrent event of the statement being true and the second fellow saying so, which only happens when both of them tell the truth. The probability of this event is 1/3·1/3 = 1/9: P(AB) = 1/9.
The second fellow might have made his claim provided both of them either told truth or both lied, which means that P(B) = 1/3·1/3 + 2/3·2/3 = 5/9. From here, P(A|B) = (1/9)/(5/9) = 1/5.
SM
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Bad Radio
yes, it's time for the dr. goebbels show!
there's a tower in the heart of london
with a radio station right at the top
they don't make the city beat
they're making all the action stop
a long time ago there were pirates
beaming waves from the sea
but now all the stations are silenced
'cos they ain't got a government license
wanna tell your problems
phone in from your bedsit room
having trouble with your partner
let us all in on the news
if you wanna hear a record
get the word from aiden day
he picks all the hits to play
to keep you in your place all day
capital radio
in tune with nothing
don't touch that dial
Says it all really
SM
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